Have you ever wondered about delving into the world of buying and selling expired domains to make money? Well, wonder no more! We’re thrilled to introduce you to someone who’s been mastering this domain game for over seven years. Meet Sumit, the brains behind Serpnames.com, a leading marketplace for aged domains.
In this exclusive interview, Sumit will unravel the secrets of expired domain buying and selling. From understanding the intricate details of the trade to navigating industry trends and predicting the future of the domain market, this conversation promises to be enlightening.
So, without further ado, let’s dive into the world of expired domains with Sumit as our guide.
Interview With Sumit: Explore the Expired Domain Business
Q. Can you tell us about your journey into the expired domains game and how you got the idea at such a young age?
Hi, I’m Sumit, founder of SerpNames.com. My journey began in 2015 when I became curious about computers and video games. I was 15 years old at that time, and I learned from my brother’s friend, Nitin, who was creating blogs and engaging in event blogging.
He was creating blogs for events like New Year and Christmas, ranking them on Google’s first page on the event day, and monetizing the tens of thousands of visitors with display ads.
This was very interesting to me as it only required writing many spammy articles and creating spammy comments for link building. I tried this and earned around $117 as my first paycheck.
I also learned about building PBNs using expired domains from Facebook groups and began finding domains on my own using ScrapeBox for my PBN.
However, I experienced many failures, such as my blogs getting deindexed.
In event blogging, you need to start working on your blog 2-3 months in advance to rank on the first page on the event day. So, imagine your blog gets deindexed by Google just before the event, and all your hard work vanishes.
Although I made some money, I realized it was not a long-term solution. So, I decided to find domains for people and sell them. Many people were interested in using them for building PBNs.
There was little to no competition at the time. I used ScrapeBox and proxies to find domains and began selling them for $5-10. It was quite time-consuming, as I was finding domains for people, sharing the names so they could register them, and then they paid me $5-10 per domain.
I was making a few hundred dollars per month while studying in school and was very happy with it.
Eventually, I started investing the money I earned by buying domains from GoDaddy auctions as they were of high quality and registered my company DominatingPBNs.com in 2016 and later rebranded to SerpNames.com in 2019, which is our official company and helping people get expired domains for building niche sites or 301 redirects.
Q. Where are you originally from, and what other businesses have you been involved in before serpnames?
I’m from India. I’ve tried a couple of other businesses before, like a done-for-you affiliate sites business called SerpSeeds.com. In this business, we used to deliver ready-made content websites on expired domains for people so they get a head start.
I also ran a content writing service business. However, both businesses didn’t last long because I found SerpNames to be my passion and wanted to focus on it without any distractions.
Q. Could you share some insights on the current trends in the expired domain industry?
Lately, I can see that 80% of powerful expired domains are being bought and used by casino buyers from Indonesia and Thailand. They buy domains based on existing traffic, strong backlinks, and age.
These individuals make millions per month, and expired domains help them rank for keywords within a week. However, these sites get penalized within one month, so they just repeat the process with the next domain.
Apart from that, expired domains are becoming increasingly popular among SEOs because of their quick advantage in faster rankings and traffic, making them more expensive to acquire.
Unlike in 2015, when you could buy strong domains for $200, nowadays you need a minimum budget of $2000, and that too comes with risks since Google is very tricky with these domains. Therefore, expired domains are being used by intermediate and expert SEOs these days.
Q. How do you believe expired domains are best utilized for online businesses in 2024?
The two best ways are building your website or using a 301 redirect. In the first option, I believe if you’re starting your website, going with an expired domain is an excellent choice.
You save thousands of dollars on link building, skip the sandbox period, and achieve faster rankings. This is not possible with fresh domains, and that’s the reason expired domains are becoming expensive and popular among SEOs.
The second option is a 301 redirect, i.e., redirecting the domain to your existing website to boost its rankings and traffic. This strategy works amazingly well if you already have an online website and want to utilize expired domains to increase your website traffic and make more money.
