Making Money With .CO Domains

You all know that .com domains have been widely used by domainers. Domaining is nothing more than buying a domain name to later sell it for a profit. The one good thing about speculation is that it normally drives the value of just about anything upwards. The earlier you jump in and secure that “golden” domain name the better. You never know what a .CO domain will represent in the near future. Although I am not totally convinced that it will be as valuable as a .COM domain, I am convinced that depending on the domain name that you manage to register, it can be worth plenty  Then, again I have been wrong for several times, so don’t take my word for it. It just seems to be a good investment right now if you are in to these type of things.

Read full story on Home Based Business Resources.

You start by creating an auction by clicking the “Sell” tab on the site. You will be led through a series of pages prompting you to tell us a little about the site or domain that you wish to sell. This will include the minimum price at which you wish to start the bidding, the reserve price at which you are willing to sell, and optionally a “Buy It Now” price at which you are willing to end the auction immediately.

At the end of this process, you will be prompted to pay the listing fee. Once you have done this, your auction will begin.

If you’ve provided an enticing description for the item your are selling, and if you have set a fair minimum bid, you can now expect the bids to start rolling in! Stay near your email inbox, though, because some buyers may want to ask questions before bidding.

As the seller, you must accept or reject each bid that is placed on your auction. Once you accept a bid, buyers will no longer be able to place bids less than or equal to that price. You have 72 hours in which to decide how to handle each bid you receive, after which Flippa will reject the bid for you automatically (unless it is a “Buy It Now” bid—these are handled differently).

If you accept a bid greater than or equal to your reserve price, you are legally bound to sell the item to the winning bidder at the end of your auction.

Once the auction has ended, assuming you accepted a winning bid, it’s time to collect payment and hand over the site or domain to the winner. Flippa will send you an email with the winning bidder’s contact details. The details of how you collect payment and how you deliver the item are up to you to negotiate with the winner. Flippa recommends that you work out these details with the seller before accepting a bid.

When your auction ends with a winning bidder, you will also receive an email from Flippa asking you to pay the success fee. You have thirty days to pay this fee after the end of the auction, so you will normally have time to collect payment from the winner before paying this fee.

If you have any questions about the details of selling items on Flippa, feel free to contact support and we’ll do our best to answer them.

Happy selling!

Source: Flippa.com

Utilize the forums

As I’ve said in previous posts, the importance of domaining forums in the domain industry are vital and serve as a great resource for beginners and professional domainers alike. Whether you are looking for some honest appraisal opinions or asking questions that only another domainer would know the answer to, the domain forums are there to assist. 24 hours a day, 365 days a week, this constant stream of domain information has shaped many beginner domainers into today’s greatest professional domainers. If you’re not a member of a domain forum you should greatly consider joining one today.

Are you a domainer or a domain developer?

Are you buying domains for quick profit sales? Are you buying domains for the long-term traffic revenue? Are you buying domains to develop and birth new traffic? Whether you choose to do one or all three, you must come to terms and clarify a solid game plan when it comes to your domain investments. It’s reasonably okay to have a few domains being developed but your overall strategy needs to take shape and be narrowed down to a specific objective. Developing a domain name takes time, effort and more time, but the possible payoffs are always huge. Buying domain names in bulk for quick sales is also profitable but relies more on a constant sales initiative to be successful. Either way, you need a tactical approach on how you want to market your domains.

Dissect your portfolio

I once spoke to a guy who boasted a domain portfolio of over 3000 names. After hearing how he was considering selling a few of his “best” domains, I offered to peruse the list and maybe assist with finding some end users that might be potential buyers. He agreed and the next day he sent me a list of about 1000 of his best domains that he was willing to sell. To my surprise over 90% of them were, in my humble opinion, not worth much more than the reg fee. I contacted him back and explained that I was only to find about 75-100 names that could possibly be decent sales. He was stunned. He declined and stated that my appraisal was not correct and thanked me for my time. 3 days laters, I received an email from the exact same guy asking for assistance in selling the 75-100 domain names I previously found in his list. Seems that during those 3 days, he spoke to a few other domainers and received the same appraisal and evaluation of his so called “best” domains. This guy thought since his domains contained popular words like gamble, casino, sex and technology that it automatically made his domains super valuable. What he didn’t consider was the multiple hyphens and terrible combinations of typos and keywords. Don’t be the domainer with a huge list of terrible domains just to brag about how large your portfolio is. Trim your “extra” domains and streamline by selling or trading and use the profit for investing in quality names that are earmarked for immediate revenue or immediate development. Be proud of the overall quality of your portfolio and not just the number of domains it contains.

