Domain Name Investors Ebook potx

Domain Name Investors Ebook By Rod Seeber SMASHWORDS EDITION PUBLISHED BY: Rod Seeber on Smashwords Copyright 2011 by Rod Seeber Smashwords Edition License Notes This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work. ~ DOMAINING ~ Is not a get rich quick scheme. DOMAINING ~ Is the skill of buying and selling Website Address’s Sometimes it happens quickly, sometimes it takes years and patience ~ DOMAINING ~ Is a controlled study of an ever changing world of technology and the communications opportunities that come with it ~ DOMAINING ~ IS THE ART OF BUYING AND SELLING WEBPAGE ADDRESS’S DESCRIBED BY SOME AS THE NEXT GOLD RUSH ARE DOMAIN NAMES THE NEXT BIG THING? YOU CAN OWN ONE FOR $10 PER YEAR AND THERE ARE NO RESTRICTIONS ON HOW MUCH YOU CAN SELL IT FOR? LEARN WHERE TO BUY, WHERE TO SELL WHAT TOOLS TO USE, HOW TO PAY WHAT NAMES TO BUY AND WHY? PEOPLE NEED A DOMAIN NAME TO SET UP A WEBSITE HAVE FUN AND LEARN HOW AND WHY SO MANY ARE GETTING INTO DOMAINING FOR FUN AND INVESTMENT ~ Chapter 1 ******* What is Domaining ? There are no affiliate links in this ebook, situated at the rear of the ebook there are over invaluable 50 domain name industry links plus discussion on the new gtld’s and also a look at the world of idn’s (international domain names) There is also a glossary of common domaining terms to get you in the knowhow without delay so you can be armed with the best knowledge needed to make informed decisions. Consider that for less than the price of a single domain registration if this ebook saves you wasting money and time it is a valuable resource to draw upon when getting started in this exciting new industry! ******** When I caught up with a friend about 4-5 years ago I asked ‘what are you doing for job?’ The answer was ‘I am working at a domain name registrar’ He went on to tell how some people were making money out of typo’s! ‘What’s a typo? I curiously asked, it was explained to me that some people make mistakes when typing in a website address name into the address bar on their browser. He went on to mention that once arriving at the mistyped address providing it still had relevant adverts people would click on them and make the owner of the typo income via their parking page ads. I was amazed to hear this! Intrigued I inquired ‘Can anyone do this?’ The answer was ‘Yes’ Immediately the light bulb in my head went off ! Wow people make money on the internet via virtual real estate address’s. I asked ‘Why not just register non typos?’ The answer was ‘You can do that too’ I was instantly hooked on the idea of investing on the internet in virtual property. Next I cautiously asked ‘What about the tech crash of year 2000, isn’t the internet finished?’ It was explained to me the version of that internet was completely flawed and that some of the promises being made were much too unrealistic and it was no wonder most of the public floats in the stock market ultimately failed. It was further explained to me that a whole new generation were growing up with the internet and that many of the people who sold their names in haste in the year 2000 would end up regretting it later on. The idea of having a website that did not offer the world but perhaps just an affordable product such as t-shirts or books made a whole lot of sense and when technology progressed then make the promises of things that could be achieved would come! So I started my journey into Domain Name Investing and soon discovered it was a minefield of information with some being good and some being bad, I think when I first joined Namepros I got a bit too confused at how a forum worked and went elsewhere looking for information about this new hobby/passion I thrust myself into!. Eventually I rediscovered Namepros.Com and started to ask questions. Although I would have liked some form of guide just to get me started, a collection of terms and phrases of what things were and why they were perhaps named so? It really did take quite a while to get all the information I required and I could have saved some time money and frustration had I had a decent reference point to start with! So keeping that in mind that is why I have written this ebook. This ebook will not offer any false promises or how to get the best name for the cheapest; instead it will try and point you in the best direction early on in your domaining career. Lots of terms and helpful links is what I decided to offer. Basically the reference material I wish I could have referred to when I was starting out but all in one easy to read resource. Consider if this ebook saves you time, money and mistakes. It has achieved the purpose of its undertaking A great starting point with reference links all for less than the cost of regging a name! Welcome to the Domain Name Investors Ebook, What is domaining? Domaining is the business of buying, selling and investing in domain names. What is a domain name? A domain name is a website address, all websites have a domain name, does a domain name have to be a website ? No, an example would be number one smith street is a vacant block of land, but it still has an address … ‘number one smith street‘ The same applies to a website, you can have a domain name without a website, but not a website without a domain name, Technically a website can exist without a title, it would exist as just a number in the address bar of your browser. The human mind works well but can you imagine having to remember a series of numbers and dots every time you searched for a website or typed in a website address. You simply could not do it or if you could it would be with very limited success and quite frustrating to the point you may just give up on the internet at this stage and go back to the phonebook as your preferred choice of information supply. Of course the human mind associates much better with ‘words rather than numbers’ So when each word domain comes into existence as website it will have what is called an ip number (internet provider number) In other words a website has an associated ip address number but it will be the word title that plays the major part in the human mind, we connect to words much better than numbers. Consider how hard it is to remember all the new phone numbers you come across