My Guide To Names That You Can Sell

Every single day I get people that ask me what I think about a domain. I also get asked what kind of domains will make them the most money.  I can’t answer all of the emails so I am going to give you my OPINION here in a quick summary.  It may be too newbie for many of you but it answers a lot of questions for some.

1. Buy names people will ACTUALLY use.  Too basic of a thought?  It may be common sense but so is don’t lay in a bed of lights that cooks your skin to the point that it turns colors…but people do it every day.  Don’t buy domains that make absolutely no sense,  double descriptions (ie sleepingbed.com), 12 consonants in a row, 5 word dot orgs, and all the other wtf type names.  WTF names are below pigeon shit.  Pigeon shit won’t let WTF names into their parties

2.  Noun dot coms.   Noun dot coms are a good start.  Some say dictionary words but I say start with nouns.  You can add one adjective and be Ok but the goal is nouns and if you run out of money add an adjective

3.  LLLL.coms and CCC.coms.  You could make a living just flipping these.  They ALWAYS sell. Not saying you always make a profit but they always have a market.

4. Look at the size of market.   I’m not talking the searches for your exact product or name.  A noun that can be branded for anything is the most valuable.  Think hippo.com.  Hippo.com is one of the most “request price” domains on Internet Traffic.  It’s short and could be anything.  And your domain?  WhiteDoor.com? good . WhiteDoorSales?  not good.  The end user pool size is usually directly correlated to your sales price.  Don’t worry about searches.  They are searching exact things. If you can only sell your domain to one segment or niche you will have a tougher time selling it.

5.  Quit buying names because they are cheap.  Nothing wrong with adding a few higher risk domains to your portfolio but it can’t all be hand regs or $12 names or you will at most be making beer money and at worst forced to making fake Redbulls with your SodaStream.  You are buckshotting instead of aiming.  Too many people buy 10 hoping they will sell one to pay for the others.  Patience will pay off.  There is a difference between good value and cheap.

6.  Follow Elliot and stick to generics and product domains.  That’s all he does and it’s worked well. He’s gradually built up to better generics never having bought a brandable or made up name.  Maybe never is a strong word but hardly ever

7.  Keep 90% of your portfolio in dot coms and 10% in the rest.  Just like the old stock market method you put 10% of your portfolio in high risk.  Some will pay off, some won’t but you you won’t have all your money wasted if that particular tld doesn’t pay off.

8.  Two word, under 15 character dot coms.  This is what I look for. What I concentrate on (and plant names) They may not always make sense but they are short and made of words that people know.  violetlion.com loadlock.com  valuetrends.com  All names that weren’t terribly expensive but are short and can be sold for more than I paid.

9.  Pick a niche and know that niche better than anyone.  It’s know I do gardening and plant names.  Every single day people email me telling me of gardening and plant names that are dropping or at auction.  90% of the time they are name that nobody in our industry would by.  To them they are good but I know better.  I know the value of green good domains better than anyone in the world.  I don’t have the best portfolio but I am picking off the names that go cheap because I know their value.  I am not going to get lawncare.com because everyone know the value there but I do pick up foliageplants dot com for next to nothing despite foliage plant being a major category in our industry.  The difference is YOU don’t know it’s a category and you’re who I am bidding against in the auction or better yet in this case, NOT bidding against.  You need to have that niche.  Niches make your riches.

Remember, this is domain investing not domain gambling.  Your goal is to make a profit. You don’t have to make a killing on every sale. When you own domains like Berkens and Rick you can make a killing  because you have killer domains.  Their portfolios are your goals and it will take a lot of good buys and decisions to get there. Not to mention time.