How does a salary of $10,000 per day sound to you? Webmaster and marketing extraordinaire Marcus Frind reportedly pulls in $10,000 per day in Google AdSense from his dating website PlentyofFish.com. But that’s chump change compared to the $100,000 per day that domainer Yun Ye was pulling in before he sold his domain portfolio for about $164M in 2004 and subsequently disappeared under the radar.

When it comes to making a buck on the internet it seems that everyone has a solution, although few of them seem to work. But if you’re looking to capitalize on one of the most powerful cash earning enterprises on the internet that is actually making plenty of people money, you should check out domaining. Although you may not be quite as successful as these two entrepreneurs, it’s never too late to start in the domaining industry.

A domainer is someone who earns a profit buying and selling domain names. The philosophy is similar to the stock market: buy low and sell high. Here are 28 tips, tools, techniques and financing options to get you started on your way to successful domaining.

Domain Buying Strategies

Domaining is a lot like stock investing, the very best in the field have moved beyond basic strategies and have developed their own specific formulas for success. But just as with stocks, to obtain the skills necessary to reach that advanced stage, beginners must first understand the fundamentals of strategic domain buying. In this section we introduce you to five traditional domain buying strategies, and explain a bit about each.

  1. Trademark Typo Domains.
    One of the original domainer buying strategies was to hunt for any trademarked names that hadn’t yet been purchased, and failing that, to purchase typos of those domains. These trademark typo domains often yielded a lot of type-in traffic, and because e-commerce law hadn’t yet developed to its current state, companies would often buy out these domainers at very inflated prices. But if you’re thinking about getting into trademark typo domaining, the ship has sailed. Current trademark law treats domainers that are seeing lots of traffic from a typo domain, and don’t otherwise have a legitimate business use for owning the name, as illegal trademark diluters. As such, trademark typo domainers typically have to turn over the domain to the trademark holder with little or no compensation. Simply stated, avoid the trademark typo strategy altogether.
  2. Keyword Typo Domains.
    While the trademark typo domain loophole has closed, a very legitimate and ethical domaining technique is pursuing keyword typo domains. Keyword typo domains (e.g., Mortgeges.com) can bring in a good deal of type-in traffic and are often significantly undervalued. While normally these aren’t the type of domains that someone would want to build a high-value company around (though typo domain Voyuer.com went for $112,000 in 2005), smaller individual webmasters are always in the market for targeted type-in traffic, so these sites are often in high demand among small-time domain purchasers.
  3. Automated Volume Buying.
    The next strategy, automated volume buying, is simply that; using an application to automatically search for available domains that meet your pre-set criteria, and purchasing the domains that result from the search. Automated volume buying requires, first and foremost, an excellent application to accept your search criteria and conduct the searches. While there are a number of domain research tools available for purchase, many top domainers use a customized version. No matter which volume buying tool you’re using, however, they all work in roughly the same way by allowing you to search WHOIS servers and filter results by keywords, Overture price ranges, search engine results, etc. So, for example, you could filter your potential domains by those that have a minimum of 1000 keyword searches per month and which yielded more than a top bid of $1.00 on Overture. While it is certainly true that now that more people are using automated volume buying tools the easiest bargains are usually taken, domainers can still find a good haul of cheap .com’s as long as they stay ahead of the curve by getting creative with their filter criteria.
  4. Trendwatching.
    If you’re looking for a domaining strategy that is longer-term but that can be highly lucrative, you might consider trendwatching. Trendwatching is simply the practice of anticipating popular domains before they become popular. The keys to successful trendwatching are good sources and creativity. One of the biggest mistakes novice domainers make, is attempting to trendwatch a very diverse group of industries, rather than focusing on a few and becoming an expert in those areas. The best way to start trendwatching is to pick two or three niches that you feel comfortable with and which are reasonably lucrative, then add eight to ten blogs within that niche to your RSS feed. Bloglines, Newsgator, and Google Reader are all free web-based feed readers, just in case you are unfamiliar with RSS. If you’re in a competitive niche, time is of the essence, so regularly check your feed for information on rising stars, new technologies, burgeoning trends or hot products, and once you hear of the trend, pounce on it immediately by buying up some relevant domains. In addition to RSS feeds, Google Trends can also help keep you on top of developing trends by showing relative query volume for one to five keywords or phrases. One thing to keep in mind when trendwatching, is that not every predicted trend will pan out, so anticipate plenty of total losses for every big hit. As a consequence, it is important to keep your domain holdings diversified, so that you aren’t too heavily invested in a single trend, and thus you can afford to wait out the staggering returns when one of your trend predictions proves true.
  5. Brute Force.
    Automated Domain Research Tools (DRT’s) allow you to sift through millions of available domains to find the few thousand that you might be interested in buying. But getting from those thousand to identifying the few specific domains you want to purchase can often be accomplished only through brute force. By “brute force” we refer to the most common domaining technique, which involves the use of a compilation of different manual research tools to identify the most lucrative domains. Each tool listed in this category simply helps to facilitate the process of manually going through and examining each potential domain on an individual basis (thus the “brute force” moniker). While it is impractical to cover every sort of tool that would fall into the “brute force” category, we have compiled a few of the most common tools to get you started.
    • AjaxWhois is a convenient web2.0 domain search engine that executes multiple Top-Level Domain (TLD) queries on a root domain name. This can be a time-saver if you already have a specific root domain name in mind to purchase.
    • dnScoop provides a variety of information about a domain, including whois, traffic, domain history and popularity, appraisal, pagerank check, inbound links and more.
    • DigitalPoint is a set of webmaster tools geared more for websites and SEO’s, but which also provides some helpful tools such as a keyword recommendation tool which can help you come up with new domain ideas and word combinations.
    • DomainState tools is a suite of browser-based domaining tools and links to trademark databases.
    • Domain Tools has a suite of useful tools for domainers, including domain history, reverse IP (to see what other websites are hosted on an IP), DNS tools (whois, traceroute, etc.), domain monitor, and more.
    • PagerankPredict is a very simple tool that gives you a predicted Google pagerank for a domain. This tool is handy if you plan to build out a domain with content. It is also free, but the site limits you to 5 queries per hour.
    • SearchStatus is a robust SEO, SEM and domaining tool that works as a plugin for the Firefox browser. It will enable you to quickly get an overview of a potential purchase as well as a look and what backlinks are powering your competitors’ sites.
  6. The Marchex Model.
    Back in early 2005, Marchex Inc. paid a whopping $164 million for 100,000 high-quality hand selected domains, planning in the short term to leverage the domains’ type-in traffic for revenue, and in the long-term to selectively sell their appreciating portfolio. Individual domainers can follow a similar strategy, by targeting domains in the $1,000 to $5,000 range that are of higher quality and thus have a higher long-term upside potential. By targeting a dozen or so sites in this higher price range, Marchex Model domainers can eliminate most casual domainer competition and though they face higher risks, there is the possibility of much higher returns. It should go without saying, that having access to cheap capital is a must, as well as having a good understanding of domain appraisals. Unlike brick and mortar real estate, the domain name resale market is still not fully competitive, meaning that domains are often wildly under-priced, but can also be wildly overpriced. As a result, simply following market valuation for a domain without having a firm grip on your own appraisal metrics, is a certain way to fail when Marchex domaining.

