NetBusinessBlogWork from Home and Run an Online Business / Over 400+ Articles

Buying and selling domains is a hard market to enter into (because of the lack of great domains) but making money using keyword rich domains for building mini niche sites is a whole lot easier, with the right niche and a decent amount of traffic you can do well.

A tool that helps you find keywords rich domains is going to speed up the process as it allows you to come up with ideas quickly and conveniently. I have just used this tool and this is what I came up with.

This is how quick I can build a mini site and a potentially (maybe) make some money from it (who knows really) It’s just enjoyable doing it!

I’m going to time stamp this (13.40pm) - used the tool mentioned above. I decided on “salmon river rafting” why? because I like the sound of earning upto $7.00 + for a potential Adsense Click (the keyword tool also shows you how much “approx” it could be worth for an Adsense Click).

(13.45pm) - check the Google trend which looks healthy and fairly well searched. Head over to NameCheap and register the domain name. Bit gutted! I have to register the DOT CO DOT UK not a problem for me as I’m in UK but this is not the point, we are not building a brand business here. We are going for the quick and out, get it into Google SERPs fast and make cash. I may do well, I may not…I don’t care ethier way but I would like to make my money back from the domain name cost and time.

I also may really enjoy it and build a better site later on, only if I see great results (in terms of traffic) and long term potential. The main point of this (tutorial/post) is to try and highlight how quick it is to build a mini site and make some money from it. Note: I don’t really like this way of making money online but it’s good to have a go and the real joke is that it takes so little effort! (the marketing will be the hardest part and getting a decent listing in MSN/Yahoo/Google - MSN/Yahoo should be easy (he say’s!).

(13.53pm) - Got the domain now, time to build my site and make it look pretty for my visitors (who love their salmon adventures!) head over to OSWD as I want to create a site fast and not from scratch, (there’s no need). I chose the design Dreamy. Now time for some customisation to fit my niche, head over to SXC for some free stock images, choose a suitable image and then open up Photoshop to adjust the size and anything esle I need too. Now I need content and I’m lazy so I go to EzineArticles to look for decent articles in my niche. With that done, I want some Adsense, this template already has a 468×60 spot so I use this although I know the 300 x 250 is a much better performer in terms of CTR.

(14.08pm) - Time for some very basic SEO (SEO is a simple process really) adjust more of template and possibly add Affiliate links that relate to my niche. I will also look at other ways to make it look more appealing and improve the monetization. Amazon store add-on might be a option and some eBay ads.

(14.19pm) - Ready to start marketing, this is what I will do next - manually submit to Google/MSN/Yahoo or I may buy a text link for the robots to come over and spider me. Get someone on DigitalPoint to do some directory submitting and possibly pay for inclusion into the better one’s like:

Yahoo Directory (http://directory.yahoo.com)
* Open Directory Project (DMOZ) (http://dmoz.org/)
* Joe Ant (http://www.joeant.com/)
* Gimpsy (http://www.gimpsy.com/)
* GoGuides (http://www.goguides.org/)
* SevenSeek (http://www.sevenseek.com/)
* Business.com (http://www.business.com/)
* Skaffe.com (http://www.skaffe.com/)
* Wow Directory (http://www.wowdirectory.com/)
* Microsoft bCentral Directory (http://sbd.bcentral.com/)

Also -
http://www.seocompany.ca/directory/free-web-directories.html

That’s it for now, was that fast enough? here is the not quite finished result - www.SalmonRiverRafting.co.uk - I might have missed some bits out but I will update you on what I am doing with the site perdiocally. Depending how it goes, I may even launch one every week.

Added Note: I didn’t mention hosting but just incase you wanted to know, I have a reseller account with HostGator.

A new story seems to have hit the mainstream media recently which talks about the recent release of McAfee Mal Web. The new program attempts to map out the most dangerous parts of the web by a couple (very limited) criteria. After fiddling with it for all of 2 minutes, I’ve decided it’s little more than another little gadget for not-so-savvy internet users and paranoid moms looking for more ways to shelter their kids. What are the most dangerous domains?

