Here’s my thought of the day: How do you get started trading domains? Well, it’s simple. You’ve gotta get yourself some capital from somewhere. Your first job, a stimulus check, from your mom, it doesn’t really matter. Once you’ve got that capital to start investing in domain names with, you should look for some great domain deals. If you find any good deals, (covered in my previous post, about deals) you need to buy them. Again, don’t buy anything less than premium domain names. If you buy bad domains, you won’t be able to sell them off in the future. Our goal is to find great domains, then transform them into amazing ones. Once you’ve transformed your domains by parking them/doing SEO/ or whatever else you may personally do to a domain, then it’s time to sell it for more than you bought it. Once you’ve sold off all your domain deals, take some of the money you made and invest in more domains. It’s that easy! Follow some of my previous blog posts and you will understand more. Have fun, domainers.

It was October, 2003, and I had just gotten into domaining. I had sold a few domains for some quick scratch, and had been saving up some capital, waiting for the perfect domain name. Weeks of searching and waiting for dropped domains finally worked out. I found the most wonderful domain. To protect the buyer, I’m going to call this domain ‘premium.com’. So I bought premium.com back in 2003 for an astounding 360 dollars. I was sure that something big would come of this domain. It was perfect. To this day, I have not had such a great domain deal. My domain was under 8 letters, and fairly generic. I put in a lot of work getting traffic to the domain, and it paid off. After about 6 months, I was averaging around 200 bucks a week from having the domain parked. The advertising revenue was great. It paid off not only the expense of hosting, but also for some of my other projects. I put a lot of that revenue into other domains, too. Around June, 2004, I had an offer for premium.com. The offer was in the $xx,xxx range, but I knew it was worth more!  I kept holding out. After a bit more work on the domain, I was getting around 2,000 hits per day, with just a simple parked domain. In October of 2004, I finally accepted an offer for premium.com. The offer was for $101,000! I accepted the offer, and put about 90 percent of it back into buying more great domain deals. Since then, I’ve bought and sold premium domains for anywhere from 1,000 dollars to $15,000. I’ve  yet to see another premium.com style domain become available, and I believe my success was due to a lot of hard work, but mostly luck.

Keep trying out there, domainers. Your time will come!

Anyway, I was thinking about how a person could find great domain deals online, and it occurred to me that you can’t always get a great deal. Sometimes you have to settle for something expensive. If you want to make the big bucks domaining, you can’t just buy a bunch of bargain domains and try to hawk them to random visitors, nobody wants the garbage domains. Sometimes it’s important that you spend money to make money. What I mean by this is that if you see a premium domain that you can grab for 250 dollars, it would be stupid not to take it. If you can buy a premium domain for under 500, there’s always a chance to make some serious profit. Anything up to 500 for a premium domain can usually be doubled.

Anyway, that’s my thought for the day. Basically, don’t waste too much time looking for great domain deals if you don’t truly think they exist.

If you are trying to find a good domain deal,  you’ll need to constantly keep  your eyeballs peeled. It’s important to  watch for domains that are preparing to ‘drop’, or expire. If you want a specific domain, and it  is going to expire, then be  sure to grab it up as fast as possible.

Another good method to obtain a fantastic domain is  to take the word you want as your site and add letters, numbers, or  another word to it. A good example is this:  fidelity.com. This is obviously occupied, but if you  add a word like savings onto it, you end up with a great domain and  possibly a great deal on one as well.

A wonderful way to find a great domain deal is to  go to the domain you want, then politely ask the  owner if they will sell it to you. If the owner agrees, and you  make a good offer, you may just get yourself a new domain name.  If the webmaster of the site does not want to  sell their domain, it’s a good idea not to bug them,  instead just leave them to be. If they are not selling, then  they’re not selling period.

If you’re looking for a simple way to find out  what domains are being dropped soon, do a quick search engine  search for ‘domain drop finder’ you should get a few  valuable results that will help you  track certain domains and prepare yourself to buy  them once they drop. Once a domain does  finally expire, if you are not fast enough, you  may regret your actions. If a domain expires at  1:00 in the morning, you’d best be  ready with an alarm clock.

