[kictanet] tips

[Rebecca Wanjiku]

just in case this business hots up in kenya, here are the tips....

How To Get Started As A Domainer28 Tips, Techniques and Resourcesdigg_url = 'http://digg.com/offbeat_news/How_To_Get_Started_As_A_Domainer
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How to Get Started as a Domainer: 28 Tips, Techniques and Resources10 Comments » 
How does a salary of $10,000 per day sound to you? Webmaster and marketing extraordinaire Marcus Frind reportedly pulls in $10,000 per day in Google AdSense from his dating website PlentyofFish.com. But that’s chump change compared to the $100,000 per day that domainer Yun Ye was pulling in before he sold his domain portfolio for about $164M in 2004 and subsequently disappeared under the radar.
When
it comes to making a buck on the internet it seems that everyone has a
solution, although few of them seem to work. But if you’re looking to
capitalize on one of the most powerful cash earning enterprises on the
internet that is actually making plenty of people money, you should
check out domaining. Although you may not be quite as successful as
these two entrepreneurs, it’s never too late to start in the domaining
industry.
A domainer is someone who earns a profit buying and
selling domain names. The philosophy is similar to the stock market:
buy low and sell high. Here are 28 tips, tools, techniques and
financing options to get you started on your way to successful
domaining.
Domain Buying StrategiesDomaining is a lot
like stock investing, the very best in the field have moved beyond
basic strategies and have developed their own specific formulas for
success. But just as with stocks, to obtain the skills necessary to
reach that advanced stage, beginners must first understand the
fundamentals of strategic domain buying. In this section we introduce
you to five traditional domain buying strategies, and explain a bit
about each.
Trademark Typo Domains.
One
of the original domainer buying strategies was to hunt for any
trademarked names that hadn’t yet been purchased, and failing that, to
purchase typos of those domains. These trademark typo domains often
yielded a lot of type-in traffic, and because e-commerce law hadn’t yet
developed to its current state, companies would often buy out these
domainers at very inflated prices. But if you’re thinking about getting
into trademark typo domaining, the ship has sailed. Current trademark
law treats domainers that are seeing lots of traffic from a typo
domain, and don’t otherwise have a legitimate business use for owning
the name, as illegal trademark diluters. As such, trademark typo
domainers typically have to turn over the domain to the trademark
holder with little or no compensation. Simply stated, avoid the trademark typo strategy altogether. Keyword Typo Domains.
While the trademark typo domain loophole has closed, a very legitimate and ethical domaining technique is pursuing keyword typo domains. Keyword typo domains (e.g., Mortgeges.com)
can bring in a good deal of type-in traffic and are often significantly
undervalued. While normally these aren’t the type of domains that
someone would want to build a high-value company around (though typo
domain Voyuer.com
went for $112,000 in 2005), smaller individual webmasters are always in
the market for targeted type-in traffic, so these sites are often in
high demand among small-time domain purchasers.Automated Volume Buying.
The
next strategy, automated volume buying, is simply that; using an
application to automatically search for available domains that meet
your pre-set criteria, and purchasing the domains that result from the
search. Automated volume buying requires, first and foremost, an
excellent application to accept your search criteria and conduct the
searches. While there are a number of domain research tools
available for purchase, many top domainers use a customized version. No
matter which volume buying tool you’re using, however, they all work in
roughly the same way by allowing you to search WHOIS servers and filter
results by keywords, Overture price ranges, search engine results, etc.
So, for example, you could filter your potential domains by those that
have a minimum of 1000 keyword searches per month and which yielded
more than a top bid of $1.00 on Overture. While it is certainly true
that now that more people are using automated volume buying tools the
easiest bargains are usually taken, domainers can still find a good
haul of cheap .com’s as long as they stay ahead of the curve by getting
creative with their filter criteria.Trendwatching.
If
you’re looking for a domaining strategy that is longer-term but that
can be highly lucrative, you might consider trendwatching.
Trendwatching is simply the practice of anticipating popular domains
before they become popular. The keys to successful trendwatching are
good sources and creativity. One of the biggest mistakes novice
domainers make, is attempting to trendwatch a very diverse group of
industries, rather than focusing on a few and becoming an expert in
those areas. The best way to start trendwatching is to pick two or
three niches that you feel comfortable with and which are reasonably
lucrative, then add eight to ten blogs within that niche to your RSS
feed. Bloglines, Newsgator, and Google Reader
are all free web-based feed readers, just in case you are unfamiliar
with RSS. If you’re in a competitive niche, time is of the essence, so
regularly check your feed for information on rising stars, new
technologies, burgeoning trends or hot products, and once you hear of
the trend, pounce on it immediately by buying up some relevant domains.
