150 Domain tips

[IconPacks]

Hi guys,

Thought it would be interesting to create a thread where everyone contributes a few tips to make a Top 150 domain tips list. Just general snippets of advice/knowledge that might prove useful to other domainers/developers out there. If we get over 150 tips I'll update the thread title.
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Rules
- only 1 sentence per tip.
- must relate to domain names (buying/selling/development etc...)
- tips not facts, so can be opinions.
- no duplicates.

I'll start, with 5 from me.
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1) Create brandable domains by replacing the first letter(s) of a common word.

2) Don't start work developing an idea around a domain that you don't yet own thinking you can grab it when you're ready!

3) Don't use hyphens in the domain if you can help it.

4) Does the domain look good in upper and lower case?

5) Say the domain out loud before registering it, is it easily pronounceable over the phone?

 

[-REECE-]

Bingo.

All so many times I hear "buy domains with traffic - Newbees should spend $$$$ on one solid traffic domain"

Sorry, Charlie. A newbe w/$$$$ to spend on a domain is super-prime sucker bait. As far as I can see traffic domains rarely change hands unless:
A. You fight it out with Bonkers et al on Snapnames
B. You develop your own unconventional sources - such as cold calling domain owners hoping they do not know what they have.
C. You pay a lot more than the traffic is worth.

Sorry about the cynicism, I looked for traffic names when I began -every one I found for sale had fake traffic. I buy for development and price appreciation, that seems to be working. The traffic advice was probably right on a few years ago. I do not see it now.

Agreed. The only kind of "traffic" I would buy is direct navigation traffic from a .com with a good wordtracker. Super easy to forge traffic stats and I wouldn't think for a second of buying a name for X,XXX based on traffic stats alone unless the seller was someone I had done a whole lot of business with in the past... Alot of genuine traffic names are selling for 10x revenue or more. It just doesn't make financial sense to buy traffic names at 10x (or higher) rev (without dev plans or specific endusers in mind), knowing you can get 20%+ returns in energy stocks pretty easily for the time being...

 

[Web Master]

If you can read, write and speak other languages, your domains appear to have much more marketplaces and much more potential buyers. Go more selling!

 

[PremiumDotCom]

What is a CVCV.com / LLLL.com ?

 

[Mobi Cheap]

What is a CVCV.com / LLLL.com ?

I trust you are not pulling our collective leg here

LLLL = a domain composed of 4 letters (not 4 characters, as the latter includes numbers and hyphens); XYZQ.com is a LLLL.com, X360.com is not.

CVCV = a LLLL domain composed of any Consonant Vowel Consonant Vowel combination (e.g. BECA.com)

As for tips as such, I'll need to read this whole thread before I share my original pearls of wisdom.

 

[bricio]

What is a CVCV.com / LLLL.com ?

CVCV stands for consonant, vowel, consonant, vowel
LLLL stands for letter, letter, letter, letter

actually these r 4 letters domains dot com... we refer to them as LLLL but we can have CVCV, VCVC, CVVC, VCCV, 3 vowels and 1 consonant, 4 vowels or 4 consonants

hope this help

 

[DomainBELL]

another handful of tips:


1. focus on just a small handful of subjects or types of domains to specialize in and get to know that field well...

2. don't be in a hurry to flip...

3. read the DNJournal.com religiously... every page on the entire site... and get to the new weekly sales report every Wednesday.... you'll learn what's selling for what by reading there... it's the most wonderful website for domainers on the entire internet...

4. network with other domainers... we are a great bunch... and most help each other whenever possible... for example... I have some domainer friends that I know are looking for certain "topic" domains that I am not interested in... and if/when I happen upon something in their field - I make sure they KNOW about it... so they can run reg. it for their own portfolio's --- obviously I can't do that for more than a very small handful of my closests buds... and I am already at my max there... but it's nice to have a close inner circle...

5. don't be swayed into buying oddball extensions... unless that's your specialty and you KNOW that market EXTREMELY well... that's the easiest one to lose your shirt in...

6. stay on top of the industry news in the field...

7. I keep a chart of the various Registrar Accounts I have... with my usernames and passwords to each... and rep's name etc... and I log in to those accounts each month at the end of the month - for the following month and take a day... to go through and do the upcoming renewals for the month approaching... I sort via the Registrars EXPIRE date feature... and work down the list... I always go 45 days worth on the renewals... in case I have some due within the first 5 days of the following month and for whatever unseen reason may not get logged in in time at the end of the month to do the process... so I have a 15 day leeway... I generally shoot for the 25th of each month to do the log-ins / Renewals... may sound like a hassel... but with 1000's of domains on dozens of registrars... it's what I have found works well for me...then I don't have to bother keeping other software updated... etc... and I do save a copy monthly of the entire roster of my portfolio on each registrar and a domain count per registrar... so no names mysteriously come up missing... LOL...

Wishing anyone reading... all the best in their domaining career...
I love what I do... it's so much fun... it's a ton of hard work...
but I wouldn't want to be doing anything other than what I am doing...
I LOVE it...

