Ask HN: Finding unwanted domains a good home? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Finding unwanted domains a good home?

12 pointskngspook17 comments

In my search for the domain name I wanted to use for my hobby site, I've accumulated quite a few that I later decided wouldn't work for me. Now, I'm looking for a way to get them off my hands.

They're hobby/personal domain names -- not keyword heavy -- so I think that piling ads on them or trying to sell them wouldn't get me very far. (Not that I've tried.) But really, I'm not terribly concerned with money from these, besides maybe covering my costs.

I could just let them expire, but I'm reluctant to let them become a part of some domain squatter's portfolio (not that they'd be that interested, I think, but they seem to snap up just about anything).

What's the best way to find them a good home?

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I hate to rain on most of the parades around here, but chances are your domain is worthless. If you hand registered it and even you don't like it, the odds of it selling for anything above your registration fee is pretty unlikely. Domain names are some of the most illiquid assets in terms of web stuff. The only liquid aspect is the reseller market, and that is based mainly on traffic/revenue or some special cases of generic/keyword names. So, your best really is to just let them expire, perhaps your registrar has an agreement to give you some of the cash if they get snapped up at auction upon expiry (Fabulous, my registrar does). Other then that, finding them a good home, even for free, is going to be a waste of your time.

The only alternative I can think of is offering them for free to whomever submits the most creative idea for each one, but you have to do it somewhere (like HN/Reddit/etc) or your own channels (if you drive decent traffic).

You can try selling it at http://brandstack.com/. You'll never know... someone might be interested in your domain.

best of luck!

I'm glad there's finally a decent domain/web site marketplace with a nice user interface and no obvious glitches. Afternic and Sedo are terrible. I always thought it was because the domain industry itself is so low-end, with very little creativity involved, that the general marketplace can't be any good. Now, BrandStack looks great. I'll probably transfer all my unused domains to them.

Try listing them on Sitepoint. You should easily get at least the reg costs. Who knows, maybe someone will see something in one of them and give you a really nice chunk of money.

Don't expect to make zillions out of them. Maybe enough to take your better half for a nice meal.

Just in case anyone gets interested in this... the SitePoint Marketplace is now called Flippa (http://flippa.com)

I'm the same way - I have probably 20-40 that I would get rid of cheap if I could find an easy, non-managed way to offload them. I've tried a few of the services through the years (like sedo) but haven't had much luck.

Just parking it on Google will cover your domain registration costs.

I wasn't even aware this existed, very interesting. http://www.google.com/domainpark/

Not really. I have several parked there. If it isn't an obvious mistyped domain, or had a previous live site, you will not get any traffic, and as such, no money. I have several domains parked, but only one (a closed site) generates any income.

There used to be a HN thread of domains people were willing to giveaway/sell to interested parties. Perhaps it's time for another?

edit: spelling

Yeah, I remembered that, but I couldn't find it on searchyc again.

And even if I did, I wouldn't want to resurrect a long-dead thread.

Auction them off through moniker.

Anyone thinks its a good idea to launch a site, where people can contribute domain names. And the community can develop some cool sites, sort-of like open source web development.

Think up ideas for them and launch some interesting websites. If you don't have the time, list them here and get the community to do it for you.

I am a web designer and I can design the websites, if anyone's interested.

.. and I am a programmer and I can develop web apps if you want me to.

I'm reluctant to let them become a part of some domain squatter's portfolio

In what substantive way are they not, already?

In that if someone asks for them, they can have them for free

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