Let’s now dive into how domains can be flipped!
Are you still excited? You should be. You might wonder: How likely is it that I can make these enormous profits by flipping domains. You’re right, they’re slim.
There are many examples of people who have achieved great success with modest, but still achievable, numbers. Ali Zandi, a well known domainer, made $58,000 profit selling 8 domains in 60 days. Finally, a $10 domain investment became $2,600.
It can make anyone’s head spin to hear about these numbers. Naturally, you might ask yourself: How can I get in on this action? Is it too late? Why is it so expensive to buy domain names? How can I identify a valuable domain name How much money do I need to start domain flipping?
Let’s answer all of these questions with this step-by, comprehensive domain flipping guide.
Table of Contents
What is a DOMAIN NAME?
The name of the website is called a domain or “domain name”. Domain names have an extension such as.com,.org,.net or other.
At Niche Pursuits, our domain name is NichePursuits.com. It’s WebMD.com for WebMD. Domain is the domain name.
A TLD (top-level domain) refers to domain names with the most popular extensions (.com),.org (.net, etc.). As opposed to a domain name with a more common extension such as “.me” and “.newyork”.
MORE ABOUT DOMAIN FLIPPING
In many ways, the domain name industry is very similar to real estate. End users, brokers, consultants, and domain flippers (or “domainers”) are all involved in domain flipping. It works much like buying a house and renovating it, or even just sitting on it, before selling it again at an increased price. you can also look for crypto domain flipping.
It’s simple: You are buying a domain name, and you bet it will be worth more than what you paid.
If you are right, you can get a nice salary and then move on. Selling a domain name can bring in several hundred dollars per sale. A domain name that is right can fetch thousands or even millions of dollars. This is how people make their living.
Is it possible to make a living selling domains? Yes, absolutely. But, expectations and mindset are the biggest risks. Although it might seem like many domains are being sold for insane amounts of money, how many domains actually change hands each year? Millions. web domain flipping is very profitable.
It is important to be able to think clearly when you start flipping domains. Don’t buy domains and expect to sell them for millions of dollars in a matter of hours.
This “get rich quick” mentality is destructive in domain flipping as well as in other businesses. Instead, you should focus on purchasing low-cost, high-potential domains, and then selling them at modest margins.
Start building experience and momentum. It is possible to find the perfect domain name that you can purchase for $10 and then flip for $300. This is possible with the right domain investor. However, you will need to acquire the necessary skills to make it happen.
FLIP DOMAINS / FLIP WEBSITES
It is important to distinguish between website flipping and domain flipping. This refers to purchasing and selling complete websites. Full websites are websites with content, traffic, and revenue.
Domain names are not important when selling or buying websites. The main value is the content, traffic and revenue.
Domain names are not the same. You’re selling “the name”, and that’s all that matters.
This post is primarily about domain flipping.
HOW TO BUY A DOMAINE NAME
Flipping domain names can be extremely profitable. However, domain selling and buying requires some effort. To do it right.
Do not be afraid of terms such as “domain registrar”, “domain provider” or similar terms. We will walk you through each step of how to find potential domain names and buy the right domain names.
You could also make some serious money domain flipping. Here are some strategic steps.
1. LEARN HOW TO CALCULATE THE DOMAIN NAME WELL
If you throw a few domains at domain flippers, they will be able quickly to give you an estimate. Most of the time, they will be accurate. Their domain-flipping experience has taught them how to wire their brains to appraise domains automatically and relatively accurately.
They can immediately tell if a domain’s value is under or above its price tag. This is the most important skill in this industry.
This will allow you to make a large profit when the domain is resold for its “real worth.”
How do you get that intuition? NameBio has a database with over 500,000 domain sales as of the writing of this post. You can filter domains using interesting filters such as price range, date of sale, keywords, and many other options.
You can also use the keyword search to find out how much domains cost in your industry or niche. They also have an addictive app “The Domain Game” that is available for Android and iOS.
They give you a domain name and you have to guess if it was sold for three, four or five figures.
