I put the word out on Facebook and Twitter for somebody I could talk to about flipping domains and building new sites on expired domains. Sean Markey was the most recommended guy, so it's great to have him join me on the podcast this week.

He trained to be a teacher, but after he lost his job in 2013, he got hooked on marketing and SEO. He has been on quite the journey since then, including selling a CBD affiliate site in the high 6-figures, to get to where he is today as the premier expired-domain guru!

After leaving teaching, Sean:

Worked for a period in an SEO marketing agency (basically building PBNs with expired domains)
Started building out his own niche/authority sites
Tried to start his own SEO agency (somewhat unsuccessfully)
Worked for Travis Jameson at Smash digital SEO agency

Alongside this, Sean was developing his skills on how to best work with expired domains. He was always working on his own sites and testing out different things, especially relating to expired domains.

In the podcast, we discuss how in 2019 he started a CBD affiliate site and later sold that site in the high 6-figure range. We also talk about how he bought an expired domain in early 2020, build out a site on it, and sold it 7 months later for $130,000! He built another site on a brand new domain at the same time, and this one took a solid year to go anywhere.

Since having these successful niche site exits, Sean Markey has:

Been building sites out many more sites on expired domains
Started a weekly newsletter discussing expired domains
Launched a domain marketplace to buy and sell expired domains

We talk about buying expiring domains at auction on Godaddy.com, which has the largest inventory. The advice for those just starting out is to begin with $12 domains, rather than those going for $150+.

We cover how to sell expired domains:

Sometimes you have to wait several years
Where to find the best expiring domains
Where you can list domain names for sale
Using afternick.com (owned by GoDaddy)

How to find expired domains:

Thousands of names expire every day
Domcop.com and spamzilla.com have a list of all domains about to expire with good filters
Making sure a domain hasn’t previously been spammed to death
The more pages still indexed the better chance it has to rank

Strategies for building sites on expired domains:

Put up good content – treat it like a well-loved site
Try to match the content that you’re posting with what was originally there
Don’t do an archive rebuild
Recreate the pages with most/best links
Use the same URL or 301 redirect to a new one
Whatever you do, make it look natural
Don’t redirect everything to the homepage
Do a lot of internal linking (Link Whisper can help!)

And we have an extended discussion on whether or not to redirect a second expired domain to a primary site built on an expired domain. Sean always does this and is full of tips, tricks, and best practices for successful execution.

Most of the domains that Sean buys are just expiring and still indexed by Google. He states that you want to get a domain ’on the drop’, not once it’s fully expired. It's important, to consider what kinds of links it has. He says that it can be better to have really relevant links, rather than extremely high DR links from the New York Times, for example.

Other topics we cover in the interview:

Flipping domain names - is it worth it?
Strategies for winning domain auctions
How much you should expect to pay for a good dropping domain
What you can get for $1000
Tools that you can use to analyze expired domains
Getting a domain/site before it goes to auction
What NOT to do with an expired domain

And finally, we talk about some new ventures that Sean has going on - all related to flipping domains and expired domains, of course!

Juicemarket.com is a place to sell domains, especially for SEOs and other online marketers who have a bunch of unused domains sitting around unused.

Sean's weekly newsletter: https://sem.substack.com/ comes out each Wednesday. He shares some of the best domains going to auction, discusses the history, links, and opportunities. He also shares case studies taking a look at domains he's shared in the past and what was done with them. Find out more at DNGeek.com.

Sean's parting advice for working with expired domains is to just jump in and try it. Practice, give it a go, see what happens!

You can follow Sean Markey on Twitter here:   / seanmarkey  

-You can learn more about me at and get additional website tips at: https://www.nichepursuits.com

-You can learn about optimizing your site with internal links using a WordPress Plugin I created right here: https://www.linkwhisper.com

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