Buying Expired Domains, worth it? Pitfalls? Tips?

[PAPABEAR1126]

I tried to search and read everything I could in the archives here and Googled and read all could find, now I turn to a few of you who I trust on the subject since there appears to be a lot of wrong info. out there and because it changes and I am not up on the topic lately at least.
I need a domain.
I am considering buying an expired domain.
Is it really worth the extra work to try and find a good expired domain name?
Partly in the hopes that it has some partial benefit at least from helping in part to stay out of the sandbox, in part anyway as I know there are other factors with the sandbox such as incomig link quality etc. etc.

I have never bought an expired domain and want to avoid the pitfalls such as buying a penalized or banned domain.

I have been reading all I can find but hope for final summary from a few of you folks I trust, and possibly the url of a site that sells expired domains that are not a rip-off?

I read in one place to check the old domain to see if it is indexed in any SE's?
Check it on the way back machine to see if it was a legit site?
Do a who is followed by a previous owners name if it can be found to see if they have a lot of domains registered to their name?

Any other tips or thoughts?
Is it even worth my time?
Thanks gang!
Frank

[Michael Allison]

I don't know much about it. But, logically, I would say it's very important to check into the history of the domain. I think, to a point, when you buy an expired domain, you are buying someone else's legacy. At least, at first.

I wouldn't want a domain that had unhappy customers talking about it, for example, or some pyramind scheme associated with it.

I'm sure the experts here can tell you more, but those are my first thoughts on it.

-Michael

[toddieg]

i'm sure john will chime in here in a few. but in my experiences they are trash... i own about 5 or 6 of them, and many can't/won't get indexed. one needed a reinclusion request while others STILL have no pagerank.

they are definitely filtered heavily by google from what i can tell.

[DebbieV]

Is it really worth the extra work to try and find a good expired domain name?
Partly in the hopes that it has some partial benefit at least from helping in part to stay out of the sandbox, in part anyway as I know there are other factors with the sandbox such as incomig link quality etc. etc.

Buying an expired domain may not provide any benefit as far as the sandbox is concerned and you might find it more difficult getting the new content indexed. Many expired domains have been removed from Google's index - backlinks and PR are basically deleted or reset to zero.

Do an "info:www.domainname.com" search in Google and see what type of results are returned. An indication that it might have been removed from the index is the following result:

Sorry, no information is available for the URL www.domainname.com

• Find web pages from the site www.domainname.com
• Find web pages that contain the term "www.domainname.com"

If you see the following result, it may be worth trying to resurrect:

• If the URL is valid, try visiting that web page by clicking on the following link: www.domainname.com

I'd also check Archive.org to see what type on content was associated with the domain name, check other search engines to see what they have indexed as far as content and links before you make your purchase.

Keep in mind that it's not a bad idea to have a plan B with a fresh domain name.

<added>
If it's a domain name that could provide you with some nice type in traffic, they're always good to grab and redirect to the new site - especially if it only costs you the registration fee.
</added>

[PAPABEAR1126]

Well so far I found one domain that I bid on over at snapnames.com and if I win the first round then I can place my max bid and then it does like ebay, trouble is they dont show if others have already bid at the first stage. If I win stage one and no other bidders I get it for 60.00 not bad, But, if others bid at stage one I have to decide ultimately what it is worth to me.
I did do the archive lookup and Googled it, checked for links, the domain appears in the index but thats all, the old version in the archive showed a decent old relevant topic related regional business so that appears fine.

I did find that the register matters, in other words, I did a whois first, and saw it was a Network Solutions domain so that was why I went with their expired domain selling service which is snapnames since they get to offer it first on their service supposedly.

Now I am in Go Daddy browsing new and old.
If I hit a new name too good to pass up I will go that route or at least buy it for now and get a few pages up for it.
I will post if I find out anything worth sharing.
TY for the posts.
Frank