    7. Financing Your Domaining

    No matter what buying strategy you decide to follow, the first step to getting into domaining is acquiring enough capital to play in the market. Put simply, the more capital you have, the easier it is to build your domaining portfolio. So in this section we cover some simple strategies for coming up with the right types of capital you need to get your domaining off the ground.

  7. Spend only cheap capital.
    What’s the point of making a profit domaining only to pay it right back out again with high credit card interest rates? It is difficult to consistently make a return of more than 20-50% on your domain flipping, but you will need that return just to break even if you are funding your operations on credit card debt. So to minimize the risk of paying out all or most of your gains in credit card fees, make sure that early on you are only purchasing domains with only the money you have, and not what your credit limit says you are worth. If you do buy domains on credit, make sure that you are paying off the cards before they start accumulating interest and fees; otherwise you’ll start to see your domaining profits shrink as your break even point becomes that 20-50% interest rate.
  8. Partnership.
    Nobody likes to share their profits. But teaming up with a few partners who bring capital to the partnership will allow you to diversify your holdings and overall lower your risks and increase your net earnings. Just remember, however, that if the partnership dissolves, you may be forced to pony up cash to buy out your partners, or sell domains for less than you were hoping for. So if you and your partners have different ideas about how to profit from domaining, it may be a good idea to instead opt for a joint venture in which everyone’s obligations are spelled out ahead of time.
  9. Credit card balance transfer arbitrage.
    If you’ve opened up your mail lately, you’ve probably noticed that 0% APR credit card offers have now replaced AOL Free Trial CDs as the most abundant piece of mail in the world. Well, some card issuers have taken the free credit offer one step further by offering you something called a transfer check, which is simply a 3-18 month interest free loan. They make the offer to entice you to use their credit card, but if want to live dangerously, this can also be an easy way to come up with some quick cash. This advanced financing method, known as balance transfer arbitrage, will allow you to use that “free” money before the offer period expires, then pay it back. This is a very risky technique, however, because if you run into emergencies or other financial problems and cannot pay back the free loan before the regular high interest kicks in, then you are sunk. But in a situation where you come across the once in a lifetime deal, engaging in ‘balance transfer arbitrage’ may be worth the risk.
  10. Bootstrap and reinvest.
    Bootstrapping isn’t so much a single fundraising technique, as it is a ‘do it yourself’ mindset of leveraging what you earn back into growing your business. Entrepreneurs engaged in bootstrapping take very little of the company profits out of their business early on, and instead use those funds in lieu of a formal bank loan or venture capital. If you are anxious to quickly expand your domaining portfolio and can afford to live without the immediate profits, consider leaving all or most of your profits in the business to leverage new purchases. Bootstrapping is the poor entrepreneur’s way to compete against larger competitors, because by reinvesting their gross profits back into the business, bootstrappers gain a return which is functionally equivalent to compound interest.

