Advice needed

[Guerrilla]

Hi Guys,

I have been studying your forum and I am on the verge of joining nominet to get in on the action.

What's holding me back is the fact I may be too late to the party.

My idea is to do the following:

1. Cross reference .com zone file with DAC
2. Use wordnet with dac to pick up some extra
3. Generate my own drop lists
4. Catch high value domains with a script I write myself

This represents a few months of getting setup and tweaking so I am naturally concerned whether or not it's actually worth it.

I have no interest in sitting on domains as an investment or to build them out, I simply want to buy them cheap and sell for a reasonable profit.

Is this an achievable goal for a solo code monkey like me?

What are the snags in my plan?

Am I just too late to the table?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[AssetDomains]

Hi Guerrilla welcome to acorn

Is this an achievable goal for a solo code monkey like me?

The script should be easy enough for you code. I'm far from expert but my experinence is its your ability to setup and tweak a server that provides the most advantage in this area

What are the snags in my plan?

I probably wouldn't bother creating a drop list just yet

If your only catching on your own tag then the free
http://domainlore.co.uk//droplist

is very comprehensive

If you plan to book with public catches as well then signing up
http://www.domainview.co.uk/
So you can view lists book around well in advance of drop dates is highly recommended.

Am I just too late to the table?

This ones a bit subjective. Are you likely to make a living catching probably not there are to many of us doing it.

Its fairly likely that you get your initial investment back and maybe pay for a holiday every year if you do it as a hobby.

There are a few exceptions to this rule if you can code and setup as well as a these notable catchers maybe you can make much more

Also be aware that Nominet have recently changed the rules in a few weeks certain classes of registrar will be able to take ownership upon expiry of some domains on there TAG
Its a bit early yet to see how this will affect the market

 

[Guerrilla]

Thank you very much for the advice.

I signed up at domainlore and looked at their droplist.

Using a drop catcher to get some domains first and see if I can sell them (even at a loss) is a sensible idea I think as I don't want to invest too much into something I cannot sell.

Regarding my success catching domains, this seems to be limited to my query limits. From what I gather I have to count 90 days from the point of expiration then try my luck registering.

Apparently I only get 1,000 register requests per 24 hours which i could easily blow through in a few minutes if I wanted to which leaves me wondering if the big guys who are successful at catching have several accounts so they can query more often?

As it stands to cover the whole day I would query once every 86.4 seconds which seems like a pure hail mary if hundreds of others are doing the same.

Has anyone suggested creating a coalition with a central system for distributing poll times so the coalition can have the best coverage and chance of winning a drop?

How comprehensive is domainlore? From looking at their lists I can guess they have cross referenced other zone files and used the google keyword tool suggestions as domains also.

Are there any slipped through the gaps?

If I used a dictionary method (similar to bruteforce hacking) to query the DAC over a period of time would I find domains not on the domainlore list?

Then I could cross reference my lists and put my attention mainly on domains that are not on public lists?

I also had an idea of using an open source web spider to go out to all websites from my generated list and strip them of external links with .uk tld. I ruled this out as being too resource hungry compared to the dictionary method but it seems a bit like panning for gold here may be the better strategy than going to the mine with everyone else (lol sorry for poor metaphor).

The thing that turned me onto UK drop catching was the fact that there are no recent zone files so I thought I could be clever and find domains not commonly known about.

I guess the majority of people doing this are coders also so I am not sure if there are any cracks or opportunities here. I desperately want there to be as it seems like a real fun business, kinda like fishing, without having to actually go fishing.

Sorry for the bombardment of questions but I am eager to learn if this is something I can commit myself to.

 

[PoshTiger]

There are a number of threads about this - I'd take time to search acorn and read every single one of them as some of your facts are incorrect (you get 432,000 DAC checks - not 1,000).

I would just say that it's more of a money pit than a honey pot - don't expect to make any real headway in the first 6 - maybe 12 months.

Some of the guys here have been doing this for decades and have systems optimized beyond belief and it will take a significant amount of time, dedication and money to develop a similar system.

I'd start how others start - slow and steady....

1. Find good (but not premium as no-one will book them for you) domains on DomainLore
2. Try to get catchers here to catch them for you
3. Try to sell them

The cost will be very low and you'll understand how difficult it can be starting off...

 

[Guerrilla]

some of your facts are incorrect (you get 432,000 DAC checks - not 1,000).

Hi Posh tiger. I was not talking about DAC.

Apparently I only get 1,000 register requests per 24 hours

I asked Nominet if I kept querying DAC and then sent a register as soon as it became available and the person I spoke to said that the way to do it was to keep attempting the register periodically. The impression I got from them was the DAC wouldnt help me here (although I got the impression she wasnt technical, so this is why I am here to try and tighten up on the information).

I haven't actually got into writing the code yet so I do not know what data DAC returns or how quick it updates. I asked Nominet for access to their test system but I got to pay the registration fees first.

If the way is actually to keep querying DAC then to send registration request I think I can devise a multi threaded system with as much chance as anyone else at catching the drops.

I have spent several hours reading this forum but if you have some useful links that already answer my questions I would be appreciative them.

 

[grantw]

The only option is to use the DAC, sending out 1000 registration requests over a 24 hour period is going to give you zero chance of catching anything. Whoever you spoke to at Nominet was talking nonsense!

Instructions:

http://registrars.nominet.org.uk/na...omain-management/query-tools/dac/instructions

http://registrars.nominet.org.uk/na...n-and-domain-management/registrar-systems/epp

Grant

 

[Guerrilla]

OK. Thanks for bearing with me.

So this is how I am picturing the process now.

I have 4 threads polling the DAC (I assume I am only interested in real time. I am not sure what the use of time delay is).

At some point the information being returned is going to say the equivalent of "available for register".

I then fire off an XML register request. If my request is first I win.

Am I missing anything? Does their XML webservice have any limits I should be aware of?

 

[DaveP]

I can't stay away from this place lol..

Basically to sum up:

- 432,000 DAC requests per rolling 24 hours. So this doesn't mean midnight - midnight every day, but 432,000 DAC requests from the time you start polling to 24 hours later.

- 1,000 EPP create requests per rolling 24 hours (ditto).

Writing your own drop catching software isn't as easy as it first seems but I can assure you the most important part is to do with the time your software takes from the point of getting an available response from the DAC to the point you fire an EPP create command. That isn't as small a task as you may think..

 

[Guerrilla]

Yes I can imagine, but the idea sounds fun. I imagine latency becomes a major issue.

Anyone know where nominet hosts?

Edit: seems equinix LD1 or LD2 seems the best bet.

 

[DaveP]

One tip.. don't give away your secrets as you'll get nothing for that..