In addition to RSS feeds, Google Trends
can also help keep you on top of developing trends by showing relative
query volume for one to five keywords or phrases. One thing to keep in
mind when trendwatching, is that not every predicted trend will pan
out, so anticipate plenty of total losses for every big hit. As a
consequence, it is important to keep your domain holdings diversified,
so that you aren’t too heavily invested in a single trend, and thus you
can afford to wait out the staggering returns when one of your trend
predictions proves true.Brute Force.
Automated
Domain Research Tools (DRT’s) allow you to sift through millions of
available domains to find the few thousand that you might be interested
in buying. But getting from those thousand to identifying the few
specific domains you want to purchase can often be accomplished only
through brute force. By “brute force” we refer to the most common
domaining technique, which involves the use of a compilation of
different manual research tools to identify the most lucrative domains.
Each tool listed in this category simply helps to facilitate the
process of manually going through and examining each potential domain
on an individual basis (thus the “brute force” moniker). While it is
impractical to cover every sort of tool that would fall into the “brute
force” category, we have compiled a few of the most common tools to get
you started.
AjaxWhois is a convenient web2.0 domain search engine that executes multiple Top-Level Domain (TLD)
queries on a root domain name. This can be a time-saver if you already
have a specific root domain name in mind to purchase. dnScoop
provides a variety of information about a domain, including whois,
traffic, domain history and popularity, appraisal, pagerank check,
inbound links and more. DigitalPoint
is a set of webmaster tools geared more for websites and SEO’s, but
which also provides some helpful tools such as a keyword recommendation
tool which can help you come up with new domain ideas and word
combinations. DomainState tools is a suite of browser-based domaining tools and links to trademark databases. Domain Tools
has a suite of useful tools for domainers, including domain history,
reverse IP (to see what other websites are hosted on an IP), DNS tools
(whois, traceroute, etc.), domain monitor, and more. PagerankPredict
is a very simple tool that gives you a predicted Google pagerank for a
domain. This tool is handy if you plan to build out a domain with
content. It is also free, but the site limits you to 5 queries per
hour. SearchStatus
is a robust SEO, SEM and domaining tool that works as a plugin for the
Firefox browser. It will enable you to quickly get an overview of a
potential purchase as well as a look and what backlinks are powering
your competitors’ sites.The Marchex Model.
Back in early 2005, Marchex Inc. paid a whopping $164 million
for 100,000 high-quality hand selected domains, planning in the short
term to leverage the domains’ type-in traffic for revenue, and in the
long-term to selectively sell their appreciating portfolio. Individual
domainers can follow a similar strategy, by targeting domains in the
$1,000 to $5,000 range that are of higher quality and thus have a
higher long-term upside potential. By targeting a dozen or so sites in
this higher price range, Marchex Model domainers can eliminate most
casual domainer competition and though they face higher risks, there is
the possibility of much higher returns. It should go without saying,
that having access to cheap capital is a must, as well as having a good
understanding of domain appraisals. Unlike brick and mortar real
estate, the domain name resale market is still not fully competitive,
meaning that domains are often wildly under-priced, but can also be
wildly overpriced. As a result, simply following market valuation for a
domain without having a firm grip on your own appraisal metrics, is a
certain way to fail when Marchex domaining.Financing Your DomainingNo
matter what buying strategy you decide to follow, the first step to
getting into domaining is acquiring enough capital to play in the
market. Put simply, the more capital you have, the easier it is to
build your domaining portfolio. So in this section we cover some simple
strategies for coming up with the right types of capital you need to
get your domaining off the ground.
Spend only cheap capital.
What’s
the point of making a profit domaining only to pay it right back out
again with high credit card interest rates? It is difficult to
consistently make a return of more than 20-50% on your domain flipping,
but you will need that return just to break even if you are funding
your operations on credit card debt. So to minimize the risk of paying
out all or most of your gains in credit card fees, make sure that early
on you are only purchasing domains with only the money you have, and
not what your credit limit says you are worth. If you do buy domains on
credit, make sure that you are paying off the cards before they start
accumulating interest and fees; otherwise you’ll start to see your
domaining profits shrink as your break even point becomes that 20-50%
interest rate. Partnership.
Nobody likes
to share their profits. But teaming up with a few partners who bring
capital to the partnership will allow you to diversify your holdings
and overall lower your risks and increase your net earnings. Just
remember, however, that if the partnership dissolves,
you may be forced to pony up cash to buy out your partners, or sell
domains for less than you were hoping for. So if you and your partners
have different ideas about how to profit from domaining, it may be a
good idea to instead opt for a joint venture in which everyone’s obligations are spelled out ahead of time. Credit card balance transfer arbitrage.