    11. Important Practices

    Now that you have decided on a strategy for identifying domains to purchase as well as secured the financing to make those purchases, it is time to turn to the actual practice of holding and maintaining your domains. In this section we cover some basic ground rules and insider tips to keep in mind as you purchase and manage your domains.

  11. Organize and auto-renew.
    If you’re holding domains for longer than a year, it’s a very good idea to have them all set to auto-renew. Make sure all of your contact info is correct and updated, and if necessary, change registrars. Whatever source of funds (credit card, PayPal) you use to pay for auto-renew should always have enough in extra funds so that in case you miss the notices, you’re still able to avoid auto-cancellations, which usually cost more to get back than a new registration.
  12. Don’t fall in love with a domain name.
    Plain and simple, your goal in domaining is to make a consistent profit. One of the biggest mistakes new domainers make is holding on to a domain just because they like the name, or personally feel its worth more than the market will bear. If a domain doesn’t sell and you can’t monetize it to at least cover its costs, the domain is just dead weight. A name may sound unique or potentially popular, but you have to face the possibility that it may not have a market value beyond what you paid for it. Ridiculous domain names (the very sort new domainers tend to get attached to) can be lucrative, but the buzz may not last long enough for you to hold out for more money after a decent bid comes in. So when you are dealing with a gimmicky domain name and you get your chance to make a quick profit, take it.
  13. Name that domain.
    Whether creating new domains or acquiring existing ones, the current trend (which doesn’t show signs of changing) is to stay away from those domains that have digits and/or hyphens, as both naming schematics devalue a domain. The only exceptions are specific 3- and 4-digit domain names, most of which are all taken.
  14. Taste this.
    After you register a domain, many registrars offer a few day grace period during which you can rethink your purchase and still get a full refund. Domain tasting, is the ethically questionable, but legal, act of utilizing this loophole by parking a domain, testing the amount of type-in traffic, then cancelling it before the grace period expires. Most registrars are starting to recognize these loopholes and are quickly cracking down on this unscrupulous practice, but with those registrars that haven’t yet barred the practice, this can be a very good way of minimizing the risk of a purchase.
  15. Create traffic.
    If you own domains that aren’t receiving a lot of type-in traffic, you may want to try to increase their value by getting them indexed into the search engines so that the eventual purchaser will find it easier to get the site to rank for relavent search engine results. The easiest way to do that is to place a link with relavent anchor text to the domain on one of your own related websites. In addition to getting the domain indexed, this is also a way to advertise the domain to interested buyers. Linking to your domain is generally allowable by most parking sites, but you may want to check with yours just to make sure.
  16. Forums.
    Everyone loves to use forums to exchange information and to connect with people who have similar interests, and as a result many new domainers buy up “forum” domains. But if you’ll notice, very few people are getting rich managing forums, and even fewer are making money holding on to forum domains. Popular forums can generate tons of traffic, but domains with “forum” in the name are worthless without the actual site. Unless you can find a buyer capable of turning it into a site, or can build the site yourself, stay away from “forum” domain names.
  17. Be prepared, legally.
    If you decide to domain full-time, talk to an accountant about at what point in the yearly tax cycle is financially most advantageous for you to form your domaining enterprise into a legal entity. Forming a legal entity can be a headache, but by not doing so, you may be missing out on business deductions you might otherwise be able to take. So, just in case, keep all your relevant receipts, even if you’re just starting out, to prove to the IRS how much you invested.Potentially more important than financial concerns, however, are the legal ones. Deciding to form a limited liability entity (Inc. or LLC) will limit your personal financial risk if legal problems ever arise. Though the legal differences between LLC’s and corporations can be subtle, they are not insignificant, (e.g. differing tax treatment) so you should do your research before forming an entity.
  18. Watch for pinchers, swipers, and thieves.
    Sex.com was stolen from its owner using a fake transfer form, eventually costing the owner millions. Slammers, spammers, swipers, and claim jumpers will try various tricks to get a domain away from you, including fake renewal email messages or snail mail letters (e.g., Domain Registry of America scam letters). If you fall for one of these sneaky transfer forms, you may end up paying extra for a domain or accidentally “permitting” the transfer of your domains to someone else.In addition to having your existing domains hijacked through subversive transfers, there are an increasing number of reports of people having their domain ideas pinched before they can register the domain themselves. It appears that a number of domain research tools are culling the data from users’ searches, and using that data to instantly purchase the searched domains before the searcher himself can do so. So, for example, if you are using a tool to research available domains and come across a real gem, the owner of the tool you are using may swoop in and buy up the domain, thus taking advantage of your ingenuity while depriving you of a great domain. Because of this possibility, it is important that if you come across a previously unregistered gem domain, spend the few bucks right then to buy it up rather than take the chance on losing it by waiting a few minutes.Beyond pinches and swipers, you also need to keep an eye on your registrar. There are a number of reports of domain registrars being intentionally slow or unresponsive in the days leading up to a domain’s expiration so as to ensure that the domain expires and reverts back to the registrar. If you have a dispute, check with WIPO for mediation, but the best policy is just to protect yourself in the first place by having at least a full-month’s buffer when transferring registrars.

