Well, as I have mentioned elsewhere, I've been doing this about three months now, and I have built up a healthy portfolio of about 560 domain names; 60 to 65 of them are developed in some fashion, a handful belong to clients or friends or family, and the rest of 'em are parked.
I've learned a lot over the past three months. I was fortunate in finding this forum fairly early on, before I made *too* many mistakes that cost me big money. Actually, it has been somewhat comforting to find out that my essential strategy for choosing names is probably pretty sound - I bought them figuring I probably wouldn't make any money this year, but I sold one off quick for $750, and the rest are parked in various places, and slowly but surely, the money is starting to trickle in. I haven't had a day with NO domain income in a month; even a few pennies is a few pennies I didn't have the day before.
That said, I know I have made some errors in my time, and I figured I would post them here. I have two reasons for doing this: first, to prevent anyone else from possibly committing the same errors, and second, to maybe convince some of you more experienced pros to share some of YOUR mistakes, in the hopes that I don't have to commit those too (ork ork)
So, in no particular order, here is what I feel I did in error:
Ok, there's more, but I gotta get back to work. I invite you to laugh at me for my mistakes, and share some of yours. Maybe we'll all laugh and learn.
I've learned a lot over the past three months. I was fortunate in finding this forum fairly early on, before I made *too* many mistakes that cost me big money. Actually, it has been somewhat comforting to find out that my essential strategy for choosing names is probably pretty sound - I bought them figuring I probably wouldn't make any money this year, but I sold one off quick for $750, and the rest are parked in various places, and slowly but surely, the money is starting to trickle in. I haven't had a day with NO domain income in a month; even a few pennies is a few pennies I didn't have the day before.
That said, I know I have made some errors in my time, and I figured I would post them here. I have two reasons for doing this: first, to prevent anyone else from possibly committing the same errors, and second, to maybe convince some of you more experienced pros to share some of YOUR mistakes, in the hopes that I don't have to commit those too (ork ork)
So, in no particular order, here is what I feel I did in error:
- Registered a trademark name: Opps! I read an article, got an idea, and thought "wow, I should check and see if this is available!" and it was, so I took it. It had not one but TWO trademarked names in it! Then I found out that was not such a hot idea, specially if it looked like I was actually making money on it. Bleah. Well, fortunately, I just got the one. I picked up two others with a part of a trademarked name them, but they also include "monthlyplans" in them, so I'm probably safe with those. But who knew? Everyone but me, I guess. I suppose there's a market for this, but it's not for me. Lesson learned: Stay away from trademarks if the potential hassle is more trouble than it's worth to you.
- Lack of patience: I wanted to try different parking companies, and I was moving my various domains all over creation and back, every week - sometimes every few days, testing things. BIG mistake. For one thing, it was a logistical nightmare; after a while I had no idea what was where. Specially since so many of my names are similar. I keep all my domain info in a spreadsheet, and it was getting too difficult to even update the damn spreadsheet. Then I would spend hours optimizing the names, only to hear about another parking company to try, and do it all over again there. The worst of it was because I was moving them around so much, they would get spidered in Google at least three different ways, which is pretty much a great way to guarantee they won't come up for anything. I'm going to be recovering from this for a while, till the old entries fall out of the search engines. Plus, you just can't tell anything about a parking company until you've given it time to settle in. Lesson learned: Park 'em some place, optimize, and then forget about them for at least a month. Maybe two.
- Mind Your Nameservers: I got so confused by everything, I accidentally found I'd changed some nameservers incorrectly, and domains weren't pointing to the right place, forwards weren't working - it was a mess. Every now and then it pays to just download the entire shmear from your registrar, load it into a spreadsheet and eyeball it. Just to make sure you didn't accidentally move something someplace useless. Lesson learned: Organize and pay attention, and check up on myself periodically
- Watch Out for Typos: By which, I mean my own. I accidentally registered two domains that made no sense (just had random letters tacked on the end) because I was registering in bulk, and again, not paying attention. I typed two in wrong, didn't look at the final page before checkout, and now I have two domains that are probably totally useless. Oh well. Lesson learned: Pay Attention, Check before checking out
Ok, there's more, but I gotta get back to work. I invite you to laugh at me for my mistakes, and share some of yours. Maybe we'll all laugh and learn.
