Domains being released: how to find a good .br name

Every month, more than 90 thousand expired domains go back on sale, a great opportunity for new businesses and for companies unhappy with their current domain. Anyone who has tried to register a domain that was already taken knows exactly what I’m talking about.

Among these 90 thousand domains, you can find some truly valuable names, which can be a great opportunity if you know where to look. This article will help you find these valuable domains more easily.

The role of NIC.br in domain registration

NIC.br is the body responsible for maintaining and registering domains ending in .br. In other words, it keeps the records of who owns each address and grants them the right to use it.

When someone pays to register a .br domain, NIC.br grants ownership of that domain for the period paid for, which can be from 1 to 10 years.

How does the domain release process work?

Sometimes the holder isn’t interested in renewing a domain they bought in the past. When the domain falls into arrears, NIC.br gives the holder up to 90 days to renew it. If it isn’t renewed in that period, the domain is frozen and released for sale again.

Frozen domains are released in batches about once a month. Beforehand, NIC.br publishes a list of the domains to be released so that potential buyers can review it and apply to buy them.

Benefits of buying a previously used domain

Expired domains can bring some benefits with them, such as:

• Existing organic traffic
• Backlinks on authoritative sites and portals
• Emails from unaware former customers
• Potential relevance on Google and other search engines

Imagine that a business owner named João opened an online flower shop called “99Flores” in 2015. João registered the domain 99flores.com.br, built an online store and promoted his store in many different ways: flyers, billboards, online ads and posts on partner companies’ sites and blogs. João had some success for a few years, but in 2020 he was caught off guard by the pandemic and his business didn’t survive. Amid all the hardship, João decided to close his company and not renew the domain 99flores.com.br.

A few years later, another business owner decided to go into the flower business. Mr. Pedro happened to think of the name 99 Flores, and when he saw the domain was available, he didn’t think twice: Pedro bought the domain and set up his online store and his email. To Pedro’s surprise, he started getting visitors to his site and emails from people claiming to be former customers of the flower shop. Pedro didn’t understand what was going on, but when he talked to one of these “former customers” he found out that a flower shop had used the same name in the past. Pedro, delighted by the coincidence, started serving all these customers who happened to find their way to his newly opened flower shop.

This example shows that expired domains have a history that can have a positive impact on your business. Somewhere, there may still be material in circulation that leads people to visit the site or send an email asking for a quote. In some cases, this organic traffic can be surprising.

Risks of registering a previously used domain

The history these domains carry can have negative consequences, such as:

• Being on blocklists.
• Having been used for scams before.
• Having been used to send spam.

If the previous owner used the domain for some kind of malicious activity, you may have trouble getting indexed by search engines and even sending email to certain providers.

How to check the current list

The spreadsheet we published in June 2022 became outdated and was taken down. Every cycle, Registro.br publishes the official list of domains being released, a text file with one domain per line.

Since the list usually has tens of thousands of domains, it’s worth opening it in a spreadsheet and using a few filters to find a good name for your business:

• Number of characters: sort the domains by length to find short, easy-to-remember names.
• Dictionary words: filter the domains that contain Portuguese words to find names that make sense for what you’re looking for.

If you’re interested in any of these domains, just go to the Registro.br website and apply within the cycle’s deadline.