Making Money With Domaining:
The Art and Science to Buy and Sell Domains for Profit
1. Buying a Domain:
There's a lot of available methods to find good cheap domain names. But first let's get over some basics on how to buy a domain name / register a domain name. You should always try to buy domains related to your niche. The name should be short and easy to remember and you should never use more than 3 words. Preferably it should be a COM but other domain extensions ( with good keywords ) can be just as nice. In fact, you should always focus on finding a domain with good solid keywords. Whatever you do don't buy a domain name with a potential trademark risk.
You can get a cheap domains registration for unregistered domains at Godaddy. When you do a bulk domain registration at Godaddy (6+ domains) they give a domain registration discount as a bonus.
To buy registered premium domains you can search in the aftermarket: Sedo.com has a huge collection of quality premium domains that you can buy. You can also find a selection of cheap brandable premium domains here.
A last option to buy a domain name is to catch expired domains. This is basically a registered domain that used to belong to someone but their domain registration expired because they forgot to renew. A recommended site where you can back order domain names is SnapNames. They have a database that keeps track of the expired domain lists and which you can use to do an expired domain names search. Don’t believe you can snatch a domain yourself once it drops because there are crazy systems that monitor and find these domain names, or at least the better stuff.
An effective strategy to find great unregistered domains is to use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. This is a great Domain Suggestion Tool! Just type in you keywords that you are interested in and click the "Get keyword Idea's" button. A list of related keywords will pop up. Scroll down to the bottom of the list and you'll see an option to export those keywords to a text or excel file. Export the keywords and once this is done copy those keywords and paste them in the Godaddy Bulk Search Tool and click "Search". A list of available domain names will appear. Then go to Estibot.com ( free domain name appraisal tool ) and copy/paste the available domains in the appraisal tool. You will want to look for domain names with HIGH CPC and a lot of searches.
Here are some other Top Sites which are really valuable in finding the perfect domain name:
StatBrain.com: StatBrain is a free domain research tool. You can find out how many visits any domain name has. Statbrain estimates the number of visits based on offsite factors like backlinks, Alexa Rank etc. Keep in mind that it uses "19" visits as the default number if a domain has little or no visits. So try to find domains with more than 19 visits.
NameBio.com: Here you will find the latest domain sales which you can use as a reference to calculate the potential value of your domain name. It's usage its free. There's also a premium service at $7.95 per month.
Estibot.com: Amazing Free Domain Research and Appraisal tools. Highly recommended site if you're serious about making money with domaining!
MakeWords.com: Free domain suggestion tool for finding unique name ideas which you can use to buy domains.
2. Park Domains:
How To Park a Domain: Once you have bought your domain name you should immediately park it so you can generate a bit of revenue on the side while waiting for it to be sold. Your parked domains will automatically get related ads displayed on them. When people visit your domain and click on the adds you will get payed. It's that simple. Sedo is a good place to park your newly bought domains for free. You just have to point your name servers to them.
3. Flip Domains:
Domain Flipping is the process of purchasing a domain, finding some cheap domains hosting followed by putting a website on the domain name, and then building-up the monthly traffic coming to the site. Once this is done domain flippers then start their domain reselling for huge profits. Keep in mind though that Domain Flipping takes time and energy and usually is not a great way to get rich quickly since there's no guarantee that your developed domain will sell. But with practice and patience it can become a very lucrative business. You should first join Namepros and the DNforum to ask members about strategies and tips about how to flip domains. You will also need to know basic information about hosting and developing your domain/site before you should start with domain flipping.
Note: If you don't want to get through all the hassle then you can ofcourse just look for quality domain names to register, park the domains at Sedo and then try to sell them for a profit without doing any website development..
4. How to sell Domain Names:
Here are some places where you usually can sell your domains/sites quickly. Let's first start off with Ebay. When you list a site or domain for sale you can choose to list it for 7, 5 or 3 days. Best is to list it for 5 days in my personal experience.
Then there's the domain name auction sites :
Flippa is a very popular choice for flippers and lots of people had great success with this site. I would recommend the 24 hour listing.
Sedo provides the best and largest variety of online domain auctions. However keep in mind that to sell your domain name via Sedo auction you normally need to have an (Sedo) offer on your domain first. To put your domain names for sale on Sedo I would advice to do the domain parking there first. Your parked domain will display a sales message and a link to an offer page. This way your domain will be 4 times more likely to sell. Also make sure that if you have multiple domains for sale on Sedo that all your offer pages are connected. To do this: Log in, navigate to My Sedo > Domain Management, and click on any domain name. Deselect the box next to “Do not link to my entire portfolio from this offer page,” select the option to “Apply this setting to all of my domains,” and save your changes. Sedo works together with Greatdomains which is a platform where you can sell only the most valuable premium domain names.
Afternic is one of the biggest domain auction sites and it is therefore a great domain selling platform. Note: To sell domains on Afternic it costs $19.95 per year.
GoDaddy Auctions has a lot of active auctions as well. To sell your domains on GoDaddy auctions it will cost you $4.99 per year. You can also opt to get a premium listing at Godaddy for your domains. With a premium listing your domain name will get a lot of exposure but if the domain gets sold you will need to pay a 30% commission to Godaddy.
Latona's is a new domain brokerage and auction house and so far it seems like a great place to sell your domains. You can submit your domain portfolio on the site and the domains that are approved will be listed. If a domain sells Latona's gets a 15% commission on the actual sales price of the domain.
Bargain Domains is a nice auction house for selling your domains. Listing your domains is free, you pay a 12% commission when your domain gets sold (escrow fee included).
Then there's also a lot of forums where you can sell domain names free ( no listing fees ). Namepros, DN Forum and Domainstate all offer a good platform to sell your domains.
Disclaimer: Each time you buy a domain name you need to understand that you cannot expect to sell it immediately. Some of your domain names may never be sold. My best advice would be to have a decent portfolio of domains. If you have around 50 quality domains then usually one sale is enough to break even because of the huge profit margins!
I hope you enjoyed this quick tutorial on domaining. Get also some tips on hosting and developing your domain name.
