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Finding Great Domain Names: 12 Super Tips

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wael

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Are you looking for concrete advice on where to find good domains? Well, here you go. Some of these are tactics that have worked very well for me. Others I have borrowed from top domainers and tips I’ve spotted on domain name forums like this one over the years.

1. Spot Domain Industry Trends

Read domain industry blogs and journals. Read DNJournal.com. There are some good lists of must read domainer blogs that you can find with a little research. You’ll notice that some of these tips come from other domainer blogs and magazines. That’s because I read them on a daily basis and I have learned much that way.


Industry trends are important. Be aware of what’s happening with valuations of various types of domain names. For example, two and three-letter domains have all been bought up and are selling for high, even astronomical figures. But what about four-letter domains? Dominik Mueller recently expressed his belief that CVCV (consonant - vowel - consonant - vowel) domains are inevitably going to rise in price. They’re short, brandable and supply is limited.

ccTLDs (country code top level domains) are another possibility. I personally believe that .in (India) domains represent a huge opportunity. India holds a fifth of the world’s population, English is widely spoken, and internet usage is growing quickly. The .in extension was recently introduced and is rapidly overtaking .co.in. Sales in the $x,xxx to $xx,xxx range have already been reported for .in domains, and yet amazingly premium domains can still be hand-registered by someone with a creative mind. Not long ago I bought Achieve.in for $10 from a DNForum member, and in recent months I have hand-regged domains (at $4 apiece!) such as propertyauction.in, discountbroker.in, slacks.in, khakhis.in, sizes.in, judaism.in, synagogue.in, dedication.in, beachhotel.in, appreciate.in, swimmer.in & swimmers.in, nonfat.in, frozenfoods.in, indianlife.in, indianliving.in, freewebpage.in, computerschool.in, pacifist.in, pacifism.in, nonviolent.in, coindealer.in, webjob.in & webjobs.in, internetjob.in, computercollege.in, lemons.in, avocados.in, castes.in, wiremoney.in, offshoreservices.in, banktransfer.in, buyclothing.in, sendcash.in, hardwarestore.in, candystore.in, nationalnews.in, and more than 100 others equally good. Several are already getting good traffic and making money.

I’m not saying that .in domains represent the best or only opportunity out there. Through dedicated research and study you can discover other emerging opportunities. I’d advise you to ignore brand-new speculative extensions like .asia, and steer clear of failed extensions like .biz or .name. Some might disagree, but that's my opinion. Instead, look for trends that are relatively new but have already caught on with some segment of the population and are growing quickly. There’s got to be some momentum, some growth.

2. Science/News/Tech Emerging Trends

Subscribe to blogs and magazines that discuss emerging trends and technologies (Business 2.0 was fantastic for this, but unfortunately has just shut down. You could still learn a lot from the back issues, though). Search for and register domain names related to those emerging trends. Ignore trends that may have a cult following but are not widely known. For example, I recently read about a new trend among photography hobbyists called lomography. I tasted several domains related to this trend but found that they got no traffic, so I let them drop.

Instead look for trends that have the potential to be huge. If it’s a product or technology, it should have the potential to be used by every middle-class consumer. Alternatively, it should have corporate appeal: a trend that will make money for businesses and corporations is one that will attract investment dollars.

3. Drop Auctions

SnapNames.com, and now NameJet.com as well, are especially important. I don’t care much for Pool.com, but I find Snapnames to be easy to use and I have acquired many good domains there. Of course there are reams of junk domains, but you can find gems in the pile. I usually bid between $100 and $300. That way if there are several bids at the default price I come out on top, but if the bidding gets frenzied then I let someone else have it.

NameJet.com: Nowadays, any serious aftermarket bidder must use NameJet as well. They get many of the good domains that formerly went to Snapnames. I place bids on both sites.

I rarely use TDNAM.com, so I can’t say much about it, but I know it’s the primary hunting ground of some domainers.

4. Sedo.com

I have found good deals by searching Sedo for domains with traffic, and picking out the domains that sound good and are reasonably priced. I’ve acquired some of my best earners this way. If I make an offer of $300 on a traffic domain and the seller comes back with a price of $10K, then I just cancel the negotiation and move on. Surprisingly, however, it’s still possible to get domains with traffic and revenue for under $1K on Sedo.

