I Suck at Buying Domains : 4 Tips to Avoid the Mistakes I Made

I Suck at Buying Domains : 4 Tips to Avoid the Mistakes I Made

February 7, 2012 11:56 pm 2 comments

domain buying mistakes

Owning hundreds of domains may sound cool but it is totally worthless if you are not generating revenues from them.

In the past few years, I have purchased so many domains which I initially thought would work out good but unfortunately, ignored them and then let them expire.

Today, I want to share some of my domain buying mistakes that cost me money and I don’t you to experience the same.

Yes, I know… On my last posts I promised to release my first video of the series on my new youtube channel. Bad news: I have been sick :( (was doing some crazy photography with my new Cannon t3i in the rain- silly me)

Good news: I have 2 videos in the queue and the 1st one will go live in 2 days. I just hope you like it because it’s all about me, you and how we can collaborate and make money by doing good. Subscribe and ill see you in the videos ;)

Now, getting back to the topic, here’s my quick tips to avoid mistakes in purchasing domains.

4 Common Domain Buying Mistakes

domain buying

1. Keyword Research

This is probably the most important aspect when buying a domain. Whenever you decide to purchase a domain name, you have to do keyword research prior to acquiring that domain. Why? You don’t want to end up buying a domain which has no value or doesn’t suit your requirements.

Let’s say that you want to get a domain for a niche site. You simply cannot pickup a random name that looks or sounds cool OR you cannot simply choose a domain name which has lots of competition, low CPC, trademark issues etc.

In the past few years I have purchased several niche domains without doing PROPER keyword research and the result was pathetic. I spent money on content, backlinks and later realized that I had chosen the wrong keyword and thus, the wrong domain name (highly competitive). This led me to abandon the domain and lose interest on the topic or niche.

Don’t let this happen to you. If you cannot do proper keyword research, hire someone who is a professional. I have a few guys who do the research for me since I am too busy to handle that stuff these days 

2. Don’t Need Em, Sell Em.

My second biggest mistake would be to let the domains expire. This is not cool and you lose money for being ignorant.

If you happen to purchase a domain and later lose interest to work on it, just SELL IT. There is no point in keeping it in your account and letting it expire for no reason… And you know what happens when it expires? It gets auctioned and maybe purchased at a higher price from the domain registrar. If this is the case then why not make yourself money instead of your domain company.

I have literally lost hundreds of dollars just because I have let the domains expire when I could have made some money by selling them. OR best, I could put in some content, get some backlinks and flip the site for a profit.

If you believe you are not going to need the domain, don’t wait till the last minute, SELL IT OFF!

3. Resist the Hype

How many times have you purchased a domain just because you got a discount? Oh yeah! I can see 80% of you raising your hands… No doubt, even I did.

Let me tell you my story. In the last 3 months; especially during the Christmas and new years, I purchased at least 25 top level domains for $1 each. Yup, that’s correct, a buck for a dotcom.

Some from godaddy (I know they suck but oh well, the discount); and some from namecheap.

When you get a domain that cheap, who doesn’t want to get it right? But, what’s the point in getting it if you don’t plan on using it. Don’t fall for HYPE and Discounts!

Ok, here’s a secret. The best way to utilize this discount thing is by making a list of niche keywords on advance. So, whenever you see a discount or a promo code, you pull up your list, choose a keyword and get it :)

In this way, you know what you want and you get what you want.

4. Legit Domain Registrar

Last but an important tip, always go with namecheap or some other domain registrar that you prefer.

Godaddy sucks even though they give out lots of dollar coupon codes seasonally.

Here’s another trick ;) ; if you purchase cheap domains from godaddy, you can transfer it to namecheap after a year because either way, you have to pay the standard domain renewal fees so why not move out. Pssss… keep it a secret

Verdict

Learning from mistakes and from experience is the best thing that can happen. I used to have hundreds of domains which I narrowed down by 60%. Now I only have the domains that I plan on working with.

This not only makes it easier for me to focus but also save lots of money which I can use for other investments.

Did you make the silly mistakes like I did? Let me know your thoughts and I will get back at you pretty soon and of course, don’t miss out my first video because it is going to be sweeeeet!

Talk soon!

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2 Comments

  • Can you recommend somewhere to sell domains, please? I listed a few (at Sedo??) but got no takers do let them expire.

    Thanks

    • Salman Ahsan

      Try a few other forums like digitalpoint.com where you can list for free. Also try wickedfire.com. Its tough to sell domains unless its popular or has some seo/backlinks value. What you should do is list them on a few forums and use twitter and social media to spread the news.. You need exposure before you could make sales. Flippa.com is another option. Good luck

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