My Experience So Far..

[Rossa]

Ahhhhh Ok...Domaining hey...

Alright so here is my short story.

I have always been involved in web development, I have handled projects for individuals (including myself) to large corporations. I have worked first hand in a variety of different industries, doing web development on the side. Domain merchanting is nothing new to me, I have always been familiar with it, though am I an expert? No.

I was browsing NamePros the other day because I was bored at work and stumbled across the market place and industry reviews. I remember seeing a post like "Server.com has just sold for 700k" or something along those lines and I think to myself "Wholly Shit. $700,000 for a domain name. Wow, there is some serious money out there.

So I decided I would try and have a go at this game of domain merchanting. I had the naive thought that I would register a bunch of domain names at $5 a pop and sell them at $5k a pop (I was going to be ****ing rich!). Was I right... Haha. No.

I compiled a list of roughly 5000 potential available domain names and then ran through the ones that I though were the greatest and reged them. After posting a couple of appraisal requests I had my heart broken. Oh well it was $50 for the domains I reged. Nothing important. But I have come to the realisation that there is no decent domain out there worth any real money that you can reg.

After doing a bunch of research, reading a bunch of guides (most of which were shit) I think I am ready to start pursuing some serious buying and selling. My focus: Premium domains. Im currently raising the funds to buy several very nice premium domains...

Im posting this in the newbie section because hopefully my experience will help you, dont think you can go out there an instantly become rich by registering a few domains that you think have 'obvious potential' , save yourself a bit of money and research before you make any purchases, there are tonnes of guides and resources out there that will help you learn. Good luck to you all.

 

[zehrila]

Look up for new startups, new technologies and register domains about them such as when sony announces new console you can go ahead and register domains which users would be searching in search engines, such as console name games, buy console name, console name themes etc. Secondly, you can invest in 4 letter dot come domains. What ever you do, spend your money wisely.

 

[gafadi]

^^^ what you suggested is mainly Tm domains, for a new domainer i wouldnt suggest getting your hand dirty with Tm domains, but like zherila said invest in LLLL.com , they have good market you can buy premium letter , pronounceable depending on your own budget. This economy is a buyers market, you can get good domains at cheap atm , i would suggest to stick with .com but if you want you can also look into buying good , pronounceable lll.in . Good keyword domains , keywords that have high search volume , you can check in google keyword tool .

And welcome to Namepros and domaining , its not just you that had regging in $5 and selling 5k a pop dream, some even had dream selling their domain in XXXXx's . What really happens is unlike other professionals , in which you study first, make yourself ready for it and you know the market,value etc but what most of the domainers really start from is looking at selling prices of domains in sedo and other marketplaces, they go and register like 100's of domain and later when they become more fimiliar they go like " oh , oh Ok thats where i was wrong " . Its all right it happens of most of us ( i cant speak for other) but same happened to me .

 

[Rossa]

Thanks for the responses guys, im sure the majority of domainers on this forum started out with the same thought process as me, that is, they will get in cheap and sell high (either that or im telling myself that to make myself feel better :P). Its natural, otherwise why would you do this? I can only think of two reasons: 1. Its fun 2. You can potentially earn a shitload of money. I very much doubt that there is a single person on this forum who hasnt purchased a domain only to find out that it holds no value. Im just glad I got it out of the way first up, listened, learned and ultimately learned my lesson.

To be honest, the main thing that attracted me to this - what I like to refer to as a 'Game' - was the excitement, I still remember when I was younger I used to play online multiplayer adventure games such as RuneScape ha and all I used to do was sit there merchanting, earning money, because thats what attracted me to that game. Its really no different here.

 

[localexperts]

I'm an engineer and I would suggest browsing the drop list at snapnames, namejet, and pool.com. You can pick up tons of decent names for $20 to $200. Here is the secret, you have to think like a domainer AND an engineer, which means if you develop a small directory on these sites, you could build a nice business with decent revenues IMHO. Even if you don't want to develop, you could market most of these domains to businesses and get $XXX for most of them.

Some really nice domains are being dropped. For example, WashingtonChiropractors.com. You could build a small directory of local chiropractors or market the site to a Chiropractors in Washington, DC or Washington State and probably get $400 to $800 for that domain name. Another example is CateringVenues.com. You could build a directory of venues or market it to a banquet hall. 4X to 6X ROI is not bad and I think reasonable expectations for some of the domains being dropped.