Domain Mistakes I Have Made (Please Share Yours)

[netmeg]

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:

1. 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.
   
   
2. 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.
   
   
3. 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
   
   
4. 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.

 

[Mike]

.us a sleeper.???? i dont think so .com is our .us

Thus, "Once it wakes up..."
The .us extension is currently "beat under value" and is certainly trailing behind the .com extension. The USA is absolutely .com minded and it will take the registry a bit more effort to get some live into the .US extension.
Since GoDaddy did not win the contract for .US the future for our extension has become a bit questionable,..yet, i still have hopes! :tu:

IB

 

[GILSAN]

1, Investing in overpriced ccTLDs that have virtually no chance of success as their registry doesn't adequately promote them.

2, Not sticking with .com as primary extension
3, Not having paid enough attention to .US as i believe this extension to be a "sleeper" that once it wakes up, should generate a revolution.

4, Not going into parking earlier
5, Not utilizing arbitrage earlier

6, Registering absolute CRAP, thinking that i've just discovered a diamond in the rough and that i'll beat Da Vinci to making gold out of steel.

7, Relying on unreliable programmers to build sites for me. By that i don't mean mini-sites, but full sites that are functional with a built database. (I'm still looking for a reliable partner that can program)
7.5, Not having the nerve to sit down and learn programming myself and relieve myself from dependency.

8, Not reading NamePros attentively enough as there are threads that could have easily helped me to avoid stupid mistakes.

9, Being impatient, always attempting to re-invent the wheel, while it's blatantly obvious that domaining is an exact science that thrives on research, forecasts and ...yes, research...

and last but not least....

10, Carrying the pride factor deep within me that tells me that even when i should just let a domain expire, i still contemplate to renew my "baby". Domaining is NOT an emotional business, yet i catch myself often that i believe in my even crappy selections. It's a case of virtual denial, that's going to hit me hard this year when renewals come around in less than 2 months.

IB

PS: Thanks for mentioning me Gilsan, i appreciate it, but in the end, i'm just a small fish in the deep water.

Many of your points are our points as well, except that you describe them better than most of us.

As for being a small fish, well that may be so in the deep blue ocean but in the NamePros tank your'e definately a big catch.

Just like you I also have renewals in 3 months time. My problem is that I think that I don't have a clue as to what is a good domain. I read peaple saying that their domain dot com gets hundreds of clicks a day and yet I look at those names and some of them look really crappy, and then I look at a few of my domains and I think that I should be doing a lot better. Obviously that person must have a lot more knowledge than I have to be able to monetize it so well.

GIL

Thus, "Once it wakes up..."
The .us extension is currently "beat under value" and is certainly trailing behind the .com extension. The USA is absolutely .com minded and it will take the registry a bit more effort to get some live into the .US extension.
Since GoDaddy did not win the contract for .US the future for our extension has become a bit questionable,..yet, i still have hopes! :tu:

IB

Mike, what are your opinions on .info ? A large % of my portfolio are .info and I'm thinking of not renewing them.

GIL

 

[NPKJB]

I read peaple saying that their domain dot com gets hundreds of clicks a day and yet I look at those names and some of them look really crappy, and then I look at a few of my domains and I think that I should be doing a lot better. Obviously that person must have a lot more knowledge than I have to be able to monetize it so well.

Gilasn..... I see the same thing as you. What I think are pretty crappy names, people are saying they get hundreds of clicks per day on them. I just don't understand. That's why I read, read, read till my vision is blurry. I need to understand what makes a profitable name.

 

[scooby47]

Well done you ! in reading here - and about the sector , learning , testing and trying names out ..

I wish you well for the future ..


It is said that as " late " to the game as some of may be .. there is still space to occupy .. so research well, be insightful as you clearly seem to be .. and who knows you may be a name that we all read about on the domainer/name sale blogs in the future ..


Great post .. thanks for sharing !

Scooby

 

[GILSAN]

Gilasn..... I see the same thing as you. What I think are pretty crappy names, people are saying they get hundreds of clicks per day on them. I just don't understand. That's why I read, read, read till my vision is blurry. I need to understand what makes a profitable name.

