Drop Catching For Newbies

[gazoakley]

:hi:

I apologise to mods in advance if you feel this is in the wrong section. I couldn't decide between keeping it here or in Expiring Domains (though I feel thats more for lists)... Its a long post so you may want to put the kettle on

If you're reading this thread then I'd like to welcome you to the wonderful world of Drop Catching - the process of procuring expired domains. I'm going to take you through my first experience of the process and show you the pitfalls I fell for.

This story starts with a name

This story starts with a name - HaloForge.com. I was looking to start a site about a game (Halo 3) and more specifically the tools you can use to play about with the maps (Forge). I used to be an avid GoDaddy user, so off I went to search for domain names. The .net and .info variants were available, and I noticed the .com was about to expire. Perfect I thought - so I ordered the .net and .info and put the .com on backorder. I also checked SnapNames and kept looking at domains starting with the word Halo not wanting SnapNames to catch on to what I was looking for. Since SnapNames was somewhat more expensive I moved on thinking not many people would be bothered about it.

Snap! (names)

A couple of weeks later I'd started to play about with the site. GoDaddy sent me an email to inform me they were about to try and capture the .com variant. Great I thought - surely no-one else will be wanting the name. And then a few hours later I checked whois. Snapnames had won the name afterall - and jacked the price up by 30$

I was a little upset, but still I couldn't be bothered paying $99 for a hobby domain. So I left SnapNames to their own devices. Since they return domains if no-one wants them I thought there'd be an easy oppurtunity to pick it up again soon.

I kept watching the auction and no one bid. SnapNames would drop the domain and GoDaddy would pick it up. Right?

Nope

Stake your claim

It'd been picked up by a company called iTimeMarketing / ClaimThisDomain.com - I'm willing to bet someone on here knows them. Two days later they emailed me after seeing my details against the .net registration. They told me they'd won the domain at auction (not true - the registrar was different and the registration date was after SnapNames picked it up) and gave me the opportunity to purchase the name. Not wanting to let on I was interested I ignored their mail and started Googling them. I fell upon another site they'd claimed to have picked up at auction (this appears to be standard practice for them) and found out they were being selling that for $207.

Aghhh...

I was a bit cheesed off at this point. GoDaddy's service had failed me again. And now the domain I wanted was in the hands of someone who appeared to be trying to scam me. But I also thought they probably wouldnt keep the domain if I kept quiet. I left it a few days - hoping it'd drop again and GoDaddy would finally pick it up. On the 5th November it dropped. Did GoDaddy catch it?

You should have got the pattern by now. They didn't. Aghhh...

So tasty I'll have another taste

Now I was really angry. ClaimThisDomain.com had dropped the domain and then re-registered it in order to get around paying for the domain (they tasted and re-tasted). I figured I was in for a bumpy ride. It didnt matter the domain wasn't worth much - this was personal. They'd tried to scam me and they were taking the p*** with tasting (I'm not a fan of tasting - but I only really get upset when people do it over and over again with the same name in order to skip the fees). I needed my own arsenal.

Revenge is sweet

So I got an account here at NamePros and got an Enom account through it. I built a Python script to try domain catching. It dropped again and my script didnt have success. But I kept going - and after adapting it to work with another registrar someone on here who is now a good friend caught it for me through their registrar!

So its now mine. My precious...

Lessons learnt

If you're an experienced domainer you probably saw a whole boatload of mistakes in there. I've sure learnt a lot about how drop catching works from this episode. What could I have done better?

GoDaddy backorders suck

They're a great registrar in my opinion for available domains, but their backorder service seems to leave a lot to be desired. Google around and you'll see most people have very little success.

I think the main problem GoDaddy have is a lack of resources for grabbing domains. Pool.com and SnapNames have lots of different registrars - whilst GoDaddy are pretty much just GoDaddy. The other problem is buying at GoDaddy advertises the name you want is in demand - once a GoDaddy customer has backordered no one else can. And I'll bet someone scrapes against GoDaddy to find prospective domains...

Don't go it alone

If you really want a domain you have to go to SnapNames, Pool and NameJet. No ifs or buts. If you have an order there and theres little interested you're extremely likely to win the domain. And its probably cheaper and certainly easier than screwing around with other companies who pick up their left behinds.

