Should I only buy .com, or?

[RickRaven]

I have some domain name ideas in my mind, I checked them and they are available. Now the question is if I should buy only .com tlds or plus .net, .org, etc. too.

Purpose of buying domains could be going to develop or could be just domain flipping.

What I am worrying is if I don't buy some other tlds, they may buy, say, .net tld instead of buying my .com. On the other hand, I have no experience in domain market, and I am not sure if I can sell my domains and profit. I am new to market, and I don't want to waste my money on domains which I can't sell...

Of course there is always a risk in any kind of trade. But I want to minimize it.

What should I do, and what are you experts doing in this manner?

 

[Jason.tv]

domain buying is an art is most professionals will tell you, takes years and thousands of dollars with horrible domains to build the experience of buying..

I enjoy premium .tv domains, within a 3 month period I have managed to get national.tv - c4.tv - clips.tv and my next one is one of the best premium .tv names available on the internet.. If I managed to do this anyone can, unless you think the .tv extension is useless

thanks,

Jason

 

[Erdy]

Hello Rick,

If both the .com and .net of the domains you checked are available, there is 99% chance that domain term is rubbish and nobody will buy it from you.

Just have a look how many members namepros has. There are 173,204 registered namepros members. I'm assuming there are at least 20.000 active domainers. What are the chances that you might find a valuable domain available to hand register?

I suggest you start checking expired domains. Nearly all domains that expire either go to auction or are offered for sale with fixed price. You can buy expired domains for as low as $5 on top of regular registration fee. These low price expired domains are available at godaddy.com and they are called Godaddy Closeouts.

You can find godaddy closeout domains here:
https://auctions.godaddy.com/

Most newcomers lose money and they quit after losing a few hundred bucks or more. So my suggestion is, don't register those domains. You will lose money.

 

[nielsencl]

These days, if the domains are available then they may not be that valuable. Of course they could have been overlooked or something that most people have not caught onto yet, but chances are slim. If you feel pretty sure they are good, and have the money to gamble, then go for it. If not, then talk to some people and see what they say. Sure, they may run out and register the domain name, but then you know your feeling was right and next time you won't tell anyone. If no one thinks they are very good, then you have saved some money (unlike most of us...). Eitehr way you learn something that will be useful in the future.

Now if you are not sure it's totally hot, then just get the .com. Anyone that wants to put up a site is going to want the .com. Others may register the .net and so on, but the .com site will generally always be seen as the most important and the one that will take away some of the traffic from the other TLDs as people hear about the site and forget what they heard about was NOT your .com.

Most will advise that you start small. Crawl before you run. Get a domain or two that you feel good about and see if you can sell them. Ask for a free appraisal here on NP. See what others think. Check Estibot.com, but remember that what they say is the price you can expect if a miracle happens. Your milage will vary greatly. Find some domain sales and plug those domains into Estibot and see what it says. That can be a good reality check.

 

[Sparhawke]

Before you buy any domain that you have an eye on think about who you might sell it to, for instance if you had NewYorkRestaurants.com you might want to find a huge list of caterers in the NY area and fire off an email to them to let them know you have it and you are open to offers. Same with TennisShoes.com or BungeeJumping.com

Of course the chances of getting domains like these are nil to none but it is a good rule to stand by, if you know your likely buyers before you part with cash you will be more likely to come out ahead

Better to start with expired, closeout or reg-fee domains first though instead of buying something for $xxxx and hoping to make a profit, it will not happen much because high prices are usually end user prices

There was someone a while ago who got wildlife.net for around $1500 though, this is a category killer domain; one that encapsulates an ENTIRE super-niche and it was a bargain, I think we appraised it at about $5-7k and he eventually sold for $6k?

This kind of thing is rare though, for every 1 of those there are 10,000 that do not make it, so start slow and eventually you may get to a point where you can use profits to buy the more lucrative ones.

 

[Thunderan]

I would like to say that there are various domain name extensions, but .com is the most preferable one.
I register .net as an alternative to .com domains.