Drop catching is the process many domainers use to automatically catch (or register) an expired domain name which just deleted and became available or fresh registration. Some webmasters and domain investors will use companies to do their drop catching for them. Others will use software like the one below to try and catch these domains themselves. The second method costs less and saves them more money. One thing to keep in mind is that many of the businesses involved in drop catching have extremely expensive and sophisticated setups. When premium domains get deleted the bigger companies are often the ones who register them successfully and they are then resold in domain auctions for profit. Those who prefer to use software and go after domains themselves are often chasing less competitive (and therefor, usually less quality) type domains. Still, there are plenty of excellent domains dropping on a daily basis that anyone can start making a profit from catching them! I’ll give you a great example of drop catching below.
Let’s say the domain ABC.com has expired and is in the pendingDelete status. It’s now going to be deleting in a few days and you want to own it! You could visit a website like SnapNames and backorder the domain to have them drop catch it for you. However, the minimum cost to place a backorder with them is $69. If other people go and backorder the same domain then whoever places a backorder before time runs out gets to bid for it if they are successful. Instead of going and doing that, you could pay a one-time fee of $200 or so for the software below, load your domain in there, and run it yourself on the day it deletes. If you’re successful doing it this way you’ve now registered the domain for the same cost as a normal registration – roughly $10 or so! No matter which way you do it domain drop catching is still the same. It’s the process of automatically registering a deleting domain the second it becomes available again!
The software above is called DesktopCatcher. This software runs on almost any Windows computer and currently supports a whole range of different domain registrars. You can signup with as many registrars as you want and then enable them inside the software. Once enabled, you can add the domains you want to register and then Start it. The software will constantly run and try to register the domains you want. When successful, you’ll receive an email from the registrar saying you now own it.
Happy Domain Drop Catching!
