Top 137 Domain Tips

February 18, 2008

1) Create brandable domains by replacing the first letter(s) of a common word.
2) Don’t start work developing an idea around a domain that you don’t yet own thinking you can grab it when you’re ready!
3) Don’t use hyphens in the domain if you can help it.
4) Does the domain look good in upper and lower case?
5) Say the domain out loud before registering it, is it easily pronounceable over the phone?
6) read up on new and emerging terms and register domains around them.
7) Don’t register domains while under the influance of drugs or alcohol. (just say no)
Keep the domain length down don’t over do it. On Average get 10 char domains.
9) Keep the word count down in the domain name. 3 is pushing it, 4 is overboard.
10) Match your domain name with a proper TLD (or TLDs).
11) Check Google and/or Overture search results for the exact term.
12) Search through lists of expired domain names.

13. It’s a good sign if PPC advertisers are bidding on the exact terms that make up your domain name.
14) don’t register too many at once – spread the renewal times !
15) Limit yourself. Don’t register everything that looks good, but only a select few, the best of the domains that look good. Selling domains is not as easy as it seems, even for those of us that have some success with it. Domains that are simply decent can easily get lost within the millions of listed domains out there.
16) If all your research and domainer intuition point to a successful sale at a certain level with a domain you’ve purchased, don’t get discouraged if you don’t get the level of bids you want right away. Be patient!
17) Research various different domain markets and find the one that suits you best, whether it be brandable made-up .com names, top keyword ccTLDs, or something inbetween.
18) If you really want to feature a domain at a particular marketplace, make sure it’s a high-quality name that otherwise would not easily be found. Check the listing visits on your best names, pick the one with the least amount of listing views, and feature that name.
19) When you believe you have a good understanding of high quality domain names ($x,xxx or higher) and feel you have 1 or more of them, make an attempt to get those elite names into showcase/top names at the domain marketplaces you have then listed at. It’s always free and can only mean more traffic to your listing.
20) Do NOT search for domains unless you can IMMEDIATELY register them once you find a suitable domain.
If you find a great name, chances are it will be gone the by the ‘next’ time you want to reg it.
21) Use acronym searchers to discover additional meaning to a domain.
22) Domain ‘hacks‘ can add additional value if done in a clever way and matched with an appropriate extension (e.g. del.icio.us, click.it)
23)Dont use reg fly
24)Dont be afraid of ccTLDs
25) Buy trademarked domains At Your Own Risk and be prepared to drop it at any time.
26) Try to buy one good domain rather than to register 10 domains with the same money
27) Do PPC research before you buy a name.
28) Be ready to drop if need be
29) Don’t spend more than you can afford
30) Don’t make this your primary business.
31) When partnering with someone, get your agreement in writing. Get clear agreement statements from all parties, regardless of your affiliation(s) with them. At the least, save a screenshot of all chat sessions and/or save all email discussions.
32) Don’t regret a sale for longer than a few seconds. If you find out later that the name was worth much more, the buyer would’ve/could’ve paid more, etc., consider your “loss” as money well-spent on a lesson well learned.
33 – ask questions from those who know more than you and respect their answers
34) Don’t buy names that you don’t intend to renew, unless they are for a specific occasion.
35) Work out your budget and stick to it.
36) Keep a reserve for bargains that may appear.
37) Don’t spend big on types of names that you have little experience with.
38) don’t fall for appraisal scam
39) Remember to use any discount codes when registering or renewing, this will save you lots of money
40) Check the name is not blacklisted
41) Invest in the future, the past has already been bought
42) It is MUCH easier to find a sweet Domain in drop list than develop a new one by yourself
43) If you start registering lots of domains get yourself a domain reseller account to lower the price per domain.
44) Use domain searching software for advanced domain hunting.
45) Choose your registrar carefully. You want a registrar with decent prices, a good reputation on this board and free pushes. Using a well know registrar makes it easier for people to buy from you. GoDaddy is a good choice – although you have to keep track of discount codes to get their best pricing.
46) Slow down. When you find 10 solid names in your own mind, register only the best one or two.
