We all know the benefits of a killer domain name, but the online real estate market is so crowded and competitive it seems that all the great names are taken.  Instead of just placing a backorder for a domain and hoping, take a look at Mike Davidson’s post: How To Snatch An Expiring Domain.

He thoroughly examines the surprisingly complex world behind grabbing expired domains, referred to as “getting in on the Drop”.  The whole article is worth a read, and full of useful knowledge like the fact that domains don’t actually expire when they say they do:

If the owner of a domain does not renew by the expiration date of the domain, the domain goes into “expired” status. For 40 days, the domain is in a grace period where all services are shut off, but the domain owner may still renew the domain for a standard renewal fee….After 40 days are up, the domain’s status changes to “redemption period”. During this phase, all WhoIs information begins disappearing, and more importantly, it now costs the owner an additional fee to re-activate and re-register the domain…Finally, after the redemption period, the domain’s status will change to “locked” as it enters the deletion phase. The deletion phase is 5 days long, and on the last day between 11am and 2pm Pacific time, the name will officially drop from the ICANN database and will be available for registration by anybody.

Read the full walk through here: http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2005/03/how-to-snatch-an-expiring-domain#ixzz0hKldA6Dc