Domain Prices

This article is based on Go Daddy since I’ve used them often. .Com, .net and .org domains will increase in price from July 2010, my recommendation is to do the following:

Renew Now

Now is a good time than ever to renew your domains for the long term. If you register for more years, you’ll get discounts. Domain names that contain your full names, should always will registered for the long term.

Sell or let expire your unused domains

It’s all too easy to buy a name based on potential and then forget about it and never use it again. It’s worthwhile to go through your domains, let domain drop or try to sell them on Flippa or Sedo. If you see a domain as an investment, then register it for the long term.

GoDaddy Price Reductions

Their codes change every month, so try these established Godaddy codes.

Conclusion

So what’s the future of buying domains. Well the registrars tried to limit domains to certain groups but failed, for example I can purchase a New Zealand domain and not be in the country. There is coming a point where all the great names are registered, if you want to buy one of these domains then expect to pay a premium price for it. If you’ve got some established and keyworded domains, keep them or sale them depending on your circumstances…but no one knows what the future will hold.

Best Blogs Asia.

Using Auctions

To start with you need a site to sell, so I either develop an existing site I own which is the easiest option (aged domains are popular, regardless of content it seems) or I go out and buy a domain or site and develop it. By being involved in an auction, it means I’m pretty sure of what name I’m looking for as well as understanding the potential value. “Potential value” means that I’m going to sell the domain asap, so look for relevant affiliate offers from well known networks in order to showcase what can be made from the site.

Auction sites I use would be Flippa itself, Bido and Sedo, as well as contacting domain owners directly via Who.is and asking if they’re interested to sale.

Contacting Existing Site Owners/Contacting Potential Buyers

I normally send off an email something like this:

My company owns XXXXXXXX.com, and I would like to know if you would have an interest in buying it. Owning a strong keyword domain name can help you rank higher in search engines for the term, and I believe this is an important term to own. The price for this domain name is just $xx, and it is being auctioned at Flippa. I found your contact information via Google, and this is a one time individual email.

Long Term or Short Term

I always choose short term, but if the domain is good and has alot of potential then I’ll keep it for long term. When finding short term sites to flip, I first use the national online newspapers. I see what stories they are writing about, which groups and countries they are targetting, as well as specific product names. You wouldn’t believe how many products are being launched without the company buying the .com name or local urls. You do need to be careful of copyrights too.

Make the Title Saleable

See the example below of recent domains that sold on Flippa, look at what they focus on and notice the pattern.

Sites seem to sell if:

• They mention revenue
• Date.
• Page Rank.

Information needed in the Listing

The site listing needs to be clear and to the point, I normally break it up into paragraphs, use bold titles and explain the reason why I bought the domain and it’s potential. The listing should contain:

• Revenue, even if it’s 0. Explain why.
• Screenshots, preferably Google Analytics
• Explain copyrights, answer potential questions

Other ways to get more sales include:

• Offering to host the site.
• Improve your Trust by filling out the details.
• Adding Clickbank.
• Add a custom Twitter account.

Flippa Tags

Flippa tags are a great way of finding out which types of domains and sites sell best and how much they sell for. This is what I saw what people are bookmarking when I last looked:

• eCommerce
• Wordpress
• Adsense
• Autoblog

Whilst highest average sales are:

• Community – $15,432
• Jobs – $13,919
• Tutorials – $13,377

Highest clearance Rates are:

• Car Insurance
• Bookmarking site
• Work at Home

Conclusion

I think by creating a Community Car Insurance site, then you’re on your way to making big money. But seriously, when creating a listing showcase the positive attributes of the site. If it has high pr, then promote it or if it’s got keywords in the domain – promote that too. Look at what the “Big Flippas” are doing and see how they got successful.

Best Blogs Asia.

About Sedo

Recently I used Flippa for buying and selling domains and sites, with general success. However, Sedo is much bigger and seems to offer more protection (via hidden negotiations only through Sedo staff) as well as domain parking services. They have the global world’s largest database of high-quality domain names, which is thought to be over 3.0 million names.

Domain Parking

Afternic are probably their most well known competitors to park a domain, but how do Sedo fair?

Parking was very easy, I just pointed my nameservers to their site and waited for the clickthroughs. There was no fee or limitations on the number of domains and found the landing pages pretty generic but the value per click was pretty low. I rarely use a landing page unless I’ve a popular keyworded domain, but would think for monetising non US/UK traffic, using their landing page would be a good idea.

I didn’t try out the Sedo Pro program, so not sure if the stats/revenue would improve for domain parkers.

Benefits

• Payment via PayPal and Direct Deposit
• Parked domains can be marked “for sale” with keyword experts available to suggest improvements
• Potential buyers can see hits

Negatives

• You get paid for clicks only and never control or see the true value
• Revenues are very small or big, depending on your domain name
• Parked pages look like advertisement pages.

