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Don’t forget you can can get your domain names with GoDaddy for only $7.49 by using this link. I am working with Moniker to give my readers another option. I have already signed up as an affiliate but found they give the same rates as if you went to the site directly. That just does not work for me. I am waiting for a response but hopefully will be getting some type of discount link for everyone.

Now, if you have not signed up to receive my newsletter and deleting domain name list your crazy. Well, you can’t be that crazy because your reading this but crazy enough to miss out on some money. Make sure to sign up on the top left of the site. One of my readers picked up a domain name from my list for $7.49 using my GoDaddy discount link and was able to sell the domain name for $200 within a week. I am also working with an end buyer for one of the domain names I picked up off my own list, if it goes through I will make sure to post the details.

Michael Law
NameTalent.com

You are probably asking by now, “if my domains suck then what do I do?” Another simple answer, buy quality domains. Any experienced domainer will tell you that domains will sell themselves if they have potential. Literally they will sell themselves with little to no work at all. Now I do not mean go buy domains for hundreds or thousands of dollars, this is an easy way to get burned quickly. This is another thing that experienced domainers know; hand regging is NOT dead.

Sign up for Chef Patrick’s newsletter, he sends out some of the best deleting domain names once a week. He hand picks his winners, I think last night he sent out 100 names deleting today. Do it now, sign up on the top left of this site.

Contrary to popular belief there is MAJOR money in hand regging. It just all depends on what you reg, research, and the conclusion on WHY you think it is a great hand reg. I guess the biggest problem on why people hand reg crap is because they hear stories about people selling domains for millions or they see other people selling similar names with list prices really high. Another thing is just because estibot.com tells you it’s worth 18k does not mean it is in the slightest. It could be a broken string with “fake overature”. Ohh one more thing to add here is some people do not do enough RESEARCH!

Things to look for in a domain that I recommend are keywords. These are probably the most important thing in a domain. For god sake domains are made up of words, DUH! IMO, if you want to improve your portfolio first thing I would do is firesale all domains that are made up brandables, LLLL.coms, LLL.coms, any .nets that are not one or 2 strong keywords, same for .org, any .infos that are not one word and fit the extension, any ccTLDs besides 1-2L.ccTLD and ones in your own ccTLD. Now the only exception here is the LLL.coms. The reason I say get rid of them is because they are only as good as the next LLL.com. These domains are up to you whether you want to keep them or not but IMO I would get rid of them.

After you have “cut the fat” from your portfolio you are ready to start getting some nice names at reasonable prices. If you firsaled the names you will have a little bit of capital to start this. Hopefully you made a profit if not you still have the capital and will make a profit the second time around. Here is where it gets tricky and I will leave you with a couple tips on how to select names for your new and improved portfolio.

1. Be selective! It’s ok to pass up a domain if it does not fit your standards, remember the goal is to have domains sell themselves. If you are having second thoughts about a name then you probably should not pick it up.

2. Ask yourself, “What can this domain be used for?” If nothing comes to mind right away then it is probably not worth regging in the first place.

3. Does the name have potential for traffic or to be developed for traffic? This question right here can make or break a domain if you are looking to diversify your portfolio with a little bit of development. This is a great way to supplement income if times get tough.

4. Always remember there are trends and new technologies that come out every day. Do your research and find them before other domainers do. More than likely domains like these are long haul holds so be selective with these types of domains.

5. If you are buying a domain on the aftermarket do not be afraid to make a counter offer or even, dare I say it, hit them with a low ball. You never know what someone will take on a domain. I for one am known to give good deals on domains, if I give you a good deal on a domain chances are I regged it !

After reviewing these tips apply your methods on finding domains and you should be on your way to helping your bottom line. Also remember that just because a portfolio is small does not mean it is crappy. As a matter of fact, I would take 20 awesome quality domains over most portfolios I find on domain forums.

Back to the original point of this post; spend more time finding domains and picking only the cream of the crop and you will see your bottom line increase by tenfold. On another note the higher quality your portfolio the more liquid it becomes. Now who does not want liquidity in the domain industry?

*Disclaimer: Any domain can be worth thousands or millions. Just trying to help out your chances of finding and making those thousands or millions.

