Making Money with Expired Domain Names

SHORT ANSWER: An expired domain is a domain name that was once registered to an individual or a company whose registration has expired.

LONG ANSWER: When you purchase a domain name, you have a choice of whether to register it to you or to your company. Domain names are registered for a year at a time. Once your domain is registered, each year you get to renew that registration. Domain name renewal costs anywhere from $5 to $15, depending on which domain name registrar you use.

Most domain name registrars give you the option of a multi-year renewal, which saves a few dollars and the headache of renewing every year. Multi-year renewals are a good idea if you have a domain name you are pretty certain you will want for the foreseeable future.

Even if you decide to let go of the website attached to the name, you can always use it for PPC and affiliate ads like the big guys do!

An expired domain is simply a domain name with an expired registration. If you don’t renew at the end of the year, that domain name becomes available for purchase by someone else.

Who would miss a domain name renewal?

• Perhaps it wasn’t such a good domain name after all!
• Absentminded website owners who simply neglected to renew their domain names;
• Webmasters who got tied up in other ventures or interests;
• Webmasters who discontinued a site due to time constraints;
• Webmasters who ran out of money to continue to operate.

Prior to your domain name expiring, your domain name registrar should send you several renewal notices. Make sure you have a working email address on file with your registrar so you don’t miss a renewal notice!

When a domain name expires these days, the bigger domain name registrars assume control of the name for a few months before allowing it to be sold again. Domain name registrars park that page with PPC ads on it so they can rake in the profits - no matter how small - from any continuing traffic you’ve built up. The page will be filled with PPC ads, all profits going to the registrar. Smart!

Here’s the rub: if you decide you want the name back after it’s expired and the registrar has assumed control of it, the registrar will charge you anywhere from $50 to $150 (those are the prices I’ve seen) to pull that domain name out of limbo and reinstate it to you! (Even a domain name without much traffic might cough up a few pennies over time… even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then!)

The lesson here is, if there is any chance you can use that domain name, make sure your email address is good so you don’t miss your renewal!