Did you know that you could backorder a domain name? If someone lets their domain expire, you can place a backorder giving you the opportunity to own the name if it expires.
A friend contacted me today about a site (forum) that he visits often. The domain was not renewed and is currently in pending-delete status. When this is the case, the current owner is essentially give a grace period to renew his/her domain name. If they do not, the domain will be up for grabs at the end of the pending delete period. The date is known and is generally 30 days after the domain expiration date.
If you are looking to grab a domain, you can try the following services. Of course, there are more, but these are the two that I use.
Unfortunately, you don’t automatically receive all of the value that the domain had prior to expiration. When a domain expires, a lot of the value is lost in the eyes of the search engines (backlinks). However, if you are buying because there are links that are probably delivering traffic, this could be a decent path to take.
If you are someone who feels that all of the good domain names are taken, sign up for a keyword alert from some of the backorder services. They will e-mail you a list of expiring domains containing your root keyword. You will be surprised at what you will see.