Internet Babel

The results of a recent (admittedly small scale but well presented) experiment suggest that an effective way to boost a PPC ad campaign is to acquire relevant on-target generic names to enhance or enforce the ads and get more traffic from them.

The guys at Memorable Domains ran a study which showed that: “All other things being equal (same headline, same ad copy, same bids, same landing page etc.) the ads that used an on-topic generic domain name received up to twice the clicks that ads using a “coined” non-generic domain name did”.

Full details of the experiment and the results obtained can be found in the report at http://www.memorabledomains.co.uk/ppcanalysis.pdf

The results are something that many of us might have guessed at, but it’s nice to see some specific figures to back-up that intuition. Part of the reason could be down an increased ‘trust’ by the visitor in the generic sounding domain name, but the report proposes some more specific reasons, and certainly gives some food for thought.

Read the report – it’s only a few pages long. I hope it will encourage you to do some experimentation of your own with generic names.

Thanks to Memorable Domains for permission to post about this.

Well – Darrin emailed me with a question, wanting to know what to do with 3 domains he owns. I thought this was a good opportunity for me to give him a few quick ideas, and also for anyone out there in Babel-Land to make any other suggestions.

Darrin has three domains, NO money and wants to try and make a go of things. So, I asked for the three domain names and below you’ll find my ‘off the top of me head’ sugestions as to what he could do with them. Bear in mind that he’s pretty new to Website development but wants to learn.

Domain 1: AffiliatedBlog [dot] com:

OK, as far as i’m concerned this is an easy one. It’s not a bad domain name – you could sell it for a few bucks of course, but the best course of action is to actually develop an Affiliate/PPC/MMO related Blog on it. Learn the Blogging trade, add some good content to it and maybe sell it on as a developed Blog after a few months, you’ll get a far better return than just selling the domain. 

It doesn’t have to cost you a packet, use one of the free hosting companies out there (but make sure it’s an ad-free one). I use 000Webhost for some of my static sites that I play with, I’m sure they’d be fine for Blog hosting as well but there’s a heap of free hosters out there.

Find a decent free theme/template and place your Google Adsense and Analytics code on the Blog. Register at BlogPremiere and DigitalPoint, give away a few sidebar ad slots, do some link exchanging and then use the Blog to learn Content development and SEO/SEM techniques. 

Domain 2: KnookAndCranny [dot] com:

This is the weakest of the three. it’s a decent sounding name but the spelling is wrong for most people (“knook and cranny” returns 1,060 Google results, “Nook and cranny” returns 535,000 so that’s bit of a no-contest).

I don’t think it’s worth parking, as that only gives results when you’ve got a type-in name, a typo or something with residual traffic. The domain itself has little value, particularly as it’s regged at Melbourne IT/Yahoo and last time I checked they didn’t do a free push.

Develop it, put a humour, video or news site on there – or perhaps use a free classified script such as Noah’s to get a service going for people clearing houses, trying to get that ‘hard to find’ item etc. again, use a free hoster. Then flip it once it’s got a bit of history.

Domain 3: GambleGive [dot] com:

I could see this doing VERY nicely but it would need some custom development. I think some kind of site where people could gamble/play games online but give a portion of the proceeds to charities would be a great thing, with a heap of potential for being picked up by Social Networking sites and possibly Merchants who you could tie up deals with.

You would probably need to partner up with someone who could help you develop the concept, and it wouldn’t be an instant earner but I reckon the idea’s got legs.

So – all in all I don’t think there are any instant money-makers in these particular domains, but I’d say:

• put something cheap and quick on KnookandCranny and try to flip it
• Build a Blog on AffiliatedBlog, learn some development/SEO techniques and sell it later (if you need some quick cash, sell the domain on DigitalPoint or NamePros)
• Find a partner to develop the GambleGive concept with

Like I said, these are my initial thoughts on the list. I may come up with some others, but I’d also like anyone reading this to shout out if they have ideas and suggestions to help Darrin out.

Cheers
Dave

OK – straight into it. This installment deals with an important issue to be considered when buying domains on Forums (again using DigitalPoint and NamePros as examples) – that of Due Diligence (or Buyer Beware).