Order all the domains you want in one go

I think another big mistake I made was ordering the .net when .com wasn't available - it appears to be one of the reasons ClaimThisDomain went after the .com. If you want an online presence go all out at the same time. You'll arouse less interest and you'll have an easier time

Use a reputable WHOIS site

You might have heard about ISPs and other companies selling lists of unanswerable DNS queries as well as fake WHOIS sites that capture data to use for prospective registrations. Never type in a domain name to see if its available, and only use a reputable WHOIS. DomainTools seem to be trusted by a lot. Alternatively use your own WHOIS client to bypass the possible viewing of what you're after.

There are other lessons to be learnt as well, but I think that should get people started...

 

[nielsencl]

Update: Despite my reporting them in the past, I just got four more spams from:

Ken Palm
[email protected]
tel: 563.823.4644

iTime Marketing, Inc
322 N. Main Street
Davenport, IA 52801

They are offering me the dot com version of a domain that I already own and wanted to register. I don't mind that they got the domain and I didn't, but I DO mind that they spam me AND try to sell the domain for $247! They say "...this domain name will only be offered for sale for a limited time." so I think if they don't find a buyer they are going to drop it. So, I will just wait and see if I can register it at cost in 4-5 days.

For now, I have reported them to their ISP and Domain Registrar for spamming.

Recently, somedomainname.com expired and went into a domain name auction. We acquired it and, since you own the .net version of this domain name, we wanted to provide you with the opportunity to own the preferred .com version.

Our company specializes in recovering preferred expiring domains and either selling them to individuals such as yourself or building out our own web presence on those valuable domains.

somedomainname.com is a pretty darn good domain name and, the truth is, the .COM is a far stronger version of the name than the .NET is.

* .Com is the strongest brand on the internet. When people think of a website, they intuitively think ".com". Odds are people trying to get to your website are inadvertently going to somedomainname.com because they assume that's where they can find you.

* .Com conveys Professionalism that .net & .org cannot match.

If you'd like to own somedomainname.com, you can buy it now by covering our acquisition costs and a modest profit.

If you have any interest I encourage you to act quickly because this domain name will only be offered for sale for a limited time.

 

[Kate]

Reminds me of webnamesolutions

 

[a3cube]

Thanks for these tips.

 

[nielsencl]

I just talked to Ken Palm. He seems like a pretty nice guy, for a spammer. He called me because with over 1,200 domains I was getting quite a few spams from him. Unlike the end users that are more happy with hearing the domain they want is available, and less upset with spam, I started ACTIVELY reporting the spam, using the contact information I could find for all the domains mentioned in the spam. I used network-tools.com to get the IP and hosting provider so I could contact them and the domain registrars to report the spam. Sample of the message I added to the spam before the headers of the spam:

[email protected]: itmdomainnames.com is hosted on your DNS

support()slicehost.com: support.itmdomainnames.com is hosted on your 209.20.74.100

abuse()enom.com: itmdomainnames.com is registered via you

abuse()theplanet.com: itmdomainnames.com is hosted on your 74.54.217.194

abuse()aplus.net: bankservicing.com is hosted on your 66.226.77.34

abuse()godaddy.com: Your help is requested in this matter. itimemarketingdomains.com is registered via you and there seems to be some connection between you and VIBRANT NETWORKS, INC registrar used for the spamvertised domains who do not respond to spam reports.

Ken called me because as a result of my reports, some of his accounts kept getting closed because he is violating the TOS of any respectible hosting provider.

YOU don't have to put up with spam from him or anyone else if you are willing to make the effort needed to report them. If everyone would just report one spam each day, the amount of spam would greatly drop. There will always be spammers and ISPs that are spam friendly, but the spam problem is as bad as it is because few bother to do anything about it.


If you don't like what Ken Palm is doing, tell him and/or report him.

 

[shockie]

well done / great advice! rep+ :tu:

 

[brianlai]

Thanks your post, quite good sharing

 

[flacon]

that was a good read. i have understood some more things about getting expired domains from your post. well done.