One thing I usually do while looking for domain  names is to utilize a thesaurus. It is just as quick  to register a similar word than the one you want as your domain.  Usually, a thesaurus can provide you with a better  word than your first one, and this is usually  quite helpful. If the thesaurus does not help you, then do some thinking. What’s nearly the same  as to the word you want to Is this word available?
If you can’t find the domain that you want, you  usually aren’t looking hard enough. This isn’t  meant to sound mean, but simply because the  good domains are taken does not mean that you cannot  have your own website. It is  very necessary to put a large amount of  work into finding a domain. It always pays off.

After viewing this, you’ll find that it is  easy to obtain fantastic domain deals. If  you’ve been reading these simple tips, you will  understand that you just have to work hard at finding not the domain you want, but rather a domain you can  work with and use. Good Domains are  difficult to obtain, smart ones are not.

Let’s take ‘generic.com’ for example. Generic.com is already registered by Joe Schmoe, and he’s declined your offer of $150 dollars to buy his domain. What do you do next? Add on some extra letters to the domain and try to get a premium domain out of it. Say we add ‘dn’ to the end of ‘generic’ and create ‘genericdn.com’. We’ve just created a premium domain! DN could stand for loads of things. It’s a very flexible domain.

What if we want to get a premium domain, and don’t want to waste time adding or subtracting letters because it just looks odd? We hit up the thesaurus. A thesaurus is a wonderful tool because it helps describe a word with another word. Say we wanted to register ‘acrobat.com.’ Of course, acrobat.com is taken, so we look to the thesaurus. In our thesaurus, we see that another word for acrobat is ‘aerialist’. Not bad, but not quite good, either. We look again, and this time we see ‘tumbler’. That’ll do. It’s not quite ‘acrobat’, but it is better than aerialist. And so, tumbler.com is born.

Sometimes it’s not possible to find a premium unregistered domain. This is when we search for domains getting ready to ‘drop’ – or become unregistered/expired soon. You can pick up certain domains by placing a ‘backorder’ on them. A backorder request tries to register a domain name for you automatically once it expires, but this doesn’t always work. One cool tool I found is DropHunt. It allows you to search for domains that are getting ready to expire. Find some good ones, and you may have hit some easy money.

That’s it for today, check back tomorrow for more tips and blog entries.

Feel free to follow my account and see what gets posted next. It will most likely be some cool tips for your domain.

While I’m still writing, I want to give you my thought of the day on what makes a ‘good’ domain name. First off, there’s a lot of words out there that can become a domain, and it should be obvious that not all of them are great choices.  One interesting thing is that even with some of the bad domains, a company looking for something simple to remember could pick up a no good domain and turn it into a search engine (I’m talking about ‘bing’ here.) So sometimes having a few premium ‘bad’ domains is a good idea. Premium in this case meaning under 8 letters, although the above also applies to super premium domains that are generic (like example.com.)

So what makes a good domain? Mostly length, and memorability. I covered these in another blog post, where I talked about appraising domains, but I didn’t really emphasize how important those two factors really are. Other factors also bring value to a domain, such as how generic a domain is, but if a company is looking for a new name, something generic might be what they are looking for. In essence, if a domain looks premium, it probably is.

Part 1. Buy domains. You’ll never become a professional domain trader if you do not have any domains in your possession to sell and create revenue from. You’ll want to purchase ‘good’ domains. Don’t buy a bad domain even if it’s cheap, nobody will buy that kind of domain later on.

Part 2. Increase visitors to your domain. Do a bing query to get some easy optimization methods that should help build traffic to your domain. Once you have got enough web traffic linking in to your domain, you can park it online, and begin creating a little revenue before a serious buyer comes along and snatches your site up.

Part 3. Put your domain up for auction. This is easy to do, simply find an auction site that isn’t eBay. eBay is bad for us domainers because we hawk a virtual item. If a buyer initiates a chargeback once they receive the domain, you’re going to lose your money. And also the domain.

Step 4. Transfer ownership. After your domain has been sold, you will need to transfer ownership to the new owner. Don’t do this before receiving your money, of course. Different registrars have different methods to transfer ownership. On GoDaddy it’s as simple as pressing the ‘change owner’ button in your account. It’s different on every domain registrar. It’s necessary to research this area on your own, unfortunately.