~DomainBELL (Patricia)

 

[Dotmainer]

7. I keep a chart of the various Registrar Accounts I have... with my usernames and passwords to each... and rep's name etc... and I log in to those accounts each month at the end of the month - for the following month and take a day... to go through and do the upcoming renewals for the month approaching... I sort via the Registrars EXPIRE date feature... and work down the list... I always go 45 days worth on the renewals... in case I have some due within the first 5 days of the following month and for whatever unseen reason may not get logged in in time at the end of the month to do the process... so I have a 15 day leeway... I generally shoot for the 25th of each month to do the log-ins / Renewals... may sound like a hassel... but with 1000's of domains on dozens of registrars... it's what I have found works well for me...then I don't have to bother keeping other software updated... etc... and I do save a copy monthly of the entire roster of my portfolio on each registrar and a domain count per registrar... so no names mysteriously come up missing... LOL...

sounds like candidate for my site: domainersbox.net


to mods/admins: if you think its too much advertising telling this, simply delete my post

 

[thegenius1]

A good tip i picked up in another thread a while back:

Try to spread your renewal dates as much as you can, it sucks to let domains go that you don't want to let go simply because the total of renewals in one month is to much to cope with.

Yes this is a great tip , i usually just take the summers off so i can Vacation in peace and not have to worry about renewing. And if im not on Vay-K i will just develop my stockpile so i don't find myself expanding the portfolio. Its a hard task to do when there are so many bad domains that are regged and we are playing in gold mines.

My Tip would be to look at the International Sector of the Domain Business

IDN's

 

[clocker24]

Debt can be useful, but use it wisely. Don't pile up credit card debt by hand-regging hundreds of bad domains that get no traffic and have little re-sale potential. Of course this implies that you must study up on just what is a good and bad domain name. So when it is ok to go into debt? When you're buying a proven commodity. Shop around for a domain (ideally a dictionary dot com) with proven traffic and earnings. Try to find a seller who really needs to sell, so that you can offer as low a multiple as possible. Calculate how much it will cost to service your debt, versus how much the domain name will earn you on a monthly basis. If the domain name will be profitable, you have a winner on your hands. And of course you can always re-sell it for a profit in the future, as valuations are always rising.

 

[DomainBuyerBroker]

Buy quality not quantity.

 

[clocker24]

Buy quality not quantity.

Right, that's what I meant to say, in 10 times as many words.

 

[advaita]

Thanks for all the tips everyone. I've still got a lot to learn. Nice looking site Clocker I'll be reading it too!

 

[Adatise]

Excellent reading. Thank you for this wonderful free professional lesson. How could anyone ad to your great thread Sharon? Another educational domain blog I enjoyed was at.
http://chris.pirillo.com/2006/08/30/domain-buying-tips-from-monte-cahn-of-moniker/

 

[mktgmark]

Whenever I make a sale that is $xxx or above, I put part of the proceeds towards renewal fees of names that I know I want to renew, but may not even be close to their renewal dates. This lessens the chance of having one of those heavy renewal months later on down the road.

 

[tkl601]

Great read, Thanks

 

[Mark]

Thread Hi-lighted as per an earlier request

Lots of Great Advice in this thread for Newer Domainers as well as The old guard :tu:

 

[chassmp3]

Hi all,
Newbie here, I must say that I am guilty of many of the things you all mentioned here, Reece's post was almost like a scolding. Thanks Reece. I did get a little too excited when I first started out, I basically just did research on most commonly used words and basically attacked all sides of the spectrum with domain names I thought would be great. Some of them are, I have not spent a lot of money, but I can already tell that I may have a couple of fluff names. So yes great advice here. I had forgotten what I promised myself I would do first, and that was to read and research as much as possible before jumping in, so this is a good time for me to stop buying and start focusing on specific areas as many of you recommended.
This is a really great forum, I went to a different forum a couple of weeks ago and found out that you had to pay to post, so I lost hope on getting info from places like that so I just jumped in. But again, I have not spent a lot of money at all, and I actually feel pretty positive about most of the names I've registered.

I'll be here a while so please keep feeding me the info.
Thank you all for your generous input.

Chas.

 

[-REECE-]

Hi Chas,

Glad you joined us!

If you'd like a bit easier of a read and better explanations about what's mentioned in my post here, please visit: http://www.namepros.com/domain-newbies/404593-an-intro-to-domain-name-investing.html .

I highly recommend taking it slow. Domaining will still be around a month or two from now, so jump in when you're sure you've acquired the requisite knowledge to do so successfully

Hi all,
Newbie here, I must say that I am guilty of many of the things you all mentioned here, Reece's post was almost like a scolding. Thanks Reece. I did get a little too excited when I first started out, I basically just did research on most commonly used words and basically attacked all sides of the spectrum with domain names I thought would be great. Some of them are, I have not spent a lot of money, but I can already tell that I may have a couple of fluff names. So yes great advice here. I had forgotten what I promised myself I would do first, and that was to read and research as much as possible before jumping in, so this is a good time for me to stop buying and start focusing on specific areas as many of you recommended.
This is a really great forum, I went to a different forum a couple of weeks ago and found out that you had to pay to post, so I lost hope on getting info from places like that so I just jumped in. But again, I have not spent a lot of money at all, and I actually feel pretty positive about most of the names I've registered.

I'll be here a while so please keep feeding me the info.
Thank you all for your generous input.

Chas.

 

[chassmp3]

Holdem8,
have you used whypark's services? I visited the site and sure it sounds good, but how reliable is this? they say you set up the site easily and they take care of the rest. Do you know of any sites you can provide that use this service? I'd like to test how searching for them goes. Good info though, like I said it sounds like a great idea. Though for a newbie like myself $99 is not cheap.

Thanks
Chas.

 

[spinoza]

be patient. sometimes being ahead of the curve means a few years of renewal fees...