Category: Domain Names

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Should You Buy a Previously Owned Domain Name?

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Be careful, very careful, even if a domain is offered to you for a great price and it really looks like a great keyword match, take a deep breath and do your homework before you jump on buying that domain name.

Why should I be careful?

It today’s environment when great domains become available it is typically because they have been burned out by spammers. A domain will carry history, it is not just a name and when you take it over thinking you are getting a fresh start; it may be banned by spam registries, Internet Service Providers, and been used and abused by spamming or black hat SEO’s.

Even $200 is too much to pay for a domain that has been abused. You may never be able to use the domain name in an email address and the history may be so tainted that you will never be able to remediate it and place on any search engine with it.

My recommendation is – No Go.

My candid recommendation on buying a used domain, based on how things are, is that I would pass. A domain name does not assure SEO placement, and if you really love the domain you may be able to buy it fresh and clean and never used before as a .us or .biz.

If the price tag is even higher, hire an expert to do due diligence for you. I’ve seen domains go for $10,000. You’d hate to pay that kind of money and find out that the domain had been horribly abused making its value to you nearly nothing. Be careful and do some Google searches on this topic before you plunk down your cash to buy.

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Should You Buy a Previously Owned Domain Name?

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Don’t Make a Big Mistake, Do Your Research!

Be careful, very careful, even if a domain is offered to you for a great price and it really looks like a great keyword match, take a deep breath and do your homework before you jump on buying that domain name.

Why should I be careful?

It today’s environment when great domains become available it is typically because they have been burned out by spammers. A domain will carry history, it is not just a name and when you take it over thinking you are getting a fresh start; it may be banned by spam registries, Internet Service Providers, and been used and abused by spamming or black hat SEO’s.

Even $200 is too much to pay for a domain that has been abused. You may never be able to use the domain name in an email address and the history may be so tainted that you will never be able to remediate it and place on any search engine with it.

My recommendation is – No Go.

My candid recommendation on buying a used domain, based on how things are, is that I would pass. A domain name does not assure SEO placement, and if you really love the domain you may be able to buy it fresh and clean and never used before as a .us or .biz.

If the price tag is even higher, hire an expert to do due diligence for you. I’ve seen domains go for $10,000. You’d hate to pay that kind of money and find out that the domain had been horribly abused making its value to you nearly nothing. Be careful and do some Google searches on this topic before you plunk down your cash to buy.

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Should You Buy an Existing Domain?

Sometimes It Is All about the Money
Sometimes It Is All about the Money

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.

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ICANN Sets Up New Domain Name Endings

Coming in January 2012 are new domain name endings, but don’t get excited too fast if you don’t have $185,000 for the application fee. Yes, that is right, these new domain name endings called gTLD or general top level domains are pricey but for the right business a perfect solution.

A gTLD is a domain name ending that is a keyword. So for example I might have mccordweb.webdesign with webdesign now being my domain name ending instead of dot com. With Google stating that they are preferentially treating keyword domain names preferentially in the organic results (this may now cause a change in Google’s algorithm) a gTLD could be a real organic placement boon for a business.

However, the gTLD will be for the rich corporate client as the application fee is $185,000 per domain name request and then a hefty quarterly renewal of over $6,000. Wow, you’ve got to have deep pockets to get into this game.

What does this mean for small to medium sized businesses. Well, in the long run, I think that there will be some entrepreneurs who will pick up the keyword dense gTLD and then resell subdirectory domains on their domain name ending for way less than you would pay yourself.  So, in the long run you may be able to get a keyword domain but as a shared domain with others in your industry.

This should be interesting to watch as it unfolds. The application process starts in January 2012, so keep an eye out.