Can Selling Domain Names Make Money?

[homegal]

Hi,

Is there anyone out here who has actually made money auctioning off domain names? We've all heard stories of people who have sold their domain names for thousands, lets not even mention millions. Just look here http://www.dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm for the list of domains that was sold just recently but as a skeptic, I wonder....is it really possible? I know nothing is that easy. I have a few good domain names but they are nothing like Business.com or the equivalent. So tell me, does anyone have any experience to share? Where is the best site to auction off these domains? I'd like to go with godaddy.com as they have a good rep. but they make you pay for everything! Almost everything....

Anyway, hope to hear from someone, anyone (with valuable advice) soon.

[fxm88]

I'll assume you're talking about .co.th domains -- otherwise what's this got to do with Thailand. I believe you've got to have a documented business in order to get one and "the chosen name should be strongly similar to applying entity's full name or abbreviation", see here for more info. There may be ways around it -- there always are. It may be revealing that many Thai companies never seem to bother with .co.th and just register a .com.

[thohts]

Best and most popular site to auction, in my opinion, is Sedo.

Third place (no second) is Afternic

Most people in the business take a short name (usually a dot-com) and "park it " to get revenue from type-in and/or search traffic. If it makes more than $9/year (which is the price of registration at a place like namecheap) then you're profitable.

Then, just wait for someone to purchase it.

Better way, perhaps, is to take a pre-existing site with a little traffic and build up the traffic over a few months. THen, offer it up for sale. Someone will buy it, hopefully for much more than you paid/invested.

Also check out http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/b...75907/index.htm

[thohts]

I'll assume you're talking about .co.th domains -- otherwise what's this got to do with Thailand. I believe you've got to have a documented business in order to get one and "the chosen name should be strongly similar to applying entity's full name or abbreviation", see here for more info. There may be ways around it -- there always are. It may be revealing that many Thai companies never seem to bother with .co.th and just register a .com.

That would explain domain names like http://jobglue.com/ - I saw their ad on the BTS this morning

"Gluing you with leading corporations"

[TizMe]

I have no doubt that money can be made buying and selling domains.

BUT.

You NEED to be able to pick bargains and know what price you can resell for and how long you can reasonably expect for a sale.

No different from buying and selling Shares, Cattle, Stamps, Jewellry or Realestate.

[udon]

I sold a good name 4 yrs ago, it took 2 yrs to sell it, but I got the money I wanted.

Sold privately.

All the good ones were snapped up between 1997 & 2000.

[thohts]

I've sold three names I had for over $1,000. 2 or 3 for around $300-500

At any one time, I have about 200 domains in my possession for myself and clients. (I end up using about 60% of them, but the rest I discard.)

Of the domains I do eventually list for sale (all .com's with no numbers or hyphens) I get interest in about 5% of them.

A friend of mine got lucky. He registered a good travel domain on my recommendation but ended up not using the domain for a site. However, about 6 months after he purchased it, a company offered about $1,500 for it. He didn't even list it for sale. Not bad for a $9 investment.

You figure if you register 100 good .com names you spend about $900. If you sell 5% over the course of one year, you could possibly make anywhere between $1,000 and $4-5k. With the other 95 names parked at Sedo, you may receive an extra $1 to $50 or more per name. (Average I would say is about $6/year for an average name, $50 for a good one. So, an extra $570 or so.)

It's all just speculation. Which is why people start with a few names and work their way up to thousands. Some people even do it as their 'job', if they're good enough.