Stupid Advertising Sites

Ok so one of my main rivals recently disappeared from the internet - I was excited when I realized that their domain had expired and they had opted not to renew it (I don't know why they just didn't do it).

So me being me I ran off to try and register it so that his thousands of members he had would then be redirected to my website - yeah I thought I was smart.

But when I went to register it I saw that it was taken - so I did some digging around and found it was taken by one of those stupid advertising sites I know you all know the ones I was talking about.

After making further enquries I found out they would off load it for $1800USD. Which honestly I think was pretty steep taking into account that it has now been four months since my competitor closed which means for four months his members have found other sites to go to now.

The domain is due to expire midway through next year - I was wondering whether it was worth A) Paying the $1800 when many of his members may not return.

or B) Wait for the domain to expire again and hope that the company does not renew the domain?

Man I hate the advertising websites.

 

I hate domain parkers, too.

Chances are that is will NOT actually expire at the end of the term showing, especially if there are people trying to visit the original site on any regular basis.

Oh, and I wouldn't bother "reserving" this domain on GoDaddy for when it expires. That's just throwing away good money.

You can check whois for that domain from time to time, but I have no doubt that it will be parked for a very long time.

 

In my opinion, your options are:

1 - Spend the $1800 and get the domain

or

2 - Forget it and move on. If you were to wait until it expires, you'd be disappointed. They will renew it ahead of time (especially if it's receiving traffic). Additionally, by the time it expires, most of the traffic that used to visit the competitor, would have died down. As time goes on, less and less of the old members will go back. Thus, when you get it, you won't have many visitors to lure/redirect to your site.

 

They suck, but that's the internet. I really wish there was some limit/punishment for doing that. There are thousands and thousands of good domains that real human beings could use that are just sitting there, being parked. It's like putting concrete highway dividers with some advertisements for car dealerships in a parking spot at work, but always biking to work instead. It's stupid, pointless, and a waste of time.

 

Wait for it to expire again. You'll find most these companies will only register a domain 1 time and then let it go back into the internet pool.

Also, its just a bad idea all around to pay anything over registration for the domain, if it came with his database/email list then it'd be worth it.

 

You don't think that if the site is receiving decent traffic, they will keep it?

 

I would backorder it with domainmonster.com they dont charge you unless you gain the domain and only charge around £10 roughly for getting it for you as soon as it has dropped. I havent got any domains with this method as of yet but if theres a good chance it may be dropped then why not after all it is free unless you win

 

This,

The site in question has been down for 4 months already. So I'm sure anyone worth joining a forum is long gone.

 

Parked domains are a major problem, so what your experiencing is not unique.

I suggest you forget about it and move on. Unless - money is no object to you, or you "just have to have" that domain name.

 

I may just let it go - as what has been said it has been four months now so we still have at least eight months to go by then those worth having for a forum would have moved on by now already.

I will still check it in eight months time and may pick it up because the link for it is still floating around on the internet on many sport forums but will not make it a target where I am paying $1800 for it.

This was also abit of venting I hate browsing the internet and finding a link to a site that sounds good only to go to it and find an advertising page.

Thanks for all the comments really helpful.

 

Damn that sucks! I would say you would be crazy to pay $1800 for it lol.

 

A friend of mine bought a .co.uk domain and he really wanted the .com, he contacted the owner and asked how much he would want for it as there was nothing on it and the owner wanted around $5000, the domain wasnt even that good at least I thought so, the guy was asked if he was developing anything on it and said he wasnt building anything on it at all. It is a shame things like this, I am sure luck will come round for you