5. BuyDomains.com

Yes, that’s right. There are deals to be had at BuyDomains if you search carefully. Domains there can be purchased on the spot at the listed price with no negotiation, so if someone has carelessly under-priced their domain or forgotten to update the price, you can often get it cheap. For higher priced domains, you can sometimes get good discounts if you establish a relationship with a sales rep and work with him/her.

6. DMOZ

I picked up this tip from Peter at DomainersGazette.com. Drill down into the old DMOZ.org links to find websites that are now defunct or have not been updated in a long time. Use a WHOIS tool like DomainTools.com to locate the owner and make an offer on the domain. Many of these folks are people who started websites years ago and have since let them lapse. They often know little or nothing about domain name values and will part with the domains cheaply.

7. U.S. Patent Office filings

This tip comes from PredictiveDomaining.com. Go to the website of the United States Patent Office. From the left-side menu click Patents and then Search Patents. Rather than the Issued Patents section I’d concentrate on the Published Applications. Do a search on a term you’re interested in, like monitor, headphones or VR. For example, I just did a search on “headset.” I looked at the recent applications and I saw a listing for a “biometric encryption key generator,” which is not exactly what I was looking for but intriguing. Turns out it’s an application by Motorola for “a method of facilitating an encrypted communication for use in communication between a local device, operated by a user, and a remote device.”

That’s too technical for me, but it got me thinking about the future of biometrics in security. We see it all the time in science fiction movies: eye scanners, fingerprint scanners, voice recognition systems, etc. So I searched about 30 domain names representing commonly used items that are well suited to biometric locks: BiometricPhones.com, BiometricPadlock.com, BiometricStarter.com (for a car, motorcycle, scooter), etc. Lo and behold, BiometricStarter.com, BiometricCar.com, BiometricCars.com, BiometricScooters.com and BiometricFloorsafes.com were available and are now mine! Want to bet that some tech company or auto maker will want these someday? This goes back, by the way, to point #2 about monitoring emerging technology trends.

8. The Question of Debt

Be very, very careful about going into debt to acquire domain names. Debt can be useful, but use it wisely. Don’t pile up credit card debt by hand-regging hundreds of bad domains that get no traffic and have little re-sale potential. I made this mistake two years ago and have still not fully recovered.

Of course this implies that you must study up on just what is a good and bad domain name. So when it is ok to go into debt? When you’re buying a proven commodity. Shop around for a domain (ideally a dictionary dot com) with proven traffic and earnings. Try to find a seller who really needs to sell, so that you can offer as low a multiple as possible. Calculate how much it will cost to service your debt, versus how much the domain name will earn you on a monthly basis. If the domain name will be profitable, you have a winner on your hands. And of course you can always re-sell it for a profit in the future, as valuations are always rising.

9. Focus on a Niche

Focus on a particular subject area, ideally one you know a lot about but you can always study up and become an expert in any area that interests you. Become familiar with the companies that do business in that space, and follow the sales of all domains related to that subject. This allows you to become an expert on domain names in that space, so that you immediately know what’s priced well and what’s overvalued.

10. Think Local

A specific example of focusing on a niche is the area in which you live, because you are already something of an expert on that subject. For example, I live in Panama right now. Recently I saw that someone was offering PuntaPacifica.com (”Pacific Point” in Spanish) for sale for only $10. This happens to be the name of a very expensive neighborhood in Panama City, with luxury condos selling for millions of dollars. I snapped up the domain name, and it’s now getting traffic and earning parking money. I have many other Panama-related domains that make money, at least enough to cover the reg fees. I’m sure there are plenty of Russia-related domains that make money too, but I don’t buy those because I know little about Russia, so I can’t recognize what’s good and what’s not. (I certainly would bid on Moscow.com, but I think you get my point).

To quote Dominik Mueller on this subject:

“Regarding place names, I see a great future for geographic domain names. City and village names, also when combined with the name of a branch of business (e.g. CarlsbadInsurance.com, CarlsbadOfficeSpace.com), are sought-after domains under .com already. If you concentrate on smaller towns you should be able to find some good available domains or domains that are for sale at relatively low prices. I think that geographic domains are especially consistent with ccTLDs. I like Frank Schilling’s advice on this subject: Invest in .com and the ccTLD of the country you reside in.”​

11. Stay Away From These

Trademarks: Some trademark variations and typos make money, but it’s not worth the legal repercussions if someone comes after you. In addition, it gives you a bad name and perpetuates the conception of domainers as cybersquatters. Before you buy, check US and international trademark databases, for example, at the United States Patent Office website.