Domain Brokerage

A few weeks ago, I spotted a great domain and made a bid as the seller didn’t set a price. A few messages went back and forward from the Sedo control panel, where we finally agreed a price. However, I was surprised to find out that even though my bid was locked and accepted, the seller decided to initiate a 7 day auction where my bid would be visible and could be outbid at any time.

I sort of find this practice a bit disappointing and off-putting, if my bid was accepted I surely would get the domain…but instead I had to wait nervously to see if I’d be outbid at anytime. More money for Sedo and the seller I guess.

To speed things along, I actually won the domain, paid the total to Sedo who acts as the “middle man” and then waited for the owner to receive the money. I think received the domain from Sedo and everything was complete!

I found the positives were that both the seller and buyer were protected, the sale had to go through and generally everything went well. My only gripes would be all messages had to go through the brokerage team and there was a bit of a delay involved. There is also no rating system like on Flippa where you can see how many times a user has made transactions on the site as well as positive/negative feedback.

Conclusion

My general conclusion would be to use them as a place to buy and sell your names, since they offer alot of protection. In regards to parking, you won’t earn alot unless your domain is popular to begin with and you’ll get frustrated with the lack of controls so I’d probably look at Google Parking directly.

Best Blogs Asia.

Domains List

These lists are taken from Google and Alexa rankings, perhaps aren’t 100% correct but give a general indication of the popularity of these types of domains. Just to note, Best Blogs Asia came in a respectable 29th place, but here are the most popular .asia domains.

Google Indexed Asia Sites

Seekjobs.asia
An Asian jobseeker site which seems to rely alot on Google Ads and other job type site referrals.

eguide.asia
A general portal linking to other related sites, searching for all things Asian.

Eyeka.asia
Interesting site, showcasing creative talent.

Chip.asia
An India based Techy site, promoting all that is new with computers and gadgets.

Media.asia
Media and advertising news online.

Travian.asia
Travian is a browser based game setup, looks to be from Thailand.

It4u.asia
Simple guide on how to use the internet in Asia.

Vietlong.asia
Looks to be a Vietnamese shopping portal.

Persian.asia
A photo community of Iran.

Bharatmatrimony.asia
Indian matchmaker site, could be quite popular.

Alexa Indexed Asia Sites

Rightsite.asia
Developed by Michael Cole, helps users find property in China.

Lankasri.asia
Sri Lankan portal.

Popzone.asia
Cambodian portal.

Fenglin.asia
A Chinese language SEO type blog/site.

Xinxigang.asia
My Chinese isn’t so great, but I think is a general search/web portal.

Thee.asia
An Asian rock type band…cool!

Tinypic.asia
Upload pictures and display them.

Cantonese.asia
Forum for Chinese Cantonese writers.

Best Blogs Asia.

Top 10 .Asia Sales

I guess the keywords used in the top 10 shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to people. Discover.asia, Business.asia and Promotion.asia would be aimed at bringing in potential tourism due to the booming Asian economy. It’s also interesting to see Discover.asia has no live website or landing page, which makes me think the domain is ready to be sold (at profit) in the future.

Just to note, all sites except Business.asia are either not live or generic landing pages with advert links. The Business site is a custom German site where you need to register your details.

• Discover.asia – $112,000
• Sex.asia – $83,000
• Sexshop.asia – $54,000
• Models.asia – $41,000
• Business.asia – $29,000
• Promotion.asia – $26,000
• Vodka.asia – $25,000
• Spa.asia – $23,000
• Gps.asia – $22,000
• Resorts.asia – $22,000

Problems with Landrush

With me being based in Asia, I participated in the landrush, landrush and sunrise auctions. It was confusing beforehand as all domains were available to buy as you had to make a purchase and cash was deducted. However, it wasn’t until 6 months later that you would receive an email for each domain you “bought” stating that in order to get the domain you had to participate in an auction with other buyers of the same name, the price had no set limit either. It felt like a bit of a con at the time and could of been handled better.

However, since the landrush has passed any domain you see available is free to purchase without any restrictions.

GoDaddy .Asia Promo Code

I use GoDaddy for all my Asia domains so would recommend them. I managed to get a promotion code for all Bestblogs.asia readers, giving you great savings on .asia domains:

• $14.99 .ASIA domains

Conclusion

DotAsia names are taking off, there are things like a DotAsia Events Schedule and at the end of 2009 DotAsia, the group that manages the .asia domain spearheaded Blogfest.asia and the Hong Kong BloggerCon which coincided with the Asia-wide gathering.

As GoDaddy states, .ASIA domains give you regional recognition making it easier to manage your Web presence and increases your exposure to the growing number of Internet users in the Asia-Pacific region.

Best Blogs Asia.

About Go Daddy

I’ve written about them before when I mentioned the genius which is their Superbowl ads and the GoDaddy Girls. The company was setup by serial entrepreneur Bob Parsons. It’s currently the largest ICANN-accredited registrar in the world and has more than 36 million domain names under management.

