Tyskeen
Newbie
- Mar 14, 2018
- 36
- 20
Hey guys, so I have done domain flipping for about 6 months now, and I can tell you that it can be pretty overwhelming for a "noob" to get into it.
Beginners often think that whatever name they like, will be worth a lot of money. But the reality often looks different. In this beginners guide, I want to give you some starter tips on how to get your feet into domain flipping, so you can make your first profits asap!
1. Buy cheap - sell high!
This one is kinda obvious and yet still many new domainers are making this mistake. They take all their saved up money to buy a domain which they think will "kill it" and will be sold for thousands.
A few days later, they start to realize that no one likes the domain, or that it will be much harder to get rid of it again than they thought it would be.
So here is my advice: If you are at the very beginning, try to buy domains as cheap as you can. Try to hand reg them (register them at registrars like NameCheap) so that you can be sure to make some profits.
When you have sold a few of them, let's say you have sold 5 $10 domains for $50 each, then you can go on to invest that money into more expensive domains.
2. ONLY .COM
Beginners (including me) often tend to look for all the opportunities they can find. While this might be good in other markets, when it comes to domaining you should focus on .com only, especially if you are a beginner.
It's far too speculative to think that this .dog domain you have seen will bring you $10K
If you end up spending your money on new TLDs then you should stop asap, and focus on .com.
Why? Because .coms have the highest resale value and are always in the highest demand. That means you can sell a .com domain a lot faster, compared to a .info domain.
There will almost always be a buyer for your .com domain! But this won't be the case if your domain is .net, .org or anything else. Sure, there will be buyers too, but these will be much harder to find and your profits won't be as good as with a .com domain.
3. Budget!!!!!
This one is really important, as many people just tend to buy everything they like without giving themselves a budget. With a budget, you'll know how much you can still spend on domains, without wasting money you'd actually need for other stuff.
Believe me, I have been sort of addicted to buying names I loved, just to find out that I was the only one who loved them. There you are, having a big domain portfolio, maybe spent $500 (a lot for a beginner) but all you did was buying crappy names with no resale value, just because you had no idea of what you were doing.
So please do me and yourself a favor, and give yourself a strict budget. This will save you from lots of headaches.
4. Don't fall in love
You should never ever fall in love with a domain name. You should always be skeptical and be 100% sure that you really want to buy it, and that it really can be sold afterward.
What happens when you fall in love with a domain is, you'll be mentally able to waste much more money for buying it + you will value it much higher than everyone else.
That means, that some people will value your domain for around $50 or maybe even up to $300, but you actually valued it at $1k. And now you're mad and you don't know what to do.
This leads us to the next point:
5. Do your research
Always check the demand for a domain before you buy it, Get the "keywordseverywhere" chrome extension, which will show you the monthly Google search volumes for all the keywords you search for.
That means if you like to buy the domain "shoefactory.com" you'd want to type "shoe factory" into google, to see if there is a high search volume for the keyword. It should be a least 500 searches per month.
Also check the CPC for advertising, as this can also determine the value of a domain. A higher CPC will often (not always) result in a higher value for your domain.
Also, think about what can be done with a domain. If you can't think of a purpose it could have, then you shouldn't buy it, as it would be too hard to find the right buyer for it.
Some time ago, a friend acquired the domain "cigaretteforum.com" - nice one right? That's what he thought too. But if do your research and think about it, you can see that there are only a few forums of that type out there, so the demand does not seem to be that high.
Also think about it. Who the fuck wants to open up a cigarette forum? And how do you get in touch with that person? It is definitely possible, and it will be worth some money, but to find the buyer will be the hardest part. When he thought that he could sell it for a few $K (end-user price) he will probably only sell it for a few hundred dollars (reseller price)
So really write this one down: Always do your research.
6. Stop evaluating with stuff like Estibot
I know, as a beginner it can be very tempting to evaluate your domain with ex. estibot. It's for sure not wrong to do that, but what most people do is, they take the estimated value and use it as their fixed price for the domain.
Always just take the estibot estimation as an ESTIMATION!
An experienced domainer will refuse to buy domains from you, when he sees that you are strictly following these bots suggestions.
I have also seen domains which were worth several thousands (for real) but estibot valuated them at "less than $100".
Remember, always do your research and check if there is a market/ a demand for your domain.