in just one week! You will remember a website’s word title before the ip address numbers. Which is easier to remember: Business.Com or 199.102.249.25 ? Type both in your browsers address bar then push enter, you will see both take you to the same website. Also another factor is that if the website address contains the countries extension you will trust it more if it is local to you. Example is if you live in England and type in hirecars.co.uk or hirecars.cn which one would you think would be more likely to gain an English residents trust as being local and most accessible for them, hirecars.co.uk of course. Hirecars.cn is a Chinese based website address (.cn) So we can see that words and locality work best when it comes to websites. Although, the main extension of the internet (.com) is not associated to any specific country? Ever since the internet began in the mid 1980’s people have been registering domain names. The most popular domains are the .coms because this is the extension first used worldwide on the internet and the most recognizable, because of this it has a an inherent value much greater than any other extension. Some people do not use search engines, they just type in the subject and add a .com, example ‘travel.com’ this is called direct navigation, instead of using a search engine like Google or Yahoo they just type in the subject and normally use .com, many countries still use .com as one of their main extensions. What is an extension? An extension is the end part of a domain name. Most countries now have their own extensions. Australia has the extension .com.au, England has the extension .co.uk , India has .in, the American extension is .us Although most people assume .com to be the most used American extension … and to a point they are correct as it was in America where .com started and .us has not really taken off yet . In a world of fast communications a good internet address is very important and people pay for best ones available! If your business is selling furniture you would want a website address like furniture.com because it’s short and easy to remember. Plus it contains the generic keyword of furniture in its title, many people would type in furniture.com before they went to a search engine. Maybe you sell outdoor furniture? Then the best address would be outdoorfurniture.com. Short and to the point is what a good domain name/website address is. People pay money to own the rights to a good domain name! Diamond.com was sold in 2008 year for U.S $7.5 million dollars because this was considered to be a good domain name for the owner of a business which deals in diamonds, this domain was registered for about U.S$10 per year, yes $10 per year. A truly great investment for the person who sold it!! The average cost to register a domain is about ten dollars a year and there are no restrictions on how much you can sell it for. Domain names have finally been recognized as a great way to invest by the media and also by the broader investment community but as a whole it still remains a mystery to most people. Domaining is considered by many to be the ‘goldrush’ of the 21st century and many are starting to see amazing returns on their investments. Domains are the REAL ESTATE of the 21st century plus with the benefit of a low reg fee cost of $10 a year. Although you can buy an established name for more if you want? Many people are still hand regging new names each day. This means they are thinking of website address’s and registering the rights to the name. Some people are registering names in the American .us extension or perhaps the Chinese extension .cn, they are many opportunities all over the world. Because India has such a large population, the .in extension has become a popular extension, some people just invest in the .in extension. Some just invest in the .com extension, there is a saying that ‘dot com is king’ so many only deal in this extension because of its reputation worldwide. The Australian extension of .com.au is one of the few restricted domain extensions, you are supposed to have the domain you own associated to your business and an Australian Business Number or other criteria set in place, some believe these restrictions will be lifted in the future but for now it still has restrictions. Don’t worry there’s the rest of the world to buy domains from!! There are websites dedicated to the buying and selling of domain names, you can place your names for sale there or buy a name from these sites, some people feel it’s better to buy an already registered name Perhaps people are already searching for it? Or it may be a name you thought of and someone else registered it before you? Perhaps you feel there is a good future for that particular topic, so you buy it from them. This happens all the time and this is how you can make money from buying a domain name, you might buy a good name and hold it for a few years then sell for a good profit but of course you are speculating on what is a good name? Do your research on what topics you think may be popular? Not every name is a great investment? Some people only buy names that have been already registered because they believe there are no good names left and they prefer to buy into an established market already. Some look into new technology and try to find a good name that way or maybe the next craze??