₦airaland Forum

Domain Tools

When it comes to domain buying are selling, there are tools that makes your work/research easy. I'll list some basic tools to get you started.

1. InstantDomainSearch//.com. You use it to check if a domain is available for registration.

2. Whois//.com. You use it to check details (date of registration, owner, where it is hosted, etc) about a domain name. You can also use it to check if a domain is available for registration.

3. Google//.com. with Google, you have access to nearly all information you want.

4. YellowPages//.com. This site is for searching for end users (businesses). You can access it with a VPN.

5. Yelp//.com. This site is for searching for end users (businesses).

6. NameDroppers//.com. For checking other/related websites using your domain Keywords.

7. DOTDB//.COM. For checking other/related websites using your domain Keywords.

8. Namepros//.com. Number 1 domain forum in the world. They are the Nairaland of Domainers.

9. HosterStats.net. To check the hosting history of a domain. When it was first registered, etc.

10. Archive.org. with this website, you can see a screenshot of what a domain was used for previously, how the site looked like in time past, etc.

11. Namebio//.com. Here you'll see reports of domain sales. Particularly, you'll see date, venue/market, and how much some domains sold for.

There are still other tools. But this will get you started. When the need arises, you will find other tools.

The philosophy of domain trading

Domain Investing is profitable when done properly.
Millions of businesses want an online presence. The world is going digital. And domains can be seen as a gateway to businesses going online.
So if you invest in domains, with the right knowledge, there will be someone who likes your domain and is willing to pay your asking price.

Selling your domains.

We sell domains primarily by listing them at domain marketplaces (aftermarket).

The popular marketplace for listing domains are
1. Afternic//.com
2. Dan//.com
3. Sedo//.com
4. Epik//.com (mainly for epik registered domains.
5. Namesilo//.com (for namesilo registered Domains only)

Remember, the '//' sign above is not part of the domain. I just included it because of the Nairaland bot.

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NAMESERVERS
There is something I want you to note. It's called nameservers.
Remember I said there are several marketplaces for selling domains. So when you register/buy/create your domains, you need to point it to the marketplace of your choice. So that when anyone types your domain name in their web browser, they are directed to the marketplace of your choice.

Let's assume we registered the domain name NairalandMonkey//.com, and we want to sell it at Dan//.com marketplace.

What we will do is to FIRST go to Dan//.com and create our account. Just like you create Facebook, nairaland, Twitter account.
Next, we LIST the domain at Dan//.com.
After that, we log into our registrar account (where we bought the domain), go to settings and change our nameservers from the default/follow-come to that of Dan//.com.

What is Dan's nameservers?
Ns1.Dan.com
Ns2.Dan.com

If it's Afternic or Sedo marketplace we prefer, we follow same step. They too have their own nameservers. You'll see it when you sign up with them.

I've deliberately left out some details about this current subject to avoid confusion. You'll find out more as you begin to buy and sell.

Note: it is possible to list your domains at ALL marketplace. But you can only point your nameservers to 1 marketplace.

Don't Quote the above post to avoid being hit by the spam bot!

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What you need to buy Domains.

We buy domains from foreign registrars. Forget those Nigerian registrars.

I already listed where to buy. Scroll up to check.
For a jjc (new comer) those website I listed are safe to do business with.
What you need
1. Smartphone or laptop
2. ATM card (MasterCard,etc) that can buy goods and services online.
3. Data/Internet access
4. Money in your account.

That's all you need to buy a domain name.

Important things to note:

1. To avoid stories that touch, I have a dedicated ATM card I use to purchase things online. I don't leave serious money in that account. Whenever I want to buy, I deposit the amount I need. That is to say get two accounts. Please don't enter your details in an untrusted website. Read reviews about website on Google.

2.Take note of every details. When buying note the price displayed. Most times, the price is always displayed in dollars $$. Convert to Naira with your calculator to get a rough estimate of how much you will be charged.

3. If you don't understand something, ask Google or ask someone knowledgeable.

300wayne:
thanks for shearing bro.........hope i am not asking for too much if you shear your outbound letter theme or pattern

Not at all.
In this case it was a short and simple message. See screenshot below

DeNoble001:
126 names on Sh, yet no sales
We keep pushing

Elder! You try.
Do you submit your names to SH contests? And have you enabled the feature that lets others submit your names to contests?

