10 Different Ways to Make an Extra 20K Domaining

I don’t domain for a full time job. I can’t make enough (not even close) to what I make in the “real” world. My family has had our business since 1865 and I absolutely love what I do and if I don’t say myself, I’m quite good at it. But I also love domaining. Even more than domaining, I like making money but to me it’s as much about the fun of making money and the journey. It is possible to make good “extra” money but it is certainly not easy. Here are 10 ways you too can make an extra 20K in the domain world.

1. Start with 50K. Just kidding. But you ARE going to have some cash to get going. You are going to need about 10K to have a chance to make decent money in the first few years. If you start with hand registers and under $50 dollar domains, add another two years to your time line.

2. Blog. It’s not that you are going to make money blogging, it’s going to force you to do research and to get to know the domaining world. Of course you can make some extra money blogging. My blog will make 3-5K for me over the next 12 months. Of course, that still equates to $2 an hour.

3. Buy in the resellers market and sell in the auctions. Buy the solid names on the forums and resell them at the highlighted auctions or “prime” lists like Rick Latona. I watched FederalAid.com drop and get purchased for under 10K and resold for 40K at DomainFest two weeks later. There’s your 20K in one domain.

4. Get in the CVCV or “primier” 4L Market. It’s a very liquid market and names are sold and resold all the time. Get yourself a SOLID CVCV and somehow get it up for auction on Sedo. This has worked very well for me already this year. Returned a few thousand in the first 5 weeks.

5. Sell on Ebay.  People think it’s for small timers but there is HUGE money to be made on ebay through turn and burn.  There are certain types of names that do well on ebay and you can turn 20 of these a week easy.  5Ls work very well and if you can pick up some in bulk or even hand reg.  The amounts are small but it adds up.  I pick up a few thousand a year doing this.

6. Keep the Cashflow Coming: It is OK if you have to sell a domain at cost or a bit below costs.  I used to be an options trader and the number one rule was if something is going against you, get out.  Cut your loses, get out, and free up your cash to make a better purchase.  It’s not to say you should sell a great domain at a loss, you have to be patient, but if a domain that hasn’t gotten an offer all year gets a decent offer, sell.  Nobody has even gone broke selling for a small profit.

7.  Turn off the Private Registration and Get Your Names on Sedo:   If you want offers,  people have to be able to make offers.  Private registration makes it next to impossible to contact you.  Sedo makes it as easy as possible.  Their platform is a great negotiation platform and you can take that guaranteed price AND put it up for auction (although I find the original offer is usually gone if the auction doesn’t go higher).

8.  Other than Top 4ls, stay in generics and the top three com,net,org.  The market is much more liquid.  It’s not to say that you can’t make money in the rest, I’m just saying its harder.  I am finding the .nets go cheap and have some great value as developed domains but are harder to sell.  Which brings me to…..

9. Develop a few of your good generic names. Our park sites used to each make a few dollars a day, now we have to build them out to get that. Concentrate on a few rather than lots of small little worthless sites. Concentrate your time and effort and focus.  It’s easy to keep moving around but you’ll make money on a site if you keep after it.  A few dollars a day adds up.  With ten sites that’s $20 a day, $600 a month, $7200 a year.  All from 10 sites at a few dollars a day.   Sounds easy doesn’t it?

10.  Organization, organization, organization.   You have a 0% chance of making money on the side if you’re not organized.  You are competing against people that do this 10 hours a day and you are suppossed to do it in 1 or 2?  The only way it’s possible is to keep track of everything and stay in constant contact. Don’t jeopardize your real job by writing posts for a blog, and doing domaining when you should be concentrating on your “real” job.  This means being efficient in what you do at night since your time is limited.  Answering emails and calling people occassionally have to be done during the day so you’ll need to schedule time.  In short, to get everything thing done you need to maximize your income, you are going to have to stay on top of it.

I do this while training for marathons and ironmen but that’s another post.