If
you’ve opened up your mail lately, you’ve probably noticed that 0% APR
credit card offers have now replaced AOL Free Trial CDs as the most
abundant piece of mail in the world. Well, some card issuers have taken
the free credit offer one step further by offering you something called
a transfer check, which is simply a 3-18 month interest free loan. They
make the offer to entice you to use their credit card, but if want to
live dangerously, this can also be an easy way to come up with some
quick cash. This advanced financing method, known as balance transfer arbitrage,
will allow you to use that “free” money before the offer period
expires, then pay it back. This is a very risky technique, however,
because if you run into emergencies or other financial problems and
cannot pay back the free loan before the regular high interest kicks
in, then you are sunk. But in a situation where you come across the
once in a lifetime deal, engaging in ‘balance transfer arbitrage’ may
be worth the risk. Bootstrap and reinvest.
Bootstrapping isn’t so much a single fundraising technique, as it is a ‘do it yourself’ mindset of leveraging what you earn back into growing your business.
Entrepreneurs engaged in bootstrapping take very little of the company
profits out of their business early on, and instead use those funds in
lieu of a formal bank loan or venture capital. If you are anxious to
quickly expand your domaining portfolio and can afford to live without
the immediate profits, consider leaving all or most of your profits in
the business to leverage new purchases. Bootstrapping is
the poor entrepreneur’s way to compete against larger competitors,
because by reinvesting their gross profits back into the business,
bootstrappers gain a return which is functionally equivalent to
compound interest. Important PracticesNow that
you have decided on a strategy for identifying domains to purchase as
well as secured the financing to make those purchases, it is time to
turn to the actual practice of holding and maintaining your domains. In
this section we cover some basic ground rules and insider tips to keep
in mind as you purchase and manage your domains.
Organize and auto-renew.
If you’re holding domains for longer than a year, it’s a very good idea to have them all set to auto-renew.
Make sure all of your contact info is correct and updated, and if
necessary, change registrars. Whatever source of funds (credit card,
PayPal) you use to pay for auto-renew should always have enough in
extra funds so that in case you miss the notices, you’re still able to
avoid auto-cancellations, which usually cost more to get back than a
new registration. Don’t fall in love with a domain name.
Plain
and simple, your goal in domaining is to make a consistent profit. One
of the biggest mistakes new domainers make is holding on to a domain
just because they like the name, or personally feel its worth more than
the market will bear. If a domain doesn’t sell and you can’t monetize
it to at least cover its costs, the domain is just dead weight. A name
may sound unique or potentially popular, but you have to face the
possibility that it may not have a market value beyond what you paid for it. Ridiculous domain names
(the very sort new domainers tend to get attached to) can be lucrative,
but the buzz may not last long enough for you to hold out for more
money after a decent bid comes in. So when you are dealing with a
gimmicky domain name and you get your chance to make a quick profit,
take it. Name that domain.
Whether creating new domains or acquiring existing ones, the current trend (which doesn’t show signs of changing) is to stay away from
those domains that have digits and/or hyphens, as both naming
schematics devalue a domain. The only exceptions are specific 3- and
4-digit domain names, most of which are all taken. Taste this.
After
you register a domain, many registrars offer a few day grace period
during which you can rethink your purchase and still get a full refund.
Domain tasting, is the ethically questionable, but legal, act of utilizing this loophole
by parking a domain, testing the amount of type-in traffic, then
cancelling it before the grace period expires. Most registrars are
starting to recognize these loopholes and are quickly cracking down on
this unscrupulous practice, but with those registrars that haven’t yet
barred the practice, this can be a very good way of minimizing the risk
of a purchase. Create traffic.
If you own domains that aren’t receiving a lot of type-in
traffic, you may want to try to increase their value by getting them
indexed into the search engines so that the eventual purchaser will
find it easier to get the site to rank for relavent search engine
results. The easiest way to do that is to place a link with relavent
anchor text to the domain on one of your own related websites. In
addition to getting the domain indexed, this is also a way to advertise
the domain to interested buyers. Linking to your domain is generally
allowable by most parking sites, but you may want to check with yours
just to make sure. Forums.
Everyone loves
to use forums to exchange information and to connect with people who
have similar interests, and as a result many new domainers buy up
“forum” domains. But if you’ll notice, very few people are getting rich
managing forums, and even fewer are making money holding on to forum
domains. Popular forums can generate tons of traffic, but domains with
“forum” in the name are worthless without the actual site. Unless you
can find a buyer capable of turning it into a site, or can build the
site yourself, stay away from “forum” domain names. Be prepared, legally.