Ross Conte
YGrab.com

Like I said earlier today’s auction was different, sellers could not use the sellers option. Sellers option is where the seller can buy out of the sale for the equivalent of $8 or less. I am very excited to see this option gone, hopefully it will stay that way. The only downside, which I do not see as a downside is that less names made it to auction. This is good in my opinion, it weeded out the people that weren’t really going to sell anyway.

Below are some of the results from tonight’s auction and their sold prices:
MrsCougar.com $30
IQQY.com $50
MiamiCoast.com $180
PennyWatcher.com (requested to be private)
MyExerciseProgram.com $30
ProfessionalTalk.com $130
QualityBlogs.com $80
NameFlipper.com $80
CellStudy.com $30

I think I will add a worst domain of the auction this week…
LameDuckSession.com $3 to GF of NamePros

Before I let you go, sign up for my newsletter. I am going to keep saying it, sign up. There are some gems that are being deleted and I am giving you the list for FREE. Once a week I send out a newsletter with deleting domain names. Don’t miss out!!!

Tonight there is no sellers choice option.  For those of you that don’t know, sellers choice is just that.  Once the auction is over they have the right to back out of the sale for a small fee.  I really did not like this feature.  You can win the auction but not really know if you won until the seller agrees.  Anyway, it’s gone now so we will see some real deals tonight.

Here is a list of my top choices for tonight:

Reserve has been met:
QualityBlogs.com
PennyWatcher.com
IQQY.com
MyExerciseProgram.com

Reserve has not been met yet:
ModelPlane.net
5-8.com
SHHM.com (Quad Premium) - Chef Patrick
WidgetsForum.com
UBIH.com (VCVC)
RingtoneSupercenter.com
CigarForum.org, MyCigarForum.com & SmokingCigars.info (set) - Chef Patrick
OneHourImaging.com - Chef Patrick
DaytonaDaily.com
OpticLock.com & OpticLocks.com (set)
NameFlipper.com

I will be sure to post the results later tonight after the auction.

My newsletter and deleting domain list comes out tonight as well, make sure to sign up for the emails.

Click on the comic strip to enlarge.

Submit a suggestion for my next comic strip to win a GoDaddy gift card for $7.49.

You can also get your domain names with GoDaddy for only $7.49 by using this link.

Besides the comic strip, make sure to sign up on the top left of the site to receive our newsletter and deleting domain name list. I have been sending this out now for a couple weeks and my readers are picking up some real gems. I personally picked up a dozen or so domains names like LowerPortland.com, PalmettoContractors.com, MediaJerk.com & PlasticFlatware.com.

What lead to the conversation was this.  I purchased a domain name for $150 and was willing to sell it for $180.  The comments that followed were, that’s not a high enough return on investment (ROI) for me or I wouldn’t sell it unless I could double my money.

Take that same domain name in two scenarios…

Example.com purchased for $150 and sold for $300, but say twelve months after initial purchase giving it a profit of $150 minus any fees.  It may have taken twelve months because they were looking for an end buyer, making several calls, sending many emails and maybe some regular mail trying to reach the right buyer.  Using this method you turn a 100% ROI over the course of one year.

or

Take that same domain name purchased for $150 and sell it within 30 days for $180 giving a smaller profit of $30 minus fees if any.  Lets take that money and do the same thing every month for one full year.  Your total profit at $30 a month would be $360 for the year which is a 240% ROI.  Also assuming you sold the domain name at a good value your buyer pool opens up tremendously, maybe even selling wholesale at these price points.

Which method is better?

Personally I would have to say the answer is both.  If you are running a domain name business you have to utilize both strategies to succeed.  As a business you have to continually turn your money bringing in enough new money to cover your monthly expenses.  While doing this you are also trying to find the right buyer for certain domain names.  An example from my personal collection, I own DryRoastedPeanuts.com, you better believe I am going to contact every peanut and snack company possible before I let this domain name go at wholesale pricing.  Now lets take that domain name with a slight variation like DryRoastedPeanutRecipes.com, my first thought would be to wholesale the domain name and turn a quick profit.

Understand that turning a 100% ROI is not always the best scenario, as I have shown turning $150 for a smaller profit on a consistent basis you could turn a 240% ROI.  Of course I am talking about a small amount of money, but say the same domain purchase was $10,000, that may have been all your spending capital for the year.  If you wait a year to find the right buyer you have lost opportunities in using that money for other domain names.

