Small business owner seeking advice

[trace504]

Hello. I am a small business owner and am looking to lock up an expiring domain. I have read through many threads, but I find many things to be very confusing, so I would greatly appreciate any advice that is offered.

I have a domain in mind that I want for the name of my small business. The current owner no longer uses this domain and I doubt that anyone else would want it. Yet, because I like the way it sounds and because it took a long time to come up with this name I want it. It is currently registered under namejuice.com

I have a few questions.

1) When should I place my backorders? I don't mind using multiple registrars. This domain expires on Nov 15, but I understand that it could be 80 days (or is it 85?) before I would get to bid on it. Is there any advantage to backordering now, or should I wait for the 79th day then backorder through multiple companies?

2) Although this site generates very little traffic, should I refrain from whois searches to minimize attention? What other things should I do to not draw attention?

3) How do you know if a domain will enter prerelease? I thought I could just wait until a domain entered pending deletion and then just backorder on the last day. But how can I monitor if this will get dumped beforehand?


Thank You!

 

[Name Trader]

1) You should place your backorder in the last day before it goes into pending delete. There is no advantage in backordering it earlier. I'm not sure who NameJuice.com uses as a backorder company, so i'd backorder it at SnapNames/NameJet/Pool.

2) Why would you want to do continuous whois lookups? If it get renewed, your only chance for getting the domain is by buying it from the current owner.

3) If it expires, then it will go into prerelease at some time. You should not wait for Pending Delete status. Backorder it during Pre-Release, at the backorder company who has an arrangement with NameJuice.com. If you can establish that, then you only need to backorder at one company (in the pre-release phase).

It's extremely unlikely the domain will get dumped before. The only reason I can think of is if the current owner deliberately deletes the domain from his account.

I think you could use the services of NameCatch.com (free) to establish the exact Pending Delete and Dropping time.

 

[KyleClub]

Does anyone know the backorder company for Moniker? Is it Moniker themselves? There is a name expiring tomorrow that I want, and I have only backordered at Go Daddy. Is this not the correct avenue to backorder? Thank you...

Edit: Nevermind, I figured it out, SnapNames.

 

[KyleClub]

Trace,
Namejuice.com's - Backorder company is Enom club drop. It seems that Enom and Club Drop are two separate sites, but partner sites. Google it and they come up. Good luck...
Kyle

 

[KyleClub]

Source: Google namejuice backorder company. Then it is the ninth link down the page. I would just put the link, but I believe it is forbidden...

 

[Name Trader]

Moniker backorderer - SnapNames

If kyle is correct, then the backorderer would be NameJet, but I'd wan't confirmation from somebody else as well.

 

[KyleClub]

Confirmation would be a good idea, as I am relatively new.
Thanks for the Moniker confirmation, Stub.