To Backorder or not ?

[noyes]

I am interested in a domain this is in redemptionPeriod

its a .com however the domain name itself does not have any value (12+ chars), however the domain/site does have a PR of 4 and some 300 backlinks and a bit of traffic

the reason I am interested in it is because I already have other sites in similar niche (the niche is also very casual one like jokes etc)

now I am unsure that should I use a backorder service or not ? is it possible that no one else is watching the domain and it might be able to get the domain by hand registration once it drops ?( who wants to blow $60 at backorder for no reason! )

since I am new in this field so I am unsure if others would be interested in such a domain
please share your experiences that would such a domain attract interests from others ? and should I place a backorder for it ?

 

[rziegler80]

Noyes I have purchased over 50 domains through backorders and prereleases. In my experience, it boils down to HOW MUCH YOU WANT THE DOMAIN.

If you REALLY want the domain, and no one else has bid on the domain (as far as you can tell by checking backorder sites) then you need to go on NameJet or SnapNames and backorder the domain the day before it will release/or drop in this case for the $60. Waiting for the last day is a strategy of mine that prevents the domain from being flagged on lists people can subscribe to. This gives you the best chance of avoiding the bidding war that happens in an auction.

If there are other people already bidding on the domain name, there is no need to wait until the last day, just put your bid in and it will go to an auction on drop day.

If you'll live with either getting the site or losing the site, I suggest going to GoDaddy.com and using their backorder service for $20. This is where I currently backorder ALL my domains. I've decided to not get too attached to the domains I want to buy and therefore I can justify spending the $20 rather than three times that at the other "big" sites.

My success rate with GoDaddy backorders is about 80%. There are some that I don't win and there are others that I get right away.

Your call. I hope that this post gave a little insight into my own strategy and helps people at the same time.

Good Luck!!!

 

[Ms Domainer]

*

Warning about GoDaddy backorders: GD now allows mutiple backorders on the same domain, so you may end up going to auction anyway. They have also been known to send backordered domains to public auction, using your backorder fee as an opening bid.

*

 

[rziegler80]

Thanks Ms Domainer.

For the record, I have been using GoDaddy for over a year for backorders, and I have never had that happen. I am buying niche domain names though with <10,000 searches. This may be part of the reason I've had mostly positive experiences. The only negative experience I've had with GoDaddy is that they just raised the price from $18.99 up to $20.

Another positive thing I like about GoDaddy is that if you don't win the domain name, you can simply remove your backorder from the domain you didn't win to a NEW domain (without paying more).

Hope all this helps!

 

[noyes]

Thanks rziegler80

from your experience do you expect this domain (with specs as mentioned above by me) to attract interest of other buyers ?

 

[Skinny]

It really does depend on the name.

If you want it bid for it (wait till the last moment so others don't see your name as being bid on), but if the name won't attract too much attention you might risk waiting and catching it yourself, but it's a risk. . .someone might take it.

Skinny

 

[hawkeye]

Backordering it for $60, guarantees you have at least a chance of getting it (if that dropcatcher gets it), and you can bid for it if it gets into auction. 'Hoping' it drops so you can hopefully get it for reg fee is cheaper, but that is 'if' it drops. Boils down to how much you 'really' want it!

 

[noyes]

It really does depend on the name.

If you want it bid for it (wait till the last moment so others don't see your name as being bid on), but if the name won't attract too much attention you might risk waiting and catching it yourself, but it's a risk. . .someone might take it.

Skinny

thanks but how will I know that when is the last moment?
the domain is in redemptionPeriod right now, is the time on which the domain becomes available fixed? can I calculate it now ?

 

[Erdy]

During the first auction (pre-release auction) the domain is available exclusively only at one website. If you miss that and it reaches pending delete the domains will drop and needs to be caught.

Currently these sites provide dropcatching for pending delete:
1. snapnames.com
2. namejet.com
3. pool.com
4. godaddy.com
5. name.com
6. intrustdomains.com
7. global.gabia.com

There are also about 1000 domainers like me who use their own api scripts. Recently the number of domains that I tried to catch with my own script is about 300 during the last few weeks and I only got 3 of them.

If you are not using a dropcatcher the chances of catching a pending delete is very very low. Moreover pending deletes are mostly unwanted waste. You should get the domain during the first auction, during pre release.

 

[Grand Cross]

My only advice:
If you really want it for real, never backorder it just in 1 place. I've lost 2 domains which where backordered at godaddy and snapnames against some companys who backordered at Pool.com

@Noyes: The Redemption Period ends 31 or 30 days after the pending delete period.
See this: http://www.snapnames.com/deleteprocess.html

Regards,

 

[noyes]

do all dropping domain names go to the pre-release auction ?

 

[Erdy]

do all dropping domain names go to the pre-release auction ?

Here is a calculation I just made using figures from my website.

1. There are 56.366 dot com domains per day on average on pending delete lists.

2. There are 27.888 dot com domains per day on average in pre-release auctions from Dynadot pre release, godaddy pre release, namejet pre release and snapnames pre-release domains. However there is also Godaddy closeouts. The closeouts list is tricky because it is a one day list but the same domains are listed over and over again for one more day for one dollar cheaper.

There are currently 58.570 dot com domains in Godaddy closeouts. The domains stay there for 6 days. So the daily new arrival for Godaddy closseouts for dot com domains is 9.761 domains.

In other words there are 9.761+27.888= 37.649 unique dot com domains per day on pre-release lists.

37649x100/56.366= 66.8%

So there you have it. According my calculation 66.8% of expiring dot com domains go through pre-release auction (about 40 days) before they reach pending delete.

