Buying And Selling Domains: A Quick Guide

Posted on 22. Dec, 2007 by Adam in Internet

Buy Domain

Domaining is becoming a very popular investing and business opportunity. Although the business of investing in high quality domain names has been operating quietly for almost 10 years, it is now gaining notoriety. Recently there have been many articles in highly respected newspapers and magazines regarding the practice. In the past year I’ve become an amateur domain investor and although I’m not an expert I’ll share with you what I know so that you don’t have to make the mistakes I made.

What makes a domain name valuable?

1. Keyword Generic. Domain names like www.phone.com or www.cellphone.com are great keywords because they tell you exactly what the site is about and users are likely to type in that name directly into their navigation bar. Also if you create a valuable website you’ve made yourself an instant authority on the subject.

If you can’t get a 1 word generic then try and find 2 or 3 word ones that are relevant to the subject you are searching. Like Self Defense – www.selfdefense.com is obviously taken, but I found www.selfdefenseinstructor.com was available and I’m creating a website on it.

2. Length. The shorter the domain name the better because users are more likely to remember and directly type in the name instead of searching for what they need on Google.

Pretty much all of the valuable domains are taken if not all.

Example: www.Phone.com.

a. 1 word domains are premium domains
b. 2-3 word domains are good but not the best
c. 4+ words are not great quality domain names and you should avoid them.

3. .Com is King – Although .net and .org are not bad when it comes down to it the highest value is always given to .com. It’s simply the extension that everyone is the most familiar with.

4. Buying and Selling Domains – High value domains are almost always sold at auctions that bring out investors that have deep pockets. Some of these auctions include: Moniker.com, t.r.a.f.f.i.c., Afternic.com and Sedo.com. However, there are a lot of private party sales that no one knows about and those are mostly done through contacts that sellers have with investors or are able to find end user buyers for valuable domains.

For example if you own: alcoholtreatmentclinics.com, which I do, it’s probably not that valuable to an investor. However, to an alcohol treatment center it could have great value.

b. Now that I’ve said that there are honest opportunities in forums to buy and sell your domains. Just be wary of what you are buying and selling. Some forums are: www.namepros.com, www.dnforum.com and www.forums.digitalpoint.com.

To rap things up I would say that this advice is simply for those who want to invest or purchase and develop high quality domain names. I know for those who are developing for SEO may disagree but this post is not addressing those issues and many domains that a domainer would not find valuable can be very profitable by an experienced SEOer.

Another hybrid form of Domaining is a SEOmainer, or one who invest in and develop quality keyword domain names. I am personally trying to become an SEOmainer as the domain market seems to be slowing and is for more long term investors at the current state.

This was a guest post by Aaron Kuroiwa owner of a Website Translation service that improves SEO and Tattoo Translation service for Chinese and Kanji tattoos.

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24 Responses to “Buying And Selling Domains: A Quick Guide”

SEO in China

22. Dec, 2007

Very insightful, thanks for sharing. Dot coms are great but it is very rare nowadays to get one that hasn’t been already registered. Country-specific domain names including .de in Germany and .cn in China are great beat on a local dimension.
Cheers,
Pat

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Jim

22. Dec, 2007

Great post. I wish I had saw these kinds of posts when I first started domaining. It is easy to get caught up in the feeling of earning a quick profit. My advice would be to slow down, take your time and research, just like you would a stock – the difference between stocks and domain names is the returns on domains can be much greater if you play your cards right.

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Steven Snell

22. Dec, 2007

Thanks for the information. I’ve been looking into this a little bit recently, but haven’t attempted anything yet.

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Bill

22. Dec, 2007

This is good advice and I just wrote an article about how you can buy recently expired or soon to be expired domain names. You can read about it on my blog.

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adnan

24. Dec, 2007

@ SEO in China: True – all of the 3 and 4 letter domains are gone, and the 5 letter domains are on their way out too. However, there are some gems still to be had – but it takes a lot of digging. I like to use the AJAX Domain Checker for quick domain surfing. You’re right also in that country-specific domains can be great – I’m sure that there are some awesome domains there.

@ Jim: Thanks buddy and thanks for the awesome advice – how many domains do you currently have in your portfolio?

@ Steven: No problems mate.

@ Bill: Cheers Bill and I’ve checked out the article. The problem with waiting for expired domains, is that if the domain is popular, then there will more than likely be a bidding war, which may well go above the initial price – so be careful there.

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CCNA Discovery

24. Dec, 2007

Thanks for the interesting domain tips Aaron!