Know your rep

I amazed on how many people I encounter that in the domain industry that have no idea who their representatives are for such companies as Sedo, Moniker, Go Daddy and other big domain powerhouses. The representatives of such companies exist to assist their members who utilize their services and are hands-down the quickest and easiest way to get something resolved if you feel a mistake has been made. If you have domains either parked or offered for sale with a domain company, I highly suggest sending a quick email to find out who your representative is and do you best to maintain a professional and courteous relationship with them. It’s easier to ask assistance from someone whom you know and knows you than it is to ask a complete stranger. And don’t forget to vote for your favorite domain rep at next years Domainers Choice Awards.

Stay clear of Trademark Infringements

This should be a no-brainer. Time and time again I see domainers struggle with the headaches caused by trademark infringements and bad faith domain registrations. Not only do most of the trademark claims filed at the WIPO result in the domain being transferred to the appropriate party, but it also indicates that your choice in domains is questionable and therefore proving that you are still purchasing non-quality domain names. Domains that infringe on trademarks are not quality. Ask any lawyer. Save your registration fee and steer clear of legal woes.

Auto-renew

Now that your portfolio is streamlined and contains only select domain names, you definitely don’t want to lose or let any of them drop and take a chance of someone else buying you lovely internet real estate. Do yourself a favor and set your domains for auto-renew at your domain register where purchased. It’s a terrible feeling to have someone else scoop up one of your prize domains just because you didn’t or couldn’t find the time to renew the registration. Visit this great article by the Daily Domainer that explains the life-cycle of a domain name and don’t let accidental “drops” happen to you.

Limit the hand regs

Hand regs or hand registrations are domains that are purchased from a publicly available source at a regular registration fee and are either brand new (never been purchased) or have expired and no longer owned by the previous owner. Go Daddy is a domain registrar that is popular with domainers and consistently used for hand regs. The possibility of stumbling along a unregistered domain is always there and the opportunity for someone to register a new domain name that never existed and create value to it is also conceivable, but in essence, most domain names that are hand regged are simply non-researched, impulse purchases that pad a domain portfolio with non-value names. Distinguish yourself as a profitable domainer and limit the amount of hand regs you add to your portfolio. One good way is to wait 24 hours before registering a hand reg domain and then re-evaluating before buying. You may lose a registration every so often but in the long run you will save on unnecessary registration fees and useless domain name ownership.

Stay current with news and sales

To be successful is to be informed. The pulse of the domain industry is constantly evolving and therefore it is beneficial to a domainer to know exactly what is the next potential opportunity or trend being created within our industry. If you buy domain names, you are an investor. If you are an investor, you need to stay current with the news of your investments and other people’s investments. You can do this by monitoring the recent domain sales and news offered by many websites that are specifically geared towards todays domainers. One of my favorite websites is Ron Jackson’s DNJournal. You can find great articles, news and the popular Year To Date domain sales. You need to know what domains are selling, which domains are being bought and how much they are being bought for. Invest time in your investments and reap the rewards. Predicting the next big trend is priceless.

Blog around

Domaining blogs are sprouting up everywhere with domainers eager to share their experiences, setbacks, lessons learned and tips with anyone who wants to listen. We all need to take advantage of this free and useful information by visiting various domain blogs and getting another person’s perspective on our industry. And don’t forget to subscribe to their RSS feeds, if it is offered, and have all this new information sent directly to you to read at your convenience… for free. Subscribe to this blog here.

Diversify with other TLD extensions

While some domainers swear that .com is the only extension worth being bought, there are others, like me, who think it’s absolutely insane to dismiss all other TLD’s and only buy one flavor of domain name. The popularity of .TV and .Mobi and the ongoing success of ccTLD’s has risen and is playing a prominent part in today’s domain marketplace. Generic domains in any of these extensions are being recognized as a highly sought after commodity with no signs of slowing. Familiarize yourself with other TLD’s beside .com, .net and .org and evaluate your domain purchases on a global niche scale the next time you go to buy a domain.