Step 5. Purchase many different domain names with your new found wealth. A good rule of thumb is to spend 90% of your revenue buying new domains, and keeping 10% for yourself. Once you’ve completed the next domain deal, lower this down to 80%, and then 70%, and finally whatever you like. It’s important to spend about 90% of the capital on buying extra domains, however, because you’re just a fledgling domain trader and you will need a big bag of domains when you finally start to sell domain names.

So let’s get down to it.

5. How To Sell Your Domain.

Selling your domain can be simple, if someone guides you through it. (In this scenario, I’m the guide) It starts with putting your domain up for sale, and then alerting people that your domain is ready to be bought. After someone purchases your domain, you have to transfer ownership to them.

There’s a few different routes to take when you sell domain names at auction. My first recommendation is to find a good auction site. Do a quick search engine search for ‘sell domain names online’ or ‘domain name auction house’. You’ll get a few big auction houses like SEDO or Afternic. It’s a good idea to stick to well known sites, and to stay away from other auction places like eBay. eBay can cause problems for both the buyer and the seller, but mostly the seller. Many people have transferred their domains to buyers on eBay, only to have a PayPal chargeback for the money they received. Unfortunately, a domain name is a digital good, and there’s no paper trail to prove that the domain ever really changed hands. Long story short: stick to auction houses meant for domain names.

When you’re putting your domain up for auction, you’ll want to, for lack of a better word, ‘embellish’ your site. Let the potential buyers know about all the hard work you spent doing SEO for your domain name, and how many people came to your domain while it was parked. If you haven’t done any SEO and don’t have a lot of visitors, it’s good to follow the old adage, “If you don’t have anything good to say, then don’t say anything at all.” Buyers only want to hear the good about your domain name, so don’t tell them the bad.

Another thing to think about when you’re auctioning your domain is modesty. Don’t go putting up a domain for $500,000 and expect to get that much. Most O.K. domains will go for around $100 to $500. If you think your domain is worth more than that, then go ahead and appraise your domain first.  If you really DO have an $xxx,xxx domain, then you should try and list it for a little higher than you want. The incoming offers are always lower than what you put up, so plan ahead.

Once your domain is on an auction site, you should let people know that it’s for sale! Change your domain’s splash page to a big sign that says ‘For Sale’ and be sure to let visitors know how much. Go post in forums where people are looking for domains like yours. Even better, sell domain names that you own on edomaindeals.com and see what happens there. Get the word out by posting an add on craigslist or your local classifieds, do whatever you can to market your domain name. If nobody knows that your domain exists, how will they buy it?

After you’ve finally accepted an offer for your domain, it’s time to transfer ownership. On GoDaddy, it’s as easy as going into your account and clicking ‘transfer domain’. On other registrars, transferring your domain name may be more difficult. The bottom line is that there are different ways of pushing your domain through to someone else on every site. It’s a great idea to get in touch with your registrar either through phone or e-mail if you aren’t sure how to transfer your domain, or check their FAQ or Guides section. Do an internet search as well, it can’t hurt you.

Once you’ve sold your domain name, you should put 80% of your profits back into buying more domains, and keep the remaining 20% for yourself.  If you follow this strategy, your profits will increase slowly (but surely!) over time.

This guide is only a dip into the huge world of domain names, and I have to recommend that you do a little more research before you really jump into it. This 5 part piece is far from a complete ‘How To’, and is rather (as the title suggests) a simple guide to give a general overview of the process.

The next subject for this series of posts is parking your domain. If your domain(s) aren’t parked, you’re not making any revenue and will not be able to fuel your domain buying hobby for very long without any money coming in.

So, how do you park a domain?

To answer that question, I first have to tell you that there are 2 types of domain parking: monetized, and non-monetized. We’re going to talk about monetized domain parking here, because the whole idea of these blog posts is to help you make money.

In case you were interested, non-monetized domain parking is basically just hanging on to a domain name for future use. Many registrars give your domain a non-monetized spot by default. These parking services won’t help you turn a profit, but you can get other companies on board to help you generate revenue from your space on the web. It’s like a billboard on the side of the road. Except it’s on the web. And you have to contact the advertisers yourself.