… and get in early Ok I bought I domain now what? Well remember that vacant block of land, number one smith street, this is not a website but still exists, you will park it? yes park it .This is the term used for creating some small revenue from your domain name while it’s not for sale or sitting idle or while you wait to perhaps one day try to sell it. Domain parking is like putting a mobile billboard on your vacant block of land, there are companies that put advertising on your domain name site and share the advertising revenue with you. You won’t make a fortune but you might make a couple dollars a year towards the renewal cost of that particular domain, some of the great domain names do make good money from parking; remember furniture.com, well if this domain name was just parking because of its popular subject matter ‘furniture’ there would be many people that type in that name then once there click on the relevant ads to find information on furniture. This particular example would most likely pay for its registration fees many times over in a year … even if undeveloped (not a website) some of the best domain names are still undeveloped and make good money from being parked Names like business and travel will always be popular and people will go looking for these sites and when they get there even if only parking will get clicks on the ads, thus making income. If I click on my own ads or get my friends to click on the ads, will the parking company know? yes and they will probably close your account with them. They have fraud tracking software to detect strange patterns on which names are getting clicks, they will know who is trying to cheat them, avoid this! They hope for direct navigation traffic, which is that people type in your address out of interest to see what is there ? Websites like pets.com do very well out of this. That is why such a domain name has a great value, because of the ‘interest factor’ a website that doesn’t even need advertising is a great asset in this fast changing world where the marketing dollar has great influence! This is called a generic word domain, because it has a common dictionary word. Some companies offer parking and a sales service as well, Sedo.Com is one of the most popular companies for parking and selling although some say they do not pay much for parking revenue they are at the forefront of selling and they do sell many names each week. Sedo are considered the industries best place to buy and sell, they also have auctions!! Some people list their names for sale there and park elsewhere, this is allowed, some people are happy to keep all their names at the same place and they are not too fussed about parking revenue. They are just happy to keep the management of their names all at one place. Ok I am going to park my name ……. what do I do? Once you own a domain name you will need to change name servers yes, name servers? Each parking company has their own name servers, there are some changes that you have to make. Example is that if you want to park at Sedo.Com, you will need a sedo account (join site) and then add your name. You will change your name servers (also referred to as DNS name servers) So if your name is registered at godaddy.com, you would go to > my account > domain name manager, tick the domain to change then click on name servers tab up the top. Then you click on custom name servers, change the name servers to (if parking at sedo) ns1.sedoparking.com and ns2.sedoparking.com, seems complicated but once you have done it once it’s quite easy and you are able to change name servers very easily, or perhaps you are parking at revenuedirect.com, once again you would go to manage accounts and click on name servers, then click on custom name servers, then change to ns1.revenuedirect.com and ns2revenuedirect.com, each parking company have their own ns1 and ns2 Then click save changes! Soon you will look at your new domain name and see there are ads on it. Some people don’t even bother to change name servers, if this is the case a parking page for godaddy will appear if the name is registered at Godaddy.Com but keep it in mind Godaddy will receive any revenue from the ads! To try and improve your chances of getting people to click on your ads at most parking companies there is a tool called optimization and this allows you to add a keyword or keywords to make the ads more to the subject matter of the domain name. Example is if your site is a car site, let’s say … conceptcars.com, you will use keywords such as ‘concept’ or ‘new’ or perhaps ‘modern’ these keywords will determine the type of ads for your domain name parking page and help to either sell it or create some advertising revenue. You can play with this optimization tool until you feel you have the correct ‘keywords’ if a prospective buyer looks at your sight it’s nice for them to get a slight idea of what the domain name may look like if developed into a website. An attractive parking page will contribute to this. I am trying to find a good name? But I am unsure if the subject is popular? Ok , let’s go to Google and on the opening page where it says ‘more’ or ‘even more ‘click and find trends, then click on it , then click on ‘Google trends’ then type in your word and another option separated by a comma … Example robot, robo, robotics you will see that robot is the most popular term so try and reg a name that has robot instead of robo But of course the term robo may become popular in the future? So you have to consider your choices? Remember this speculating and not everyone chooses a great name, as with property and stocks there are good ones and bad ones. Another Google tool is Google Adwords Keywords Tool which allows people advertising with google to target specific words. It is also handy for the domainer to observe what words/terms are the most popular. Also if you a google adwords account you can sign in and you will notice the stats do change. Which is strange but basically you will still get an idea of what people are searching for? Also when signed in you get to see the ppc price. So you can see what categories/terms are highly competitive as mentioned elsewhere in this ebook you will the financial and insurance terms pay quite handsomely This gives you an idea of how popular a subject is > also if there are lots of ads in the right hand side of Google page you will see this is also a popular subject because of many ads for the subject, once again sounds confusing but like most things once you do it once you normally get the idea . One company called wordtracker.com also offer a free statistics tool that tells you how many people searched for a particular term each day, this will give you an idea of how popular the name/subject you are thinking of buying or registering is. Of course you may choose to buy an existing name, in which case you will search the sites that sell domain names, such as Sedo.Com, Afternic.com, Snapnames.com, Tdnam.com or Moniker.com, Pool.com. to name just a few, there are more and more sales sites appearing all the time All these sight have many names to choose from, it’s up to you to make an offer or bid for it at an auction? Of course it’s good to do some research before spending any hard earned cash!! Ok I am going to buy a name?