NamePimps

Many people think they can easily make some quick money by buying and selling domain names. While there have been times in the past when good money was made fairly easily in the domain name market, that is not the usual case at all. Finding domains to buy is rather simple, buyers can register names that are still available on the open market or they can buy domain names from any number of sources that sell already registered domains. But when it comes to selling domain names, who buys them?

There are four basic types of domain buyers out there and tracking down two of them is easy, while tracking down the third one can be quite difficult.

#1 – The Domain Flipper
The domain flipper is a short term domain owner. They purchase a domain with the intent of making a quick profit. This can mean buying a $10 domain and selling it fairly quickly for $20 so they make a $10 profit. This can also mean buying a $200 domain and turning it over for $250. Domain flippers are quite active on the market because they’re always looking for the next deal.

#2 – The Domain Investor/Seller
These two people are combined because often one person fills both of these roles. The domain investor isn’t worried about making a quick sale, they can buy a domain knowing that it may take months or even years before they are able to sell it. They also know a good name when they see it and know that if they purchase it, eventually a buyer will come along.

#3 – The Developer
There are a number of people that make their living online setting up and maintaining websites. These websites can be quite profitable. Some developers build and operate full blown complex sites while others build basic sites that provide purely informational content. Successful web developers know that the right domain name can go a long way in making their website profitable.

#4 – The End User
The holy grail of all domainers is the end user. The end user is someone who either already has or is going to establish a real world brick and mortar type business and needs a good domain name to go with it. An end user can also be an established company that is looking for the right domain name for their business or a new domain name for either a promotion they are going to run or a new part of their business that they are going to expand into. Finding an end user is one of the hardest things for a domain seller to do. End users do not regularly frequent domain buying and selling communities so they are not always readily available.

Many domain buyers that can be found in the very sites that domain sellers frequent. In fact, many domain buyers are also domain sellers too. The best way to get the highest sale price though is for the domain seller to sell the domain to either a web developer or end user. This isn’t always as easy as it appears to be though.

Here is a comment we recently received from a reader/interested party explaining their perspective on trademarks when domain names are involved. This is of particular interest because it appears to give the view of web developers from China.

Thanks a lot for your good suggestion of .com domain.
Anyway,our chinese,dont’ want to buy or register any .com domain,as you know if we buy any .com domain,sooner or later it will be robbed by USA companies through ICANN,such as rc3m.com,cnnews.com,tigercool.com,…etc,all knows that they are abuse of trademark.
We don’t have enough time to check the hundreds of thousands of trademarks before we register a .com domain,we don’t know whether my register name will “infringe” any companies trademark or contain the several letters of any trademark like gezip.com .
What we register is the .cn domain which can’t be abused robbed by USA companies.
If you have good .cn domain,please feel free to present to us.Thanks a lot.

There have been a number of instances that people have registered trademarked names or typos of trademarked names and they have ended up having their names taken from them after a complaint is filed. This comment appears to insinuate that the registering of these names is purely coincidental when that is obviously not the case most of the time. I particularly like the defense that they don’t have time to see if a name is trademarked. This argument falls a little flat on me.

Many domainers either frequent or stop by occasionally at one of the largest and best online forums devoted to domaining, NamePros. Seeing the red, white and blue appearance of the forum has become second nature as you stop by to see what new services are offered to domainers, what domains are being auctioned off, or just to chat with others involved in the domaining industry. Maybe that is why there was shock and awe recently when the appearance (theme) of the NamePros site underwent a drastic change…

It appears that theme sponsorship has come to NamePros and has resulted in quite obviously one heck of a change. Most complaints seem to be confined to the brightness of the colors, especially the red bars on the right and left side, but there are also many who voiced their approval and liked the changes. It does remain to be seen how long it will stay like this since it is a sponsorship deal done by domain broker. Though it has created some controversy, we all know that a certain amount of controversy is good on the internet as it brings with it attention and usually additional traffic. The question is how far is too far? Do you want to risk turning off some of your visitors? I think NamePros members who truly use the site as part of their business will not let a simple thing like a change in colors change their usage, but that is just my opinion.

What’s yours?

Canada.com recently had an article regarding the country’s new internet millionaires, including Kevin Ham who has a domain portfolio with an estimated value of $300 million dollars. These ingenious entrepreneurs are making a name for themselves and acquiring a great deal of respect even in the non-internet world. What does it take to join them in this exclusive club? If you combine hard work with an ingenious idea and a real marketing plan you just may join them.

The days of being able to buy high quality one word generic .com domains at reg fee are long gone. That doesn’t mean that the chance to make serious money in the domain or web development market is gone too. There will always be new and exciting opportunities. Five years ago people would not have predicted random LLL.coms to be worth what they are today, five months ago they wouldn’t have predicted the current prices people are getting for LLLL.coms. There are money making opportunities all around in the domain and development game. Find yours, trust your gut instinct, and work hard to make it happen.