Bottom line, keep turning the money, that is the recipe for success.

For me, mini-sites have been 1000% more profitable than parking, with some names. One of my favorites is SalviaFacts.com. Salvia is a new drug that teens are getting into. As you can see, setting up that site didn’t take much time, or work. But from parking, I made a total of $.02. Over the past week and a half, adsense has earned me a little less than $2. Of course, that is not a lot of money, but it is a major improvement on the 2 cents from parking. Traffic to that site has been steadily increasing, mostly from longtail searches.

The beauty of mini-sites is how fast and easy they are to set up. You can literally set up a mini-site in 10 minutes.

Once you figure out what domain name you want to set up a mini-site on, here is what you need to do:

1. Purchase web hosting that allows multiple domains.
   I’d suggest using HostGator.
2. Point your domain name “nameservers” to your host.
3. In cPanel, go to “Fantastico”, and automatically set up “WordPress” on your domain name.
4. Once WordPress is installed on your domain name, you should find a good looking design.
   Personally, I find my themes at FreeWPThemes.net. But a quick google search will provide you with 100’s of other free template sites.
5. If necessary, you can tweak the template to your liking.
6. Once your template is set up, all you need to do is implement AdSense, and add some unique content to your new blogs.
7. I would suggest signing up with Google Webmaster Tools, so that you can insure your site gets crawled soon.
8. Now you just sit back and watch the money roll in! **

** If only it was that easy

Keeping up with your mini-sites is important. Google loves to see new content, and if you update your blog once or twice a week, it will help your rankings, and it will also help get traffic from longtail searches.

If you don’t have time to be constantly researching the topic of your mini-sites, I would suggest signing up with Google Alerts. Google Alerts will send you an email however often you select, about the topic you select. It’s extremely helpful for mini-site owners

Jake Fedosky “15 Year Old Domainer”
TeenDomainer.com

NameMedia Inc. AKA “BuyDomains.com” is on the prowl for domains, lots of them. In recent months they have been posting to the masses on forums such as NamePros and DNF in search of domain portfolios to acquire. I first noticed their calling to buy domains in a thread at NamePros forum two months ago. I responded via email as they requested with a short list of a several four letter .coms and four letter .nets. and a couple nice one word domains just to see what kind of interest they may have. Now, before I sent off this email I already had a preconception of NameMedia’s buying strategies. A fellow domainer friend of mine once referred to them as the “low ball kings”. Hearing this I was not expecting a positive response. Almost immediately I received a response with domains they were interested in, all listed individually with prices they would pay. I was a bit surprised, I had never had such a straight forward bulk buyer and the prices weren’t too unreasonable. Of course offers were in the reseller range and there were a couple were laughable low ball offers included. I replied with an edited list of individual offers that I would accept. Their representative emailed me back quickly with a “we have a deal” and requested authorization codes and payment info. That deal actually ended up fizzling out as contact was disconnected. I am glad to say that was ok with me as I sold one of those domains to an end user. Back to the subject, NameMedia. I actually did just finalize another deal with them that went through smoothly for roughly $20 per domain. It wasn’t huge deal but even at that price was still profitable for me.

NameMedia Inc is sometimes seen as the “big bad guys” preying on the domain industry. They have been acquiring many small portfolios from small time domainers that don’t want to cough up renewal money for their collection. Most domainers I know that have sold to them say something such as “Yep sold out to Name Media” like it was making them depressed or something. The truth is if you have sold to Name Media, you have gotten fair reseller prices assuming you have been careful. Make sure you really know the value and potential of your domains if you are selling to them as they will offer absurdly low prices on great names. I have noticed that NameMedia has really been buying heavily into “short domains” recently based on forum chatter and their acquisitions from me. I will say this about selling to NameMedia, it is nice to get straight forward individual offers on your portfolio and be able to pick which offers you accept. Just one piece of advice while doing business with NameMedia: Keep your gems away from them, as they will never pay top dollar for great names.

Michael Law
NameTalent.com

Click on the comic strip to enlarge.

Submit a suggestion for my next comic strip to win a GoDaddy gift card for $7.49.

You can also get your domain names with GoDaddy for $7.49 by using this link.

On another note, make sure to sign up on the top left of the site to receive our newsletter and deleting domain name list.