Ultimate Guide to Domain Flipping for Beginners

Domain flipping is one of the best side hustles to make money online and this is for a reason. Starting an online business requires you as an entrepreneur to register a domain name and buy web hosting as the barest minimum investment. With your own domain name and website hosting, you can build a website or start a blog to promote your business locally and globally.

 

And because domain name registration is on first come first serve basis, holding all other factors constant, you may not be smart or lucky enough to get the exact domain name you desire to brand your business when you are starting out.

 

To this end, trading in domain names has become a huge money-making industry of sorts to discerning investors. Every now and then, you’ll come across domain aftermarkets where inventory of thousands to millions of names is listed for sale at prices you cannot fathom.

 

The question is, “Why is it so?” This is because business owners who want to grow their brands and project strong online presence are willing to invest tidy sum of money to buy a domain name which is specific to their business.

 

In this ultimate guide to domain flipping for beginners, I’m going to spill the beans on how to make money buying and selling domain names for profit. With as little as $10, you can buy a domain and sell it for quick cash. All you need is the requisite knowledge to pick up a quality domain name that ticks all the dots for a quick cash sale.

 

In this blog post, I’ll walk you through all the steps to research and get a domain name worth selling for cash. There is nothing complicated about buying and selling domain names on the World Wide Web. What you really need is the patience to research a good domain name with lots of potential buyers in sight before you step your foot at the door.

 

While it’s true that you can make money with domain names, it’s never a get rich quick scheme. Domain investing must be strategic for you to be able to turn it to a full-time side hustle business and make profit. In other words, you want to buy a domain name and quickly reach out to potential leads who are willing and able to pay premium money to own it as soon as possible.

 

Domaining is like digging the treasure trove to find precious gold. Imagine purchasing a domain for about $10 to $100 and selling it for $1000 or more within a period of 12 months without doing any grunt work other than listing it at secondary marketplaces like Atom.com, Dan.com, Afternic.com or GoDaddy.com!

 

A lot of domainers are making money online from domain name business investments on daily basis. But for you to be successful at domain investing, you’ve to hone strong digital marketing skills to identify real potential buyers in advance, have requisite business tools to work with, have gut feeling to know a domain worth buying and the creativity and foresight to spot diamonds in the rough besides setting aside reasonable amount of budget to get started.

 

But if you’re starting on a shoestring budget, setting aside between $50 and $100 cash investment will be okay to buy your first batch of domains of about 3 to 5. But the higher the budget, the better for you to turn in profits quickly as you’ll be able to leverage several sources to get premium domain names to resell for profit as quickly as possible.

 

For example, if you’ve starting budget of $1000, you’ll be able to tap into several marketplaces such as domain auctions, closeouts, backorder services and aftermarkets to source for and buy cheap but high-quality domain names you can quickly resell at a profit. This is one of the best ways to earn and thrive in this ever-competitive domain business.

 

With that said, let’s dive in!

 

Types of Domains for Sale

 

Depending on your research and conviction to register a domain, there are different variants of domains for sale which your potential buyers will find valuable. The most important factor before investing in a domain name is the value which your potential buyers will derive from your sale. What value will it bring to the table of any intending buyer?

 

If you cannot attach any value to your virtual real estate you intend to purchase, there is no reason to buy it in the first place. This is because it will be difficult for you to pitch, convince and sell such domain to any reachable entrepreneur who you may contact during your outbound marketing if need be.

 

In this blueprint, I’ll discuss domain for sale types which you can have success with.

 

• Brandable domain names
• Exact match domain (EMD)
• Geo + keyword domains
• Keyword + descriptive prefix or suffix

 

Brandable Domain Names

 

This type of name has to do with creativity and ability of a domainer to combine English words or letters to form a unique brand business name. For example, Google.com, YouTube.com and Facebook.com are brandable domain names. The creative word combination is unique and compelling. If you ask me what has “face” got to do with “book” in the Facebook domain name, I’ll not be able to give you a straightforward answer.