    19. Techniques for Monetizing

    For almost every domainer, the big money is in the actual flip, not the domain maintenance. So just as with real estate, one of the biggest keys to domaining success is to limit your overhead during the holding period when you are waiting for your buyer. In this section, we cover some common and not-so-common techniques for monetizing your domain to cover your overhead expenses.

  19. Duke of URL: type-in traffic.
    Google may control most of the western world’s web traffic, but they don’t yet control everything. In fact, a good keyword based domain can receive loads of type in traffic. With a well converting PPC landing page, this type in traffic can bring in from $100 to $1000 per day for a top-notch domain. Not a bad way to bide your time waiting for that perfect buyer to come along! So, when you’re searching for domains, keep in mind that type-in traffic is entirely defensible, meaning it doesn’t rely on a search engine or any other third party to send traffic your way, and that with enough of it, you can entirely cover your overhead expenses.
  20. Optimize your parked domains.
    Some registrars allow you to add content and advertising directly to your parked domain’s page at no extra cost. If that is the case in your situation, you should definitely take advantage of this opportunity by optimizing your landing page. Try various configurations and combinations of affiliate ads and PPC ads to see what yields the highest return. Often simply changing the color of your landing page is enough to double your click-through rate. So, don’t sell yourself short by using a default ad configuration, or worse, not placing any advertising at all.
  21. The (traffic) collector.
    If you already have your own well-converting highly monetized website within the same niche as your domain, instead of optimizing your landing pages, it may be more profitable for you to simply redirect your parked domains to that website. The key consideration when making this decision is simple, can I make more money by optimizing or redirecting? By electing the more immediately profitable option, you ensure that the maximum amount of your domaining overhead costs are offset, which may ultimately enable you to hold out for the right buyer longer than you might otherwise be willing to.
  22. Park and go.
    While running your own PPC or adsense is the more lucrative solution, some domainers who are short on time or technical expertise choose to simply park domains at a service like Sedo. These sites allow you to optimize your parked page template, and they run PPC (Pay Per Click) ads such as AdSense for you, in exchange for taking a cut of any PPC revenues your domain earns. While this is a fine solution for those that are flipping sites on a very short timeline, for those domainers planning to hold the site for any significant length of time, the technical knowhow required to optimize on your own is very small relative to the earnings you may be giving up by sharing with a site like Sedo.
  23. Community spirit.
    Converting expired domains with traffic into web 2.0 community sites is one of the most popular new trends in domaining. The theory goes, that by starting your own community, regular focused traffic will visit your website in great numbers which you will be able to leverage to offset maintenance costs. Unfortunately, the hype surrounding web 2.0 typically overshadows the reality, which is that most community sites eventually fail, so trying something like this will require a lot of time, effort, money and luck. For those of you working on a tight budget, good ole’ fashioned domain parking may still be the best solution.
  24. Creating your own lead generation.
    Buying up older expired domains with a niche focus can serve as an internal lead generation system. For domains with a narrow focus, redirecting them to specific landing pages on your more general high-converting website can be an excellent way of leveraging your domains into a sort private Adwords / PPC campaign.
  25. Adsense Arbitrage.
    Google AdSense arbitrage is the practice of buying traffic at a relatively cheap price, and leveraging that traffic by having those users click through to ads which are relatively more lucrative than the cost of bringing in the traffic. When considering whether adsense arbitrage is the best monetization solution for your domains, it is first necessary to consider whether it is allowed by your parking host. Even if it is, however, adsense arbitrage is a very risky game which is in almost every instance better left for more experienced domainers and webmasters.
  26. Choose volume over quality early on..
    It’s the volume domain purchasers who consistently earn the highest profits from domaining. New domainers are often intrigued by the possibility of owning THE keyword in a niche (keyword.com). But more often that not, it is better to diversify your holdings, start small, then later bootstrap your early profits into domains a bit higher up the food chain. Think of it like this: it’s easier to sell 100 domains at $10 profit than one domain at $1000 profit.