With that portfolio size and no sales, you might want to check your names description and categorization. I try to tweake things every now and then.
I'm still gathering more data. But from what I've seen so far, description plays a major part in Sales. I try to be unique with my descriptions as a lot of name descriptions on SH are just copy and paste (the same).

I now take logo designs seriously, and I don't hesitate to rate it poor if needs be so it can be redesigned.

Recently, I started to do this SH cloud broker stuff for my own portfolio (more like outbound sha, 'cus how can you broker your own names? ).
I ran all my SH Domains through dotdb to see related sites. I found quite a few that are using same keywords my Domains have as their site address. I messaged some of those businesses and told them the better version was available for purchase at SH. I've attached screenshot of a reply I got.

Nairaland SH family, I hope this small tips helps...

James39:
The longest reply I have received so far in this business.

After a follow-up on one of my domain. This end user replied with this. (screenshot of the message)

I don't even know how to reply. Please any idea from the bosses in the house

Goodluck

fergusen:
See the screenshot below. He did it via outbound marketing.
The two domains are Geo+Service/Product domains.
Check the previous posts. I explained what geo+Service/Product domains are.

The guy sold:

PhoenixWoodFloor//.com for $1000
PhoenixWoodFloors//.com for $1000

Phoenix is a city in Arizona USA. Population is 1.6 million people.

When you type Phoenixwoodfloor Arizona in Google search, we have over 40 business that might be interested in the domain name.
One of those '40' businesses bought that Phoenixwoodfloor.//com
PhoenixWoodfloors.//com Domain name from that guy.

This link contains the top 100 keywords you can combine with any USA City/State

namebio. com/blog/top-100-keywords-geo-keyword-domains/
close the space when typing in your browser.

Short Domains, popular Services, and Popular products are always preferred.
MiamiDentist.com ✔️
NewyorkFlooring.com ✔️
ColumbusCarpetCleaning.com✔️

But when you combine a city or place in the USA that has a population of 5000 people �� with a service that is not popular. "Na gutter you dey enter so."


Before registering a domain name to sell, you must make sure there are end users. No matter how good you think it is, if there is no sufficient end user, jump and pass.

Important Notice About Geo+Service/Product domains

We sell this type of domains PRIMARILY/MAINLY to USA businesses.
Don't waste your time trying to sell to fellow Nigerians

Like
OgbomoshoWebDesign.com
Or
OwerriCarRentals.com
They will not buy it for even $150
____________
Then, there's what is called SERVICE. Like businesses people are into.
Example:
Flooring
Roofing
Attorney
Florist
Dentist
Painter
Limousine Services
Cleaning, etc
Google will help you here. I'll also drop a link later that contains Top 100 keywords/Services you can combine with the "Geo's"

Also, there's what is called PRODUCTS. It's not only geo+Services. We also combine Geo+Products.
Examples of products include:
Garage doors
Patio and Decks
Furniture
Cars.
Hope you get me?

So let's do the combination now.

Geo+Service domains will look like
Miami+Roofing//.com
NewYork+Cleaning//.com
Remove the '+' and '//' sign. I only included that because of the spam bot.
This is the MOST desirable pattern. However, it can also be reversed
Like: RoofingMiami//.com, CleaningNewYork//com.

Geo+Products Domains would look like
MiamCars//.com
NewYorkFurniture//.com
This is the MOST desirable pattern. However, it can also be reversed
Like: CarsMiami//.com, FurnitureNewYork//com.

Chigorkizz:
What's SH,bro?

Squadhelp

See the screenshot below. He did it via outbound marketing.
The two domains are Geo+Service/Product domains.
Check the previous posts. I explained what geo+Service/Product domains are.

The story above is the summary of buying Domains, displaying it for everyone to see, searching for customers and selling.

So if you will be investing/selling Geo+service/Product domains, your story will be like mine.

Although there are times you just buy this type of names and list it in the marketplace and buyers will find you.

The advantage of learning this type (Geo+Services/Products) is that the experience Will help you learn other types of domain investing.
Many domainers agree this is quite simple to learn... compared to others.

So how do we come about quality Geo+service domains to sell?

1.From Domains that have expired. You can scroll up to refresh your memory. I said something about expired domains.

How do we find expired domains?
Mainly from Expireddomains.net.


2. Creating a new geo+service domain that hasn't been registered (like just been Creative you know). I'll explain.

Remember I am still talking about Geo+Service/Product Domains o.

So how do we come up with a quality domain name?

