Dropped Domains. 2018 Costs Overview
As 2018 is ending I would like to share my experience participating in GoDaddy domain Auction. Despite multiple services offering extended analysis and lists of expiring domains or domains sold by the owners, I soon realized GoDaddy Auctions is #1 source and I stopped wasting my time on services like FreshDrop. By the way, Godaddy keeps buying expired domains from other domain registrars in 2018 just as actively as some domains are getting sold at ridiculously high prices turning this business into a golden mine.
So, what are the reasons people are buying aged domains? Here is my vision:
- Building private PBNs
- Building public PBNs and selling links from these
- Starting online business built on an aged domain to avoid Google sandbox filter
- Redirecting domains with good backlinks to the primary domain to boost rankings
In this article I will show the correlation of the domain’s link popularity and its final auction cost so that you have a better understanding of what it may be worth. The article will be useful both for an SEO newbie and for an expert as the info below is from an insider. In 2018 I lost 5 domain auctions either because the auction price went beyond the budget, price estimate or because I used the old method of alarm clock to make the last minute bid trying to draw as little attention to the domain name as possible.
A domain with decent Web Archive history since 2014 and 56 dofollow domain links, of which strongest are:
Sold for $271 with 51 bids.
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First Web Archive record dating back to 2013 reinforced by 28 dofollow referring domains including a link from .gov website.
Sold at $405 involving 4 bidders and 23 bids made totally.
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One will find first records of this domain in Web Archive in 2011. 74 dofollow referring domain include such solid resources as Europe.eu, Rochester.edu and other high-profile websites.
5 bidders escalated the auction price to its final $310.
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The domain below showed up in Web Archive back in 2004 for the first time but was not carrying a full-scale website till 2012. According to AHREFs it currently has 56 live dofollow referring domains (watch the article publication date though), some of them being fairly seo-friendly, e.g. techdivision.com, http://pecl.php.net.
Gone to a happy owner for $188.
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This website turned to be a complete surprise to me… With over 18 years of Web Archive records it attracted 40 dofollow referring domains from such resources as Bloomberg.com, Uberflip.com, embedded.com and many more.
Gone for $12,250. Somebody definitely had great plans for it.
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Curious what these domains are now? So am I. Occasionally, I check these out to see what they have been used for. And here is your chance. Meanwhile, if you are looking for a custom domain for your business idea or other need – do not hesitate to contact us to help you out.