New domains, old reputations?

[virgohippy]

Hi all,

I've just recently picked up a few domain names, with the intentions of building/submitting freesites, and a stray thought hit me:

If some jerk_off has previously owned a domain, and messed things up with ya'll on that domain, how would I know? Would I feel the effects?

I guess I'm asking what the big players might keep track of in their blacklists: ip's? domains? whois info?

[Surfn]

Originally Posted by virgohippy

Hi all,

I've just recently picked up a few domain names, with the intentions of building/submitting freesites, and a stray thought hit me:

If some jerk_off has previously owned a domain, and messed things up with ya'll on that domain, how would I know? Would I feel the effects?

I guess I'm asking what the big players might keep track of in their blacklists: ip's? domains? whois info?

Correct. That's why you need to research before you buy an existing domain.

[virgohippy]

Originally Posted by Surfn

Correct. That's why you need to research before you buy an existing domain.

Good thing I only picked up a few domains.

How would I go about researching?

All I can think of doing is to check for previous signs of use by running a search on the domain, and see if anyone might have linked to it before.

[Toby]

You can check here to see if a prior site existed on a domain, and if so, what may have been used for.

http://web.archive.org/collections/web.html

[virgohippy]

Brilliant! Thanks Toby.

Now, aside from the obvious, check up on my newly aquired domains, what am I looking for from a new domain? Do I need to make sure I grab something that's never been used before? Or can I get away with something that hasn't been used in a few years?