Expired domains work for experienced marketers. They don't work for newbies?

I'd say so. I just bought one. Last 2 expired domains I used went pretty decent, but we will see
 
I wouldn't expect $600 USD to get you too far along the path, to be honest. But if you can scoop up a domain with a handful of nice referring domains (dofollow) that you otherwise wouldn't be able to get ahold of, and the brand name works for you, you might as well. It's really a way to buy backlinks a bit cheaper, especially ones that aren't for sale.

In my opinion, this should simply become part of one's expectations when starting new projects these days as a serious SEO: "I will have to budget for a juicy, non-dropped domain to build on."

Of course, make sure you set up your 301's so the backlinks aren't wasted. And make sure you build an immaculate site where the site owners won't see the backlink later and remove it because they're now linking to sub-par content with a sub-par design.
 
@Darth, I don't feel like that post added anything to the conversation, but what it does is bring public attention to the problem which pressures Google to do something about it or face embarrassment and potentially financial consequences.

It's the same as it's ever been. I don't buy domains that dropped, period. If a domain drops, I consider it "wiped". What happens when a domain expires is that it can be picked up by a registrar or "drop-catch'd" before it actually expires. This way the original registration date doesn't start over. And if it still has pages (especially the homepage) indexed, that is a domain I consider good to go. That's the only way I roll. Can't have dropped, must be indexed.

Does a domain that drops entirely have it's backlinks discredited? Nobody knows for sure. Some say they're still good, some say they aren't. I've not had success with it, and I'm not going to risk it when there's plenty of "good, not risky" inventory to go around, especially an higher priced domains with better links.

But yeah, if I had to guess, based on guessing and based on experience, the original registration date being intact matters a LOT. The owner changing doesn't matter. Anyone at any time can change their WhoIs contact info without it changing hands. Changing servers doesn't matter. Changing topics, changing site design, etc... al of that starts to contribute to a rising suspicion that something goofy is going on.

Obviously, the best thing to do is build a great site with great content on the same topics, and 301 everything and make sure the domain never dropped and remained indexed.
 
Expired domains are just like anything else in your toolbox, any tool or resource or service you may use. They might not work for newbies just because newbies don't know exactly what to do with them, how to use them in better way.

That said, a good expired domain will be a powerful and safe fundament for your project.
 
Raja said:
This will be my first serious site, my budget is under 600 USD, should I even consider buying expired domains.

speed is one of the things I care about the most

https://www.buildersociety.com/threads/exp-6-playing-on-easy-mode-with-expired-domains.5290/
Click to expand...
Expired domains did work for me, and I was a relative newbie (in taking action at least).
My site shot up the rankings for it's targeted keywords in exactly 3 months after I started the site, claiming the top result in some of them, beating out some good sites that had been around for ages. (Though they weren't the very most competitive of keywords, but were reasonably competitive enough).

The most important thing is getting a good quality expired domain, and ensuring your content is bang on topic with the old content on the site, whatever the site was used for.
The tighter the fit, the better.
Eg, if the old site was about golf clubs, and you create a new site about golf clubs, it will likely shoot up the rankings if it's a good domain.
If you however create a general site about golf, it may not shoot up so much or as fast, but may still have a little benefit.
If you create something about some other sport, it may not rank at all.
This is just my own experience from the articles I posted on my own site, using the golf club niche as an example.

But I must warn, if you don't do the work to sustain it, the rankings will invariably slide over time. I learnt that first hand, from personal experience.
 
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