Newbie domainer

[King Leonidas]

Hello namepros community,

This is something new for me and i want to try as a hobby in the beginning. Lately i have read every article in here to get a taste about domaining. I have a few questions and would like to be answered from your experience, before to start creating my domain portfolio.

1. Is it possible a domainer to catch a sum of $10,000 to $15,000 a year from total sales?

2. I will be focus only on com/net extensions. Do you suggest any other except of these?

3. I am thinking to use domain generators like namestall.com and domainhole.com for my domains. What do you think or any other service to suggest?

4. Any free services to search for expired domains? I am thinking to buy few expired domains in purpose only to sell them. I will not use them for parking, my own website or adsense.

5. Tools for apraisals like estibot.com, valuate.com and freevaluator.com do they worth its money? If yes, which one do you suggesting to me or any other if i miss.

6. I am thinking to use namecheap as registrar, because they offer free whois protection for 1 year domain registration. I know that godaddy is the biggest registrar in domains and has discount coupons all the time, but for every domain privacy cost's an extra $5.99. Whats your opinion?

7. For auctions as i'm reading through here, the best places is godaddy and sedo marketplace. Godaddy charges 10% and sedo 20% for every domain sale. When one of my domains will be sold, how they get their commissions from me?

8. Can i use only my paypal account to get my money from the buyer and not escrow service?

9. As a newbie domainer why and when to choose one of the options fixed price, offer, buy now or 7 day auction. For example, if i estimate one my domains for $1000 what type of listing should i choose? Also for a $10,000 or $50,000 apraisal, what to do then fixed price or auction. Needed to know how to act on each listing.

Thanks in advance and i hope not to bore you with my post.
Good day to all members here.

 

[ImageAuthors]

This is something new for me and i want to try as a hobby in the beginning. Lately i have read every article in here to get a taste about domaining.

Good. Research is the most important thing. Most new domainers don't bother to study the market. They just buy blindly. Take your time. Know who your buyers are before you buy, and justify your purchases in advance based on evidence. If you wouldn't pay what you're asking in the buyer's shoes, then don't attempt to sell. That's it in a nutshell.

1. Is it possible a domainer to catch a sum of $10,000 to $15,000 a year from total sales?

Of course. If you buy the right domain and approach the right buyer, you can make $10,000-$15,000 from a single transaction. Don't assume that it will happen. Even when the buyer ought to purchase the domain, he usually won't. But this isn't luck. Study and work!

2. I will be focus only on com/net extensions. Do you suggest any other except of these?

Start with just .COM. Or, if you live outside the USA, consider the country code of your own country. Avoid the new vanity TLDs. New domainers think they're fun, but buyers aren't buying them. So you'd probably throw your money away. The best TLDs in terms of sales -- other than .COM, of course -- are .ORG / .NET and ccTLDs for major countries such as .DE, .CO.UK, .CA, etc. But pay attention to language issues. If you don't speak German, .DE is probably a bad idea. If you do speak Spanish, .MX or .ES might be a good bet. But I'll repeat myself: When you're new, focus on .COM. It sells for the most money. It sells most frequently. It requires less extra explanation for buyers to understand. And it holds its value best.

3. I am thinking to use domain generators like namestall.com and domainhole.com for my domains. What do you think or any other service to suggest?

No. Don't start out that way. Even if those are good tools, they will generate domains of a kind that isn't ideal for new domainers. Focus on domains that require no explanation -- not creative brandables. Those are a category you can consider once you've been selling domains for a while already. They're too risky unless you know what you're doing, and that takes time. Focus on real-world descriptive domains: UsedCars.com YES ... CrazyWhels.com NO.

4. Any free services to search for expired domains? I am thinking to buy few expired domains in purpose only to sell them. I will not use them for parking, my own website or adsense.

GoDaddy Auctions
NameJet
SnapNames
DropCatch.com
That's a start.

Here is a weekly article series:

http://domainnamewire.com/2014/09/11/expired-domains-liyou-drastic/

5. Tools for apraisals like estibot.com, valuate.com and freevaluator.com do they worth its money? If yes, which one do you suggesting to me or any other if i miss.

