DomainGraduate Reviews TDNAM Auctions
Posted by Chief Editor , Friday, 16 May 2008

This evening, Jude Augusta, contributing author of DomainGraduate, writes:

"Having been served well by my account reps at GoDaddy in previous episodes, I decided to hit mine up once again.  Tess Diaz answers the phone call: “Hi Jude.  Yes,  of course we can help you with that.  Here’s what you do.  Sure, I can email you the steps to make it clear.  No problem.”

Although I always feel I’m a bother, Tess certainly never makes any suggestion to lend to that notion.  Indeed I received very comprehensive instructions to a vault of expiring names that is the online equivalent of the U.S. Treasury...

TDNAM offers online medication to the soreness from the notion that "all the good names are already taken..."  They were taken, but some are yet brought back to life.  GoDaddy is, of course, the largest registrar in the universe with nearly 30 million domains, its nearest competitor having near an impressive 10M.  When a domain expires at GoDaddy, it often goes up for sale on the aftermarket, TDNAM.   That’s when the frenzied chronology begins. 

You can imagine with that many domains, even if only one tenth of one percent expire daily that’s THIRTY THOUSAND domains per day dropping.  If it’s a pathetic 1/100th of one percent that’s still THREE THOUSAND drops daily!  It is staggering.  Additionally, there are traditional auctions with a sea of currently-owned (non-expiring) domains.  You may think you need a divining rod to sift through the system, but its actually quite categorized and navigable with a little direction.  You can search domains by category, by chronological and financial means, and other intuitive methods.

DG’s Compass to TDNAM’s Varied Auction Types:

*Bare with us. If you map it out chronologically – it makes plenty of sense –

 

1. Auctions added by domain owners with premium domains (or so-thought premium domains).

 a. Domains with a “Buy Now” feature at a fixed price.

 b. 90 day Auctions.

 c. Offer/Counter-offer auctions: (may include a “Buy Now” option if the seller so chooses).

2. Expired domain names that are being removed from another GoDaddy account.

 a. On the 26th day after expiration, a domain becomes available for sale.  You can find it in the Expired tab on TDNAM.  You can bid for it, and some have a Buy Now option.

 b. If no one bids on the domain, the Expired auction ends on the 36th day.

 c. If you bought a ‘Backorder’ before the 26th day, and no one bids at auction, the backorder will snap up the domain without you having to bid.  You’ve won it.

 d. On the 36th day, two hours after the expired auction ends, a Closeout or Fire-Sale begins, first come, first serve.

 

How Do I Choose a Domain From the Sea?

  1. First, identify why you're buying the domain. 
    1. Do you want to park?  Then, of course, you go for traffic.
    2. Do you want one to maximize your keywords or portfolio in a particular genre of domains/keyword? Then search by keyword.

* Tools to Evaluate Keywords;

·         Overture.com: (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ )

·         http://www.AdwordAnalyzer.com/

·         Google AdWords Keyword Suggestions:

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal


“Investor’s Edge”

So we demo’d Investor’s Edge.  It’s a $29.99/mo. subscription tool that gets you backorders for a paltry $11.99 – including the cost of registering the domain.  With it, you can view imminent drops at GoDaddy and elsewhere.  It’s a robust tool that allows you to search, filter, and backorder through the Investor's Edge interface.  We have to give it a DG thumbs up.

Fruits of Our Labor:

So how did we stumble upon this exercise?  Here’s how.  There was a sweet opportunity to have our very own reporter promote a domain about celebrity and political hookups and breakups WEEKLY on NATIONAL TELEVISON!  She’s an author, celebrity hookup/breakup news correspondent, and family-law attorney named Vikki Ziegler.  We needed a good domain name for this ridiculous gift of an opportunity.  The natural domain name for this?  Why – HookupsAndBreakups.com – of course! 

So we put ALL tools in the GD arsenal to use, searching, watching, calculating, monitoring, offering.  The result?  We got it due to Investor’s Edge and the aid of our account rep and paid barely over TEN BUCKS!  What’s nice is that, as we keep alluding, GoDaddy has cordial, competent, and dedicated account reps that walk you through the whole process.

This is also great news for bido – which has a totally different strategy, auctioning off one domain per day.  Bido’s strategy is ideal for investors with scant time who seek only premium domains and focus on stats and cash flow, whereas GoDaddy/TDNAM has a more genre-specific approach.

DG gives the TDNAM’s service a thumbs-up."

~Yours in domains.

-Jude

Source: Jude Augusta writing for DomainNews.com, Esq./mba is the Contributing Editor for DomainGraduate.
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