Expired real estate domains quickly snapped up by advertisers

In the last while I have had a few clients who have lost their domains because they did not renew them. Apparently they never received the renewal notices - which is one of the consequences of email becoming less reliable as mentioned in this blog a few days ago.

Theoretically once a domain expires you should be able to re-register it but that doesn't happen often. There is a large group of people out there who pay services to let them know which domains are expiring every day and domains like yours (even domains that are your personal name) are snapped up right away because of the link popularity of the domain.

The incoming links allow the domain to rank fairly well right away - no waiting - and the buyers usually put advertising on it or affiliate links. They can earn some easy money because of the effort that was put into exchanging links and listing in directories in the past.

Realtor domains are at the top of their list so remember to keep an eye on your domain expiry dates and don't rely on receiving a renewal notice because you may never see it.