How I buy a Domain

Buying domains is too easy, of course buying a single keyworded domain is very difficult but there are some .Asia or country specific domains which are available.

I normally check Who.Is first by typing in a full website name, then if available I will buy on GD. If it’s currently already purchased then I think use their TDnam domain service, which I’d have to say is hugely under-rated as there are many bargains to be found. I make a purchase for at least 2+ years (this helps gaining more “trust” on site’s like Google), perhaps I hide my registration details and then also implement a discount promo code….easy!

Screenshot of my Yearly Domain Spend

I must admit my yearly spending is huge, as shown by the screenshot below. I guess I’ve got 60+ domains, some .com’s, .net’s, .asia’s and country specific names which I’ve kept over the years:

GoDaddy Promo Codes

They’ve been in contact with me and offer a special discount to all Best Blog Asia readers, signup and buy a cheap domain with a price reduction instantly!

• 10% off total order

GoDaddy Bad Press and Feedback

They are one of those companies that get both good and bad press, it seems you either really like them or really hate them. Let me address these problems straight on, alot of the gripes come from the following (further bad press is at http://nodaddy.com):

• Too much oversell. When buying a domain, the process is too long and they are trying to sell you too many products before you checkout.
• Expensive prices compared to other Registrars.
• Poor customer service.
• Hosting problems. There are complaints that either the hosting features aren’t good enough, contracts are too long…
• Shutting down hacker/dubious sites.

My Response

Of course, I can’t go into these issues in detail as each customer has difference experiences. However, on the issue of “oversell” they do try to sell their other services, but they also include a “No Thanks” button at the bottom which is a much better improvement than a few years back. As for hosting, I think the services are average and aimed at sites which are developing/don’t get alot of traffic.

Go Daddy will always be known as a Domain site, so complaining and comparing their other services to say a dedicated hosting company won’t work. Their prices are cheap for the features they are offering. As for domains, they are perhaps more expensive than other companies but they do offer bulk discounts and regular promo codes.

Conclusion

I use them because I’ve had no personal problems, they are a well known established company and love the fact I can get regular discounts on my domains. They’ve improved the user interface on the site, which is great. I also find transferring domains very simple and the Help section seems to answer my questions most of the time.

Best Blogs Asia.

About Marchex

Based in Seattle and run by Chairman, CEO, and Treasurer – Russell C. Horowitz, President and Director – John Keister and COO – Peter Christothoulou. Back in 2004 they made the huge purchase of $164 million portfolio of Name Development (more commonly known by domainers as the Ultimate Search portfolio), a collection of over 100,000 domains ranging from Remodeling.com, BayAreaHotels.com, Beijing.com and Cuisine.com.

They decided that they could make more money by providing some level of development with content aggregation as opposed to their old parking model. To do that, they acquired Open List in May 2006 for $13 million. They also run a propriety search marketing product is called Marchex Connect. In addition, the company offers pay-per-click, contextual, and call-based advertising services.

Marchex Income Statement

I see their operating costs are more than their profits. Their financials are:

2008
Revenue ($ mil.) – 146.4
Gross Profit ($ mil.) – 80.4
Operating Income ($ mil.) – (173.7)
Total Net Income ($ mil.) – (127.9)

2007
Revenue ($ mil.) – 139.4
Gross Profit ($ mil.) – 68.5
Operating Income ($ mil.) – (0.5)
Total Net Income ($ mil.) – (1.5)

Bad experience with Marchex

I came across Marchex by accident, I was interested in a .com domain name which wasn’t popular but thought had some personal value. I found out the contact details from who.is and sent off an email. I was contacted shortly by a representative of Marchex called Riccardo Soff where the conversation went as follows:

Me: Hi, how much for **********.com? I want to offer you 1000 USD. Regards
rsoff@marchex.com: $50,000 USD for this domain.
Me: Ok please send over the stats and other info to justify this price? Thanks
rsoff@marchex.com: Per company policies we don’t disclose revenue and stats. Thanks, Riccardo Soff
Me: Ok noted. But as a potential buyer, how can 50k be justified as I can see it’s not ranked in google or is a popular keyword? Regards
rsoff@marchex.com: This is the asking price, I don’t have to justify. If you are interested please feel free to put in a certified offer….(and so it went on)

Summary

I’m a potential customer and curt replies doesn’t reflect a company who make their living buying and selling domains or with replies like “I don’t have to justify…” when I asked a relevant question.

Of course a price needs to be justified if you are going to buy it. The domain market isn’t regulated but comparable prices can be made to other domains bought/sold.

My point is what if all employee’s of business acted in this fashion? Perhaps they thought I’m probably one of many potential buyers who couldn’t afford this domain but I thought “all leads and enquiries must be followed through until it’s conclusion”, is a practice I follow and has led me to be successful.