Monetized domain parking is what we’re interested really interested in, not that non-monetized stuff. In order to jump into the world of parked domain monetization, you must first find a site that will help you get the advertisers onto your page. A quick search engine query will bring up some good results, but it’s easier just to go with a trusted name like sedo the first time around. If you spend time monkeying around with sites that haven’t been tested, you could find that you’ve thrown away a lot of easy revenue.

I recommend sedo because not only do they allow you to park your domain for free, but they also give you the chance to sell your domain in their auction house. You may not be tempted to sell domain names that are raking in the big bucks, but if you’ve got some premium domains that can sell for a few grand, and they aren’t making as much money as another parked domain, you might as well let the domains go to a willing buyer.

So how does parking your domain generate revenue? That depends. Some sites offer you small amounts of money whenever a visitor clicks an advertisement on your site, while others will actually give you money per thousand people that view the ads. This is something you’ll have to research on your own, as each site is different. Some sites also require that you attain a minimum balance before they pay you. Quite unfortunate, but necessary if your domain has been rejected from all the ‘good’ sites. Hopefully that doesn’t happen unless you have a completely worthless domain. After you’ve parked your domain, try to promote it using the SEO techniques, and you should see some major gains in your income in no time at all. I sincerely hope these guides are helping you. Good luck parking your domain, domainers!

In this part, I’m going to give you a system to help you appraise a domain that you’re getting ready to sell.

So anyway, now that you own a domain name, you’re probably wondering how much it’s worth. It’s easy to find out this worth, and after a few simple steps, you can appraise your domain name in as little as 10 minutes. If you sell domain names, follow this 300 point list as a guide to what price you should sell your domain for.

1. Branding. How well is your site branded? If someone is going to visit your site, will they be able to tell what it does before they actually click on a link and open up the page? Basically, does your domain stick out as something memorable. If it does, give yourself 20 points. If your site is memorable, but sounds or looks a little ‘odd’, give yourself 10 points.

2. How well is the site developed? A fully developed site adds 25 points to your score. If you have only a simple splash home page, give yourself 10 points. {If the site has ever reached more than 1000 unique views per day}, add 35 points. If the site has no splash page and has not been developed, take off 10 points.

3. What type of web address is it? .com’s add 15 points, .net or org add 10 points, any others add 5 points. Generic endings like .tv, .ws, .info, .biz, or .cc are awarded no points.

4. How well does a keyword related to the domain rank in google, yahoo, or ask? First rank, add 30 points, second through fifth, add 20 points, fifth through last, add 10 points. Anything after that gets 0 points.

5. Is the domain name grammaticaly correct? killingsboredom.com sounds bad and incorrect, but killboredom.com sounds great. If it’s grammatically sound, add 10 points. If not, remove 10 points.

(Nearly half way now! Feel free to take a break if you like. Although, if you need to take a break you’re probably not doing this right. If you can’t do this simple activity, you probably shouldn’t sell domain names, either.)

6. Does the domain already make money? If it does, add the total revenue and a half to the final appraisal price when you sell domain names you might own. (Ex. if my domain made 100 dollars, I would take 100+100+50 for a total of 250.)

7. Compare to other domains. What similar domains have sold recently that are close to the site in your niche? If a similar domain has sold for $1 to $250, give yourself 5 points. $250 to $500, 10 points. $500 to $1000, 20 points. $1000+, 30 points.

8. Length. How long is your domain name? If it’s under 5 characters, add 30 points. If its 6, 7, or 8 characters, add 20 points. If it’s 8 to 20 characters, add 10 points. If your domain is longer than 20 characters, take off 5 points.

9. Natural Traffic. How many people type your domain into the navigation bar looking for information? If it’s anywhere from 1 to 100, add 5 points, from 100 to 500, add 10 points. 500 plus, add 30 points.

Now that you’ve got your score, it’s important to know that if you have a low score this doesn’t mean you’ve got a bad domain name. If you sell domain names, you know that some of them just can’t be appraised with a list.

Once you’ve done all the math and you have got your final score, look here for results.

Lowest score: from -1 to 0 Points. Sell for $10 at the most.
Low score: from 1 to 75 points. Sell for $10 to $50.
Mid rank: from 75 to 150 points. Sell for $50 to $100
High score: from 150 to 225 points Sell for $100 to $500
Top score: from 225 to 300 points. Sell for $500 to $1000 or more

Check back soon with part 4.