…. how do I pay? well like most things on the internet you need either a credit card or a debit visa card or if buying from another domainer you will quite often need a PayPal account (as used on eBay) Also some may request a escrow payment …… go to escrow.com and open an account, it’s not too hard and this is considered quite a safe way of paying and receiving money over the internet, they even have a ‘domain name section’ some people are happy to use PayPal for purchases of $200 or less, many swear by escrow.com, handy to have both PayPal and escrow accounts. Paypal.com.au, Paypal.com, Paypal.co.uk etc depending on where you live. Ok I am interested in this ‘domaining’ but I still would like to know more? Of course, this is what you need. Information!!! So now it’s time to go over to Namepros.Com and join their free forum! This is the bible for many domainers and is free to join, ask questions …. even buy and sell. This is truly a wealth of information for those new to the industry, there is even a section for ‘newbie’s’ and you can learn so much by just reading other peoples questions and seeing what opinions are offered by more experienced domainers. They have different discussion threads for different extensions, like .TV or perhaps .mob or maybe .us? Yes people discuss different extensions and their pros and cons, it all adds up to helping you make better choices? You may wish to go the market place section and see what domains are going for? They have a fixed price section and a make an offer section, also a auction section, each section has rules …so read them. It helps you understand when you may use this section, there is also Dnforum.com another place to read and see what is happening in the world of domaining, there is a joining fee if you wish to buy and sell there … but you can read the threads at dnforum.com for free. Namepros.com has no joining fee, these websites have moderators to keep things going smoothly. You can chose to become a ‘supporter’ at Namepros to show your appreciation. You can even donate to charities in Namepros dollars ( an inhouse currency) that you can purchase, just go the Npstore up the top of the frontpage. Wow I think this is interesting …… love to see some sales??? Ok, then go to Dnjournal.com, they supply the weekly sales and have a breakdown of each extension, .com, .net, .org and so on. Even a CCTLD section? What’s that you ask? At the top left hand side of Dnjournal.com in the green box there is a heading ‘Sales‘ click on that link and you will see the weeks sales and where they were sold, also you can click on Ytd (year to date sales) link at the top left hand side of dnjournal.com, cctld is short for COUNTRY CODE TOP LEVEL DOMAINS, example of a top level country code is .co.uk, they also have .me.uk …. but .co.uk is the more popular address. In Australia they have .com.au but they also have .net.au The most popular tld is .com.au It’s the best known of all Australian extensions so it’s the TLD. India has .co.in or .in, .in is the more popular, so that is their TLD. The country code part is normally at the bottom of the report. Many people are interested in the country code section. One that always creates interest is the .de extension, this is the German extension and there have been some big sales in English Language and German Language this extension in the past. Something to watch out for? Hey I would like to buy a CCTLD… But from where? Europeregistry.com is a popular sight that can act as an agent for you if there are restrictions, I recently purchased a .co.uk domain name and they acted as an agent for me, sometimes it’s hard to park a cctld , I had one name that I could not park because of where the parking company was, although this is now a rare occurrence! But you may still consider it worthwhile to just own the name as an investment and not worry about parking. I just want a .com name which is best register I wonder? One of the benefits of Namepros.com is they have a thread (discussion link) about Godaddy.com and discount promo codes? These are codes that are supplied from other Namepros members letting you know how to achieve a discount each time you register a name. Example is perhaps a name costs $9.99 to register, well with a promo code you may get it for $7.15 this is handy if you are registering a lot of names each year ……. this is a very popular thread and worth paying attention to !!! Don’t forget this. You will see in the payment box a notice asking for promo code as you checkout, click on it and enter the code. If the code is working you will see the price drop yippeeee discounts! code will look like: yhkw105a or gdbb776 Godaddy.com also have a link to tdnam.com on their homepage (their domain auction link) it costs about $5 dollars a year to join , some feel it’s worthwhile and like to be able to also advertise their names there as well at Sedo or Afternic. Each domain selling website have their own rules regarding ‘duel listings’ …… most are ok with it and understand sellers require various avenues to sell a name these days. Not sure about something? Ask! The best thing to do is contact support, each parking company or name selling site have a ‘support section’ there to help you. Simply type in the following email address: support@godaddy.com or help@godaddy.com, or support@sedo.com or help@sedo.com there will also be links on the webpage to click on but generally the above method works well. Godaddy are quite good at customer support, Sedo does not have as good a reputation for customer support … But it works for some I guess. I bought a name!!!!! … yipppeeeee, from another domainer But what now I wonder? Well normally you will have to accept the name for the transfer, you will receive an email from go daddy or another domain register confirming the account change has been initiated from the person you purchased it from. If it’s from Goadddy there is a link after you click on, my account >manage domains ‘Pending account changes … You will click on this and accept any pending account changes, you should also receive an email from the seller giving you a security code and you will see where to insert these at pending account changes, after you have done that … Click ok!!! After you have the name in your account you may wish to change the domain name to your favourite parking company, change name servers, many domainers have accounts at different registers so they can do in-house transfers and not pay transfer fees to other registers this is called a free push …. Basically to transfer in and out of different registrars you need a security code/ authority code called the epp code. Domains cannot be transferred without this code. If you are selling you will need to supply this code to the buyer. Most domainers have an account at different registers for this purpose …. rather than transfer and go the trouble of doing the code thing they have numerous accounts so ‘inhouse pushes’ can take place.