 

But selling brandable domains is slow and can tie down a lot of capital. You may hold your inventory for years before finding a buyer. The worst part is that it’s difficult to know exactly who your potential buyers are at the beginning of researching leads and prospects to market your domain for sale to.

 

In any case, you can focus on a niche per time which will make it easy for you to come up with viable domain name ideas to register or buy for reselling at a profit. Atom.com (formerly Squadhelp.com) is one of the best marketplaces to buy brandable domain names.

 

Exact Match Domain (EMD)

 

EMD is an exact keyword phrase registered as a website domain in the order it is being searched for online by users. For instance, “small business ideas” is a keyword phrase which internet users search for on monthly basis. Now, if you own the domain name, SmallBusinessIdeas.com, you’ve an exact match domain in your portfolio.

 

An easy way to get EMD is by using keyword tools such a Google Keyword Planner. However, a valuable EMD is one that has a lot of monthly search volume, high CPC (cost per click) and competition in mostly high-paying niches such as insurance, finance, technology, etc.

 

What if you own BabyShower.com? I can bet you that manufacturers and entrepreneurs will beat a path to your doorstep to buy it from you. The type-in traffic factor and search engine optimization (SEO) benefits of an exact match domain (EMD) make it highly valuable to entrepreneurs and investors alike. You can play around with keyword research tools to find valuable EMDs that are available to register or make use of ExpiredDomains.net to get some expired domains to buy at mere registration cost.

 

Geo + Keyword Domains

 

These are geographically oriented domain names. A dentist in New York can buy NewYorkDentist.com from you if you own it without batting an eyelid. Keywords related to services or products are highly marketable when combined with geographic locations.

 

As is always the case, expensive niches or services will command more money than the others when you’re selling domains associated with geographic locations.

 

Keyword + Descriptive Prefix or Suffix

 

As a domain investor, there are good keywords or phrases worth investing in at any day or time. It could be trending keywords or emerging technology. Let’s say you cannot afford to buy Business.com as a domain name to sell later. You can append a suffix like “hub” to the “business” keyword and then come up with BusinessHub.com to sell.

 

Some years back, I registered PassiveIncomeHub.com and sold it for quick cash of $260 as I could not lay my hands on PassiveIncome.com. All I did was to add the suffix “hub” to “passive income” keyword and I received an inbound offer to sell it.

 

In this case, you’ve to keep a file of common and valuable prefixes, suffixes or stop words which you can append to good keywords such as hub, joy, pro, center, base, etc.

 

How to Identify Valuable Domain Name

 

The characteristics of a good domain name make it valuable when it comes to selling. The more characteristics a domain name has, the merrier and valuable it is.  As a domain flipper, you’ve to intuitively consider and evaluate all these factors in a domain when thinking of investing in a name to sell for profit.

 

Some of these characteristics include age of domain, quality backlinks, length of domain, brandable, target keyword, commercial viability, memorable, free from trademark infringement, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, easy to remember, not hyphenated, passes radio test, distinctive, etc.

 

With experience and practice, you’ll be able to stack these qualities together when evaluating a domain name to buy before investing in it in a jiffy. For you to be on a speed lane, develop the habit of regularly checking out domains sold reports published online at NameBio.com, DNJournal.com/domainsales.htm, Domaining.com, etc.

 

How to Buy Low and Sell High

 

The first step to quickly sell your domain is to buy something that will appeal to a lot of prospects and leads in terms of brand value it projects, SEO benefits, keyword targeted, etc. You can hand register a domain name for $10, buy from closeouts for about $20, bid at auctions with less competitive bids or research and contact individual domain owners especially undeveloped domains.

 

You can then list your domains for sale in premium marketplaces like Dan.com, Afternic.com, Atom.com, Sedo.com, just to name a few. Sooner or later, we’ll be releasing complete domain flipping guide to help aspiring entrepreneurs to make money with domain names. You can bookmark this page for the link.

Places to Sell Domain Names

The best marketplaces to sell your domain are secondary markets where your domains for sale will receive wider exposure. You can check out places like Afternic.com, Atom.com, Sedo.com, Dan.com, Daaz.com, etc.