Points are awarded for correct answers and points are lost for wrong answers. After a while, you will start to notice patterns. You will get better at connecting dots with your brain.
Flippa also offers “Recently Sold”, which can be used for similar data. Here’s how it looks:
You’ll improve your skills by practicing with these tools. You are now ready to start scouting domains.
This is the most important skill domain flippers have!
2. HOW TO FIND GOOD NAMES
It is the most time-consuming task to find good domain names that you can resell. There are many strategies and approaches to this. I will stick to the easiest, most budget-friendly and beginner-friendly strategies.
Let’s first discuss the qualities of a domain.
- Length It is quite self-explanatory. The domain name is generally shorter and more valuable. However, the value of a longer name decreases exponentially. The price difference between 3 and 4 letters domains is significant. However, the price difference between 7 and 8-letter domains would be less.
- Memorable/Brandable: A dictionary word domain name is very valuable. The more widely used and popular the word, the better. Domain names that are at least 7-8 figures include “marketing.com”, cars.com, and hotels.com. Even though a domain name may not be a dictionary term, it is important to be pronounceable, memorable, and brandable.
- Extension: The value of a domain’s domain name extensions plays a significant role in its success. There are more than 1000 domain extensions available right now. The most popular is.com. Following are the.net, and.org extensions. The best thing about.com is its immediate recognition and familiarity with internet users.
Many internet users are not aware that there are other extensions.
There are many extensions available, so you may find some amazing domain names that contain one or three letters.
These extensions are also becoming more and more familiar to users each day. It is therefore almost certain that their value and acceptance will increase with time.
Remember that an excessive number of options can reduce value. These new extensions will not be worth much. Some of these extensions could make a lot of money.
Domain flipping is all about being able to distinguish profitable domain names from useless.
WHERE CAN I FIND IDEAS TO REGISTER FOR DOMAIN NAMES?
There are many ways to get ideas for domain names that will be memorable.
For instance, you can:
- Browse domains currently for sale or recently sold on marketplaces and directories like Sedo and Flippa.
- Websites such as ExpiredDomains.net and JustDropped.com may have expired/dropped domains.
- To find domains that will be more profitable in the future, analyze market trends and use search queries.
Domainers spend their days searching domain directories and marketplaces for domains that are undervalued. They then try to resell them. It is easy to find domain marketplaces.
Let’s take a look at something more complicated: search query analysis and market trends.
ANALYZING MARKET TRENDS TO IDENTIFY OPPORTUNITIES
Where should I begin? So, I’ve heard of bitcoin. Let’s begin from the beginning. I’ll use Google Trends to type “bitcoin”
Google Trends tracks search queries’ popularity over time. It is often a great resource for finding exploding topics/terms that are soon to explode. Here’s how it looks:
The screenshot shows that searches for “ripple”, another cryptocurrency, are rapidly growing in popularity. Let’s take a look at the Google Keyword Planner and type “ripple” to see what results are displayed.
The keyword planner found 332 keywords that are related to ripple. Most of these keywords can be used to incite a domain registration. Let’s get more ideas. We know ripple is another cryptocurrency.
What if “bitcoin” was replaced with “ripple?” in all of these examples? SellRipple.com? RippleGiftCards.com? Ripple.network? Ripple.us…etc. This is the complete picture. These are 100 on NameBio. If you add the keywords from Google Keyword Planner, there’s hundreds of high-value domains. you can also look for crypto domain flipping.
We’re just scratching the surface. Wikipedia says that there are more than 1,600 cryptocurrency online at the moment… and that number keeps growing.
Multiply this number with the hundreds of possible variations from NameBio and Google Keyword Tool, and your brain will buzz with ideas in no time.
You may not see all 1,300 currencies boom, but you can still get some solid domain names if you place your bets and act quickly.
This can be repeated for nearly every industry. You can use Google Trends to find a seed keyword and then use the Google Keyword Planner to let the data guide you.
Next, they would be put on the market. It’s then time to wait.
