On 25/09/2020 16:26, Lutz Donnerhacke wrote:
The main purpose of registering deleted domain names is to resell them to a previous owners, which missed the renewal dates of the registry. Recovering a accidentally lost domain name is paid very well by those who want to stay in business.
That might have been the business model twenty years ago before the various grace periods. The reality is that some of the deleted domain names are valuable because they are generic high value keyword domain names or short domain names. Most domain names that are deleted are not reregistered or targeted by dropcatchers as they are often one year wonders registrations that are registered for one year and not renewed. There is a natural attrition in domain names that most people never see. Businesses close and domain name owners leave domain names drop. The bloodtrails on domain names that are likely to delete can appear months, or even over a year before the deletion date. It is easy to confuse this with accidential deletion but many of these businesses have already closed long before the domain name is deleted. The Secondary Market is quite large and many of these reregistered domain names are valuable because of their link profile or type-in traffic. People will still visit some of the deleted/reregistered domain names expecting the same website but instead getting a page full of PPC advertising. A few PPC clicks can cover the cost of a year's registration. Domain Tasting still occurs on a much smaller scale. Then there are private blog networks that snap up deleted domain names to promote various sites in search engines. Some people just want to buy a domain name that had been previously registered and is a good fit for their business or brand. Many of the domain names that go to auction do so through the auction site's affiliated registrars. This is done by breaking the natural domain name lifecycle and instead of allowing a domain name with a strong backlink profile or traffic to delete normally, the registrar will send it to auction. The millions of domain names on auction and sales sites would indicate that the days of dropcatching being mainly about the recovery of accidentally expired domain names are long gone. There are some registrars that specialise in domain name recovery but they are eclipsed by the auctions/sales operators. A whole industry has developed around reselling previously deleted domain names and many of these drop caught domain names have sold for high prices. A domain name that might cost about $10 to register could resell for $10,000 or more. Regards...jmcc -- ********************************************************** John McCormac * e-mail: jmcc@hosterstats.com MC2 * web: http://www.hosterstats.com/ 22 Viewmount * Domain Registrations Statistics Waterford * Domnomics - the business of domain names Ireland * https://amzn.to/2OPtEIO IE * Skype: hosterstats.com **********************************************************