1. I mentioned www.expireddomains.net

2. Creating one that hasn't been registered before or recently.

The number 2 is what I will discuss now.

A Short Story

*When I was still a baby Domainer*

Someone gifted me 3k naira cash several months back. As a domain investor, I sharply threw the money into Domains.

I went to the bank and deposited the money in my account.

Then I went to godaddy.com (this is one of the places to buy domains), I type the domain name UsaFishing*******.com.
Sorry I have to CHANGE some details to protect the business of the person who bought the domain from me.

It was available to buy. How much? Just about $5.1. They were doing promo.

I took my First Bank ATM card that can buy something online.

I entered my card details and other information they asked.

Kpam. I bought it. The name was in my godaddy account.

Then I went to afternic.//com (Afternic is a marketplace for listing/selling your domains) and listed the domain name for sale.

How much? $300.

Then I went to google.//com, I typed "Usa fishing ****" in the search bar and Google brought out the website and contact details of companies doing fishing **** i n USA (USA is just an example here. remember I said I have changed the exact location due to buyer privacy).

Almost 40 addresses. Next I reached out to them via email. I told them it was available for purchase at GoDaddy/Afternic

I will talk about the content of the email later. One person (we domainers call them enduser) replied:

"Thank you, I got it”.
He went to GoDaddy and purchased it at the price I listed it.

All this happened within four days of registration! So I turned $5.1 to 300 in 4 days.
That's domaining for you. There are people who do this (buy and sell) within few hours of registration.

I'll be focusing on the No.5 type of Domain. Here we will find plenty Domains to register.

Not like the other types of Domains, where you have to Search and search and search well before you see a good domain to register.

This number 5 type of domain is also usually easy to SELL compared to the others.


Domain sales happen in two ways.
1. Inbound.
2. Outbound.

Inbound means the buyer is the one that searched for your domain, and came to meet you at the "market".

While outbound means you sent a message to many people who might need your domain name for their business. It also means you took your goods to the customer's door step. Like Hawking.

For these Geo+service/product Domains, outbound marketing is the way.
If you don't, you might never Sell it oo

Only if you have 1 word Domains like car//.com, book//.com, house//.com, etc, would you be confident that a buyer will come to you.

These 1 word domains (car,house,book, insurance, etc) cost $100000 to $Millions.

So you have to outbound for Geo+service/Product domains.

I hope you are following?

1. Exact match domains. Like CarRepair//.com, CarMaintenance//com, foodpreservation//com, eyeSurgery//com.
Note: I had to put the // because of nairaland bot. It's not part of the domain.
What do you notice?
They all refer to only 1 specific use. They are very descriptive.
Car repair, car maintenance, eye surgery o, not leg surgery.

2. Number domains: 111//.com, 996//.com 888880//.com, try other ones.
Note: I had to put the // because of nairaland bot. It's not part of the domain.
Lots of number domains are already registered. Chinese people love number domains.

3. Brandable Domains:
Actually, all domain types are brandable. They are used by brands.

But among we domainers (people who invest/trade domains),
When we talk about brandable domains, we mean like the opposite of Exact-Match Domains.

They can be used as website address for different brands unlike the exact match domains.

Let me explain. A supermarket or boutique most likely will NOT have a website address like ElectricCar//.com.

Because electricCar//.com is specific to a brand that deals with electric cars.

The same thing with eyesurgery//.com.

But a sweet brandable name like revixa//.com, vetiva//.com, devito//.com, NewHorizon//.com etc can be used by different companies as website and brand name because it is not restrictive like exact match names. This is just the surface. I'll stop here for brandables.

4. Geo Names: relating to a particular geographical location. Nigeria.//com, Kano//.com, Kebbi//.com, USA.//com, London//.com, Canada//.com, Miami//.com, etc

5. Geo (city, state) +service/Product brand names: These type of domains are a combination of geographical area + products/service.

e.g
ZariaDentist//.com (Zaria is the geographical area while dentist is the service.

USAcars//.com (USA is the geographical location while Car is the products.

So since all single dictionary word domains are registered wetin remain for us to register, or buy and sell?

Plenty!

Thousands of domains expire everyday and are available for anybody to register.

Why will the domain name expire? When you want to buy a domain name, they will ask you how many years you want to hold/own the domain name.

Some people choose one year, some 2 years, some five years. You can't pay for more than 10 years at a time I think.

After the number of years you choose don finish, you can either add more years or let it expire.