In order for a domain to be priced accordingly, the value should be ranked on:

• Popularity of keyword – how often is it searched
• Existing presence on the web, any searches made
• Comparable domains and prices
• Potential value, will this keyword be searched more/less in the future

Conclusion

Marchex do run a monopoly, since they own a lot of premium single keyworded domains which obviously generate a lot of revenue from being parked or just sitting on the server waiting for someone to contact them.

Their customer service seems pretty poor, coming up with a price out of “thin air” only makes the buyer angry, which can’t be good for the company and can lead to articles such as mine which are questioning the company’s practices which all leads to bad PR.

Also since Marchex has developed sites which actually answer the question or satisfy a visitors curiosity, this leads them to not make any money rather than by clicking ads on a parked page- so why would a business want to do that? Of course they are looking for high organic rankings and traffic boosts but as reflected in their Financial Statements and declining stock price, it means revenue is declining.

Best Blogs Asia.

Using Flippa

Flippa used to be a popular section of the Sitepoint forum where you can buy and sell websites and domain names.

It’s expanded greatly as indicated by the amount of sales and revenue earnt at the bottom of the homepage! Buying and selling site is huge business and prices can range from $75 to upto $150,000! Although it’s worthwhile to note that only 35% of sites get sold overall so targeting the right buyer is key.

There is a set fee to pay, then a % of the seller/buyers fee, so I’d suggest you have a quality site to sale at a high price otherwise there is no point in using this service.

How to make money using Flippa

The people who sell effectively are those who don’t promote the website’s name, but promote values such as:

• Revenue earnt per month
• Unique views
• Alexa Ranking
• Dmoz listed (Being listed in Dmoz can increase your value)
• Backlinks (in particular Google backlinks)

They also make the most money using:

• Adsense
• Direct Advertisers (Although this can be a dark area for certain buyers)
• Clickbank
• Ebay EPN

It’s important to base your listing on a seller’s need as they usually ask for information like:

• Full Google Analytics Stats
• How much bandwidth is used, content platform (i.e Wordpress), time taken and pageviews
• Revenue is earnt in the last 6 months
• Ranked keyword positions (Google)

Sellers usually price sites on 10 to 12 months worth of income, however site’s can sell for a lot more depending on future earnings/statistics. I also think sellers need to be realistic in their set price depending on potential revenue and stay away from terms such as “never monetised the site” or “never got had time to use X offers” – these friendly comments should be seen as a warning as we’re all in the business to make money here and not monetising it properly is a big no no.

Most Expensive Sites

For buyers, it seems like the bottom dollar value of “How much can I make from this site” and “How popular is the site” are the most important things. If you plan to sell your site, think of it from a buyer’s angle…it’s all about revenue!

Sites that sell the most use:

Clickbank
Sites which link up to Clickbank, create referrals to Clickbank or paying money to affiliates. Example: Clickbank Membership site

Ranked Keywords
Usually these sites are quite old and have high PR. Also the amount of backlinks from established sites also help towards getting a good price for this type of site. Example: Football Keyworded site

eBooks
I never understood how a site could make money from having a one paged site which wasn’t designed very well, to a link up to an email form which they requires the user to purchase an eBook online for a set price. However, people are doing it and making money from it. I think it relates to Clickbank products too. Example: eBook Site.

Conclusion

For SEO Masters, it’s a quick way of starting up a niche site exploiting the short term SEO results from sites like Google and making a small fortune basing revenue on 1 month’s results. Other ways are to sell niche sites which rank highly for specific keyword phrases (even if those phrases aren’t that popular). Again Flippa sales depend on the buyer. If the buyer has a lot of cash, then in their mind they’re already looking for sites for a specific need which fullful specific criteria. As a seller, you need to make your site’s criteria very clear – if you make a lot of revenue – tell the buyer. If you get a lot of visitors or have high page rank, tell them also.

I’d suggest listing sites for $2000 minimum to make it worth your while. A site which you haven’t used or made much money from still has some form of value depending on it’s domain name, age and (aged) backlinks.

Best Blogs Asia.

About Godaddy

Godaddy is America’s biggest and worlds third largest sellers of internet products such as web-hosting, hostname providers, top-level domains names and SSL certificates.

Bob Parsons Comment

I wrote on Twitter that:

Misohoni Jeez for this tax year, I worked out I spent over 1000 USD on domains at GoDaddy, no wonder Bob Parsons can afford all those strippers!

Bob Parsons wrote back(!):

DrBobParsons @misohoni Afford strippers? You must have me confused with someone else. Go Daddy girls are sharp, accomplished successful women.

I could debate back by saying generally strippers are already sharp and accomplished/successful since they earn more money than most of us and that by Go Daddy asking women to take off their clothes and pose is sort-of-like stripping…or perhaps I’m wrong.

Anyway, it’s not a big deal – Go Daddy can spend their money how they wish, but I’d never associate something as dull as domain names with hot chicks in bikini’s who promote the superbowl and other events!

Sexy Daddy

Have you seen the ads with the Godaddy Girls? Bob Parsons the CEO and founder of Godaddy managed to recruit Danica Patrick along with Candice Michelle, a voluptuous actress and ex-playboy poster girl.

