Domaining: what's the skinny?

OK, so I've read a few threads here on the subject and downloaded a couple of pretty good E-Books on domaining and it seems viable. Anyone who has read my other thread in this forum knows that money is not flowing freely for me and any investment no matter how small is a big deal and is not taken lightly.


I can take a 100 euro loan out until the end of the month or thereabouts and I was wondering whether domaining would be a good place to invest that money into.

It looks great but of course it's not an exact science and I REALLY can't afford to lose that 100 on a silly choice. I would be able to just about pay it back if I lost it but of course I don't want to entertain that option too much.


So I'm basically just asking what others experiences have been and whether this would be a good idea. Thanks in advance.

It's a big risk. I've bought literally thousands of domains through the years and have made money at times and lost money at times. If you watch current events a lot of times you'll get great ideas for fast selling domains that get top dollar. You can pick up ideas in magazines, newspapers, watching trends online, finding good keywords, just about any where. You have to be very careful on the names you pick and where you try to sell them. You don't have much risk tolerance so it might be better for you to stick with short .com domains (if you had more risk tolerance you could get into other TLDs and CCTLDs). Main thing is good keywords that make sense and .com is king. Try buying a few domains and see how they sell, if they sell for a premium than put more money into it. Worse case scenario you develop the domains and build websites to sell or make you money.

Thanks for the tips. I guess at the very worst I could develop a few domains to sell affiliate products. Not that I have much of an idea how I would start on that either.

I have a gambling sense to my personality so I probably will give it a go if I don't think of something better to invest in.

The short answer is NO!

You must be ready to loose the money - it is always a bad idea to borrow money for RISKY investment or business. Domaining is very risky...

If you have no money to start, search for ebook "The Joel method", I've found it somewhere here, if not found PM me.

DISCLAIMER: I did not try it, but it makes sense and definitely you have nothing to loose!

what you could do is buying domains that expire now and have good alexa rating and maybe PR 1-2. From this point start investing a little in the domains, some good content and try to keep them indexed in G. After some time you could sell them from some more bucks at ebay or sedo. Let`s say you buy them them at 9$ and resell them for 100-200$. Buy 10 and see the results. This method is good if you have time to invest and think BIG (1000 domains/month). I`m not sure if they expire google will keep the PR but it will be easier for you to index it back and rank back in alexa.

Seems to be plenty of people after expiring PR domains though, any sources you can get them from?

Jax71 said:

Seems to be plenty of people after expiring PR domains though, any sources you can get them from?

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Domain name for free?... not sure where you can get those.

List of expiring domain name that you can grab if you are quick? Here it is http://www.wsmdomains.com/help/expireddaily.html

Happy, happy, joy, joy

I meant domains with an existing PR that expire and can be bought.

Have you read domain Graduate by Sean yet, if not , you should read the whole ebook(you can find in this forum) It give you every basics about this industry.

Good Luck!

It's a big risk. I've bought literally thousands of domains through the years and have made money at times and lost money at times.

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Not sure about that...

I have never lost a single cent on the investment and I am up there...
You have all seen all my post on this already - but I don't even try to sell them. I have them to use for my own purposes. The fact is I am understaffed and can't build everything out as fast as I want to.

So, in the meantime I park - and through the course of a month I get about 4 inquiries collectively. On 4 separate names. If it's in incredible offer I will sell a few per year. which usually pays for my entire portfolio. That's not the important part I am trying to have you focus on.

How anyone can get below $60 for a name is beyond me... and the standard almost "off the shelf" offer I get is $100 ... which is of no interest to me.

The more I see that people are really interested in this .... I was thinking of starting a very personal service. I can absolutely guarantee that I can not loose money domaining.

I don't search for popular keywords ..I don't look for PR rank ... or anything. I simply do what I do and it's has always been successful.

Some people buy stocks .... I buy domains.

There's people who are day traders...and people that sit on the stock. This is virtually the same thing with domains. More profoundly I buy web real estate that can not be replaced.

You can not have two of the same properties on the same corner. They are one-off .com's // there will never be another 'thisname.com' -- of course as long as you renew every year.