Due Diligence:

As with any transaction, it pays to carry out whatever checks you can to ensure that you’re not getting screwed. When purchasing a domain from the Forums the following checks will be useful in helping you decide whether or not to go ahead with that purchase. 

Common sense also applies here – you may not bother making all of these checks if you’re paying $2 for a domain, but you will want to be extra sure if you’re forking over a couple of hundred bucks.

None of these checks are in themselves foolproof, but they will help to re-assure you that the seller is genuine.

• Seller is an established Forum member: This isn’t to say that a new member can’t be trusted (hey, we all start as Peon’s sometime), but it’s a fact that most people feel more comfortable buying off someone who has a bit of history and more than a handful of posts to their name. This is why I recommended (way back in Part 1) that you get yourself registered at DP and NamePros and start participating in the non-sales forums.
• Seller’s Rep: Pretty simple – if they’ve got red marks or a bad rep, this should sound some warning bells.  
• Seller’s Trader score: Trader points are a good indication of a member’s behaviour in previous transactions. By clicking on their Trader rating/score you will be able to see all positive and negative comments left by others who have dealt with this person before.   
• Whois: Don’t just blindly accept that the seller owns the domain or that they have posted the correct details. There are hundreds of standalone ‘Whois’ type tools out there (plus on most of the major Registrar’s home pages) – so there’s really no excuse for you not to spend a few seconds of your time by checking that the domain registrar/expiry/owner details tally with what’s being offered. You might even want to send an email to the domain’s administrative email contact address and get the seller to reply to that email (but don’t expect to be popular if you do this for very low-end sales – you’ll just seem like a pain in the butt).  
• PR & Traffic confirmation: If the seller claims some kind of existing PR or traffic for the domain, you could ask for screenshots of stats or parking figures as proof. The general rule of thumb is that if you claim traffic/revenue you have to be prepared to provide proof. As with whois, use your PR checker of choice to verify any claimed PR.
• Trademark: You might want to verify that you’re not being lumbered with a potential legal problem – names that look to be trademark infringments or ‘dodgy’ typo’s for example.
• Registrar: Check that the registrar that holds the domain allows a free push between accounts (and that you can set up an account with them if you don’t have one). There are a number of registrars who still don’t allow a free ‘push’ and even make the transfer process awkward – you might have to bear this in mind when it comes to the actual cost of your purchase.
• Too Good To Be True: If it looks too good to be true, it almost certainly is. Which probably means that the seller doesn’t even own the domain or that they have stolen it (yes, that is possible). There are always genuine bargains to be had, but looking around on the various Forums will give you a good idea of what a domain might be expected to go for – so if someone is selling pizza.com for $100 you know that they’re either incredibly stupid or a crook. 

(Also – bear in mind that any sensible seller wil be looking at you, as a potential buyer, in the same light and checking history, trader etc).

Assuming that you’ve satisfied yourself (as far as is reasonable) that the seller is genuine then you’ll probably want to proceed with your bid/offer.

Types of Sale

Now, there are all types of sales threads of course, but the bulk of sales that you come across on the forums will fall into one of three main categories:

• Fixed Price
• Make An Offer
• Auction

You will also find (mainly on DP) sales threads that are nothing more than links to a SEDO listing or a SitePoint auction for the domain. Unless it’s a domain you REALLY want I would tend to steer clear of those.

Part 5 will be along in a couple of days (I had plenty of time to think during my enforced layoff) and will cover the three major types of sale, then the mechanics of buying/selling and transferring your domain…

Thanks
Dave 

OK – so in parts 1 & 2 we covered an introduction and some basics on registering a new domain and finding dropped/expired domains.

In this piece, we’ll be looking at what will be the main stomping ground for most of you – the Forums. In particular I’ll be covering DigitalPoint and NamePros, because they are both popular and they represent different markets. Other popular Forums for buying and selling of Domains and Websites are SitePoint and Acorn Domains, but I won’t specifically address them here.

First things first – Build a Rep:

If you haven’t already done so, register at both Forums, take a good look at the different areas on them, and start posting in the ‘non-trading’ sections…get a bit of ‘post history’ under your belt, try and get some Rep points, as this will all help further down the track. If you have an area of expertise, use it to give some advice to those in need.

DP and NamePros- what’s the difference? 