Looks like you and I will be needing glasses soon with so much reading!
At this rate, by this time next year we'll be buying those money counting machines that the banks have, to entertain ourselves for a few minutes every day counting all that made from our crappy looking names!

GIL

 

[PowerUp]

BIN? what the hell is BIN?

GIL

BIN = Buy It Now price. You will see this term in the domain marketplace section.

I got too excited about domain parking when I found out about this parking industry and I snapped up some domains at BIN without going through the auction / offer.

Another mistake is I bought some names based on Bodis revenue X 20 months, when Bodis revenue was at all time high.

 

[Mike]

Mike, what are your opinions on .info ? A large % of my portfolio are .info and I'm thinking of not renewing them.
GIL

.info is borderline in my eyes. Ironically, i just registered "futurepilot.info" yesterday, optimized it, run active arbitrage on it and it's my highest earner today. I'm quite surprised by that as other domains, within the same branch, same keywords - almost identical arbitrage haven't generated anything today.
Under normal circumstances, .info in association with a decent keyword is not a bad domain to have, since it's self descriptive through its extension .info - information. "Information about becoming a pilot." It's the user's logical train of thought that leads them to understand the association and encourages a click.
In regards to renewal fees; .info has another plus point, they are affordable and recoup their registration fee rather quickly. If you're able to make .99cents/year you've already broke even, anything beyond is profit. All the while you can hold out until you either drive enough traffic and convert to generate additional money, or you compile intermediate revenue and sell the domain as a "money maker". Last but not least, there's the end-user game, which i'm not sure how well .info is accepted. That would be something for another thread - "How many .infos are developed end-user sites?"

IB

 

[rickkumar]

1, Investing in overpriced ccTLDs that have virtually no chance of success as their registry doesn't adequately promote them.

2, Not sticking with .com as primary extension
3, Not having paid enough attention to .US as i believe this extension to be a "sleeper" that once it wakes up, should generate a revolution.

4, Not going into parking earlier
5, Not utilizing arbitrage earlier

6, Registering absolute CRAP, thinking that i've just discovered a diamond in the rough and that i'll beat Da Vinci to making gold out of steel.

7, Relying on unreliable programmers to build sites for me. By that i don't mean mini-sites, but full sites that are functional with a built database. (I'm still looking for a reliable partner that can program)
7.5, Not having the nerve to sit down and learn programming myself and relieve myself from dependency.

8, Not reading NamePros attentively enough as there are threads that could have easily helped me to avoid stupid mistakes.

9, Being impatient, always attempting to re-invent the wheel, while it's blatantly obvious that domaining is an exact science that thrives on research, forecasts and ...yes, research...

and last but not least....

10, Carrying the pride factor deep within me that tells me that even when i should just let a domain expire, i still contemplate to renew my "baby". Domaining is NOT an emotional business, yet i catch myself often that i believe in my even crappy selections. It's a case of virtual denial, that's going to hit me hard this year when renewals come around in less than 2 months.

IB

PS: Thanks for mentioning me Gilsan, i appreciate it, but in the end, i'm just a small fish in the deep water.

Holly crapp
:sold:

These are exactly the same mistakes that I have made, and this is exactly how I feel.

Nicely put IB.

 

[domainerph]

Personally, I think there is a space for the .info

It will not be for every domain.. As the reason for its existence, tt will only "blend" well as a resource sites.

Very good for generic names I think..

 

[iPlox]

I think I used to get too excited even if I found a half-decent name available and tried to snap it up as quickly as possible. After a while, you do get a bit cold hearted about it and wisen up.

So yeah, I guess I've kept the unnecessary excitement down.

 

[netmeg]

At this rate, by this time next year we'll be buying those money counting machines that the banks have,

My best customer sells tons of those things - I can get you a deal!

(ork ork)

 

[GILSAN]

My best customer sells tons of those things - I can get you a deal!

