The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Monetizing Domain Names

Anything considered a "hustle" and not necessarily a CENTS-based Fastlane

Brass777

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
80%
Apr 29, 2012
5
4
Mentor, Ohio
I understand that keyword domain names and just flipping them for profit is over with.

I have over 300 domains that are a mix of brandables with keyword relevancy mostly .COM and 1-2 words. Some are newer TLD extensions but also relevant.

I dont think entrepreneurs want to buy domains anymore? It seems odd as some are exactly specific, for example, NYWindow.com I would reach out to a window company in NY and offer it to them with a free website and hosting for 1 year for $500 and I would get ZERO interest, after contacting about 20 companies.

I even tried placing directories on them and that still did not work, no one saw the value in this.

any other ideas?
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Martin.G

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
107%
Jan 31, 2019
175
187
Argentina
The problem, in my opinion, is that you can get a new domain and a hosting for $20 a year. Not NYWindow.com, but NYWindows.com or others options. Also, if someone has a brand, probably they are going to buy a domain with the brand in the name.
 

Kristjan

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
262%
Apr 15, 2019
13
34
I understand that keyword domain names and just flipping them for profit is over with.

I have over 300 domains that are a mix of brandables with keyword relevancy mostly .COM and 1-2 words. Some are newer TLD extensions but also relevant.

I dont think entrepreneurs want to buy domains anymore? It seems odd as some are exactly specific, for example, NYWindow.com I would reach out to a window company in NY and offer it to them with a free website and hosting for 1 year for $500 and I would get ZERO interest, after contacting about 20 companies.

I even tried placing directories on them and that still did not work, no one saw the value in this.

any other ideas?
Maybe you want to try Godaddy auctions?
 

Thinh

Bronze Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
213%
Aug 11, 2018
134
286
I understand that keyword domain names and just flipping them for profit is over with.

I have over 300 domains that are a mix of brandables with keyword relevancy mostly .COM and 1-2 words. Some are newer TLD extensions but also relevant.

I dont think entrepreneurs want to buy domains anymore? It seems odd as some are exactly specific, for example, NYWindow.com I would reach out to a window company in NY and offer it to them with a free website and hosting for 1 year for $500 and I would get ZERO interest, after contacting about 20 companies.

I even tried placing directories on them and that still did not work, no one saw the value in this.

any other ideas?
Dont waste your time. You’re just playing lottery.
People not knowledgeable in internet hosting and domains don’t care for keyword relevant domains. And certainly won’t pay a premium for it.
Knowledgeable people, on the other hand, know better than to purchase overpriced domains and hosting.

Flipping domain names is a 2010s thing.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

PaulMarin

New Contributor
Read Rat-Race Escape!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
63%
Mar 2, 2017
8
5
Costar Rica
Hello Brass777,

I have recently received a message from a total stranger (Broker? ) She offered me a .COM with same keywords of a domain I have kept for years now with a .NET extension. Obviously, I was interested as the first option is always a .com when you find some nice keywords. That was a nice approach to selling if you ask me.

I asked her how much was she asking for and it was reasonable. Not like my name (PaulMarin.com ) which is being sold for thousands of dollars last time I checked.(I own .net and some others though. Narcissist? Probably LoL! )

So I went and purchased the domain name. I was always very careful with every step of the process, making sure there was some escrow process in place to make sure everything was transparent. And it was such a great experience that I was totally amazed. (I got the domain name processed and using my DNS in less than 2 days )

The services I used though, were unknown to me. I have worked with Godaddy and HostGator only for more than 15 years. For that transaction, I had to create an account with Dan.com and NameBright.com which I never heard of.

Of course, I did my research and I found more pros than cons. The only people trashing Dan.com were the guys that were trying to purchase domains for $9.99 for the precious keywords they found on the Keyword planner at google but it was too late, and some "domain slinger" was faster and now they would need to pay a couple of zeros more if they really wanted them.

Now, as I am a happy buyer for that domain name I was talking about, the worm for domain flipping entered my head again. It was such a simple transaction, automated by Dan.com + NameBright.com that I decided to create a seller account on Dan.com and upload a couple of domains to see what happens.

I have these domains among others: LimeLimo.com and SEMCR.com with an appraisal coming from several sites like Saw.com and Godaddy.com Of course, the system allows a potential buyer to make an offer and you as the seller have a field to enter the min offer you'd accept.

I reckon I'm not the most experienced (or clever) but I have always loved simple. And nothing has been as simple as the purchase I did recently. So, I don't see why it shouldn't work for me this time. After all, this model is more like real estate rather than a lottery.

