Buying a 'Used' Domain Name

A

AbbieRose

New member
If the domain name that you want comes up for sale, but you know that it has been in use for a long time with another site, would you buy it? Assuming the other site was letting it go that is.

What problems might you face? Do you think you would benefit from the previous visitors, even if the subject matter were different, or would it just make people angry?
 
If the current site offers completely different services than you plan to provide, you may initially have quite a bit of visitors, however, as time goes on you'll loose that advantage. It may even irritate many visitors since the search engines will show older data and therefore they are sent to a site that has nothing to do with their search.

If the services you plan to offer are similar to those currently offered by the registrant, then you'll have the advantage of name recognition. If that's the case consider purchasing the site.
 
If you're talking about expired domains, there can be some value behind them. Whether the value is enough to make it worthwhile, I don't know. It would also depend a lot on your ability to make use of the existing traffic and link popularity, or your ability to sell it for more than what you paid for it.

There are people who make a living out of this I believe, but being a jack of all trades is unlikely to help. You either put your efforts into this, or not. This tends to be true for most things.

Personally, when rebuilding the site, I'd keep the subject the same, or closely related to the old one. You stand less risk of losing the links that the site has gained in time.
 
I think it depends on what you do with it. If you continue on with a similar subject, you may benefit from users sticking around anyway. Going a completely different route, though, won't do you a whole lot of good, and it'll be an uphill battle for a while.
 
This is great info., AbbieRose. I didn't even know you could buy a used/expired domain name. I've just been getting my feet wet and looking around for what I want to buy. I'll look into this as well.
 
There was a domain that I took over that was about a very specific subject, and yes I maintained the subject but with a completely different site. It did fantastic for a while, as it seemed that old members and visitors were popping by and getting interested.

In time (a few weeks) that dropped off, and I was left with a small core that I built on. So in that case I did most definitely see a benefit, as the people who remained helped me to reach out to others.
 
This is a good point. I hadn't considered the fact that certain domains may be associated with spam for instance, or other bad business practises that may affect my reputation. Thanks.
 
Interesting spam...

At least be creative and associate your spam with the actual topic of the thread, dude. Geez, some people's children!

As to the actual topic of this thread, if you can capitalize on the PR and existing traffic then there can be tremendous value in using an expired domain. The trick is tapping into that traffic stream and somehow keeping that momentum going so it would have to be in same topic or something complementary to that original site.
 
You may see a surplus of visitors at first, but they will quickly fade as they realize the site is no longer what they are looking for. However, if the domain name suits you, and if you market it appropriately, you will start seeing visitors who come to your site looking for what what it is you provide.
 
A good thing will be that the URL will probably already generate traffic due to the backlinks it has.

However, any bad press the domain may have may hit the business you decide to setup on it.
 
Yes, most definetly I would buy it. Remember, sites that have been around for awhile have generated backlinks and user reputation. You can use that reputation and backlinks to your advantage when you set up your website using that URL. In some cases where you register an expiring URL, the old owner comes back and buys the name back off you - but only in some instances :D
 
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