Domaining – The Complete Guide to Domain Investing

Domaining
Domaining

What Is Domaining?

Domaining is the process of buying and selling domain names on the internet. Domain flipping is the process of buying a domain name and then selling it to another party. It can also be referred to as domain trading.

The term “domaining” was coined in 2002 by Martin Lindstrom, a marketing expert who was then working for Microsoft’s search engine Bing.

Domain Name Basics

Different Types of Domain names TLDs

The final part of a domain name, such as “.com,” “.net,” “.org,” “.biz,” and so on, is referred to as a TLD. Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) and country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) are the two primary categories of top-level domains. What is the difference between gTLDs and ccTLDs then?

The generic Top-Level Domains, or gTLDs. The term “generic” top-level domains (gTLDs) implies that they are not tied to any particular country or area. On the internet, anyone can register it from any location in the world. Examples of gTLDs include the well-known “.com,” “.net,” “..biz,” “.info,” and “.org” extensions.

Different gTLDs are appropriate for various website uses. For instance, “.com” is appropriate for any commercial or company enterprise, “.net” is appropriate for network service, “.org” is appropriate for organizations, and “.edu” is appropriate for any schools or higher education. gTLDs are not aimed at or targeted toward any one nation or region.

Top-Level Domains (TLDs) with a country code are another form (ccTLDs). ccTLDs are two-letter TLDs that are mostly assigned to nations based on their country codes. For instance, the domains “.de” stand for Germany, “.sa” for Saudi Arabia, and “.in” for India.

A ccTLD has a geographic and national identity and is exclusively intended for a certain country or region.

Lifecycle of a domain:

Available

When a domain becomes available, its life cycle begins.

Active

The domain name’s status will be changed to Active after it has been registered. This status typically lasts for one year before expiring. To keep ownership of the domain, the owner must renew it within this time frame.

Expired

The domain’s status turns to Expired one day after the expiration date. A domain’s related website and email stop working when it expires.

Grace period

A domain enters the grace period before the final deadline when it is not renewed in time. Typically, the grace period lasts between 0 and 45 days. You have the option to reactivate your domain name during this time without worrying that it will be deleted. During the grace period, there are no additional costs; you may just renew the domain at the standard renewal cost.

You must, however, get in touch with the domain registrar from where you registered your domain.

There is no grace period for several TLDs, including but not limited to the following domain extensions:

.website;

.xyz.

.space;

.store;

.tech;

.online;

.pw;

.site;

Note: Following expiration, these domains listed above enter the Redemption period.

Redemption period

After the grace period, which lasts 30 days, the domain enters the redemption period, also referred to as the redemption grace period. Normally, there is an additional fee for renewing a domain name during this time. The charge depends on the TLD.

Pending deletion

Once the redemption period expires, your domain enters the pending deletion stage. If a domain is not renewed or acquired by a third party 45 days after its expiration date, it usually enters a redemption period. You have no alternative but to wait during this period (which often lasts five days) until the domain name is deleted and you are able to repurchase it. Keep in mind that anyone can purchase the domain.

Why Domaining is a Smart & Easy Money-Making Scheme for the Modern Investor

Domain names are the most valuable assets of the internet. They can be used for a variety of purposes, such as websites, email addresses, social media accounts, and more. In this article, we will discuss why investing in domains (Domaining) is a smart and easy money-making scheme for modern investors.

Domain names are the most valuable assets of the internet because they can be used for a variety of purposes, such as websites, email addresses, social media accounts, and more.

To make your investment worth it though you need to know when to buy your domain name. There are many factors that contribute to when you should buy your domain name including:

1) Examine the market value of your domain name

When you buy a domain name, you are paying for the rights to use that particular name. The price of your domain varies depending on how much someone would be willing to pay for it. You can check out online marketplaces such as NameJet or Sedo and see what other people are selling the domain name for.

