Trends, tips, and tools for domain buying and selling

[domain_names]

The practice of domain buying and selling is not short of challenges. Trends including the constant rise of new top-level domains (TLDs), saturation with “a dime, a dozen” domains without much (if any) market value, the increasing number of Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) complaints, and the prevalence of domain-related attacks have only added to the industry’s dynamism and potential pitfalls. In short, a lot can go wrong with domain purchases nowadays.

Still, when a potential opportunity presents itself, domain buyers need to be the first to know about it so they have enough time to conduct the necessary due diligence on a domain before committing to it. As part of this, l listed a few practices that seem crucial:

1. Set up alerts for taken domains: A domainer needs a well-thought-out set of high-value domains that might interest buyers in his or her niche. However, chances are that many of these domains of interest aren’t readily available for registration and currently have owners who may (or may not) decide to part with them at some point in the foreseeable future. This means domainers surely need a way to set up automatic alerts for domains that are currently taken as soon as their status changes. Doing so saves a lot of time compared to having to manually check one by one whether each domain is now available.
   
   
2. Stay on top of registration trends: It’s only normal for domain registration and ownership to mirror market trends. As such, domainers can benefit from knowing what may, for example, be the next most likely batch of startups and tech innovations launched on the market. Having a high-level perspective on what’s in and out is possible by relying on domain intelligence feeds in order to see what specific qualifiers, terms, and types of domains are currently being registered and dropped. An understanding of other domain investors’ moves also can help in buildings a solid domain investing strategy.
   
   
3. Investigate a domain’s good and bad history: Under the right circumstances, old domains can bring a lot to new owners including search engine recognition, traffic, and other SEO gains. Then again, benefiting from a domain’s past achievements would only work if domain names have had no ties to suspicious or malicious activities. That’s why doing intensive background checks on domains of interest is always a good idea prior to actual purchase.

Note that as a representant of WhoisXML API, I am taking the perspective of a domain and IP intelligence provider. We have developed various proprietary data feeds and tools to empower the above-cited practices.

Tools That Can Help with Domain Research and Monitoring

• Newly Registered & Just-Expired Domains Database: This database provides access to 100,000 newly registered and just-expired domains. It encompasses daily results for 1,250 generic TLDs (gTLDs), including the new ones. You can examine the data to identify domain registration trends.

• Domain Availability Check: This service allows quick searches regarding a domain’s availability status. In combination with other tools on this list, it lets you stealthily engage in research to avoid domain frontrunning risks.

• Domain Monitor: This tool helps you track ownership and other WHOIS record changes for domains of interest. You can also use it to monitor existing and unregistered domains.

• Registrant Monitor: Similarly, this service lets you monitor which domains specific individuals and organizations, including fellow domain investors, have acquired lately.

• WHOIS History Search: You can rely on this tool to uncover everything about a domain’s ownership history. Find out if the domain or site you’re interested in may have had bad publicity by tracing their previous owners and organizations.

• Threat Intelligence Platform: This enterprise-grade tool makes it easy for you to analyze a website’s content and infrastructure. It enables you to check if the site or domain has had ties to any criminal or fraudulent activities.

This is only my perspective on the matter and I’d like to know if there are other aspects that are worth mentioning regarding today’s domain investing market. What challenges are you currently facing as you expand your portfolios? How do you avoid falling victim to shady deals? What metrics or tools do you use? Maybe our company can help.

This was a promoted post.​

 

[biggie]

What challenges are you currently facing as you expand your portfolios?

Hi
not trying to expand it, per se`
though I might add some names here and there, and even drop a couple that didn't pan out for the reason acquired.

How do you avoid falling victim to shady deals?

basically, use common sense
and by avoiding those "too good to be true" deals, where most of the shady happens

What metrics or tools do you use?

mainly, i use my brain...
while trying not to look, where most search
but I will utilize the experience of my peers, if needed.

imo...