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Domaining Featured Articles Web Development

Domainers Tools – Keyword Research & Insights

These tools are extremely important in helping to find out how valuable a domain name is. Keyword research can give you a rough idea of how often a particular phrase is searched for at the top search engines. The Google keyword tool is one of my favorites, it tells you how strong the advertising competition is for a particular keyword or phrase – plus you can check the popularity of a keyword based on a language or a specific country… very useful for ccTlds.

You shouldn’t register or buy a domain name based on just one particular tool – you need to research a little further. The Google tool for example only provides data based on searches done via Google – it doesn’t take into account other search engines – ie. Yahoo or MSN Live.  Using a number of keyword research tools can help you get a better idea of the overall searches & the market.

The Google Insights tool is very powerful. I’ve probably only uncovered 10% of its uses so far. It can look a bit daunting and complicated to use – but take a look at this guide to help you understand it better : How to Use Google Insights

KeywordSpy is somewhat underrated. If used together with google keyword tool it can help you get a lot of information on how popular and valuable a particular search term might be. I use these tools not only for finding domain names but also for SEO and even for deciding which keywords to use for parking.

These tools can help you find out what keywords are helping to rank a particular site in search engines… what people search for and where they are located. For example the word “Condo” is searched for more in the USA than it is in Europe, if you had a domain name with that keyword (PalmCondos.com for example) you could save time by targeting your sales to the US market (and anywhere else that they use the word) rather than wasting time trying to sell it to someone in a country where they don’t use that word much. Information like this can help you decide not only whether to register a particular keyword ccTld domain, but also give you some idea of keywords to use when parking or developing the site.

Categories
Domaining

Best Whois Tools – Find out Who Owns a Domain Name

Pronounced as “who is“, these sites/tools help you find out who owns a domain name as well as other vital domain registry information such as registration date, expiry date, last update, name servers etc.  There are thousands of whois tools that provide more or less the same data – some provide more than others and present the information in different ways.  Below I’ve listed the ones that I use the most…

You’ll most likely find one at every domain registrar and as I’ve said there are probably thousands of other ones – but it is a good idea to use trusted whois tools when you’re checking for available domain names because most of these query tools mine the data and can use your searches to register good names for the owners. Some of the tools out there even place holds on certain names after you’ve checked them – so you’re only able to register that particular name at their registry.

The tools I’ve listed above are all safe to use. They do not mine data.

If you use other whois services that you know are 100% safe from data mining then please leave a comment with the url and I’ll add them to this list.

Categories
Domaining Featured Articles

Investing in Indian Domains – My Story

There have been some mixed views when it comes to investing in Indian domain names. For some, it has been very lucrative but for other speculators its so far been quite frustrating. Like with the introduction of any new extensions, too many people jumped in head first when .in (India’s top level domain extension) was first released. Those who put some thought into it and had a plan – have already seen good returns. Those who followed the hype without research have been left with a sour taste.

The .in Extension Hasn’t Matured Just Yet!

The .in is a fairly new extension and that is something a lot of people forget. What is now a third-level tld; the .co.in was India’s mainstream extension for some time.

The .in extension was introduced as somewhat a “vanity” domain extension. Speculators were unsure whether it would ever catch-on because of the .co.in already being in use before .in was released. Besides, for many years people in India had always preferred the gTld’s (top level domains – .com / .net / .org) over their own country codes.

Some of the initial doubts were quickly banished – especially when the .in Registry launched a promotion where people were able to register Indian domains for around $3 – $4 each! Millions of .in domain names were registered and toward the end of the promotion we even saw the LLL.in buyout.

Less Doubters, More Investors… But Not Exactly a Good Thing Yet!

The liberalization of registration rules in 2005 led to a drastic increase in .in domain registrations. People soon realized that the .in extension presented a great opportunity for local and international companies wanting to represent their business in India. It wasn’t long before some big name companies started launching their websites on the .in extension – albeit they still had their presence on the .co.in extension too.

Like I said… a LOT of domains were registered. This didn’t mean that these domains were registered for immediate use – ie. they weren’t registered by the companies or “end-users”… these domains were registered mainly by domain speculators – people like you and me. People without an interest in developing websites on the domain names that they had bought. This had some obvious implications. It hurts the extension a little if sites aren’t being developed on them. The less developed sites equals less promotion and in turn means less awareness of the extension – all of which contribute toward number of sales.

