New guy with questions...

[Thedpro]

I am a true novice with domains. I purchased a few with the intent on selling them (and keep checking to see if others are available). I have a few questions for the more experienced domainers.

1. What are realistic expectations for resale of domains (ones that are brand new and no established traffic)?

2. Is using GoDaddy a sin for domain registration?

3. Should I bother parking these sites?

4. Without paying for traffic, how effective are key words and meta tags?

5. Has anyone heard of/used LazyURL products?

6. I know that I am added competition in the domain market, but is there anything that you wish you knew way back when that could help me today?

I thank anyone in advance who is willing to answer some or all of these and future questions.

 

[Kate]

1. It really depends on the name... it is still possible to reg decent domains that may appeal to an end user but clearly the best names have been regged a long time ago. Many people here are resellers and won't pay for end user prices. So you need to be proactive and reach out to potential end users if you have decent names.
2. Well no, but gd is a large (the largest) registrar and they cater to the average john doe, not the professional portfolio holders. They like to bombard you with a lot of advertising screens when you just want to reg a name. PS: Network Solutions does the same thing. They still have cheap prices which makes them popular I guess.
If you sell domains here it can make the transfer (push) more convenient for the buyer because many people use GD or at least have a user account there.
3. Always park your names so you have a rough idea of traffic if any. Traffic stats may help in sales.
4. Nowadays the search engines put emphasis on content. Other parameters like the TLD and IP location are also taken into account.
The meta tags will not really improve your rank. But you should still set your description tag, because the search engines will use your description in search results if there is one, and also the <title> tag.
Traffic can be built with development and patience.
5. I don't know... I wouldn't bother with it and don't pay for submission to search engines. Besides it's useless to promote parked pages with no real content to the search engines.
6. Personally I get most of my names from the expired domains auctions. I think there's more value in the aftermarket for expired names.

Read the forum a lot and don't make the common newbies mistakes. A lot of newcomers feel the urge to register and accumulate a bunch of crappy domains in order to make up for their lateness (been there ! :hehe: ). The truth is that quality is more important than quantity.
1 premium domain will get you farther than 100 mediocre domains.
Good luck in your endeavours and welcome to NP.

 

[Varon]

Wonderful answers there sdsinc. Reps added.

 

[PowerUp]

I've only got 1 comment to add-on to sdsinc's comment.

"Welcome to Namepros. " :hehe:

 

[Varon]

4. Without paying for traffic, how effective are key words and meta tags?

The keywords tag is almost obsolete now except for a few search crawlers. Meta description tags are vital. But if you intend to park your sites, you might not have an option to add these.

6. I know that I am added competition in the domain market, but is there anything that you wish you knew way back when that could help me today?

Believe it or not, I didn't know about services like dynadot which allow you the opportunity to taste domains with a grace period. If I had known about it in my early days, I would have saved quite a bit of money.

Thought I would attempt 2 of your questions.

 

[blaknite]

I'm still fairly green myself, but I've got a few things to add.

The first thing you should think about when you aquire a name is what you would use it for. Not could possibly, or might be an ok name for, but would use. If you can't answer that question clearly nobody else is likely to have any use for it either. I'm sure everyone here has done the same, but be prepared to write off 99% of the names you got when you first started. I can't even believe I regged some of the names I did...

As stated before, had reg names probably don't have much future. I'm sure there will be the odd diamond, but you'll go broke sifting through the dirt.

If all you're after is to resell some names, don't bother about meta tags and the like. Search engines are there to help people find the content they are looking for. They are not there to find names of domains that don't have any content. You could go and develop a slap together site for your names to try and build traffic, but I think you will find that will hurt your efforts. If I owned a company and was looking for that perfect name to create my online presence, I would be less likely to buy a domain if it already had a site on it. I'm not saying traffic is bad, but either you're in it to sell the name or your in it for the site revenue. Don't get lost somewhere between the two.

 

[SimpleDomaining]

Welcome to Namepros!
1.Everything depends on what the domain name is.
3. You should bother parking any domain, which you are not developing right now. Why? Because it might make you some money, and you will know your traffic.
6. Yes there is something i wish i knew before hand registering bunch of domains: if domain sounds cool just to me, it does not mean it is good for anybody else.