Groneg writes:

“I really would love to hear how a good Expired Domain Snapper should work!”

First off, the Domain Space has matured quite a bit in the last 3 years. The days of finding month old dropped page rank 5 domain with their trust intact are behind us. There are just too many people hunting the same prize.

Moreover, Google has gotten better at resetting the trust from domains that had expired. This may have to do with them being a registrar or it could be just them getting better at what they do.

Registration Status of a Domain

Active 1-10 years
Expired 1-45 days. (normally 35 days)
RGP (Redemption Grace Period) 30 days
Pending Deletion – 5 days
Drop / Available – when a domain can be registered

So, from 36-80 days after the site stops working and the domain is “expired”, it drops and becomes Available. Every top level domain has a time the domains become available at different registrars. So for example, the registrar might say:

.com and .net: Drops between 1 PM and 1.30 PM CST

.org : Drops between 8.30 AM and 9 AM CST

.info names : Drops between 3.30 AM and 4 AM CST

.us names : Drops between 12 AM and 12.30 AM CST

etc.

To catch the dropped domain, you just have to register it after it drops and before anyone else does. Any remotely decent (and most terrible) dropped domains get picked up within 1 second of their drop. Servers are set up to ping registration / buy requests and the dropping time for the domains.

As disheartening as that may sound, it gets worse. Many well known firms like SnapNames, eNom, and Pool plus many of the lesser known domainer whales have insider connections with all the registrars. So even if your server sends the request at just the right time and technically wins the race, odds are the game is already rigged and you lost even though you won.

So to answer the question “How should a good domain snapper work?”

1. Get a list of all the domains you want that will drop each day from each registrar.
2. Flood the servers with buy requests around the time the domains become available. There is a limit to how many requests you can send per minute, but it’s on a per server or IP basis. More servers = more requests.
3. Get insider connections at the registrar to rigg the game for you (it’s not like there’s any oversight.)

For my time and money, there are much lower hanging and tastier fruits. But hey – your mileage may vary.