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10 Tips for Domain Beginners

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1. If English is not your first language, try to lean towards Brandable domains or short (4 Letter, 5 Letter) domains in the beginning. I can imagine a lot of crappy keyword domains being registered are because some people use translators or they don't yet understand what sounds good in proper english and what doesn't.

2. Don't just lurk. Frequent the forums and network with experienced domainers, share your feedback or opinion even if you're new. Join in on the discussions, find a mentor. It surprises me how helpful most members of the domaining community are with each other, after all, in a way we are all competitors, but unlike any other industry, we always try to give advice and tips - take advantage of it so that one day you too can give back too.

3. If you want to experiment first with hand-registering domain names, don't try to come up with names on your own just yet, as tempting as it may be. The "Available Domains" section should be one of your most frequented on Namepros: https://www.namepros.com/forums/available-domain-names.106/ - Experienced members are generous enough to share lists of domain names that are available to be registered. Sometimes you will land a gem within the bunch.

4. Most of the questions you may have right now have probably already been asked and answered hundreds of times already (literally) - pretend this forum is a book on an infomercial that you just paid money for and read. You have enough material here to answer almost anything you're thinking of. 95% of the posts/discussions on NP are on the topic of domains.

5. Before registering or buying a domain name, ask yourself this: "Is this domain name worthy enough for me to pay renewal fees on for at least 3 years?" - If it is not worth it to you to renew (at full cost) that domain name for 3 or more years, then you don't even see value in it, do you think someone else will? Remember, there are no 99 cent renewal coupons.

6. When growing your domain portfolio, keep it diversified. When you're new to domain investing, don't register 10 domains on the same topic or niche. If something is trending, buy 1 or 2 domains, not 10 or 20 because they're available. Trends can die quickly in this industry and it's easy to get carried away and find yourself with 30 renewal fees in 12 months on worthless domains or domains that won't have value for years, be prepared for that.

7. When first starting out, focus on flipping domains and not 'holding' them. Flipping means you acquire something and sell it asap for more than what you paid no matter how much more it is and grow from there. 'Holding' is acquiring a domain name and waiting for a much larger offer. Being new, you probably won't have a sense of what will attract that big offer so you may only have domains that can be sold for 1, 2, or 3x's what you paid for it to fellow and more experienced domainers. Once you start learning what consistently sells to other domainers for smaller profits, you'll begin learning what you should be holding onto yourself.

8. When you're thinking about registering or buying a domain name, think about who would want the domain and how much they would be willing to spend on it, this is usually based on how much money they can make with that particular domain. Example: If you come across a domain like CuteCatPictures.com, yes it sounds good, yes, a blog can be made out of it, it can be a site with Cute Cat Pictures, but most of these sites are hobby sites and they don't make serious money. If a website like this which could only generate $xx a month, do you think they're going to pay hundreds or thousands? No, more like $20 or $30. Your *big* sale for a name like this would most likely be low $xxx but that would be luck. Instead, focus on domains you know someone can make good money with. If someone can earn thousands a month operating on that domain, that's when you can expect reasonable offers.

9. Many new investors automatically fall in-love with a domain they own once they receive a $20 or $30 offer on it, they assume this person is making me an offer so it must be worth thousands. It's not. When starting out, sell, sell, sell. There may be a chance that you did let a good domain get away but at the end of the day the experience and knowledge you gained from doing these small deals will help get you to a higher level much more quickly and time is more valuable than money and there are always new opportunities every day.

10: If you're in need of cash flow, then you need to study up on contacting end users because chances are you won't be receiving offers on your names any time soon. If you're not in this for the long-haul (at least a year) then you shouldn't bother at all. I see a lot of people new to domain investing saying "I've had my domains listed on Sedo/GoDaddy/etc for a month and It hasn't sold or gotten any offers!?" - There is no expected time for something to sell. Many of the domain sales you see reported, the owners have held on to those names for years. So again, if you need cash flow quickly, focus on reading up how to contact people to make sales, not wait for them to come to you.

Good luck!
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Good advices. As a new domainers, I recognize myself already in some of the "what not to do".

Points 1 and 10 really don't go together. English not being my primary language, it makes it really hard to reach end-users. The french market is very limited.

So while I learn and need cash flow, I stick with short 4L names to get the feeling to making deals and make contacts and rapidly increase my buying power. I think all newbie should start by flipping 4Ls which are super hot and easy to deal right now.
 
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May be you have additional tips for the following questions:

Are there ways to find out if a domain may/will become valuable, especially for a brandable domain ? Such as similarities with other domains sold, presence of a trendy keyword (such as bitcoin, 3d - both may be obsolete as of today, but new trends come every year) ?. This question does not apply for pbn domains, city+profession domains (such as atlantaflorist) or most keyword domains.

Is it better to start selling to other domainers (so, may be 50% or more below end user prices) or is it better to jump directly to end user sales
 
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1. If English is not your first language, try to lean towards Brandable domains or short (4 Letter, 5 Letter) domains in the beginning. I can imagine a lot of crappy keyword domains being registered are because some people use translators or they don't yet understand what sounds good in proper english and what doesn't.
It's an interesting approach, but I see many bad brandable domains registered. They can be tricky too: some brandable domains may be offensive in another language, thus unusable for branding on a global scale. There are some famous examples of branding failures.
 
