I have been here long enough to know when people are lowkey selling or promoting, you devolpe a radar for it and yes that it happened to me means that it can happen to everyone if you just put the effort in.
There is NO NEED to spend hundreds of dollars on domains, like I said, bad advice and I am not selling shit (-_-)
Just don't rely on your radar too much, because it's pretty off. I sell whatever domains ranging from $5 to $5000. This is a side job, I can log out of here, never log in again and my life would not be any worse for it. I am not depending on spreading bullshit to actually make money, like some here do.
If it happened to you, it means it can happen to anyone who is actually qualified to turn on a computer and can use his/her head. Which, alas, does not apply to most users of this forum.
Using domains (overall) can be problematic for newcomers for these reasons:
- It can be problematic to find something niche relevant (this applies to whatever domains)
- Domain can be penalized, or otherwise screwed up, most people do not have the ability to properly check the domain background.
- Finding something brandable can be pain in the ass
- Most people are unable to evaluate backlinks properly, nor have any idea how anchors actually impact the money site
So all in all, registering a small domain and avoiding aforementioned issues can be troublesome. And all of it because of a few referring domains that will not help you rank much better (if at all) is simply not worth the bother.
Not to mention that most people here first pick a niche and then start looking for a domain, which can be borderline impossible sometimes. It should be done the other way around, finding a nice domain and picking a niche based on it.
That's why my "bad advice" is: If you actually want to spend time and money on an expired domain as a money site, make it worth your while and spend big. That's the reason why bigger auction domains in particular niches like health, go for such ridiculous prices.
If you do your homework properly, bigger domain will rank well without any further SEO. Smaller domain will not (depending on competition) and will require further spending on SEO services/PBNs, you name it.
So while people who know what they are doing can work and grow with smaller domains, newbies won't be able to do that and will expect miracles from RD5 domain which won't do crap.
Are we clear now?