I'll let you folks know how it goes.
 
Last edited:

RicardoGrande

Silver Contributor
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
250%
May 9, 2021
353
883
The juice is not worth the squeeze. Someone said earlier, it's like you're playing the lottery.

Say you're a lower-class person, you don't even know much about websites but you want to make your NY window cleaning business known.
You go to godaddy.com, you type in NYWindowCleaner.com and search aaaaaaand- it's not available.
You see something about a broker, you click the button.
You find out two words and an acronym will cost you 500$ to purchase.
"F&*# that!"
You click your browser's back button.
You type in NYBestWindows.com
Taken.
You go Back again.
You type in NYWindowSheen.com
It's actually available for 9.99$ or 7.99$ with the new customer discount.
You take it and build a 3,000,000$/yr company.
The new name isn't what you wanted but it still gets the message through and it hosts the site, which is good enough while your team is hitting the pavement and providing the VALUE.

Having a nice domain name is good but when predatory parkers are just sitting on them waiting for a pay day, it's far easier and arguably better (in terms of being creative and having options to choose from) to just go back to the drawing board and find something that wasn't sniped upon expiry or "monetized".
TBH though I would have registrars ban domain squatters and then have the squatters dunked in a cold river in front of the townespeople.
Have a nice day.
 

PaulMarin

New Contributor
Read Rat-Race Escape!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
63%
Mar 2, 2017
8
5
Costar Rica
The juice is not worth the squeeze. Someone said earlier, it's like you're playing the lottery.

Say you're a lower-class person, you don't even know much about websites but you want to make your NY window cleaning business known.
You go to godaddy.com, you type in NYWindowCleaner.com and search aaaaaaand- it's not available.
You see something about a broker, you click the button.
You find out two words and an acronym will cost you 500$ to purchase.
"F&*# that!"
You click your browser's back button.
You type in NYBestWindows.com
Taken.
You go Back again.
You type in NYWindowSheen.com
It's actually available for 9.99$ or 7.99$ with the new customer discount.
You take it and build a 3,000,000$/yr company.
The new name isn't what you wanted but it still gets the message through and it hosts the site, which is good enough while your team is hitting the pavement and providing the VALUE.

Having a nice domain name is good but when predatory parkers are just sitting on them waiting for a pay day, it's far easier and arguably better (in terms of being creative and having options to choose from) to just go back to the drawing board and find something that wasn't sniped upon expiry or "monetized".
TBH though I would have registrars ban domain squatters and then have the squatters dunked in a cold river in front of the townespeople.
Have a nice day.


I see your point Ricardo. If there is no work at all behind the action of buying a domain name and selling it later for a profit, there would be only sheer luck involved. However, if you purchased a domain name based on your research, then it should be a different story. Factors like how many searches per month, how much actual money some businesses pay per click on that particular keyword on Google, and some other factors that escape my limited knowledge.

Something like this story with my late father: He sold a small property to his cousin about 20 years ago for about $3,000. Today, the market price with no development at all, places it at about $60,000 (The cousin has it priced for about $100,000 ) The only difference is the access to the property was improved by the Municipality. Also inflation I guess. My father would've just kept the property, that would've been a nice revenue with just a little investment in taxes and maintenance on his part.

Let's say, tomorrow you find that "weightlossdiet.com" is available. If you check Godaddy, it tells you it is priced for more than $10,000 and some other site, for $45,000 Somebody purchased it when Internet started and then probably gave up on online stuff, or simply passed away and was so greedy, that preferred to keep it a secret or some other story. Today, for you if you hurry up to purchase, it will be just $9.00

The $45K question: What would you do?
 
Last edited:

Hong_Kong

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
126%
Apr 7, 2022
215
270
The juice is not worth the squeeze. Someone said earlier, it's like you're playing the lottery.

Say you're a lower-class person, you don't even know much about websites but you want to make your NY window cleaning business known.
You go to godaddy.com, you type in NYWindowCleaner.com and search aaaaaaand- it's not available.
You see something about a broker, you click the button.
You find out two words and an acronym will cost you 500$ to purchase.
"F&*# that!"
You click your browser's back button.
You type in NYBestWindows.com
Taken.
You go Back again.
You type in NYWindowSheen.com
It's actually available for 9.99$ or 7.99$ with the new customer discount.
You take it and build a 3,000,000$/yr company.
The new name isn't what you wanted but it still gets the message through and it hosts the site, which is good enough while your team is hitting the pavement and providing the VALUE.