Tragedy Names: Don’t try to capitalize on national or global tragedies. It could damage your reputation and it’s bad for your karma. Making money isn't everything. Be human above all.

Bad Extensions: Avoid extensions that come from tiny countries and islands, speculative extensions like .asia, and failed extensions like .biz and .name. Stick to .com, .net, .org, .info if it’s really premium, and perhaps a few very good .mobis as a long-term investment.

“Brandable” Nonsense: Don’t waste your time with nonsense words that some call “brandable”, such as ogeejogee.com, or crashgalaxy.com (I just made those up - if someone actually owns them, don’t take it personally). There are too many new domainers registering and buying domains that are just trash. Stick to real words, three keywords or less, spelled properly, no hyphens or numerals. The exception to this rule would be pronounceable four letter domains, which have value.

12. Be Ethical

Keep your word. Don’t back out of done deals because you think you can get more money somewhere else. It’s fine to change your mind if you have not yet reached a formal agreement, but if someone posts a domain name for sale on NamePros, for example, and you reply with an offer, and the seller posts “Sold” and closes the thread, that represents a commitment on your part just as if you had made a winning bid on eBay.

Don’t lie about traffic stats, don’t generate fake traffic, don’t use advertising to drive traffic to parked domains (a violation of most parking services’ TOS), don’t sell your parking account, don’t sell domains with deceptive characters (e.g. making people think a numeral “1″ is a letter “i”)…

One might argue that engaging in unethical practices could ruin your reputation in the domain industry - which is a lot like a small town where everyone knows everyone - and thereby affect your ability to make money.

That may be true, but more fundamentally, being honest and ethical in your business dealings gives you a feeling of self-respect, and a peace of mind that is priceless.

Ok, now get out there and find those great domains, make money, and be happy.

P.S. Are there any important tips for finding great domains that I missed? What has worked for you? Comment!
 
Domain summit 2024

Theo

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a few very good .mobis as a long-term investment

Minus 10 points from an otherwise excellent guide :D
 

italiandragon

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very nice guide wael, thank you.

I know little about TradeMarks so usually I am way from them but just the other day I found one that I could not resist, Ferrari is coming up with a SUV , it will be called F151 , so after checking other Ferrari sites and noticing that they were not owned by Ferrari , I decided to reg :

FerrariF151.com

It seems it`s not a TM in the Usa so where do I stand with that?

Cheers
 

redomainer

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Good stuff-thanks for the post. I registered at NameJet because of your post and bid on a name that I really like. Merry Christmas!

Bill
 

Peachesbackwards

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Thanks great reading. What are your thoughts on .TV domains if used with something associated with TV. Say InstantReplay.TV for example?

Also (I posted a separate thread on this but haven't gotten a reply) what about either 3 letters words or acronyms separated by 2 dashes, that aren't Dot Come like M-O-M.Org or E-S-P.Net?
 

wael

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Thanks great reading. What are your thoughts on .TV domains if used with something associated with TV. Say InstantReplay.TV for example?

Also (I posted a separate thread on this but haven't gotten a reply) what about either 3 letters words or acronyms separated by 2 dashes, that aren't Dot Come like M-O-M.Org or E-S-P.Net?

Well, I'm going to get in trouble with some folks no matter what I say here. I've never invested in .TV and so I don't know enough about .TV valuations to help you.

As far as L-L-L domains, I know that some folks here will passionately defend them but I don't see the attraction. The right letters perhaps have some limited brandability but there's no direct navigation potential, and they're awkward to remember and type in. Can you name a single widely popular site with such a domain? Do you think YouTube would have caught on in such a huge way if it had been called y-t-b.com?
 

McDot

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A very good starting tutorial for newbies!

Good job!
 

tonyfloyd

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If we had a "Post of the Year" category.....this would be it!!!!!!

GREAT Post Wael!!!

