Earn Money in a Free Domain Auction

If you're satisfied with the domain name you've registered for your blog or business, consider yourself lucky.

Sometimes it's not easy to find a domain name that represents your website and brand accurately.

Other times, another site seems to have the same idea for a domain name that you do — and they get it first.

No wonder domain auction snipers tend to register lots of high-quality branded domain names so that they can have their choice of the ones that fit their business perfectly.

But what happens after some really take off? What do you do with the ones you don't use?

The Art of Trading a Domain Name

Just like those in-line skates gathering dust in the garage, they might not work for you anymore — but they'd be just right for someone else.

You might not realize this, but just as you can earn some money by clearing out your household clutter on eBay or Craigslist, you also can sell domain names through a GoDaddy domain auction.

Selling domains — sometimes for a better price than you originally paid — is one way to recoup those startup costs and add to your bottom line.

Let's check out how these auctions work and then look at a few of our favorite auction sites.

How Do Free Domain Auctions Work?

Buying and selling domain names at an auction is a lot like any other online auctioneering.

You create an account to list the domain name or domain names that you want to sell in a domain marketplace.

The auction site basically says, "Domain names for sale!" without you having to advertise.

Calling the domain name auctions "free" means that you as a seller pay no listing fees.

These auction websites might collect a fee from the final sale price, but again, that's no cash out of your pocket.

It's similar to buyers on another online marketplace paying to ship a tangible product.

SpamZilla's Favorite Domain Auctions

Each of these auction sites is a great place to find potential buyers for domains that your company isn't using and without paying listing fees.

Sedo

Sedo (or Search Engine for Domain Offers) has about 2 million registered customers, 19 million domain name offerings, and 3,500 domain name sales each month, making it a prime spot for sellers to unload secondhand domains.

Sedo offers three different auction formats for your listings, including a direct auction and a marketplace format with a selling guarantee.

It collects only a 15% commission on each sale, and as an additional service, Sedo will transfer domain names securely after the auctions close.

Its other services include domain appraisals, in case you're wondering how much value your unused domain might have.

NamePros

Established in 2003, NamePros has 1 million members, making it a lively place to sell domains. The format is a little different from Sedo.

On NamePros, you create a post in a forum of all domains that are available for purchase on the site.

NamePros also provides a separate forum that lists posts with domains in auctions outside this site for additional exposure.

You can sort the posts by ones that have the most views, posts that are popular within the current week, posts that are popular by month, and so on.

Once you create an account, you receive a set number of free posts where you can list your domains for sale.

NamePros has specific guidelines for users as far as exchanging payment. As an added service, NamePros allows access to any of its other forums where people can learn about the domain industry, sales trends, niche domains, and related topics.

DigitalPoint

DigitalPoint is another popular domain sales page that operates similarly in format to NamePros.

Even without an account, you can sort through posts of thousands of domains for sale using a variety of criteria, such as the original registered date, page views, equity links, and MozRank.

As part of its services, this web platform also offers discussion forums where members can chat about search engines, SEO, pay per click advertising, copywriting, and other business issues.

SpamZilla: Find Expired Domain Names for Sale That You Can Resell at Auctions

If you're interested in the bulk side of domain auctions, why not register for a free SpamZilla account to build up your inventory?

SpamZilla has 16 different domain sources, making us a monster when it comes to finding expired domains with reputable backlinks and authority links that you can use — all spam-free.

Imagine turning someone's expired domain into a sale with cash going into your pocket.

Just click on "Sign Up" to learn more about how SpamZilla's wealth of research can introduce you to a new revenue stream.