(ork ork)

If I ever get to the point of needing one of those machines it means I won't even need a deal, but since you're offering, then obviously I can't refuse it!

It's a deal! :sold:

GIL

 

[Aceredbaron]

Well I am a domain minnow, but i have managed to complete the full
quota of mistakes within a short time. Hope things only get better.

regged a hypen name rich keyword but absolute crap in traffic.

regged two sure shot winners only that turned into a TM nightmare.
Cant wait to get it dropped like a hot potato.

Reading DN journal and kicking myself "why didn't i think of it before"
I dont mean the heavy hitters even the second level going for @xx,xxx.

Regret not joining namepros few years ago.

Believing that I can rake in the moolah without research.

Enough for today i think

:hehe:

Every newbie should go through this thread and save a lot of heartburn.

 

[jido]

.info is borderline in my eyes. Ironically, i just registered "futurepilot.info" yesterday, optimized it, run active arbitrage on it and it's my highest earner today. I'm quite surprised by that as other domains, within the same branch, same keywords - almost identical arbitrage haven't generated anything today.

Could you define these terms for us newcomers?

Thank you!

 

[End User King]

purchasing from iPower.com when first started a few years back.

 

[dezinerite]

10, Carrying the pride factor deep within me that tells me that even when i should just let a domain expire, i still contemplate to renew my "baby". Domaining is NOT an emotional business, yet i catch myself often that i believe in my even crappy selections. It's a case of virtual denial, that's going to hit me hard this year when renewals come around in less than 2 months.

I'm pretty sure I'll be guilty of that when it comes to renewing my domains.

 

[nicedomains]

not paying attn to forums like this one and not investing in lll.coms when I started domaining years ago...

 

[NPKJB]

regged two sure shot winners only that turned into a TM nightmare. Cant wait to get it dropped like a hot potato.

Hope you don't mind me asking but what happened with the TM issue? Did you park the name and a company told you to take it down? Were you sued?

I have one possible TM name that I registered but didn't park yet. I did a search in the USPTO and the first two words of the name are TM but the one I added at the end of it isn't. Wondering if its still an issue and what can happen if I park or develope it.

 

[johname]

the first two words of the name are TM but the one I added at the end of it isn't. Wondering if its still an issue

I dont think adding a word at the end will clear you of trade mark issues. There is a ton of ebay****.com names out there and i heard ebay writes domainers about it. Microsoft i heard goes after peole too

 

[NPKJB]

I dont think adding a word at the end will clear you of trade mark issues. There is a ton of ebay****.com names out there and i heard ebay writes domainers about it. Microsoft i heard goes after peole too

Sorry to hijack this thread about TM issues but maybe this can save someone from making a mistake.

You said putting another word at the end will still get someone in trouble. Well, what about all of those Zune sites like zunescene.com, zuneinsider.com, zuneinfo.com etc. Microsoft didn't go after them.

 

[johname]

Some like the free advertisement and wouldnt think of stopping, others dont want to spend the lawyer money going after domainers, just depends on the name. When i said Microsoft i ment ones with Microsoft in the domain name. Plus mabe Zune names are on their list but its a low prority and they just didnt go after them yet, there no statue of limitation on trade marks

 

[opalxx]

The big problem i have is impulse buying and traffic and $ value that disappears immediately i have registered the domain. Like i bought nakedterror.com a month or so ago. Heaps of links, PR, indexed pages etc value through dnscoop about $4000. Now it has nothing..no links, no indexed pages and zero $ value? where did it all go???...are some domains redirected to give value when up for sale i wonder?

 

[Aceredbaron]

Hope you don't mind me asking but what happened with the TM issue? Did you park the name and a company told you to take it down? Were you sued?

I have one possible TM name that I registered but didn't park yet. I did a search in the USPTO and the first two words of the name are TM but the one I added at the end of it isn't. Wondering if its still an issue and what can happen if I park or develope it.

Sorry for the late reply. No I didn't park it but the seniors here at Namepros
warned about possible TM issues when I asked them for appraisal.