Multiple backorders will be accepted on domain names.

GoDaddy has informed Domain Name Wire that it is changing the way it handles backorders for domains not registered at one of The Go Daddy Group’s domain name registrars.

As early as next week GoDaddy will begin accepting more than one backorder on domain names. (Currently only one is accepted). If GoDaddy successfully captures the domain name and more than one backorder was placed, there will be an auction on TDNAM for the domain. Only the people that backordered the domain can participate in the auction.

The new system will be somewhat similar to a non-exclusive backorder on Snapnames. However, GoDaddy will still charge an upfront $18.95 fee for your backorder. If GoDaddy doesn’t capture the expiring domain name or you don’t win the auction, you can transfer your backorder to a different domain name.

A GoDaddy representative says the company is making this change based on customer feedback. Existing backorders will not be affected by this change. Note that the new policy does not apply to domains expiring from a GoDaddy registrar, which will continue to be auctioned at TDNAM.

A practical guide to profiting from expired domain names in 2009.

Because of the economy and faltering parking revenue, you should expect to see more domain names expiring and dropping in 2009 and 2010. Most of these added drops will be of low or mediocre quality, but some of them will be worth backordering.

To new comers, buying expired domains can be somewhat daunting. But in many ways it’s easier now than in the days of many competing services slamming the registry’s servers for each domain. You had to backorder the domain at all companies and then watch auctions across all of them.

Yet when you see domain auctions with over 100 bidders, it’s natural to be scared away. This is a guide to playing the drops for people like me, who are ok spending $100s or even $1000s on an expired domain, but don’t have deep enough pockets to throw around $10,000s each week.

Do your research. It’s worth the money to use a service like FreshDrop to find gems. With thousands of domains dropping each day you can’t do it by hand. I personally filter out any domain that isn’t at least 5-7 years old, as most domains registered in recent years aren’t worth much.

Don’t fall in love with a domain. There are dozens of very high quality domains dropping each day. If a bidding war errupts, don’t let your ego get in the way. Let someone else win the domain and move on to the next.

Place the minimum offer at NameJet. To preorder a domain at NameJet you only have to bid $69. Some people are confused and place a proxy bid before the auction even begins. NameJet treats your proxy as your actual bid. All this does is increase the starting auction price. It doesn’t give you any benefits.

Snapnames may be easier for getting your feet wet. SnapNames has fewer of the prized domains and auctions aren’t as heated. You can pick up some good bargains because of this.

Forget about 3 and 4 character domains. These domains stand out and are usually backordered by dozens of people. The sales prices leave no room to quickly flip the domains to other domainers. The goal is to go after domains that people may overlook.

Watch out for deadbeat bidders. Sadly, a lot of bidders don’t pay. This has a lot to do with leniency by the auction house. If you are bidding against someone for a domain and it’s only the two of you that seem to be bidding up the domain, you may want to let it go. You may be bidding against someone who doesn’t intend to pay. If they don’t pay, the domain will be re-auctioned.

Don’t forget about Afternic. As mentioned above, SnapNames tends to have less competition than NameJet. Afternic has even less. Afternic auctions off some of Melbourne IT’s domains. You’ll rarely find anything worth four figures from Melbourne IT, but when a good domain does drop it goes for a steal. A couple weeks ago someone picked up CampusOnline.com for $1,300.

Survey shows everyone looking for something different in expired domain services.

Last year Snapnames handily won the expired domain category in the annual Domain Name Wire survey. I anticipated that NameJet would take over the top spot this year because it has the best inventory. When it comes to quality, few would argue that NameJet doesn’t have the best expiring domains because of its partnership with Network Solutions.

But I was wrong. SnapNames again took the crown, even when I filtered to only include domainers owning more than 10,000 or more domains. (To be sure, votes for NameJet increased from last year).

Why is SnapNames on top? It turns out everyone is looking for something different in backordering services. It could be starting prices, ease-of-use, or even confidence in a level playing field. I have a number of theories on why the rankings shook out the way they did, but I don’t want to explain them just yet. The survey didn’t ask why, so I’m going to ask it now. If you use expired domain services, please comment on which one you like most and why.

Here are the 2009 results for “Best Expiring Domain Service”
1. SnapNames 43%
2. NameJet 23%
3. GoDaddy 17%
4. Pool 12%
5. Afternic Expired 6%

Also stay tuned for an article about how to win with expired domain names in 2009.

See more survey results here.

Perhaps letting domain registrars do as they please is OK.

For the 2009 Domain Name Wire Survey I added a new option for the most important factors when selecting a domain registrar: what they do with expired domains.

With all the commotion over what domain registrars do when domains expire (e.g. GoDaddy and Tucows), I wondered if this affected peoples’ decisions about which registrar to use.

Apparently not; it was ranked the least important factor when choosing a domain registrar. I guess domainers only care about what happens to expired domains when they want to buy them.

So I’m going to pose this question: why shouldn’t domain registrars be allowed to do as they please with their customers’ expired domains?

Perhaps expired domains should be the spoils for a registrar’s hard work getting customers to register domains in the first place.

In the “old days”, expired domains went to whomever had the best drop catching technology.

Now most expired domains are auctioned off through exclusive relationships, sending money back to the domain registrar.

Is one of these more fair than the other? In the first model the registrars get nothing, in the second they get a cut. Someone has to have an advantage getting expired domains. Who should it be?

We also have some registrars that keep domains for themselves. GoDaddy did (past tense) it with Standard Tactics. Tucows currently keeps domains it wants for itself, sells some to an unnamed third party, and then sends the rest to NameJet. Other registrars send their domains to NameJet or Snapnames and then sell off some of the remnants that aren’t sold at auction.

The best reason I can come up with for why registrars should be restricted in how they handle expired domains is that it creates a conflict of interest with customers. A registrar may not push a customer for renewal because it wants to keep or sell the domain itself. In the case of Tucows, its resellers are responsible for pushing renewals, so the company is distanced from the process.

Why are we complaining about what Tucows is doing? Is it really not fair, or is it just that we’d like to use our various advantages to snag the domains for ourselves? Is one system really more fair than another?

Domain name registrar signs deal to sell expired domain names to third party.

This is a follow-up to Domain Name Wire’s report this morning about Tucows (AMEX: TCX) selling a $1 million portfolio of domain names and entering into an agreement to sell up to $1.8 million in domains to the same entity over the next 18 months. As the previous article mentioned, the latter is some sort of expired domain deal.

On the same day it announced the $1.8 million deal, Tucows also announced a new partnership to sell expired domain names through NameJet.

I asked Ken Schafer VP, Product Management & Marketing for Tucows, how this private party expired domain deal will work. Will the buyer get first rights to domain names before they are sent to NameJet? Or will the buyer get to pick through any remnants that aren’t sold at auction? Schafer wouldn’t say much:

While we can’t disclose details of this agreement I can assure you that every day you’ll see thousands of names released through NameJet. I’m confident that many of those names will be appealing to domainers as well as businesses and individuals looking for a great domain name.

Some domain name registrars have deals with buyers to sell any expired domain names that don’t get picked up at auction. But if the buyer at Tucows is paying a similar average price to what he paid for the first $1 million worth of domains ($392), it must be some sort of off-the-top skimming. I’m not sure if the $1.8 million deal has the same pricing, but Tucows stated that this deal has similar terms to the $1 million deal.

Of course, Tucows also keeps some of the domain names for its own portfolio, so what you see on NameJet may be the bottom of the barrel.