advice New To Domaining And Need Some Advice

[Oneir]

Hello Everyone, I'm a total newbie to domaining, so please don't throw shoes just yet. I would love to get some input on my approach in these early stages. For the sake of full disclosure, I have experience with niche sites, and have keyword research knowledge. That said, in the 100's of domains I've analyzed being sold everywhere, there doesn't seem to be much focus on selling domains people (the average person) can actually rank for, and Im wondering why? Either there is zero to little organic vol, or competition is way too high. Attention seems to be more focused on things like word count, plays on words/phrases, and CPC (none of which matters if you can't rank), or estibot, which is fine, except for its algorithm is based on comps, not context. I do as much research as possible before committing to domain purchase. The goal, I would think, is to try to sell the buyer an asset they can actually develop, build from, and hopefully monetize. I guess Im wondering if my approach is flawed, and if Im going about it all wrong?

As a shot in the dark, I just put up my first domain today on flippa. Yes, Im aware its a .US. But again, there is reason for it explained in the description on the page. If anyone is interested, please check it out and let me know your thoughts. dentistoffice.us , and what I can do better.

Also, I'd like to get some input on ways people have marketed successfully. Whats the process? Of course flippa wants you to pay 60 bucks to get their "standard" push, and 250 or so for a big push. Is it a waste of money? What other free ways to market? Lastly, the Escrow is a little bit of a mystery as well. All registrars seem to require a 60 day hold on domains before they let them go. Any better solutions?

Thanks for any and all input.

 

[CrocodileDundee]

People and businesses primarly buy domains based on marketability, credibility / authority & memorability. Ranking the domain is not the primary concern.

When thinking of domains to buy consider what type of message you are trying to convey to your potential customers. Your domain doesn't really help a potential business seperate themselves from the competition, the .us tld is not particularly credible, the .com has the most "authority" - yours is the fourth choice (after .net and .org) I'm likely going to have to spend a lot of money to market this domain to my customers so they can even remember me. Dentist Office is not particularly memorable and is too exact match for a dentist to want to use imo. (I can see DentistOffice .com being used for some type of dental admin software.)

I can't really speak on flippa as I don't really use that marketplace, but hope this helps.

 

[Kate]

As a domainer my focus is more on branding, I like domains that can be turned into brands (better yet, household names).
I usually never look at metrics, search volume etc unless I need to dig deeper. I am more interested in the choice of keywords, how they rhyme and roll of the tongue, and their memorability etc.
Domainers want to sell names, or park them or do both.
Buying names for ranking is more a webmaster approach to things.

As @CrocodileDundee said, .us is very weak and not easy to sell. Your domain is not really an asset that somebody will think they should 'obviously' own. However, you can sell a developed and SEOed website. Then you are not selling a domain, you are selling a site and possibly a business. It's more webmastering than domaining (and the actual domain becomes less important, since any domain can rank after all).

 

[Oneir]

Thanks to both @CrocodileDundee and @Kate . I appreciate the responses. Can either one of you give me some examples of domains you like? Im interested in what that looks like. Also can either of you recommend a resource I could check out that would be a good step by step for learning domaining? Thanks again.

 

[Kenneth Smith]

Welcome to the best forum on the web and you will learn a lot here thats for sure.

 

[VaibhavA]

Hello, welcome to namepros.

You will be much better off doing yr research and applying it in .com or even .org to some extent. imo.

Happy domaining.

 

[CrocodileDundee]

Thanks to both @CrocodileDundee and @Kate . I appreciate the responses. Can either one of you give me some examples of domains you like? Im interested in what that looks like. Also can either of you recommend a resource I could check out that would be a good step by step for learning domaining? Thanks again.

I like any domain that offers a business or person the opportunity to own the "power position" for whatever it is they are looking to build or develop. Domains like Smart.com, Yoga.com, Hotels.com are obviously at the top of the domain pyramid (these are also the most expensive). But any domain that a business would look at and think "this could help me cement my brand or clarify my message or open my business up to new opportunities" is a domain I like.

A good place to start is DomainSherpa.com, watch through the featured interviews (and everything else) alot of great information there. Check out http://dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales-archive.htm and namebio.com to see what domains are selling. And read through all of the threads on this forum, alot of great infromation on here.

 

[saj110]

Welcome to NP @Oneir

The responses given by @Kate and @CrocodileDundee are wonderful and very practical and a learning point for me too.

Great to be on this forum, where you get to learn a lot from our experienced members

 

[PULKIT]

Welcome @Oneir to the best place for Domaining. I hope you learn a lot

Regards

PULKIT