DomainsBot from 2000.
The original DomainsBot was a subscription-based domain drop list service, with daily lists containing thousands of expired domain names.
Between 1997 and 2004, the DomainsBot service was indispensable for domain investors, and it shared newsletters with information about domain investing.
We’ve been digging up these beauties from the early domaining days, and today is the 4th issue in an open series.
Titled “Register 6:30am” the article was written by Alexander Kovalenko for the April 20, 2001 issue of the DomainsBot newsletter.
Are you rrreaddy to rumble? And finally pick up some cool names from that 6:30 AM drop? Aren’t you a bit frustrated by not picking up good ones, which leaves you with not so good ones that takes you ages to resell?
Every day, I get emails from you guys swearing that Korean companies get all the names and begging me to tell you the secret. Well, here is that secret that you all have been waiting for a long time.
I call it: REGISTER 6:30
You have three ways to try and register the name:
#1. The most inexpensive way to register cool names is to open an account at: www.eNom.com . It costs $15 to register names there, but if you sweet talk one of their managers you can get much cheaper prices 😉 Do NOT tell them I told you that. 😉 Make sure to enter the names you want to register into the LIST REGISTER. Do not put too many names though, try to stick to 2-5 names. Then around 6:30 AM EST start trying to register them. Unlike most registrars I never saw eNom go down at 6:30AM EST (guess people do not want to pay extra $5 for the domain registration – do not worry it’s worth it if you register business.com). Try to click on the register button with 20 seconds frequency. (This could be easily accomplished if you have 2-3 windows open at the same time).
This technique works for me in about 50% cases with decent domains like Photopedia.Com or VisaMerchants.Com, and about 5% with good names like TheAmerican.net, and 0.5% to register 2 and 3 letter dot com domain names.
#2. Let the people who’ve got the software do the dirty work for you. You probably saw that the names that are onhold or expiring soon in our system, have a BackOrder link (or ‘Top To Be Dropped’ have an embedded link) with SnapNames. This allows you to add the domain(s) into the script that tries to register the name for you with the legal frequency allowed by the registrar. The cost is $35 to try and register the domain name. If a domain name drops and they fail to register the domain name for you, they will refund your money (usually takes them about 2-3 days to refund). So all you are ever risking is $35 per name registered. They will alert you about 24 hours after the domain drop and tell you if they’ve got it for you or not. They are very cool company with a very good success rate.
Their rate is: 95% for decent names, 15% for good names, and 1% for 2-3 letter dot com domain names. Give them a try, it’s worth it: Snap Names Web Site
#3. Write a script that will register domains for you and be your own boss. Why is this good? Because 1) you can register names for the cheapest price there is, 2) you can register names for clients and charge them $35 😉 per domain registered, 3) you do not have to wake up at 6:30AM EST. Not so good things are: 1) It takes about 5-10 hours of work to write the script, therefore you will most likely to pay $2,000 for the script if you do not know how to program in Perl or C++, 2) you need T1 connection to at least try and fight Korean companies, 3) You are not allowed to overload registrar’s server or you will be prosecuted by registrar, 4) Soon it might be outlawed or at least we here at DomainsBot.Com think so.
This is NOT the most legal way of registering domains, and in the end registrars are likely to sue you for using scripts. Therefore we here at DomainsBot.Com discourage you from using scripts or any other bot technology to register domains (the only exception is if you sign a contract with a registrar and follow their rules for registration.)
Korean companies that might be using scripts, breaking the registrar’s laws by setting scripts to query the server every second. Or even 1/100th of a second – considering they have about 50-100 computers connected directly to the registrar and trying to register the same name.
The success rate: Using scripts and breaking laws at the same time: 99% for decent names, 70% for good names, and 25% for 2-3 letter names. (if you ever tracked 3 letter dot coms you know what I am talking about – most of the names that expired and have been reregistered are own by the same owner and registrar.)
Using scripts and abiding the laws (i.e. SnapNames way): Same stats as for SnapNames.
Now go get some names before the rules of the game change.
If you missed out previous installments of the DomainsBot newsletters:
Only my butler is up at 6.30 a.m