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Dwayne Charrington

25. Dec, 2007

Very interesting article. You’re right about the one-worded domain names. I was working on a project recently and a one-worded domain is like finding a diamond at the beach.

in the age of web 2.0, if one spelling variation is taken just drop a vowel and it might be available, this of course won’t work for everyone.

- Dwayne Charrington.
http://www.dwaynecharrington.com

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Neotrepreneur

02. Jan, 2008

Since all the premium domains are taken , i guess the next good investment would be brandable domains or web 2.0 style like flickr or beebo

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Hair Loss Cure

02. Jan, 2008

Very informative post. Frankly speaking I didn’t know that one needs to think about so many criteria’s before buying or selling a domain.

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Website Translation

04. Jan, 2008

I hear a lot of doom and gloom from you guys. There are still a lot of good keyword domains out there.

For example I’ve recently purchased (in the last 3 months)

http://www.selfdefenseinstructor.com
http://www.alcoholtreatmentclinics.com
http://www.disordertherapy.com
http://www.athletesbio.com
http://www.politicalbio.com
http://www.onlinebusinessbranding.com

All of which were unregistered. You have to get away from this made up name crap. Of course you can find a few good ones that maybe someday someone will want to use for a business. However, the likely hood of that happening is slim.

It’s better to buy 1 good domain rather than 10 average or below average ones.

-4 letters can be found for $100 or less and will continue to grow in value.
-There are still great 2 word domains in industry specific keywords.
-brandable are good for longterm buys not easy to flip.
-You can find diamonds in the rough from people getting rid of domains that are above average in forums for a little more than the reg fee.

my final word. Be optimistic and picky. Don’t buy crappy domains cause buyers are becoming more savvy and you’ll have a harder time flipping them.

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Website Translation

04. Jan, 2008

If anyone is interested in buying good domains names I’ve got some quality ones that I don’t plan on developing. Send me an email.

aaron @ aaronkuroiwa .com

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Dave Starr --- ROI Guy

04. Jan, 2008

Excellent examples there, Aaron. And, like you, I’m very much convinced that the “predictions of doom” are made by those who don’t want to do the work .. or people who think they can scare others away and keep business for themselves.

I’ve also seen it said by some people who have a lot of domain knowledge … if you are looking for a domain to build up, it’s a no-brainer that you want the .com. But if you are building a keyword oriented site … say for AdSense or a landing page/sales site for an affilaite venture, the keywords are more important than the TLD … perhaps that’s true.

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adnan

04. Jan, 2008

I don’t know that much about the domain industry – but I know that Aaron has great knowledge in this area – so thanks for the input buddy.

I know that I managed to find a great domain name the other day – and whenever I need keyword related .com’s, they’re pretty easy to find too. Using a thesaurus to get those other words you hadn’t thought of is a great idea.

Think outside the box and the domaining world is your oyster.

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Tattoo Translation

04. Jan, 2008

There are always domains to be found that are worth registering.

.net is still a decent domain for a website but .com is better. I’ve regged a few .nets lately because that’s all that was available.

http://www.jewelrydiscounts.com
http://www.tattootranslation.net

There are still good domains out there. Not all of them are investment quality but they are still good for a business, blog or info website.

Hardwork is required to find good domain names. Sometimes I’ll look for 2-3 hours and find 2 that are good and other times I’ll find a dozen. I don’t register them all but track all of my research in an excel file and I can reg one and then if I decide it’s worth it get the others later.

Don’t get overzealous and reg every decent domain name you find. There has to be a market for it. Either to resell or develop. If you can’t do either in a reasonable amount of time it could just be tying up your money and prevent you from getting another one that is even better.

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Web Design Dude

22. Feb, 2008

If you know where to look, there are some killer domains coming up. I just stole one, and when I say stole, I mean “stole it” for the price I paid. Also the domain has a PR of 7.

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Internet Business Broker

06. May, 2008

My company and website get approached weekly by wannabe domain name traders with what they refer to as “premium’ domain names! Most of the time they are long strand non generic domains – not dotcoms and not ‘premium. We do get to represent some high caliber domain names that are ultra premium like newspapers.com , parties.com , smoking.com , generators.com , homegym.com and many others. These have immediate recognition value and brandability and can command greater traction in the SEO game. These are not domains for the weak of heart or strapped for cash crowd – all 6-7 figure opportunities!

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Noobpreneur

13. Sep, 2008

I’m not sure that 1 word, generic domain name will worth a significant dollar.

I own philantrophy.net, but I’m not sure it’s worth much.

Any domain name valuation service you recommend?

Cheers!

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Domainbörse

10. Aug, 2009

Thank you for guide. But i don’t think, that “com is king”. :)

Regards

Thomas

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dancing classes

12. Mar, 2010

[..] thanks for this guides kep it up[..]

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