The life of a domainer

[groundctrl]

So, for the past 48 hours or so, I've been trying to figure out the essential tasks involved in domaining as a "career" or whatever. As I understand it, here are the necessary skillset and tasks:

1) Research to find out what's out there, and discover the value of what you own, or what you want to own.

2) Monetization strategies (found through research), how to get more out of the visitors you're getting, etc.

3) Bargaining in order to ensure you get a good deal for what you do purchase.

4) General web toolkit-- knowledge of as much as possible about the web. HTML, CSS, databases, forums,

5) Networking. Being able to be friendly, make contacts and help each other out.

Have I got most of them down? What would you add?

 

[IDEAS4]

9) Make sure your spouse/sig other is understanding of your addiction and does not drag you off to therapy for doing things few people understand -

And if I may add to Kerri's comments - I also read the paper everyday and catch new ideas to register, watch commercials and listen for marketing taglines - a very popular domain strategy among branded products -

If this is done right, it is a great vehicle for retirement - a virtually guaranteed appreciating asset in an expanding market with new opportunities every single day.

Watch for the day when large corporate Asset Portfolio Managers begin buying and holding domain properties for their long-term asset value just like their stock portfolios. Cha-ching! (preaching to the choir!)

 

[evenflow]

If you are not certain about a DN, then hold off from buying. If you think it may have long-term potential, make note of it on a separate list and if you are still excited about it a week later, buy it. Anything to reduce #8 from happening is key.

 

[mirrorcube]

9) Make sure your spouse/sig other is understanding of your addiction and does not drag you off to therapy for doing things few people understand -

I understand your pain.
:bingo:

 

[randomo]

8) The willpower to STOP YOURSELF from just getting all names that look "decent". Lack of this willpower is what does a lot of people in. They either don't have the money to spend when the true deals show themselves, or they simply have an "average" portfolio that gets lost in the sea of millions of domains being listed for sale online.

Yeah - and this applies not just to buying, but to registering. Most days, I reg a chunk of good-looking dropped domains. However, I'd like to reduce the quantity, since those fees really add up.

To do this, I need to avoid picking up the ones that look like "nice" domains, and only go for the ones that make me think "Holy cow! How on earth can THAT be available?!?"

 

[NameCharger]

9) Make sure your spouse/sig other is understanding of your addiction and does not drag you off to therapy for doing things few people understand

:lol:

That one is paramount!!!

I've been fortunate enough to where she actually notices domain names everywhere and comments on them. For the past few months I've been bouncing my findings/ideas/trends off her and she's been picking up on it so she understands the value in a good domain versus one that was regged because the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th choices were not available. (she's even commented, why didn't they choose a better .us?)

Now getting that sale to cover the past 3 months $regfees would make things very nice!

I would like to add another:

10.) Once you've had enough sales to cover your portfolio's annual $regfee and one month worth of living expenses, you finally tell your friends you've taken up the business of domaining.

 

[NameCharger]

11.) You've been in contact with a friend you haven't spoken to in years who shows you his band's website so you start listening to the music streams... then your domainer impulse takes over and you use the DT Whois Firefox extension DT Whois download link from Mozilla to check out the reg details, find out the domain is expiring within 2 weeks so you backorder it and if you happen to get it, will immediately push it back (at cost) as a friendly courtesy because you're not one of those cybersquatting scumbags.

11a.) Out of your domainer curiosity, you analyze said friends band's domain and find that it's almost 7 years old, PR3 with 146 backlinks, Alexa rank over 6,396,000, 268 pages indexed, makes you mutter under your breath "dayam", remembering the latter part of #11 that you're not one of those cybersquatting scumbags, so you:

11b.) Send an email to the webmaster letting him know your services include "domain asset management" and noticed his domain is expiring soon so he needs be on top of regging it, advising minimum of 3 years.

 

[VURG]

I was wondering this question:

If I wanted to go into full time domain trading, what would be a good skill to get qualifications in? Real Estate Licence? Programming?

 

[S-L-O-W]

+++Question does not compute. Yes a domainer is alive but a true domainer does not have a life. Self-destruct initiated. I see domain names in my Cheerios, I take 'domain check' pauses during Scrable and Literati, I worship Rick Shwartz+++
self-distruct.
COMPLETE

Here's my serious advice:

12) Take advantage of the tools at hand whether software or each other's knowledge. I have software that bulk search many niches and genres and extension and those are running through the day for me thus allowing me to maximize my time.

13) When I sell on Sedo, I always try to find out later who baught my domain name then later contact them and try to upsell either a service or a domain name within the same niche or field. For instant, this one media company just recently rebranded the entire company to a name I sold them off Sedo a few months ago. So I sent them and email today offering names of similar style and feel that they can use to cross-brand.

There's a few more I'll share tomorrow. It's 3:30am here and I'm wicked tired.

I was wondering this question:

If I wanted to go into full time domain trading, what would be a good skill to get qualifications in? Real Estate Licence? Programming?

Well Vurg, since I've gone full time a few months ago, what I found most neccesary is to be a Jack-of-all-trades. Learn different niche's but don't spread yourself too thin. For me, I diversify my portfolio into emerging markets focused on technoligies and health care; LLLL.com names that are pronouncable, and financial names that are keyword rich, and finally advertising/media related keywords. I'll rarely venture outside those realms, but I do once in a while to take advantage of market fluctuations.

 

[goodkarmaco]

Slow,

A nice twist about upselling, I like it!