Expiring domain - 301 or try and grab it?

[robiefc]

Hi guys,

I am in an unusual position. I was working on a revenue share website with another person.

I hosted and coded the site and they owned the domain (pointed it at my nameservers)

Now however they would like a clean break and are no longer interested in this arrangement.

The domain is due to expire on the 9th of May and as they are busy (away) they say they cannot renew it.

So - with the name probably dropping towards the end of July I am wondering what my best option is.

Buy a new domain, move the site over to it and 301 all existing links and pages (keeping the same structure), this should allow me to keep the redirects in place for a month or two

or

Try and grab the domain when it drops. But there is no gaurantee i would get it and if i don't I will lose all the page rank etc and link juice that has been accrued

So - does anyone with experience have any thoughts? Advice?

Regards

 

[WigWam]

Try and grab the domain when it drops. But there is no gaurantee i would get it and if i don't I will lose all the page rank etc and link juice that has been accrued

So - does anyone with experience have any thoughts? Advice?

Regards

Hi,

Have a look on this forums private catchers section. If the domain isn't something that everyone would want they would probably be able to catch it for you for around £50 (much higher chance than trying to re-register it by hand).

It may be best for you to start from scratch though, as using your old domain may cause arguments / possible legal difficulties down the line with your previous business partner.

Anyway, good luck with the site & Welcome to the forums.

Cheers

WW.

 

[Ashton]

If its a very good name the private catchers are highly likely to get it.

 

[robiefc]

Thanks WigWam,

Well - the domain isn't that great (IMO). Its 3 words. No hyphens. No numbers. And a .com.

Exact searches per month are in the hundreds rather than thousands - so am guessing it would be under most domainers radar....

However - the above doesn't mean the doamin doesnt get traffic. It does (although granted it took a slap from Panda)

It is fairly established (backlinks, organic traffic) with a PR of 3

So i am just wondering whether to stick or twist

If i tried to drop catch it I guess there would be quite a few days when the site would be completely offline?

Hence edging towards the 301 idea - but no idea if any of the link juice etc would transfer well on a new domain (we all know what googles like)

 

[WigWam]

Well - the domain isn't that great. Its 3 words. No hyphens. No numbers. And a .com.

[/quote]

Oh, I thought it was a .uk

Since its a .com UK catchers can't user their regular scripts on it, so it would be best to use a US catcher (public ones such as dm, pool ect). Be very careful with some .com Private catchers, some arn't anywhere near as trustworthy as .uk'ers 8)

PR is only one ranking factor (a strange one at that ), you can still rank new sites as well as-long as you get HQ backlinks.

WW.

 

[robiefc]

Yep - with all that in mind and there being no gaurantee i would get it i am just thinking i may go with the 301 - at least i know i can get some benefit (plus i was never a HUGE fan of the domain anyway)

 

[WigWam]

Yep - with all that in mind and there being no gaurantee i would get it i am just thinking i may go with the 301 - at least i know i can get some benefit (plus i was never a HUGE fan of the domain anyway)

Are you going to be targeting specifically the uk? If so go for a .co.uk or at a push .org.uk.

WW.

 

[fish]

do both, try and book a catch and if that fails then plan B
.coms with any semblance of traffic/PR decentish name will undoubtably be caught by someone.

How come your (x) partner is too busy & can't renew, seems a poor excuse or is it won't (have you fallen out?)

 

[robiefc]

yup - it is indeed targetted for the UK market - the exact .org.uk is available......

But - I am still not sold on those, I usually only go for them if they have a 20,000 > exacts

Still think I can egt a better .com or .co.uk if i keep snooping around - nothing caught my eye yet though : (

 

[robiefc]

do both, try and book a catch and if that fails then plan B
.coms with any semblance of traffic/PR decentish name will undoubtably be caught by someone.

How come your (x) partner is too busy & can't renew, seems a poor excuse or is it won't (have you fallen out?)

Well - if i do the 301 it will redirect all traffic to the new domain - so what would be the point in the catching the old one? Its one or the other. 301 now or wait and try and catch but potentially lose it and the hardwork

They wanted me to buy it from them and quoted a price, i didnt think it was worth that (and still don't) so they said oh, well its expering and i dont have time to renew - which is fair enough.

We haven't fell out (well certainly not from my point of view anyways) - we both have a lot of other sites. I guess its difficult revenue sharing cos you never have complete transparancy.

 

[fish]

They wanted me to buy it from them and quoted a price, i didnt think it was worth that (and still don't) so they said oh, well its expering and i dont have time to renew - which is fair enough.

A platinum lame excuse 'i don't have time to renew' you must be well laid back if you think that's fair enough. Do what you have to do.

 

[robiefc]

A platinum lame excuse 'i don't have time to renew' you must be well laid back if you think that's fair enough. Do what you have to do.

Well - they only wanted £xxx for the domain, so if i was that bothered I could of just bought it....

The site isn't my main earner - it brings in revenue and could probably do more

But I didn't wana pay 3 figures for a domain i don't particularly like hehe

 

[wb]

If it's making revenue, why take the risk and lose the domain age, history, backlinks etc?

May as well try making them a lower counter offer for the domain first and see if they bite. If they are going to let it expire anyway, then it's worth a try.

 

[ABCV]

If I were you I would probably buy or reg a new domain because:
1) there is no guarantee that someone can catch it
2) if you go through this route then the website will be completely down for about a month or 2 during redemption period etc. thus losing some traffic in long term

I think that if you reg a new domain you should spend a bit of time and maybe money and get that up and running and you won't ever have any problems with your partner.

 

[peacock]

Are you sure it won't auto - renew?

I would try and get it via your partner. If not possible, then I would get the new domain, clone the site on to it and use canonical instead of 301.

Then I would contact all existing linking sites and ask them to link to the new site instead.