Building a brand is no easy feat.
It all starts with a great idea… followed by choosing the perfect name, designing a logo, building a website, creating a social media presence, driving sales, etc.
But what if you get stuck along the way? Or if you can’t find a good name? Or if the domain is registered (and the social media profiles have been taken)? How do you carry on?
Brand Name ≠ Domain
Let’s face it: the name you choose will be pivotal for your brand’s identity, positioning, success, and everything that comes with it.
However, there is a 99% chance that yourbrand.com is already taken, as well as @yourbrand on most social platforms.
That is why many emerging brands tend to get creative when launching their online footprint:
- Adding words like “go” or “get” or “hello” before their names.
- Putting the business’s location (city or country) at the end.
- Starting with a .co website instead of .com.
There is a 99% chance that yourbrand.com is already taken.
At the end of the day, if you manage to build a popular sought-after brand with a strong online presence, you will be found one way or another.
But if you are not the kind of person who would settle for a good name, then continue reading to learn more about expired domains, and how to build a brand leveraging them.
What Are Expired Domains?
An expired domain is a domain that was previously registered by a person or business which was not renewed before the expiration date.
It is important to note that expired domains are not available immediately after their expiration dates. When a domain expires, it is held by the registrar for a grace period that can range from weeks to months, to allow the owner to renew it. Once this grace period is over, the domain is deleted from the registry, and then it can be re-registered by somebody else.
It’s also worth noting that there are companies dedicated to “catching” domains right before they get deleted, like DropCatch, to auction them to the highest bidder.
Where Can I Find Expired Domains?
There are many websites that track expired and deleted domains, but the only one that you need to bookmark is ExpiredDomains.net.
ExpiredDomains.net offers a robust engine to sift through an expansive collection of expired and recently deleted domains from a variety of TLD’s.
The only requirement to unleash its full potential is to register for a free account – and it is totally worth it. A free account will give you access to an array of tools and features that we will describe below.
ExpiredDomains.net adds thousands of newly available domain names every day and keeps a record of deleted .com’s since 2006. This means that you will need to step up your filtering criteria game when conducting a query.
Here are some of our favorite filters:
- Wanted and unwanted characters: to find domain names containing or not containing one or more specific characters.
- Domain pattern: to search for your favorite pattern combinations (example: CVCV, VCVCV, ABABA etc).
- Dictionary words and word count: to look for dictionary keyword domains in 10+ different languages, either single words, or using a specific word count.
This tool is so powerful that it keeps track of pending delete domains, caught domains, and domains for sale/auction across the most renown online marketplaces (GoDaddy, Flippa, Sedo, NameJet, and more).
The information is presented in a clean manner through organized lists. You can save your searches and customize your lists by selecting the columns that you would want to see data for, including fields such as: monthly searches, traffic, backlinks, domain birth year, and more.
Here are some of our best saved searches:
- Recently deleted English dictionary single-word .com domains with fewer than 8 characters.
- Recently deleted English dictionary single-word .co domains with fewer than 4 characters that follow a CVCV pattern.
- English dictionary single-word .com domains with fewer than 6 characters for sale on GoDaddy for less than $10.
This tool is exceptionally superior than any others out there, and the best part, it’s 100% free of charge.
Hopefully, this will accelerate the search for your brand’s perfect domain, but this is just the beginning…
Found an Expired Domain! Now What?
Before you decide to buy an expired domain, you will want to ensure that the user name is available on the major social media platforms.
ExpiredDomains.net currently shows a name’s availability on Twitter and Facebook – though they don’t yet track Instagram or YouTube.
Finding whether a handle is taken or not is pretty simple – just visit the social platform’s website and add your desired brand name after the slash:
- https://facebook.com/yourbrand
- https://instagram.com/yourbrand
- https://twitter.com/yourbrand
- https://youtube.com/yourbrand
There is a 99% chance that @yourbrand is already taken on most social platforms.
Don’t panic if the name in unavailable on one or more platforms. Remember the tricks to find potential alternatives:
| Tricks | Examples |
| Add “go” or “get” or “the” before your name | @gotois |
| Add the location after the name | @toisnyc |
| Add the TLD at the end | @toiscom |
We suggest that you stick to the same handle across all social media channels since it will play well with your brand’s holistic strategy.
Now will be the time to move forward with the expired domain and social media handle registrations!
Final Thoughts
Congratulations on taking the first steps to bringing your idea to life!
You can check the boxes next to selecting a name, a domain, and social media handles. Up next is developing your brand, designing a logo, building a website, and starting to sell your products or services.
How does it feel to not settle for the status quo? 😏