Finding Domain Names To Resell For Profits

I wrote an article yesterday about domain flipping and the potential income involved. Successful domain flipping is an art in itself and there are people out there who make a very good living at it doing it full time. Professional domain brokers are called domainers and most of them build portfolios of thousands of domain names and sometimes even sell them in large bundles.

This article is not aimed at the domainers – who know a hell of a lot more about domains than I ever will! This article is for new domain speculators who are looking to make extra income buying and selling domains. If you become good at it I’m sure you can find a course out there offered by a professional domainer who can help you with more advanced strategies.

Here I’ll share with you what I’ve learned by both buying and selling domains and offer tips that can increase your chances of making domaining profitable.

But first…

A Dose Of Domain Reality

Not to be a buzzkill but there are some truths you need to know about selling domains before you learn the hard way.

• Most of your domain names are probably unsellable
• Despite what you think your domain names are worth they’re only worth what a buyer is willing to pay you for them. You don’t set the price; the buyer does
• Finding lucrative domain names is much harder now than it use to be
• There is a LOT of competition in the domain flipping arena and most marketers fail

So now that I’ve kicked you in the gut I want to point out that if you’re a bright, creative, and forward-thinking person and can develop a knack for selling domains you can make very good money doing it. I know because I learned domain flipping myself and make a solid profit every month buying and selling domains. Now lets get down to brass tacks…

How To Find Domain Names That Attract Buyers:

1. Focus your efforts on expired domain names instead of new (never registered) domain names. Marketers frequently mention that aged domains are easier to rank than new ones, which is true, but it’s not so much the age of the domain as it is the authority (backlinks and PageRank) an aged domain may bring you. I have a full page showing you how to find expired domains here: How to find expired domains.

2. Shorter is better but also harder to find. One word domain names are long gone but good two-word and three-word domain names are still prevalent. 

3. Careful with hyphenated names. I don’t believe the search engines penalize you for hyphenated domain names but many buyers will avoid them anyways because they can be a pain for internet searchers.

4. Be patient. Domaining is like gold mining. You’re not going to pull endless gold nuggets out of the ground from day one. But if you’re patient and put in the time to learn how to find good domains you’ll eventually find a winner. On the other end of things, be a patient seller too. Many people get impatient when selling domain names and end up leaving a lot of money on the table instead of waiting for the right buyer to show up. 

5. Stay the hell away from trademarked names. This is the fastest way to get yourself in trouble. The fines can be upwards of $100,000.00. Avoid something too similar to competing domain names and make sure not to violate others. You can check for free on this website:  trademarkia.com.

6. Stick with .com’s for the most part. It will always be the gold standard and thus the most valuable top level domain. Unfortunately they’re also the hardest to find! 

7. Predict future markets. In my opinion this is where the real opportunity lies. Sure all of the good industry domain terms are taken but what about markets that don’t exist yet? Since you can pick up a new domain name for about seven bucks its a low risk investment to try your hand at some of these. If you get good at forecasting future markets you have the potential to make big bucks down the road.

Think about where technology is leading us and look at the evolution of markets to get ideas. I think we all know where we’re going in the near future: self-driving cars, robots, drones, 3-D printing applications, interplanetary travel, organ harvesting, advanced wearable technology. Use your imagination! 

Bonus: Domain Selling Tips:

1. Never pay for a domain appraisal. Period. A domain appraisal has no value whatsoever. Remember that the price is ultimately set by the market. Save your money and skip the paid appraisal. And if a buyer asks you to get an appraisal before they buy it – don’t walk but RUN the other way. Some of these are schemes and scams perpetrated by scumbags only interested in separating you from your money and have no intention of buying your domain.

2. It’s OK to buy domains from domainers but never sell to domainers. Focus on selling only to end users to ensure you get the best price for your domain. Your best buyers will be people who not only know how to use your domain but will actually put it to use for their business and not just resell it. 

Where To Sell And Buy Domains

There are several good domain aftermarkets on the interwebs in which to buy and sell domains  including sedo.com, aftermarket.com, and even auctions.godaddy.com but my favorite is by far is Flippa.

Flippa is the entrepreneur’s marketplace.

Flippa is the world’s number one marketplace for buying and selling websites, domains and apps.

Buyers love Flippa due to the extensive inventory to suit a range of investors. In fact more than 1,000 new businesses are listed for sale on Flippa every single day. As the first and leading marketplace for entrepreneurs, they’ve built a buying experience that is second to none, it’s simple and secure.

Sellers use Flippa due to it having the highest sales rate in the industry—primarily due to the massive size and quality of the Flippa buyer audience. Every month on Flippa over $2m of businesses are sold.

Want some numbers stat-guys?

• Over 600,000 users have registered to buy or sell on Flippa
• A bid is placed on a Flippa auction every minute
• More than 2,500 buyers and sellers are online every minute of the day
• In the last 12 months 300,000 bids were placed and nearly 23,000 business were sold on Flippa.
• Alexa puts Flippa in the top 1,000 sites worldwide

Go check out Flippa.com right now and get in the game.