Consider fractional domain ownership

Fractional domain ownership is simply a group of people that own a domain name and share in it’s profits, development and use. There is not one sole owner because it is owned by the entire group. Owning a portion of a high value domain is a great way for a newcomer to the domain industry to begin and understand the ins and outs of professional domaining and share in the profit growth associated with that certain domain. It also allows “regular” domainers to group funds together and own a very premier domain name without one person having to pay the entire purchase price. Look for this trend to boom in 2008.

Optimize your parked pages

Once you buy a domain name, it is up to you whether your domain will contain a fully-functional website that you can customize/adsense or whether you will “park” your domain and allow targeted content to automatically be placed and monetized per visitor. If you choose to park your domains, it’s imperative that you understand how domain parking works and how it can be optimized to bring better results. Sedo is a popular place for domain parking and allows users to see detailed stats and account information for each domain parked on the Sedo network. Revenue is shared with Sedo each time someone clicks on content on one of your parked pages and relies on consistent traffic to be a steady stream of income. Brush up on your domain parking information here.

Update your WHOIS information

The WHOIS database is sort of like a directory of purchased domain names that contains the owner’s contact information, purchase date and expiration of a certain domain. One use of this information is being able to contact a domain owner and inquire about purchasing the domain. Without the correct information in the WHOis database, a potential buyer may not be able to contact the current owner and allow an offer to be placed. Contact your domain registrars and make sure your WHOis information is current and correct. If you opt not to be contacted by potential buyers, you may consider using a service that purchases domains for it’s clients and keeps their information private. There is also an option to pay an additional fee at some domain registrars for private domain registration.

Contact more end users

So you have a great domain name that is considered gold in a certain industry. Great job. Now, if you have decided not to develop it and simply want to profit from a sale, I highly suggest contacting an end user. What’s and end user? An end user is someone who would use the domain name specifically for creating brand recognition in a certain industry. Here’s an example: Adam owns organicdogfood.com and Bob owns an organic dog food company in Texas but uses the domain BobsSuperGoodOrganicDogFood.com. Adam contacts Bob and offers a shorter, brandable and easier to remember domain name that can increase Bob’s exposure on the internet for people searching for organic dogfood. Adam has just contacted a possible end user. A domain name can usually be sold to an end user for more since it is valued more by the actual user of the domain instead of a regular domain buyer.

Change your views on the domain industry

Are there still opportunities to be successful in today’s domain industry? Yes.
Is there still time to take advantage of the booming domain sales? Yes.
Is it still possible for a domain newbie to come in and thrive even with a small initial investment. Yes.

Article by: Rudy Hernandez is the chief domain blogger at LogistikLabs.com. Rudy has been an integral part of the domain industry since 1999.

Trying to identify a web host can be a very daunting task especially when there are so many available nowadays and all of them promise one thing or another. Hence, it is crucial that before you jump in, you do your own homework or research for selecting the most appropriate web hosting company for your website.

With the changing trend of technology, web hosts are also changing. Most of them provide various services in addition to their basic ones. Say if you are running an e-commerce website, then of course you need high end security and a medium through which you can manage your web content efficiently. There are many tools that facilitate this, however if your web hosting service is not reliable then you can miss out on serious revenues and prospective clients.

Once you have determined and identified what web hosting services you require for your online business, it is then time to enlist certain web hosting features and options you must consider. You can find below some of the most important aspects of web hosting:

Disk space and bandwidth

You should know how much space your website would need and approximate data it will generate. When we talk about disk space, well, it’s actually the amount of storage assigned to you by the web hosting provider. The bandwidth is the amount of traffic that is allowed to access and leave your website. In case your website has a lot of graphics then you would require higher storage area and greater bandwidth.

Programming tools and the OS

You need to be sure that your website is uploaded through secure servers using the latest Operating System. Most web hosts run on a UNIX based operating system, usually Linux or BSD. For the running of various web applications you would require ASP, .NET, MS SQL, SBS and for these you need a Window based host.

Pricing Aspect

You need to compare pricing before you finalize a web hosting service. Some may provide you better services but at low pricing. It’s not always true that the best hosting services are always the most expensive. Do your research and then finalize.

Support, Security, Guaranteed uptime and Backups

Security and backups are two very important aspects that you need to consider. You should always choose a web hosting service with reliable telephone support. Some also offer 24/7 support through local or toll-free numbers. In case you are running an ecommerce website then security is one aspect that you just cannot discard. Your web hosting service provider should be such that they can monitor things round the clock and ensure no unwanted intruder can hack your site. After all it’s your website and it is really worth looking into this aspect of web hosting.

