The most successful people in the domaining industry have incredible instincts when it comes to domain names. Whether it's buying or selling, it seems that the pros have a talent for paying under the odds and selling high. While some of this can be put down to salesmanship and business acumen, a lot has to be said for developing domain investing intuition.
This intuition is based on knowledge that has been acquired over years of practice within the domain industry, and can help immensely with learning the value of a domain name. It can also tell you what a good domain name is and isn't.
The good news is that domaining intuition can be developed. Below are five ways to effectively develop your intuition for buying and selling domain names.
The Domain Game
This is an iPhone app from the owners of NameBio.com that helps to train your valuation skills. The aim of the game is to guess the price range of a particular domain name sale. You're given four options: three figures, four figures, five figures and six figures. You're also given the domain name, the sales venue and the date of the sale to help with your judgement.
The app can improve anyone's domain valuation skills, and will help you to see which type of domain names have and continue to sell for large amounts. It will also show you the venues that produce the highest average sales figures (tip: according to the app, DomainNameSales.com has a higher average sales price than Afternic).
Blogs
Domain name blogs such as the NamePros Blog, TheDomains or DomainNameWire, often publish domain name sales that usually include sales prices. Reading about domain sales will help to improve your domaining intuition, and will also give you a reference point in the future, should you be considering acquiring a similar domain.
Blogs are also a useful tool for seeing what other people are buying. Websites such as DomainInvesting.com (@EJS) and DomainSherpa.com (@DomainSherpa) regularly publish information on recent acquisitions, which can be an interesting way of seeing what type of domain names that experts are buying on a regular basis.
DNJournal
DNJournal provides weekly domain sales figures. Updated every Thursday, the top 20 chart shows which domains have recently sold, and for what price. Sales venues are also included. Studying recent domain sales allows you to see what type of names are currently popular, and it also allows you to see who is buying these names (thanks to WHOIS lookups). Knowing whether it's an end-user of investor purchase can be extremely important.
If you're investing in Chinese premium domains, then following statistics should be of paramout importance due to the continuous fluctuations in that market. For others, following domain sales statistics will help to better valuate domains in categories such as one- and two-word .COMs.
There are also other websites such as NameBio and DNPric.es which track daily sales.
Domain Industry Contacts
Having a few well placed contacts within the domain industry really can help to improve your intuition for domain investing. Talking about the industry and discussing domain names can help you build a better understanding of the industry in general.
Building a domaining contact list can also open the door to opportunities to buy domains, or sell your current names to other investors.
Experience
Nothing can replace the value of experience when it comes to building your knowledge base. Participating in acquisitions, sales and tracking auctions can all help build a mental library of reference points. You'll discover what worked for you in the past, you'll know what sold well, and you'll know whether a domain was easy to sell or not.
It's all very well to have other investors telling you what you should be buying, or how you should be selling your domains, but until you actually experience the domain industry from several viewpoints, you'll struggle to build develop your intuition further.
This intuition is based on knowledge that has been acquired over years of practice within the domain industry, and can help immensely with learning the value of a domain name. It can also tell you what a good domain name is and isn't.
The good news is that domaining intuition can be developed. Below are five ways to effectively develop your intuition for buying and selling domain names.
The Domain Game
This is an iPhone app from the owners of NameBio.com that helps to train your valuation skills. The aim of the game is to guess the price range of a particular domain name sale. You're given four options: three figures, four figures, five figures and six figures. You're also given the domain name, the sales venue and the date of the sale to help with your judgement.
The app can improve anyone's domain valuation skills, and will help you to see which type of domain names have and continue to sell for large amounts. It will also show you the venues that produce the highest average sales figures (tip: according to the app, DomainNameSales.com has a higher average sales price than Afternic).
Blogs
Domain name blogs such as the NamePros Blog, TheDomains or DomainNameWire, often publish domain name sales that usually include sales prices. Reading about domain sales will help to improve your domaining intuition, and will also give you a reference point in the future, should you be considering acquiring a similar domain.
Blogs are also a useful tool for seeing what other people are buying. Websites such as DomainInvesting.com (@EJS) and DomainSherpa.com (@DomainSherpa) regularly publish information on recent acquisitions, which can be an interesting way of seeing what type of domain names that experts are buying on a regular basis.
DNJournal
DNJournal provides weekly domain sales figures. Updated every Thursday, the top 20 chart shows which domains have recently sold, and for what price. Sales venues are also included. Studying recent domain sales allows you to see what type of names are currently popular, and it also allows you to see who is buying these names (thanks to WHOIS lookups). Knowing whether it's an end-user of investor purchase can be extremely important.
If you're investing in Chinese premium domains, then following statistics should be of paramout importance due to the continuous fluctuations in that market. For others, following domain sales statistics will help to better valuate domains in categories such as one- and two-word .COMs.
There are also other websites such as NameBio and DNPric.es which track daily sales.
Domain Industry Contacts
Having a few well placed contacts within the domain industry really can help to improve your intuition for domain investing. Talking about the industry and discussing domain names can help you build a better understanding of the industry in general.
Building a domaining contact list can also open the door to opportunities to buy domains, or sell your current names to other investors.
Experience
Nothing can replace the value of experience when it comes to building your knowledge base. Participating in acquisitions, sales and tracking auctions can all help build a mental library of reference points. You'll discover what worked for you in the past, you'll know what sold well, and you'll know whether a domain was easy to sell or not.
It's all very well to have other investors telling you what you should be buying, or how you should be selling your domains, but until you actually experience the domain industry from several viewpoints, you'll struggle to build develop your intuition further.