• Has it helped awareness of their products – sure you bet!
• Would I buy a domain because of the women – not sure!
• Are they making more money? – I guess so, although paying for commercials and hot women must cost a bit

Conclusion

Personally, I think they should go down the route of promoting “why their services and products are better than their competitors”. Godaddy has great customer service, but it’s not promoted to potentail customers. They host sites too, but are more well known for domains and their domain coupons.

If they could concentrate on what they do best rather than the superficial promotion of using sexy women, then perhaps they could grow even bigger…my 2 cents!

Best Blogs Asia.

About XR

The site is very simple to use, you type in your full url and it spits out a static yet small url containing numbers and letters. The result is very good, which makes me think this service is underused and you also have the option to change your url to something more relevant.

List of Benefits

• Easier to use than Tinyurl
• Service is Free
• Any XR site references are automatically displayed on the homepage
• Excellent tool for posting urls on Twitter
• Potential juice from backlinks and using relevant url structures to promote posts

Best Blogs Asia.

Domain Overview

Domaining is the perfect web business model. Once the domain is purchased and the parked page is set up, there is nothing left to do except to collect the money. Unlike a site or blog, a domain page never needs to be updated.

You can try coming up with a completely new phrase for branding purposes, you can incorporate important keywords into 2 or 3 worded phrases buying the exact matched domain name for your main keyword. I purchase my domains with Godaddy, as I feel they are the most reliable.

Making Money

Domain values can come from typed in traffic, from users using search engines to find a particular item/subject. Some users may just type in say KEYWORD.com and expect it to contain the most relevant results.

Buying names can have branding benefits, for example toyrus recently bought toys.com. The association of Toys and Toysrus go hand-in-hand so made sense for them to purchase this name. Also by buying single keyword(s) names, you are more likely to be ranked higher in terms of Google listings.

Finally, the value of domain names is growing year on year. You could purchase a keyworded domain now, do nothing to the site and sell it for x5 it’s value.

Where can I find domains?

There are many options available such as contact existing site owners and make an offer, Use domain auctions, buy existing domains or search for dropped domains.

Auctions and Drop Domains Searching

These are sites that hold expired names or sale current owner’s names.

• Fresh Drop
• Top Picks
• Snap Names
• Go Daddy Auctions
• Parked

Domain Parking

“Parking” or locating your domain is an easy option to earn money. You link you domain to a company page, it had adverts on it and if the ads are clicked then you make a %. Google Parking is the best since it integrates with Adsense.

• Google Domain Parking
• Sedo

Conclusion

It’s very hard to get top level domains due to continual rising prices and backordering domains is even harder since most owners auto-renew domains. Consider country specific tld’s instead, heavily investing in upcoming keyworded .com’s and also building up own sites to create your own branded name.

Best Blogs Asia.

List of Types of Domains

The list below is a selection of the names available with a description of their intended target audience. I would recommend Godaddy as a reliable registrar.

.aero Aviation
.biz Business Organizations
.cat Catalan language and culture
.com Commercial
.coop Co-Operative Organizations
.edu Educational
.gov US Government
.info Open TLD
.int International Organizations
.jobs Jobs
.mil US Dept of Defense
.mobi Mobile devices
.museum Museums
.name Personal
.net Networks
.org Organizations
.travel Travelling

.ac Ascension Island
.ad Andorra
.ae United Arab Emirates
.af Afghanistan
.ag Antigua and Barbuda
.ai Anguilla
.al Albania
.am Armenia
.an Netherlands Antilles
.ao Angola
.aq Antarctica
.ar Argentina
.as American Samoa
.at Austria
.au Australia
.aw Aruba
.az Azerbaijan

.ba Bosnia and Herzegovina
.bb Barbados
.bd Bangladesh
.be Belgium
.bf Burkina Faso
.bg Bulgaria
.bh Bahrain
.bi Burundi
.bj Benin
.bm Bermuda
.bn Brunei Darussalam
.bo Bolivia
.br Brazil
.bs Bahamas
.bt Bhutan
.bv Bouvet Island
.bw Botswana
.by Belarus
.bz Belize

.ca Canada
.cc Cocos (Keeling) Islands
.cd Congo, Democratic republic of the (former Zaire)
.cf Central African Republic
.cg Congo, Republic of
.ch Switzerland
.ci Côte d’Ivoire
.ck Cook Islands
.cl Chile
.cm Cameroon
.cn China
.co Colombia
.cr Costa Rica
.cs Czechoslovakia (former – non-existing)
.cu Cuba
.cv Cape Verde
.cx Christmas Island
.cy Cyprus
.cz Czech Republic
.de Germany
.dj Djibouti
.dk Denmark
.dm Dominica
.do Dominican Republic
.dz Algeria

.ec Ecuador
.ee Estonia
.eg Egypt
.eh Western Sahara
.er Eritrea
.es Spain
.et Ethiopia
.eu European Union