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Very nice Post!
Just a question what kind of approach can be used to choose (grab/register) a brandable name?
Even if the problem of English as Not primary language could be easily extended to brandable where (imo i'm actually a beginner with my 10 ten days of experience :xf.smile:) the "feeling" with the language has to be sometimes more talented...I dont know what i wrote...I hope the message is arrived O.o

Anyway take out your expensive esotheric alghoritm software to create you brandable GEMS and share your wisdom ;)
 
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Good advices. As a new domainers, I recognize myself already in some of the "what not to do".

Points 1 and 10 really don't go together. English not being my primary language, it makes it really hard to reach end-users. The french market is very limited.

I usually never recommend using cut and paste sales templates when contacting end users but I think if English isn't your first language you should definitely use one and try to keep the message very short, no more than a couple of sentences. You'll have to rely on letting the domain do the talking and you can still have success.

May be you have additional tips for the following questions:

Are there ways to find out if a domain may/will become valuable, especially for a brandable domain ? Such as similarities with other domains sold, presence of a trendy keyword (such as bitcoin, 3d - both may be obsolete as of today, but new trends come every year) ?. This question does not apply for pbn domains, city+profession domains (such as atlantaflorist) or most keyword domains.

If you want to make real money in trendy domains and you're waiting for domains to be sold so you can compare before you start investing, you're already too late. The trick is to invest in trends before they become trends. By the time it hits the forums the big winner-domains for the trend are already taken and all you have left are the scraps. And that's an easy way to lose money. Pay attention to what's trending in the news outside of the domaining community, that's where you can find domains that can be valuable.

May be you have additional tips for the following questions:
Is it better to start selling to other domainers (so, may be 50% or more below end user prices) or is it better to jump directly to end user sales

I think the fastest and easiest way for you to learn and familiarize yourself with domain sales is to sell domains in the $20-$100 range to other domainers for the first couple of months before you move on to end users.

For most people, when you first start out in domaining it is inevitable that you're going to register a lot of crap and you'll think they're good. And within that pile of crap there will be 1 or 2 that are halfway decent and will sell to another domainer. Hopefully the sale of the decent names can cover the money wasted on the crap. You're going to repeat this, and repeat it again. Eventually you'll start picking up on patterns and little by little your standard of what you buy/register will be higher and your sales will be better.

One last thing, 50% of what you think a domain will sell for is way too high because you're new to this business and you haven't acquired the domainer sense yet. If you continue at this, a year will pass and you won't believe what you once thought was a good domain. Focus on $20-$100 flips for the first month because you can think something is worth a thousands and it's worth nothing and you can turn down $20+ in profits to keep something you'll eventually drop down the line and never receive another offer for.

Once you've got all that in stride you'll realize the domains you consistently sell are the domains that you can begin pitching to end users.
 
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If you want to make real money in trendy domains and you're waiting for domains to be sold so you can compare before you start investing, you're already too late. The trick is to invest in trends before they become trends. By the time it hits the forums the big winner-domains for the trend are already taken and all you have left are the scraps. And that's an easy way to lose money. Pay attention to what's trending in the news outside of the domaining community, that's where you can find domains that can be valuable.

Thanks for your answers. Let me try to reformulate my question

I am a complete beginner in domaining so I am not looking for miraculous gems. I'd be perfectly happy to start selling domains in the 20-100$ range with a 50% markup

For the moment, I am concentrating on brandable domains (may be it's not the best option for a beginner)

I agree that well known trendy terms have been over-registered and what remains is mostly crappy.

But trendy terms usually last 5/10 years. So I suppose buying something at the 'beginning' of a trend is a viable option.

I wonder how to 'discover' brandable domains that have potential (keep in mind, I am only looking for a modest markup). Are there methods (scientific or semi-scientific), databases ?
 
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It really is a good list for us beginners - thanks!
 
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great list for us beginners so thank you for that. could you go into more detail on point 10 thanks? I understand the theory behind contacting end users but practical advice would be good too
 
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Please, what is a Brandable domain?
I'm a beginner that's why I'm asking
Anyone with detailed Information and explanation pls? Thanks
 
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I wonder how to 'discover' brandable domains that have potential (keep in mind, I am only looking for a modest markup). Are there methods (scientific or semi-scientific), databases ?

The only methods I use personally is research and manually scanning lists: expired domains, drop lists, auctions, etc.

Other domainers scan these lists with filters and other software but I rely only on my own research and my gut.
 
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i'll check it out thanks - cheers for posting the link up
 
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Nice turtorial. i have learn alot from this. Am also a new domainer.
 
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Thank you for the advice, but can't find a thread about how domains are transfered once you have sent cash to someone through escrow or PayPal, and how can the person be trusted to transfer the domain name after receiving the money. Thanks
 
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Perfect! the lesson i needed before buying domain...
 
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This is some solid advice not only for beginners but for anyone in domaining for a while that just need to look at the basics once again. One of the most important points made was about focusing on selling. The more consistent you are at making deals and continue to obtain great name the more cash flow you will create.

I look read the following 3 statements daily to stay focus.
  1. Always Keep Learning
  2. Buy the Right Domains
  3. Sell for Descent Profit
=-D Rinse and repeat. Of course haha there are many methods and tactics and different approaches but this is why learning is number one followed by buying the right names and selling for descent profit.

- Will
 
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Good tips for the beginners.. :xf.smile:
 
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Thank you for this post, some very good information!
 
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Nice tips. Thanks for sharing :)
 
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This is a good post that will help get newer domainers going and on ther way to hopefully some domaining sales, parking, and affiliate income.
 
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