(from their account to yours and vice versa) It is fair to say you are an active domainer in this situation. One approach is join the registrars only as you need to. If you are transferring your own name between different registrars they will also require this code for the transfer to proceed. Imagine all the shifty business going on without this code! Rather than use a ‘hotmail or gmail’ account for your domaining emails, an email address from you service provider is considered a better safety precaution and less chance to be hacked into. Also make sure your computer has an up to date antivirus software running! When you are expecting a name to be transferred to you at Godaddy the seller will request your Godaddy email and account number, don’t panic this is how it is done at this registrar and is basically similar at most registrars. To push a name to you people need certain information. Domains that have just been registered or transferred into godaddy account have a 60 day transfer restriction, most just transfer into their own godaddy account, in other words the person you bought the domain from may not have had it for 60 days before selling. Only godaddy have this rule, once the 60 days is up you can transfer out of godaddy, godaddy have a rule of having to wait 60 days to transfer out from their register to another register. All the good ones are gone?? Maybe or maybe not! Many believe that the extension .TV is going to grow, youtube has helped this school of thought because it seems related to internet TV. It actually is the cctld of the Pacific Sea island nation of Tuvalu and although it is a country code many associate it with TV and with the internet and television on a collision course many feel this is the way to go? The main register for .TV is a company called enom.tv, unlike other extensions this company charges for what is considered ‘premium names’ some name are $500 a year to register!!! And some people feel they are worth it? Namepros have a forum dedicated to .TV and there is plenty of discussion about the premium pricing. Have a look and make an opinion, there is a site called ahead.tv, they give you prices that people paid for premium names? Interesting reading now that internet connected TV’S are being advertised Another popular .Tv discussion site is called Allthings.Tv The above paragraph has been purposely left in. The premium pricing policy has changed. At the moment if you buy a premium .TV name you will only pay the premium price ONCE then the name will revert back to the standard .TV price (depending on which registrar you are currently using) The paragraph above was written two years ago in 2009 and show’s how the industry is constantly changing! Unfortunately ahead.tv is no longer running which is a real pity as it was an invaluable tool to discover what domains were being charged at, the reason this is still relevant is that some .Tv names appear for auction at Sedo and the seller has not disclosed it is in fact a premium priced domain. More than one person has discovered the .Tv name they have purchased turned out to be a premium and had a renewal of $500 a year or more! Most followers of this extension hate this situation because it does not hold well for the extension and because of that the growth value does not increase. (some people are scared to buy these names) Sedo do have a clause mentioning the premium renewal situation but do not seem to enforce the sellers to let the buyer know. If you purchase a .Tv name at a forum you can expect the seller to let you know the full story. Be aware some old premium .Tv names still carry a YEARLY PREMIUM FEE. Godaddy have sales for .TV but renewals can be U.S $40 without promo codes, Enom.Tv offer $25 but 2 yrs to reg at first $50. Dynadot.Com and Name.Com have had the .Tv extension on sale for much cheaper for a while now. DomainMonster.Com also have reasonable priced .tv’s as well. This really is an extension to shop around for. I recently received a $10 discount code from Dynadot.Com for my .tv renewals which dropped it down to $22.90 for me. A large portfolio of .Tv names means a big renewal budget. The sales price at Dynadot will revert back to standard pricing when due for renewal, however you register for multiple years, I have a few registered until 2020 so I could avoid hefty renewal fees! Also in the year 1015 VeriSign who has the contract to sell this extension will have to renew the contract, it is believed Tuvalu are not happy with their share of the current arrangement? In other words they may change the terms of the contract meaning the cost will go up? Also numeric domains are gaining interest , postal codes , birthdates , part numbers. Asian folk have a strong association with numbers, especially 888, numbers are also considered safe when it comes to trademark issues, the thing about numbers is that they are universal …… no matter what country you are from you generally know what number one is. One website where numeric domains are being sold is NumericDomains.Com Then there is the consideration that with so many people using mobile phones for the internet, numbers are quicker to type in than letters … So phones may become more ‘numeric friendly’ in the future? To get an idea of this stuff go to 4636.net (word dial) this company owns many numeric domains and have an interesting view on the future. 