advice What domains should you register?

[Matty W.]

The one question that gets tossed around this forum on repeat is whether a domain is valuable or not. In this thread, I'll try answering the question entirely from my personal perspective, you're free to disagree as I'm sure many domain investors will due to what I'm about to say.

Let's start out with the obvious stuff. Is your domain 30 characters long? If so, then no, do not register it if you're looking to sell to an end user. Is your industry-specific domain infringing on a trademark? If so, then no, do not register it as a company is likely not going to purchase it with the risk associated. Is your domain using a random TLD? If so then be cautious when registering, only because [domain].com sold for 5 figures doesn't mean your [domain].live will sell for similar amounts.

Now that we're done with the basics, onto the more controversial stuff.

If you're looking to sell to an end user, they likely do not care;

• About the domain's age.
• The DNS history of a domain.
• Archive.org history (assuming it's legal & not NSFW).

As much as the figures may matter to an investor. Unless your domain is targeting a tech startup niche - they likely do not care about the above statistics. Are they still cool to show? Absolutely! If your domain is two decades old, show it off, maybe just not at the top of your promotional content. Instead, what you should do is try answering the following questions yourself.

• What keywords does the domain target?
• What's the CPM of the keywords?
• How easy is it to pronounce?
• Could I see this being a brand?
• What is the domain associated with?
• What industry is it likely to attract?

As someone who is prone to 'buying before I miss the chance' - I am all too familiar with buying a domain and then regretting it days later. To help minimise this, I try to ask myself the questions above to actually understand whether I'll be able to sell the domain or not. When asking these questions, make sure to just stay absolutely truthful with yourself, and if you can't do that, then I would heavily recommend finding a buddy of some sort to gather their initial thoughts on the domain -- if they're not involved with domains, it works even better! They will purely focus on the name and its brandability, not some arbitrary price given by a free valuation tool.

My last 'tip' is to just have fun & don't stress it too much. Losing money sucks, but stressing whilst losing money sucks even more. Don't buy a domain with your last $10 in the hopes you'll get a 400% ROI within 24 hours, because it likely won't happen.

I'm more than happy to go into more detail with actual figures and statistics if requested by anyone.

 

[softcash]

thanks,i agree with you

 

[BaileyUK]

That's a pretty good summary as a 'Starters toolkit' I'm not over keen on such words as 'Probably or unlikely' when it's a blanket No or never in reality. Sure we all use these soft terms to soften the blow. But, your often helping more by calling a Spade a Spade.

Talent spotting in domain wording is akin to appreciating good music in any genera, pretty useless if your tone-deaf