Sales throughout the first years were quite rare, most of it was being done amongst domainers for small profits.

The Importance of Planning & Research

Those who invested in the extension with a solid plan – ie. registering only quality names / keywords / popular search terms and with the intention (or at least expectation) to hold the domains for a few years, maybe 3-4 at least – weren’t worried.  In fact I don’t think it bothered them too much that now there was so much negative hype… because they knew this wasn’t going to be a get-rich-quick kind of thing. It hardly ever is! The wise investors were in it for the long run. They knew they had to be patient… they’d done their planning and researcing.

The worry and negative views came mainly from those who invested heavily without a plan, without researching the market, without — and this was the most important fact — without taking into account, that the names they registered for $3-$4 each will cost $14+ to renew in the coming year. I believe this was the downfall for many domainers. Especially when they didn’t realize in time what was ahead.

A bit of Luck…

I have to admit, I was quite lucky. I wasn’t one of those who had a solid plan, nor did I realize that the $3-$4 price was actually a promotion and not going to be around the following year! However, I didn’t start taking notice of the .in domains until late towards the end of the promotion period. By then most of the good names had already been taken – even out of the 3 letter domains, only the poor quality letters had remained. This was good for me, because it stopped me from pouring too much money into the extension at this stage.

Saying that, I still ended up with about 80+ LLL.in domains. Really poor ones at that!

As soon as the promo had ended and the buyout had occurred, it struck me! I had some liabilities on my hands. These little domains needed to be shifted at the right time otherwise I’d be left with a big renewal fee come 2009 – and so it began… my plan.

There’s Money to be Made in Indian Domains… but…

I knew that there was money to be made on .in domain names. Come on! if you think about the size of the Indian population, take into consideration the rate of growth, economic stability and availability of internet and broadband – its a developing country, developing very fast!… sooner or later… these domains will be needed by the upcoming companies. It’s just a matter of time.

I only had a handful on keyword .in domains – names like www.Steroid.in – and LoveStory.in / LoveSongs.in – nothing amazing, but still some decent names. Names which I’d decided I would hold for at least 3-4 years.

But at the same time, I had a strong feeling that the three letter .in buyout would not hold come 2009. Those who didn’t think about it would realize (when it was too late) that they wouldn’t be able to afford the $14 renewal fees on each of the names. I knew this would affect the market in general because there were too many investors who jumped in because of the hype and the low reg fees during promotion.

Analyzing the Markets and other Domainers

I’d come across at least 4-5 people (none from India by the way) who had registered thousands of  three letter Indian (.in) domains. What this told me was that thousands of these domains will likely end up expiring because these people didn’t have the funds to renew them. UNLESS – they were wise enough to sell parts of their portfolio in time to make a profit, enough profits to renew the better quality names.

I kept an eye on these people with large portfolios, I’m sure a lot of the investors had also been doing the same. In my view, they controlled the LLL.in market – maybe without even realizing it. What they did (or didn’t do) would decide for me and for many others on what course of action to take with our own small portfolios. If they didn’t sell their domains at the right time (I’ll get to that later) then it could prove to be costly for them. They’d be faced with renewing thousands of names that weren’t exactly the cream of the crop. And I assumed if the time had passed then they’d most likely end up dropping large quantities of their portfolio.

So my plan was to carefully monitor what other people were doing. At the same time I kept a close eye on the markets to see how much 3L .in’s were going for. Within a few months the base price had jumped to around $10-$12 even for the lowest quality LLL.in domains.

Time to Sell the LLL.in

This was it, I made the decision to sell as many as I could. I knew that once 6-7 months had passed on each domain, the prices would start to drop. I’d assumed the peak pricing period would be around June-July when most of the names from the buyout’s backend were nearing their 6-7 month lifeline. So I sold about 30 domains and had a decent profit – around 150% ROI on most of my 3 letter .in domains.

I kept the better quality ones for a little while longer to see how the market pans out. Around August/September 2008 it started to head downwards as I expected. So I began to sell off some more. If I’d left it any longer then I knew that the less time remaining on registration for each name, the less people would want to pay for them.

