6 Secrets to Making Money Buying and Selling Domain Names

Here are 6 Rules to Live by if You Want to Be Successful in Buying and Selling Domain Names:

1. Study the sales data, let the domain sales data tell you what is in demand...whatever you do, do not guess --

Say you have the dream and desire to successfully buy and sell domain names, you have to be a student of the domain name aftermarket. Here are a few websites you should check to see what is selling. One being the sedo.com marketplace. Another site that you have to check is dnjournal.com which is run by Ron Jackson, a fellow domainer. You can find a page where all of the recent sale data is listed. Let this be a guide in your decision-making as to what is in demand.

2. Be sure you learn about dropped names with traffic and expired domain names with Google page rank --

Some domainer's make a business of buying and selling expired names that have existing traffic. A dropped domain name that has traffic is in demand. If you couple an expired domain name with traffic along with Google PR, that is a wonderful combo to have.

Some of you might wonder what an expired domain is. An expired domain is one in which the prior registrant(owner)failed to pay their annual renewal fee. When a prior owner fails to renew a domain, there is a 30 day grace period. After that anyone can get it. The benefit to the domainer is that all of the work the prior owner did is passed on to the new owner. That means everything: the traffic, the back links, the PR are passed to the new owner. And get this -- the existing Google page rank is passed on. Buyers want domain names with page rank and will pay a premium. This makes your domain name more easy to sell.

3. Short is is in demand--

The shorter the length of the domain name the more desirable it is. Domain name purchasers give a good deal of economic value to a short domain name. All you need to do is research out what you would have to invest to buy a two letter.com domain. Even research out the price the three letter.com domains are being bought at. Just go to a domain name aftermarket like moniker.com. If you look at the auctions occurring you'll see 3 letter names -- dot-coms -- going for hundreds if not 1000s of dollars. Four letter domains are likewise in craved by the domain aftermarket crowd.

If we are planning to focus on generic keyword-based domains, keep foremost in mind that the shorter domain is better.

4. ".coms" are the best - they will offer you the highest reward --

With all the new domain names extensions offered today, it's not hard to get confused.

Domain name extensions are the letters after the dot. For example, in the domain name Google.com, the.com is the domain name extension. The three letters that come after the dot. This is also referred to as the "TLD" which stands for top level domain.

To add to the confusion are confusingly new extensions being offered (almost on a regular basis). For example, recently, the .me TLD was offered. We already have .com, .net, .org, .info, .mobi (nice, huh?). It can appear overwhelming.

If you are planning to concentrate on buying and turning domains you have to realize that the.com extension is the most coveted. It has been around the longest. A.com name is associated with constancy and an genuine presence on the Web. Now do not take me wrong -- the other extensions do have plenty of proponents -- and I can see also a want for them. But for the sake of flipping domain names, the.com is the topper.

5. Keep an e-mail list of your buyers and contact them with your best deals --

The money is in the list. I am sure you've heard that. That means your e-mail list of buyers is an asset. If you get involved in the domain name reselling game, your list of buyers are proven to be people who are interested in purchasing good domain names. It is critical that you send your list a listing of your domain names before they are made available to anyone else. Wouldn't it be exciting to have a domain name sold as soon as you send it out to the list?

6. Trademarks = headaches --

One of the quickest ways to get yourself tied up in a legal battle is to buy a domain name that contains the trademark of another company or person. Trademarks are considered to be property rights. The trademark owner has the right to prevent anyone from capitalizing on it. It is very hard to sell a domain name that contains a trademark. On top of that, most parking companies prevent parking trademark domains. This means no parking revenue.

Beware of trademark-based domain names. They could result in tremendous liability.

Phil Craig is an author, lawyer and domainer. He likes to write about domain names and domaining. For more information on how to make money buying and selling domain names and on his new course, Quick Cash Domaining, visit Quick Cash Domaining, the premiere website dedicated to creating and profiting from a domain name flipping business.