739.com is an adult site using the phonetic principle (739 spells sex in phonetic language on a phone keypad) The .mobi extension is aimed at mobile phones and devices but has yet to take off …. even though a mobile network does seem to be happening, with ads for wireless becoming more regular and technology always changing, some believe there is place for .mobi and some think it’s the biggest flop ever because technology does not need the .mobi computer script to work on a mobile smart phone. Dot info has many fans and some feel this domain extension is undervalued ? Possible chances for the future with this extension and good buys to be had ? … generic keywords at good prices?? Dot org has been gathering steam for a while now and does not always seem associated with organizations as first designed for. As time goes by and all the ‘good’ dot coms become scarcer .net is a popular second choice and many are happy to buy up .net names, .net is also popular all over the world and is one of the older extensions that exist, so it is also well recognized all over the world. There are many varied opinions about the direction the domaining world is going? As stated before this is speculation and for some it means a gold mine …. But I am still baffled by all the new terms? NNN and LLL or CCCC These are abbreviations for letters , numbers and characters, LLLL mean four letter domains, NNNN means four number domains or CCCC means four character domains (letters and numbers) but they may also be presented by stating the exact characteristics, example LLLN means three letters and one number or NNL means two numbers and one letter, because short names are considered prime, these mix and match combinations are starting to get good money. The LLLL market has gone crazy and at one stage all had been bought out …. There were 450,000 of them and now you have to buy one in the resale market because there are basically none left to hand reg! Some strange terms for these exist, cvcv or maybe abba domains?? cvcv is short for consonant, vowel, consonant, and vowel , of course AEIOU being the vowels, an abba domain is one with repeating letters in the middle and at the end …. uwwu.com or alla.com, get the idea. The LLLL market has gone crazy with people claiming names are pronounceable, example myqt.com = my cutie , yes they will tell you a name is also brandable ….wovy.com would be an example, and to some it sounds good so it may sell at a great price (remember short names are popular) it’s up to the end user to decide ???? What is an end user… well they are the ones that decide your domain name is worth buying! They are the ones who will pay you a good price for a domain name, other domainers are called resellers … they buy a domain and then resell it at a later date … Maybe they already have an end user in mind? As long as you are happy with the sale it’s all good. Hyphens are the only character other than letters or numbers allowed when creating a domain name, although not considered to be the best choice. With most alternatives being already registered … people do use them, example is j-o-b.info, still a short name … So maybe a chance some would think? NN-N or L-N or N-N or N-N-N and L-L-L are going fast, so some have no problem with the hyphen, some say search engines give you higher ranking? if you have a hyphen, unsure about that unless it is consisting of words (two word hyphen names have some respect) they can be purchased much cheaper and are not punished by the search engines, some say great ones to develop as .com websites. Letters to be considered prime are ABCDEFGHILMNOPRST, semi prime numbers are JKUVW, least favourite QXYZ Numbers considered to be prime are 1235789, none prime are 4 6 and 0 , although 0 is popular with some domainers Spelling is also important example , England spell as astronaught, America spell as astronaut , check spelling!! Mum is English spelling, mom is American spelling ……. remember this when registering a name, it’s important Back ordering? … A domain name can be back ordered, which means if a name becomes unregistered at a domain register, it can be placed on order and re-registered by a person who has backordered it, every register have their own rules regarding back ordering, POOL.COM will charge US$69. If your back order is successful, this includes 1 yrs reg as well, if more than one person has back ordered the domain name they hold a ‘mini auction’ to establish a new owner. Some will charge you before the backorder, some will charge only if you are successful. If you get a good name you may consider the price worthwhile. Many names are on back order these days and you can try if you think worthwhile. Prices do change for backordering depending on the company, so the price quoted here is only a rough guide at the time of writing this. Chapter 2 ******* Domainers are wonderful people and will help you in most cases, you only have to join a forum and there is a wealth of information waiting there for you! Some Domaining Terms Are : idn ……………international domain name icann ……………. the governing body of the domain industry dn ………… …… short for domain name domaining ………. means to buy and sell domain names , names/website addresses newbie …………. new to domaining (still learning) also called noob (newb) end user ………… person who buys a name and normally wants to develop it into a website tld ………………. top level domain domain hack incoporates the extension into the name example: Worldne.ws cc ………………. country code , also the extension for Cocos islands forum …………… a website where people discuss ideas relating to a topic generic tld ………… com .net .org .info , are generic top level domains lowballer ………… offers under value offers for names domain parking … when a domain is not a website , it can be parked with advertising placed on it extensions …………. the end part of a domain name, example is .com or .info ppc ………………….