.fi Finland
.fj Fiji
.fk Falkland Islands
.fm Micronesia
.fo Faroe Islands
.fr France

.ga Gabon
.gb United Kingdom
.gd Grenada
.ge Georgia
.gf French Guiana
.gg Guernsey
.gh Ghana
.gi Gibraltar
.gl Greenland
.gm Gambia
.gn Guinea
.gp Guadeloupe
.gq Equatorial Guinea
.gr Greece
.gs South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
.gt Guatemala
.gu Guam
.gw Guinea-Bissau
.gy Guyana
.hk Hong Kong
.hm Heard and McDonald Islands
.hn Honduras
.hr Croatia
.ht Haiti
.hu Hungary

.id Indonesia
.ie Ireland
.il Israel
.im Isle of Man
.in India
.io British Indian Ocean Territory
.iq Iraq
.ir Iran
.is Iceland
.it Italy

.je Jersey
.jm Jamaica
.jo Jordan
.jp Japan

.ke Kenya
.kg Kyrgyzstan
.kh Cambodia
.ki Kiribati
.km Comoros
.kn Saint Kitts and Nevis
.kp Korea, Democratic People’s Republic of
.kr Korea, Republic of
.kw Kuwait
.ky Cayman Islands
.kz Kazakhstan
.la Lao People’s Democratic Republic
.lb Lebanon
.lc Saint Lucia
.li Liechtenstein
.lk Sri Lanka
.lr Liberia
.ls Lesotho
.lt Lithuania
.lu Luxembourg
.lv Latvia
.ly Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

.ma Morocco
.mc Monaco
.md Moldova
.mg Madagascar
.mh Marshall Islands
.mk Macedonia
.ml Mali
.mm Myanmar
.mn Mongolia
.mo Macau
.mp Northern Mariana Islands
.mq Martinique
.mr Mauritania
.ms Montserrat
.mt Malta
.mu Mauritius
.mv Maldives
.mw Malawi
.mx Mexico
.my Malaysia
.mz Mozambique

.na Namibia
.nc New Caledonia
.ne Niger
.nf Norfolk Island
.ng Nigeria
.ni Nicaragua
.nl The Netherlands
.no Norway
.np Nepal
.nr Nauru
.nu Niue
.nz New Zealand

.om Oman
.pa Panama
.pe Peru
.pf French Polynesia
.pg Papua New Guinea
.ph Philippines
.pk Pakistan
.pl Poland
.pm St. Pierre and Miquelon
.pn Pitcairn
.pr Puerto Rico
.ps Palestine
.pt Portugal
.pw Palau
.py Paraguay

.qa Qatar

.re Reunion
.ro Romania
.ru Russia
.rw Rwanda

.sa Saudi Arabia
.sb Solomon Islands
.sc Seychelles
.sd Sudan
.se Sweden
.sg Singapore
.sh St. Helena
.si Slovenia
.sj Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands
.sk Slovakia
.sl Sierra Leone
.sm San Marino
.sn Senegal
.so Somalia
.sr Surinam
.st Sao Tome and Principe
.su USSR (former)
.sv El Salvador
.sy Syrian Arab Republic
.sz Swaziland
.tc The Turks & Caicos Islands
.td Chad
.tf French Southern Territories
.tg Togo
.th Thailand
.tj Tajikistan
.tk Tokelau
.tm Turkmenistan
.tn Tunisia
.to Tonga
.tp East Timor
.tr Turkey
.tt Trinidad and Tobago
.tv Tuvalu
.tw Taiwan
.tz Tanzania

.ua Ukraine
.ug Uganda
.uk United Kingdom
.um United States Minor Outlying Islands
.us United States
.uy Uruguay
.uz Uzbekistan

.va Holy See (Vatican City State)
.vc Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
.ve Venezuela
.vg Virgin Islands British
.vi Virgin Islands U.S
.vn Vietnam
.vu Vanuatu

.wf Wallis and Futuna Islands
.ws Samoa

.ye Yemen
.yt Mayotte
.yu Yugoslavia

.za South Africa
.zm Zambia
.zr Zaire (non-existent, see Congo)
.zw Zimbabwe

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About Yun Ye

He was a programmer and used custom software to buy domains in the 1990’s to early 2000s’. He and his company, Ultimate Search Inc managed to get the best domains by employing a system of “Drop Catching” which involves buying up sites which people gave up on or forgot to pay the fees on (Something which sites like Pool and Snapnames are doing today). He bought single keyworded domains, typos to random worded domains.

At the beginning he was making money from buying and selling domains, until paid searches and domain parking was introduced which is a system where an advertiser pays only when someone clicks on an advert on your site. He then later sold his portfolio to Marchex.

About Marchex

Marchex has developed from a series of investors to a local search company. They bought the domains, linked them up with advertisers who support local information services, Yelp and Localese sites to match relevant data to their domains.

What sites did he own?

