Presuming I have nominet membership, a tag, EPP access, and DAC access, how easy is it to set up and build your own dropcatching software? What sort of initial cost would I be looking at? I'm only after 4 or 5 domains per month but sick of getting outbid on ukbackorder and catchdrop! May as well give it a go myself. Any ideas or advice folks? thanks
Transcom does have a downloadable version that can be bought: https://transcom.co.uk/product/catch-uk-domains-round-robin-software/ and did have a discount code running until October: https://www.acorndomains.co.uk/threads/catch-list-and-new-discount-code.177027/#post-661299 Not used it so don't know how well it performs.
you could pay thousands for someone to write you custom catching software but the number of people with the expertise, experience and competitive edge for it to even catch one of your desired domains per month is diminishing as people leave the industry. So perhaps also consider applying for a lower cost option such as www.hostedchasing.com which is run by the same people @ukbackorder
I spent a while building software to do it. I only have 1 tag and it never catches anything despite knowing that it hits it bang on. There's a lot of competition. I don't consider it a waste of time cause I learnt a fair bit, but I wouldn't recommend it as a way to compete unless you have a better plan.
I'm not an expert on the exact landscape, but what I do know from observing for a fair amount of time is that a fairly high percentage of the time the names are being caught and directed to the same platforms over and over. I'm not butthurt about it, it's just the way it is, as those who catch don't want the names they want the revenue, so they get auctioned. I'm not sure whether it's how advanced the software is or whether there is a particular edge/trick/knack/optimisation/setup that is key to it (the software), but I am tempted conclude that it's not due to a particular edge, other than that the software is good enough and used by enough tags which are catching to direct them to the auctions sites which makes the probability high that it will be caught and auctioned immediately. I'm a professional software developer and I spent plenty of time making optimisations and testing the sh!t out of it. There's more I could do, but the investment for me doesn't outweigh the potential reward. Maybe I'm losing out
some interesting replies there. Is it fair to say there are a few big players out there who have a monopoly on catching these domains? Do they have more than 1 tag?
I'm not suggesting a monopoly on anything, I don't know all of the ins and outs, but clearly a lot of tag holders find value in using other people's catching software and/or auction platforms that have well earned reputations. Many people and organisations have multiple tags, that's not at all unusual.
your best option is to probably just book on as many public sites as possible....even if you run your own
DropCatcher is offering free hosted drop catching for the first 10 domains caught. It's a easy way to try with no effort to set up.
It's worth clarifying that multiple tags mean multiple registrar tags under the same account/membership and not multiple accounts/memberships. See the AUP policy about linking multiple accounts. Tag and membership are often used interchangeably, sometimes even by Nominet staff.
You could always use Aaron's nominet ror script over on git, cut it down a bit and fires set epp creates perfectly. All you need to do then is try to catch over the next few months and hone your timings. Doubtful you will catch much but easy place to start, throwing mud at the wall in a storm from very far away comes to mind though I'd still use ukbackorder though as 'most' gooduns can be picked up for under £250 at auction so well worth it. The dropcatcher deal seems a no brainer though and no headaches.
You need to double check that code, I remember it had a non-standard epp implementation which Nominet's servers tolerate but is not ideal. It also used the DAC for domain checks which is no longer useful and ads unnecessary complexity. Everything can be done with epp nowadays. But it is a good place to start your search, along with this maybe
You can literally just cut the dac sections out of the code with no changes and exactly 20 seconds after starting it fires your creates, small delay in the creates and you could hone the timing quicker but yes still like bringing a knife to a gunfight.