    27. Tools for the Trade

    In the business of domaining, automation and resource tools are your friend. Because the key to regular success is volume, not that one big hit, utilizing quality resources and tools will go a long way to improving your bottom line by marginally increasing the profitability every transaction you make.

  27. I’m pickin’ up good registrations.
    Since you’re dealing in volume, a cheap registrar is important, especially when you’re first starting out. But some deals are too good to be true, and occasionally registrars will go out of business. For good cheap hosting, GoDaddy is a baseline option, but it’s not ideal for many high volume domainers or high quality domains. For your biggest domains, the ones you hope to sell and retire from the proceeds with, you may want to try Moniker. Whatever direction you decide to take, make sure to shop around, and at a minimum check the resource list at the end of this article for a few more of your options.
  28. Traffic monitors and predictors.
    Keeping track of a site’s traffic and popularity are both important metrics in valuating your own domains as well as those of potential acquisitions. The following tools, despite their individual limitations, are designed to provide you with a method of obtaining those stats on your own domains, as well as those of your competitors.
  • Alexa is the benchmark traffic rankings directory. It is widely regarded as inaccurate, however, its relative numbers are still very valuable when studying a domain for purchase.
  • Alexaholic is based on Alexa but allows you to compare the traffic charts of multiple domains. The value of Alexaholic (and Alexa) is that you don’t need the current owner of a domain to have installed a traffic monitoring script (which is usually not possible on a parked domain anyway) to estimate the volume of traffic the site is receiving.
  • Ranking.com provides the popularity of a website and requires script installation on your domain.
  • Ask the Owner. A domain parking service will provide traffic statistics for the site’s owner. So if you’re interested in a domain, simply ask the owner for proof of statistics.

Resource Sites

In domaining, as with most industries, a key to success is keeping yourself educated about new developments in the field and constantly learning from the successes and failures of your peers. As a result, we have compiled a list of a few popular sites that offer domaining related news or services. You can find them in our directory here. You can also buy our book on the subject Domaining for Dollars.

As the value of domains continue to increase, the industry of domaining becomes continually more sophisticated and competitive. But for the person willing to do the necessary research, planning and investing, domaining can prove a very lucrative profession. In this article we have introduced you to some of the basic strategies, tips, and tools used by domainers.

Recognizing, however, that no single article can fully cover even the basics of this complex industry, we recommend that you constantly seek out new and more domain investing information, including our book, even as you begin to go out and compile your own domaining portfolio. Best of luck!

Ebook

To learn more, we offer a regularly updated ebook on the subject:


The book covers the following topics:

    Before You Buy

  • 1. Introduction (page 7)
  • 2. Getting Started (page 11)
  • 3. Domain Extensions (page 22)
  • 4. Domaining Niches (page 72)
  • 5. How to Value Domains (page 87)

    • Transactions

  • 6. Buying Domains (page 112)
  • 7. Transferring Domains (page 126)
  • 8. Selling Domains (page 131)
  • 9. Negotiation (page 140)

    • Monetization

  • 10. Domain Parking (page 148)
  • 11. Domain Development (page 161)

    • The Domaining Industry

  • 12. Domain Law (page 169)
  • 13. General Economic Trends Affecting Domains (page 184)
  • 14. Conclusion (page 189)
  • 15. Further Reading (page 192)

 

32 Responses to “How to Get Started as a Domainer: 28 Tips, Techniques and Resources”

  1. How To Get Started As A Domainer » All About Domains Says:
    March 19th, 2007 at 5:03 pm

    […] To Get Started As A Domainer Here’s an amazing article on How To Get Started As A Domainer. It covers all the basics. How does a salary of $10,000 per day sound to you? Webmaster and […]

  2. brettbum Says:
    March 19th, 2007 at 7:51 pm

    I would consider myself an intermediately experienced domain buyer and manager. I have not sold any domains nor has that been my intent. This is an excellent article that has covered many essential areas. I did notice one small area that any domain buyer should consider before buying. Always check and see if the domain may have been blacklisted or banned by Google or used as a host for spam email.