Other than that, people also use expired domains for building PBNs. I’m not a fan of building PBNs unless I have a really big project with a big budget because ROI-wise, you need at least a high five-figure budget to make your own PBN.
On the other hand, if you have only one website that you want to rank, you can easily use less than half of that budget to rank while having more control of your time and money.
Q. Can you elaborate on how your clients typically use expired domains to their advantage?
Actually, it’s a mix of both building the website on an expired domain and boosting the existing site using a 301 redirect. I’d say most people buy domains for building a site as they are looking to make money online.
Q. Given recent Google updates and potential traffic challenges in certain niches, do you still recommend site building on aged domains as a viable strategy?
Yes, I recommend it. However, you need to be picky when you choose an expired domain for your site building. A domain that is not closely relevant to your niche is quite risky and might attract a Google penalty.
For example, if you’re building a weight loss offer website, find a domain in the exact weight loss niche. Also, when you focus on getting domains with strong backlinks, you have a high chance to outrank low authority sites and get faster rankings and traffic.
Furthermore, recently Google has become more strict when it comes to ranking sites, and this has a lot to do with AI; just because content production is easier now, Google is much more dependent on backlinks as the ranking factor, and that’s why expired domains have become the ideal choice for many SEOs.
Q. In addition to niche site building, what other monetization options do you suggest for expired domains?
The 301 redirect strategy. If you have a website already and you want to increase its rankings and get more traffic, you can get a super strong expired domain (200+ referring domains) and redirect it to your website. This method is being used by many SEOs for a quicker rankings boost to their website.
Q. Many SEO experts predict that link building will become more popular in the coming years. Do you think aged domains with existing links will see increased demand?
Yes, the demand for expired domains is constantly increasing. I remember in 2015 when it was super easy to acquire a domain with 200+ RDs for like $200, but now you need a minimum budget of $2K for a really good domain.
Due to AI, content production is super easy, so Google is now looking for sites with strong links, and that’s where expired domains provide an edge in SEO. I don’t doubt that expired domains will become more expensive and only big players will be able to afford them.
Q. Could you share some of the platforms or methods you use to acquire expired domains? Perhaps, walk us through your process.
My process is quite simple, yet time-consuming:
I use ExpiredDomains.net to export domains from various auctions like GoDaddy, NameJet, etc.
After that, I use SEO tools API like Ahrefs, Moz, and Majestic to bulk check their metrics.
Then I sort domains with minimum metrics like 20 DA (Domain Authority), 20 PA (Page Authority), and 10 TF (Trust Flow), 10 CF (Citation Flow).
After that, I check each domain manually for quality links and spam on Ahrefs. You can learn about my process here:
25+ Steps Expired Domains Vetting Process & SOP Template
I have a full team who do it daily and monitor all domains that are in auction.
Q. For someone looking to start in the expired domain industry, how much capital would you recommend having to get started effectively?
I’m not sure how to answer it. Let’s say each good domain from GoDaddy auction will cost you at least $500-$1000, and if you are creating a marketplace of domains like 100 domains, then you need $50,000-$100,000 USD to get a head start.
After that, you need to promote your marketplace and even come up with a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) because there’s too much competition in the market. If you’re looking to start, you’ll need to come up with a differentiation, as it’s not just about the investment to enter into this business or, let’s say, any kind of business.
Q. Is it possible for someone to make a full-time income in this industry, or is it typically a side business for most?
It’s possible to make it full-time. However, if you’re entering into this business, you need to come up with a differentiation. I’ve been in this industry for the last 8 years, and because of this competitiveness, it’s not possible to do it as a side business, in my opinion.
Q. What is your current focus at SerpNames, and can you tell us about the products and services you offer to your clients?
At SerpNames, we maintain a marketplace to buy domains at dash.serpnames.com. However, we are transitioning to offering a custom domain acquisition service where we find fresh domains from auctions for people based on their niche and budget.
This ensures they get the perfect domain for their requirements without any headaches. Unlike marketplaces where domains have been sitting for a long time and slowly potentially lose SEO value, the fresh domains from auctions offer high SEO value and a higher success rate when used for building a site or a 301 redirect.
