Mar 27 2009

Getting Your Expired Domain Name Back

Posted by Steve McGrath in Business, Internet, Money, Traffic
4 Comment

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Last year, I started to buy all kind of expired domains. In most cases, I never heard back from former owners. But for the few times I did, I got 2 different kind of messages. So, this post is for former owners that want their domains back.

Why you lost your domain name?

If you lost your domain name, it's your fault not the new buyer. The main reason is that you forgot to renew the domain. It's that simple in 99.9999% of the time. So, check that your domain is using current payment information or your contact email with the registrar is still good. In many cases, the host/registrar are the same.

Contacting the new owner

It's not STEALING so don't accuse the buyer of that in your first email. Learn ALL the facts first. If you are polite, the new buyer will consider this. At least, I do. If you are a jerk, this will not be in your favor.

That's the 2 kind of message I got: Polite(mostly) and Jerks.

Getting the domain back

In a few cases, I had won the auction but the new owner was able to get it back during a few days. Check if you can first from your registrar.

Making an offer

If the owner agree to sell you the domain back, make a reasonable offer.

In most cases, I paid more than the registration fee. For example, I paid last year $250 for a domain name but I earned it back within a few months. It had traffic exchange but still some traffic I could use.

Also, I do research before and after buying a domain. But, sometimes the domain is parked because I did not have time to get around to it after it was bought.

I don't work for free so that's where the reasonable offer comes in. I want to be paid for my time and for the price I paid for the domain. It's only fair and it's business.

Buying the domain

If you and the seller agree, you should use an escrow service. In my case, I used SEDO. They charged me a 10% fee. I think it's worth it since one or the other might back down or not complete the transaction.

Conclusion

Being polite will be more in your favor to get your domain back. Those that buy older domains will use them to make money whatever the name is.

For example, Google does not mean anything yet it's making money because of what it offer on the site. It will be the same with your domain name. You might just had use it for personal use but I can use a domain to make money from it.

TAGS: domain name, Expired Domain, price, registrar, SEDO

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4 Comments on this post

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Expired Domain Names | The Home Business Archive wrote:

[...] Getting Your Expired Domain Name Back Last year, I started to buy all kind of expired domains. In most cases, I never heard back from former owners. But for the few times I did, I got 2 different kind of messages. So, this post is for former owners that want their domains back…. [...]

February 1st, 2010 at 5:37 am

Passive Income said:

This could be a useful post to point people to in the future! I just bought an expired domain which had been for sale at sedo – I didn’t buy it thru sedo. I notice sedo still has it for sale – I guess they will eventually notice that the original owner doesn’t have the site anymore?
Lis

March 31st, 2009 at 2:43 am
Steve McGrath said:

Yes, I think so too if it can help former owners to be polite thus help their cause to try to get their domain back.

I would expect that SEDO would either wait for the seller to manually remove it or it may check the whois after it’s updated. I think the manual way is most probable.

I like Vic’s example:
If you did not pay the mortgage or rent and thus lost your home or apartment, why would you be angry at the new owner/leaser.

March 31st, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Jan said:

Steve, thanks for this info on getting an expired domain back. You described my situation. My business partner allowed our 2 year domain name to expire and it was bought by a domainer a week ago who has it linked to a small website. My partner is on an extended vacation in another country w/no Internet access. I’m not used to the business side of this and have asked GoDaddy broker service to try to buy the name back. Do you think I should also phone the new owner and politely introduce myself and ask if he will sell it to me or should I wait for GD to handle it. I very much want the domain name back. It’s a niche website with low traffic but is a membership site that was helping to boost my income as I’m disabled and living on SS. I don’t have much money to spend but my site name was at the top of the list in Google seach in it’s category and produced steady extra income for me.

January 10th, 2010 at 4:37 pm