This original article is the property of Web Hosting Geeks (http://webhostinggeeks.com). Web Hosting Geeks provides independent customer and webmaster reviews of top 10 web hosting providers. Top web hosting reviews, best web hosting awards, web host rating, web hosting articles and more.

Improve the blog’s value by feeding it with the necessary vitamins and putting it up for sale.

You’ve acquired a new blog, now what? On certain occasions you might just be able to flip it immediately, although in most cases, you will probably need to give it some improvements.

By this time, you should have your improvement strategy already in place. It is reasonable to assume that if you already acquired a blog, then you know what you will do with it or at the least have a plan. In essence, what you want to do is to increase the site’s revenue or traffic, and/or rebuild the site in some other way to make it more appealing. Perhaps you can rewrite some of the existing post and improve its link structure. You can also take advantage of existing traffic, for example, with a clever redesign that makes more efficient use of ad space.

Regardless of what you do, the basic idea is to increase it’s value. Value can be determined in a lot of ways, however, it should be noted that, there are basic principles that must be in place in order to successfully flip your newly acquired blog. Think of it as if you were starting your own blog. You need to post quality content, redesign the blog by being aware of things to avoid (if necessary), promote it, build links, apply SEO techniques, etc…

Putting It Up For Sale

Where? Sometimes, it’s almost no effort at all to sell a blog. You can start by simply putting a For Sale sign right in front of your page (somewhere prominent) or in the same place where you acquired it before (unless it was a direct purchase). There are also a handful of online places you can try and sell your blog. One of the better options in my mind is to try websites like SitePoint SiteSell area where you can list your blog for sale and get some exposure. The best thing about this is you can go in and search the archives to see what other sites have sold for in the past. By comparing the details of previous sales you can get a feel for what your site might sell for. You can also try hunting around in other sites, such as, Craig’s List, v7n, Loot, Aardvark, SiteOwners, and WebmasterTalk. Ultimately, you can always email me and offer your blog for sale:)

Just remember, don’t overdo your listing, be patient and most of all, be polite. Respond to inquiries quickly, be reasonable and wise when negotiating, and politely say you are not interested if someone insults you with a rock bottom proposal.

What Do I Need? Among the documents that you should be prepared to share with a potential buyer, you will want to include screen shots of the blog’s statistics (Alexa, PR, etc), and proof of revenue (which might include screen shots of the Adsense, Text Link Ads, PayPal, and others). These are information you will need to have a good selling point. You’ll also want to show that you own the domain outright and that it’s qualified for transfer. You’ll need to disclose any liabilities that will be transferred with the blog (if any).

Generally, I recommend for you to be as detailed as possible when you list your blog. However, there are certainly instances when it may not be prudent to disclose all information in public. For example, if you’re concerned that certain details may make it too easy for other parties to copy the success of your site, those details are best left in private and only disclosed to the most serious of buyers.

Closing the Sale: Don’t Forget The Little Details. When you finally agree on a price don’t forget to look after the little technical details as you manage the transfer of ownership. Here is a list of some important factors:

• Transfer of the domain name registration details, the business name, incorporation information, hosting ownership and any third party software or subscriptions to your name. Check that everything, absolutely everything, has been transferred to the new owners name.
• Outline how much support, if any, will you provide to the new owner for a transition period. Being available for questions for a few months after the sale can make the transfer less stressful and will give the new owner much more confidence when closing the deal.

There you go. I hope that making money online blog flipping has given you another perspective for generating additional income. If you decide to go for it, let me know how it goes. Good luck!

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Blog Flipping or website flipping is normally defined as buying a blog, making some improvements, and then selling it for a profit. Think of it like buying a house that needs work, doing the improvements, and selling it later. This concept has been around for a while but it has grown in popularity lately. One of the advantages of this form of making money online is that you are not risking as much of your capital resources, but mainly your time and effort. Obviously, you can also start your own blog from scratch, thus reducing further your risk of loosing money.