    You do not want to buy tainted goods, and on sometimes that domain is expiring in 36 hours for a very good reason!

    Iwebtools has a decent tool for this (no affiliation with them) I have not found a better one, but I’m always looking.
    see http://www.iwebtool.com/google_banned

  3. Matt oddington Says:
    March 19th, 2007 at 8:56 pm

    Great article, there’s a lot of really solid information in this post. Good and meaty!

  4. Domaining Fool Says:
    March 20th, 2007 at 1:23 am

    This is a great piece. I wish I had written this for my web site – oh well!

    I think an introduction to the different domain extensions and their relative worth would be a great addition or follow up article. For the noobs, its obvious, but .com is by far the strongest domain extension. However, there are many more tlds you should consider including your own country’s tld. Especially worth investigating is your own country’s tld expiration lists and how you can buy those domains. The expiring .com market is pretty competitive, you may have more luck with another tld.

  5. Flood of Dollars » Blog Archive » Make Money Online as a Domainer Says:
    March 20th, 2007 at 10:16 am

    […] Aviva Directory has provided 28 Tips for the Newbies of Domaining. […]

  6. Ray Says:
    March 20th, 2007 at 2:49 pm

    Excellent article! Another useful domainers tool is the ‘Wayback machine’ at Archive.org –

    http://www.archive.org/web/web.php

    Since 1996 they have been storing snapshots of websites – just enter any URL and it will show you snapshots of what used to be on that site, and when.

    Ray

  7. Basicity Says:
    March 20th, 2007 at 9:21 pm

    Great tips. Very nice summary

  8. Justin Allen Says:
    March 21st, 2007 at 12:50 pm

    An incredible article, filled with top notch information. However, lacking a few great resources, including http://www.NameBio.com – which publishes in a searchable database domain name sales at all prices!

  9. Janet Johnson Says:
    March 23rd, 2007 at 1:52 pm

    Great article, one more time. You’re providing a wonderful resource for readers.

    SnapNames (http://www.snapnames.com) is one fantastic resource for buying previously owned domains. They get around twenty thousand domain names that flow through their auctions every day. All the best names aren’t taken, you can still find some amazing names there. Especially geography-based names that will help in local search results.

  10. John Colascione Says:
    March 24th, 2007 at 11:14 pm

    Very nice article… Extreamly informative and I really enjoyed reading it… Talk about link bait! I have added it site wide (Bottom) to my new domain name forum: http://www.domainnameforumz.com

  11. JerkyBeef Says:
    March 26th, 2007 at 8:04 am

    This is a good post… I enjoyed reading this post a lot, very informative and direct… I would consider myself a novice at domaining and it was easy to recognize a few mistakes that i have myself and are currently making.. haha… well we all have to learn sometime from somewhere… Nice blog…

  12. The Beef Jerky Blog » Great Domainer Tips from Domainers… Says:
    March 26th, 2007 at 8:24 am

    […] Aviva Directory has laid out 28 tips, techniiques and resources to help get started in domaining… […]

  13. gio Says:
    March 26th, 2007 at 9:06 am

    i was actually thinking of trying this type of business.

    great article!!

  14. critic Says:
    March 27th, 2007 at 2:58 pm

    If there is an evil business on the Internet, it is domain parking. Domain parking is the cyberspace equivalent of putting parking garages on tropical rainforest. I hope you all lose money.

  15. admin Says:
    March 27th, 2007 at 3:32 pm

    @critic – what would you say is worse: domaining or anonymously trolling on other people’s blogs?

  16. Pablo Says:
    March 31st, 2007 at 7:10 pm

    Thank you so much for this huge list! I would like to translate and publish it in my site. Can I?

  17. admin Says:
    April 1st, 2007 at 9:39 pm

    @Pablo – yes, that would be cool!

  18. Jason Miller Says:
    April 2nd, 2007 at 12:27 am

    Excellent piece of information, However I must add that it is highly useful to research the existing domain name sales to get a good feel of domain name valuation. One such good resource is domain sale search tool at http://www.sitefirms.com/domain-sales.php.

