Maybe you should just put the money into a savings account right now, until you feel confident about your purchases
you could buy a good name on the aftermarket and flip it for a profit. After all it takes money to make money. Lather, rinse, repeat....
Great advice - put it into a savings account until you have a good knowledge of the market, industry, and the supply / demand.
DO NOT REGISTER DOMAINS. I've probabaly blown over $1,000 (a lot to me) in "junk" domains, I'm dropping them left and right now. If I knew then I would have taken my $1,000 and bought 1-2 (or 3-5) GOOD domains as opposed to over 100 junk domains. The only times you should hand register a domain is if something new is coming out (example: MT9 - search these forums) or you are 100% sure you are going to develop it.
Find a niche you know well (or enjoy) and do research on it. Find the trendy words, buzzwords, new technology, new stuff coming out etc. and then jump on an opportunity.
Development is the best so if you have $5,000 to spend, I'd get some tools. Do a search on these forums for the "
Domain Research Tool", buy a few books (
The Domain Game is a brand new one, search these forums). Find a good solid host and if you plan on developing, pay for at least a year's worth of hosting up front. I think some may disagree with me but if you have that much, pick up Adobe's Creative Suite 3 (I think it is about $1500, but it includes DreamWeaver (web pages), PhotoShop, Illustrator, Flash Professional, etc, Flash and PhotoShop are great for making great web pages).
I would recommend against spending the entire $5,000 on domains. Maybe $2,000 on tools (if you get CS3, if not, then maybe $500-$1,000), and put about $1,500 - $2000 aside and don't touch it. Spend the rest on some good, solid, revenue generating domains (expect to pay 2-10 years' revenue).