How to get started with Tesora: the complete step-by-step guide

Thousands of domains expire every day. Most are junk. A few are gems: sites with years of history, links from other pages pointing at them and authority earned over time, suddenly free again. The old problem is that finding them by hand is impossible, and by the time someone does, it is usually too late.

That is what Tesora is for. It is a hunter that works for you while you do something else. This guide takes you from zero to your first list of good domains, assuming nothing. If you have never touched expired domains before, start here.

What Tesora is (and what it is not)

Tesora sweeps the domains about to drop every day, cross-checks them against real metrics, and shows you only the ones worth more than they cost. No lists of thirty thousand names to drive you mad: it gives you the verdict of the day, already chewed over.

What it looks at for each domain:

• Traffic: how many people visited that site before it fell.
• Authority: a score that estimates how much weight the domain carries in Google’s eyes.
• Backlinks (links from other sites pointing at that domain): they are the muscle of SEO, and you cannot buy them overnight.
• Current bid price and how much of the auction is left.

And one thing worth being clear about from minute one: Tesora is the compass, not the wallet. It tells you which one is worth it and gets you to the auction in time, but you place the bid, on the platform that runs that domain. It does not move your money or buy anything on its own.

Step 1: Download and install it

Tesora is a Windows program with a double-click installer. No admin rights, no odd setup.

1. Go to the Tesora page and click the download button.
2. Open the file that downloads and follow the installer. It takes under a minute.
3. When it finishes, open it.

Windows may show you an “Unknown publisher” warning. It does not mean the program is dangerous: it means the installer is not yet signed with a paid certificate. We are a small Spanish startup and our products are free for now, precisely so we can see if people like them before spending on signing. When the warning shows up, click “More info” and then “Run anyway”. If you want the technical detail, Microsoft explains that warning in its SmartScreen documentation.

One thing to put your mind at ease: the program lives on your computer. What hunts the domains runs locally, on your own resources, and your data stays with you.

Step 2: Sign in with your email

Tesora uses no passwords. You get in two ways, whichever you prefer:

• With Google: one click, pick your account, done.
• With a magic link: type your email, a message arrives, click the link and you are in. No password to remember.

Here is an idea that makes everything click: the online panel is the mirror. The program that pulls the domains every day is the one doing the heavy lifting on your PC. The website where you see them (your panel) is just the reflection, so you can look at them comfortably. It is the same idea as WhatsApp on your computer: the phone does the work, the big screen only shows it.

That is where the two ways of using Tesora come from:

• Local only (free): you hunt and see the results on your own machine. Zero cost.
• With cloud (first month free): on top of that, your data syncs and you open the panel from anywhere, phone included. Handy if you work in several places or want to check without turning on the PC at home.

You can start local only and turn on the cloud later. There is no rush, and no card is asked to begin.

Step 3: Let it hunt

This is the nice part: you do not have to do anything. Once installed and signed in, Tesora runs a sweep every day. It looks for the domains that expire, cross-checks them against the metrics, and prepares the list.

Two notes on this:

• With or without a graphics card. Tesora runs without a GPU (the graphics card that speeds up artificial-intelligence tasks). If you have a good one, some things run smoother, but it is not needed. On a normal laptop it hunts just the same.
• The computer on when it counts. Because the engine runs on your machine, the sweep needs the PC to be on at the right time. It is not new infrastructure or anything to set up: it is the natural condition of the work being done in your home instead of on someone else’s server.

Step 4: Read the daily verdict

When you open the panel you do not meet an endless spreadsheet. You meet a verdict. Tesora scores each domain and hands you the gems: the ones worth more than they are asking, with a clear call on which to grab and which to let pass.

You will see things like the gem of the day, a batch of buy candidates and the rest sorted by what actually matters. If you want to fine-tune how much to pay for a specific one, we have a whole guide on how much to bid for an expired domain and another on which one to grab and, above all, how to win it.

Step 5: Follow auctions with a live countdown

Every interesting domain shows how long until its auction closes and how many bids it has. That changes the game, because the silliest mistake is hearing about a good domain once someone else already took it.

Star the ones you care about and they move to your watchlist. From there Tesora keeps an eye on them for you.

Step 6: Let Telegram alert you

You do not need to live glued to the panel. Tesora alerts you on Telegram when an auction you follow is about to close, with the direct link to bid. You choose how many hours ahead you want the heads-up.

There is more: you can message it and it answers. “What closes today?”, “how much should I bid on this domain?”, “show me my watchlist”. Each person uses their own bot, and the token (the long key that identifies that bot) is stored encrypted on your machine and never leaves it. We cover it in detail in how to hunt domains from Telegram.

Step 7: Let the bouncer keep the spam out

Not every old domain is worth it. Many are burned: full of spam back in the day, or penalized by Google. Buying them is buying a problem. Tesora flags the ones that smell wrong so you do not fall for it, and if what you want is to rescue a domain with a past, check its history first with the guide on reviving a domain with Wayback.

And when you actually decide to rescue one, you do not rebuild it by hand: we have a free plugin that builds that site into your WordPress (pages, posts and images) as drafts, so you review and publish. You will find it at import a Wayback site into WordPress.

What you will use it for

There are two paths, and Tesora serves both:

• Start a new project with a head start. A domain with authority ranks in weeks what a brand-new one takes years to reach. You begin the race twenty meters ahead.
• Reinforce the site you already have. Domains in your own niche that you redirect, or that you pull links from to push your main project.

If you later think about reselling one, Tesora also tells you whether a domain looks likely to resell well.

The fine print, no tricks

I would rather say it plainly before it catches you out:

• The computer has to be on at sweep time and at closing time. That is the price of the work being done in your home.
• Tesora gets you to the auction, but it does not bid. The bid is yours, on the platform. And an auction can close or be delayed for reasons beyond us, so always verify at the source before putting money down.
• The installer is not signed yet. We explained it above: it is about being small and free for now, not about the file being suspicious.

None of this is fine print to hide from you. It is the opposite: so you know exactly what you are getting into.

Wrap-up

Getting started with Tesora is easier than it looks: you install it, sign in with your email, and let it hunt. The next day you already have your first verdict, with the gems scored and every auction’s countdown. The rest is deciding which ones you want and getting there in time, with your phone giving you a nudge.

If you also run a WordPress and want it to fly, take a look at the WPO Toolkit: speed, security and a bouncer that filters the bots. And if you have any question getting started, write to us at [email protected] — we love hearing from people who are just beginning.

Keep reading

• How much to bid for an expired domain
• Which one to grab and how to win it
• Hunt domains from Telegram

— The SeoNova team