Domain Names for Dummies

This guide, Domain Names for Dummies, is designed to help any beginner understand domain names. I will divide the article into two parts. First, we will look at how to buy a good domain name or acquire one from someone that already owns the domain you want. Second, we will look at how you can make money with domain names.

Buying a Domain Name

To buy a domain name (also commonly referred to as URL, web address, website name, and domain), all you need to do is visit a domain registrar website, search and find the domain you want, and then checkout. Prices go all the way up to $35 for a .com domain registration but you can get a web address for much cheaper than that. Visit my buying a domain name blog to discover where you can get $8.49 .com domains everyday.

When you go through the check out process of most registrars, you will face many marketing up-sells on related products such as web design, domain certification, web hosting, SSL certificates, and much more. You need none of these extra products to own the domain name you want to buy. All you need to have in your shopping cart is the name you want.

You will see a number of types of domain extensions. For beginners, I highly recommend you stick with a .com or a .net for use with your website or email. .com is the much preferred extension online.

The one additional product you might want is domain registration privacy (also called whois privacy). This keeps your information from being able to be looked up through your domain. For example, if you own the domain Number1DomainNameInTheWorld.com, someone might look to see who owns that domain. If you have no domain privacy protection, your name, address, email, and phone number would be accessible to the person looking up the domain. Whois privacy protection is not a necessity but it's something you may want to consider.

Someone Owns the Domain I Want

Many times, the domain you want will be taken. You can try to acquire the name by either visiting the page and getting contact information or looking up the whois information yourself and calling or emailing the party. You never know how much the person will be asking to buy the name. If the website doesn't come up or shows a generic page (also known as parked page) then chances are they're willing to sell.

I recommend emailing the contact email with an offer on the lower end. Many domainers (domain investors) are looking to make huge sales on speculating on domains but smaller domainers are often willing to sell for much less. In general, my advice is to start with a $100 offer for the name you want. You don't want to come off as overly eager or having plenty of money or the domainer won't want to sell for cheap.

Another factor in the negotiation process is the name itself. If you're trying to buy what is called a "premium domain" (think of this as a very good name with certain valuable characteristics, ie very short, one word, brandable, exact keywords), you can forget about a cheap starting price. In the case of premium domains, a domainer could sell to another domainer who buys up already purchased domains (reseller in this context) for a high baseline price - besting your bid easily. If you need help with a purchase or just have any questions in general about getting a domain name, visit my domain name advice website.

Of course another alternative if someone owns the domain you want, is just to change it up a little bit or add a word or hyphen to it. For example, if you wanted to own OrangeJuice.com but it was taken, you could try going for Orange-Juice.com or OrangeJuiceOnline.com.

Make Money Selling Domains

Believe it or not, making money selling domain names will end up as a loss for most people. The easiest way to make money selling domains is to buy a domain for registration fee and resell it for 50-100x (or even more) what you paid for it.

This sounds good in theory but in real life selling domains and actually making money in the process is more difficult than it sounds. First, a lot of beginners expect to buy a few domains and then have someone email them in a month or two and make a nice profit on the flip. The reality is even very nice, desirable domains don't get interest from serious buyers that often.

Second, selling domains requires a lot of patience. Sure, sometimes they can have a bite just a few months after registration but some good ones can be registered for 5 years or more and never get an offer. During all this time, you have to keep paying $8-$12 in renewal fees every year which really starts to add up if you have a growing collection.

Third, and what trips up most beginners, is newbies don't make good registrations. Even experienced domainers that now make great finds on a regular basis started off with several bad registrations that were a complete waste of money. With the number of quality domains shrinking, this has become even more prevalent as people new to domains try to strike gold. Knowing what domain names are desirable and will sell is a kind of talent mixed with experience and knowledge of how the online world works.

Some people just don't have the skill to register good domain names. The unfortunate part is they keep buying, gathering, and renewing only to waste their time, money, and effort. Don't let this be you. If you want to give domaining a try, I recommend learning all you can about the industry for 2 months before ever buying a single name. Most people won't listen to this advice but countless experienced domainers will tell you they wished they had, including the writer of this guide to domain names for dummies.