Guide to Investing in Domain Names

Jumping into the domain name foray with big dreams of making money should be the first indicator of ignorance. This is not meant to offend, crush dreams, or goals but it is meant to be realistic, and in this business (since thats what it is) you have to be realistic. Instead of buying all sorts of names you think are great, spend all that energy looking up WHY you think those names are interesting. How many other people think its interesting? Why do they think its interesting? How much interest do others have in what your so excited about? Questions like these will help prevent you from wasting your time, money, or energy

Sometimes the names that you think would have a lot of value unfortunately have little value to them. This happens a lot when individuals overlook the importance of what the market is currently saying. Since you are looking to invest into domains, it means that you must pay attention to the market. Keywords are the big thing and the more acquainted you become with them your focus on making the most out of your domain experience will be refined. Thus, research is critical in making the most out of your domain name experience.

Fortunately there's many tools which others have developed. One such resource offers 12 Excellent Tools for Picking a Domain Name. Another great resource that you would benefit greatly from is my collection of The Ultimate List of Resources for Domainers. These will hopefully help you to get the heads up you need without wasting all of your time searching all over the net.

Become familiar with the lingo that the business uses. This will not only help educate yourself, but will later help connect the dots for you when making sense of what others are saying and why their saying them. Depending on how well you understand basic internet terminology, you'll definitely be one step in the right direction. For those who are just starting you have to catch up a bit, but don't worry, since your already interested in this field your energy will be put to good use. To make this easier, here's a compiled list of terms which you can bookmark and reference back to when you need it: http://www.aboutdomains.com/News/Glossary_Terms.htm

Each year there's a collection of tools which help to automate the Domainers life since it can be very time consuming. Unfortunately most tools which come out with such claims do not have any real integrity or proven use other than they complete small jobs and don't really free up much time.

Here's a collection of tools/tips that I have come across while doing my own research and have chosen as worthwhile products that should be considered by any Domainer at any stage of their game.

1. Domain Sales Machine - Mickie Kennedy was another domainer who had a hard time finding end users and making sales of his domains. He has since refined his craft and has made a large profit from it. He knows that the economy is having problems and wants to help as many individuals in the domaining field he can.

2. Niche Browser - Many veterans in the domaining field make use out of niches like no tomorrow in order to generate their outstanding income. Luckily there's been a product developed which helps compete against the top dogs so getting a piece of the pie doesn't require years of knowledge

3. Micro Niche Finder - In case you have been living under a rock, Micro Niche Finder is excellent at finding small niches which help you to further your own niche's ability to dominate competition. Currently this software is receiving a whole lot of attention, which means its best to get in on it now while you can.

4. PPC Web Spy - Great legal tool for spying on your competitors keyword selection. Helps with finding the highest paying keywords which your competitors are not capitalizing on, allowing you to log what is worth your time and what isn't, comes with video demonstration

The domain you want is already taken, but at least you can backorder it so that your next in line to get it right? If it was only that easy. The process known as backordering has caused a lot of problems with newcomers because a lot of the times the services they backorder from does not mention its drawbacks. After all, if they did you might want to take your business elsewhere and they don't want that.

Backordering is a process in which an individual will pay a company in order to get lapsing domain name. Many companies offer a backorder feature but are not a part of the monsters which generally get the first shot at grabbing the domain once its available. The current monsters are Pool, Snapnames, Namejet and Enom. The process in how each goes about the infamous "drop" is complicated and basically involves many registrars hammering the ICANN site.

This process can be very expensive depending on which backordering service your using. Each of them have their pros and cons which basically means that you either have to use all of them (if you desperately need a certain domain name), or gambling with one or two of them. The best way to know how much you really want a domain name will depend solely on the size of your wallet. Sometimes those names just need a few more inches in the stack of bills.

have a period of time in order to renew their domains name contract with

Generally the most frugal way of using your money is self registration, but not without its drawbacks Since there are many domain name registers on the net, you can essentially pick the cheapest one. However, finding common names is very tricky and in most peoples opinions impossible. Don't fret though, because instead of sticking to a dot COM, you can always see if the name you want is available in various other formats. For beginners its best to stick to the dot COM route, or if you've previously learned something about other TLD's (top level domains) you can always apply what you've learned there as well.

After getting the domain name you've wanted, its time to start collecting the big pay check. Or is it? What a lot of people don't realize is that unless you have an incredibly common word or name, the odds of that big pay day are slim to none. However this doesn't mean that all your dreams have come to an end. What you'll find is that their going in a new direction and you have to follow. This is where domain terminology comes into play as you now have to understand why PPC (Pay per click) and CTR (Click through rates) are so important.

Since domain name investment generally means that being involved in the market, you have to learn how to market your domain name. One of the best ways for starters is to park your domain. In doing so, you can experiment with what keywords the visitors to your domain are interested in. This is where you'll learn the importance of advertising and what kind of a role it will play on your site. For those starting out, try Sedo or NameDrive. There are of course others which are much more in depth and have a variety of different requirements you must meet in order to be a part of their closed circle. However, one of the most important things to keep in mind at this part of the process is patience. Spend your time researching books or domain forums to answer your questions.

1 - Length - How many words your combining can affect how your domain is valued. One word names are generally all picked through, but if you can get one, you might have gold

2 - Pronouncement - The sound of the word or words can sometimes increase or decrease value. Just because "sound.com" is taken doesn't mean that "zound.com" would be of great value

3 - Memorability - How memorable is this name to others? Is it easy to forget? Does it leave others scratching their heads trying to remember it?

4. Brandable - Could this domain name be something of worth to companies which might want to market product with its name?

5. Grammar - To make sure you have the right spelling and in the right tense you can use a tool like WordTracker. Find out what form of the word is more popular

6 - Trademarks - Beware of infringing on trademarks because you'll be wishing that you only had to deal with stress and not a legal situation. Use UPSTO.gov to help prevent you

7 - Extensions - What extension are you using, dot com, dot net, dot mobi? Each of these are valued higher than the next as you can probably guess

8 - Target Markets - Know what market your domain name would fit into to make the most out of it when it comes time to sell

9 - Traffic - One of the greatest factors which nullifies others. You can have a terrible name but if your getting traffic, it doesn't matter. Keep in mind its not just about getting traffic as it is about sustaining it.