Having a nice domain name is good but when predatory parkers are just sitting on them waiting for a pay day, it's far easier and arguably better (in terms of being creative and having options to choose from) to just go back to the drawing board and find something that wasn't sniped upon expiry or "monetized".
TBH though I would have registrars ban domain squatters and then have the squatters dunked in a cold river in front of the townespeople.
Have a nice day.
I agree, and also to add the market for premium domains like this is less and less over time due to the increased number of TLD. For the window cleaning if that one was taken they could still use .nyc .us .online .link etc.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Royce2

y'all need jesus
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
206%
Dec 16, 2018
154
317
Washington State
My approach is not just buy the domain, but the whole brand, before I buy the domain I make sure I can reserve the handle and usernames on the big platforms or at least be very close. Then I do what I love most is to design the brand package. I haven’t tried selling any of my domains yet but I am working on one and I’ll let you know if I sell and for how much.

I am not an expert in this field but I do dabble. I bought an expired domain for $500 for a two word 6 character brand name. Worth it for me, I would’ve paid $2,000 because of how niche specific yet generic it is.

Spamzilla.io has so many amazing expired domains that are high ranking and you can search for exactly what you want. Be careful though because a lot of them are fluff and seem like good ones but actually have bad spammy links etc.

I also have some big dog nft related domains that are exact words with just a different extension if anyones randomly interested in buying. Pm
 

PaulMarin

New Contributor
Read Rat-Race Escape!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
63%
Mar 2, 2017
8
5
Costar Rica
My approach is not just buy the domain, but the whole brand, before I buy the domain I make sure I can reserve the handle and usernames on the big platforms or at least be very close. Then I do what I love most is to design the brand package. I haven’t tried selling any of my domains yet but I am working on one and I’ll let you know if I sell and for how much.

I am not an expert in this field but I do dabble. I bought an expired domain for $500 for a two word 6 character brand name. Worth it for me, I would’ve paid $2,000 because of how niche specific yet generic it is.

Spamzilla.io has so many amazing expired domains that are high ranking and you can search for exactly what you want. Be careful though because a lot of them are fluff and seem like good ones but actually have bad spammy links etc.

I also have some big dog nft related domains that are exact words with just a different extension if anyones randomly interested in buying. Pm

Hello Royce! Thanks for the tip. That website spamzilla.io looks great. I will try it to see what I can find.

I have a lot of domains I've been collecting through the years for different projects and I reckon I've procrastinated long enough. That is why I am back to the horse and the first place I visited was this forum.

I'm all eyes if you have any other tip.
 

Hong_Kong

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
126%
Apr 7, 2022
215
270
Hello Royce! Thanks for the tip. That website spamzilla.io looks great. I will try it to see what I can find.

I have a lot of domains I've been collecting through the years for different projects and I reckon I've procrastinated long enough. That is why I am back to the horse and the first place I visited was this forum.

I'm all eyes if you have any other tip.
I used to do this too. I had TONS of domains just sitting there from previous businesses / projects. After a while, I realized it doesn't matter. Its better to pick a domain even if its crap and build up a business. For the window cleaning example you could have a domain that is just numbers like 555.com and still offer more value than your competitors and build a big business. Once I realized this I just turned off the renewal for those domains and just kept one.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Royce2

y'all need jesus
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
206%
Dec 16, 2018
154
317
Washington State
Hello Royce! Thanks for the tip. That website spamzilla.io looks great. I will try it to see what I can find.

I have a lot of domains I've been collecting through the years for different projects and I reckon I've procrastinated long enough. That is why I am back to the horse and the first place I visited was this forum.

I'm all eyes if you have any other
Be very careful with how much domains you’re constantly spending money to keep. If you have 300 domains you’re probably spending $300 or more per month just to keep them. And that might not even be the problem because every domain name has to be justified and needs to have a plan.
Thoughts to consider:
- run through the domain names through some tool that can let you know if they ever been searched for. Like AHREFS but it’s pricey at $99 a month.

And the ones that are most likely to garner attention, either Park them, or advertise them to sell

If any are just dead and sucking money, I say cut the fat and either sell them on auctions starting at $10 or let them expire.