You can also look at live auctions, such as NameAuctions to figure out what price someone would be willing to pay for your domain name. You should buy your domain name when you know the market value is high.

2) Review how many visitors arrive on your website on a daily basis

You should avoid buying a domain name when you know that the traffic will not be significant. You should also exclude domains that are only used for personal or internal purposes, such as yourname.com and yourcompanyname.com, from your search for a possible domain name because you do not want the website to be found by general traffic searches on search engines.

3) Assess how long you plan to keep the domain name

If you plan to keep the domain name for a few months and then sell it, then you should look at buying your domain name in the summer or fall. If you want to keep this domain name for a longer period of time, such as years, then it is advisable to buy it in late winter or early spring.

10 Things You Should Know Before Investing in Domain Names (Domaining)

Investing in domain names (Domaining) is an interesting and profitable domain. As a new investor, you should know what to expect, how to go about it, and how much to invest.

  1. You can’t make money from your first investment
  2. Domain names are not like stocks or shares
  3. If you’re just starting out as an investor, don’t invest more than $500 in one purchase
  4. It’s a long-term investment so be patient
  5. Don’t invest too much on the first purchase because you’ll be tempted to sell it if things don’t work out
  6. Do your research before investing and find out which domains are worth investing in
  7. Investing in domains (Domaining) is a good way of earning passive income
  8. Investing in domains (Domaining) is not a good idea if you’re running out of money

The Anatomy Of A Good Domain Name:

A good domain name should be memorable, easy to spell, and easy to remember. It should also be available on all major domains like .com, .org, and .net.

  • It should be easy to spell and remember.
  • It should not have any words that are difficult to pronounce or that are offensive.
  • It should be catchy and memorable so that people will want to buy it as a domain name for their website or product.

Characteristics of a Good Domain Name

A good domain name is more than just a name you like. To offer yourself the best opportunity of profiting from it, it must be accompanied by a set of facts and statistics.

Domain names should be short and easy to remember. They should also be unique so that they don’t compete with other websites in the same niche.

The TLD:

Finding a decent domain name requires consideration of the TLD, or domain name extension. .COM domains, in my experience, make the best domain names. There are always exceptions. For instance, there are good .net domains, good .org domains, good new TLD domains ( .xyz, .tech for instance, was recently sold for $100,000 over a 10-year period), and decent ccTLD domain names. But generally speaking, I’d say. COM is dominant! 

Hyphens & Numbers:

Unless you are in Germany, avoid investing in hyphenated domains. A recent study found that hyphens are present in 50% of all German TLD (.DE) registrations and that many German Internet users expect to see hyphens in domain names. When grouped together, numbers can be useful; one example of this is 2000.com. Over the past few years, 3&4 character numerical domain name prices have increased significantly, mostly due to Chinese domain investors.

It’s essential to consider the many ways that countries and societies use the Internet. Germany and China are the two primary examples I gave you above of how being aware of various cultures may be advantageous to your domain investments.

Age:

This factor is no longer as significant as it once was. When trying to rank a website on Google, age used to matter a lot, but recent adjustments have made content significantly more important than age. Aged domain names have many advantages, including current type-in traffic, more valuable keywords and keyword combinations, and minor SEO advantages.

Keywords:

When creating or selling a domain name, keywords can be crucial. This category might include domain names with descriptive keywords as well. Exact match terms for certain businesses and professions are known as descriptive domains.

Searches:

Check the number of monthly searches for the domain’s keywords or phrases using Google’s Keyword Planner before making a purchase. It’s usually worthwhile to look up how many people use a particular set of keywords. It frequently indicates a popular term, market, or niche. A keyword or phrase is likely a good domain name if it receives hundreds or thousands of searches on Google each month.

Low search volume does not necessarily imply that a domain is worthless. The amount of searches is just one more thing to consider.

Niche:

Exploring a niche might be a useful approach to assessing the worth of a domain name. Are there strong internet sales for the product, for instance, if it is a domain for a product? Do businesses use such terms in advertising? Who are the largest businesses in the market? What is their monthly advertising budget?