The World’s Riskiest Web Domains:
No. 1: Tokelau (.tk)
No. 2: Information (.info)
No. 3: Samoa (.ws)
No. 4: Romania (.ro)
No. 5: Commercial (.com)
No. 6: Business (.biz)
No. 7: Russia (.ru)
No. 8: Network (.net)
No. 9: Families and Individuals (.name)
No. 10: Slovakia (.sk) - Forbes

CNNMoney quoted the article but only focused in on the “large country domains”:

Everyone knows Russia isn’t exactly crime free, but here’s a tip: Even if you’re going to visit Russia online, you’d best travel with security. That’s just one tidbit from a report released today by McAfee (MFE), “Mapping the Mal Web,” which notes that “the two riskiest large country domains to visit are Romania (.ro) and Russia (.ru), while the two safest are Finland (.fi) and Ireland (.ie).” Nice to see Ireland in the headlines for being peaceful. - CNNMoney

I guess they were trying to directly relate online travel to real life travel? In any case, this list comes across to me as completely trivial. Are you going to block all .tk domains after reading this? No. Is there going to be any brand new content filtering software that takes this list seriously? No. Overall it’s just a toy.

So why did it make the news again? Who knows, but hell I’m writing about it so there has to be something appealing here!

Darren got my neurons flowing earlier with his latest post on how important .com and .net domains are. Rather than just saying “.com is best” he posed some really thought-provoking questions, and I thought I’d give my personal responses to them here for everyone to read. I’d also like to hear what some of my readers think about them.

Are .com And .net The Best?

The .com extension is by far the king domain - if you are in any situation where you can choose between .com and any other extension it’s a no-brainer, go with the .com. Why you ask? I’ll explain with a sexy bulleted list:

• People are used to .com’s. Try having a conversation with someone who’s not so web-savvy about what they think about domains. More often than not you’ll get a response similar to “you mean dot com’s?” People recognize .com as domains over anything else, .net, .org, .co.uk, and especially ccTLDs.
• Usually .com is the first thing people try when they try to revisit a site they saw earlier. You know you’ve done it, we all have. You visit a site, you think you remember the name of it, so you type in “somename.com”. Then if it takes you to something you don’t remember THAT’s when you Google it.
• .com’s get the most type-ins, period. For the reasons listed above more people are likely to type in “[keyword].com” over any other extension.

So there’s no doubt in my mind that .com is always the way to go. But what about .net? I would put .net on the same level as .org and possibly .co.uk (just because there’s so many UK-based web users and the stress they put on the .co.uk extension over there).

When is it OK not to go with Them?

I would say always go with .com when you get the chance. Even if you’re setting up a non-profit organization (which most people associate with .org) I would suggest getting the .com and simply redirecting it to the .org. If you absolutely have to have a keyword that has already been registered as a .com but is available in another extension you might can make it work. But I would always suggest branding your logo and site name with the extension included (if it’s not a .com). Just to make sure people know what the URL is.

Another time using a less desireable extension can work is if you’re doing a niche minisite or abitrage site. Domain extensions matter, but much less when doing these types of sites.

What’s More Important to You? SEO or Branding?

That’s an extremely tough question to answer. I’m a big fan of finding SEO-friendly domains, but I appreciate the brandability factor as well; after all, it’s an important part of domain valuation. Let’s take this site for example. When I was looking for a name for this blog I was actually going for brandability over SEO, but I was able to find something that landed somewhere in between. “Net Business” comes up a fair amount in searching and is starting to get me some targeted organic traffic. At the same time, what the hell does Shoemoney have to do with SEO or the business industry? Nothing, yet his content and blogging personality has built him an undeniable following.

At the end of the day it’s the content that makes the most difference. If you can grab an SEO-friendly domain, that’s good, but it’s not the end of the world.

I hope you guys didn’t mind my random domaining rant too much. I’d really like to hear what my readers have to say about these topics as well, so leave a comment if you have time. You can also sound off at Darren’s thread.

A question I often get asked is “how do I value a domain name?” This question is further complicated when dealing with domains that aren’t targeted specifically for one or two keywords. How do you put a value to a domain like Fantastic.com? When appraising websites at least there’s a basic template you can fall back on: monthly revenue x10-14. With domains there is no such formula. So how do you evaluate them?

It’s been a while since my last installment of Domaining 101, but just as I sat back down to continue working on the next segment (which will deal with the domaining aftermarket and valuation) I came across this amazing article up on DNJournal written by Dan Warner of Fabulous. Dan goes into great detail describing the most important factors that go into weighing domain name value: Brandability, Mindshare, Commerciality, Specificity, Realization, Immediacy, and Intent.

Consumers purchase domains for a variety of reasons. These unique motivating factors shape the value which is attributed to domains by individual buyers. It logically follows that a domain’s true value can only be attributed to a specific buyer at a particular moment in time. Following is a framework of primary factors that buyers commonly attach to each domain purchase.

