HandRegs list - Now what?

[Maldo]

I have been developing a list of domains that are available to register. My question is: how to decide which ones to register? Any advice is welcome.

BTW, i only have 15 - sold one at auction basically at cost. Started reading and learning leas than a year ago. Just looking for side money right now. But I think some of these could be very good...

 

[NameLlama]

Pay a Pro to give you advices in private
Or post all the ones you found here in public

 

[Domains - Wanted]

I have been developing a list of domains that are available to register. My question is: how to decide which ones to register?

1) Google them to see what's going on with the terms/keywords used; are there any potential quality* targets for outbound** marketing? How many? The more, the better a prospect a domain is!

2) Check Whois history if any were registered before;

3) Check Archive.org if any had been developed before;

4) Check for trademark conflicts; IMHO, nothing wrong or illegal with registering trademarked terms (like my GoogleConsulting.com, for example), but unless you really know what you are doing and are prepared to fight tooth and nail defending such domains come UDRP time, avoid trademarked domains like fire!

5) Based on points 1-4 above, consider how you would develop and monetize each one of them; how much money do you estimate you could make on each? Prioritize based on that.

Warning: handregistering is cheap and fun! That is by no means synonymous with making any money doing this. It's easy to fall into the Handreg Trap... you telling yourself: if I handreg 50 or 100 "great domains", some of them have got to sell for sure! I'm investing very little money, say, $200 only, there is no risk! Right?

Wrong! There is a very good chance none of the handregged domains will sell. A year later, come renewal time - and time flies very fast when domaining! - very discouraged, you will drop them all. That's not domaining. That's throwing good money away!

So how do people make money handregistering? First of all, most don't! Secondly, pro handregistering means:

a) going after domain droppings, that's tens of thousands of .com's dropped every single day, that haven't been scooped up at expired auctions or by dropcatch pros like HugeDomains! This is hard work, often with nothing of interest to show for it!

b) doing your homework, due diligence, before registering any! Long hours, hard work again!

c) doing outbound** on anything you register! More hard work, no fun at all!

d) last and by far most important: staying the course! Most handregs don't sell in the first year or two. So, stick to your guns and... renew them! Well, for the most part.

*) There are targets and quality targets! Quality targets are those that have substantial financial resources.

**) Handregistering is synonymous with outbound marketing, also known as direct marketing. If you're not up to cold calling lots of prospects (assuming you'd done your homework), forget about handregistering!

 

[Maldo]

Well, very discouraging from my point of view but thanks. Like I said, I have done a bit of research, am not a total idiot, and think I have some good prospects. My question is about how to decide among them.

 

[Domains - Wanted]

Well, very discouraging from my point of view but thanks. Like I said, I have done a bit of research, am not a total idiot, and think I have some good prospects. My question is about how to decide among them.

Great, as long as you keep in mind that think is the operative word here, and not have good prospects!

Lets put it this way: if you need to ask that (how to prioritize them), this says a lot about the quality of your research and resulting names!

Okay, time for a little encouragement: you're doing your homework, that is research, asking questions before registering! That's better than most people starting out

Full disclosure: I have a portfolio of nearly 4,000 domains; almost exclusively .com's; almost all are handregs; I renew about 85% of them; I sell less than 10 names each year at high $xxx to low $x,xxx, without really trying (few landers, no listings, no outbound); as things stand, it's easy to calculate that I loose money on this! I'm not trying to discourage anybody here. Knock yourself out, by all means, follow in my footsteps

But handregistering and domain flipping wise, I'm a good case study of what not to do!

Okay, so I know full well what I'm doing. But I'm not into domain flipping. It's an investment. I have a plan. I should break even this year. But if not, I can still afford to stay the course, continue renewing them. Can you?

 

[D Haynes]

Full disclosure: I have a portfolio of nearly 4,000 domains; almost exclusively .com's; almost all are handregs; I renew about 85% of them; I sell less than 10 names each year at high $xxx to low $x,xxx, without really trying (few landers, no listings, no outbound); as things stand, it's easy to calculate that I loose money on this! I'm not trying to discourage anybody here. Knock yourself out, by all means, follow in my footsteps

I commend your honesty! Kudos to you.

 

[Kpett]

@Maldo - for hand-reg domains you are interested, to make real money I think you need to think long term. Find names with keywords or a great pronounceable "brandable" - six letters or less. Stay away from numbers and hyphens. All names in .com extension. Then be prepared to sit on the names for years in order to see real profits, while at the same time occasionally doing some outbound marketing to potential end users after you've had the domains for a while. Yes, you will have renewal fees, but in the long run you can possibly sell for thousands a few years from now as long as the domains have good potential.

