Is it impossible to make money on hand regs?
Short version: yes! (but shhhhh... don't tell all those domains pros hanging around here!)
I would really appreciate some commentary and advice on this.
Handregistering is a lost art, it seems. And you really, really need to know what you are doing and be really, really inventive to register names that will bring you money, one way or another. More on the "another" later on...
While my answer's a resonating "yes", there are a couple caveats. For one thing, handregs usually come in tandem with outbound selling. Most old hands say that all good names (read: names of interest to someone) have been taken a long time ago. Check. And if they drop, they're scooped at expired domains auction or dropcaught by somebody, usually HugeDomains. Also true. And if not, there's a whole world of domainers combing through ExpiredDomains.net droplists to catch any leftovers. Yep, that's about the size of it. Consequently, anything you invent, originate and find free to handreg is unlikely to be in high demand (read: don't expect anybody calling and inquiring about it). So if you decide that handregging is your game, make damn sure that you're into cold calling and outbound sales as well!
And keep in mind that outbound marketing, sales, well, that's a whole other ebook with a lot of caveats of its own!
Back to "another"... most people who are aware of the term "domaining" at all, equate it with domain flipping, selling. I do not. For me, domaining is domain investing, making money on domains, one way or another. The "another" is registering domains and developing and monetizing websites. This is a whole other subject, far beyond the scope of this post, but quick and dirty:
- be realistic, make sure you are in a position to develop all the domains you handregister with this purpose in mind or be prepared to sit on them for years to come and can afford the renewal fees!
- be aware that developing domains into websites is only the very beginning of a long journey to monetizing them (read: first finding somebody to pay you for sending them your traffic and then procuring substantial traffic to your website, only a very small part of which you will be able to channel to your sponsors!).
- if you have heard of, and are thinking domain parking or Adwords: don't! Those ships have sailed! Think affiliate marketing instead... which is a separate ebook in itself, of course...