This is by far the best article I’ve read on the subject of domain valuation, and it is definately worth the read for any domainer new or old: evaluation a domain’s value.

CNN reports that ICANN has officially removed the domain extension “.um” (for US minor outlying islands) from the current list of domains available for registration, shortening the list from 265 to 264. The article goes on to suggest that the extension “.su” (for Soviet Union) is next on the chopping block.

The major difference here, however, is that .um was hardly used whereas .su has approximately 8,000 domains registered under it according to an article published by Mosnews last November. According to Mosnews there are many pro-Kremlin groups poised to take legal action against ICANN:

One of those is the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi, whose website is registered with the .su suffix. “Should the domain be eliminated our lawyers will examine the issue and will stand up for the movement’s rights in court,” Nashi spokesman Robert Shlegel told Kommersant.

Another extension that is under review is “.yu” which represents the former Yugoslavia nation - Yugoslavia became Serbia and Montenegro in early 2003. Then again this is nothing new as the domain industry has been debating about the future of .yu for almost four years now. SFGate reports that Serbia and Montenegro have adpoted their own extensions (.rs and .me respectively); however, there are still millions of Google results for .su and .yu extensions.

It’s good that ICANN is moving forward by eliminating the use of outdated domain names, but if an extension is still being used should they let it remain despite the fact that the country for which it was created no longer exists? To sum it up, I’ll leave you with a relevant (and fantastically dorky) quote posted by mfh on Slashdot.org:

Obi-Wan: I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.

The destruction of a domain that is of no use, is nothing to be upset about. But what happens when this motion is repeated on a larger scale when not everyone is in agreement?

Domaining 101 Contents:

• Introduction
• Extensions
• Researching Keywords
• Registration
• Parking

What is Domain Parking?

So now that you’ve registered the domain name you want, how do you turn that investment into revenue? One of the ways to start earning with your domain is to park it. Domain parking is simply pointing your domain to a page, typically containing advertisements, to either assess the amount of traffic the domain is receiving, earn revenue from the ads, or to allow potential buyers a means to contact you. For now, I’m going to concentrate on how domain parking can earn you revenue from advertisements.

First off, for a domain to earn you a good return through parking alone, you need to have a lot of traffic. Traffic for parked domains comes mostly from type-ins or search engines. Since your domain will not be pointing to a page with much relevant content for the user, there will be very little recurring visitors. Because of this parked domains rely entirely on organic traffic to produce income.

Parked domains typically use contextual advertisements to display text ads on your parked pages. Good parking services have ads relevant to the keywords in your domain name (which is another reason to research your domain keywords extensively), as well as allowing you to select keyword categories, and sometimes even one or two specific keywords. These ads are setup as the main focal point of the page. What you’re hoping is that organic traffic to your domain will get there, see there is no real content, and exit through an ad rather than closing the page. I know that doesn’t sound entirely reliable, but there are a ton of people making their living off of this method alone.

Domain Parking Services

There are a number of domain parking services available, all of which have their pros and cons. There isn’t a “number 1 parking service”, so you need to select where to park based on each individual domain. Out of all the parking services I’ve researched, I can only recommend two: Sedo and Parked.com.

Sedo
http://www.sedo.com

Sedo is the most popular domain parking service on the net right now. It is a very professional service with a lot of features available absolutely free. Although you do have to deal with some promotion by the staff pushing you to invest in their “premium” features such as domain appraisal and promotion, they don’t require you or trick you into paying for anything. The only complaint I have with Sedo is that they’re PPC for ad clicks seems to be very low. The best part about parking with Sedo is the exposure to potential buyers, but that will be covered in the next post on the second hand market.

Parked.com
http://www.parked.com

Parked.com is solely a parking service, which allows them to focus more on the earning aspect of parked domains. They claim to have the highest parked domain payout, which I haven’t heard argued against very much in the domaining community. They also advertise their domain optimization services. “While parked domain names do make some money, parked domains that are optimized often generate 10 times more revenue.” Even though their terrifically scientific numbers there make me giggle a bit, I’ve heard great things about them from a number of domainers. If you’re looking to optimize your parked domains solely for revenue then I suggest giving Parked.com a try.

