Domain purchased with existing links

[creep]

I purchased a domain that had a couple hundred incoming links and the site i built on it is fairly small...only 40-50 pages. I placed an .htaccess 404 redirect to the index page in the directory. Is there a penalty for this i wonder...lower the pr on it or something?

[Lisa]

> 404 redirect (???)

Did you do a 404 error or a 301 or 302 redirect?
Funneling your 404 traffic to one page is fine. All my 404 traffic gets funneled and I am not aware of a penalty. This is a normal part of maintaining a website. Links get broken and replaced all the time.

[creep]

I thought so...but i am never surprised at the google algo's nuances....

[teeceo]

I was thinking of doing the same thing(buying a domain with links ready to go) but, where do I look to buy at. thanks form.

teeceo.

[Lisa]

There are a few companies in this world that specialize in buying old domains and using the link traffic. But Google PR0's them, so the only traffic they get is from the real links themselves. If you buy one or two domains Google will not care but make it a career and they will get you.

It is hard to look for they domains because so many people already are. Some people registered thousands of domains and listen for traffic on them for a few days. If the traffic is good they keep them. The rest they throw back. ICANN gets really anger when they see this. So Registrars will not like you either. In general there is no automated way to do this with out getting in trouble.

[creep]

Why would the algo automatically make a site that has expired and been registered by someone else PR0? So if a domain is listed in say dmoz it then expires and some one reregisters it it gets pr0?? thats a little too witch hunt for me to buy.

[Lisa]

Well when your organization registers thousands and thousands of expired names and then uses them to point to a sponsored link nest you can see why they would do it. For individuals there should be no problem. One or two names will not anger or even register on the radar with the Google Gods. The problem you have is finding a good domain before a link monster gobbles it up into their domain collection.

[fathom]

There are a few companies in this world that specialize in buying old domains and using the link traffic.

Adult sites are getting extremely good at this. Recently, after Canada3000 (a no frills airline) went under, an Adult content site picked up the domain.

Every official government tourism site in Canada incidentally linked to Canada3000. Not somethinng you really want potential tourists to find associated with you.

This is becoming a big problem and it pays to monitor and groom your links regularly.

[teeceo]

Look, if its all just a game, I say play to win. Where does one go to get a dead Yet, very much alive link wise domain name? Thanks for any help.

teeceo.