If you want to make money online, there are thousands of ways you can do that, but not each of them is suitable for your skill set and budget. If you’re looking for a serious online business opportunity that is also low-risk, domain selling is a great opportunity for you.
Good domain names get registered fast. In the first quarter of 2021, there were 363.5 million domain name registrations. Many new websites find it difficult to get great domains by themselves and that’s why they do it through domain sellers.
Here’s how you can start a business around domain name selling.
Know how to choose the best domains
When you’re looking for domain names you can buy and then resell, you need to know the dos and don’t of buying a domain and consider the following factors:
- Length. It’s always better to go for short domain names, those that only have between one and three words in them. They’re easier to remember and type into a mobile browser. Not only that, but they’re also more trustworthy.
- Keyword strength. The strength of a keyword is determined by its search volume and industry relevance. Keywords in industries that spend a lot of money on online advertising usually have a higher value.
- TDL. If the domain you’re selling isn’t a top-level domain, you probably won’t be able to sell it at all. TDLs are in high demand and especially those that end in .com. As much as 9% of all TLDs are .com because this extension is trustworthy and professional.
Find out who owns the domain
If you find the perfect domain you want to buy from someone, you first need to find out who owns that domain, and you can do that in multiple ways.
The first is to go to the website that is using the domain you’re interested in, where you can see if someone is hosting that website and if you’re lucky, find their contact information.
If you can’t find a host, you can try the second method and check public archives to see if that particular domain has ever been hosted. This is a simple task because all domain registrations have to be done through the Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
ICANN requires anyone who registers a domain to provide their private information to the Whois database. If you go to their website, you can find out information such as where the name was registered and when the registration was made.
If you want to make your Whois searches simpler and search for multiple domains at the same time, you should use bulk Whois lookup. If you use this tool, you will get information on domain ownership and all Whois data records from the database in a convenient CSV format.
Choose your preferred money making method
There are two strategies you can use in your domain selling business, both involve purchasing domains but they differ in the method you use to manage them. These methods are:
- Domain flipping. This entails buying a domain from somebody with the intention to resell it. If you want to flip domains, you need to be willing to do a lot of research. Try to find names that are related to trending and niche markets and especially those in profitable industries.
- Traditional investing. In this approach, an investor finds a domain that doesn’t have high renewal prices and has the potential to hold its value over time. You can find domain registrars that offer the chance to register a premium name that has great keyword relevance or the optimal length.
Decide on a target group and start selling
The best strategy that leads to success is to create one target group you want to focus on and sell domains only that group is interested in. This will help you increase your chances of a sale and allow you to build your expertise around that one type of domain.
When you know who you want to sell to, decide how much money your domain is worth. If you put a price that’s too high, you risk your domain not selling, so do some research on domain name prices before you go on the market.
Finally, you can start selling. Look for potential buyers and to make the process faster, display a list of all the domains you’re selling on popular domain selling websites.
Final thoughts
A website can’t exist without a domain, and many new website owners are willing to pay more money for a high-quality domain without having to come up with one themselves. That’s why domain selling businesses are so popular, and if you know how to run one, you’ll have a profitable venture.
