I can’t take credit for this article, it’s all Morgan Linton from Domainvestors.tv. He has been very helpful providing me with a couple articles during my move.

You can run niches the other way… like becoming good at using merchant affiliate product feeds, that way you can stand up a product site (store, or thin affiliate site) for nearly anything selling on the internet.

1) if you do dive into the forums and start to follow individuals and threads, don’t get sucked into pattern domain buy-outs, like the LLLL.net, L-L-L.com, NNNNN.com these have all come and gone in a -very- short time. You can always find a couple individuals heavily investing in this or that pattern… let them, or better yet, sell to them… =) The bubble may only last about a month if everyone’s lucky and then … poof!

2) when you ask for appraisal and get the answer (reg fee), that’s a euphemism for zero — the domain as $0.00 value.

3) if you ARE registering available names, don’t count on fellow domainers to be interested, but instead learn Wordpress and some SEO (for minisites) AND/OR sending lots of sales letters to potential buyers

1. Never use money that you don’t really have to hand reg domains. (i.e. a domainer with a credit card on file at GoDaddy is a very bad thing.)

2. Only invest in domains in the aftermarket that have verifiable traffic. Be sure to look at more than 30 days of stats. Make sure you really know what your buying and verify who you’re buying from. Ask around, you’ll be surprised who all knows who in this arena.

3. If you do think that you have an original idea for a domain name and the domain is still available – SLEEP ON IT. If the name is still available that next morning and you feel just as passionate about it as you did the night before, then by all means go for it.

4. Don’t be too greedy when a buyer comes along with a decent offer for one of your hand regs. Not every domain is the golden child, like Aron (XF.com) said, “…you can’t be attached to any names… they are all a means to growth.”

5. Less is more. Just because you have thousands of domains does not = success. You can blow $10,500 on 1500 $7 hand regs (+ the annual renewal fees) or take that $10.5k and invest it, like a smart domainer would, on a domain name that you really want and that you know gets some decent traffic. There’s a reason the domain industry’s leading trade show is named TRAFFIC (in all caps.)

So yeah, like Patrick said if you’re just getting your feet wet in the domain game, kick back for a while, read the blogs on Domaining.com and DNheadlines.com, lurk in the forums, study DNJournal (also check out DNJournal’s sister site http://www.namenewbie.com ) eventually you’ll see just how this game really works and who the key players are. You’ll be all the more wiser because of your patience.

It’s never, ever, ever too late to invest in domains, just be sure to cross your t’s and dot your i’s, you’ll be all the more glad that you did. Domaining is all about taking calculated risks at just the right time. Knowing the playing field is the only way to achieve this.

OK that was long.. I’m crawling back into dead domainer mode.

And it’s sooo important to understand english syntax and phrasing when browsing top-sales list — there is nearly always a clear right way and wrong way to phrase things.

Also, looking to Google for phrase search frequency doesn’t always yield the best keyword domains; you run into a lot of long-tails, awkward syntax, 3-word phrases etc… good searches don’t always equate to quality domain names.

Direct Navigation (type-ins) are the best to get if you don’t develop or have a sales staff =P. And they tend to be shorter names, up to two words, dot com, and very expensive to buy =O

the thing that helped me get rolling was
constant buying and selling.

You have to build capital in order to progress forward.

Early on, you can’t be attached to any names… they are all a means to a growth.

Buy, sell – repeat.

Build up capital to buy big names and develop bigger projects.

Aron
XF.com/blog