"Domain Tasting" and "Domain Kiting" - What Are They Exactly?

"Domain tasting" and "domain kiting". Two practices that are very well-known to most domain name purchasers, but unknown to most of the general public.

With ICANN-regulated domain names, all domain registries MUST fully refund a purchaser's domain name purchase if that person decides that they no longer want the domain name within five days.

So with "domain tasting", this means that a person will buy xyz.com in order to determine how profitable or marketable this domain name might be. They might purchase it to see what kind of traffic that xyz.com generates within five days. Is it still listed in any search engines? Does it have any valuable links? Can the domain name make enough money over the course of a year to pay for the domain name purchase? If, within five days, the purchaser determines that the answer to this question is no, then they can simply ask for a full refund. It is a risk-free way to find potentially money-making domain names.

"Domain kiting" takes this a step further. With "domain kiting", a purchaser will request a refund within five days, get that refund, and then simply purchase the domain name once again. They will do this over and over throughout the year so that they technically never have to pay for the domain name. "Domain kiters" will do this with many different domain names, potentially saving themselves thousands of dollars over the course of a year.

To give you an idea of how wide-spread this practice is, Godaddy recently reported that out of 55.1 million domain names that were registered, 51.5 million of them were canceled and refunded within the five day grace period. Meaning that out of 55.1 million domain names, only 3.6 million were actually kept after the five days.

In case you ever wanted to know what these terms meant, here you go.

Filed under: Making Money Online | General Knowledge