Creating a Landing Page

Many domainers argue that parking services, on the whole, just don’t give the returns that they should. Therefore, many domainers now are creating their own landing pages (simple 1 page websites that promote ads much like parking pages do) hosted on their own servers. Landing pages are a bit more simple than niche minisites, but they follow the same basic guidelines. The main purpose of a landing page is to provide visitors with affiliate offers or contextual advertisements. Affiliate offers are commission or lead-based advertisements that require the user to click on an advertiser’s page and then buy a product (sales commission) or perform an action such as filling out a survey (pay per action). Contextual advertisements are links, typically text links but sometimes images, that display ads relevant to your domain’s topic. Both of these advertising options are viable, and you will simply have to test which one works best with your particular domain. It’s also possible to use both with a somewhat advanced landing page.

Now lets get into the nitty gritty of creating a landing page. First and foremost you want your landing page all to fit on the user’s screen. The best domain landing pages are those where the user does not have to scroll to see the offer or advertisements. In addition you do not want to overwhelm your visitor. It is commonly agreed by most webmasters that the best conversion rates for landing pages are on pages with as little as one or two ad blocks or affiliate offers. If a visitor lands on your site and is flooded with ads and popups, they are most likely going to quickly close the window. However, if you integrate your ads into the page subtly and classy then you are more likely to get leads and ad clicks. You should also make an attempt to give your landing page a somewhat professional appearance. Users today are becoming more and more used to scam sites and MFA (Made for Adsense) sites and are learning to steer clear from them.

Go the extra mile with your landing page. Hire a graphic designer to integrate some photos related to your domain niche into the landing page. You may even buy an article from an article peddler, get an article custom made by a freelance writer, or download one for free from one of the many article depositories on the internet. If you follow these basics you should have good success with landing pages. There is a lot more I could go into; however, this is a segment on domaining in general and not landing pages. I will be going more in-depth with creating landing pages at a later time.

So now you know how to setup your landing page, but where do you get the ads or affiliate offers? There are a ton of advertising and affiliate programs out there, but I’m going to do my best to whittle them down to the few best.

Google Adsense - Contextual Advertising
http://www.google.com/adsense

Google Adsense is the most popularly-used form of contextual advertising today. Advertisers sign up through Google Adwords, create ads, which then display through Google Adsense (what you put on your landing page). Adsense has a good targeting feature that gives your visitors ads that are extremely relevant to your domain. Since they’re backed by Google, you can rely on Adsense’s reputation and never have to worry about them not paying out at the end of the month.

Yahoo Publisher Network - Contextual Advertising
http://publisher.yahoo.com/

Following in Google’s footsteps, Yahoo has established YPN (Yahoo Publisher Network) which is almost exactly the same as Google in every conceivable way. The main difference is that YPN is currently in closed beta and is only open to U.S. citizens which means they have less advertisers and in turn less targeted ads. Many publishers, however, claim higher payouts with YPN but that is speculated to drop significantly as it moves out of beta. However, YPN is still one of the best contextual advertisers out there and cannot be overlooked.

Commission Junction - Affiliate Marketing
http://www.cj.com

Commission Junction specializes in offering products or lead offers to publishers rather than contextual ads. You have to sift through their link database and decide which offers are best for your landing pages rather than simply slapping some code on your site and letting the program do the rest. CJ has the largest selection of affiliate offers and a long-standing reputation. They are, in my opinion, the best affiliate marketing company hands down.

Other Affiliate Marketing Programs
Azoogle - http://www.azoogle.com
Maxbounty - http://www.maxbounty.com
CPAEmpire - http://www.cpaempire.com
Hydra Network - http://network.hydramedia.com

These are the networks I consider to be the cream of the crop. However, if you want a more complete and unbiased list, John Chow has written a very concise article on his blog listing a huge number of ad networks (contextual and affiliate marketing).

Domaining 101 Contents:

• Introduction
• Extensions
• Researching Keywords
• Registration
• Parking

How is a Domain Registered?

I don’t even begin to claim to be an expert on the technical side of domain name registration, and to be honest you can go your entire career as a domainer without ever knowing all of the intricate processes involved with domain registration. So I’m just going to give you the basics.

Domain registration in a nutshell: you register a domain through a domain registrar. Registrars are licensed to sell domain names through ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Once you put in your order to your favorite registrar, they then create that domain for you and enter it into the domain registry, which is a database of registered domain names. This then assigns that particular domain to you and prevents anyone else from registering the same name. You can then manage your domains through your registrar. It’s pretty simple honestly.

Which Registrar Should I Use?

All registrars essentially do the same thing: they create your domain and add it to the registry. So what’s the difference in using one registrar over another?

