Wondering how I just lost $327.85? That’s what happens when you don’t do your homework. I really don’t like GoDaddy but when it comes to buying expiring domains that have existing PageRank, GoDaddy is one of the main options. GoDaddy Auctions is a platform where you can bid on domain names that are expiring or have been put up for auction. I like it because it’s easy to use, and it’s a good way to find PageRank (PR) domain names for a good price. However, there is major drawback…
Over the last few days I bid on a few PR domains, for a total cost of $327.85. I later found out they were all PR0 domains. When I first checked them, they all showed a PR3 or PR4, and I didn’t notice they were actually iframes/redirects. With GoDaddy Auctions, once the auction is over, you cannot go back… so I went ahead and paid the $327.85 fee. Check out the invoice I received:
Now if this sounds a little complicated to you, or just want to learn more about this, watch the video I just made. It’s only a few minutes long and shows exactly how not to be tricked.
Fake High PR Domains on GoDaddy Auctions (Video)
As you can imagine I’m glad I found out about this, because I could be one of those people bidding over $600 on a (fake) PR6 domain. The domain I mentioned in the video permanently redirects to another domain, which means all the link juice is transferred to that other domain. If I check it on RankChecker.com, here is what I get:
I'm an avid fan of your blog, and the content is always top notch - great reading. I'm always impressed with the variety of content and the way you get all the important steps outlined for processes, but still manage to keep it short and simple - few people do that quite as well.
Mike Purvis
Andy Fletcher
Todd Gross
What does Godaddy say about this??? I have never trusted them with auctions and site valuations
@Articlesmart Yeah I don’t trust them and don’t like them either
Good find with Rank Checker. I was aware that people did fake their PR when they sold domains but didn’t know how to check for sure. They are slippery buggers using redirects and the like.
I’m new to buying domains, such as with GoDaddy, and last night I got trigger happy and bought what I thought was a PR5 domain. I won it for about $40. Great!
After buying the domain I read about fake PR, which is how I stumbled on this article. I did some research and found the domain I’d bought, http://www.svrvn.com, may have redirected to another site which is http://www.vncreatures.net about Vietnamese animals. I ran it through http://www.RankChecker.com which gave me mixed information.
Apparently “www.svrvn.com” is valid, saying the Real Domain is in fact “www.svrvn.com”. However, without the www prefix it points to “www.vncreatures.net” which would mean the PR is fake.
So, have I bought a domain with genuine PR or not!?
To follow on from my previous post…
If http://www.rankchecker.com detects a Fake PR by detecting a redirect. If a domain name has expired for a number of weeks would those redirects be cleared? If so then it may believe the PR to be genuine when it isn’t.
I have not been a fan of GoDaddy for awhile now. They where the first company I actually ever hosted with.
That sucks to be out of that money like that. I have been there and done that.
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I have not been a fan of GoDaddy for awhile now. They where the first company I actually ever hosted with.
That sucks to be out of that money like that. I have been there and done that.
<a href=”http://slidesms.com”>SlideSMS</a> – Free Unlimited International SMS
I have not been a fan of GoDaddy for awhile now. They where the first company I actually ever hosted with.
That sucks to be out of that money like that. I have been there and done that.
SlideSMS.com – Free Unlimited International SMS
I have not been a fan of GoDaddy for awhile now. They where the first company I actually ever hosted with.
That sucks to be out of that money like that. I have been there and done that.
http://slidesms.com – Free Unlimited International SMS
@Domo In theory yes but it’s worth double checking!
Julien,
Great post – I’m new to the minefield!
I’m still a bit confused. I bought a PR5 website which I checked with rankchecker etc and it stated it was valid. I created a site with a great deal of rich content but found I received very little traffic. After only a few weeks the PR dropped to 2 :o(
I don’t understand why?
Since then I’ve bought a couple of PR3s using http://www.validdomainnames.com which seem more legit and have a stream of traffic, but I still feel like I’m wondering in the dark!
@xosoftware Hello 🙂 Did you check the domain in a link checker before purchasing it? I think it is vital that you check the number and quality of the backlinks a domain has before you consider buying it. We do this with Market Samurai but I’m sure there are other solutions. You should check: the domain age, the number of backlinks (from external sites), the quality of those backlinks, whether or not the domain is listed in DMOz, Yahoo! Directory, etc. Maybe the seller ‘built’ some PR for this domain, then removed/replaced the links from his sites so the can drive link juice to some other domains… Also PR doesn’t mean traffic, it’s merely based on link juice (quality sites liking to the domain). I hope this helps! And sorry about your PR2… 🙁
Thanks for sharing it. thanks for informing , it is better to be alert before get cheated. really its not fair. is their any way to get high PR in reality?