Tips for Newbies from a Newbie

[cmason]

Hi everyone, I have been in the domaining game just for a few weeks, but have been spending every waking hour learning from others. I feel that I should share some of what I have encountered in such a short period of time. I encourage those more experienced to offer their advice as I am only providing what I have experienced.

Aim high, but stay within reach. I have made the mistake in hoping that the 10 or so domains I initially owned would sell for loads of money in a short period of time - DEFINITELY not the case. Watch your parking stats and offer views increase...don't worry about sales yet.

Great resources. I know there are so many great forums outside of NamePros, but I am currently being completely served within this great community. Get appraisals from experienced members and get involved in conversations! For automatic appraisals (I will be slammed for this, surely) check out Estibot, but understand that YOU WILL NOT GET THAT AMOUNT OF MONEY. Use it to differentiate between potentially useless and potentially useful domain names. Their analysis is purely stats based and CAN offer a decent idea of if a domain is at least worth something.

Listing your domains. Sedo, Sedo, Sedo!!! Sedo has an amazing and clean interface with a great way to track your statistics (I use Sedo Parking). Afternic (paid) is fine and promoting your domains on NamePros may be useful, but I am finding that Sedo is simple for beginners and has great organization.

Beware of many hand reged domains. You may hit that golden hand registered domain name, but be sure to check out drop lists and low auctions. You may be able to find a great domain for $60-$100 in an auction that you can park, develop or flip with some effort.

Records. I am meticulous with my records. I label all of my registration/forum/username emails, have a spreadsheet for domains I own, am considering (with the availability date) and printouts of important invoices. If you get organized at the beginning it will be easier as your grow your portfolio.

Do buy. I will probably get flamed for this, but you learn best from your mistakes. Half of my domains that I bought before educating myself on the basics are worthless, but it was researching why they weren't selling that caused me to understand what DOES sell! Spend within your limit and don't EXPECT anything.

I will probably add some more items as I think of them, but I am tired of typing right now. The BIGGEST tip I have right now is to not get in over your head. Take the time to learn, but be willing to take risks as well. Ask questions and get involved.

I hope this helps some people, but keep in mind that I am a newbie as well! I would love to have others add their beginner experiences to this thread!

Good luck to everyone and may all of us become millionaires!

Cole

 

[Spade]

Cole,

I like your tips, all but the "Do Buy". As a newbie in this field, I know many people who get carried away. I just had a phone call with a domainer who spend nearly 13k on fresh regs. He will take a huge bath when he goes to sell.

I recommend to go nice and slow, soak up information as it becomes available - try to find some Domainers on this forum you admire and emulate what they are doing until you can find your own way.

 

[cmason]

Thanks Spade! The "Do Buy" part is definitely within what you can afford to lose. I have kept myself to 1 or 2 additions a day which I think has been good. It gets me thinking about the quality of what I am registering when I limit myself to that.

Soaking up information like a Sham-wow is by FAR the biggest thing you can do. Oh, and also, don't be stupid!

 

[-REECE-]

"Soaking up information like a Sham-wow" -- Haha, that's a good one!

"Aim high but stay within reach" -- I can't say that enough myself. It's great to have high aspirations but getting rich in this business isn't going to happen overnight, no matter how many ebooks try to tell newcomers that.

I like Estibot myself but agree, it's just one of the twenty other things you take into consideration when looking at a domain -- if it reports something unusually high, I'll do a bit more research on the domain and see if there's a reason for that. At least in my experience, it seems to report more realistic prices on generic .coms than on multi-keyword domains or domains in other extensions.

As you said, it's never going to hurt to get as much exposure for your domains as possible. As for records, I really can't emphasize that enough -- literally hundreds of pages for me. I'm not the most organized person myself, so Godaddy really helped with that, having a very organized invoice system which made it a lot easier for me.

Nobody learns to run before they learn to walk -- rather than waste money on an ebook, everything contained in which can be read on Namepros, spend that money buying 1 or 2 domains a week for the next month and getting the opinions of fellow domainers on them. I'm sure that'll do a whole lot more good for getting an idea of what to buy and what not to.

One thing I would add to that is stay away from speculative market segments and extensions -- even more experienced investors like myself have been burnt badly on some of these in the past.. They're great for putting a little money in and fun to watch, but you sure don't want to put your entire domain name investments into something unpredictable.

Really good information you have here Cole -- you've sure learnt a lot in a very short period of time.

Thanks Spade! The "Do Buy" part is definitely within what you can afford to lose. I have kept myself to 1 or 2 additions a day which I think has been good. It gets me thinking about the quality of what I am registering when I limit myself to that.

Soaking up information like a Sham-wow is by FAR the biggest thing you can do. Oh, and also, don't be stupid!

 

[cmason]

Great information -REECE-, you are the one that first helped me out on these NamePros forums so thank you!

Thanks for the comments on Estibot...it must be taken with a grain of salt, but I always feel embarrassed mentioning Estibot when promoting my domains!

Speculative markets is definitely a big point. I own only 3 .net's and 2 .ca's out of about 40 domains...3 of those 5 I regret buying. Now, .net and ccTLD's aren't overly speculative markets, but beware.

 

[CPHJackal]

All good advice. As a newbie myself I was lucky to see the "DON'T GO MAD" advice threads early, and if everyone on here is saying the same thing there must be something in it. I myself have cut down smoking and using the $12 I spent on cigs per day to buy a couple of domains a week kinda seems like a good tradeoff