We release all domains twice a week, every Tuesday and Friday at 9 AM EST to our email subscribers. If you’re interested, you can join at https://serpnames.com/newsletter/
I understand that you recently started offering services to help clients purchase expired domains. Could you share more about this service and how it benefits your clients?
Are there any exciting developments or plans on the horizon for serpnames that you’d like to share?
Q. What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in your entrepreneurial journey, and how did you overcome them?
I’d say the lack of focus due to shiny object syndrome was a major challenge. On social media, you encounter many opportunities and can lose focus on what’s truly important.
For me, it was SerpNames, but I got lost and wasted loads of time and money focusing on non-important business ideas and things. It was not until I realized that SerpNames was suffering that I stopped all other things and focused on SerpNames.
My mentor, taught me this, and I’m very grateful that we met and he shared all his learnings on managing the business properly by narrowing focus, focusing on what’s truly important in life and business, building processes and automations, among other things.
I’d say if you can find someone who is far more successful than you and experienced in life (40+ years old)… you can learn a lot from them and easily find solutions to your challenges.
Q. Are there any specific mentors or role models who have influenced your approach to business?
Yes, I have my mentor, I met him on Facebook. I don’t remember how our conversation started, but now he helps me in both business and life and how to move ahead. I’m very lucky to have him in my life, and he taught me a lot of things.
One of the most important things in business he said is to develop SOPs and delegate as much as possible so I can focus on money-generating work. Speaking of money-generating work, I should only spend my time on tasks that actually generate money.
He also advised avoiding perfectionism and being happy with the task as long as it is 80-90% good. He shared many things, including life lessons like never comparing your life with other people; you never know what they’ve been through. Whenever I talk to my mentor, I feel motivated.
Q. How do you stay motivated and maintain a work-life balance as an entrepreneur?
As an entrepreneur, I also experience good and bad times. For me, I am highly focused on my physical health. I do strength training for 1.5 hours daily, walk 10k steps, and follow a high-protein diet. To be honest, it really helps in balancing my personal life since health is most important (my mentor taught me this).
Apart from that, I love to take holidays and travel when I’m tired of work and feel burnt out. It’s okay to take breaks honestly because when we work, we focus on enjoying, and when we enjoy, we think about work. So, it’s better to focus on the present and get the most out of it.
When I met my mentor, I started looking at life from a different, more mature perspective. For me, staying motivated means taking some time off and then getting back to work with full power. Just like you need rest days to recover your muscles, the same goes for business.
If you keep on working every day, you’ll eventually hit fatigue due to overtraining and risk injuring your muscles. So I believe it’s best to take a step back when you’re not fully motivated.
Of course, it doesn’t mean you will become lazy when it comes to work because nothing is achieved easily. My mentor taught me, “Boring makes money but it doesn’t make us happy. Life with others does that.”
Q. Can you share a significant success story or milestone that you’re particularly proud of?
I came from a lower middle-class background in 2015 when I was 15 years old. To be honest, my biggest milestone is when I was able to help my family move to a nice home in a nice neighborhood, got our first car, and support my dad’s business financially.
Our lives changed when I chose this entrepreneurship path, and I don’t think anything else can be bigger than this. So, I’ll always be proud of this 😀
Q. What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs who are just starting their own ventures?
I’d say focus on one thing only and become a master at it. I tried becoming a jack of all trades and failed. Also, find someone who can guide you in business and life.
Unfortunately, it’s very tough to find a genuine person who truly looks for your success, but I think that’s the beauty of it. Once you find the person, you’ll feel forever grateful, just like me.
Finally, I want to thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. It’s been insightful to learn about your experiences and expertise in the expired domain industry.
Where you can find me…
Website: serpnames.com
Facebook: facebook.com/SerpNames
Linkedln: linkedin.com/in/sumit-kumar-bansal-934665167
Twitter: twitter.com/serpnames
YouTube: youtube.com/@sumit_serpnames
