Expired Domain Sourcing & Due Diligence Specialist

We are a U.S. digital marketing agency building an initial pilot portfolio of approximately 10–20 topical content websites. We are looking for an experienced expired-domain specialist to source, evaluate, and recommend clean `.com` domains with strong historical relevance and legitimate surviving backlink profiles. Most of the initial portfolio will focus on homeownership and home services. We also want a smaller number of broadly useful small-business domains. This is not a project for someone who simply exports domains from a tool and sorts them by DR or DA. We need someone who can investigate a domain’s history, inspect its actual surviving links, identify spam and legal risks, and explain why it is—or is not—worth acquiring. ### Target subject areas Most recommended domains should have a legitimate historical connection to subjects such as: * Homeownership and home maintenance * Home improvement and remodeling * Residential construction * Roofing, HVAC, plumbing, and electrical topics * Landscaping and outdoor living * Windows, doors, siding, and exterior improvements * Energy efficiency * Architecture and residential design * DIY education * Real estate education * Property management We also want several broadly useful domains historically connected to: * Small-business operations * Entrepreneurship * Local business * Business management * Customer service * Workplace productivity * Business technology * Sales or marketing We are not interested in forcing unrelated domains into these categories. Historical topical alignment is a core requirement. ### Responsibilities You will: * Search expired-domain auctions, drop lists, marketplaces, and other legitimate acquisition sources. * Find `.com` domains that fit our target subject areas. * Determine whether each domain is fully dropped, auctioned before deletion, continuously registered, or otherwise transferred. * Review historical versions of the site through the Wayback Machine and other available sources. * Determine the domain’s former subject, purpose, ownership, and approximate active history. * Evaluate its backlink profile with professional SEO tools. * Inspect the actual surviving referring pages rather than relying only on DR, DA, Trust Flow, or another summary metric. * Evaluate topical relevance, anchor text, link decay, redirects, and suspicious backlink patterns. * Review historical organic visibility and current traffic where data are available. * Identify valuable legacy URLs that still have relevant backlinks. * Check for historical spam, PBN use, link selling, hacked content, doorway pages, unrelated foreign-language repurposing, adult content, gambling, pharmaceuticals, or other high-risk subjects. * Identify potential trademark, brand-confusion, copyright, or false-affiliation concerns. * Monitor auction prices and deadlines. * Recommend an appropriate maximum bid or acquisition price with supporting reasoning. * Deliver a clear written recommendation for every candidate. You will not purchase or bid on domains without our approval. ### Required candidate report For every recommended domain, provide: 1. Domain name 2. Acquisition source and direct listing URL 3. Auction deadline or availability status 4. Current price and recommended maximum price 5. Expiration, drop, auction, and registration history where available 6. Historical website subject and purpose 7. Historical-topic fit with our intended portfolio 8. Relevant Wayback Machine dates and examples 9. Historical and current organic-traffic estimates 10. Available third-party authority metrics 11. Total referring domains versus qualifying live referring domains 12. Review of the strongest surviving referring pages 13. Anchor-text distribution 14. Important linked legacy URLs 15. Spam, redirect, indexing, or link-decay concerns 16. Trademark or brand-confusion concerns 17. Overall risk rating 18. Final recommendation: pursue, monitor, or reject 19. Explanation of the recommended maximum acquisition price A spreadsheet summary with supporting notes or a linked report for each domain is preferred. ### Acquisition parameters * `.com` domains only * Historically relevant to the proposed subject * Clean and defensible website history * Strong surviving links from real websites * Preference for links from topically relevant, crawlable pages * No reliance on DR or DA alone * No obvious trademark conflicts * No need to copy the former site’s content * No adult, casino, pharmaceutical, hacked, or obvious spam history * No unrelated high-authority domains recommended solely because of their metrics Every purchase will be reviewed and approved individually. We are intentionally not publishing a target acquisition price because part of the pilot is learning what qualified domains cost in the current market. ### Initial paid trial The first milestone will be a paid trial involving a fully researched slate of approximately 8–10 live domain candidates. The trial should include: * A majority of homeownership or home-services candidates * At least two broader small-business candidates * Complete due diligence * Supporting data * Clear recommendations * Enough notice for us to review time-sensitive auctions Our initial goal is to acquire domains for a 10–20-site pilot portfolio. If the pilot proves commercially successful, we expect the project to expand substantially beyond that initial portfolio. Our longer-term objective is to establish this as a separate business that develops topical content sites and offers monthly link-rental packages to other SEO and digital marketing agencies. If the model produces sustainable recurring revenue, we intend to acquire and develop additional domains as quickly as is commercially viable. The right freelancer could become a long-term sourcing and due-diligence partner with a significant volume of ongoing work. For someone who consistently identifies strong acquisitions and contributes materially to the portfolio’s success, we are open to discussing a performance-based compensation arrangement that could include a percentage of the portfolio’s monthly net profit. Any profit-participation structure would be negotiated after the pilot based on commercial results, the freelancer’s measurable contribution, and their ongoing responsibilities. This is not an offer of company ownership or equity. Any compensation arrangement will be documented and handled in compliance with applicable platform requirements. ### Ideal candidate You should have: * Demonstrable experience researching expired or aged domains * Experience with domain auctions and drop-catching platforms * Your own legitimate access to professional backlink and traffic-analysis tools * Strong familiarity with Ahrefs, Semrush, Majestic, SpamZilla, or comparable tools * Experience interpreting Wayback Machine history * The ability to distinguish a genuinely valuable backlink profile from inflated authority metrics * Familiarity with trademark and brand-risk screening * Strong written documentation * The ability to work around auction deadlines * No undisclosed financial relationship with domain sellers or marketplaces Begin your proposal with the words **TOPICAL HISTORY**. Responses that do not follow the application requirements or answer the screening questions will automatically be rejected.