Google is the index of the web, and they want their index to be as accurate, as informative, as useful and relevant as it possibly can. Despite having all their resources, they still don’t have the manpower to create every web site on the web, to be exactly how they want. That is the job of the web site owner. What they do want is for web site owners to make the best possible web sites that Google’s visitors are seeking. This leaves potential for anyone wanting to make a great web site, by utilizing the potential of expired domains.
Let’s start with an example, to explain what I mean. So perhaps you want to make a web site about the Eiffel Tower in France (first thing that came to my mind), you happen to live near by, and are very passionate about it, you visit it regularly, and have studied it’s history. So you search for expired domains, using the keyword “Eiffel”, eventually you find the domain “eiffeltowerguide.com” (okay very on the nose, but I am just using it to illustrate my point). You check the backward links, and Domain Authority, and they meet your requirements.
From there you check the Wayback Machine, at archive.org, and you see what the site used to be. It looked very standard, non-engaging, only a few pages of very minor content. You, being an avid expert on the subject of the Eiffel Tower, know that you can do a much, much better job on creating a web site about the subject.
So you buy the domain, and set up the hosting, Wordpress, etc, and start creating the best web site about the Eiffel Tower you can conceive. You create a page all about the history, which explains how it was built, why, when, how long it took, and by whom, along with all the information you can gather at your local library about the arduous tasks involved in such an achievement. You even scan in a few black and white photos to add to the experience.
So a great start, you have 2500 words on the entire history of the Eiffel Tower, more than any other web site around. Then you create another interesting page about the facts, such as the height, the number of steps, how many storeys, how long the lifts take, how many tourists visit it each year etc. You even go visit it, and get some great photos that are totally germane to the facts you are giving. Then you create another dozen or so great pages, full of accurate first hand, unique content and images, including a general page about Paris, and another page about other related must-see Paris tourism attractions.
There you go, you did it! You created the world’s best web site about the Eiffel Tower, which is exactly what Google would want to see in their top results, for people searching for the Eiffel Tower. You have done it in a way by improving the previous site, which means all the sites linking to you, are still great relevant links, and providing you with traffic. You have also done a far superior job on SEO, and are loving watching your site jump up those Google rankings, despite you not having to go to the effort and patience of building any links.
Hmmm, but a whole month, or so, of hard work, and no reward? Well you now have over one hundred visitors each month coming to your site, all with something in common, they want to know something about the Eiffel Tower. Now, I am willing to bet you, dollars for donuts, that some of those visitors are tourists, that are there looking for opening hours, prices, or where the tower is located on a map. All these visitors, are likely to want to go up on the lifts and get the experience, but they will need to queue up for tickets when they get there.
NO!!!! You are here to help them, rescue them from the huge tourist mark up and long queues of buying the tickets at the tower. You can save them by selling the tickets online, and show them the best, cheapest place to go to get them (as you have also spent hours conducting research on that too). So you sign up for an affiliate program that sells Eiffel Tower tickets online. Suddenly, 10 of your visitors, every day, are buying tickets from you, and not just for the Eiffel Tower, but for the other attractions too. Every time you sell tickets you get your cut. Now your site is making $30 every day, and the work is done.
There will be very little work to do in terms of maintenance for a site like this, as the Eiffel Tower hasn’t changed much over the years, and anything new that comes up, wont be much hassle to add or edit on the site, making the maintenance of the site very minimal. That’s because a site like this is evergreen. Sure there are many sites that will require updating on a daily basis, but they might be paying $200/day or more, which is just about worth quitting your job for anyway, am I right???
So to summarize, this is a really good strategy to get off the ground fast. You start of with an established, matured domain, possibly years old, and already have established links, which are likely to stay, if the site you create in the same topic - only more content rich and usable. The downside might be the domain name you get, might not be your favorite, as you are likely dealing with slim pickings.