Dead and Expired Domains.
Find dead and expired domains. Dead domains can not only be a good source of ideas for domain names, they can also bring you cheap traffic for your web site.
Here are a few links to web sites that offer free domain name search of expired domains.
Finding valuable domains. While the above links are useful if you are having problems selecting a domain name, they don't really help you if you are trying to find valuable expired domains. The problem is that most of these domain names are not worth anything and you'll find that finding the domain you want may take some effort.
Link popularity. To estimate the value of a domain name that has expired, you may want to look at how many other web sites are linking to that domain. A good web site for finding the link popularity is marketleap.
Back order your domain. The best approach is to look for domain names that are on hold, but not yet available for re-registration. The change that you'll find a valuable domain name that way is must larger. You should then back-order that domain, so you have the best chance of getting that domain when it becomes available, before somebody else does.
Good luck in your hunt for a good domain.