10 More Domaining Tips I’ve Learned Over the Last Year

I’ve learned a lot over the last year.  Probably more than I have over the last 5 years doing this.  It’s what is so great about this industry.  Things change so fast that you always have more to learn, yet the art of buying and selling for more is something that hasn’t changed in thousands of years.  Here are few tips that I thought may be helpful

1.  You don’t need to pay anyone to learn about domaining.  You can learn all you want for free. Save your money for the domains.  What you want to pay for is tools. Tools that save you time and help you find or discover things that you could not find on your own (a note from my sponsor DomainTools 🙂

2. Speaking of tools.  Sniping tools on the auctions will help save you thousands of dollars.  Most people are like me and can’t stay up or be part of the last minutes of prebids or auctions. A sniping tool will do the trick

3.  You HAVE to find other sources of income for your sites beside Adsense if you want to make good money.  Affiliate leads will crush Adsense income.  Adding affiliate to my sites instantly quadrupled my income.  It just take time and practice to figure out which ones will fit and will convert the best.

4. 2012 is a great year to sell quality domains.  I am not saying to sell but if you want to sell 10 names to buy 1 good name this is as good of a time as its been in a number of years

5.   If you want to know more about domaining go to conferences, meetups, and make friends.  The blogs generally only say what they or their sponsors want out there.  The other 75% of the news,information, and most importantly, opportunity is never shared.

6. If you look at one common trait of  successful domain investors, its patience.  I talked about it here and I can’t say it enough.  There is a lot of waiting in this business.  I truly believe you will not lose money in the long run if you buy a high quality dot com at a fair price in 2012.  The key is long run.

7. You want verified stats.  If somebody can’t verify their numbers then you should pay the price of a site or domain that receives no type-ins and no income.  Adsense and Google analytics makes it easy to share. If you buying a website then it is even more important.  Flippa offers the opportunity for sellers to verify stats for a reason.

8.  Keep your credit cards updated at your registrar.  You may have to pay more without Godaddy Coupons but its better than losing a domain over a few dollars

9.  If you want liquid domains keep them short and dot com.  I see portfolios coming through from time to time and the first names picked off are the shorts and numerics.  I  sell in the auctions and the same goes.  Shorts and numerics almost draw the most attention.

10. Take 5% or 10% of your bankroll and put into a domain or tld you deem a little more risky but has a chance of good reward.  I used to follow the same rule in the stock market and it has worked well.  It also has helped me discover a couple areas that consistently return. At the time I wasn’t quite sure and didn’t want to put too much of my money in.  Frank did it with .XXX.   I did it recently with a couple dot co and dot me.  Take a few risks with the word “few” being the emphasis.