Buying an Expired DN to build a Blog Similar to the Previous Owner - Would you Do it?

[hopkism]

I want to create a blog that reviews one of my favorite past times (yes there will be affiliate marketing down the road but not yet). While looking for a domain name, I found an awesome name that is short and sweet and expired. Four years ago there was a website built on it that was also reviewing this same hobby. They were creating reviews and even had a message board for users. After a couple of years they let it drop and no one has acted on it since. It has amazing backlinks, great PA, and DA.

My question is, should I buy the domain and develop the similar site with all of my own content? I did a USPTO.gov search and found no trademark for the brand. Archive.org shows the website as having a "All Rights Reserved." Thankfully the domain name is an acronym and I have a different use for the letters than the original owner. I found the previous owner through social media searches and he's a full time web designer working for a large company with a whole host of skills. Maybe I should contact him?

Your thoughts are much appreciated.

 

[Banezer]

go on and use the name, you have no business with the past owner base on ur search above, but what you should watchout is the reputation of the site/ owner, if the site has been use to scam people, you will be affected

 

[hopkism]

Thanks for the feedback bene. As far as I know the reputation of the site / owner was pretty stale. At some point they tried what many had at that time for SEO (lots of comment links, .edu and .gov spam) but the majority of links are reasonable from others within the industry.

What tool or search would you recommend for checking if the site was used to scam people? It was never deindexed from Google and Archive.org looks pretty clean and boring.

 

[iowadawg]

As Nike would say,
Just Do It!

 

[Name Trader]

I don't see any reason not to use the domain, and I see some good reasons to use the domain. Go for it!