Ignore them. Ignore them. Ignore them. Ignore them. Ignore them.

Ignore them. Ignore them. Ignore them. Ignore them. Ignore them.

Ignore them. Ignore them. Ignore them. Ignore them. Ignore them.

6. I am thinking to use namecheap as registrar, because they offer free whois protection for 1 year domain registration. I know that godaddy is the biggest registrar in domains and has discount coupons all the time, but for every domain privacy cost's an extra $5.99. Whats your opinion?

You don't need Whois privacy protection. Why block someone from contacting you? Many of my offers come this way.

7. For auctions as i'm reading through here, the best places is godaddy and sedo marketplace. Godaddy charges 10% and sedo 20% for every domain sale. When one of my domains will be sold, how they get their commissions from me?

Don't focus on the auction platforms. Find your own buyers yourself.

8. Can i use only my paypal account to get my money from the buyer and not escrow service?

Yes. But there's no protection.

9. As a newbie domainer why and when to choose one of the options fixed price, offer, buy now or 7 day auction. For example, if i estimate one my domains for $1000 what type of listing should i choose? Also for a $10,000 or $50,000 apraisal, what to do then fixed price or auction. Needed to know how to act on each listing.

Ignore those appraisals. They're basically meaningless, and experienced domainers laugh at them. You will always think your domain is worth too much. So make sure that you give buyers a chance to negotiate with you by making lower offers and explaining why your $500,000 domain is only worth $500. Fixed price listings can work well too, but I'm guessing that your prices will be unrealistic scare buyers off. So just set up a low minimum offer threshold together with a buy now price and work at negotiating something in between ... assuming you eventually get a purchase inquiry, that is!

Good luck!

 

[N-A]

Hello namepros community,

This is something new for me and i want to try as a hobby in the beginning. Lately i have read every article in here to get a taste about domaining. I have a few questions and would like to be answered from your experience, before to start creating my domain portfolio.

Welcome, a lot of learning to do.

1. Is it possible a domainer to catch a sum of $10,000 to $15,000 a year from total sales?

Without a doubt provided you do your homework and selectively pick names that appeal to either resellers that you can sell at a healthy ROI or end users for much more.

2. I will be focus only on com/net extensions. Do you suggest any other except of these?

.com and selectively pick ccTLD's if you're savvy with the locale, customs, language and industries.

3. I am thinking to use domain generators like namestall.com and domainhole.com for my domains. What do you think or any other service to suggest?

Keyword Planner + Google Trends
Also look out for emerging trends on niche related sites (technology, etc.).

4. Any free services to search for expired domains? I am thinking to buy few expired domains in purpose only to sell them. I will not use them for parking, my own website or adsense.

Many aftermarkets to buy expired domains including GoDaddy. You can also use NameJet's pendingDelete lists and go through domains you would want to purchase after nobody else does at registration fees, use GoDaddy coupons (NamePros thread) as a start to keep costs low. Don't expect fast sales this way as domainers with deep pockets will get the cream of the crop and you will be stuck with mediocre $$ to low $$$ reseller domains.

5. Tools for apraisals like estibot.com, valuate.com and freevaluator.com do they worth its money? If yes, which one do you suggesting to me or any other if i miss.

All automated appraisals are junk. When I see a thread with the title "Estibot Appraisal $1250", I tend to not even open it. Free appraisals (NamePros sub-forum) by experienced domainers and ones in the niche on this forum are subjective and opinionated, but will give you a better valuation of what a domain is worth as they've been there, done that and got the t-shirt as opposed to a guessing tool.

6. I am thinking to use namecheap as registrar, because they offer free whois protection for 1 year domain registration. I know that godaddy is the biggest registrar in domains and has discount coupons all the time, but for every domain privacy cost's an extra $5.99. Whats your opinion?

It really depends on how big you want your portfolio to be. I'm consolidating to Name.com and Uniregistry.com. With Uniregistry built for domainers, it's got the cleanest UI. I would rather pay $12.88 (tiered discounts) for a .com than $1.49 + $7 privacy on a domain name at GoDaddy with all the upsells in your shopping cart. I've had instances at GoDaddy where going through the checkout process; if not quick enough, it magically registers. I stay away from GoDaddy and Moniker (due to a legal issue that may arise).