If
you decide to domain full-time, talk to an accountant about at what
point in the yearly tax cycle is financially most advantageous for you
to form your domaining enterprise into a legal entity. Forming a legal entity
can be a headache, but by not doing so, you may be missing out on
business deductions you might otherwise be able to take. So, just in
case, keep all your relevant receipts, even if you’re just starting
out, to prove to the IRS how much you invested.Potentially more
important than financial concerns, however, are the legal ones.
Deciding to form a limited liability entity (Inc. or LLC) will limit
your personal financial risk if legal problems ever arise. Though the
legal differences between LLC’s and corporations can be subtle, they
are not insignificant, (e.g. differing tax treatment) so you should do
your research before forming an entity. 
Watch for pinchers, swipers, and thieves.
Sex.com was stolen from its owner
using a fake transfer form, eventually costing the owner millions.
Slammers, spammers, swipers, and claim jumpers will try various tricks
to get a domain away from you, including fake renewal email messages or
snail mail letters (e.g., Domain Registry of America scam letters). If
you fall for one of these sneaky transfer forms, you may end up paying
extra for a domain or accidentally “permitting” the transfer of your
domains to someone else.In addition to having your existing domains
hijacked through subversive transfers, there are an increasing number
of reports of people having their domain ideas pinched
before they can register the domain themselves. It appears that a
number of domain research tools are culling the data from users’
searches, and using that data to instantly purchase the searched
domains before the searcher himself can do so. So, for example, if you
are using a tool to research available domains and come across a real
gem, the owner of the tool you are using may swoop in and buy up the
domain, thus taking advantage of your ingenuity while depriving you of
a great domain. Because of this possibility, it is important that if
you come across a previously unregistered gem domain, spend the few
bucks right then to buy it up rather than take the chance on losing it
by waiting a few minutes.
Beyond pinches and swipers, you also need to keep an eye on your registrar. There are a number of reports
of domain registrars being intentionally slow or unresponsive in the
days leading up to a domain’s expiration so as to ensure that the
domain expires and reverts back to the registrar. If you have a
dispute, check with WIPO
for mediation, but the best policy is just to protect yourself in the
first place by having at least a full-month’s buffer when transferring
registrars. 
Techniques for MonetizingFor
almost every domainer, the big money is in the actual flip, not the
domain maintenance. So just as with real estate, one of the biggest
keys to domaining success is to limit your overhead during the holding
period when you are waiting for your buyer. In this section, we cover
some common and not-so-common techniques for monetizing your domain to
cover your overhead expenses.
Duke of URL: type-in traffic.
Google
may control most of the western world’s web traffic, but they don’t yet
control everything. In fact, a good keyword based domain can receive
loads of type in traffic.
With a well converting PPC landing page, this type in traffic can bring
in from $100 to $1000 per day for a top-notch domain. Not a bad way to
bide your time waiting for that perfect buyer to come along! So, when
you’re searching for domains, keep in mind that type-in traffic is
entirely defensible, meaning it doesn’t rely on a search engine or any
other third party to send traffic your way, and that with enough of it,
you can entirely cover your overhead expenses. Optimize your parked domains.
Some
registrars allow you to add content and advertising directly to your
parked domain’s page at no extra cost. If that is the case in your
situation, you should definitely take advantage of this opportunity by
optimizing your landing page. Try various configurations and
combinations of affiliate ads and PPC ads to see what yields the
highest return. Often simply changing the color of your landing page is
enough to double your click-through rate. So, don’t sell yourself short
by using a default ad configuration, or worse, not placing any
advertising at all. The (traffic) collector.
If
you already have your own well-converting highly monetized website
within the same niche as your domain, instead of optimizing your
landing pages, it may be more profitable for you to simply redirect
your parked domains to that website. The key consideration when making
this decision is simple, can I make more money by optimizing or
redirecting? By electing the more immediately profitable option, you
ensure that the maximum amount of your domaining overhead costs are
offset, which may ultimately enable you to hold out for the right buyer
longer than you might otherwise be willing to. Park and go.
While running your own
PPC or adsense is the more lucrative solution, some domainers who are
short on time or technical expertise choose to simply park domains at a
service like Sedo.
These sites allow you to optimize your parked page template, and they
run PPC (Pay Per Click) ads such as AdSense for you, in exchange for
taking a cut of any PPC revenues your domain earns. While this is a
fine solution for those that are flipping sites on a very short
timeline, for those domainers planning to hold the site for any
significant length of time, the technical knowhow required to optimize
on your own is very small relative to the earnings you may be giving up
by sharing with a site like Sedo. Community spirit.