…. is short for ‘pay per click’ when parking a domain , you earn ppc revenue ppa is short for ‘pay per action’ a term for affiliates numeric domains ……….domains using numbers instead of letters/words live auction ………. as it suggests , a live auction for domain name, will be more popular in the future escrow ……………. a form of paying over the internet, escrow.com is considered to be a very safe way to pay (escrow.com) paypal ……… used on ebay all the time …… considered good , but not as good as escrow , depends on amount being spent, handy for low trusted transactions hand reg ………… means to think of a name and register it, to register ‘a new name’ appraisal ………… esitbot.com offers a free appraisal service ……. but it’s only vague price guide ?? seo ………………… search engine operation, Google, yahoo, ask jeeves are all search engines registrar …………. is where you register domain names, godaddy.com is one of many and is very popular back order ……… to be next in line to register a name if it becomes unregistered …( dropped name ) dropped name ……… becomes unregistered …… ran out of registration , was not renewed bin …………………. is short for ‘buy it now’ the buy it now price is the BIN PRICE optimize …… …… modify your parking domain name for better advertising results geo’s geographic based domains example would be: Washington.Com keywords ………… the best words for your domain name, cars.com best keyword is car or maybe auto liquid …………… easy to sell … always in demand an LLL.COM or NNN.COM is considered liquid reseller ………… buys and sells domains from other domainers, and normally seeking low prices whois ………… is the question of ‘who owns the domain’ ? whois can normally tell you Go to Geektools.com and click on the whois link then type in the name, normally an email address is in the whois info, most domain name registrars offer a whois service, go to Dynadot.Com and search for a name. You will easily see a ‘whois link’ to click on and see the contact details for the domain name owner. Some domainers use this to contact owners and see if a domain is perhaps for sale? Some domain owners pay extra for privacy and these details are hidden. I happily display my details if so that if anyone wants to contact me they easily can, once a year your registrar may ask you to confirm these details, a while ago there was a scam where a email from Godaddy was doing the rounds and trying to get your information! The good folk at Namepros soon spread the word to be wary. One of the many benefits of domain name forums. Remember to turn off the auto renew if you are not if you automatically want to renew your names. Don’t worry you will get many reminders when it’s time to renew your domain, normally at 90 days 60 days, 30 days, 1 week , if you leave the auto renew on it will deduct from your credit/debit card automatically. Two famous domainers are, Frank Schilling and Rick Schwartz , they own many keyword domains between them and have made many millions of dollars from domaining … it’s worth doing a Google search and reading about them, ricksblog.com They guys got into domaining in the 1990’s when there were amazing names to hand register or buy for cheap, also they experienced the tech bubble burst of 2000 and had the good sense not to sell all their names in panic like many others at the time did. They understood the internet was only going to get bigger and that virtual property was only going to increase in value overtime. They have had amazing high priced sales between them both. Consider that the internet is only in its infancy at this point in time. Maybe one way to look at it is to think of television back on the 1950’s, look at how that has changed formats to become: Cable Tv, Satellite Tv, Pay Tv, Set Top Boxes and Internet based Television. Some believe each website is the equivalent of Tv Channel and to a degree that are correct with the implementation of video content on so many websites on the net today. Except these ‘channels’ are much more interactive and other a myriad of services and features. Some of the innovations of website designers to this point simply amazing, then consider the rise of the ‘apps’ and you really are working on a variety of platforms. It is worth remembering technology changes quickly however the telephone was patented on January 30 1877 by Alexander Graham Bell, there is some conjecture as to when the first ‘workable phone’ became available because a gentleman named Antonio Meucci was said to have invented the concept 1857. The point is that the technology remains strong to this day. Many believe it will be a long time before any significant changes affect the validity of domain names as investments. It is true the tools used to access the internet may change but a website will still need and address. Perhaps an interesting topic to bring up at ‘domain name forum’ Chapter 3 ******* idn = International Domain Name Aren’t we forgetting something at this point? not everyone speaks the English Language! Because of this the internet continues its worldwide evolution to allow for this by way of expanding into specific country language scripts that are starting to become approved by Icann. Already certain countries are using their own alphabets on their country/language specific computer keyboards. In other words in Germany they are using their own German based alphabet website searches and keyboards, remember how being local was also important! You cannot get much more local that using your country’s specific alphabet. Search engines from each country will also point these websites using these languages to the people in these countries, in other words the search engines can also keep local. Will people in Germany search for Mietwagen (hire cars in German) or 租用用 (hire cars in Simplified Chinese) another example is the term: Tv Channels, in simplified Chinese it is (o o o道) in German is (TV-Kanäle) notice the accent over the (ä letter in Kanäle) a great example of how local script is used! Occassionally some english letters will crossover to the German or other alphabets such as the Spanish alphabet but as already stated if people see the website in your specfic language featuring all the characters and symbols asscociated with your launguage and country there will be an inbuilt element of trust. This is very important for businesses located on the internet seeking your money for either goods or services. You cannot cross register letters from different countries (different scripts) What is punycode? International Domain Names The internet punycode address for 잡담.com (chat.com in Korean) is: xn jk1b250b.com, this is because in this early period of the internet only Latin based English scripts have been used for website addresses. So if you had a non