As of two or three days ago coupon codes FREE1 - FREE9 (that's 9 domains, use one at a time and select the privacy option on the 2nd screen to checkout) gives you 1 year ~$4.20 .com domains with privacy.

7. For auctions as i'm reading through here, the best places is godaddy and sedo marketplace. Godaddy charges 10% and sedo 20% for every domain sale. When one of my domains will be sold, how they get their commissions from me?

Commissions are automatically deducted. Your Sedo commission is off as it's a minimum of $50 for most TLD's (some $200) plus 10-20% depending on the marketplace.

8. Can i use only my paypal account to get my money from the buyer and not escrow service?

Sedo, GoDaddy and others pay through PayPal after funds are verified. GoDaddy has restrictions on the amount of a domain sold (off the top of my head $2000 and above) to be placed in Escrow.com.

9. As a newbie domainer why and when to choose one of the options fixed price, offer, buy now or 7 day auction. For example, if i estimate one my domains for $1000 what type of listing should i choose? Also for a $10,000 or $50,000 apraisal, what to do then fixed price or auction. Needed to know how to act on each listing.

All subjective. A domain is only worth what someone will pay for it and what you want to sell it for. Set reserves and hope for the best. And to sell $$$$-$$$$$ domains, you must have deep pockets to invest, have a good portfolio already or get damn lucky (which is more common than you think).

-David

 

[DnEbook]

In case not mentioned above …..avoid trademarked names, it's a common mistake

 

[King Leonidas]

You don't need Whois privacy protection. Why block someone from contacting you? Many of my offers come this way.

Thanks for your answer. But what to do with the spammers?

Yes. But there's no protection.

More specific please?

Sedo, GoDaddy and others pay through PayPal after funds are verified. GoDaddy has restrictions on the amount of a domain sold (off the top of my head $2000 and above) to be placed in Escrow.com.

Thanks too for your help. Also can you tell me about escrow service? Escrow is sister company with sedo? Do i need to register with escrow? If i use ecrow they will do the job for me, between the seller and buyer registrars, with an 3% fee plus the sedo commission?

 

[N-A]

Thanks for your answer. But what to do with the spammers?

Spammers are gonna get you either way as you have an administrative email that goes to your primary email account in the whois information. I use privacy, because it's free and people will still come if the name is right (I'd say for the most part, all of my names have privacy, but that doesn't stop email inquiries).

Thanks too for your help. Also can you tell me about escrow service? Escrow is sister company with sedo? Do i need to register with escrow? If i use ecrow they will do the job for me, between the seller and buyer registrars, with an 3% fee plus the sedo commission?

Sedo provides their own escrow service. Escrow.com is its own company.

 

[King Leonidas]

Spammers are gonna get you either way as you have an administrative email that goes to your primary email account in the whois information. I use privacy, because it's free and people will still come if the name is right (I'd say for the most part, all of my names have privacy, but that doesn't stop email inquiries).

This is something i didn't know and i always thought that if i pay for domain privacy then i can avoid spammers.

 

[biggie]

Lately i have read every article in here to get a taste about domaining

can't tell by those questions

cuz none asked..... "how to pick a good domain or how to sell a domain"

go back and re-read some more

imo....

 

[King Leonidas]

can't tell by those questions

cuz none asked..... "how to pick a good domain or how to sell a domain"

go back and re-read some more

imo....

Well let me correct it. Lately i have read several articles in here to get a taste about domaining. So far from my reading here for picking a good domain i must follow the next rules:

Only to choose dot-com domains.
Make easy to type.
Dont use numbers and hyphens.
The name must be short as possible.
Avoid trademarks names.

On how to sell a domain i have not get in there so far and i will be glad if you give me your advice. Thank you.

 

[biggie]

Well let me correct it. Lately i have read several articles in here to get a taste about domaining. So far from my reading here for picking a good domain i must follow the next rules:

Only to choose dot-com domains.
Make easy to type.
Dont use numbers and hyphens.
The name must be short as possible.
Avoid trademarks names.

