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information 21 Useful Sites for Domain Name Investors

Spaceship Spaceship
For this last post in 2021, I assembled a list of 21 websites that I find useful. Many of these are well known, but a few will perhaps be new. Although a number of the sites offer a paid service, all provide some level of free service. Please extend this list with your own suggestions in the comments section.

1– How Many Businesses?
OpenCorporates.com is a huge global database, and is the right place to see how frequently a term has been used as part of a business or organization name.

2 – Comparator Sales
NameBio is the go-to source that now lists more than 3.2 million domain sales, and you can find other comparators with GoDaddy Appraisal and DNPric.es.

3 – A New Trademark Search Option
There are many trademark search options, such as TESS in the US, or WIPO IP internationally, but I find the Trademark Search at Alter Marketplace superbly presented.

4 – Save Money
Don’t overpay for those registrations, transfers and renewals – sites like TLD-list can help you find the best rates, or use DomComp or TLDes.com.

5 – Find Expired, Expiring and Available Names
In 2021 we saw how valuable the right word can be, even in less-popular extensions, and tools like ExpiredDomains.net can help you find available, expiring, for sale, and liquidated names, along with lots of great metrics.

6 – Related Domain Names
While end users may not care how many extensions a name is registered in, usually you should, and tools like dotDB make it trivial to find both exact term registrations, and longer names that include the term.

7 – Search Volume
Whether you plan to develop a name yourself, or to sell it to an end user, search volume is one of the metrics you need to consider – there are many options, but you can perform up to 800 free searches per day at SearchVolume.io.

8 – Cost-Per-Click
Cost-per-click is important information, particularly for development, and an Estibot search can show you the value for broad and exact match, along with search volume and changes over the past year.

9 – Dictionary
Don’t say it is a dictionary word without checking, and a dictionary like Merriam-Webster does a great job giving multiple meanings, the history of the term, and word popularity, but note that it is American spelling, so complement with a UK-spelling dictionary such as Cambridge Dictionary.

10 – Image Source
Whether for presentation on landers, or your own website, or domain promotion on social media, you probably need royalty free images from time to time – there are many great image sites, but I find Pixabay particularly good.

11 – Free Website Evaluation
If you develop sites, or have your own portfolio site, a second opinion on what can be improved is valuable – you can get a remarkably instructive, and free, automated review at Nibbler.

12 – Domain Rating
In addition to their paid plans, there are a number of free SEO tools at Ahrefs , including the Authority Checker that provides a Domain Rating (DR) based on number and quality of backlinks and linking websites.

13 – Know The Competition
It is always good to know how people are pricing domain names that may be in competition with domain names you are selling, and Dofo Advanced Search is the most direct way to find out.

14 – Does This Site Have A History?
If acquiring an aged domain name, check out its past history using Wayback Machine - Internet Archive.

15 – Has The Name Been Dropped?
HosterStats will tell you the hosting history for the name from 2000 to the present.

16 – Single Word Domains
Single word domain names are elegant, and even without a membership you can search in a number of extensions, including .ai, .io, .co, .link,.live and .app, at OneWord.Domains, although double check truly dictionary, availability and related trademarks.

17 – What Is Hot?
Wondering what other domain investors are registering in the past month? Estibot Domain Trends, free and updated daily, can tell you (spoiler, it’s still meta).

18 – Need Statistics?
If you need statistics or information on an extension, you have several options, but I find DomainNameStat particularly helpful.

19 – Name Generators
I am not much of a fan of domain name generators, of which there are many out there, but I like LeanDomainSearch, although it only gives .com options – sites like NameBoy.com suggest both multiple extensions and compound names.

20 – Does This Mean Something in Another Language?
While Google Translate has obvious limitations, I find it a great tool to discover if a term has meanings in other languages, that could influence use of the name as a brand.

21 – Whois The Owner?
While with privacy you usually can’t find whois the owner from Whois searches any more, they are still one of the most used tools, and available at registrars and other places – I like the Domain Tools Whois Search because it tells me how many drops and hosting changes there have been over what period, although you will need a paid plan for full details.

BONUS – The Really Essential Site
Of course the most essential site for success in domain name investing is right here, NamePros.com!

Google search is also an essential tool for any domain investor.

I urge readers to add, in the comments, sites that were not included. Please give a link plus one sentence description of the tool.

I kept this short, with just one long sentence per site, but you can find more detail elsewhere on NamePros such as Free Tools For Quick Domain Research and I Use This Tool.

Thank you for your encouragement all year, and the very best wishes for 2022 to all NamePros members.