Be careful! It is tempting to buy domains such as mcdonalds.net and then try to sell it back to McDonald’s. This logic would be because they already own the domain. They wouldn’t want anyone else to have the.net and use their names. It’s also a large name, so there has to be a big payday, right? Absolutely wrong.
TRADEMARKS: BE WARNED
A trademarked domain name can land you in serious trouble. The trademark holder could force you to hand the domain over and then call it quits. Worst case scenario? You get in a legal fight and lose.
FLIPPING EXPIRED DOMAINS
The above is one way to search for good domain names, and then register them for $10. Experts will often use an alternative method: purchasing expired domain names.
What are the other strategies?
You must renew your domain each year with a domain registrar in order to keep it as your domain. It will “expire” if you do not renew it annually. Domains that are expired go through several stages before they can be released for general registration.
Although the process may differ slightly between registrars, it is generally the same.
GoDaddy explains what happens when domains expire .
When the grace period expires and the owner is unable to renew the domain, most registrars will put expired domains up for sale. These auctions are often a goldmine for many reasons.
- A domain that has expired is a domain that has been registered previously. It means that someone was interested in it. This makes it more valuable than domains that were never registered.
- A domain that is expired has a history. The domain’s history can be influenced by traffic, age and SEO properties such as domain DA/PA. Even if the domain isn’t very valuable, if it has high DA/PA and was registered over 10 years ago, it will be more valuable than if it never registered.
- An expired domain is likely to sell for a lot more than $10. It is also possible to lose it or pay too much for it in bidding wars during auctions. Selling with a good margin is therefore more difficult.
- It is important to carefully review and inspect expired domain names. This domain name was already “used” previously and you don’t know what purpose it served. It could be blacklisted by search engines. It could have been used for illegal or spamming purposes.
The owner of the domain let it expire, and did not renew it. While there could be legitimate reasons for why they did that, it is possible that one of the less-legit reasons was that the domain name is “dead”.
It’s no longer of any use to the original owner due to a penalty or other reasons. It’s unlikely that it will be of any value to you, if so.
This is a great way to find short domain names with serious potential. However, it’s not the only way to go.
SO, WHERE CAN YOU FIND EXPIRED DOMAINE NAMES?
ExpiredDomains.net is the most visited. ExpiredDomains.net’s main benefit is its ability to aggregate data from many different websites and auctions. There are also paid services such as DomCop.
DomCop makes it easier to identify domains that are worthy. It displays additional data points which allow you to easily vet domains in a single interface.
DON’T FORGET YOUR DUE DIIGENCE
- Check backlink profiles: If you don’t know what backlinks mean, they are basically any website that “links to” the domain in question. It is important to examine expired domain’s backlink profiles carefully, as there are many shady SEO tactics. You should check if there are too many links coming from the same domain, or if they have strange anchor texts/use foreign language links. Ahrefs is a good tool to check these things. web domain flipping is very profitable.
- Check email spam databases: Search the domain in spam blacklist database such as UltraTools. Although there are processes that permit you to dispute blacklist placements it is not always worth the effort and could lead to an early “no-go”.
- Check Domain Authority/Page Authority: The “Domain Authority”, and “Page Authority,” metrics have gained considerable popularity in the past few years. These metrics correlate well with domains’ ability to rank in search engines, so domains with high DA/PA are more valuable. However, domains with low DA/PA are not necessarily ineligible for high-end sales. It’s only one factor. These factors can be a deciding factor in buying decisions.
3. PREPARATION WORK AFTER BUYING DOMAIN NAMES
Once you have found the right domain, it is time to pull the trigger. If the domain is brand new, you would normally purchase it directly from the registry (for around $10). You would normally purchase an expired domain through an auction, or flat-fee depending on the seller.
No matter who you buy the domain from, it is important to transfer it to your domain registry. There are many domain registrars out there, but Internet.bs is my preferred.
Although they aren’t a very popular registrar, I love them for several reasons.
- These are some of the most affordable prices available.
- They will never upsell, cross-sell or downsell you incessantly.
- You can find nearly every domain extension.