I hope you liked this small guys, I know there are many more points that I need to add, but I will leave it as it is for now.
If you have any questions, feel free to comment here so I can answer them for you
Beginners often think that whatever name they like, will be worth a lot of money. But the reality often looks different. In this beginners guide, I want to give you some starter tips on how to get your feet into domain flipping, so you can make your first profits asap!
1. Buy cheap - sell high!
This one is kinda obvious and yet still many new domainers are making this mistake. They take all their saved up money to buy a domain which they think will "kill it" and will be sold for thousands.
A few days later, they start to realize that no one likes the domain, or that it will be much harder to get rid of it again than they thought it would be.
So here is my advice: If you are at the very beginning, try to buy domains as cheap as you can. Try to hand reg them (register them at registrars like NameCheap) so that you can be sure to make some profits.
When you have sold a few of them, let's say you have sold 5 $10 domains for $50 each, then you can go on to invest that money into more expensive domains.
2. ONLY .COM
Beginners (including me) often tend to look for all the opportunities they can find. While this might be good in other markets, when it comes to domaining you should focus on .com only, especially if you are a beginner.
It's far too speculative to think that this .dog domain you have seen will bring you $10K
If you end up spending your money on new TLDs then you should stop asap, and focus on .com.
Why? Because .coms have the highest resale value and are always in the highest demand. That means you can sell a .com domain a lot faster, compared to a .info domain.
There will almost always be a buyer for your .com domain! But this won't be the case if your domain is .net, .org or anything else. Sure, there will be buyers too, but these will be much harder to find and your profits won't be as good as with a .com domain.
3. Budget!!!!!
This one is really important, as many people just tend to buy everything they like without giving themselves a budget. With a budget, you'll know how much you can still spend on domains, without wasting money you'd actually need for other stuff.
Believe me, I have been sort of addicted to buying names I loved, just to find out that I was the only one who loved them. There you are, having a big domain portfolio, maybe spent $500 (a lot for a beginner) but all you did was buying crappy names with no resale value, just because you had no idea of what you were doing.
So please do me and yourself a favor, and give yourself a strict budget. This will save you from lots of headaches.
4. Don't fall in love
You should never ever fall in love with a domain name. You should always be skeptical and be 100% sure that you really want to buy it, and that it really can be sold afterward.
What happens when you fall in love with a domain is, you'll be mentally able to waste much more money for buying it + you will value it much higher than everyone else.
That means, that some people will value your domain for around $50 or maybe even up to $300, but you actually valued it at $1k. And now you're mad and you don't know what to do.
This leads us to the next point:
5. Do your research
Always check the demand for a domain before you buy it, Get the "keywordseverywhere" chrome extension, which will show you the monthly Google search volumes for all the keywords you search for.
That means if you like to buy the domain "shoefactory.com" you'd want to type "shoe factory" into google, to see if there is a high search volume for the keyword. It should be a least 500 searches per month.
Also check the CPC for advertising, as this can also determine the value of a domain. A higher CPC will often (not always) result in a higher value for your domain.
Also, think about what can be done with a domain. If you can't think of a purpose it could have, then you shouldn't buy it, as it would be too hard to find the right buyer for it.
Some time ago, a friend acquired the domain "cigaretteforum.com" - nice one right? That's what he thought too. But if do your research and think about it, you can see that there are only a few forums of that type out there, so the demand does not seem to be that high.
Also think about it. Who the fuck wants to open up a cigarette forum? And how do you get in touch with that person? It is definitely possible, and it will be worth some money, but to find the buyer will be the hardest part. When he thought that he could sell it for a few $K (end-user price) he will probably only sell it for a few hundred dollars (reseller price)
So really write this one down: Always do your research.
6. Stop evaluating with stuff like Estibot
I know, as a beginner it can be very tempting to evaluate your domain with ex. estibot. It's for sure not wrong to do that, but what most people do is, they take the estimated value and use it as their fixed price for the domain.
Always just take the estibot estimation as an ESTIMATION!
An experienced domainer will refuse to buy domains from you, when he sees that you are strictly following these bots suggestions.
I have also seen domains which were worth several thousands (for real) but estibot valuated them at "less than $100".
Remember, always do your research and check if there is a market/ a demand for your domain.
I hope you liked this small guys, I know there are many more points that I need to add, but I will leave it as it is for now.
If you have any questions, feel free to comment here so I can answer them for you
