Find Expiring Domains
Control of domain names is granted for a limited period of time, subject to the appropriate registration or renewal fees being paid. Once the owner of a domain name declines to pay the renewal fee to maintain their registration, that domain name will expire - that is, it will eventually be deleted and returned to the "pool" of unregistered names.
While originally domain names were registered for a fixed period of 2 years, most Registrars now offer the option of registering a domain name for a period of 1-10 years, often with substantial discounts for extended years. A domain name that is approaching its renewal date is said to be "expiring" and a domain name that has passed its renewal date has "expired".
Once a domain name has expired and been deleted, it is available to be re-registered by anyone. There are several sources of expired domain name information, some free and some that require the payment of a subscription or membership fee.
One of the best free resources is DeletedDomains.com. From this site, you can research which domain names have expired in the last 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days or 60 days. The search tool is limited to 2000 results. DeletedDomains, while free, still requires a modicum of initiative: you have to come up with the queries to run on the site.
If you are willing to pay for expired domain information, there are a number of sources, such as UnclaimedDomains, which mails out a weekly list of all domains expiring that week and LocalWhois, which sells a variety of domain lists and online domain lookup tools.
While it is still possible to manually "grab" (i.e. register) some expiring domain names at the moment they become available, the competition surrounding the most desirable names has become so heated that manual methods alone are unlikely to do the trick. An entire mini-industry has sprung up around the grabbing of expiring domain names. The biggest firm in the expiring name acquisition game, and perhaps the most well-known, is SnapNames.com. For a fee of $69, they provide customers with a "SnapBack" on the domain name of their choice. SnapNames will attempt to register domain names with SnapBacks placed on them at the exact second that they become available, and they have partnered with a number of Registrars, both large and small, to help boost their chance of success.
Orangetree Internet Service LLC, located in Santa Cruz, CA., provides technical assistance to small and medium sized businesses with Domain Registration Services, including domain portfolio management. Contact us at 830-212-1884 for more information.