Yun Ye and his practices were notabily well hidden. He operated under the site of noname.com and owned sites such as:

childabuse.org, traditions.com, Beijing.com, cuisine.com, MiamiMotels.com, DetroitResorts.com, oscarnet.com…

How to make money from Domains?

I touched on this at the Most Expensive Domains, but there is a prestige in owning a single keyworded preferably dot.com domain. The secret of how they make money is from type-in traffic, using the example of:

“Looking to buy candy? Type in Candy.com, a page filled with links to candy-related products comes up. Click on one of the ads and the advertiser pays Google, which in turn sends a share to the Candy.com owner.”

There’s also domain parking facilities such as Sedo, which don’t require any web site design at all – just point the domain to their servers and wait for the payments.

Conclusion

He later sold his domain portfolio to Marchex, who paid $164 million back in 2005. The reason why he sold his portfolio could have been due to the pressure he faced from companies/individuals who felt he was “cyber-squatting” names. He’s now become a recluse, but is probably still based in Vancover, Canada or in Hong Kong.

Reading about him makes me want to jump on the bandwagon also, although my feeling is most of the unique keyworded domains have already been snapped up, there is potential for buying mis-spelt names and country specific names also.

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Why so much?

A famous (but reclusive) domain seller called Yun Ye, used to make up to $100,000 a day from his domain names. He didn’t have a site, just used domain parking redirection services to make money on whoever clicked on his sites. The reason why he made so much as he owned key domain names. Single keyword domains which either represented expensive commodities (money, funds, cash etc.,) or popular everyday items (magazines, books, videos etc.,). The most money is made from .com’s since it’s believed they are the best and are worth more in terms of search engine ranking and type-in traffic.

Expensive Domains List

Sex.com
Sold for $14 million on January 19th, 2006

Fund.com
Sold for $9,999,950 in 2008

Porn.com
Sold for $9,000,000 – $9,500,000 in 2007.

Diamonds.com
Sold for $7,500,000

Beer.com
Sold for $7,000,000

Casino.com
$5,500,000 – Sold to a private company in 2003

Toys.com
$5.1M sold to Toys R Us in 2008

AsSeenOnTV.com
Sold for $5,100,000 in January of 2000

Korea.com
$5,000,000 – Sold in January of 2000

SEO.com – $5,000,000
Sold for $5,000,000 in 2007

YP.com
$3,850,000 – Sold to YellowPages.com

Shop.com
Sold for $3,500,000 in 2001

WorldWideWeb.com
$3,500,000 in 1996

Software.com
$3,200,000

Candy.com
$3,000,000 Sold in March 2009 by Rich Schwartz. Deal was $3M + % sales.

CreditCheck.com
$3,000,000 -Sold in June 2007

Loans.com
$3,000,000

eShow.com
$3,000,000

Vodka.com
$3,000,000 Sold December 2006

Wine.com
Sold for $2,900,000 in September of 1999

Wines.com
$2,900,000

CreditCards.com
Sold for $2,750,000 in July 2004

Pizza.com
$2,605,000 April 3, 2008

Tom.com
$2,500,000

Autos.com
$2,200,000

Computer.com
$2,200,000

Coupons.com
$2,200,000

England.com
$2,000,000

Celebrities.com
$2.0 million (1999)

Telephone.com
$2,000,000

Express.com
$2,000,000

Savings.com
$1,900,000

Mortgage.com
$1,800,000

Seniors.com
$1.8 million (2007)

DataRecovery.com
$1,659,000 Sold in 2008

Branson.com
$1,600,000

SolarEnergy.com
$1,600,000

Cameras.com
$1,500,000

How can I make money?

Well if you already own a single keyword .com domain, then you’ll be rich. My advice is to hold onto it, it will only increase in value. Other tld keyword names are still available if you try hard enough. They may be region specific, but still are useful depending on your target audience and type in traffic.

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Domain Value

In my opinion a .com, world-wide recoginisable, keyword efficient domain is king. However, find one of these is next to impossible without paying a tidy sum so what else do I look for in a domain’s value?

• Marketability
• Name Length
• URL type
• Brand Recognition
• Development Value
• Site Traffic (Natural and by SE’s)

Website Value

The actual website itself may be worth more than the domain. You also need to take into account whether the site is established, comparable costs to create something similar, time taken to update the site as well as the following:

• Profit, revenue, liabilities, expenses, assets
• Subscription/Loyality base
• Scalability/Growth trends
• Unique content
• Backlinks and Pagerank

Website Value Tools

The most accurate would be to see screenshots/access of the site’s log files and the actual financial statements. However, using the following will also help:

• Alexa
• Keyword Tool

How to buy or sell a Web Site

I think following a system of multiples, i.e x12 times monthly revenue is flawed. Multiples should be determined based on the expectation of future profit of the prospective web site, not from other people. A fixed figure from the buyer to the seller should be offered.

