Letting domains expire could be a major security risk...are you one of them?

[Kurt]

Here's an important article for anyone that's ever owned a domain name or has clients that own domain names.

Why abandoned domain names are so dangerous

Abandoned domain names are low-hanging fruit for attackers, who can use them to access sensitive email or customer data.
https://www.csoonline.com/article/330016...-name.html 

 
 This is becoming an ever-larger problem because of COVID's impact on the economy and businesses are cutting their budgets. Before letting a domain you own drop, be sure to consider the factors in the article above.

[Jeffery]

Just as an aside, when people have email forwarding and let thier domains drop it is a good idea to delete all of the emails and the forwarding 'before' letting the domain drop. Some hosts will tell us that dropped domains files are deleted. Not true in every case. It doesn't take much for a skilled server admin to harvest the data.

[Kurt]

Just as an aside, when people have email forwarding and let thier domains drop it is a good idea to delete all of the emails and the forwarding 'before' letting the domain drop. Some hosts will tell us that dropped domains files are deleted. Not true in every case. It doesn't take much for a skilled server admin to harvest the data.

Think about all the domain names and third party email accounts that people let go and someone else snags. Set up a bot that checks the most popular/valuable online accounts and send in "lost password" requests and then check the email to see what accounts show up.

[Kurt]

And like many other markets in hard times, it looks look it will be a buyers market for domain names for a while. I think there will be some niche-specific exceptions, but before buying any premium domain names do a little more research to see of you can find something better.

In addition to security issues, I expect there to be a lot of good domain names become available over the next year or so as they are not renewed and dropped. These won't just be business names but also names speculators are letting go. If you have a little bit of money and can hold the domain names for a couple of years, now may be the best time to look for good domains in a long time, including keyword based and brandable, as well as with existing authority and link juice for SEO.

I think it may be a good time to start paying more attention to the newly expired domain name lists to see what's available. While I never like to benefit from someone else's loss, these domains names are now available to everyone and if they are good, it may as well be you and me that get first crack at them.

[Jeffery]

All very true Kurt. I used to be what I call a 'Xreme Domainer. To me, the most important aspect of Domaining is what I call 'Xtreme Domain Research' wherein a Domainer conducts research throughly and after the research is complete is making an educated determination of the domain's value.

The bottom line is the value is what another person will pay for the domain. The value can be upscaled with good sales copy to the right target market.

[Kurt]

All very true Kurt. I used to be what I call a 'Xreme Domainer. To me, the most important aspect of Domaining is what I call 'Xtreme Domain Research' wherein a Domainer conducts research throughly and after the research is complete is making an educated determination of the domain's value.

The bottom line is the value is what another person will pay for the domain. The value can be upscaled with good sales copy to the right target market.

For sure. Domains are really a great product for IMers to consider and now looks to be a good time to be a buyer of domain names. As a product they can be flipped, bundled or developed.

Things I look for in a domain name:

Traffic, links - This is where you need to do some serious research but there are domain names that become available all the time that already have links and/or traffic.

Keyword based exact match - Need to be very picky.

Vanity/Best - Sometimes these sell well..."BestDenverFlorist.com". These are often good to offer as part of a bundle with a more valuable keyword based domain name. Vanity domains are also good for developing and ranking to rent/sell. Having "BestDenverFlorist.com" rank high in Google is a valuable asset.

Short - This is important, especially for off-line like business cards, billboards, TV, pull tabs, etc. where people will type in your domain name.

A real word you can find in the dictionary -

Brandable - A short (7 letters or less) pronounable unique "word" like Google.com or Pheeds.com.   I've actually made the most money selling these types of domains.

There is software that looks for many of these domain names and checks for things like links and authority and serious SEOers are running them 24/7 on multiple servers. Then they check the results manually to make sure things are what they seem. There are still a lot of nuggets that can be found...you just need to be careful and check the results.

In the past there were between 70,000 and 100,000 newly expired domains on a given day. I wonder if we'll see an increase and how much of an increase there is?

Jeffery...are you thinking about getting into domaining a bit again due to the circumstances?

[Jeffery]

Jeffery...are you thinking about getting into domaining a bit again due to the circumstances?

No, just don't have the time anymore since I am semi-retired.

Back in the day I bought and resold dropped domains using WHMCS.

The reaspn I used WHMCS was I was in full control of everything from A to Z which is important and it is fully automated, so all I had to do was list the domains, buyers would receive an automated email and receipt.

Plus you can host other people's sites which came in real handy when selling hosting and another plus was offering developemnt services which is a full-time income in and of itself.

IMO, WHMCS is one of the internet Marketers best kept secrets.    

[Kurt]

No, just don't have the time anymore since I am semi-retired.

Just checking...are you sure you know what "retired" means?
 

The reaspn I used WHMCS was I was in full control of everything from A to Z which is important and it is fully automated, so all I had to do was list the domains, buyers would receive an automated email and receipt.

If you don't mind, where did you list the domains?

[Jeffery]

Sure, retired means I can tell my wife "I'm going fishing." while my fishing gear sits in the garage and semi-retired means I can tell my wife "I'm going fishing."while my fishing gear and myself sit in the dog house.
~~~
I owned a hosting company and listed them all there.

[Jeffery]

Here is something that is useful when you want to research dropped domains:
Wayback Machine Downloader

Very handy when you want to rebuild or repurpose a website that is not your own. There is a demo that gives you 200 free files if you want to take it for a spin. The way it works is if the website is listed at Wayback Machine then you can download it.