Before you rush out and register that brand new domain I am going to suggest that you consider an aged domain instead.

What is an aged domain??

An aged/expired domain is a domain that has been previously registered by another person, and that person or company has, for whatever reason decided not to renew it.

Sometimes the reason is simply that they forget.

There was a famous story a few years ago when a very valuable domain passport.com owned by Microsoft was not renewed when it came time to renew the registration, meaning it became available for anyone to re-register.

An individual did just that with this domain, but luckily for Microsoft this guy did the right thing and gave the domain back to them (I think Microsoft paid him back the registration fee).

Other reasons for not renewing a domain might be that the company that owned the domain went bankrupt, or they maybe transferred the business that used to operate on that domain to another domain.  In fact there are a heap of reasons why domain names do get forgotten about.

Domain Name Finder Video

So what are the advantages for you re-registering an aged domain?

1.    Links – Most domains, particularly those domains that have been actively used in the past and not just had no promotion have other sites pointing to them over time, and these backlinks form a vital part in determining how well the domain will rank in the search engines for particular keyword phrases.

2.    Page Rank – As a consequence of these links, many of these expired domains will have existing page rank.

3.    Age – As a general rule the search engines give more authority to domains that have been registered for a a longer period than other domains.

4.    Web site Visitors – Many domains will have existing traffic, with visitors rolling up to that domain on a regular basis, usually as a result of previous promotions done by the previous site owner.

5.    No Sandbox - New domains are once in a while placed in a “sandbox” where they will not get as much traffic as more established domains until they have proven themselves to the search engines.

These are probably the most attractive items to consider when re-registering an existing domain versus registering a brand new domain.

There is an vital distinction I recommend you become familiar with between an expired or aged domain and a deleted domain.

An aged or expired domain name has the existing age kept.

For example if I registered a domain three years ago and then did not renew the registration and you come along and re-register it, then for all intensive purposes the domain is still 3 years old and still has all the advantages of that age in the search engines.

If however, you re-register a deleted domain, then effectively you have registered a BRAND NEW domain.  You will still be be able to use any links, page rank, and traffic, but your domain may be subjected to the sandbox, and WILL be treated as a brand new domain by the search engines.

So the key is to grab the domain before it is deleted by the domain registrar.  There are a number of free websites available that you can use to find aged domains or expired domains.

Just do a search in Google for terms such as aged domain finder or something similar.

These websites will often allow you to search for domains and return information about the age of the domain, existing page rank, number of links, traffic, and even allow you to use the Wayback machine (a catalog of all web pages at various points in time) to see what content was on the domain in the past.

Some of the more complete services will allow you to search with keywords as well which is a very powerful feature.

You see domains rank better in Google, MSN, and Yahoo if they contain a keyword relating to the particular niche you are involved with.

For example if you are selling products for cats, then if you have the word cat or cats in the domain name this will help you get better rankings than domains that do not have this (if everything else is equal).

When you are searching for an expired domain please check out the free  purchasing domain names script.

Essential tips to purchasing aged domains

1. Try and get a domain at least five years old (the older the better, this is a minimum).

2. Aim for a decent number of links as possible (although this is not essential).

3. Existing Page rank is not necessary but a bonus if you can find it.

4. Existing web traffic again is not essential but is a huge bonus.

5. Make sure the domain has at least part of a keyword relating to the niche you are going to use the domain in.

6. Check the history of the domain to make sure you are happy with the previous content that has been used on the domain previously.  Bad content may have blacklisted the domain in the search engines.  Many services allow you to search for this automatically.

7. Optional: Use a service that allows you to search closeouts.  These are really cheap domains usually costing only $5 (plus standard registration fees).  Wht buy premium domains if you do not need them?  You do not need to spend much money to find domains that have most of the items discussed above.  In fact only recently I purchased a 11 year old domain, with 200+ web visitors per day and a heap of links for just $5 !

Buying expired domains can really give you a legup on your competition, and if your smart and use the right websites, and look for the right type of domains, it need not be an expensive exercise.

Isn’t your internet marketing worth spending an extra $5 to get an aged domain so you can take advantage of all these factors?

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cheers,

Tim & Anthony