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Ask HN: How do I auto buy domain names?

56 points by thedangler ↗ HN
Hello, I'm wondering how to automatically by domain names. It seems like there are companies that swoop in and buy them faster than the manual process. I can't seem to find a reliable way to buy them automatically.

Anyone have more insights on this?

Edited - fixed title.

35 comments

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dhruvkar
Mike Carson hints at his methods for this in interviews on how he built Park.io.

Basically lots of custom scripts to try and buy dropped domains using registrar API (i think gandi.net has one). The skill was in increasing the speed of these scripts. Apparently he and another person competed for dropped domains by speeding up their scrapers.

1. https://www.failory.com/interview/park-io 2. https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/034-mike-carson-of-park... 3. https://saasclub.io/podcast/million-dollar-saas-mike-carson/

petercooper
If you mean domains that expire, I've used https://www.snapnames.com/ several times over the years to do this with success each time. park.io, mentioned below, is also good but not so useful for .coms.
epc
Seconding snapnames.com. I've been using it since 2007 to grab interesting domains when they expire. You can place bids on registered domains and they just wait until the domain expires. My favorite thing is to track acquisitions of companies with interesting domain names and bid on them. Inevitably the acquiring company stops using the domain and lets it expire.
thedangler
Not necessarily expired but thanks for the info.
cmroanirgo
My results have not been the same. Tried a few times, lost every one. And every one of those domains became parked over the next few days.
77yy77yy
The top dogs like HugeDomains own hundreds of registrars and using their connections to chase domains. These are not resellers, the registrars are there only to catch domains. Your chance of winning the drop game is near zero if they want it.

If you want to scoop up free names, there's lots of bulk tools on registrars to let you buy in bulk.

http://domainincite.com/21309-dropcatch-spends-millions-to-b...

rafaelm
I used to do this and I would just place orders with the top dropcatching services:

  - snapnames.com
  - namejet.com (I think orders placed on NJ are now also added to Snapnames)
  - pool.com
  - dropcatch.com
  - pheenix.com
If you want .io domains, park.io

Place orders on all of them and just wait.

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Finbarr
Buy a tag and become a registrar[1] with your target TLDs. Try to colocate your servers with the registry you are targeting. This gives you root level access to the registry and you'll have lower latency than a lot of the dropcatchers. It used to cost about $100k a year to get a .com tag, but I'm not sure nowadays. The fees vary by registry. Every time you setup a dropcatch or use a registrar, you are adding an extra service between yourself and the registry where the domains are actually registered.

[1] https://www.verisign.com/en_US/channel-resources/become-a-re...

howard941
This sounds like the best answer. Becoming a registrar allows you to do other cool (questionable) things like domain tasting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tasting
gcb0
And from yesterdays frontpage article, all the cool kids are doing it!

> As messages pointing to one particular web site would quickly get blocked by spam filters, RX Limited would open up new sites. Initially the new domains were purchased individually from domain sellers such as GoDaddy, until RX Limited set up its own domain seller, ABSystems, allowing RX Limited to spawn new domains on a much larger scale. -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Le_Roux#RX_Limited

mindcrime
I'm sure there are other ways, but I believe Route 53 has API support for domain registration. So you could write code to do this for you, based on whatever your criteria are. Not sure if they have any tld limitations that might be a problem or not...
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simongr3dal
I understand that no matter what there are going to be some squatters out there hoping for a chance to strike gold with a unique domain name, or maybe they are just collectors for some weird reason.

But, please don't make the problem worse by hoarding/snapping dropped domain names automatically.

pickle-wizard
I have a nonsensical word that I use for naming things when testing. The other day I decided to register the domain as sometimes it would be handy to have some throwaway DNS names for things I'm testing. Well the .com was taken and on the page they have it listed for sale for $2400. No one is every going to pay that.

Now that the .dev TLD is GA, I just bought the .dev domain for $12/yr. Works good enough for my purposes.