  19. Dominol » Blog Archive » Estrategia de compra Says:
    April 2nd, 2007 at 12:29 pm

    […] 6. El modelo de Marchex A principios de 2005, Marchex Inc. pagó $164 millones por 100.000 dominios de alta calidad seleccionados a mano, planteándose en el corto plazo apalancar el rendimiento del tráfico type-in, y a largo plazo vender selectivamente este apreciado portafolio. Los inversores individuales pueden seguir una estrategia similar, apuntando a los dominios que están en el rango de $1.000 a $5.000 dólares que son de más de alta calidad y tienen así un potencial de suba a largo plazo mayor. Orientándose hacia mas o menos una docena de nombres en esta gama de precios más elevados, los domainers que siguen el modelo Marchex pueden eliminar la mayor parte de la competencia ocasional. Y aunque hacen frente a riesgos más elevados, existe la posibilidad de retornos bastante mayores. Es obvio que, se debe tener acceso a capital barato, por un lado. Así como también tener una gran comprensión de las valoraciones de dominios. A diferencia del mundo real de las inversiones inmobiliarias, el mercado de reventa de nombres de dominio todavía no es completamente competitivo; a menudo los dominios están fuertemente sub-valorados, pero pueden también estar súbitamente sobre-valorados. Consecuentemente, la valuación siguiendo parámetros de venta del mercado para un dominio sin tener un conocimiento fuerte basado en alguna métrica propia de valoración, es la manera mas habitual de fallar en este modelo. Esta es una traduccion libre del articulo “How to Get Started as a Domainer: 28 Tips, Techniques and Resourses“ […]

  20. John Says:
    April 15th, 2007 at 5:01 pm

    Great artricle. I’d also like to recommend this article series by Erik Vossman which approaches domaining as a ROI type business and outlines some of his criteria for purchasing:
    http://www.erikvossman.com/2007/01/09/part-i-how-to-make-money-buying-and-selling-domain-names/

  21. Ways to be a Successful Domainer - The Online Developer Says:
    April 22nd, 2007 at 11:07 am

    […] Ways to be a Successful Domainer How does a salary of $10,000 per day sound to you? Webmaster and marketing extraordinaire Marcus Frind reportedly pulls in $10,000 per day in Google AdSense from his dating website PlentyofFish.com. But that’s chump change compared to the $100,000 per day that domainer Yun Ye was pulling in before he sold his domain portfolio for about $164M in 2004 and subsequently disappeared under the radar. When it comes to making a buck on the internet it seems that everyone has a solution, although few of them seem to work. But if you’re looking to capitalize on one of the most powerful cash earning enterprises on the internet that is actually making plenty of people money, you should check out domaining. Although you may not be quite as successful as these two entrepreneurs, it’s never too late to start in the domaining industry. A domainer is someone who earns a profit buying and selling domain names. The philosophy is similar to the stock market: buy low and sell high. Here are 28 tips, tools, techniques and financing options to get you started on your way to successful domaining. Domain Buying Strategies Domaining is a lot like stock investing, the very best in the field have moved beyond basic strategies and have developed their own specific formulas for success. But just as with stocks, to obtain the skills necessary to reach that advanced stage, beginners must first understand the fundamentals of strategic domain buying. In this section we introduce you to five traditional domain buying strategies, and explain a bit about each. continued […]

  22. Striking It Rich With Domaining Says:
    October 18th, 2007 at 2:36 pm

    This is definitely the best free domaining primer I have come by ever. You could easily make a report from all that info and sell it. Others are doing exactly that 😉

    Tom

  23. Buy Me Domains Says:
    June 19th, 2008 at 7:33 am

    I don’t know about the trademark tip but the tools list is awesome! Thanks.

  24. RealCostDomains.com » The best domaining introduction there is right now Says:
    July 29th, 2008 at 1:06 pm

    […] Aviva Directory has a fantastic domainer introductory piece. […]

  25. How to Get Started as a Domainer: 28 Tips, Techniques and Resources Says:
    March 9th, 2009 at 11:12 pm

    […] Aviva Directory has an excellent article on how to get started as a domainer. […]

  26. Tweets that mention How To Get Started As A Domainer » Blog Archive » How to Get Started as a Domainer: 28 Tips, Techniques and Resources -- Topsy.com Says:
    April 28th, 2010 at 6:17 am

    […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Travis Van Slooten. Travis Van Slooten said: Great article here to get domaining newbies started; it's also full of info, tricks, and tools that everyone can use: http://bit.ly/cWRT4t […]

  27. Edmond Whippie Says:
    June 18th, 2011 at 3:17 pm

    Drop catching through GoDaddy is now so incredibly overused it is amazing to hear that to even sell your domains back for most pre-release domain acquisitions nowadays!. I think sticking to pending deletes with your own drop catching software is the cheapest approach (I have had good luck using snatcher.org).

  28. Acuflalayb Says:
    July 17th, 2012 at 7:16 am

    Spamhaus a bunch of liars and criminals

    – Spreads slander about isps and their customers
    – Infringes on peoples privacy
    – Sends spam itself (their “abusemails” are undesired bulk email just as well)
    – Blackmails ISPs to comply to their rediculous “demands”
    – Actively pushes ISPs to let Spamhaus use their networks to commit computer sabotage
    (hinder communications with specific other computer systems).
    – Publicises private details illegally copied from databases

    Spamhaus, despite claiming to be a not-for-profit organisation, is registered
    as a UK limited, appearantly with a branch office in switzerland.

