I'm not a totally seasoned domainer but seem to be ahead of the curve than you so just passing along my findings from my own experiences, which seem to be similar to most new domainers
One other tip I can give you which helped me tremendously:
All those great names you come up with, do not register them. Put them in a text file (or files as I have one each for .com, .net etc) and come back to them all 24 hours later. Look at them again when the excitement (or desparation, or combination) has worn off from thinking you've found a great name. Look over them again and immediately get rid of those you think "nah what was I thinking".
Then another 24 hours do the same, repeat until you have a name (or few names) you are happy with and have
also found some relevant sales which support your estimated value of the domain you are going to buy - be sure the domain(s) is at least going to sell for what you paid, and it's not just another "hey why has no-one registered this?". That happens, but it's rare, like 1 in 100 you view will be possibly sell-able, the other 99 won't (as a rough guide).
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Then buy one, or two, and only buy more when you sell those ones.
If you cannot sell them, you are not weeding out the "big idea" domains enough which have no value. Or not working hard enough to sell them
it can be hard work to sell, certainly at first with lower value names. When you buy them for $100 to $1k or more then they should be worth that or more and so easier to sell (though this is a risk as a new comer)
Eventually this stage will pass and you will just be flying through potential names to buy and not even putting bad ones on your list, and just buying good ones.
Hand reg is not the best for newcomers either, but then outlay can also be risky. Do spend some time raking through the forums' bargain and auctions to find something cheap you could sell on, even if just for $10 profit, you can work from there as (at first) any profit is good..
All the best