I really have a strong dislike for domain squatters. They are literally adding no value.

geophertz
Like * drop shipping * trading * and so many other jobs that make money out of money without benefiting anyone except themselves
turc1656
That's not necessarily true. A viewpoint is that the sales they are securing wouldn't have been made otherwise. For example, a website about high end electronics that is supported by drop-ship based ads for product purchases. Those sales might not have been made were it not for the visitor going to that site.

Also, an argument could easily be made for all the items on Amazon that are fulfilled my the merchant as being the equivalent of drop-shipping because Amazon is basically listing stuff that others are selling and shipping on their behalf.

disiplus
Well this is worse because domain squatters take the domain and its no longer available.
rob_b
That is a completely inept comparison. Domain squatting serves no purpose other than lining the owner’s pockets in what many would consider an unethical manner. Domain names are finite and cannot be replaced as a manufactured product can. A more accurate comparison would be buying every lot of land in an area, another finite resource, without any intention to use the land for yourself with the only goal of then marking it up significantly to milk a potential purchaser without adding any value to the transaction.
simongr3dal
I know of an owner of a grocery store in a small town where I used to live, he bought a few lots of land here and there in the surrounding area such that there wasn't any contigous area big enough for a competing store to be.

It was a small town of maybe 500 people, and the nearest city was 6 miles away.

rob_b
I’m not too sure which one I would consider worse. That approach would be similar to buying every desirable domain containing a certain keyword when you operate within the same market. I personally believe the way to beat out competitors in a market is by the quality of service and value added, not by utilizing an artificial barrier that prevents anyone else from entering. I can understand his approach even if I don’t necessarily agree with it. Although, I also believe that competition is better for any market.
convolvatron
surely lubricating the wheels that set prices is worth a reasonable fraction of your economic output. lets say 10%?
kevin_thibedeau
Still waiting for a .dev domain I tried to purchase at 8:00:30 to be registered to me. It doesn't seem like the system is working effectively.
rafaelm
I tried to register my name in Google Domains and the site was just hammered. I then ended up registering with Namecheap even though it was a bit more expensive.
hwj
Several weeks ago I was using Namecheap's domain checker to check the availability of $name with multiple TLDs. About 10 minutes later one of the domains I checked was taken. That made me wonder whether Namecheap itself or the backend service they use sold my search request to a domain grabber...
rafaelm
I know that a few years back this used to be an issue, because registrars were allowed to register domains for a brief period of time without actually paying for them [1].

This does sound pretty sketchy though. I'd check back in a few days to see if the domain has been released.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tasting

chsm
I processed mine at around 8:00:30 too, and it didn't go through until around 12:30pm. Hang in there. As long as it says pending/processing, it'll get there. :) Even my bank card debit posted before the registration completed lol.
mprev
Why do you want to do this?
pytyper2
No but your question made me think of this: Someone recently tried to scam be by offering to sell a domain similar to one I already own. The message I received wanted 200 USD, a reasonable price for a domain that was owned and unavailable to purchase for years, I had even attempted to contact the owner and received no response. Instead of responding to the 200 USD offer, I pulled the domain up in aws, it was available, I clicked buy immediately for 12 USD.
ghostbrainalpha
A lot of Spammers do this same thing, but send that first email out a couple weeks in advance of the domain expiring so it looks more legitimate.

If you agree to buy, then they buy on expiration and sell to you for the higher price.

If you agree, but then the actual owner renews they just ignore you. And if they aren't totally evil return your payment.

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pepijndevos
I used to work for Freenom, and while they have a policy against domain squatting for free tk/ml/ga/cf domains, they have an API that lets you buy domains from any other TLD at cost price.

Freenom themselves make money from ads on residual traffic after free domains expire.

sergiotapia
I snagged sergio.dev in the dutch auction when it fell in price using Gandi.net - maybe they offer a snatching service?

I picked what price point I wanted to buy it at, and they auto-purchased for me.

william203
You can choose a different company to buy a new domain. But you suggest a domain name similar to your work.