These aren’t rules but tips that have worked for me over the years. There are thousands of these types of lists but I will add my own personal thoughts (Imagine that). I’m not a millionaire domainer but a person that makes an extra $20-$50K each year that allows me have a little extra spending money and more importantly, build a investment portfolio that possibly could make me a millionaire domainer down the road. Owning my own business certainly gives me advantage as I already have a niche and the ability to dropship many of the products that are respresented in my domains. In no particular order here are my first of 10 tips
1. Do you own due diligence. Experienced domainers don’t mind answering questions but 95% of what you need to know is already on the net. It takes time to go through it all but it is certainly out there. Before you take any action, do some homework and THEN do it.
2. Buy and sell dot coms. Develop other TLDs. You want to lose money in domaining? Buy the new tlds and you are on your way
3. Don’t burn your bridges. This is the case for all business people. Problems will arise, people will be asses, but letting them know exactly how you feel only makes YOU feel better. You’re going to learn something in everything you do. Even if it’s how NOT to do something. Many times I’ve looked back and realized I may have actually been the one at fault due to my lack of patience, experience, or knowledge and at the time I reacted incorrectly. Unless somebody’s taken your money the best thing is to just walk away, smile and say it’s best we end our business relationship.
4. Finish one thing and move on. Biggest problem in domaining. Everyone is trying to scale. Even Rob at Epik will admit that he has to take a step back and finish what he’s started. What’s the good of having 20 things going on and all of them are done half way or half assed.
5. If you bought the domain for $50, congratulations you have a $25 domain. Those that think a domain they recently purchased under $100 is worth more than the purchase price most likely are deceiving themselves.
6. When you develop a domain do it different. Use your content, your picture, your ideas. If you have any chance of getting it to the top of search engines you are going to need have different content. Google hates duplicate content so don’t duplicate. Good things take time and you’ll make more money with one original site than you will with 10 cut and paste sites.
7. Watch and learn. You want to learn? Watch Morgan Linton’s new daily show. You can ask any question you have and someone will answer it. If not on the show in the peanut gallery.
8. Traffic dictates the value of your domain. Small number of uniques doesn’t necessarily mean it’s worthless but there is a bottom limit that is acceptable. With no development a domain needs to get at least 30 uniques a month to have decent value in my opinion. Even my 5 letter names that have no true meaning get at least this. There are billions of people in the world and you can’t get 30 uniques a month? Ahhh with development it will be worth something. Then you have a WEBSITE worth something, the name is still worth squat.
9. Get your name out there. You want to buy and sell domains? Meet others that do as well. Be known for something. Of course don’t be known for spamming comment sections but if you have a niche, let people know what that is and you’ll be surprised how many people will help you out. If there is a 5L or garden domain available somewhere my email is always full letting me know where they are. The community is a friendly community but you have to be a part. Help others find their niche names in return
10. Be timely. Answer your emails quickly. People really appreciate a quick response. The common excuse is “I get so many emails it takes me time to respond”. My response is, if that many people want to get in touch with you then it’s your job to get staff to respond to the inquiries. In all that junk mail are real people that want to give you money. Take it.
Nice list I especially agree with #4. I do it all the time, start with one idea then find a domain dropping and have plan for that. Nothing gets done.
I disagree with a couple of points you made:
#2 – We routinely sell non-com’s for 4 figures that we’ve acquired for registration fee. Not cctlds, but other gtlds. This is without soliciting buyers but from end users coming to us. We also sell probably 10 or so non-com’s for mid xx to mid xxx each week. You DO have to know what will sell otherwise you are throwing money away.
#8 – Unless you are dealing in premium domains, most 4 and 5 figure sales made to end users will NOT be because of traffic but because the name makes sense for them. The first domain I sold over a decade ago for mid 5 figures had no traffic and was an 18 character .com. But again, you have to know what you are doing. Almost every domain I’ve sold over $10,000 had very little traffic.
You are more the exception than the rule. New domainers hear your type of stories and think they too can do this and waste a ton of money. I congratulate you on your success but for every one of your sales are thousands of other people that sit on $8 wasted
Thank you for the sharing, at the same time it makes us happy to invite you to participate in the devpt of our tips and tricks blog from byDomainers platform.
Excellent post Shane – it’s posts like these I wish I had read three years ago! Would have saved me a lot of money…although I guess it still can be rewarding to learn from your mistakes!
#6 is a VERY important point and one that will become increasingly important every year. Google is working hard to prevent sites developed specifically for monetization from ranking well. It’s all about unique content and understanding who your visitor is.
#10 is true in the both the Domaining and Business world. With the growth of the smart phone people have gone from expecting a response within a few hours to sometimes within a few minutes. If you delay too long you could miss an incredible opportunity. In sales, communication IS key. If you don’t know how to respond to an email or are scared of what the response might be – get over it! Send the email and close the deal.
Anyone getting started in the industry should print this post out and paste it on the wall next to your computer!
Shane – do you mind if I mention a few of these on my blog? I’d love to share this post and a few of my favorite’s on here with my readers!
Morgan, feel free to use and thanks for the kind words
Good words here Shane. Extremely helpful for the newbie or anyone struggling with bad domains.
@ Sharon Hayes:
I agree with you wholeheartedly that there is a thriving market for non .coms. I personally have had great success flipping GTLDs. That said, it takes a lot of research to manipulate such a fickle market.
The .com is square 1.
# 4 is very important and i’m guilty of this as love finding new domains and new development concepts but get caught up in the process and they never get finished 🙁
The alternate extension market can be quite profitable, but a certain-death minefield for newbies and even a lot of experienced players who lack the right intellectual skill-set for complex selling methods.
I think the right rule of thumb is that once you’re running black and profitable in reselling the legacy TLDs, then you can SLOWLY move into the alt TLDs- better keywords in extensions that require more experience and finesse to sell.
Newbies who get keyword fever and jump straight into alt TLD’s without first comprehending what constitutes a salable name to begin with (and what sort of keyword gravity and magnitude you have to be dealing with in alt TLDs to make them salable) are destined to burn a lot of money.
OK Shane. Now tell us where you have such great success selling your names? Please be specific. i.e featured listings? categories?
Thanks