There are a number of ways you can try to ‘catch’ a domain name which is dropping, or expiring. There are positives and negatives to all the options, so we’ve put together a guide to help explain the services that are available.

Domain catching companies:

These are companies such as GoDaddy, SnapNames.com, Enom.com, and Pool.com, who offer a domain-catching service. Generally you either register your details with them and the domain name which you are interested in, and they attempt to catch it for you; or you register your interest in a name which is dropping, the service attempts to catch it, and then they auction the name (and you can bid). This is likely to be the case if the domain name which is dropping is one which has gained more than one person’s interest. If you secure your name in this way, you are likely to pay the registration costs, any fees and commissions to the service, and for the cost of the domain name itself if won at auction.

Catch it yourself:

For .co.uk domain names, you can register with Nominet, (the internet registry for .UK extensions), and secure yourself a registrant TAG. This allows you to use your own software, script or code to submit domain name queries, and in the event of finding that the domain name has ‘dropped’, register the domain name yourself. Registering with Nominet allows you a higher number of Domain Availability Checker (DAC) queries, although you do have to subscribe and pay for the service. If you secure your name in this way, you are likely to pay for the registration cost. Of course, you will already have paid for Nominet and DAC subscriptions.

Buy it:

If you are unlucky and do not ‘catch’ the domain name when it drops, you may be able to negotiate with the new owner and buy it for a reasonable price.

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