I was thinking of making a service charging a low monthly membership for the flat rate of the service. Then you tell me what industries of interest you have. I search the names that I (claim) are undoubtedly worth it and present a batch of them to you based on the industry you tell me. And you pick out of what I have suggested. I then register under the company that I create centralized around this service. I am just roughing it with this whole idea ....so don't hold me to it just yet ...

Then there would be 2 other important parts.
1. You pay per name you want and the company acquires. The name is made available for sale.
2. When the name sells the company revenue shares a favorable commission of 40%-50% of the sale for suggesting the sure-fire name that will sell.

Last part would be .... what if it doesn't sell? and how long does all this take?

I would say I set a reasonable time frame of 30-60 days. If the name doesn't sell you would have the choice for the company to buy it from you at the price acquired for (company then has full ownership) and you are immediately reimbursed. OR... allow another set of days to continue sale.

This is just like being a mortgage broker ... we list and do everything to get the name sold. When we do - you are paid ... we are paid. If not you get your money back.

Why would I think that this works ....?

I can sit here all day and tell you names that sell. But for some reason people seem to find much difficulty in something I find as easy as breathing. That's not meant to be taken the wrong way ... I have background to back this up and have been doing this a long time. I can also search and acquire the same way I do for myself. (my own techniques)

Here's why I could do this for you and not....

I have long term objectives with my names. Not short term. I become attached to the name and only buy names I can fully visualize a service around. I would not buy 1 that I couldn't see creating a profitable business around no matter what it is. Which makes me 'different' from 'domainers' - that would probably laugh at my point of view.

If I did this as a personalized service for others - I am would not be attached to the names in the same why I am with my own - meaning I can focus my efforts on the flip mentality that I guarantee can be done easily. With mine - I would NEVER think of selling a names for $60 or $100 ... actually ..I wouldn't sell any I have for less than $1k ...and even that is hard for me. (trust me I have turned down those offers) ---you think WHAT?? off of an $8 investment .....your damn right. I know what I can create with it.

Over the lifetime of the name ....and the future of the net.

So generally it would work something like this ...

I think if I kept everything almost flat rate of say $60-$100 ...I could flip easily. Which would look something like this for you:

For every roughly ($10) spent ......you get $30-$50 back.
At the very least you get your money back. How many businesses do you know of that offer that kind of program?

Is Sedo selling for you ? NOPE. They have nifty service like everyone else out there... but they don't care if you sell or not.

This would be focused around once principal only ... Flipping Fast.
Turnkey good names at affordable prices to the buying public.

Still tossing ideas around. Anyone care to poke holes in this ?

I am open to subjective criticism.

Well I have 140 domains some great names to but make money crap don't hold your breathe ....

But my http://www.partygamble.com got offered 2000.00 last week for it ... said no thanks

140 names ? or 144?

LOL ...kidding man ..

Yeah that's a good offer. But you making money on that particular site right?

Again ..the money part is easy ..if you are talking about the price to register (max $10) ..and selling for $60-$100 ... I could do this all day.

if you got some skills to make the domains valuable by putting content on them, you could easily make a few 100's out of your 100 - just a matter of effort

I with designer and others that say it is not hard to make some money. Now, I am not saying I have made a TON of money, but I have never sold a domain for less than I paid for. I have also sold domains for only a $1 more than I paid.

But even if no one wants it for your asking price, throw some traffic and links and it, and watch the value go up.

Thanks for the posts guys. I think I will invest a bit of money at least and test the waters.

So for the day traders where do you sell? Is there a preferable place and do you auction?

mentalist said:

Thanks for the posts guys. I think I will invest a bit of money at least and test the waters.

So for the day traders where do you sell? Is there a preferable place and do you auction?

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I like DP because I can control the price, but here are some places:

Sitepoint (only if you have a real good domain - $5 to post)
DNForum (like $15 to join)
NamePros
eBay (not my favorite, but a lot of idiots on there)

And you can always list on any other webmaster forum just to test the waters.

DNForum or domainforums.com never done me any good ...

Currently, the trend is short domains so I'd suggest you look into them. You can get some decent LLLL.com's (4 letter domains) for around $30 or so right now and I almost guarantee that by mid-July they'll be worth around $50.