Domain Investor: 4 Factors for Developing Your Own Domain Investment Style
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Brad Spencer October 09, 2008
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So you want to be a domain investor? Maybe you need a little extra cash on the
side, or you know an industry pretty well, or you’ve got an entrepreneurial
streak a mile wide… No matter what your reasons, becoming a domain
investor is as easy as buying a domain name.
Technically buying a domain with the hope of selling it is enough to make you
a domain investor, but if you only ever go that far then you’ll be stuck in the
ranks of most investors.
To successfully invest in anything, including Domains, you have to have a
strategy. Developing a strategy that works for you and your goals is paramount
to doing well in Domain Investing.
In this article I’ll introduce you to a few factors to consider while
develping your own personal Domain Investment Strategy, as well as provide you
with some resources for further reading.
1. Domain Investing Budget:
What’s your budget for investing? Decide before you get started. Are you
going to have $40 dollars per week for the next year, or do you have $5,000
now? Or something in between? Deciding how much and when you are going to make
some investments is crucial to deciding what direction you are going to move
in.
2. Domain Investing Time:
When do you need to start getting money back from this domain investment?
Are you looking to cash out within the next year? If so, a fix-and-flip domain
might be your best choice. Are you looking to hold onto the investment for 20
years and pull a little bit of profit from clicks over that time? Well then you
might want to buy domains you see having a good future.
3. Fix-N-Flip or Buy-N-Hold:
This is sort of like the factor above- Domain Investment Time. Depending on
how long you want your money to be invested, you might have to take an approach
that is more congruent to your budget and timeframe.
I know that’s a mouthful. Let’s simplify it a bit.
Some people are fix and flip domain guys. That’s their style. They profile
domains to meet those characteristics. I tend to think this is a bit more
risky, because if you have to be out of an investment within a few monthes
timeframe, then you really have to hope the marekt doesn’t go sour or you don’t
have a problem finding a buyer.
On the other hand, if you want to buy-and-hold, then you can limit your short
term potential. Most of the time you won’t “hit the lottery” when you buy and
hold. But it all depends on your style.
4. Domain Investing Financial Priorities:
Ultimately, the style you develop should cater to whatever your priorities
are. Whther that be long-term capital gains, or making a quick buck. You’ve
got to decide which it is (or what the balance is going to be) and stick to
it!
Well, How Do I get Started as a Domain Investor Then?
If you are starting a carpentry business, you are going to need some tools.
It’s the same thing as starting a domaining business.
None of the tools I’m about to show you are free. Neither is a
hammer. But free only gets you so far, so let’s take a look at some real
domaining tools:
- Snap Up Domain Names the Second they become available with
ENOM. This program will sit on your computer and send thousands of requests
to domain registrars the SECOND a domain name becomes available so you can get
it before everyone else. It’s pretty simple, works quickly, and you don’t want
to be without this program when sex.com or shoes.com comes available by some
fluke. Learn more about ENOM by clicking here
- Monetize and Edit all of
your domains from one place. If you are doing everything right, then you are
going to get a lot of domain names pretty quickly. And you aren’t going to want
to edit each one by hand every time you sell ad space on it, or want to redirect
it, or want to sell it. So if you want to be able to handle these domains all
from one spot… tracking, ads, content, and everything…. you are going to need a
world class tool to make that happen. That’s what Domain Dashboard does. Check
out some videos about Domain Dashboard here and then try to remember what life
was like before you got it. Learn more about Domain Dashboard here.
- Sift through
thousands of expiring domains names by the hour or day. You just can’t be
everywhere at once. You need some sort of tool to let you know when a domain
expires that you might want. And who has time to check into a service every hour
or day to see what’s available? Even if you have that time now, you won’t in 6
months if your Domaining business is going great. And that’s why JustDropped has
made a little program that sifts through all of the expiring domain names and
will EMAIL you a list that meets your criteria. So you could save, for instance…
I want all keywords with the name “feet” in them, that end in a .com, and I want
that email delivered every few hours. Or any variation on this. So now you can
grab sweet, relevant, keyword-rich domains without having to sweat over lists of
worthless and irrelevant domains. What more could you want? Learn more about JustDropped here.
Thanks, and keep domaining! |