Traffic:

Are there daily visitors to your domain name? Type-in traffic can offer value and reveal a lot about a domain name. Every day, thousands of people type in the most well-known generic domain names on the Internet. Don’t get distracted by traffic statistics, though; it’s not a coincidence that they sell for millions of dollars each. Most domain names are sold without being aware of their traffic figures.

Price:

When purchasing a domain name, price is one of the most important considerations. Spending too much money on a domain name may prevent you from ever earning money from it.

A good example of overspending on a domain name is purchasing it at auction. You don’t want to get involved in a bidding war that significantly exceeds your initial budget after doing your research on the domain name and understanding what your budget is.

Similar Sales:

It’s interesting to compare your domain name. It shouldn’t necessarily dictate how much you price for the domain name you control, but it can show you what businesses or investors are ready to spend. Use websites like NameBio.com to find sales statistics from the past.

Cybersquatting, Trademarks & UDRPs

You might be unfamiliar with the topic of cybersquatting and trademark infringement, but if you own a domain name, I think you should be aware of the regulations and laws regarding online trademark infringement.

Domaining and cybersquatting go hand in hand in the eyes of the ignorant, the uninitiated, and many journalists. They would consider it cybersquatting if you hold a domain name but don’t use it. Cybersquatting is a real thing, but it’s not the same as domaining.

Domaining vs Cybersquatting

An investment in domain names is called domaining. A domain name is purchased with the intention of reselling it for a profit or improving it to raise its worth. It is similar to real estate investing.

True domain investors are highly aware of the need to stay away from specific domain names that contain trademarks, misspellings, or terms that are protected by copyright. As you progress toward ideally becoming a professional domain investor, you’ll be aware of the need to stay away from copyrighted phrases, trademarks, and typos. Cybersquatting occurs there.

The act of purchasing domain names that violate trademarks and copyrights is known as cybersquatting. Cybersquatters will intentionally violate these trademarks in the intention of getting money from the violation. This can be accomplished either directly by using the brand or business name as its whole, or indirectly by making a typographical error. In either case, you should avoid doing this.

The issue of cybersquatting has, in some ways, gotten worse as a result of the introduction of new TLDs. In the hope that the trademark owner will purchase them, I have noticed dozens of cases of new “domainers” registering new TLD names that contain registered trademarks. As a result, numerous UDRP cases have been brought against people who were unwise to register trademarked words.

Trademarks

Intellectual property and trademarks are recognizable symbols and expressions of a specific product or service.

They are established to acknowledge the ownership of the good or service exclusively. It is illegal to use trademarks without obtaining permission from the owner.

The majority of times, trademark infringement in domain names refer to the immoral use of a brand name to advertise a website or goods without any connection with the actual trademark owner.

This might be a major issue, especially for big businesses. The purchase of a Gucci domain name for the purpose of selling fake Gucci apparel is an example.

Many of these big businesses hire intellectual property lawyers who focus only on locating and deleting websites and domain names that violate trademark laws in order to protect their interests.

Sending a Cease and Desist letter to the domain owner through email or regular mail is typically the first action a business will take against a domain name. These letters typically demand that you give them control of the domain name and stop purchasing domain names that might violate their trademark.

It is recommended to transfer the domain over if you receive one of these letters and have no defense. 

On the other hand, if you think the business is mistaken and your domain name does not in any way violate the trademark, you might want to speak with a domain name lawyer.

They may initiate legal action against you if a cease-and-desist letter is unsuccessful, which typically ends in a UDRP.

You might want to look up whether a term or phrase is the subject of an active trademark before you consider purchasing a domain name.

To do this, enter the term or phrase at www.uspto.gov (for the USA). Stay far away if a trademark is in use.

Typos

As was previously mentioned, typos are domain names that violate a trademark by depending on users’ typing errors as they input a website URL. For instance, Domain.com might be a misspelling for Domayn.com.

