Domaining introduction?

[Ashton]

I started writing this quite a while back, should I continue or is it of little use? Probably some typo's / Incorrect statements in there - Its a very rough draft.



Hello,

Welcome to the wonderful world of domaining - Perhaps you've seen one
of the headline sales figures, or a friend has reffered you. Maybe
even seen it mentioned elsewhere on the net and it's piqued your
interest.

This guide should serve as an introduction to domaining, or a refresh
of existing knowledge you may already have. Contributions /
corrections are always appreciated.


= Key Points =

1) Domaining is not a get rich quick scheme. It can take effort,
patience, intelligence, resourcefulness and far more skills. It's also
not going to make you millions, especially not in the UK market.
However, played right you can make a decent side income, perhaps even
a full income.

2) If you're brand new at this, put down your credit card. Most people
approach domaining with the wrong mindset, they buy a ton of crap
domains and think they will sell them next week for thousands. You
should spend a lot of time reading before even considering purchasing
anything.

3) There is so much information on this forum, nearly everything you
could ask has been asked before, so look around - However, don't be
afraid to ask. It's better to ask a silly question than to do
something you shouldn't

4) Domaining isn't just about domaining. Sure, you can specialise in
domaining if you want - But you have to know other tricks too. Whether
you want to develop names into profitable websites, or you want to
sell to end users. There are numerous other skills you will have to
learn to succeed.


= Drop Catching =

Drop catching is the process of purchasing a domain name as soon as it
becomes available after a previous owner lets it expire.

When UK domains expire there is a 90 day period before they become
available to the public, the domain becomes available at random point
in a 24 hour period. Drop catchers use scripts to query nominet to
when the domains become available, and register them the instant they
become available.

It costs £400 to register for Nominet and then £120/yr to gain access to the system and
is not advised for beginner domainers.

There are also several public catchers and most will catch names for
you on a no win no fee basis, these are listed below:

You can also make a public request on these forums for a slot on the
date the domain is due to be released. When private catchers finish
their list for the day they may be happy to attempt to catch your
name.



= Selling Domains =

The most common buyers for domains are:

Domainers: There is a large reseller market for selling domains to
other domainers.

End users: These are people who will use the domain for their
business, mostly this refers to established business and not
developers.

Developers: Whilst strictly these can be considered end users,
developers typicaly develop multiple sites as income streams, for
example someone might own BlueJeans.co.uk and use it as an affiliate
site to multiple retailers.


You can sell domains through a few methods:

Contact with end users, you can approach them or they may approach you.

SEDO.com - A popular domain marketplace.

Domain forums (like this one) have sales sections.

Domainlore.co.uk - A UK domain auction platform.