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Would you like to be that lucky person who sells their domain for thousands or even a million dollars? It IS possible to find quality domains and resell them for huge amounts of money. The time is ripe for acquiring top domains and selling them. Now that the Internet Boom is behind us, valuable names expire everyday. The best way to find these domains is to use services on the Internet such as DomainsBot to weed out the bad names. Or just check out Hot Lists on sites like Namewinner or Pool.

So what makes a “good” domain name? Usually short, single word domains and 2-3 letter .coms, .nets, and .orgs are the best. The more specific the better. These can be hard to come by but when you find them, you can almost guarantee that you can make good money from them. Once you have purchased a nice domain name, get a good appraisal of the name to get an idea of the possible worth (see AppraisalBlast.com). In order to sell your newly appraised name, you have to find a buyer. Here are your basic options for selling your domain name in a nutshell:

1. Sell it on Ebay

This is the easiest and quickest way to sell your domain name. There are several tricks to landing a good sale at Ebay. One is, start your price low. People want a bargain. Once you have received an initial bid, it will draw peoples attention to your name and create more bids. You may want to set a reserve price if you want to make sure you get X amount of dollars. When selling your domain on Ebay, make sure your domain name is in the title of the description. Also, include an appraisal to show to possible buyers the value of the domain. Keep your description short, clean, and really emphasize how important and rare your domain is. For example, if your domain is 3 letters and ends in “I”, stress how most 3 letter domains that are highly valuable end in “I” because it usually stands for “Incorporated”. If it ends in “E” it could stand for “Enterprise”. A little bit of marketing saavy can go a long way. I once sold the domain 0pp.com for over $200. It even has a number in it making it worth very little. But I emphasize its possible uses and potential. Also, spend the extra $1 for the Bold Listing and make sure your auction ends on a Sunday afternoon or evening. This is when most people are browsing Ebay. It will make a big difference.

2. Sell it on Domain Sites

The only sites you should even consider putting your name up for sale is on ebay.com, Afternic, or Sedo. These are the most popular and where some huge sales have taken place. The only downside is that there are high numbers of domains already for sale and usually the site will get a commission of something around 10%. There also may be a small fee to join. Appraisal Blast charges a minimal fee but no commission. Your domain will get more exposure there just because there aren’t hundreds of domains for sale. You may also have luck selling it on forums such as DomainState. The prices of sales there seem to be lower.

3. Contact Large Businesses with Deep Pockets

This approach takes some time and patience. Let’s say you have acquired a great domain name that would work great for any business in the field of the stock market. You may want to locate some of the bigger sites or businesses and make an offer to sell your domain name. Make sure the name you own doens’t have any elements that are already trademarked because you may be forced to give up the name. You may want to go on the Internet and look up current websites that deal with stocks and find ones that don’t have the greatest domain names. Make offers to these sites stating how your domain is much better and will HELP them. If you get a company to bite, the rewards are usually very generous!

In summary, selling domains for high amounts of cash depends on two key elements. First you must have a quality domain, one that doesn’t have numbers or isn’t too long. It must be clear and easily recognizable. “.com” is the best, but even domains such as the “.us” are gaining popularity. The second key is Marketing, Marketing, Marketing! I can’t stress that enough. You have to create a good reason for someone to buy your domain. How can THEY benefit from it. When these two steps are fulfilled, a sale is almost guaranteed!

What’s In A (Domain) Name?

 

A domain name is the text name corresponding to the numeric IP address of a computer on the Internet. A domain name must be unique. Internet users access your website using your domain name. download The process of copying files, information and images from the Internet to your computer. Every time a visitor accesses a page on the Internet, they are downloading the contents of that page.

The “address” or URL of a particular Web site. This is also how you describe the name that is at the right of the @ sign in an Internet address. For example, netlingo.com is the domain name of this Internet dictionary. There is an organization called InterNIC that registers domain names for a small fee and keeps people from registering the same name. Most recently, more domain names will be allowed due to new suffixes coming out

A domain name is a unique name, which used to be up to fifteen characters in length, but can now be up to sixty-seven characters, assigned to identify the domain on the network. A domain name must be different than all other domain names, workgroup names, and computer names on the network.