47) Be careful with combining words, they might create unforeseen meanings for your domain! (e.g. Pen Island -> www.penisland.net)
48) Parking your domain can provide extra revenue when your domain is idle.
49) Don’t transfer/push sold Domains prior to receiving payment from the buyer.
50) If you find an available name check to see if the plural or singular version are also available.
51) If you find an available name check to see if there are other similar names available, for example, I regged GreedyCash.com but prior to regging it I looked up GreedyMoney.com and GreedyBucks.com, both were taken.
52) If possible search for end users, selling to domain resellers usually isnt the best way to get the max for your Domain.
53) If your interested in a domain which looks like its going to be dropped, contact the current owner and make an offer, once the name does drop you might end up paying alot more for it in the end.
54) Find yourself an online domainer friend which you trust and discuss the domains your interested in prior to regging them, always nice to get a second opinion.
55) Stear clear of ebay unless you have a solid name.
56) If you want to register domain names through Godaddy always check first for New Godaddy Coupons (In This Site)
57) Sales threads with the word “premium” in the title rarely offer premium names.
58) Use a domain monitor to watch your domains (dns changes, transfers, locks etc…) and domains you are interested in.
59) Use a mark monitor to watch for when certain keywords are registered as domains, e.g. something using your trademark or close to your brand.
60) Watch for news about new TLDs (Top Level Domains) being launched.
61) Late night registrations are a no go area. You will wake up in the morning and wish that you had never bought it.
62) If creating a website, register related names in all different extensions to cover yourself as it will save money in the long run on Dispute Filings or having to buy them in the future for $100 a piece, when you could have just got them for practically nothing in the first place.
63) Cheapest isn’t always best, the registrar may have hidden charges which may otherwise be free on another registrar.
64) If you have a domain name which has a trademark associated with it, unless you are in a “nothing to lose” (apart from the crummy domain) situation, do not offer it to the company with the registered trademark as this will give the company evidence of an “abusive registration”
65) Before you register a domain specifically for resale, think… would I buy this domain off someone else?
66) Using l33t speak in your domain name limits it’s scope and can make it harder to read/promote.
67) Use Whois name protection to hide your contact details from the world, otherwise it’s available as public info.
68) Use The Wayback machine to view old versions of sites at a domain, they may even have put a price up or other interesting info.
69) Before grabbing a domain, check if it’s been taken in other extensions already.
70) When you are expecting domains to drop, check their availability at more than one registrar. While some show a domain as still taken, others may be showing it as available!
71) All other things being equal, a fairly good .com is better than all but the very best .net/.org/.info, etc.
72) Compose your email messages to potential buyers in a word processor; edit them; and then paste them into your email program. (If you compose in the email program, you might accidentally hit “send” when the message is half written. Sadly, I speak from experience!)
73)When you register a domain, don’t try to “flip” it immediately for a small profit. Park it and wait for a while (at least a week or two) to see whether it’s getting traffic, which could increase its value.
74) Reward people who help you. (For example, if someone posts an available domain that you grab, or gives a thoughtful appraisal to your domain, give them some rep / NP$ / actual $ / etc.)
75) free online appraisal systems very often give inaccurate (often inflated) evaluations of domains.
76) On some occasions if a great domain is about to drop, it might be worth while contacting the owner directly before it does – because it will almost certainly be snapped up and go to auction for the highest bid.
77) If you have graphics design experience creating quick logo concepts for the domains you are selling can help potential buyers to share in your vision for the domain, and increase the chance of a sale.
78) When considering a registrar, find out whether you can cancel (& get a refund for) domains within a few days after you register them. Some, but not all, registrars offer this option.
79) Don’t steer clear of eBay, just price your names correctly.
80) Don’t get greedy when responding to Sedo.com offers unless you really know what you are doing.
81) Don’t post ANYTHING on Namepros unless you’ve read about FLUMP
82) If your name gets listed on GreatDomains.com, you cannot sell it anywhere else for 6 months.
83) If your name isn’t accept by GreatDomains.com, don’t complain to them, just post about it here.
84) Be very careful to not buy low value IDN domain names, from people who previously registered them, when you may think that you were getting a very nice and valuable one, specially .COMs.
