One of the most tightly guarded secrets in the domain name business has been when expired domain names become available to register - and how to do so.

Now, the barriers are beginning to come down as more information is filtering out in dribs and drabs. At the same time, the competition is fiercer than ever.

This is not a "magic recipe" to scoop up expired domain names, but you will find enough pointers in this article for it to act as an excellent starting point for your own research. Many people have spent months or years perfecting their techniques, so you're going to have to work hard if you want to join the highest-stakes game in the domain name world: the chase for expiring domain names.

	What are the stakes in this "game"? Well, a two-letter .com domain name can easily fetch in excess of $25,000 at auction. And many single-word domains have "dropped" when they expire and been scooped up with tender loving care by their new owners. On a good day, names worth hundreds of thousands of dollars - even in this very depressed domain name market - may be up for grabs!

Key information #1: WHEN will domain names drop?

Domain names are scheduled to be released into the public domain once they expire, generally as a result of non-payment of a renewal fee. A recent Sitepoint article blew the lid off this carefully guarded secret - even the title of the article is a give-away: The 6.30 AM Domain Gold Rush. This article is REQUIRED READING if you are seriously considering chasing after dropping domains.

Key information #2: WHAT domain names are "on hold"?

So now you know when an "on hold" domain name will be released (if indeed it is going to be released at all - see box, below) but you still need to know WHICH domain name(s) are on hold pending being dropped.

One way is to take the brute force approach and compile a list of "target names" you'd be interested in acquiring, then look each up and note their expiry date using Excel or a similar tool. That way, you can sort your shortlist by the expiry date and go back every few days to check the domain names that are scheduled to expire to see if their owners have made a renewal payment or not.

Another way is to make use of so-called "expired domain lists", for-fee email subscription lists that purport to show the majority - or all - expiring domain names. There are around a dozen companies now in this business and all offer a slightly different coverage. See the Resources section of this site for more information.

	Domain names don't always drop as "expected". Domains can be placed on hold for several reasons, not merely non-payment. For instance, if there is a court dispute over the rights to a given domain name, the domain name may be placed "on hold" for the duration of the dispute so that neither party can use it. This leads to "false positives" i.e. domain names that look as if they may soon be up for grabs, when in fact they're unavailable. Similarly, Network Solutions has taken a lot of flack over its slowness to release domain names; several lawsuits have been filed against NS, accusing it of "hoarding" expiring domain names rather than releasing them to the public. And the signs are that other Registrars are beginning to follow suit. This means that you should maintain your vigilance, even if a given name you're tracking does not drop at the "appointed time". If a court case is suddenly settled or a registrar decides to dump a few names, the name could become available at any time!

There is also a brute-force approach that can yield useful nuggets of information (the details of this approach are far beyond the scope of this article, but here's a necessarily brief overview):-

Obtain the latest "Zone Files" and compare them with an older version of the files. Look for entries that have been modified or dropped in the latest copy of the files. This can point to domain names that no longer have DNS entries and which are about to expire. Here's an article with some more "clues".

Key tool #1: a pre-paid or instant registrar

Because you're going to have to time the registration of a dropping domain name down to the split second, you're going to miss the chance to grab a name if you've got to start typing in the details for the domain name (name, address, credit card details and so on). So you need to find a registrar that you can "pre-pay" and set up all information with default entries, so that it's the work of a couple of clicks to actually register a domain name.

Key tool #2: scripting power

While running scripts against Whois is severely frowned upon, this remains virtually the only way for pros to scoop up attractive names. Network Solutions imposes various restrictions (for instance, limiting the number of lookups per time-frame per IP address) on the use of Whois, so you're going to have to get creative or find a programmer who can.

Key skill #1: persistence, lots of...

Even with the above pointers, you have a LONG way to go before you can start grabbing the really big names. And this is not a game where you're likely to "score" every day. Patience will be rewarded...

Good luck using the "breadcrumbs" above to follow the trail to the expired domain name jackpot!