Hi again everyone. This is the second post in a series about Domain Flipping (plus parking and development).

Hopefully by now you’ll have accounts at GoDaddy, Namecheap etc and have started to look around the various Forums I mentioned in Part 1. So this time around I’ll look in a bit more detail at options for registering new domains and finding expired domains.

A couple of housekeeping type things first though:

  • set a budget - an amount that you can comfortably spend each week/month on domains - this will be something you have to decide for yourself, but you can start as low as you like (I picked up 15 domains from various places last week that were all under $2 each).
  • Keep records - whether it’s on paper, in Excel or whatever, maintain a record of your domains, recording things such as registrar, expiry date, date purchased and price you paid, date sold and price you received etc. Once you’ve got a reasonable size portfolio of domains on your hands this is the very least you should have to keep a track of what you’ve got.

Registering a Domain name

Assume that you want to register a new domain name for yourself as opposed to buying an existing domain from a Forum, and that you’ll be wanting to sell this domain (either as quickly as possible for a quick flip or as a longer term investment). There are a few options available to find your name:

  • Maybe you already have a subject/niche in mind that you are familiar with or think has some potential.
  • Identify a current or upcoming trend/buzzword - There are various tools at Google and Yahoo etc. that tell you about current popular search terms, plus you have access to a whole host of social tools that can point towards what’s hot at the moment. Use these tools to identify a selection of phrases, products, buzzwords that might be suitable.
  • Think about whether the name(s) you’ve come up with are going to be the type that could sell. If it’s too obscure, too long, contains numbers or hyphens, is offensive or possibly infringes a trademark then you should probably discard it. Use keyword search tools such as the one at SEOBook to see if the domain is likely to pick up any type-in traffic or be search ‘friendly’.
  • What extension? As a general rule, .com is the way to go - this is still the King of domain extensions, followed by .net. However, some domain names are more suited to the .info extension (particularly those that involve a generic term or an activity/hobby/place name for example) - many people now place .info ahead of .org. In some circumstances, the ‘country specific’ domain extension can be very valuable for a term but bear in mind that there are usually restrictions on who can actually purchase these (co.uk, .de and .com.au are three examples of Country Code TLDs that have good authority within their geographic regions).
  • See if the name is available. Many registrars have a page where you can type in a domain name to see if it’s available in your desired ‘extension’ (i.e. .com, .net, .org and so on), and some will also provide tools that suggest alternate names based on your request.

A quick note here about ‘Domain sniffing’ which is a dodgy practice carried out by various unscrupulous registrars and ‘Whois’ sites. What they do is record details of various domain names searches/enquiries made through their site and will then attempt to register good domains for themselves before you can. It does happen but I can honestly say that it’s never happened to me personally, and I stick with the major players as far as searching for available names in concerned.

Register your name

As you buy and sell domain names you will be involved with a variety of registrars, and you will be surprised at the wide variety of prices charged - in fact you’ll wonder how some of them get away with the prices they charge.

If you’re registering a new name (and it’s one of the major extensions such as .com, .net, .info) then you can choose which registrar you want, but bear in mind a couple of things that might help you decide:

  • Price (of course) - Prices vary between registrars (Name.com charge about $6 for a .com last time I looked) and GoDaddy & Namecheap are slightly more expensive.
  • Coupon codes & specials - GoDaddy in particular always have a number of coupon codes available that you can use at checkout to reduce the cost of your order. These are WELL worth searching for and using as they can bring you big savings on an order. Go to the DigitalPoint forums, search for ‘GoDaddy coupon’ and you’ll see all the coupon codes you could want. In addition, most registrars will have occasional specials on certain extension (.info in particular can be picked up very cheaply).
  • Easy to manage/transfer - If you’re planning on selling the domain, make sure that the registrar allows a free account setup and a free ‘push’ between accounts. This will mean that the purchaser of your domain can easily set up an account if required, and also that the domain can be transferred to their account from yours quickly, easily and without any extra cost. Be aware that not all registrars offer this - hence I try and stay away from 1&1 and Yahoo, to name just two, because (every time I’ve checked) they do not allow a free push between accounts, which effectively means a purchaser will have to initiate a transfer between registrars which takes longer and costs the purchaser extra money (as domains are extended for a year when they are transferred between registrars).
  • Renewal Price - while some registrars will let you register a domain cheaply, they may try and sting you on subsequent renewals (if you intend to keep the domain that long).

Picking up an expired domain name:

Rather than scratching around for a new domain name, you might want to look at the option of picking up an expired, or ‘dropped’ domain.

These are, as you might have guessed, domains that were previously registered but for one reason or another have been allowed to expire. This might be because the owner went out of business or lost interest, it could be due to sheer carelessness on their part but the fact is that there are thousands of domains ‘dropping’ each day, some of which can be very valuable indeed.

Hunting for dropped domains is a whole subject in itself, and there are plenty of people set up with automated tools and back-ordering etc to try and grab these the second a domain drops. However, there is still plenty of scope for you to pick up some great registrations this way.

Dropped domains can be worth grabbing because they may carry some historic value with them, either because there was previously a Website on the domain that has some history, backlinks etc. or just because it was a good name when the previous owner registered it and it’s still a good name now.

Now - because of various kind-hearted people around there are a couple of places that you can easily browse for potentially good dropped names.

  • NamePros - this forum on NamePros is where you will find details of expired/dropped or otherwise unregistered domains.
  • FreshAvails - this blog is regularly updated with lists of available names.

OK - that’s enough for now. Go and see what you can find out there waiting to be regged. Next time I’ll go through some tips, tricks, do’s and don’ts for buying and selling on the main Domain Forums, Auctions etc - then we’ll move on to look at parking and development.

Cheers

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