The best way to is to contact the buyer/seller directly, so make sure your WhoIs contact details are upto date. Other ways includes:

• Promoting the actual sale on the website itself (short term)
• Use DNForum and NamePros (Long term)
• Ebay and Digitalpoint (Optional)

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Initial Domain Tips

If the name you want is taken try different variations of that name, say the name out loud.

Keep the name short, pronouncable and avoid using trademarks or brand names.

Perhaps buy multiple domain names, mis-spellings, keywords related domains.

Where to find Domains

Initially try Go Daddy, they are reliable at the end of the day.

Secondly, try making a huge list of your related keywords and ideal site names then head on over to:

• http://www.domaintools.com/bulk-check/
• http://www.deletedlive.com/

Input your list of names (upto 500 keywords) and see which domains are available.

Buying Domains

This could be seen as a last resort and an expensive one at that. You can do the following:

Contact the Domain Owner

By using Who.is, you can view the personal details of the owner and shoot them off an email. My recommendation is to find out if the domain is for sale/being used. Ask them how much, have a target price in mind and then let the owner know. If the owner doesn’t accept the price, forget it…they may contact you over time regarding the domain, you can always place a backorder for it anyway.

Place Backorders

I know Godaddy has a function where you can “buy” a reservation on a domain. It doesn’t mean you will own it, but if the domain isn’t renewed AND THEN expires then it’s yours, as long no one else has placed an order.

Buy from Domain Sites

This has got to be the most expensive way to buy a domain, sites like http://www.sedo.co.uk and http://for-sale.domaintools.com/ would help you with this.

Snatch an Expiring Domain

An expired domain means a domain which hasn’t been renewed, the owner could at anytime renew it but you can snatch it before it becomes publically available.

I’d use the following sites to get an expired domain, they usually work as “auction sites” for popular domains.

Snapnames.com
Snapnames.com (the exclusive partner of Network Solutions) charges you $60 for your domain unless there are multiple suitors, at which point there is an open bid auction between suitors.

Enom.com
Enom had reportedly been improving their “Club Drop” service for a year or two and it was now considered one of the top three. Their fee was only $30.

Pool.com
Pool is the #1 company around as far as number of servers and success rates go. You place your original bid for $60 and if Pool.com grabs your name for you, they send you an e-mail telling you they’ve been successful and that you’ve now entered “Phase 1″ of the two-phase auction system. This is the case whether or not you are the only bidder! Pool.com doesn’t even reveal how many bidders there are.

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Google Domain Registrations

So for example if you register 100 domain names, you save $800 compared to domain registration + whois protection on GoDaddy

“We’ve partnered with GoDaddy.com and eNom, two leading domain registration services, to offer domains for $10 per year. And I like the fact that we’re including private registration to protect your personal information.”

• Google Domains

Google’s Domains

How many sites do Google own? Well I can tell you how many, is more than 500+!

I attach a text file detailing the list, whilst on the surface it may not seem useful…the list provides you as a blogger/site own ideas of how a major corporation protects it’s brand as well as buying other domains which they may develop in the future for example:

“answergoogle.com, askgoogle.com, chinagoogle.com, elgoog.com, foofle.com, googleadult.com, googlegear.com, googlesucks.com (hehe) etc.,.”

• All of Google Domains 9kb

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Godaddy Codes

• emma1 = 10% off any order
• emma2 = 20% off any order >50USD
• emma3 = any new .com domain for 7.49USD
• emma30 = 30% off .com domains
• emma35 = .com domains for 3.50GBP

See Godaddy to use the offers!

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Top 10 Domains in 2008

1. Fund.com $9,999,950 Pvt Sale 3/11/08
2. DataRecovery.com $1,659,000 Pvt Sale 3/4/08
3. Kredit.de €892,500 = $1,169,175 Sedo 11/25/08
4. Cruises.co.uk £560,000 = $1,099,798 Pvt Sale 2/5/08
5. Invest.com $1,015,000 Sedo/GreatDomains 9/30/08
6. SkiResorts.com $850,000 Moniker 4/8/08
7. Printer.com $800,000 Pvt Sale 8/26/08
8. iReport.com $750,000 Pvt Sale 1/29/08
9. Casino.de €400,000 = $625,060 Pvt Sale 3/18/08
10. Jobs.ca $600,000 Pvt Sale 5/6/08

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Email from Elitenetwork

“Your domain name has been found online. Please let us know your price. We are always interested in buying and selling good domains. Looking forward to do business with you.”

Elitenetwork Scam

I replied back in a hurry, only to realise I should of researched the company better. I looked at their website, it’s terrible! Then I did a search for Elitenetwork.net, then found they’ve written to others and it turns out to be a scam.

Their clever money making ways is to ask for an Appraisal, which you buy from them! To turn around from them paying you for something, to you buying from them is very clever…I’d imagine many people have done this.

Recommendation – Don’t use them!

So my recommendation is be careful, don’t use Paypal for domain transaction also – use Escrow and if at any time it feels strange…don’t go through with it!

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