So because of this, domains expire everyday.

There are millions of registered domains in the world today.

Some people die and nobody to renew their domains, so it will expire, others forget to renew their domains.

So there is always expired domains to re-register.

Let's leave this expired matter first.
Domaining is interesting o

There are different types of domains.

I will briefly touch on the types.

Now among all the domain extension in the world, ".com" is the King.

Na the Igwe be that.
And that will be our focus.
That's where the kudi dey.

Let me shock you!
All single dictionary words in ".com" have been registered!

Oya check. Football, monkey, idiot, school, etc
Open your dictionary, find a word and type in your browser.

If you find any that is not registered, let me know.
Use instantdomainsearch//.com (remove the "//" sign) to check. You must either see red or blue colour.
Red or blue shows it has been registered.
If you see Green, it is available.


Note: I will attach screenshot later. Nairaland not allowing me to upload screenshot now.

You see that "Nairaland.com" you type in your opera mini browser or chrome browser when you want to 'enter' nairaland, it is called the domain name or web address.

Without it, there will be no website.

We have what we call Domain Extension.

We have hundreds of them.

Popular ones include .com, .co, .org, .gov, .uk, .us, .ng, .ai, .io, .de, .life, .expert, .company, etc

What is that Npower website address again, I think it ends with something like .gov.ng.

That ".gov.ng" is the domain extension.

So by now you should know
1. What a domain name is.
2. What a domain extension is.
3. Some popular domain extensions.

In January, I suggested the Domain name Property//***//.com to a company that's into branding and domain trading. They registered it, and it got sold within 55 days. I got paid a commission of $487. That's the "zero capital" way I talked about in my first post. It only cost me my creativity and time.

But the above is not the STANDARD way o. You will be spending money by buying domains o.

Let's get started talking domains

What are Domain Names?

Domain names are online real estate.

Like buying a land in Kubwa, Abuja.

On this land that you bought, you can build a shop there, a residential apartment, etc.
You can even rent out the land for farming.

A Domain name is almost like that, when you buy them, Like you buy a plot of land, you can do many things with it.

The first thing someone who wants to have a website for business or personal use will get/purchase is a Domain name. It is like a land on the internet to build your house or shop.

Hope you are following, I'm trying to break it down for easy understanding.

This means that if there is no domain, there will be no website.

*Edited (some details removed*

EDIT:
I discovered that a lot of people are still confused about a lot of things, and how to START.


Months back I organized a private WhatsApp class about the ABC of making money online; by buying and selling domain names. I'll be reproducing some of what I taught here.

Who is this thread for?
Primarily, this thread is for those who know next to nothing about Domains, and domain buying and selling.
So which group of people is this for, in terms of financial capacity?

1. Students and those with little or no money to buy domains. There is a 'zero capital' way. Just your creativity and time.

2. Those with capacity to spend $50, $100, $200 etc to acquire domains for the purpose of reselling.

Forgive my typos, because I'll be typing right from my head, and no time to proofread.

NOTE: I try my best to provide up-to-date and accurate info. Still do your own research and be convinced. Don't hold me responsible for anything that happens

And yes, All rights reserved.

DomainNewboy:
congrats bro me still dey below ten. Review and approval time is quit slow. God will help us

Amen. Na step by step

Why this thread dry like this
Sales no dey happen again

Anyway, I don reach 60 premium names (see screenshot). Baba God bless Squadhelp

60

Sold 6 (both wholesale and normal (25%) level.

xammax:
Creative owned:

You are doing well.
What's your portfolio size?

Ggetter50:
Hello my people, I’m a newbie. I have read a lot on this thread, but still not really clear with something, maybe because I have not explored those websites.

My question is:

If I found a nice domain on “expired domain dot net” and purchase it, please does it mean it has been automatically registered and suitable for listing on Afternic or Dan?

Yes.

When you see a name you like at ExpiredDomains, all you have to do is go to your favourite registrar and register/purchase it there. FINISH

meetme01:
If you don't want people you made a sale on SH,don't say anything about it or mention the price. It's easy to figure on latest SH sales.

Na only me know why I do am like that.
I know It's very easy to figure out.

Sapiosexuality:
Lolol. I don't think it is. He should have known you can't just hide property with that cheap asterisks. But if it is, why hide it? Lol. It is an easy giveaway.

He might be right.

Many times I do this things intentionally sha.
Anyone who frequents SH marketplace dashboard would easily figure out what name it was...