Years ago we registered our first domain name with the only show in town — InterNIC. They were expensive and not consumer-friendly — can you spell “monopoly?” Then we registered two more domain names with them. Expensive…but OK…if that was all we wanted to do. They would charge us to sell one of our domain names…monopolies can do this!

Then, they followed the fate of MaBell. Government stepped in and allowed competitors in the Domain Registration business.

If you feel more secure sticking with a name-brand with a long track record, register your domain name with them. However, do check their prices…still higher than their competitors who offer identical and sometimes superior service — ( http://www.nic.net/pricing.html ) — Domain Name Registration Pricing. Deregulation forced them to be more competitive. But they charge more…relying upon their “brand name.”

We moved our three sites over to Terrasite…about half the price we were paying…and no charge for selling off one of our sites. Hooray! for competition! And a level playing-field!

More Domain Register companies have since set up shop in CyberSpace. Some are very good. Others are very questionable.

After beginning our quest for our ***perfect CyberSpace profession where we could do nothing! and make a whole lot of money! in a month! and be set for the rest of our lives***, we registered 2 more domain names.

We approached Terrasite. Did they have an affiliate program where we would make money every time somebody registered through us? Or when we registered more sites? No response after several tries. We guess they found their niche market and their ***perfect CyberSpace profession where they do nothing! and make a whole lot of money! every day! and are set for the rest of their life.***

So…we registered these through one of the I-Marketing gurus we like. Better through him than with a faceless big operation which doesn’t answer emails.

We pursued our learning curve over the months. Not guru-material yet…but we can dream. Isn’t that what makes life interesting?…pursuing a good dream? So…we plan to register many more domain names…all will help us expand our business(es). We want a reasonably priced credible service…and not consumer-challenged.

We searched in Google. We searched Whois. Note: We like using — ( http://www.whois.sc/ ) — Whois Source: Domain name search lookup that allows a wildcard search of all current/deleted/expired whois domains. It is EZ to use and results are good.

We are trying out what we feel may be the right one for us
– Domain Direct –
( http://www.EarnYourLiving.com/DomainDirectRegistration/ )
– The Easiest way to Register, Build & Host your Website!

Why do we feel good about them? They are affiliated with Tucows. Tucows are good people and have been around for many years. We used to visit them for a lot of free downloads –
back in the days of DOS 5.0. There were similar operations
out there, but Tucows always had it together and was consumer-friendly.

Also, they register your domain name with ICANN. Find out more about the importance of ICANN –
( http://www.icann.org/ ) — The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. This is the Master Registry of all domain names — somebody has to do this in order to keep order.

Terrasite gave us no problems transferring our Registration over to DomainDirect. We are conservative. We left our other two domains with Terrasite — let’s see how DomainDirect works out. These two don’t need to be renewed until 2004…we have time.

When we tried to move one of the two we had registered through the “guru”…we had to threaten the service we would report them to their state’s Attorney General. We copied everything to the guru…who may have marketed the wrong service…honest mistake. They finally let it move over to Domain Direct. Hey…it’s *our* property, it’s *our* money…it’s *our* choice of where we do business.

NOTE: When you change registrars — begin 2 months before your expiration date. That gives you time for “screw-ups” along the way. Basically, if you are paid up and request your move outside of 30 days…there should be no problem. If you move at the last minute, some registrars will charge
you another year as a penalty. Also…when you move to another Registrar, you don’t lose money — your original date of registration gets credited over. So…you pay for a year. Your date of renewal is at the end of that year plus the remaining time you have left.

The “guru’s” registrar offered renewal for half their fee if we stayed with them. Our experience with them dictates we walk away and never look back. We voted…with our feet and our wallet. There should be no problems when we move our other site…

We feel good about DomainDirect. We have an affiliate relationship. Yes…we get a little commission every time we register another domain name. And…every time somebody registers through our affiliate link. DomainDirect pays affiliates when $100 in commissions is accumulated. This equates to every time 8 new domains come through us, we get $100. Ain’t much…but it helps lower the cost per each domain name we register for ourselves. If you plan to register 8 or more domain names…it is worth your while to become their affiliate.