- The control panel is simple to use and contains all the settings that you will need.
- They offer prompt, friendly support.
You can always choose to go with the established names in the industry such as Name.com or GoDaddy. But Internet.bs is my personal preference and I highly recommend them.
There are several things you can do once you have purchased the domain.
- Landing page: You may want to clearly state that your website is available for purchase. You can create a landing page (see my clickfunnels reviews) which mentions the domain’s sale and includes a contact form to allow visitors to send an email. This allows you to get direct offers that can be extremely valuable.
- Redirection This is possible after you have listed your website for purchase. To drive domain visitors to the auction or listing, redirect the domain. This will maximize the visibility of the domain.
- Parking: While your domain is still sitting there, waiting for its new owner to take it over, you might as good as to make use of it. You can park your domain to enable automated advertising so you make money each time someone clicks/views an ad. This is especially helpful if your domain has been viewed/clicked on many times. Among the many parking services offered are Sedo and GoDaddy.
- Content setup If you think your domain is likely to get good search engine traffic, it might be worth creating some content. This will help your domain rank higher in search engine results. It doesn’t matter if you flip the domain alone or add the content to the domain as a “website”. It will help in any way.
- Whois Information: When your domain is up for sale, you want it to be as accessible as possible and to make it easy for people to ask about it. It might not be a good idea for your contact information and email address to be hidden by private whois.
4. SELLING DOMAINS
Marketing your domain is important, but I don’t mean to be negative. It’s very unlikely that a domain you bought is going to sell if it’s not in good condition.
It’s similar to car flipping, where you spend a lot of time, money and effort painting a car, but the car’s engine is totally fried. It won’t be possible to drive it, regardless of how great the paint job.
CONTROLING YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THE DOMAIN NAME TALE
It is important that you keep your emotions out of domain sales. It is easy to become emotionally attached to domain names that you believe will be the next big thing, and then sell them for 7 figures.
Please remember that this is an automated appraisal tool. So, take these numbers with a grain. It’s great to get started.
Paid, human-based, appraisal services can be provided by Sedo or other providers. However, these can become expensive. You could end up spending too much on these services, and your domain might not be worth the fee. web domain flipping is very profitable.
Domain value calculators such as those found on GoDaddy and sites selling domain names don’t give you the correct “value of domain”. These domain value calculators are wildly inaccurate, and domain sellers have every reason for inflating the domain’s value.
Domain flipping is not a passive income venture. It takes hard work to make a profit by finding the right buyers for the domain you want.
WHERE AND HOW TO SELL DOMAINS
Here are some of the most popular approaches to selling domains.
- Contact potential buyers directly
It would be a good idea to pitch a domain you own to restaurateurs, such as BestRestaurant.com. If the domain is even more niched down like BestNewYorkRestaurant.com, then you could also use the help of a directory such as YellowPages to help you narrow down potential candidates. - Enabling direct offers by making your WHOIS information public:
- Listing on domain platforms: This route is the most popular. Before you decide to work with any marketplace, it is important that you are familiar with their policies and fees. Sedo charges a 10% commission and BrandBucket prohibits you from listing your domain elsewhere if you are selling through them.
Here is a list of most popular marketplaces, in no particular order:
- Sedo
- GoDaddy
- Flippa
- Afterinc
- Igloo
- BrandBucket
These should be enough to get your domain seen by tons of potential buyers. You should not have any problems selling your domain if you picked a great domain. It could take you months to get a good deal.
Domainers often keep their domains for many years before selling them.
It’s not a good idea to obsess about a domain. Move on to buying other domains and listing them. If this is a side job, you can go back to work once you have listed the first one.
FLIPPING DOMAINS: Conclusion
Domainers who are professionals often have hundreds or even thousands of domains under their belt. To maintain momentum and cash flow, they are constantly buying and reselling domain names. This is how full-timers do it. If that’s what you want, this is who you could eventually be.
Learning a new skill can give you a lot more power, even domain flipping. Hope you liked the content. Please subscribe us for more Info. Thank you.
