What Does Domaining Mean These Days for the Average Person?

[BLazeD]

A good couple of years when I got in to this, domaining for me was going through much of the .US space looking for open keyword domains and also finding the odd .COM good one that was still available.

If I was looking for traffic domains then it was considerably easier to find overture domains and to catch domains with backlinks etc using the drop services or even the old Enom API catching tool.

Nowadays I have sort of moved off into the areas of webmastering and affiliate marketing, but it seems to have changed much from when I speak of above.

There are no keywords available in any extension
Traffic domains and drops are harder than ever
It seems impossible to compete with the people who have all the technology (i.e. tasting and all that).

So, for the average person out there, when you say you are domaining, what exactly are you doing?

 

[DomainsInc]

It means you don't stand a chance.

 

[dotNetKing]

Concentrating on ever decreasing niches.

The day may come when acquiring new domain stock is too costly and/or time consuming and I will have to live off the domains I already have.

 

[hugegrowth]

- focus on your country code tld, less competition and more chance of finding two or three word terms, and even some keywords still left. I also think .info has a good future and still find some decent terms and words

- keep checking .com for new words and terms. for example I just registered 'dry landscaping' in .com last week, thought that would have been long gone but it will become a popular term with global warming and decreasing water reserves

- look for better ways to monetize domains instead of just ppc pages, development is getting easier/cheaper to do. Part of domaining is now starting to mean looking at your portfolio and finding the best development for each name. Many domainers are picking through their portfolio one name at a time and doing this.

- keep an eye out for deals in the secondary market. Look at Macau.com, regged in 2002, sold a year or two ago for 550k, and now sold again for likely over a million. Even on a smaller scale there is always someone needing cash and putting up decent names for sale on the forum

- I think the TRAFFIC show is going to bring huge press to domains again, so the last half of 2007 will be very exciting for domains.

 

[BobDiGiTaL]

When I say I am domaining, I;
register domains , park them and make $$$.
acquire traffic domains from drops, park them and make $$$.
buy domains from fellow DNFers, park them and make $$$.
buy names I like and hoard them.

 

[GAMEFINEST]

I mainly just focus alot of time after work 2-3 hours a day looking thru the drops, forums, enom club drops etc etc ..and work your way up...

 

[BostonDomainer]

I rarely hand reg anymore... I pretty much buy with the goal of holding on to the names or develop. I rarely sell to resellers any more or I should say at reseller prices. I monitor the forums, I keep an eye on expiring names in several niches. I've grown less adverse to purchasing non .com names. I spend most of my time contacting owners threw email and few phone calls. But a lot has changed since I started domaining back in '03

 

[unholy1]

When I say I am domaining, I;
register domains , park them and make $$$.
acquire traffic domains from drops, park them and make $$$.
buy domains from fellow DNFers, park them and make $$$.
buy names I like and hoard them.

Ditto... :-#:

 

[tm3500]

Domaining to me means hand regs, buying from end users and on forums. No more drops... too much competition out there. And tasting is a waste of time unless you can do it on a large scale.

The returns are much higher in pure domaining vs. development, at least in my experience. Pretty much all development we did over the past 3 years has been a waste of time and would have been better spent domaining.

The most important thing is to reinvest all your profits and not to fall in love with your own domains. Sell when the right offer comes along, reinvest, and put some cash aside for those once-in-a-lifetime deals. Just like in real estate, great deals and motivated sellers will always be out there, you just need to find them and have enough cash on hand to close the deal.

 

[Gerry]

Not having tunnel vision, keeping an open mind, researching trends in the global market place, following patterns and technological advances, conducting my own research and analysis, not relying solely on the words or advice of a few "gurus", taking "into consideration" what other domainers think or write, literally going "outside" the box, taking an idea or concept through the design, development and implementation stages, and that is about it when I am not at work in my real job working 12 hour night shifts at two different hospitals, restoring my 1840-1850 house, tending my farm and garden, training labradors as therapy dogs, kayaking local rivers and lakes, and trying to squeeze 3-4 hours of sleep in a day.

What was the question again? Oh yeah, does that make me an average person?

:wave:​

 

[GAMEFINEST]

Lot of work

 

[Gerry]

Lot of work

absolutely...forgot to add in violin lessons and learning to play the cello and taking a programming course or two on line.

I'm here in my spare time. Actually, it may be when I'm bored. :cheesy:

 

[Focus]

I domain thru my crystal ball. She tells me what to do.

 

[GAMEFINEST]

i just use my " jedi senses"

 

[DomainBuyerBroker]

Most of these are very interesting posts.

If you focus on a niche (for me it's Cuba) so I can still find hand regs but otherwise the hand reg and park days are gone.

The drop days are gone.

A couple people said to buy in the secondary market. That's where the deals are today and that's where I am looking and finding deals.

Make a list of like 20 domains that you would love to own today and develop someday. Contact each owner with a request to price the name and follow up. Be ready to spend $1000 or $2000 and I can almost guarantee that you will own a domain in your top 20 by the end of the week. That kind of money is just enough to get a domain from an owner who is either a reseller or casual domainer.

ALWAYS BUY QUALITY AND HERE'S WHY:

Calculate how many hours you spend looking for drops and hand regs then multiply by a dollar rate that you could have gotten paid. Now figure out the reg fees for all those names.

How much do you have invested in your hand regs and drops?

Now, what if you spent a lot less time but more money buying a quality domain in the secondary market? You would have quality instead of quantity. You would have fewer domains to re-register, manage, park here then park there etc etc.

See my point? BUY QUALITY! You can hand reg 100+ junk to maybe mediocre names for $1000 in reg fees and spend LOTS of time find them, sorting them, parking them, etc or you can just try to find ONE name for $1000 in the secondary market.

Then, next year your one name might be worth $2000 and cost you $8 to renew whereas the other way you probably have a few names that might be worth $2000 total BUT you have to pay another $1000 in renewal fees. Repeat for following years and figure out how much money you have invested in both scenarios.

See why quantity is a losers game? BUY QUALITY. Everyone wants quality.