There is far to much attention given to pending delete domains then it deserves. This is mainly because most newbies don't understand pre-release. Pre-release is the holy grail of expiring domains. There is no dropcatching with pre-release.

If there is a domain that you suspect might be in pre-release auction right now, instead searching multiple sites or instead finding out what register sends their domain to what partner auction site, you can go to my site namecatch.com, click on the 'all' button and type the domain. It will search all pre-release lists as well as all pending delete lists at once. If the domain doesn't appear in search results you can add it to domain monitor and you will get an email the day it appears on any pre-release lists or in the pending delete list. I don't know any other website that provides free domain monitoring for pre release lists.

 

[noyes]

thanks for the detailed reply

so let me guess that any domains which have traffic or back-links are automatically selected and placed in pre-release queue ?

and what about the registrars who do not have preferred partner for the expiring domains, their domains can't go to a pre-release, right ? so what happens to the domain of such registrars, would they just get deleted and become available to be snatched by name snappers ?

the Registrar of domain which I am following is NETEARTH ONE and as per them they don't have any preferred back order partner

 

[Erdy]

so let me guess that any domains which have traffic or back-links are automatically selected and placed in pre-release queue ?

All domains from most major registrars are send to pre-release auctions. Anything that is valuable will be sold during pre-release.

what about the registrars who do not have preferred partner for the expiring domains, their domains can't go to a pre-release, right ?

Yes that's right unless they auction the domain on their own site. Here are two of such small sites:
http://www.name.com/expired_domains.php
http://global.gabia.com/backorder/expiring_domain.php

I didn't add those two to my site because various reasons.

so what happens to the domain of such registrars, would they just get deleted and become available to be snatched by name snappers ?

In theory this should happen but in reality the registrar will keep some of the good domains to themselves. For instance tucows.com is such a registrar. They keep a lot of their customers domains to themselves. They use those domains in connection with this site:
https://www.hover.com/

the Registrar of domain which I am following is NETEARTH ONE and as per them they don't have any preferred back order partner

If the domain reaches pending delete backorder on many places.

 

[rziegler80]

As I and many others have mentioned above, it really boils down to HOW MUCH YOU WANT THE DOMAIN.

If you really want the domain, you need to spend the money to grab it. It's a "put your money where your mouth is" kind of thing. If you say you want this domain so much, then you need to go to several websites to backorder it.

Also, it is very important to remember what several of us have also said, which is to wait until the last day before the release or drop because it will *help* prevent someone from noticing your domain because of your own interest. Every domain in prerelease or pendingDelete is given a date and time that it will move into the next phase. The date should be right on the listing. I don't recommend waiting until hours before because you could miss it all together, but I think that the day or night before the drop gives you enough time to get your backorder in without notifying too many people of your intentions.

I don't think it matters what your strategy is in domaining, there are two strong correlations: There is a direct correlation between the amount of TIME and MONEY you're willing to invest in the domain and the SUCCESS of capturing a domain.

 

[noyes]

ok guys here is an update
the domain that I was following is in pending delete and will become available on 14th Oct

I had placed a backorder for it at name.com domain nabber service, however I have just noticed that someone has placed a bid on this domain at namejet
what are the chances of namejet vs name.com acquiring it ?

also namejet says that "Backorder By: Oct. 14, 2010 9:00 AM"
what timezone is that ?

I must backorder at namejet if I want to participate in auction ? and when should I place a bid/backorder at namejet ? should I do it right now or should I wait till wee hours ?


also, since there is no bid at snapnames so it won't be trying to get this domain and I don't need to back-order it there ?

 

[Ms Domainer]

*

If you REALLY want the domain, you ought to preorder at the major three:

Snapnames, Namejet, and Pool.

Just because Snap doesn't show anything doesn't mean that anyone hasn't preordered it. If the one bidder at Namejet is a savvy domainer, you can pretty much bet that the same person has placed a bid at Snap and Pool.

It doesn't cost anything to bid at the big three, so why not hedge your bets?

I believe that 9:00 a.m. is PST.

*

 

[Erdy]

If you REALLY want the domain, you ought to preorder at the major three:
Snapnames, Namejet, and Pool.

This is good advice but I don't completely agree with two details. Because with namejet and snapnames you only pay if you get the domain, you should definitely backorder with them without thinking too much. Another detail I don't completely agree with Ms Domainer is that I don't count pool.com as one of the major dropcathers. I think pool.com is overrated. Namejet has become very strong during the last year. They are getting closer to snapnames. There are also other players now like name.com and intrustdomains.com.

I had placed a backorder for it at name.com domain nabber service, however I have just noticed that someone has placed a bid on this domain at namejet
what are the chances of namejet vs name.com acquiring it ?

I would rate the dropcatchers in this order:
snapnames %45 chance
namejet %35
intrustdomains %7
pool %4
name.com %4
rest %4.9
godaddy 0.1%

 

[Name Trader]

the domain name itself does not have any value (12+ chars), however the domain/site does have a PR of 4 and some 300 backlinks and a bit of traffic

Obviously it has value. As has been shown by somebody backordering the domain at the last minute at NameJet.

You should definitely backorder it at NameJet NOW. If NameJet captures the domain you will at least be in the Auction. You should also backorder it at Snapnames NOW. They might beat NameJet to the domain, and you win it outright without an auction.

I kinda agree with Erdinc here. Unless you really MUST have this domain, you should be content with the 80%+ chance of capturing it with these two dropcatchers.

 

[noyes]

OK
I Have backorderd it on both nameJet and snap
lets see how it goes

---------- Post added at 10:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:28 AM ----------

ok , it was real quick

The whois info has updated with Moniker, I suppose snap has got the domain ?
now will it go to an auction ? namejet showed that there wer 4 biders but I was not able to see any such info at snap ?