Am I getting the right idea?

[Bluemoon Rising]

Hi people.

I'm totally new to the domain game. Over the past few months I have been reading, reading and reading some more. I've just started buying my first domains and wanted to run by everyone how I determine the value / worth of a domain to see that I'm getting the right idea and avoid any bad buys.

First of all I avoid any domains with possible TM issues.

I only look for .coms and avoid any numbers and dashes etc.

I make sure the domain actually means something and would have a purpose from the point of a possible buyer / end user. Rather than just a pointless phrase or a load a random letters.

I then run a search on Upname.com to identify existing traffic, any current Google page rank, back links, in links, alexa ranking, any current CPC.

I then run a Valuate search just to get a VERY rough idea. I am aware these appraisal services need to be taken with a pinch of salt.

I then do a Google AdWords search to get an idea of the search frequency of the keywords.

Finally I go over all the info and if it all seems decent enough, I make a bid.

Is this the right process on making a decision on the value of a domain and whether or not to buy?

If anyone has got any other tips or "tricks of the trade" and would be kind enough to share I would much appreciate it.

Thanks for reading.

 

[alien51]

I think you pretty much covered the basic essentials.

Now you can move on to the next phase: How will you earn money from all this after you bought your domains?

What's your income model?

 

[ok2host.com]

i agree with alien51 you are on right track

 

[nielsencl]

Congratulations! You are clearly an A+ student of Namepros.

Now, since most of the domains you are likely buying suck, I have a suggestion: Figure out how you are going to make money from these domains. Then limit the number you are going to buy to say 10 or 50. Once you reach that number that you set, don't buy any more until you can sell some. Then buy more to hit your limit again and then wait until more sell.

This will keep you from buying more and more domains until you find you have 1,600 of them and almost no sales. Well, I THOUGHT they were good domains, really!!!

Domains are easy to buy, but hard to sell. There's no reason every newbie has to lose a lot of money and learn for themselves what we all learn when starting out in this business.

Good Luck, I think you are already doing better than I did.

 

[Gregmde7]

I think you got the general idea. I would recommend to also pick up .met and .org domains as these are almost as valuable as .com - just a tip.

 

[BitcoinDK]

You got the basics covered now you have to, like Alien and Nielsen wrote, make a strategy on how to/who to sell to before you reg/buy the domain names.

And make a limit on how many domain names you got on your portifolio. When you reach your limit sell before you buy.

Just a comment to Greg. For a newbie I would recommend to keep to .com. Then later when you got the feeling for it, you can try the other extensions.

Good luck.

 

[DnEbook]

i have sold two domains for $500+$350 in the past year that had hyphens, to some developers they are still considered good value

you are off to a good start .......keep reading

 

[seo_corporation]

i have sold two domains for $500+$350 in the past year that had hyphens, to some developers they are still considered good value

you are off to a good start .......keep reading

I too sold a domain with dashes for $1000. The domain was related to cloud computing.

 

[DnEbook]

I too sold a domain with dashes for $1000. The domain was related to cloud computing.

I think if the quality is there and the person is going to develop a fresh site using .com

there is some interest in hyphens