Expired Domains

confused and uncertain

[GarryBoyd]

I have read all the dire warnings about how useless this strategy is and GoogleGuys claim in September that this would be cleaned up soon but...
I started looking for an expired .com a few months ago. All the ones I wanted were snapped up before they even hit the deleted lists by domain spammers. I just went back to look at a few. Those that are in use still have the SAME page rank they had when they were "real" sites, even though they go to allclicks or generic search pages, in one recent case its sitting there with the hosting setup page showing and page rank 6 and over 100 backlinks from foreign language sites.
Theres even one that used to belong to an international manufacturer and now goes to a porn site that still has good page rank and plenty of remaining links from small sites that havent realised the change.
All over the 'net people are claiming to make huge amounts from this residual traffic, while others claim it does not work.
From my own research it certainly seems to be "the lazy mans way to riches." Surely Google can just reset these names to zero as they expire and cure the problem once and for all?

[toolman]

I hate talking about this because it's such a touchy subject. This is actually one of the last "spam" tricks left. It is also one of the hardest to beat in the serps. How does one go about beating a site with 1200 links in an industry where 20 links is considered good? You can't...it's almost an unfair advantage.

I remember hearing about this a year ago but it's really in full swing now. In fact the serps are infested with them. I'm sure it will all work out in due time though.

[GoogleGuy]

Just a little more patience, GarryBoyd. I wouldn't recommend buying an expired domain because you think it will give you some "free" PageRank. Several folks are already starting to see a few changes in this area.

[fathom]

Forgeting ethics for the moment - I don't believe you gain anything and lose more.

Obviously with a vast network of existing links visitors are bound to click through - finding something they most likely were not looking for.

Although you may gain short term ranking - you lose big time in the brand department.

Personally I prefer a satisfied customer over a dissatisfied visitor.

In addition, there was a reason the domain was dropped, which could include being bankrupt or scam.

In this respect you can easily inherent whatever problems arose to the domains original demise including massive support and customer service calls, which will eat away all that enormous profits you initially believe you will make.

Adding all those previous domain customers are unlike to become your loyal following... the previous owners would most certainly leave a bad taste in their mouths.

[robertito62]

There are other reasons why domains may be dropped.

I recently found one whose owner could not afford renewal. It got snapped by a cybersquatter.

I contacted both. The original owner stated he would like to have his domain back. I am in the process of buying it back for him. In exchange, he said he will be more than happy to credit us with statement on his home page:
"Sponsored by..." or
"My favorite Widget site is ..."

We won´t get much traffic but a link from a PR7 site for $50 will not hurt...Win-win.

[toolman]

The real reason this "blossomed" was because when Yahoo was using straight PR to rank sites all you had to do was buy an expired with a PR5+ and you were gonna make money. It worked too.

In the Google serps it still seems to keep those sites up high but not at the top. The focus has changed to buying text ads anyway.