Domain Names - Have you got some Hidden Gems that could be worth a Fortune?

United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland -- Free-Press-Release.com-- Feb 24, 2012 -- Have you built up a stack of domain names that are maybe keyword rich, location / geo based, short (say 5 or six letters, or good combinations of two words maximum), .com domain names that you have just never got round to launching?

When you registered the domain names, they had a value to you, right? Until you thought up the name or word combination, they didn't actually exist; nobody else had come up with the names. But another web master, even big corporation may have a use for your domain names and may want to buy them from you. So where do you start when looking to sell your domain names?

I didn't have any idea about domain flipping until I came across Domain Flipping Secrets . There is a massive industry in trading domain names. I have acquired arond 300 domain names in the last few years, mostly related to the dating industry. I wanted to use these names at at the time to launch dating sites, just never got round to it..

I worked on the basis that if I discovered any high traffic quality keywords, I checked if the domain name for the .com or a derivative of the keyword was free to register. If it was available, I registered it.

Domain Names - Let Lapse or Put On The Market?

I was considering whether to renew my unused domain names or not; money is tight and there's no need to hang on to domain names that won't be used, even though they made sense at the time. I had become a member of the Millionaire Society to understand from an internet expert how to make money on Clickbank; there was also an introduction to a training programme on domain flipping , the buying and selling of domain names. As the subject of domain flipping was a priority for me, I watched the intro video, intrigued and attracted by the prospect of realising some cash for effectively dormant assets..

I was shocked at what I discovered on the market potential. The course concentrates on providing an edge in the market, and the do's and the dont's. It is definately a highly competitive market place - just the briefest of research reveals that there are hundreds of thousands of domain names on the market, in either auctions or just parked.

The Domain Flipping Secrets course is very intensive and begins with the premise that you don't own any domains. You are shown how to generate ideas, either for keyword rich names, or whacky short names that could become a brand name for someone. There is extensive insight into unearthing dropped domain names and how to figure out the best ones to pick up cheaply. The guidelines cover what should be the maximum length of names, should they include hyphens or numbers, and should they be.com, .net or .org for example.

I had some important questions going through my mind as I got deeper into the training:

■How to put a price on my domain names?
■What is the best option to market them?
■How do I assess my domain names' quality?

All these questions and a lot more are covered in the comprehensive training. Plus the big scam to be aware of which can be extremely costly if you fall for it! THIS WAS WORTH THE INVESTMENT IN THE COURSE ALONE! A few weeks into my domain selling activities when I became visible as active in the marketplace, I did receive the scam email, but knew precisley how to both recognise it and deal with the approach, which I did successfully.

Two key focus areas are on research and re-engineering the way that successful domain flippers approach the art . The training course walks you through how to do both. There are research and news sites which publish the latest domain name sales, and how much was paid for them..

Domain Names - Where to Market Them.

There are three main ways to sell domain names - auction sites, market places and premium listings.

The auction site channel is suggested first, to get started on. A template is available in the VIP Upgrade area which can be downloaded and adapted - watch out that some of the icons and headers in the preview template do not work in the downloaded code. This is easy to sort out via Bing, to source free icons to use. Tthe HTML will need editing to place the images into your personalized template, so some understanding of HTML is essential. But the finished content looks great when it's done - here is an example of a domain I will be selling when the domain transfer date allows (more on that later!); It's to sell my domain name AngryBirdsFanzone.com .

I can't sell this domain name at the time of writing for a reason not explained in the Domain Flipping Secrets course. Have you heard of the ICANN 60 day rule ? Essentially, a domain name is not allowed to be re-registered for sixty days after either being registered first time around or re-registered. I researched a name about Angry Birds based on its huge popularity and bought this domain name, having looked into keyword searches, other similar domain names and fan sites. The traffic potential is amazing, so I figured that the name would have value. So I bought it, thinking I could sell it straight away; but no, I will have to wait 60 days after registering it before I can market it. Hopefully I will make a return on it then. I'll wait.

Another consideration is whether your host offers a free "push" transfer to the buyer. Hosts such as GoDaddy offer such a service; if your domains are registered on GoDaddy and your buyer has a GoDaddy account, you can set up a fast free transfer to the buyer. It is a strong selling point for your domain name. My main domain host, 1&1, doesn't allow free transfers, not even to another 1&1 account holder, so a transfer fee is payable, which needs to be borne by the buyer to acquire the domain name.

At the top end of premium listing for domain names, where the big money is, but where they take longer to sell, your domain name can only attract such a premium listing if it is registered with a few select hosts such as Register.com. The benefits are that your domain is 6 times more likely to sell, and gets exposed to 30 million potential buyers per month. There is a downside: it costs more to register your domain names with these select hosts.

For example, at GoDaddy, if you have a promo code, you can buy a .com domain name for around $8; at Register.com, it will cost around five times that.

A way to save money on this, and still get premium listings for less, which I have used for my better quality .com domain names, that are worth the investment, is to transfer them to Register.com for around $12 - the upside is that you get the balance of your existing registration plus a full year free (with the offer on at the time, it may have changed); the downside is you have to wait 60 days before you can register them for premium listing, because of the ICANN ruling.

In summary:

The Domain Flipping Secrets course is a very worthwhile investment. The domain flipping market is currently slow in my opinion, given the economic slowdown we are experiencing right now, so any edge you can get in the market must be worthwhile. I managed to sell my first domain name for three times what I paid - proving to me that the approach can work, if done methodically. I think a threefold return which is scaleable is a worthwhile activity right now, it beats what you can get in a bank, and I shall be selling more of my domain names via these markets.

I have lodged 60 good quality domain names on the mid level market at the moment, and I have 30 more waiting for ICANN clearance. I will eventually have around 20 lodged for premium listings, and will post further in a few month's time on progress.

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Retail Pragmatist
Steve Bolton
http://www.domainflippingsecrets.co.uk