A heartfelt thank-you to the developers who created these amazing tools, and for making free versions available to empower the entire domain community.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
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Did you mean slick?

In any case the Power Tools at that link are part of the paid subscription (start at $29 per month), so not covered in this list that only covered free resources.

With the 2 free Estibot appraisals per day, you can get a nice plot of broad and exact search volume and CPC for the past 12 months, along with some other information like number of ads, etc. I consider that worthwhile information even if you have no interest in their actual appraisal. I also find their trends of recently registered domain names useful, and free, information.

Bob
 
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Thanks for the suggestions. How is Google finance domain related? Agree that it is one, of many, sites that can help those doing conventional investment.

Does Helium have a free option? I only see paid plans. Note that this list is for tools with free options. I can see Helium could be very helpful if you sell products on Amazon.

Thanks for telling us about Capterra. I must look into that more. Looks like a useful site to find tools and sites in different categories.

Bob
 
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Ty Mr. Bob and Happy New Years! :)
 
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Thanks for the suggestions. How is Google finance domain related? Agree that it is one, of many, sites that can help those doing conventional investment.
Say I have fhr dot com in my sniper scope. Google Finance shows all companies with fhr in title keywords or first letter of each initial. From the drop down I click company name https://www.google.com/finance/quote/FHR:BIT. Gives company info, country of H.Q. and clickable domain name. I found it useful in my early domainer I (seller) days but not so much now in my domainer II (developer) days. Still use it for investment related research.
Does Helium have a free option? I only see paid plans. Note that this list is for tools with free options. I can see Helium could be very helpful if you sell products on Amazon.
Yes it does have a limited but hugely useful free version.
Thanks for telling us about Capterra. I must look into that more. Looks like a useful site to find tools and sites in different categories.
Best software search tool on the internet by a city block. Prove me wrong anybody.
 
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Nice list. Even I tried to list some other useful tools here dnguide.in/tools
 
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Thanks Bob few in there I never new about your time and effort is well appreciated. Cheers Tracey.
 
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Bob,

As usual, great compilation. Thanks.
 
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Hi to all!!!

What are the best websites in terms of educating people, businesses and investors on the value of the domain names?

I had some two websites but forgot them and been searching for them quite a while.

Can you please do such list of websites please?

Maybe outsource to the community?

Wishing Happy New Year to you all!!! Health and Happiness and DN Journal shattering sales to you all guys!!!
 
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Thanks Bob. this is a very helpful list I bookmarked multiple of them.

I found the following tool very helpful for Namepros auction format, and I use it when I want to know exactly the end date and time of auctions that I create:
https://www.timeanddate.com/date/timeadd.html?type=add

like for example "Auction ends 96 hours after last bid" I enter the date & time of last bid and then enter 96 hours in the "Add/Subtract" field.
 
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If I research some social handles and brands this toll comes handy:
Knowem /dot/ com
 
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I should have mentioned this earlier, but if anyone lists a site they are associated with, please do disclose that for transparency.

Also, try in one sentence to tell people why you think the site is of interest to domainers.

While it is worth paying for many services, let's keep this discussion in the theme of the article, that is only sites that have some version or limited use, at least, that is free.

Thank you, and hope we get many more suggestions.

Bob
 
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I would add dofo too. Amazing work!
 
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I would add dofo too. Amazing work!
Thanks. I find Dofo a wonderful tool too! It is on the list as #13 although it could be used in other ways too. If considering a word EXAMPLE I like to use Dofo to see where exact EXAMPLE listed for sale and at what prices, and can also search for same all names including word EXAMPLE that are for sale too.

I also find it helpful for seeing how the market in general is pricing an extension.
 
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100% must bookmarked! Thank you Bob!
 
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For this last post in 2021, I assembled a list of 21 websites that I find useful.

Excellent last 2021 post Bob! Thank you for all your hard work and articles...looking forward to many more in 2022!
 
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Thanks for the info! DomLinks.com is due its yearly refresh so I'll be puting the missing ones on.
 
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Thanks a lot @Bob Hawkes
Great list.
Whenever I need anything "Domain World" related, I use https://bestfew.com/
Highly recommended.
@redemo asked "Why is it a good tool for domaining?"

It's not a tool, just a free directory of useful sites for Domain Name Investors.
 
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Thank you very much @Bob Hawkes I WISH YOU AND ALL NAMEPROS READERS A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR 2022.

Estibot.com allows only 2 names Appraisal Free daily. A best alternative to know the Estibot valuation is available at Epik.com. Here is the link for unlimited search: https://www.epik.com/services/appraisals/

 
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