I use both Forums frequently to buy and sell Domains, but you have to be aware that they have very different approaches to the game, and you have to behave accordingly.

DP is the bigger of the two in terms of users, traffic and posts but it is a LOT less regulated and, as a result, is more prone to spammers, scammers and time-wasters. The mods there are average at best and they will do little to help you out in case of any disputes. Also, they are not as open as they could be with regard to highlighting and stamping out scammers.

Having said all of that, there is a good community there, and there are some great bargains to be had if you trawl the Domains For Sale forum. It’s also a good place to buy and sell links/adverts or content and there are some useful posts in the other sections as well, if you ignore some of the more obviously juvenile/spammy crap.

NamePros is a smaller, tighter community and much better regulated (although obviously not totally free from scams). Their Domains For Sale sections are separated better than DP, and the Domains Wanted Forum is a good place to look for potential buyers.

Be warned that NamePros mods do a pretty good job of keeping on top of Sale/Auction threads and there are rules for all of these that you MUST abide by. It takes a little bit more effort but it’s generally a safer place to deal in.

Look And Learn:

I can’t stress how important it is to take some time looking at the Forums for a while before you do any trading. It is only by doing this that you’ll get a feel for good and bad prices, good traders etc.

Ask anyone who regularly deals in Domains and if they’re honest they will all admit to being stung or being stupid in the early days – I bought a few turkeys myself early on. But then, you can always sell them on to an un-suspecting newbie  

Sifting Out the Rubbish:

As a result of a spending some time looking at the Forums, you should be better positioned to spot and then ignore the trash – and there is a LOT of it. Of course, the trouble is that not many people will be honest enough to say they’re trying to offload a crap domain, so you’ll see some amusing posts trying to put a good spin on names that are blatantly pathetic. Methods used to try and do this include:

• trying to target a domain for a non-existent niche (e.g. “FartingAlbanianParrots.info – ideal name for a domain about Farting Parrots in Albania”
•  ”Dictionary word .com” – Yes, well “Assuetude” is a dictionary word but I can’t see much type-in traffic for it. Just cos it’s a dictionary word doesn’t mean it’s got any pull.
• “Web 2.0″ name – “Flxgl.org” – Woopy-Doo…   
• Typo’s – watch out for these.
• Likewise for TradeMarked names – maybe the current owner has realised they can’t use the name without being sued, so they want to offload it. Don’t complain after you’ve bought – do some research into any names you have the slightest doubt about.
• Good old-fashioned Bull – Just because the seller says it’s a good name doesn’t mean it is. They are quite happy to bandy around words like “Premium”, “Valuable” and the like – but step back and think before you buy.

Plus of course you will get the clowns who are deluded enough to believe that they’re crappy domain is worth a fortune…it isn’t.  You will see some truly ridiculous prices being asked for – on the other hand, you will also see some absolute bargains (I’ve picked up 20 $1 Domains in the past 3 weeks).

Note For Sellers:

The advice I’ve given to looking around the Forums applies just as much if you want to SELL a domain. You need to come up with a realistic price, and decide where you want to sell it, and the method you want to use (Fixed Price, Auction etc).  and READ THE RULES.

Admin:

Most sales on both Forums are conducted via PayPal (although Escrow services are popular for higher value sales). So, as I said earlier, if you want to trade on these forums you will need PayPal. You will also need an account at the major registrars in order to acccept/give account pushes.

Etiquette:

Don’t mess people around. You WILL get landed with negative trader points and possibly bad reputation, and that is not the way to start your career in Domain speculating.

You will come across a number of sales (particularly on DP) where the seller turns out to be a waste of space and ignores all attempts to contact them even if your bid has won the domain. If you’ve abided by the Sale rules and given them fair opportunity to respond then you could slap them with some bad trader points but my advice (to begin with at least) would be to forget about it and move on (but make a note of their name so you know not to deal with them again).

It costs nothing to be courteous in sales threads, and as always, flaming/spamming someone’s sales thread will only end in sadness. Karma is a great consolation so hold your tongue.

Coming up next…the mechanics of conducting a sale on the Forums – bidding, accepting bids, processes for payment and transfer of Domains etc.