The Advantages of Buying A Website

Given the time it takes to get a new blog off the ground and the amount of work and effort it takes to create one, adding content, building backlinks, etc., the prospect of buying an established blog is very appealing. Another big advantage of buying a blog is that you don’t have to establish an audience and wait for the site to be indexed within search engines. Most webmasters, will understand that even the most poorly managed sites should have some form of backlink network developed and return a result in the major search engines (unless of course it has been banned). While, it may not be on the first pages on the SERP’s, there will be some sort of result and therefore ready for you to optimize and improve.

This is where the opportunity of making money on blog flipping comes in. If you have a sound understanding of search engine optimization and basic blogging concepts, you should have no problem making improvements and optimizing it. By adding content, fixing title tags, link building, promoting it, sticking some advertisements up, and all the other good internet marketing practices you have learned, you can very quickly start reaping rewards. There are a lot of people who want to have their own blogs and don’t know where to start. Therefore, this is where you should capitalize your efforts on.

What are the steps towards blog flipping?

The following are the necessary steps to start your flipping journey. If you are thinking of creating your own from scratch, then the first two will not be of much interest, although I highly recommend for you to read it anyway as there is always something to be learned. The steps:

1. Search for a blog you want to buy.

2. Reasearch, evaluate, negotiate, and complete the acquisition.

3. Improve the blog’s value by feeding it with the necessary vitamins.

4. Putting it up for sale.

Search for a blog you want to buy (or creating it if you prefer).

Before you start to look at specific blogs, it’s is recommended that you narrow down your choices, based on your specialization. Is there a particular Blog Topic that you know best? For example, if you are not an expert musician, you will most likely stay away from blogs that teaches people how to play the guitar. Remember, that the idea is to improve the blog you are buying and therefore you should have a pretty good understanding on how to optimize and improve it later. You must create value to the blog so it becomes appealing for potential investors. Other factors you should consider when looking for a blog is their hidden value. For example, a blog might already have good traffic. Look at its Alexa rank — is it in the top hundred thousand? Perhaps the site has good traffic, but it doesn’t look like the owner has monetized the site very well. Maybe the site offers some really unique and valuable content, but hasn’t been promoted sufficiently enough and isn’t attracting the kind of traffic you think it potentially could attract.

Every blog has some positive and negative factors. Ensure that there are positive factors and most importantly, formulate a plan to improve the negative aspects of the blog. If you can not formulate a plan to increase a value of a specific blog, then why would you buy it? For example: Say that one of the negative factors is fixing the blogs design and it’s navigational structure. If you do not have the technical knowledge, you will most certainly have problems creating value for it. There is of course the matter of hiring someone to do it for you, but that will increase your cost and consequently have to boost your price in order to make profit from it. We all know what happens when the price is higher, right?

Reasearch, evaluate, negotiate, and complete the acquisition.

There are numerous places where you can find good web sites to flip. Places such as eBay, SitePoint, DigitalPoint, BizBuySell, WebsiteBroker, and WebHostingTalk are places where you can start. Googgling “blog for sale” is also an option. In some cases, an owner of a blog has the for sale sign right on their front page. Forums, classified ads, etc are also good places to look around. Searching for blogs that are for sale is not that difficult. The difficult part is evaluating, negotiating and ultimately completing the acquisition.

One of the most traditional mechanism for evaluating a deal to buy a blog is to use a multiple of the monthly revenues the site is generating (12 – 24 times). This may make great sense to you, but most of the time it is not applicable. If the blog is not making any revenues, for example, one form of finding a suitable figure is by using some online tools, such as WebsiteValued and MyWebSite Worth. Remember that these are just estimates and should not be considered as 100% reliable. The good thing is that at a minimum you can have an idea where to start.

Once you have found a blog and established more or less what it is worth, do your own due diligence to find as much information as you can. Look for statistics, rankings (test it on Google), PR, any reviews the blog might have, etc. Do this quickly and act on it as soon as possible. Send the owner an email if you can to find out more information (e.g. documentation, revenues, traffic stats, etc). Make sure that they are verifiable numbers and remember not to insult the owner. If the owner thinks that the blog is worth hundreds on thousands and you believe that it is only worth by the hundreds, maybe you should back off right away. If the owner is honest, then it is certain that no deal will be made. Now, if both of you have a reasonable figure in mind, then the dancing begins.

Part 2: Improve the blog’s value by feeding it with the necessary vitamins and Putting it up for sale.

So, have you made money online blog flipping before? Are there any other forms you may know of evaluating blogs? Please share your experience with us.

This blog post courtesy of Make Money Online Business.