Some advice I gave a newbie

[SearchEngineZ]

My PM reply ended up being quite long, so I thought I would share.

A newbie wanted to know how to choose a good domain... it's not as simple as that!

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There are literally millions of people trying to make an easy buck online. I was one of the first to use AdWords for PPC affiliate ads, and I made a lot of $$$. Then my friend Chris Carpenter wrote a book about it, and everybody was doing it - it suddenly become a struggle to profit from it.

When you have 5,000 people (or whatever the number is) all trying to snatch LLL.coms for cheap, the odds are stacked against you.

Same with keyword domains - there are tools that let you find them, based on CPC and monthly searches. What domainers are paying is rarely a bargain.

I think of domaining as being like the antique business. You can't get a feel for what is a bargain antique just from reading a book about it. You need experience. Years of it.

I started 6-7 years ago and paid $xxxx for domains that I ended up not renewing. I'm still learning, still making mistakes.

Ultimately, the best domains are ones that multiple end users will one day search for and have a strong desire to purchase. End users that have the cash to buy it. My average purchase price is $100, and my average sale is $1000. But my average selling time is 20 years (I sell 5% of my portfolio each year).

Hand-regging is unlikely to make you a profit. At least expired/dropped domains had someone liking them already.

Shorter is better. .coms are by far the best.

Follow the prices / appraisals here for a year, then look for dropped/expired domains in the $50-$200 range that you think can sell for $1000+. Buy few and buy well. Then expect to wait for a sale.

 

[Abdul Aziz R]

Thank you for your advice. You know there are thousands of domain names are listing in each domain auction. Does this make it harder for the buyer to search for a domain that fits his business/need? Which make it harder for the sellers to sell their domains! So, do I have to market my domains in all possible fields? Which mean but my domain portfolio in a website, list them in different domains auctions/markets, send some similar domain owners. I know the charming domain will attract the end users automatically. but what about the average domains!

some of my question are just as wondering. Everyday I learn new thing from any post. whether it was appraisal, listing, or question. You are right, it is not something that you can just read about it and you will know it. I have to read, try, lose, watch, compare.

 

[SearchEngineZ]

I've come up with business names from time to time, and you'll find that many entrepreneurs decide on a name first (or a shortlist) and then see how much it would cost to purchase.

For compassive.com it was just a made up word that I could hand-reg.

For healthquotes.net it was for a PPC campaign, where we wanted a close match to the keywords we were bidding on.

Most of my sales these days are to existing businesses that want a domain that matches what they are already called. I bought EverSys.com because I liked how it sounded. Turned out a Swiss coffee machine company used that name. I never buy a name for the purpose of selling to a specific customer, but often it works out like that.

Likewise, Fela.net was just a short, pronounceable name. Turns out the Fela Kuti people wanted it...

 

[leftfielder]

I've been testing the domain industry for over 6 years. Over the last two years, I've grown faster financially and intellectually than I have my entire adult life thanks to Goog. It's not formal education but it works for me.

I think you have great advice but variables will be different for everyone. Like many newbies, I had good mentoring but it took a while to hear the "results not typical" disclaimer.

Aged, three keyword domains sell well for me because they allow me cash flow needed to hang onto deep two keyword trends and sell at the height of the trend. I've heard people having 700 domains. All my renewal fees add up to $2000. If a disaster strikes, that's all I'm willing to part with to buy me another year.

I stick with domains that forward thinkers from 10 years ago drop. As you said about the antique market, it's about real-world experience and maturity, and sticking with what works too. It's highly competitive. Sometimes I win on technicalities because some people compete with themselves while pricing their domains too high.

If you have a fresh start, you've got to find your method, but only after after studying the experience of others and keeping track of historical sales data.

We all will drop a domain with no sales value or on accident, someone else will pick it up and drop it and in 10 years, a third person may make good money from it.

Money for everyone because if one end user said no 10 years previous, his business probably wouldn't have survived anyway, paving a path for a bigger better entrepreneur.