Thanks

Dave

Just a very quick update to let you know about some offers on Domain Registration:

GoDaddy – They currently have a Voucher code where you can register a .com (or .net/.org I think) for just 99c ($1.19 with the ICANN fee). That’s a pretty awesome offer. Just specify discount code ‘test99′ when checking out. I have no idea how long this will last, and I think it’s only valid for 1 domain per customer. You’d be daft to miss it though.

Namecheap – Another great offer from these guys. Get free SSL when registering or transferring a domain – http://www.namecheap.com/learn/ssl-certificates/free-positive-ssl-certificates.asp

Name.com – Just a heads up that their $5.99 registration offer is coming to an end in about a week. Update: name.com are (for now) letting you use coupon code ‘XUP599′ to continue getting $5.99 registrations.

Domaining/Webmaster news – DP being sued?

You may have heard about Shawn and DigitalPoint being one of a number of parties named in a lawsuit from EBay accused of Cookie-Stuffing. I guess this could affect DigitalPoint Forums down the track – as of yet there doesn’t seem to be any allegation that DP users have been caught up/affected but I guess we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, seems like business as usual at DP. Legal type details of the case can be found at Justia.com

Thanks guys
Dave  

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

It looks like iBlog.com is for sale at NamePros. If this is a genuine sale then obviously it’s a great name but I somehow think it might be going for a bit more than I can afford ;-(

Any guesses as to what it’ll sell for?

As promised last week, I’m going to be outlining in a series of posts how you can make money by buying and selling (flipping) domains. I’ll also be covering domain parking, development and Website flipping as the series progresses but we’re going to start with the basics.

Expectations:

Let’s get one thing clear from the start – domain flipping is almost certainly NOT going to earn you a fortune, but it can very easily (and at little financial risk) bring in a steady income stream. When you are starting out the trick is to think ‘little and often’ – i.e. buy low and sell on for a bit more, don’t hold out for huge sales (unless you’ve got yourself a killer domain). A few sales a month will bring in a steady income, a few sales a week will let you build up your funds and allow you to start aiming for bigger deals. Take it easy though, learn the ropes and get a feel for the market and ways to trade – you only need a few dollars to get started.

Yes, there are huge domain sales reported each week – but don’t go into this thinking that you’re going to stumble across a great domain name that no-one else has thought of and walk off with a fortune. That ain’t gonna happen for 99.9% of us. However, if you do make a million on your first sale, think of me when you’re banking that cheque.

Domains

What kind of domain names should you be dealing in? do you know about the major domain name extensions and the various country-specific extensions?

When starting domain speculation/flipping, stay with the major top-level domain extensions (i.e. .com, .net, .org, .info). These are the ones that are universally ‘accepted’, have a higher resell value (.com in particular) and aren’t as subject to the various rules and regulations assocaited with country specific domain extensions such as .co.uk, .com.au etc.

These top-level domains will be the easiest to deal in when you are starting out. Competition amongst the various registrars is also intense which is good for you as you can shop around for deals when registering new  domains or transferring between registrars (more about that later). 

• Price wise, new .coms can be picked up for as little as $6 (generally around the $7-$9 mark), .info’s can be purchased new for as little as $2, although they have a lower ‘resell’ value.  They are renewable on an annual basis.

Your focus:

Are you going to be looking to deal in certain types of domain, those associated with a certain niche or subject that you are familiar with or are you going to be a general trader picking up or registering a domain regardless of its market?

• Bear in mind that domain names are subject to trademark infringement, your details (as a domain owner) CAN be found and you can be subject to legal action if you knowingly flout the law. Some level of research and common sense is required when buying and selling.

Register or Buy:

Think also about whether you want to register new domains from scratch or buy existing domain names that others have put up for sale. In all honesty, you will be doing a mixture of the two – about 80% of the domains I pick up are purchased on forums, the remaining 20% I’ll register myself, either from ‘drop lists’ or through my own research (more later).

Registrars:

Do you know about the large variations in pricing that the various domain registrars charge? were you aware that the major registrars often promote special deals or have coupons that can save you huge amounts on new registration?