Another is niche relevancy, if your domain is a juicy keyword magnet for example like organicdogfood.com or windowcleaningexperts.com where it’s not a brand but rather a category, then consider actually building out a quick blog site and let it run
 

PaulMarin

New Contributor
Read Rat-Race Escape!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
63%
Mar 2, 2017
8
5
Costar Rica
Be very careful with how much domains you’re constantly spending money to keep. If you have 300 domains you’re probably spending $300 or more per month just to keep them. And that might not even be the problem because every domain name has to be justified and needs to have a plan.
Thoughts to consider:
- run through the domain names through some tool that can let you know if they ever been searched for. Like AHREFS but it’s pricey at $99 a month.

And the ones that are most likely to garner attention, either Park them, or advertise them to sell

If any are just dead and sucking money, I say cut the fat and either sell them on auctions starting at $10 or let them expire.

Another is niche relevancy, if your domain is a juicy keyword magnet for example like organicdogfood.com or windowcleaningexperts.com where it’s not a brand but rather a category, then consider actually building out a quick blog site and let it run
Thank you, Royce and Hong Kong for your latest comments. Your advice is well received and I am taking action on many of those parked domains I have doing nothing but aging based on the experience of all the participants on this thread today.
 

Thinh

Bronze Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
213%
Aug 11, 2018
134
286
You guys are quick to forget the commandment of entry. Focusing on this endeavor was a killer move 25 years ago, because no one knew shit about domain names.
It was a good move 15 years ago, because there was plenty of opportunity still.
It was an OK to mediocre move 10 years ago because the market got saturated.

Nowadays? There are literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people doing exactly the same as you are.

I’m saying this even though I actually sold a random domain name 3 months ago for $3,000 (I say random because I purchased the domain name a couple years ago with a project idea but never did anything. I never intended to re-sell it for a premium). Key word is random. I have zero interest in doing this because the time and effort it requires is not worth the meager rewards.

On a side note, probabilistically, there will be several people on the internet who’ll have made a fortune flipping domain names. I posit that 1/ 90% these people started years—if not decades—ago and 2/ the remaining 5% simply got lucky.

*Bracing for incoming posts about how luck should not play a role in an entrepreneur’s life*
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

PaulMarin

New Contributor
Read Rat-Race Escape!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
63%
Mar 2, 2017
8
5
Costar Rica
You guys are quick to forget the commandment of entry. Focusing on this endeavor was a killer move 25 years ago, because no one knew shit about domain names.
It was a good move 15 years ago, because there was plenty of opportunity still.
It was an OK to mediocre move 10 years ago because the market got saturated.

Nowadays? There are literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people doing exactly the same as you are.

I’m saying this even though I actually sold a random domain name 3 months ago for $3,000 (I say random because I purchased the domain name a couple years ago with a project idea but never did anything. I never intended to re-sell it for a premium). Key word is random. I have zero interest in doing this because the time and effort it requires is not worth the meager rewards.

On a side note, probabilistically, there will be several people on the internet who’ll have made a fortune flipping domain names. I posit that 1/ 90% these people started years—if not decades—ago and 2/ the remaining 5% simply got lucky.

*Bracing for incoming posts about how luck should not play a role in an entrepreneur’s life*


You're damn right Thinh! You're full of wisdom. I need to read my notes on MJ's books. That is indeed a basic principle right there. But what can I say? I'm just getting back on the horse after years of working hard to pay my dues.

I'll be revisiting this thread from time to time. Thanks!
 
Last edited:

Royce2

y'all need jesus
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
206%
Dec 16, 2018
154
317
Washington State
You guys are quick to forget the commandment of entry. Focusing on this endeavor was a killer move 25 years ago, because no one knew shit about domain names.
It was a good move 15 years ago, because there was plenty of opportunity still.
It was an OK to mediocre move 10 years ago because the market got saturated.

Nowadays? There are literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people doing exactly the same as you are.

I’m saying this even though I actually sold a random domain name 3 months ago for $3,000 (I say random because I purchased the domain name a couple years ago with a project idea but never did anything. I never intended to re-sell it for a premium). Key word is random. I have zero interest in doing this because the time and effort it requires is not worth the meager rewards.

On a side note, probabilistically, there will be several people on the internet who’ll have made a fortune flipping domain names. I posit that 1/ 90% these people started years—if not decades—ago and 2/ the remaining 5% simply got lucky.

*Bracing for incoming posts about how luck should not play a role in an entrepreneur’s life*
Absolutely agree with that. This model should definitely not be considered fast lane in anyway unless as I mentioned, you shift towards a different business model which is increased difficulty for entry and has opportunities to provide more value, even then it eventually turns into a completely different focus on business and forces you to make the money completely apart from “domain flipping”
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top