Registration Cost
An obvious factor when weighing registrars is the registration cost. It’s hard to believe that an industry that sells the exact same thing across the board can vary so much in its cost. Some registrars charge as little as $1.99/yr per domain whereas others are still charging up to $15/yr per domain (for gTLDs). Some extensions may even be as high as $x,xxx per year. Your natural instinct is to flock to those registrars charging only a couple bucks per domain right? That’s not always the smartest thing to do. I’m sure you’re all familiar with the phrase “you get what you pay for.” It definitely applies to domain name registration. Typically the companies that charge you $1.99/yr per domain offer little to no additional services, have terrible customer support, and sometimes don’t even allow you to fully own the domain you register. At the same time, however, paying $15/yr per domain may be as equally stupid. This is why you have to weigh all of the factors when registering a domain name.

Domain Management
Many first-time domainers get so caught up in finding the cheapest registrar that they overlook other important factors such as domain management. Having the ability to manage your domain through your registrar is a necessity that many registrars simply don’t have (especially the very low cost ones). Your registrar should have, at the very least, the following domain management features:

• Ability to set DNS (domain name server)
• Ability to modify your domain’s A address
• Ability to setup a URL redirect
• Whois Guard option available
• Ability to manage multiple domains from a single account
• Automatic renewal or renewal notification long beforehand

These are the most basic domain management features which I think are needed from whatever registrar you decide to use.

Customer Service
Customer Service is not only essential in the case of problems with your account or if you need any questions answered (if you are new to domaining) but it also gives you a good idea about the quality and professionalism of the registrar. When I am researching new registrars I typically email and call their customer service at least once just to get a general idea of the wait time and level of expertise shown by the representatives. One of the things I ask customer service representatives is whether or not they are an employee of the registrar or if they are an outsourced customer service firm. If a registrar outsources their customer service, then most likely it is going to be of fairly low quality and will cause you a number of problems in the long run. In addition, you want a registrar that can quickly solve problems, after all a domainer’s livelihood lies in the hands of their registrar.

Now that you’re biting your nails wondering if you’ll ever be able to find a worthwhile registrar, I have some recommendations

Namecheap
http://www.namecheap.com

I’ve been using Namecheap since I began as a domainer. Their prices are decent (~$8/yr per gTLD domain) and their account management system is the best in the business. They also have a fantastic reputation and a huge amount of satisfied customers. They also make transferring domains a breeze which is important to consider since domainers are constantly buying and selling new domains.

GoDaddy
http://www.godaddy.com

GoDaddy is another popular registrar. They also have a good domain management system and fantastic customer support. They do, however, have a very confusing and overwhelming website, especially for beginners. Their prices are also a bit cheaper than Namecheap.

I suggest you go with either Namecheap or GoDaddy for most of your domain registration.

Other Registrars
Network Solutions - http://www.networksolutions.com/
Register.com - http://www.register.com/
Yahoo Domains - http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains/
Dotster - http://www.dotster.com/
Aplus Domains - http://domains.aplus.net/
Moniker - http://www.moniker.com/
4Domains - http://www.4domains.com/
RegisterFly - http://www.registerfly.com/
iDotz.net - http://www.idotz.net - Allows you to register domains with obscure extensions

Saving Money at Registration

There are a number of ways to save money while registering your domain name. Firstly, you should always use coupons. Coupons aren’t just for little old ladies getting ready for a trip to the grocery store anymore. Nowadays there are coupons that are worth more than a dime off a bottle of ketchup, and you should take advantage of them For years I paid full price for domain names not knowing that I could be saving tons of cash by using coupon codes. Coupon codes are small strings of text or numbers that could be assorted randomly or actually form words. There is typically a section to enter these coupon codes when paying for your domain. Always look for a place to input a coupon code.
So where do you get these coupon codes? There are a ton of websites out there that exist solely to supply you with these coupon codes. Here are some that I use:

Coupon Source - http://www.coupon.sc
DNCoupons - http://www.dncoupons.com/
Daily eDeals - http://www.dailyedeals.com/coupons/internet.htm
Coupon Cache - http://www.couponcache.com
Happy Coupons - http://www.happycoupons.com

There are also a ton of registrar coupons hidden throughout press releases, magazines, and websites. The best way to find these is to do some Googling. However, usually the sites I mentioned above get these coupons up almost as fast as they are released, so I always check them before spending too much time searching.

Another way to save money at registration is to register in bulk. Like in any other industry, when you buy in bulk you save money. Unfortunately, not all domain registrars allow you to buy in bulk, and when you find one that does, they may not have all of the features you want. The best bulk registrar I’ve heard of is Bulk Register.