There are many, many registrars but you will find as you trawl around the forums, that most of the domains you see  will be registered at one of a few main players. These include (in no particular order):

• GoDaddy
• NameCheap
• ENOM
• Name.com
• Moniker
• Dynadot

They all have their fans and their detractors, but get used to the idea that you will be dealing with all of them at some point. They all operate in the same basic fashion, allowing you to set up a free account where you can register new domains and (more often) do what’s called a ‘push’ which is an internal transfer between accounts. That means if you buy an existing domain that is registered at GoDaddy, the seller can perform a free ‘push’ from their account to yours. You can also transfer domains between registrars if you want to consolidate your domains into your preferred registrar.

The market:

All of the registrar companies allow you to search for and register new domains, and there are various tools out there that will allow you to search for available domain names. As I said earlier, I do register a certain proportion of my domains myself, but the majority are purchased via Forums. Even if you prefer to register your own domains, the Forums are still an invaluable tool to see what kind of domains are in demand at any time, how livley a particular niche is, what the current prices are etc.

Now, what I’m talking about at the moment is basically the ‘reseller’ market. That is, you will be buying from and selling to other domainers, developers, webmasters etc. That means that the prices involved are lower (as a rule). You are dealing within ‘the trade’. The Forums I’m going to list below are inhabited by people like me and you – people who want to buy and sell domains/websites and make a few dollars. You can certainly pick up bargains and you can certainly get good sales, but you shouldn’t expect to go in there asking hyper-inflated prices for your domains.

There are various ‘auction’ sites where you can try and get a better price for your domain, and you can also try to pitch your domains direct to potential buyers, but the bread and butter of your domaining business will be done in the Forums.

Most of my dealing is done on:

• DigitalPoint
• NamePros
• Acorn Domains
• Sitepoint

DP is a more broad-based Forum covering a lot of topics – domain and website sales being two of them. NamePros is more closely focussed on domain and website trading. DP has more volume, NP has useful forums on available and expired domain names. DP is more prone to spammers and scammers but I’ve picked up some absolute bargains there.

The groundwork:

Now, before you go rushing headlong into anything there are various things you will have to do first:

• set an intial budget for yourself (don’t worry, this can be $30-$40 or even less – I regularly pick up domains for $1 or $2)
• set yourself up at PayPal and/or MoneyBookers. Most deals on the Forums are done using PayPal funds – OK, so we don’t all like PayPal – tough, get over it. Moneybookers is an option some traders use, while for high-value sales an escrow service should be used, but we won’t be worrying about that yet.
• create accounts at the major registrars (GoDaddy, NameCheap etc). If you see that bargain domain you want to buy, you need to have your registrar account set up and ready waiting to receive the domain. Most of these registrars will now accept PayPal as a payment method if you don’t have a credit card.
• register at DigitalPoint, NamePros etc. Don’t rush in there trying to buy and sell domains straight off – as a new member you will have no rep and no ‘trader’ rating. You have to build up some trust there, so spend some time introducing yourself, participating in threads in a useful way (no spamming or highjacking) and, more importantly, look through the various ‘for sale’ and ‘wanted’ forums, getting a feel for the market and prices.

That’s it for now, just to get people started. Get your accounts set up, join the forums, look around, get to know the market and start building yourself a rep. It’ll be a lot easier to deal with people once you’ve done that.

Next time I’ll look in a bit more detail at the various registrars, coupons, useful resources for ‘dropped’ domains and working the forums.

Thanks
Dave

A very nice little earner for me today, so I’m a happy chap.

I picked up two domains 3-4 months back, for $8 a piece. I didn’t do anything with them other than park them and collect a few dollars in revenue – but I wasn’t concerned because I KNEW that these were excellent pickups.

Both are three-word .coms, which still aren’t that fashionable but I knew they had the potential to do well their respective niches.

Sold them today for $380.

I can’t be bothered right now to work out the percentages but that is a nice return on an investment of $16.

I buy and sell at least a few domains every week. I’m quite happy to make just a few bucks on a sale, because at my end of the market its a low-investment, low-risk game. Make a quick profit of a few bucks on a sale, about10 times a month keeps the dollars coming in, and I know I’ll make a few bigger sales like these two pretty regularly as well.

Domain (and Website) buying and selling isn’t just for the big boys – it’s possible for any of us to make a decent, regular profit from it as long as you don’t think you’re going to jump straight in and make a million dollar sale – and that’s just what an upcoming series of articles will be about.

And No, I won’t tell you the two domain names in question…