85) If your reason for registering a particular domain is to sell it, then make sure your who-is info is accurate and up to date, so buyers can contact you quickly and easily.
86) Check domains with DN Analyzer. If a name shows as taken, go to whois.net and confirm that it actually is. Using several registrars to check for available names will result in the name being stolen by a registrar, a taster or a squatter.
87) Be diligent in renewing your domains. Don’t procrastinate. If possible, consolidate your names to one registrar to make them easier to keep track of.
88) Avoid current event domains. Today’s news is next year’s junk domain.
89) Learn the basics about trademarks, contract law, and the UDRP process.
90) Your domain is worth whatever someone’s willing to pay, NOT what someone else says it’s worth.
91) Appraisals are an educated guide price, often a total guess, NOT a final price.
92) Don’t hold on to your whole portfolio in hopes of getting high $$$$$$ for each name, renewing hundreds of names per year at high expense. Instead, hold on to some gems, sell the rest for lower prices, move the goods
93) When you sell 10 names for $50 each, instead of using that $500 for regging 50 inferior names, consider buying a single high quality dotcom for $500
94) Make sure you take into account the expenses of regging, renewing, broker fees, software purchases, transfer costs, whois privacy costs etc when planning your budget. If you don’t, you might end up losing money in the long run even if you do make some sales
95) take domian parking seriously. It’s set it and forget it but most people fail to set it.
96) Repark your bottom 20% – some names just do better elsewhere but give them time.
97) List your names everywhere.
98) get a good portfolio site.
99) promote your portfolio site with viral marketing and free sites
100) consider free private label storefronts for some of your names.
101) brand your name give it a tshirt or something
102) Don’t assume that just because you own the .com that the owners of the equivalent .co.uk – .de – .fr etc will definetly want it or be willing to pay you big bucks for it.
103) Remember that end users/Business owners do not necessarily think in the same way as a Domainer does.
104) Invest in .info! They will become big in the near future!
105) Domain name conference events are a great place to learn more about the insides of the domain industry and network with other domain owners and businesses. DomainFest: www.domainfest.com Domain Roundtable: www.domainroundtable.com TRAFFIC: www.targetedtraffic.com
106) Check for the readability of a domain (e.g coollinks isn’t as easy to read as coolsites) Also check if the first word could be perceived as overrunning into the second – e.g. gamershell (gamers hell? gamer shell?).
107) Try and avoid domains with negative connotations. (e.g. SlowPay, DownHost etc…)
108) If you can’t get the noun (e.g fish), look for the plural (fishes), or other word combinations; fished, fishing, fisher, fishy etc…
109) For beginners; don’t be fooled into thinking you have to register your domains with your web host, it’s advisable to keep your domains and your hosting separate.
110) Use a Thesaurus to help come up with additional words.
111) If you are developing a number of domains on your own reseller hosting account, it is usually a good idea to add whois protection to your nameserver domain. (n1.xxxxxx.com)
112) Watch out for alternative spellings UK/US (e.g. ise vs. ize)
113) Whenever I solicit an end-user with a similar domain, I always use their domain name without ext in the subject line, I always get a response this way….” How Much? “, ” No Thanks! “. Example, I own NewLaptops(.net), I contact the owner of the .org, info, even com and I place in the subject line NewLaptops or New Laptops.
I dont know why the boost in response, but I attribute it to the end user thinking maybe their domain has expired, is in violation of Trademarks, or is an offer to ” buy their domain “.
114) Most forum thread domain sale topics that start with “Some Great Domain Names”, “Sweet Names”, “etc”. Often are the opposite.
115) Use a RSS reader to pull different popular forum domain sales areas into one easy to read place.
116) Avoid registering unnecessary Top Level Domain names. Often, a subdomain of a domain name you already own makes much more sense. For example, if you needed a distinct section of Press Releases for Example Company. If you already own example.com, why register examplepress.com when you can easily create a subdomain like press.example.com for this purpose. Remember the domain name system is hierarchical, and you can create in theory an unlimited amount of X.yourdomain.com subdomains without registration fees. This will definitely save you money in registration and renewal fees, and if you are thinking of just letting the examplepress.com domain drop when you don’t need it anymore, somebody could pick up that domain and put undesirable content there, possibly damaging your reputation. If you had created a press.example.com subdomain, then all you would have to do is keep up with the renewal of your example.com domain.