For those who own the typos, typos can generate a lot of traffic and even a lot of money. An estimated 92,400 people visited Fcebook.com, a misspelling of Facebook.com, in January 2014. Naturally, Facebook now controls Facebook.com. The registrant might make thousands of dollars per month from the domain if it were privately owned, though.

Many companies, like Facebook, actively pursue typosquatters. Eleven individuals who registered misspelled versions of the Facebook domain name were ordered to pay $2.8 million in damages in 2013. (for example, fnacebook.com and fmcebook.com).

The eleven defendants in the case were each required to pay Facebook anywhere from $5,000 to $25,000 for each domain name they registered.

The lesson of the tale is to keep away from typos in domain names.

Where to Begin Investing In Domains (Domaining)

Finally, we’re going to discuss how to begin investing in domain names (Domaining). I would advise anyone who is new to the domain industry to start out cautiously. Avoid registering brand-new domain names, purchasing hundreds of domain names, or bidding on ones you cannot afford. Simply read, learn, and repeat.

Expired Domains

I’d advise beginning by checking expired domain names. If you’ve read the explanation of expired domains earlier in this article, you’ll be familiar with the idea that these are domain names that have already been registered but whose registration has expired and therefore made them available for purchase by anyone.

A standard domain lifecycle would see the name expire, get deleted, and then become open for registration to anyone. With domain names that have any value, this doesn’t happen very often.

Many services catch domain names right before they expire and then sell them at auction. I suggest beginning with this. 

The majority of expired domain names are retrieved by four companies: GoDaddy, SnapNames, NameJet, and Pool.com.

Tools you need to start domaining

You’ll need to use a variety of tools and websites to identify, manage, and sell your domain investments if you want to invest in domain names profitably. I’ll list websites and domain-related tools that I believe are helpful for domaining.

Search Expired Domains

My domain investing technique mostly relies on finding expired domain names, therefore I peruse thousands of them every day. ExpiredDomains.net is the best resource I’ve found for locating expired domain names to buy. You may easily search through listings on GoDaddy, NameJet, and SnapNames using this website, which is free to use and offers a variety of categories.

Parking of domain names

Without having to fill them with unique content and articles, domain name parking enables you to display advertisements on your domains. You might want to use a domain parking service if you have a lot of names to handle because it makes recurring profits from your domain names via PPC marketing. Also, it’s a device for generating domain sales leads. A banner indicating that your domain is for sale may be shown by some domain parking firms. This straightforward message can bring in a lot of prospects.

Domain Sales Accounts

You may want to add your domains to several websites to make sure they get the most exposure to potential customers. The websites that I suggest are:

You may want to add your domains to several websites to make sure they get the most exposure to potential customers. The websites that I suggest are:

1- Godaddy.com 

Your name can be displayed across several registrars, including namecheap.com with the help of Afternic.com (20% commission).

2- Dan.com (9% commission)  GoDaddy recently acquired Dan.com. Additionally, it’s a great marketplace where you may list your domain for sale with a variety of selling options.

3- DomainNameSales.com (10% commission)

It is essential to list through DomainNameSales.com because of their brokerage system and affiliation with DomainTools.com.

4- Sedo.com (15% commission)

“Sedo” which stands for Search Engine for Domain Offers, is a domain name marketplace and domain, parking provider. It’s one of the largest domain marketplaces.

WhoIs

Domain name sales need the use of WhoIs information. I look for potential domain buyers and the owners of specific domains I’m interested in purchasing using WhoIs data. I use two specific tools, which are as follows:

1- Whois.com

2- Who.is

Use their services by opening a free account. Their WhoIs listings include the registrant’s email address and important domain information like the creation and expiration dates, providing all the information you require about any domain name.

