Expiring .US Guide

What Are Expiring Domain Names ?
Expiring domain names are domain names that were previously registered but due to non payment of the renewal fee will be deleted and available once again to be registered by anyone.

Once a domain has failed to be renewed the domain goes into a status called the Redemption Grace Period, this period lasts for 35 days and is split up into two periods.

The first period lasts 30 days, in this time the customer has the chance to renew his domain name for the renewal fee plus a charge set by the registrar.

The second period will last for five days and the customer will not be able to renew the domain name.

After these 35 days, the domain name will be deleted.
Deleted Lists can be accessed via the homepage and via the deleted domains link. We update the deleted lists every day once the domain names have been deleted, this allows anyone to register any of the domain names unless ofcourse they have already been registered !

My domain is taken immediately after it is deleted, how come ?
You may find that some domain names on the deleted lists are registered immediatly after they are deleted. This is accomplished by booking a Domain Alert backorder slot.

Domain Alert Backorder slots are available for $18.95. Buying a Domain Alert Backorder slot allows ou to backorder any domain that isn`t already deleted. Once that domain is deleted, the domain will be registered on your behalf instantly ! This includes any registration costs for 1 full year ! To do this, look through the expiring lists, and next to a domain you will see the word BACKORDER, click on this to purchase a backorder slot for this domain.

There is only one backorder slot per domain name, this means that if you fill the backorder slot for a domain name, then that domain name is yours, the instant it is deleted ! The backorder slot is usually successful 80% to 90% of the time, if however the domain isn`t registered by the backorder slot, then you are free to use it again with a different domain, so you cannot lose !

How do I find a good domain name to backorder ?
To find names to backorder, requires looking through the expiring lists we offer. Each list shows the names that will be deleted on that day along with the Google Score. The Google score is important because the higher it is, then the more popular that term is, meaning more people may be interested in visiting or buying the domain from you. Be careful however of hyphens (-), as these can degrade the value of a domain name, this isn`t always the case. For example the domain Credit-Cards.us is valuable, yet the term Cre-ditCards.us is not.

Why do people beat me to backorders ?
The further forward in time you go, the more chance you have of backordering a domain name before anyone else. The secret to this, is to take a few hours out, and go through every single list, backordering every domain name you like. THEN once you are uptodate you can come back everyday and check out the newest expiring list, this list could be months in advance, but you will be one of the very few people who has seen this list and you have the chance to beat the majority of people to the backorder !

How do I find a good domain name to backorder ?
The secret to searching through the expiring lists and finding good domains to backorder comes down to your own judgement, however these are some good points to bare in mind :

Names to look out for :
598.us, 423.us, ygh.us, asd.us
Three letter and Three number domains are valuable. The reason why is scarcity. Simple economics tells us that if something is scarce, it will have value.

dog.us, cat.us, car.us, bar.us
Three letter words are even more valuable, scarcity once again !

Bulldog.us, NightClub.us, Flag.us, Haircut.us
Dictionary words are valuable, have you looked at the dot com sales recently ?, any dictionary word seems to command a high value.

Food.us, Exercise.us, Health.us, Cosmetics.us
Words that cover a large number of subjects are even more valuable ! If you sold cosmetics, wouldn`t the ultimate domain name be Cosmetics.us ? You will also find that these words and dictionary words have high google scores.

NewYork.us, Hawaii.us, Florida.us, America.us
Place names are great domains to own, you may never find a domain name of a place that has a huge population, but look around the lists and you`ll find plenty of smaller place names available to backorder.

Smith.us, Darran.us, Peter.us, Rachel.us
Everyone would love to own there own name !

There are no real bad names, it comes down to judgement, one domain name that looks bad to one person may look perfect for someone else. One thing you can be sure of though is to avoid anything too specific, such as JohnsCarRepairShop.us. Unless you are called John and run a car repair shop then it isn`t going to appeal to a whole lot of people !

Making money from Domain Names
Once you have your domain name, it is time to make money from it. You have three options :

1) Create a website.
This is by far the best option and isn`t this the reason you bought the domain in the first place ? Making a website on the domain name you have bought is the sensible thing to do. Creating a website can allow you to get more traffic to the domain name, making it instantly more valuable, it allows you to use Google Adwords as a sponsor, and allows you to use any sponsor you like, meaning more money in your pocket. Also when you come to sell the domain name, you can sell the established site and ask for a higher price.

2) Point it to a PPC Sponsor.
If you haven`t the time to develop a website on the domain name, then point it to a ppc sponsor ! You will instantly have a webpage filled with links relevant to your domain name. When someone clicks on one of the links you make money ! Two great PPC Sponsors are DomainSponsor.com and Fabulous.com.

3) Sell it.
You can place the name on a number of websites that specialize in selling domains. Or you can just sit back and wait for an offer to arrive !

Once you have your first domain name, it`s time to backorder more.
The more domains you have, the more money you will make !

How can I turn this from a hobby into a full time business ?
Don`t be skeptical. There are many people making more money in domain name buying and selling per month than you make in a year. It`s not a hard job to do, sitting in a nice warm room infront of a computer and reading through lists. You never know, it may not be very long before you`ve moved from your nice warm room, to looking through lists whilst sitting in the Caribbean sipping on a Pina Colada

As with any business you need a plan. You have two career paths to choose, the quick easy money, or the long term plan. The long term plan can make you more money, but as mentioned, it is long term (years to wait).

The Quick and Easy Money Plan
Look through expired lists
Backorder domain names that you like and think are valuable
Once captured, place them up for sale on every domain selling website you can find, and even try selling them to other resellers via the domain name boards. If your domain is good enough, you will sell it.
The secret to the quick and easy money plan is not to get greedy, the reason for this is you want to sell domain FAST ! Think of your domain name as a product, you buy it for $18.95. Sell it for $25 to $30. The more you sell, the more money you make.

The Long Term Plan needs a good budget.
Start with a budget of whatever you can afford the more the better.
Look through the expiring lists and backorder domain names that you like.
Once captured place each domain name with a PPC Sponsor, or develop the domain.
Come back everyday and backorder more domains from the newly uploaded expiring lists.
Gradually you will make income from your developed sites and PPC links.
use this income to backorder more domain names and keep a little back to renew your domains next year.
Continue this plan for a few years, and you will have a portfolio of thousands of high quality domain names, that :
a) Make you money everyday.
b) Are worth more than you paid for them.
c) You can sell for a large profit.

Good luck !