Converting expired domains with traffic into web 2.0 community sites is one of the most popular
new trends in domaining. The theory goes, that by starting your own
community, regular focused traffic will visit your website in great
numbers which you will be able to leverage to offset maintenance costs.
Unfortunately, the hype surrounding web 2.0 typically overshadows the
reality, which is that most community sites eventually fail, so trying
something like this will require a lot of time, effort, money and luck.
For those of you working on a tight budget, good ole’ fashioned domain
parking may still be the best solution. Creating your own lead generation.
Buying
up older expired domains with a niche focus can serve as an internal
lead generation system. For domains with a narrow focus, redirecting
them to specific landing pages on your more general high-converting
website can be an excellent way of leveraging your domains into a sort
private Adwords / PPC campaign. Adsense Arbitrage.
Google AdSense arbitrage
is the practice of buying traffic at a relatively cheap price, and
leveraging that traffic by having those users click through to ads
which are relatively more lucrative than the cost of bringing in the
traffic. When considering whether adsense arbitrage is the best
monetization solution for your domains, it is first necessary to
consider whether it is allowed by your parking host. Even if it is,
however, adsense arbitrage is a very risky game which is in almost
every instance better left for more experienced domainers and
webmasters. Choose volume over quality early on..
It’s the volume domain purchasers
who consistently earn the highest profits from domaining. New domainers
are often intrigued by the possibility of owning THE keyword in a niche
(keyword.com). But more often that not, it is better to diversify your holdings, start small,
then later bootstrap your early profits into domains a bit higher up
the food chain. Think of it like this: it’s easier to sell 100 domains
at $10 profit than one domain at $1000 profit. Tools for the TradeIn
the business of domaining, automation and resource tools are your
friend. Because the key to regular success is volume, not that one big
hit, utilizing quality resources and tools will go a long way to
improving your bottom line by marginally increasing the profitability
every transaction you make.
I’m pickin’ up good registrations.
Since
you’re dealing in volume, a cheap registrar is important, especially
when you’re first starting out. But some deals are too good to be true,
and occasionally registrars will go out of business. For good cheap hosting, GoDaddy
is a baseline option, but it’s not ideal for many high volume domainers
or high quality domains. For your biggest domains, the ones you hope to
sell and retire from the proceeds with, you may want to try Moniker.
Whatever direction you decide to take, make sure to shop around, and at
a minimum check the resource list at the end of this article for a few
more of your options. Traffic monitors and predictors.
Keeping
track of a site’s traffic and popularity are both important metrics in
valuating your own domains as well as those of potential acquisitions.
The following tools, despite their individual limitations, are designed
to provide you with a method of obtaining those stats on your own
domains, as well as those of your competitors.Alexa
is the benchmark traffic rankings directory. It is widely regarded as
inaccurate, however, its relative numbers are still very valuable when
studying a domain for purchase. Alexaholic
is based on Alexa but allows you to compare the traffic charts of
multiple domains. The value of Alexaholic (and Alexa) is that you don’t
need the current owner of a domain to have installed a traffic
monitoring script (which is usually not possible on a parked domain
anyway) to estimate the volume of traffic the site is receiving. Ranking.com provides the popularity of a website and requires script installation on your domain. Ask the Owner. A domain parking service will provide traffic statistics for the site’s owner. So if you’re interested in a domain, simply ask the owner for proof of statistics.Resource SitesIn
domaining, as with most industries, a key to success is keeping
yourself educated about new developments in the field and constantly
learning from the successes and failures of your peers. As a result, we
have compiled a list of a few popular sites that offer domaining
related news or services:
Daily Domainer.DNJournal.Domainer’s Edge. Domain Editorial.Domain Name Forum at WebHostingTalk.Domaining Blog. Domain Name Wire.Domain Sponsor. Domains Magazine.Earner’s Forum domaining thread. Monetizing Domains Network. Moniker. Parked. Sedo. TDnam. Sitepoint Marketplace. As
the value of domains continue to increase, the industry of domaining
becomes continually more sophisticated and competitive. But for the
person willing to do the necessary research, planning and investing,
domaining can prove a very lucrative profession. In this article we
have introduced you to some of the basic strategies, tips, and tools
used by domainers. Recognizing, however, that no single article can
fully cover even the basics of this complex industry, we recommend that
you constantly seek out new and more domain investing information, even
as you begin to go out and compile your own domaining portfolio. Best
of luck!












 
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