DotDB

First, it’s extremely fast. Second, paying members have access to a list of active domains. To indicate which domains are live, parked, and inactive, DotDB uses color coding. If a keyword is registered anyplace in a second-level domain, the system also lets you know. You can get websites like wordexample.com, exampleword.com, etc. by searching for example.com.

Sales Record

Knowing how other domain names have sold in the past can help you determine the value of your own domain names and could influence your future investment decisions. Sales history might help you decide how much you’re willing to spend and how much you can actually get for a domain name when selling it. NameBio.com is a very helpful website that maintains a history record of domain sales.

Domain Registrars

Every domain investor has a favorite domain name registrar that they prefer for a variety of reasons. These reasons may include the cost, the level of customer service, or the security they provide to protect your domain names. When it comes to domain name registrars, Sav.com and GoDaddy.com are my top two choices.

Buying Domain Names

Registering New Domain Names

It may seem smart to register new domain names with the intention of selling them for a profit; you only pay a few dollars per name, and if you sell one, the price of all the others would be recovered.

Few investors are good at doing this and can make a profit from new registrations. However, I wouldn’t suggest using this approach frequently. Due to their extensive knowledge, domain investors who profit from new registrations are able to predict which new registrations will sell and which won’t.

In the intention of selling one for a high price (which would pay for their registration fees and more), many people also register hundreds of new registrations.

You should start looking for domain names that are about to expire. You already know that expired domain names have expired in registration and will be open for registration once more if you read my earlier explanation of the domain name lifecycle.

Drop catching services, like NameJet and SnapNames, collaborate with registrars to “catch” these domain names as the registration expires. In return for a fee, you can purchase these domain names; prices typically start at $69 for “Pre-Release Domains” and $59 for “Pending Delete” domains.

Buying Expired Domains

You must look through expired domain names to find domain names that are worth your investment. Approximately 100,000 domains enter the “Pending Delete” stage each day, in addition to 15,000 NameJet Pre Release domains, 40,000 GoDaddy auctions, and 10,000 SnapNames exclusive domains.

How do you find the proper domain names among these millions of possibilities while maintaining your sanity? 

With the help of the free website ExpiredDomains.net, you may filter out the majority of useless domains and see the ones that you might be able to sell for a profit. You might be browsing through 500 domain names per day rather than 180,000.

Visit www.expireddomains.net at this time to create an account and some filters. What you must do is as follows:

  1. Create a free account at ExpiredDomains.net
  2. Create your first filter by selecting Show Filter from the Marketplace Domains menu.
  3. You can try different filters here.

These filters introduce characteristics like “No numbers or No hyphens,” which limit the number of domain names you need to search through.

You should begin by applying the following filters:

No Numbers: no domains containing numbers will be displayed.

No Hyphens: Hyphenated domains won’t show up in searches.

Min WBY:  using Min WBY will ensure that no newly registered domains are displayed. 

TLDs – only.COM, since we want to look for.COM domains.

When you’re finished, click Apply Filter, and your results will show up! To avoid having to enter those details each time you access ExpiredDomains.net, it would be a good idea to store this filter at this point.

How to recognize quality domains

Finding domain names that are great choices for purchase or backorder is what you should do now that you have a list of potential domain names. You may easily eliminate domains by going over each one using a Yes/No approach and asking yourself questions about each one.

Think about the following questions:

Is it a typo or a trademark? If so, remove right away.

Does that make any sense? If it doesn’t make sense, ignore it.

Does the domain name have any end users? 

Can I sell my domain name to businesses? 

Find out from a Google search how many businesses might be interested in purchasing the domain name. Discard the name if there aren’t any or very few end users.

How do you determine the worth of a domain name?

You must look at data to evaluate the worth of any domain name, whether it is active or expired. Few people have the gut instinct required to successfully buy and sell domain names. The TLD, CPC, number of advertisers, age of domain name, and monthly Google search volume are values that I’ve already shown you in this article.

These elements can help you determine whether or not a domain name is valuable and how valuable it is, in addition to sales data and current demand.

You may also like...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.