I actually joined because of this article.  It is incredible how the pendulum has swung for advertising revenue models on the internet.  I don't know who wrote this but I hope i see more from "marketwizard".  Please.  thanks and keep em coming!

This is for the people who have the time to develop the domains they acquire.
It will be even better if the domains are brandable because you can sell them at a better price after you have increased it's traffic.

SEOmaining is also cheaper than buying generics and should be more profitable in the long run. The only downside is the time involved to further push the existing traffic to the next level. The good side is that the domains are already aged and with backlinks..no need to wait for the SE spiders to crawl!

This is one of the best methods to launch your domaining portfolio and once you have the steady income, go for the generics!

Good luck,  Al.

In fact if you could post your comment on my site as well, I'd appreciate it. I'd like my readers to see it.

Thank you for your comment, that's excellent advice, especially for someone who's starting out with a small budget and needs to raise capital by buying and re-selling.

This is a major paradigm shift in the way I perceive my entry into the domaining world. Forget about the timing...it is how you thrive with the ever-evolving domain industry.

With the thinking of "it is late now" you will not go anywhere, but if you think "domaining is evolving and how do I stay flexible and evolve together with the industry" you will find yourself somewhere in a few years.

Today it is : Fast fish eats the slow fish.
In the past: Big fish eats the small fish....shift the way you think, positively, and you will reap the rewards.

Cheers, Al.

Great post! One advice is to buy $1 at 50 cents or less. That is my first rule of investing. If you found investments, may it be domains, stocks, properties, etc at anything below the market price, then grab it. You wil immediately make money at the time you buy because it is undervalued.

You may think "Yeah rite, easier said than done!". It is definitely not easy but if you did your due diligence in research work, you will find a gem or two. The difference between the succesful guys and the mediocres is that they work harder and smarter.

If you digged for gold in 100 places, everyday, you will let the law of "large numbers" work for you. The Chinese has a saying that if you threw a few grains of rice against the wall, none will stick but if you continuously throw handfuls of it, a few will!

TIP: Search out for undervalued domains EVERYDAY, in the forums, at the secondary marketplaces, etc and make those offers to buy. The sheer numbers will work wonders for you and by the end of the month, you will add a few undervalued gems to your portfolio!

Al.

Great advice Dominik! One cool tip for newbies: Some highly brandable domains in upcoming technologies can be regged if you are fast and smart. Think of the numbers 360, 365, 247 or 101. Then, think of great generics in upcoming technologies such as "semantic web", "ajax", "phev" (plug-in electric vehicle) and combine them!

Example: SemanticWeb360.com, Ajax360.com and Phev360.com! There you have it: killer, highly brandable domains that you can potentially sell for lots of money in the very near future.

There is no shortcut...research, research, research!

Al.

PS: Inspirational words from Sahar Sarid on this posting here.

Original article can be found here:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/27/technology/marchex.biz2/index.htm?postversion=2007092713

Sahar Sarid's opinion.

Another interesting insight on the news.

Another interesting and great tips from forumers at DNForum.com.

Cybersquatters sure do work fast! Bodoglfe.com, bodoglif.com and a host of other typos were immediately snapped up as soon as the announcement was made.

Anyway, I think Bodog made a big mistake with the domain. It will definitely lose huge traffic to the BodogLive.com version.

Very informative discussion added to this article in Domainstate.com. Check It out!

In order to monetize domains, you will have to know who the visitors are and what are they looking for. You will also need to know where they are clicking through from...is it search engines or certain websites.

If it is from search engines, then what keywords do they use to find the domains. If it is from backlinks, then you will have to investigate the link.

All these investigations will need you to set up a tracking system so that you know the traffic. I suggest Google analytics. You can just put up a one or two page website, stick Google Adsense on the page and the tracking codes. Once done, you should have a very good idea of your traffic after a week and at the same time, earning some Adsense dollars along the way.

The only reason the traffic converts poorly is because they did not find what they are looking for when they land on your domain's landing page.

Find out what they want and show them the best way to get it, and clickthrus will skyrocket!

Al.

If any of you have had success monetizing these types of domains, I'd love to know your strategy. I'm talking about domains that used to be websites and have a handful of back links, like maybe 10 to 100 back links, and all the traffic comes from the back links, as opposed to type-in traffic. Have you found, like I did, that this traffic converts poorly? How have you handled it?

This has to be one of the most interesting parking program launched. I hope other big monetization companies will start a one-upmainship game to better this program.

Domain parking will soon evolve from a one-page site to a minisite with the likes of Whypark.com and DomainEmbarking.com.

To the DomainEmbarking.com guys....the domain name is kinda long but other than that..congrats on the great concept and best wishes!

Al.

In fact the branding of the .com has been so strong that it is synonymous to the generic "website" or the internet itself. It is in itself regarded as a generic!

Just think of how many people who goes around and says stuffs like " I own a dotcom" when they actually meant "I own a website". How about the term "dotcom millionaire", "dotcom bubble" or "dotcom business".

I have never heard of a "dotnet entrepreneur" or "dotinfo company" :) It is like..."please Xerox this document" or "can you give me a kleenex"? A really strong generic brand, stubbornly engrained in consumer's minds!

Al.

This practice is called "namesquatting" and I believe it is illegal. I should think she will soon find loads of C&Ds in her email after this article is published.

Al.

"between 20 to 30 thousand unique visitors per hour to the website.."  Really? Somehow I don't really believe this. That equates to about 500,000 uniques a day! 

For a domain name such as ...saudi-binladin-group.com ?  mmm....

Al

flowerfish: agreed completely. This is one of the strategies many SEO/SEM experts are leveraging the domain name to boost their result.

@flowerfish: good point.  Domaining seems to be a natural fit for an SEO.

Any SE specialists who goes into domaining will do good in this industry because they are basically keywords experts too! And on top of that, they will know how to drive traffic to their domains.

The only trick is for them to register or buy the keywords in their .com version, develop the domain and optimize the new site with their knowledge of SEO....and they will have a valuable virtual property in their hands!

For those newbies who want to know the efforts involved in domaining, please read this!
Buy a highly brandable domain name that is from a competitive industry and then set aside at least 3 months to develop the domain.

I believe if Peter had developed the domain, he could have earned many times more but then again, he has set his sight on bigger acquisations and something has to go.

I am surprised that he got DayTradingSchool.com at only $1,274 against the likes of Vaxis, Bonkerstwo and bigmooli at Snapnames!

I like this domain and would have paid more for it ...just look at the advertisers in Google for the term "day trading school"...33 pages of PAID advertisers and the top 1-3 placement pays $3.78 - $4.99 a click!

Congrats, Frank, again on another excellent buy!

Al.

I like the idea of Google buying up GoDaddy.  Why?
Well, just so that Google can REALLY help with GoDaddy's slow and most "user-unfriendly" account management panel. If Google can change the userbility of GoDaddy's website, many domainers will be registering domains with them even more!

Got this from Frank Schilling's blog, BTW.

Al.