English based website address/domain name it would be converted to another script language called ‘punycode’ which is a mixture of Latin based letters and numbers. Now what’s the big deal? Well the big deal is that many domain name investors have had faith in Icann to expand the internet into all languages from all over the world. This means some domain name investors have been buying idn words/addresses like 잡담.com xn jk1b250b.com in the hope of owning a valuable asset when the changes come to the countries alphabet based script. Some investors already own spectacular names before the internet has changed over the local language script. In other words there is some long term speculation happening right now and as the changes come these people are preparing to cash in! One very well known domain name forum specialising in this approach is idnforums.com. At this domain name forum there is much discussion about new language scripts due to be released and recent scripts released such the crossover to .РФ which from the Russian Cyrillic Alphabet. Russia also has the extension of .ru (short for .Russia) However the people at idnforums.com are already actively buying, selling swapping domain names in the .РФ extension because they believe overtime the Russian Cyrillic Alphabet names will be more valuable than the English based Russian domain names to the people of the Russian States. Once more I will remind you it is better to be perceived as a local entity rather than from somewhere else in the world. In Australia they use .com.au and if you do business with a .com.au website you will be confident you are dealing with an Australian based business. It is possible that a foreign business has an Australian Business Number and can trade with a .com.au address. Keep in mind this situation is in the minority. Most websites with the .com.au will be from Australia. [...]... is a mixed list of website from the domain names industry to view newtlds.tv bido.com ricksblog.com 3character.com estibot.com fabulous.com parked.com bodis.com pool.com sedo.com godaddy.com namepros.com dnforum.com domaining.com snapnames.com namejet.com namebio.com wordtracker.com tdnam.com enom.tv dotweekly.com namenewbie.com numericdomains.com domainstate.com nameslot.com dnsaleprice.com moniker.com... also type the domain name into Google and see if there is a tainted history associated with the name? Perhaps it belonged to a website that Google has banned? Use this tool to see if the domain name has a current ban Google Banned ? if the ‘site’ name comes up as banned you can also do a check by typing the name in and seeing what appears? If it is something that seems wrong avoid the name or at least... doing such a thing Another example of why domainers are sometimes called cyber squatters is like what happened when Michael Jackson passed away Many in the industry tried to cash in on his name by registering domain names using his name Some of these names were advertised on Ebay for $1,000,000 dollars then a year later on the anniversary of his death many of these name just dropped anyway basically a bit... right to these names Domainers can help themselves by avoiding doing things like this, plus as mentioned it is quite often a waste of time and money anyway Sometimes if a trademarked name is parked and has the trademark holders name on the parked pages the trademark owner as a good case to prove you are trading off their name Many people once made a good living off their parked domain names however... started receiving offers for the name from inspired domainers who could see the value in the name This domain name was sold in February 2014 for $1400 as a result of the forum posting which is quite a good profit considering it was only a few months old! However it was what happened next that got the tongues wagging around the industry On March-23-2010 a domain auction titled Domain Madness was held with... patience, again I will say domain name investing is not a get rich quick scheme I will leave you with this thought, what if FaceBook implement their own computer language to FaceBook.Com, then offer streamlined website options that do not need hosting? Some great sites to look at and join and study are listed below, even ebay.com has domain sellers in the computer section /domain names Here is a mixed list... March 31st it was announced on Domain Name Wire that the original registrant was being sued because he had previously agreed to sell the domain name for $700 to someone else! The person lodging the lawsuit was suing for the amount of $150,300 (the amount of profit he would have made if he had purchased the domain and lodged it at the Domain Madness Auction) The young domainer who was the recipient... for investors and website developers The first on the list below demonstrates in the Chinese Domain Space there could be as many as five different options It would be interesting to discuss the dangers of owning a cn name with China’s current strict censorship attitudes I suspect the folks at idnforums.com would suggest to avoid the cn names (unless they are currently holding some) Remember Domain Name. .. worthwhile continuing the brand no matter what the language! Some domain name investors avoid International Domain Names because they do not possess a working knowledge of foreign languages Some folk have contacts overseas and have a reliable resource to call upon Some folk rely on the good reputation of who they are dealing with when buying such names It is worth knowing that some words only work in conjunction... own, imagine having your family name as an extension Smith for example It’s a little hard to speculate about these new gtld’s other than to say keep reading up at the forums and also on your favourite domain name blogs It will be amazing to see what the automated appraisal websites will rate these name s value? Please note most in the industry to not take automatic domain name appraisal too seriously! . regging a name! Welcome to the Domain Name Investors Ebook, What is domaining? Domaining is the business of buying, selling and investing in domain names in domain names. What is a domain name? A domain name is a website address, all websites have a domain name, does a domain name have to be a website ?