The following article is a guest post by my friend and fellow domain blogger Morgan Linton. Morgan is the publisher of Domainvestors.tv as well as author of Domain Flipping available at DNFlipping.com.
Many new Domainers are oftentimes overwhelmed with all the information online related to Domaining. This oftentimes leads people to begin buying domains in hopes that someday these domains will be worth money since it seems like so many people are making money in the industry. What these new Domainers miss is the amount of time and energy professional Domainers put into research and development. To put this into a real-world context – this could easily be compared to the housing speculation bust that just took-place in the United States. Many people were inspired by news stories that people were making millions in real estate. While it is true that people were making millions, many people just started buying old dilapidated houses thinking that they were on the road to financial independence.
We all know what happened with the real estate market – and the same is true in the Domaining world since Domain Names are in essence, virtual real estate. The first lesson here is that owning a large portfolio of domains names does not necessarily mean you have made a valuable investment. Many people get started in the Domaining world buying a ton of Domains that sound great to them without considering the actual re-sale value of the domains. Then, when they find that each year they are paying hundreds or thousands of dollars in renewal fees without making any sales they get discouraged and feel like “all the good domains are taken.”
So what can you do to avoid this situation? It’s actually not as hard as you might think – but it does take time. Domaining is not an industry that is great for getting rich overnight – instead if you look at the key players in the industry they all work hard and have valuable online investments. One of the first places all new Domainers should go to learn more about the industry and get a feel for what prices domains are selling for is DNJournal.com. DNJournal is a great place to both read industry news and determine which domains names are currently selling online and where the domains are sold.
As a beginner it is good to look at domains selling in a lower price range as you can’t expect to start buying and selling six-figure domains from the beginning. When you look at the sales list try to get a feel for what makes a valuable domain. You will notice that domains like “IWantACar.com” sell for much less than “BuyCar.com” – it is absolutely imperative that as a new Domainer you understand what a difference even a single letter can make in the value of a domain name. Also, pay careful attention to where these domains are sold – this will help you become instantly familiar with the main services people use to sell their domain names.
Before you buy a domain – take a look at both DNJournal and NameBio to get a feel for what your domain name might be worth. NameBio is a great tool that allows you to search for past sales. If you are buying “NewToothbrush.com” you can look on NameBio for other domains that sold with the word “Toothbrush” in it to get a feel for the price-range your domain will fall within. You can also look at domains with the word “New” in it to see how this word can impact the final selling price of a domain.
One of the best ways to learn about Domaining is from other Domainers and there are now plenty of professional Domainers who run blogs with great information applicable to both new and experience Domain investors. There is no better way to learn about Domaining than from Domainers themselves and there are so many blogs to choose from that new Domainers can easily get a number of unique perspectives on this growing industry. Blog aggregators like Domaining.com, NameBee.com and DNHeadlines.com can save you time by displaying Domaining blogs together on one page organized by the most recently updated blog. If you read an article you like or have a question you can always post your comments and interact directly with the publisher.
At the end of the day it is always better to take your time to learn more about any market before you jump into it. If you take your time to learn more about which domains are selling and how Domainers are running their businesses you can avoid repeating the mistakes many Domainers make when starting-out. Then again, you’re bound to make mistakes along the way and learning from these mistakes will only help you become a better Domainer.
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