It’s times like these when internet marketing sucks so bad that it’s not even funny. I mean, it was pretty bad when David Airey got a big Google penalty earlier this year, but guess what happened now… someone hacked his Gmail account and stole his domain!

Talk about getting screwed over by Google!

There’s no reason for me to explain this further, other than saying that everyone needs to read the story:

http://www.davidairey.co.uk/google-gmail-security-hijack/

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Once you find the perfect expired domain name, you’re gonna need to know how to get your hands on it. It’s nowhere near as easy (or cheap) as registering a brand new name.

To be honest, the process sounds like way too much work!

Hmm… maybe that’s why all these domainers make loads of money, because they actually work hard… (nah, it’s probably just luck.)

Anyway, the whole expiration process is very interesting and includes some of the joys of internet marketing. The best article I’ve read is over two years old, but still interesting, and can be found at the Mike Industries blog.

An even older yet still worthwhile article is at DN Journal.

And hell, even CNET had the scoop too.

My question though… Where is the “updated for 2007″ advice?

In other words, where is the Super Easy Expired Domain Name Grabber software that some guru will sell for just $67 if you order today?

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If you haven’t heard, 2007 is The Year of The Domainer. That means that while it’s already extremely hard to get a good domain name, it’s just gotten that much harder!

So put on your thinking caps (or research caps) and find a good domain - and register it as soon as you find it. (There’s nothing like finding a great domain and waiting till the next day to register it, only to find that someone grabbed it out from under you overnight!)

I could just leave it at that, as a warning, but I’m in a good mood, so I’ll give you some helpful hints when it comes to finding new domain names. I also have enough domains to keep me busy, so I’ll leave some for you

Start by paying attention. To everything. Keep checking upcoming Digg stories, popular bookmarks, the latest Web 2.0 headlines, trends, and the hottest celebrities. Just to name a few.

You need to watch the headlines 24 hours a day and put any interesting words into a Whois tool. I use Ajax Whois while doing this since it’s so quick.

For example, I was taking a look at ViralBabble and saw a headline “DIY Drinking Strawz.” You never know when some stupid idea will get wildly popular, so I checked strawz.com. It was taken, unfortunately, but drinkingstrawz.com was available. (Feel free to grab it - I didn’t. ThinkGeek even has an affiliate program at CJ you could promote…)

So it’s pretty simple, you just need to keep a watchful eye and have a fast clicking-finger.

Let me demonstrate with pictures if that helps…

1. Browse the latest headlines looking for neat new words and phrases

2. Check any domain ideas in Ajax Whois.

3. Register the domain name if it’s available.

And that’s how you get a good domain name or waste your day trying!

(Next you’ll need to park the page and/or list the name for auction, but that can be saved for another day…)

[This post originally appeared at InternetMarketingSucks.com]

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Ever get sick of doing whois checks on domains in an old web interface? Well I’m sure you got sick of it, but did you ever think of Whois 2.0? That’s exactly what Domain Tools has for us at Psychic Whois, a new, Ajaxified, Web 2.0 whois lookup.

It’s great because it’s just one simple page with lots of functionality. It will predict what domain you want to lookup and tell you which TLDs are taken/available. It even helps you pick a domain name with all the “psychic” predictions that keep popping up. And if you want to make a change, just backspace and start typing again. No back-button necessary!

Once you get past all the jazzy new features and click on a URL, it takes you to the comprehensive whois page with all the answers. I might start using this for all my domain searches from now on

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It really is. It seems like a great concept, but it has a few drawbacks. Significant drawbacks…

Privacy is billed as a way to keep your information as registrant private. And it may keep it private at most whois websites. But it will only keep the average person from finding your info. The people that you don’t want to see your info are the ones who will be able to find it!

For example, a simple phone call to the registrar will probably get you whatever you want to know. And even better, Alexa just ignores privacy. Head over to alexa.com and type in your URL - on the overview page it will list all of your contact info!

There are also some tools out there, free of charge, that will show other URLs hosted on the same server. If you aren’t careful, that could be a dead giveaway.

Also, if you are doing something illegal, domain privacy won’t do you any good. But if you are trying to crack down on someone doing something illegal, it just adds another hassle you have to deal with.

Don’t waste your money. Signing up for domain privacy is pointless.

If you want to learn more, go through and read the legalese in the domain privacy agreement!

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