Good luck!

 

[JayT]

It is great you are not reg'ing on a whim. Just register a couple of the best from you list and keep leaning and see how you feel in a few months. You won't go too wrong taking it slow.

 

[FavourB]

I have just few domains as am new to the industry,
And I came in as a broke ass,
So I didn't have money to buy the prenuim names that could fetch me instant money, so what i did was, I brought out 150$ and started going through expireddomains.net
I took my time and boom I registered one useless domain
And I said to myself no problem, I went in again and boom here goes another useless domain
So I came here to namepros and started reading articles,
Then I handreg fannynails.com
The salon has different stores in different locations so I smiled
Not long I got an offer of 150$ for hand reg and I declined
I was thinking I will get more and more but that seems to be the only offer
When I read more and more about domaining I noticed that the best name to reg when doing hand reg is Brandables names,
So I wasn't looking for prenuim or very good names on expireddomains.net because after months of searching it was clear to me that the are all gone,
Then I started thinking brandable names in my head
I registered 2
And the next day i got two offers for one of the names,
But it was low xxx so I declined the offer too
And I told myself even if it means renewing the name till I hit my target
So all am saying handreg is not advisable but is not totally bad, if you are totally good with names go into brandable names, note it might take time to sell but once you got a good name it will definitely sell..
When I reg ciragold.com
I didn't know someone was thinking of naming his deodorant/perfume line cira gold,
So I got low offer for it, but I wasn't willing to let it out, it might turn out to be a big hit tomorrow and what did I get for thinking out the name, so I declined the offer...

So if you don't have much funds and you want handreg I will advise go for brandable names all the major hit names are gone,
List them on brandpa
Go to DNgeek and read daily sales..
Most sales there are brandable, read to learn and stick to .com only
When you are able to flip good money from handreg then come into the main jungle and attack

 

[YourBestTrader]

To start off with and to put my comment in perspective... I don't consider myself a domainer expert. I'm intermediate and I coach beginners so that they waste less time and money. I'm not an expert though.

That said, here's some of the advice I give to the beginners that I mentor:

What most newbies don't realize is that there are only around 20 very well defined domain categories... and if your domain isn't in one of them, AND conforming to the rules of what makes that domain have value in that specific category... then your domain is very likely worthless.

Our jobs as domainers is to choose the easy categories when we are newbies... familiarize ourselves with the rules, and only then buy domains... that way we don't waste our time, effort, and money.

Many people don't realize that most of your profit is really made in the buying part of domaining and not in the selling part. Once you have the domain there are only a few things you can do to increase your profits... but when you buy... your choices are critical.

I'd say that without guidance it take people around 4 or 5 years to move from beginner to intermediate... but with guidance, you can be far more confident and waste significantly less money. For example, a good mentor can say yes or no before you commit to a purchase that you'd regret later.

Find a mentor who can help you understand the categories and value rules of the domains, and once you've made some good purchases, then get those domains some exposure. If you've done well, some sales will follow and you can repeat and scale.

You don't need a paid coach, but you certainly can benefit from someone paid or otherwise that is willing to devote time into your education. Left to your own devices you will likely spend thousands over the next 5 years in educating yourself with bad purchases and bad renewals.

This forum is an amazing place with excellent people and resources. There are also a lot of excellent articles online. Don't rush it... learn slowly and you'll get there eventually. This is a learnable skill.

Good luck!

 

[Grego85]

Ok, lets put an end to these "tell me if I should reg these names without me saying what they are" threads.

Reg the best 5 of them on your list right now at a registrar that supports grace delete. (I know Dynadot does, and having a sale on .com regs)

Share them here and we'll then be able to accurately tell you if you're on the right track or not. If any of the names suck then you can pay the dollar or whatever fee to get a refund on the name(s). This would also give you a good idea of whether the other names may be worth regging and taking a chance on.

They used to call it domain tasting. Take advantage of the grace delete!!

 

[dande]

Well, very discouraging from my point of view but thanks. Like I said, I have done a bit of research, am not a total idiot, and think I have some good prospects. My question is about how to decide among them.

Decide based on what you have learned so far. Or haven't you learn anything?

It will be very difficult to advice you on what name to register when we aren't privy to the said names