“Open Question To All Domainers”
Sep.21, 2009 in
Domain Guide
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Hi Domainers,
I want your opinion on the following question…
Many people i know asking me the same question and i want to see what is your response or opinion about that question.
I think it could help a lot of people that want to start a domaining business.
The Question – If you had to start your domaining business from the beginning and you have only $500 budget, what would you do?
I will appreciate all comments.
Thanks in advance for your cooperation.
Arbel
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September 22nd, 2009 at 12:05 am
The typical answer is buy one or two quality domain names and flip them for a profit. Then take that cash and repeat.
My answer, build a directory.
-$250 for a decent directory domain name
-$125 for directory script
-$25 logo/header
-$100 installation/setup
Put in some hard work driving traffic to the site. Pick up the phone and sell some directory listings. Sell 5 at $100 each and you made your investment back.
Please don’t put up a crap directory. Do some customization to the site to make it look unique and clean.
Free traffic article:
http://www.chefpatrick.com/free-traffic/
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:08 am
Hi Chef !
Thank you very much for the comment…Much Appreciate.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:57 am
Find one really good domain in a field you are passionate about, which has high search volume but not excessive competition, and develop it into a business. For $500 you would have a tough time finding a phenomenal .Com but you could probably find a really nice .Net.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:59 am
Hi Leonard !
Thank you for your comment.
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:30 am
Don’t try to flip $500 domains unless you know tons and tons about domain names!
If you don’t know much about domains and you buy a $500 domain…most likely, you will lose that $500 investment.
My advice if you are really really serious about going into domains:
1. Get a Job and start saving every penny you make. Stop spending on stupid shit like shoes, clothes, going out to eat…etc…START SAVING…let your friends spend and make fun of you now, but you will be retired rich in less than 5 years…while they will end up working for the rest of their lives!
2. Any extra time you get after your job, research domains!
3. After 2 or 3 years of working hard at your job and saving up and researching domains…you should have saved up $50,000 by now … now you are ready to buy a domain name for $50k.
4. With your domain experience, start flipping that $50k domain name into millions or put a website on that domain that will earn you millions on auto pilot.
5. Drive your Ferrari to your friends work place and laugh at them!
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:41 am
For me (and I want to stress this make not work for everyone), I believe the most single important talent to catapult yourself up the ladder quickly in this business is if you can sell (besides having a crystal ball).
If you know how to blog & sell, start a blog (I know some bloggers making more revenue from their blogs than their domain names). Save the money from your blog until you can buy a great domain. The plus here is that you are your own master from Day 1.
If you know how to develop & sell, approach a domainer with a huge portfolio and offer to develop one of their better domains for a revenue split with an ownership percentage starting to kick in at a certain level. Usually there’s a time limit for the site to start making money (like six months) or the deal is off and the domainer will send the name back to parking. The catch here is to you need to find a domainer you click with (no pun intended) and you’d better have an air tight agreement drawn up..
There are many ways to get into this game. However, either one of those strategies is the one I would choose if was starting all over again with $500 in my pocket (and seven figure names were not dropping from the sky like they were in June 1997).
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:43 am
Hi Anunt !
Great Comment my friend…
About the Ferrari i will pass. lol
Thank you for your comment.
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:48 am
Hi David !
Welcome to ArbelArif.com – Domainer Blog.
Thank you for your comment, people with a lot of experience can teach a lot of things, so thank you for sharing your experience.
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:34 am
I think that $500 is a wealth of funds to get in the domaining business. I really don’t see it costing that much at all.
1) I would first hand registered a decent domain for myself and then purchase hosting of course. Cost $10?
2) Develop a domaining blog using WordPress which would advertise my complete portfolio and services. This is FREE!
3) Join as many social networks as possible for branding purposes and name recognition. This is FREE!
4) Research as much as possible and try and learn from those who have been in the industry for some time and have a proven track record. This is FREE!
5) I suppose with the rest I could buy up some decent domains and create mini-sites for potential flipping.
As you can see, there really isn’t much money required to get involved in the business of domaining. I think most of the process requires time and effort vs. money.
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:38 am
Hi DNLingo !
Thank you for the comment, “FREE” staff it is always good…
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:13 am
Well, This should be easy, Considering I started off with $9 a year ago. That’s right, I started off with 1 domain and built it to what i have today. But if I have $500. I would do some things alittle different.
$100 for different domains
$200 for a Domain that is directly related to domaining Like Domaining.com, something similar.
$100 for a custom theme for the blog.
$100 for development on the other domains where needed.
But I do my own content, my own customization, But sometimes I would like something different. I believe in developing and selling rather then trying to flip domains.
http://dnheadline.com/develop-dont-park – DnHeadline
Hostix
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:09 am
Hi Randall !
Thank You for your comment…
Cheers, Mate
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:40 pm
What would I do with $500 if I were new to domaining? I would buy as many books as possible related to the subject: marketing, SEO, eCommerce, etc. Learning is the key to success in this industry.
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Thank You Very Much Tia !
Your comments are excellent like always.
Cant wait for our contest…
Arbel
September 25th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Thank you all for the advice!
I am myself starting out recently with a similar budget. It all started when I realized how many people I share a name with… and snatched up what I could for my family’s namesakes. After learning how to research generic keyword domain names, I started hand registering names in my interest areas (and several outside of those areas, but where there was a ton of CPC and affiliate competition per Google’s tools). I have to say, while I feel about a decade too late, I believe I’m ahead of most beginners due to resources provided by all of you in the domaining commmunity.
I now have entirely too many domains to handle with any respect (my wife stopped me at about 90), and feel a bit overwhelmed at the scale of it. BUT, I know where I am going with most of them, and can scale my work through each vertical. I’ve already identified my mistake registrations, and have learned how to prevent them (very few at this point, surprisingly). I have gotten over the fact that I will only be able to really focus on a few, and will just have to work to monetize the rest as best I can.
My Plan:
Step 1: Learn! Fill up my RSS reader and bookmarks (done)
Step 2: Purchase domains to work with (done)
Step 3: Park, set keywords, categorize. (done)
*** Create a blog to share my learning experiences!!
Step 4: Pick a few to start learning SEO and monetization for. Get them up and running, optimizing and filling out as I go.
Step 5: Take my favorite vertical (of which I have 12 related keyword domains) and create a network. Several main sites will be Amazon, Ebay, and a certain store front-end referral sites, supplemented with adsense/affiliates. This way I can test monetization of each option. The rest will be adsense/affiliate RSS blogs (with permission from my source of course, already obtained)
Step 6: Continue to learn, and adjust from there!
I anticipate my difficulty areas to be content, ad/monetization, SEO, and domain sales. I’m most worried about content, as I am afraid to underdeliver. BUT, if I take Rick S’s advice, I would put only enough up there to keep the big G at bay, and get visitors off my pages ASAP, lol.
I am a line-of-business app developer (financial / clinical, end to end), and while I’ve not had a large amount of design experience, I do feel I have an eye for it. With that said, I cannot justify paying someone else to do this type of work. PHP is a new language for me, and adds a layer of excitement for a geek like me
The entirety of my costs will be spent in registrations.
Note: HandTyped.com (LateDomainer.com is an option too, lol) is not even close to being up yet (hell, I just today took it off parking…). I feel this name fits my path perfectly. I am starting off with 100% hand registered domains, and feel I can still succeed.
Thanks again!
Aaron at HandTyped (eventually)
September 25th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
Hi Aaron !
Thank you for sharing your experience and your story.
I will be glad to hear some updates from you in the future.
Cheers, and good luck.
Arbel