117) If you are evaluating the search results of a multi word/part domain, searching for the exact phrase will give you more realistic figures. If you are evaluating the search performance of “carwash.com”, then you would search the phrase “car wash” (including the quotes) rather than without the quotes. With the quotes, the search engine searches for the entire phrase within webpages (yielding a more accurate indicator). Without, the search engine searches for either of the words “car” and “wash” in webpages (yielding an inflated amounts of results). This should be standard behavior among major search engines such as Google and Yahoo.
118) When registering a domain with a number in it (number5.com) see if you can grab similar sounding domains as well (numberfive.com) and possibly num5.com and numfive.com.
119) Try and register domains made up of common phrases or saying (youneverknow.com, whydidyoudoit.com, giveitago.com).
120) Consider using an escrow service, especially when conducting transactions of a high value. When using an escrow service, the escrow company will act as a middle man for the transaction. The buyer will first pay the escrow company, then the seller should ship the goods (domain name). Once the buyer has confirmed that he/she has received the goods, the escrow company will pay the seller. If the seller fails to ship the goods, then the buyer will receive his/her money back from the escrow company. This helps to ensure for a smooth transaction and helps to prevent either party from being scammed. But there is a price for this convenience. Usually, the escrow company will charge a percentage of the transaction value as a transaction fee. The buyer and seller must agree prior to the transaction as to which party is responsible to pay this “escrow fee”.
121) If you own a lot of domains and have catch-all email setup on them you may be getting a lot of spam, consider turning off catch-all and have just one email address per domain (info or sales @xxxxxxx.com) redirect back to your primary email address.
122) Some domain registrars will give you a personal renewal code which can save you some money (~$1 off/domain) if you are renewing a lot of domains.
123) For commercial domains it is recommended to keep your domain name relevant to your content (don’t sell skis at petfood.com for example), if a potential customer can tell what you likely sell just from looking at your domain name that’s a great start.
124) Reply to anything you consider is a genuine bid on your domain name, even if it is a lot lower than you expected you can always counter with a higher offer and start a dialogue with the buyer.
125) Play this Domain Name Appraisal Game – you have to guess the sale price on 10 domains in a row, you get graded at the end and get to see the actual price the domain sold for. Playing this simple game for an hour can improve your knowledge of what domains are worth and what they can sell for.
126) If an extension has tons of short, premium names available, that’s probably because there is no demand for them.
127) Watch out for registrars that offer unofficial domain extensions. (e.g .shop, .xxx, .cool) these names only work with certain ISPs otherwise users need to install a 3rd party browser plug-in to see the domains.
128) Keep a watch list of potential names you are considering buying.
129) If you are unsure of a domain (especially potentially brand able ones) ask trusted friends and family on their opinion of the name(s).
130: Don’t rely on organisations like greatdomains.com they only provide there opinion,
they are not screened by anyone for there work and they can’t say what is a Premium Domain. You always judge a domain yourself or ask multiple opinions like here at NamePros.com
131) research your domains keyword/s in Google news, it may help to give you an idea of the potential endusers that may be interested in it.
Added > Google News Alert is handy for this, just put in your keywords !
132) Have a look at related keyword sales at dnsaleprice.com before registering, buying or selling domains. You will be able to gauge the demand for a particular keyword in the aftermarket and determine a ball park price for your domain name.
133) In your signature at Domain Forums list select names for sale, it does help sometimes, of course quality of the name matters too.
134) Buy quality not quantity
135) Keep good records
136) Get an account at moniker. ( search the forums for a ferral contact and get a discount registration price )
137) It might be a minor thing, but does the domain look good underlined? Certain characters look better than others when underlined.
e.g. krust.com keeps completely above the line and there is no confusion about spelling of the first letter of the domain. However guppy could be confusing at first glance as 4 of the letters have “tails” that go below the line. g’s could look like a’s and q’s and y’s like v’s. Not a serious factor, but worth thinking about