Thanks!
Tony
 

wael

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Thanks Tony. I think a post of the year category is a great idea, by the way.
 

mikedee

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“Brandable” Nonsense: Don’t waste your time with nonsense words that some call “brandable”, such as ogeejogee.com, or crashgalaxy.com (I just made those up - if someone actually owns them, don’t take it personally). There are too many new domainers registering and buying domains that are just trash. Stick to real words, three keywords or less, spelled properly, no hyphens or numerals. The exception to this rule would be pronounceable four letter domains, which have value.

I would have to disagree here...

google.com OR searchengine.com <- misspelling of googol
ebay.com OR auctionhouse.com <- wtf is an ebay? Maybe US people know?
flickr.com OR photosharing.com <- mispelling + hard to read out
yahoo.com OR internetdirectory.com <- yahoos are stupid people (?)
123reg.com OR bestregistrar.com <- numbers and not a real word
1and1.com OR websitehosting.com <- numbers and an and

Otherwise a good guide, I would agree there is a lot of speculation in the market.

I think hyphens are unjustly ignored in the domain name market, there are still some great hypenated names available and they do well for natural searches with only a small amount of effort.
 

draggar

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9. Focus on a Niche

Focus on a particular subject area, ideally one you know a lot about but you can always study up and become an expert in any area that interests you. Become familiar with the companies that do business in that space, and follow the sales of all domains related to that subject. This allows you to become an expert on domain names in that space, so that you immediately know what’s priced well and what’s overvalued.


12. Be Ethical

Keep your word. Don’t back out of done deals because you think you can get more money somewhere else. It’s fine to change your mind if you have not yet reached a formal agreement, but if someone posts a domain name for sale on NamePros, for example, and you reply with an offer, and the seller posts “Sold” and closes the thread, that represents a commitment on your part just as if you had made a winning bid on eBay.

Don’t lie about traffic stats, don’t generate fake traffic, don’t use advertising to drive traffic to parked domains (a violation of most parking services’ TOS), don’t sell your parking account, don’t sell domains with deceptive characters (e.g. making people think a numeral “1″ is a letter “i”)…

One might argue that engaging in unethical practices could ruin your reputation in the domain industry - which is a lot like a small town where everyone knows everyone - and thereby affect your ability to make money.

That may be true, but more fundamentally, being honest and ethical in your business dealings gives you a feeling of self-respect, and a peace of mind that is priceless.

The two main focuses of my strategy. I've found myself in a niche that has no definite web presence and not many people see the value in these domains. I've been able to get many

keywords.org
keywords.info
keywordsonline.com

and so on, an d I know for a fact that at least 99% of the people here would know this keyword if they saw one.

Ethics is a problem in this niche, too. Too many people trying to make fast money by producing crap and too many important domains are going to parkers including ones where ethics should be a very high priority. One thing people have always mentioned about me is that I have a very high set of ethics / morals. I've had opportunities to go the unethical route and make some money easily, but I chose not to (it's extremely hard sometimes).
 

charrisg

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very very good post...!!!!

Happy New Year to everybody

Charris
 

taylor21

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Great post, thank you for taking the time to put that all in one place.
 

sunja

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google.com OR searchengine.com <- misspelling of googol
ebay.com OR auctionhouse.com <- wtf is an ebay? Maybe US people know?
flickr.com OR photosharing.com <- mispelling + hard to read out
yahoo.com OR internetdirectory.com <- yahoos are stupid people (?)
123reg.com OR bestregistrar.com <- numbers and not a real word
1and1.com OR websitehosting.com <- numbers and an and

... but aren't you forgetting that all those have multimillion $ advertising budgets? flickr and youtube could almost have called themselves "ieatcrap.com" and would still be popular (well, almost) what with all the viral advertising and "sharing" features which amount to massive backlink appropriation.



re: hyphens:

The most powerful advertising medium until a few years ago was word of mouth, which means x-y-z.com becomes "xhyphenyhyphenz.com" when people are telling their friends about it. Try telling me that's brandable!?

I know the internet has probably superceded word-of-mouth but it's still massively important for users to be able to connect with a brand, when they talk with their friends, they'll say "I saw it on xyz" not "xhyphenyhyphenz", and so their friends will search for "xyz", etc etc.

I do think that keyword-keyword is OK in the right circumstances though.
 
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