There you have it - a complete guide to registration. Next we’ll get into how to actually monetize your new domain(s).

Domaining 101 Contents:

• Introduction
• Extensions
• Researching Keywords
• Registration
• Parking

What are Keywords?

Domain keywords are what make up your second level domain and give your overall domain the most value. Keywords are paramount when evaluating a domain name and should always be selected with careful consideration and research. As a domainer, you are almost always looking at your domains based on their keywords.

It is possible that a domain may contain absolutely no relevant keywords but could still be worth a good amount of cash. For example, Google.com is a relatively worthless domain when basing the value off of the keyword alone. “Google” was definitely not a notable keyword before the site was created and marketed, yet now it is probably one of the most valuable domains in existence. This is where the whole question of branding, establishing a memorable presence for your website thus adding value to the domain, comes into play. There are some domains that people consider “innately brandable.” These are typically short, one-word domains that are easy to remember and catchy. However, as a domainer the majority of your portfolio will most likely consist of keyword-oriented domains since these have more obvious value and appeal better to search engines.

Follow the Trends

In case you’ve been under a rock your entire life, I’ll let you in on a little secret: the world revolves around trends. They’re fickle and seemingly random. I remember the first time my little brother showed me Pokemon. The Christmas after it was released, Pokemon trading cards (which were worth a dollar or two each in the beginning) were selling for $200 a pop. They got so hot that shady-looking guys in pimped out Hondas started selling them out of the trunks of their cars in the High School parking lot. Despite the widespread popularity of Pokemon, today you could buy the entire collection for a couple hundred dollars. The trend died out just as fast as it started.

Like with every industry domaining sometimes has trends where particular keywords or keyword matchings become very popular. These domain trends often follow popular culture of the “real world” and can be picked up early and monopolized.

A great example of following domain trends is Clark Siegelin’s registration of multiple 360 .com domain names (keyword360.com). Although these domains have no obvious advantage in my eyes, Clark saw an obvious brand in them and decided to corner the 360 domain market. According to an article on Sedo, Clark was able to sell cash360.com and firm360.com for thousands of dollars each.

For Mr. Siegelin the value of the brand was obvious so he registered every possible 360 related domain he could think of. Half-hearted investment wasn’t an option. Deciding to corner the 360 market was just as obvious as the value of the brand.

The article also states that Clark is still receiving offers in the thousands for his 360 domain names. Since Clark’s success there has been an increase demand of 360 domains. 360, a seemingly low-value suffix before Clark’s success, is now a very targeted one.

Other trends are easier to spot ahead of time and rely much less on luck. A popular trend domainers like to follow is watching which new pharmaceuticals are released. Concurrently keeping an eye on any medical research and jumping on new findings and treatments is a good way to get premium domains. Other popular trends, at least right now, include poker or gambling-related, travel, investment, medication, and home business domains.

By keeping an eye on trends and being ready to capitalize on them as they occur you have a great opportunity to acquire premium domains at extremely low prices to sell for an amazing profit or park for good revenue.

Keyword Effects on SEO

Before I get into all of the delicious SEO tools, let me explain the reasoning for using these typically “SEO only” tools in the realm of domaining.

Domainers should always, and I mean always, be aware of search trends when researching domain keywords. Domain keywords are an integral part of search engine optimizing; therefore, they should be picked carefully and always with SEO in mind. In addition, keyword search tools are necessary in determining the popularity of keywords. Researching search trends is a good way to assess the potential traffic of a domain as well as to get ideas of how well that domain could be monetized.

Keyword Search Tools

There are a ton of nifty tools out there that are ignored by up-and-coming domainers everyday. I’m going to go ahead and say it: there is no magic secret to domaining. Every tool you need to succeed is out there waiting to be used. All you have to do is get up off your butt and use them. The following tools are used more heavily in SEO than in domaining, but as I’ve said before, SEO is an integral part of domaining. Molding your domains around popular keywords adds a huge amount of value and should always be considered when domaining.

Overture Suggestion Tool
http://inventory.overture.com/

One of the most important factors to look at when deciding on keywords for a new domain is the search popularity for those keywords are. Overture Suggestion Tool does just that. It archives searches from actual users on a monthly basis and allows you to sift through these searches to find the most popularly searched keywords. This tool is a must in determining the popularity of potential keywords and cannot be ignored. The only setback when using this tool is that it displays search results from Yahoo only. It still shows the trends fairly well, but it should also be noted that Yahoo owns a small portion of the search engine market. However, as a domainer you should never rely on just one tool.

SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool
http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/

Aaron Wall’s SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool takes results from the Overture Suggestion Tool as well as other tools (including results from Google and MSN) and displays it all in one central location. This is typically the first place I look when researching new keywords for domains. It’s a fantastic tool that is complex enough for the most experienced domainer yet simple enough for first-timers to pick up.

Google Trends
http://www.google.com/trends

What better place to research potential keywords as they relate to SEO than Google, the number one search engine on the net? Google Trends allows you to compare keywords for their performance in Google. It displays the results in an easy-to-read graph. One aspect of Google Trends that many other tools don’t have is that Google Trends allows you to view keyword trends over the last three years. This lets you see if popularity for certain keywords are continuing to rise or if they’ve already reached their climax and are losing value.

Other Keyword Search Tools
Keyword Discovery - http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/
WordTracker - http://www.wordtracker.com/
NicheBot - http://www.nichebot.com/
Digital Point Suggestion Tool - http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/
Adwords Keyword Tool - https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
NicheTaxi - http://www.nichetaxi.com
Google Keywords - http://www.goodkeywords.com/
SEOChat SEO Tools - http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/
Google Zeitgeist - http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html
Lycos 50 - http://50.lycos.com/
Yahoo Buzz - http://buzz.yahoo.com/

Using all of these tools for every domain you purchase may seem like overkill, but I cannot stress enough how important good keyword research is in domaining. Research will save you time and time again from making bad decisions. You may see a domain up for sale that your gut tells you has good potential but after doing a little bit of research you may find that there are little to no searches for terms related to that domain.

As a general rule of thumb you want to nab domains with a good amount of searches. However competition must also be taken into consideration, which is why I considered the Adwords tool for example. If you find a term that only gets 25,000 searches per month, for example, but has little to no competition then it may be prudent to register and develop a related domain. It’s a balancing act between keyword popularity and competition.

Domain Name Generation Tools

Keyword-based Name Generation Tools

Okay so now you have a little list of keywords that you want to register a domain with. That’s all fine and dandy, but how do you use those keywords to come up with a brandable domain name? Sometimes it’s hard to sit down and brainstorm ideas for domain names centered around your keywords, so domainers often use Keyword-based Name Generation Tools.

Simply put Keyword-based Name Generation Tools take whatever keywords you want and assort them in every possible way to give you a list of possible domain names. These tools also allow you to choose from synonyms to use for your keywords.

One of my favorite Keyword-based Name Generation Tools is Domainsbot. Domainsbot allows you to sort domain suggestions based on extension, availability, and by synonyms. It’s a fantastic tool that I use quite often. I’m not going into a whole lot of detail here since it’s honestly pretty self-explanatory. The best way to get used to using a name generator is to sit down and play with it.

Other Keyword-based Name Generation Tools
Nameboy - http://www.nameboy.com/
Domainfellow - http://www.domainfellow.com/
Dotster’s Namespin - http://www.dotster.com/register/namespin/
123 Finder - http://site.123finder.com/
Raining Names - http://freeserve-v1.domainnames.com/advanced.asp
E-gineer’s Domainator - http://www.e-gineer.com/domainator/
SnapItNow - http://www.snapitnow.com/
Mozzle - http://www.mozzle.com/
Whoix - http://www.whoix.com/wizard.html
Webmaster Toolkit - http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/domain-name-generator.shtml

Random Domain Generation Tools

Random Domain Generators are tools that basically spit available domains out of nowhere. Sometimes they come up with short, nifty, brandable domains but usually they just pop out worthless words. Sometimes, keep in mind this is a very very rare sometimes, they generate a domain that you may think has a lot of value and is worth registering. For the most part though, these things are nothing more than novelty.

However, since these tools are so very popular, I’ve created a short list of random domain generators for you to enjoy.

Outer-Court Randomizer - http://blog.outer-court.com/domaingenerator/
DomainsAreFree - http://www.domainsarefree.com/random-names.html
SnapItUp - http://snapitup.net/

I’m sure there are a lot more, but I’m not going to spend much time on these since, as I said, they’re rarely that useful.

There was a domaining post on my favorite SEO blog the other day (Blue Hat SEO) about domain kiting. This article was contributed by one of his members and highlights a domaining practice that you don’t typically hear about. If there were such a thing as black hat domaining, domain kiting would definately be on the list.