On how to sell a domain i have not get in there so far and i will be glad if you give me your advice. Thank you.

Hi King

here's the deal

there is no rule, there are only exceptions.

but for a newbie, those would be considered "introductory guidelines".

on how to sell a domain, my advice is to learn how to buy domains that "sell themselves".

so, now you're probably thinking..."how does a domain sell itself"?

ponder on that for a moment.

imo....

 

[N-A]

Only to choose dot-com domains.
Make easy to type.
Dont use numbers and hyphens.
The name must be short as possible.
Avoid trademarks names.

1. Check, unless you learn the ropes around ccTLD's.
2. Define easy to type? Memorable or prone to typos? Every domain will have a typo.
3. Hyphenated domains don't necessarily kill value as some end users do go for them, but you're not going to get the money you hope. As far as numbers go, there are plenty of numbers that work in a domain name. Some being 247, 365, etc. In addition to that, NNNN.com's are good investments if you have the right number combos.
4. It doesn't have to be a LLL or LLLL. It can be 23 characters providing that the phrase is memorable, ex: ApartmentsInNewYorkCity.com (listed on Sedo with a make offer). It's an EMD ("Exact Match Domain") and a long tail keyword with 6,600 monthly searches, high competition and a suggested CPC bid of $3.44. And what do you know? It's registered, in 2003 (although it doesn't resolve at this moment as it appears it's transferring. To someone who bought it?).
5. Yes, you want to avoid trademarks.

There is a lot more learning that you must do and a lot of it can be found on this forum from people who have been there, done that, got the t-shirt and made $$,$$$+ sales.

 

[King Leonidas]

Thanks to all of you for your advices. I would like to ask a few more things about the payments from your sales. First i must say that i'm a european resident and i will use euro currency for payments. Now tell me please:

1. If i find my self the end user for a listed domain at sedo or godaddy should i invite him to join these marketplace's in order to sell my domain through there or not?

Should i register an account at escrow.com website and invite him to do the same? I dont want to use paypal cause no protection for the seller.

2. What if a buyer wants my domain through sedo or goddady marketplace, do i need to have my own escrow account?

3. When the buyer is located in USA, Canada, Australia or UK and my domain listings are set up in euros, how then will be pay me?

Thanks again

 

[ImageAuthors]

1. It is cheaper to use an independent escrow service rather than sell through market places that charge a 15% commission. Ethically speaking, if the sale begins at a market place, then you ought to use the market place to close the deal and pay a fair commission. But if the sale begins outside those market places, then it is prudent to initiate escrow on your own.

Various escrow services exist. I've usually used Escrow.com and Ecop.com and been happy with both. But there are others as well.

2. If a buyer wants to buy through those major market places, then they will generally use their own process. So you wouldn't need to worry about setting up escrow.

3. Currencies are converted by the market places. If you set up an escrow transaction yourself, then you specify the currency for the payment amount. The escrow company will pay you later, and the banks will convert from one currency to another. No problem as far as currencies go.

 

[King Leonidas]

Thank you very much. Now lets see if i catch the point.

For a listed domain in market place if there is any offer or bid from buyer then should be completed there. For a not listed domain if i find you my self then we go together through escrow service to close the deal.

When the banks will convert from one currency to another does this has effect my payment amount with conversion fees?

It's necessary for me to register an account with an escrow service?

 

[ImageAuthors]

For a listed domain in market place if there is any offer or bid from buyer then should be completed there. For a not listed domain if i find you my self then we go together through escrow service to close the deal.

Yes, that's my recommendation. Market places cost money to build and run; so it's fair that they get paid a commission if they initiate a sale for you. But if they didn't do any work to bring you the buyer, why pay them when direct escrow is a cheaper option?

When the banks will convert from one currency to another does this has effect my payment amount with conversion fees?

It never has for me.

It's necessary for me to register an account with an escrow service?

Yes, both the seller and buyer need to register to use an escrow service. I recommend that you set up your own accounts at more than 1 escrow service in advance. That will save time. Also, buyers usually have questions. It's better if you're familiar with the system; so that you can help walk them through it.