    The Spamhaus Project Ltd.
    26 York Street
    London W1U 6PZ
    United Kingdom

    The Spamhaus Project Ltd.
    Avenue Louis-Casai 18
    Geneva
    CH-1209
    Schweiz
    +41.225330399

    and it’s CEO and Founder Steve Linford
    (resident of Monaco)

    Companies House registration numbers found:

    05303831 THE SPAMHAUS PROJECT
    05078652 SPAMHAUS TECHNOLOGY LIMITED

    Spamhaus, despite claiming to be a not-for-profit organisation, sells datafeeds
    for large scale commercial use for profit.

    Read more:

    Complaints regarding Spamhaus:
    http://www.cb3rob.net/spamhaus-ico-complaint.txt

    Spamhaus attacks free speech:
    http://www.quackpotwatch.org/opinionpieces/spamhaus%20attacks%20free%20speech.htm

    What you don’t know about Spamhaus:
    http://www.oswaldbousseau.com/about-spamhaus.html

    Spamhaus-org-setzt-oesterreichs-Domainverwaltung-unter-Druck:
    http://www.heise.de/netze/meldung/Spamhaus-org-setzt-oesterreichs-Domainverwaltung-unter-Druck-141727.html

    Disclosure on the Spamhaus communication:
    http://www.a2b-internet.com/spamhaus_spin_tactics_en.html

    How to fill a criminal complaint against Spamhaus:
    http://www.bolenreport.com/feature_articles/feature_article041.htm

    stop spam spam filters Steve Linford John Reid the spamhaus project spam virus
    John Blasik Steve Linford spam spamware Steve Linford sbl blocklist

  29. Domaineering Says:
    August 12th, 2012 at 3:30 am

    Increase web traffic and make money online. Generic domain names fuction much like meta tags. In “domaineering” which is the online marketing business practice of acquiring to monetize generic Internet domain names from their use primarily as an advertising medium. This is in comparison to the similar sounding word “domaining” which “domaineering” is occasionally confused with. The domaining industry generally views domain names as intellectual property investments for resale. In a nutshell, domaineering earns revenue from advertising while domaining seeks capital gains from flipping domains.

    A rapidly developing e-marketing concept, domaineering was first identified and defined by a Canadian college professor named William Lorenz. In essence, the domain names function as virtual Internet billboards with generic domain names being highly valued for their revenue generating potential derived from attracting Internet traffic hits. It is believed that search engines consider keyword domain names in a positive way when assigning rankings.

    As with traditional advertising, domaineering is part art and part science. Often to be the most effective as advertising tools, the domain names and their corresponding landing pages must be engineered or optimized to produce maximum “pay per click” (PPC) revenue which may require considerable skill and good knowledge of search engine optimization ( SEO ) practices, marketing psychology and an understanding of the target market audience.

    Domaineering generally utilizes a firm offering domain parking services to provide the sponsored “feed” of a word or phrase searched for. Occasionally content is added to develop a functional mini-website.

    Domaineers, bloggers and businesses who advertise online using keywords contend domaineering provides a useful, legal and legitimate Internet marketing service while opponents of both domaineering and domaining cite the practices as increasing the ubiquitous commercialization of the world wide web (WWW).

    Domaineering is practiced by both large companies who may have registered hundreds or even thousands of domains to individual entrepreneurial minded domaineers who may only own one or a few. Any business firm that selects a generic keyword domain for it’s website that matches it’s product or service line is essentially practicing domaineering.

    Both domaineering and domaining can be very profitable without spending a lot of money.

  30. PR Powershot Says:
    January 28th, 2013 at 3:53 pm

    Thanks!! I so rarely read to the end of posts these days.
    Talking about financing domains and in fact – Making use of the domain buying strategies is awesome.
    Loved it.
    When looking at potential purchases – I think also that dropped and expiring domains can add some value.
    Thanks again – One of the few ‘make money from domaining’ posts that came in from a different angle. (wouldn’t mind some of that 100K a day action though 🙂 )
    Cheers.
    Walt Bayliss
    PR Powershot

  31. Dom Aina Says:
    January 31st, 2013 at 6:31 am

    Excellent tips. I am very much interested in acquiring some top domain names and I could use your points to buy domain names like a pro!

  32. computewith.me Says:
    February 1st, 2013 at 8:03 pm

    Five Letter dot com names

    A total of 9,954,471 out of 11,881,376 five letter combinations (.com) are available and not yet registered. 1,926,905 five letter domain names are already registered.

    Details are here:
    http://computewith.me/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3

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