I have had client’s over the past years buy existing domain names and have helped with the purchase and transfer. One of the most memorable, in the past several years, was for a client who bought a domain name for $10,000 through Go Daddy.
It today’s world, it is a scary thing to buy an existing domain name, especially as Google and Bing carry a history on domain names. It is not uncommon for a spammer to burn a domain into the ground and then not renew the name and it appears back for sale at Network Solutions or Go Daddy. So, how can you be sure that the domain name you really want and are ready to plunk down some cash for has not been abused?
In this interesting video from Matt Cutts of Google he talks specifically about the issues and problems as well as how to test before you buy a domain name. His biggest tip is that you go to Google.com and enter in site:domainname.com and if you see nothing in Google’s index know that this may be a red flag to do more digging before doing the transaction.
I encourage you to watch this interesting video at http://youtu.be/C-EdhaMDXho to get some more great tips before you make your domain name purchase.