Domain kiting is basically registering a domain name, testing it out for a couple of days (by parking it for example), and then cancelling it if it doesn’t perform. The benefit of this is that you only have to pay for the highest quality domains, and you can throw back all of the riff raff domains while paying a small or no cancellation fee. Another tasty tid bit contributed by one of Blue Hat SEO’s readers was a link to Pool.com’s Catch & Release Policy which you should definately take a look at; it’s basically a friendly version of domain kiting.

The post on Blue Hat SEO goes into much more detail on how you can analyze the domain and make sure you get your money’s worth, but since I’m going into that soon in Domaining 101, I won’t bore you with my version.

Domaining 101 Contents:

• Introduction
• Extensions
• Researching Keywords
• Registration
• Parking

What are Extensions?

The extension is the tail end of the domain name and are predefined by ICANN. Extensions come in two forms: gTLDs and ccTLDs. gTLDs stands for generic top level domains and includes .com, .net, .org, .edu, .gov, and a few others. ccTLDs stands for country-code top level domains and consist of .us, .de, .jp, etc. ccTLDs are worth significantly less than TLDs, but that will be covered in a later chapter. If TLDs stands for top level domains, you may be wondering what the other level domains are. There are three domain levels. The top level is the extension (.com, .net, etc), the second level is the keywords you register (Microsoft is the second level domain in Microsoft.com), and the third level is the subdomain (www is the default third level domain, but others may be added at the discretion of each website). Traditionally the first and second level domains are the only ones you really need to worry about as a domainer. However there has been a recent trend towards incorporating third level domains into the overall domain name. Del.icio.us, for example, is a play on the extension system and has become an extremely popular website. Icio.us by itself would be fairly worthless, but incorporating “del” as the third level domain gives it value and makes it memorable. Keep in mind that it is very rare that a domain relying on the inclusion of a third level domain becomes as valuable as del.icio.us has, but it’s a trend that you should keep in mind when evaluating domain value.

It would be unnecessary to go through the entire history of extensions and what each one is. The main thing you as a domainer should know when dealing with extensions is the extension hierarchy.

1. .com
2. .net/.org
3. all other TLDs

Keep in mind that there are a ton more domains that could be added to this hierarchy, but once you get below the gTLDs it gets a little fuzzy as to which domains are actually worth more than others. When researching the top sales over the past year, one could argue that .de, .co.uk, and lately .mobi could be held to a higher regard than other sub-gTLDs, but that varies from sale to sale and could change at any time depending on sales trends.

This hierarchy is not absolute and does not entirely apply for every domain. The domain extension is not the sole decider of domain value, but it does play a significant role. For example, Lyrics.co.uk sold for $80,000 in early 2006. In that case, the value of the domain is secondary to that of the keyword (Lyrics) which is a very highly-valued keyword. However, it should also be noted that Lyrics.com would most likely be worth millions. So although domains containing lower end extensions can still be worth a good amount depending on their keyword(s), the higher level extensions with the same keyword(s) will always be worth more.

Dot Com is King

There is no question about it; .com is the most highly valued extension available on the market today and has been since it was released. Eighty-seven of the top one hundred YTD domain sales (at the time of this segment) are .com domains. Sex.net currently ranks number eight with a sales tag of $454,500 in May 2006. Sex is an amazing keyword and .net is a good TLD, but this monumental sale is entirely overshadowed by the sale of Sex.com which sold for an estimated $14 million of a mix of cash and stock. This is the perfect illustration of how although the keyword is the most important part of a domain name, one cannot neglect the extension and should always consider it when valuing a domain name.

Jumping on New Extensions

An important part of being a domainer is always knowing what new extensions are coming out and being ready to jump on the premium keywords as soon as new extensions are open for registration. The most recent extension released was .mobi which was intended to be used for websites catering to users accessing their pages via mobile devices - hence the tagline “Internet Made Mobile.” New extensions will most likely never be as valuable as the original gTLDs, but depending on which keyword you get there is still a good deal of money to be made with new extensions. Mortgages.mobi sold in October 2006, less than a month after the extension was open for registration, for $10,500 at Pool.com. Pool.com has also hosted a number of other .mobi sales for premium keyword domains and has seen some very notable transactions. The biggest .mobi sale to date was Flowers.mobi which sold for $200,000 at Florida 2006 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Conference live auction.

The best part about new extensions is that you can grab up some very good keyword domains at registration fee. Although with new extensions those registration fees are getting higher and higher, even peaking over $x,xxx per domain per year. However if you can get a very good keyword domain for $x,xxx registration fee and flip it for ten times that, it is worth the investment.