Domain Buying and Selling

I just recently got into this "Domain Real Estate" thing. I thought it was going to be really easy. You buy good domain names and you sell good domain names. Unfortunately nothing is ever that easy, is it? Should have known better! Nothing worthy is ever really easy in life. Well here are a few tips I've learned while trying to sell my domain names.

First off, it has to be a really good domain name. People will argue whats considered a good domain name. Some will say its one with no hyphens, no numbers, good keywords, good extension. Others will say that the page rank matters, and that's how you tell the worth of a domain name. And some say none of this matters. The only thing that matters is what the end buyer thinks.

Personally I try to take a little bit of all 3 of those recommendations and come up with my own little rules. There's some people on Sedo that have sold a domain name that almost no one found appealing or worth much, for well over $35,000. I don't know if the person that bought it just didn't know any better, or if they really found the domain name to be worth a lot to them.

Secondly it cant just be a domain name you bought that day and are trying to sell. I wish it worked like this, unfortunately people will laugh at you most likely when you tell them the registration date of your domain name your trying to sell to them for $50,000 and its just a week old! Another thing is the domain cant just be sitting around in your registrar or parked somewhere. I thought Parking helped when I first started out, because I have a name that's about 6 years old, and supposedly the older the better. And it has been parked on and off for those 6 years. But, no, this really didn't help me out at all. To have a domain worth selling, its a really good idea to get it developed. Even if its just a one page website, it still will add to its worth.

Take this example. The domain I had for 6 years that was usually always parked is now worth a measly $40. The new domain name I bought in Jan 08 and had immediately gotten developed is now worth $220. And every 2 weeks it raises by $10. So yes, development is VERY important if your looking to sell a domain name. I'm hoping by November I can sell the newer domain for $1-3k. Well, I'm crossing my fingers anyway!

Domain Real Estate can actually be a VERY lucrative business if you know what your doing, where to look for these "worthy" domains, have money to BUY the domains from people, and then sell them for a higher amount yourself (buy low sell high), pay attention to all the domain selling/buying websites etc etc. There's a few major pro's out there that are well known for being the TOP DOGS of this sort of business. Buying domains for $500k, developing them, raising page rank etc, and then selling them for $1.5 million.

I don't know about you, but I would be very happy with $1.5 million! Heck I would be happy with $1-3k which is the reason why I'm keeping my domain name until November or even later.