During the last few months of 2008, I also started to pick up some premium LLL.in domains and keywords. Like I said before, I have a feeling the better names will do well in a couple of years time.

A little bit More of that Luck

I was lucky enough to make a couple of decent sales via Sedo. Most notably, a 3 Letter .in – a semi-premium name which I’d bought for $30 ended up selling for $900 and a few more sold for $300-$400 each (which I’d picked up for $10 or less). This meant I had enough funds to renew my remaining names and at the same time invest in a few more premium names. By now, the keyword domains started getting some type-in traffic too – and they were making enough from parking to fund their own renewals.

NostraShaymus’ Pridictions come True!

Excuse the pun! 😉

Just as I’d predicted, the holders of large .in domain portfolios failed to sell at the right time and ended up dropping thousands of names – many of which are double premiums. This has left a lot of people in bad situations because they’d also kept their investments and hadn’t planned in advance. Those who renewed their low quality names will most likely regret doing so, especially in the short term; because better names are dropping each day. This will likely continue for a few more weeks.

A double premium which was worth $30-$40 a few months ago is now worth little more than reg-fee at best. Especially with the re-introduction of the Indian domain registration promotion ($4 at name.com). The good thing is that the promotion will help a lot of the dropped LLL.in domains to be registered again…  and no doubt this will in turn bring the prices back up pretty soon.

I Done Alright… luckily…

Although I was lucky with a few sales, I still think the fact that I had researched the market and had a plan helped me to become stronger in this niche. I’ve taken advice from others with more experience (Jagusa / MediaWiz etc. from NamePros.com) and also followed what was going on in the aftermarkets.

I had done enough to position myself well and take the right actions at the right time. I sold at the peak and re-invested when the prices went down. In fact this is probably the best time to invest. The financial situation around the world is at a low, the LLL.in buyout failed after those big drops and people are quite strapped for cash… perfect ingredients to invest if you have the funds (just remember to do some research and go in with a plan).

Investing for a Brighter Future

I’ve recently bought a dozen or more all premium three letter indian domains for around $60-$80 each. Names which I know will sell in a years time for $200 each. Not that I’m planning on selling them so quickly. My plan now is to invest in a few more and hold them for a few years. I don’t think I’ll sell any of my all premium domains unless its to end-users. I’m happy to wait for offers of $1000 + on each name. Going by occasional sales and increasing interest in Indian domains, I don’t think that it’s going to be a long time before my names get to that 1k mark.

You can see a few recent sales on the InForum.in Blog – Click here… again, nothing amazing.. .but it shows names going to end-users which means more sites will spring up. Its a positive sign.

What about YOU? Tell me your story…

I congratulate you for having the patience to read down all the way here…  🙂 That was quite an essay huh?!

So that’s me and my views, what about you and yours? I’d love to hear from other .in investors. How have you found the market? What are your views on investing in Indian domains? Whats your plan? Share it by leaving a comment below.

Categories
Make Money Web Development

Web Designers and Developers in Demand

Web designers and developers are probably more in demand now than ever before, especially with the questionable economy. Personally, I think this is just the start. I’ve been developing web sites for over  10 years, mainly for myself, but over the last two years I’ve been taking on clients and I’ve never before had the kind of demand I’m seeing now.

During 2007, in the space of 3 months I had 2 clients. In 2008 I had 9 clients. Of course none of the projects were ever the same size or shape, but they were what I would consider small to medium size projects… sites that I’d charge between $1000 – $4000 each. Sites which were developed using ready-made open source systems such as Joomla or WordPress and using scripts such as PHP Link Directory.

Expanding my Own Business

In September 2008 I partnered with a developer and as well as working on a large domaining project, together we’ve built our own CMS and a number of custom made scripts.  We worked for several months as two separate companies but at the begining of 2009 we decided to merge and create one web design and development company called OpenCreate (at the time of writing, we’re updating the site so excuse the lack of functionality on there).

Increasing in Demand in 2009

We’re now only three months into 2009 and already we have 5 new clients on our list. We’d consider all of these to be high-end clients with large projects – $5000+

Of course this has a lot to do with our own improving portfolio and word-of-mouth promotion that has brought in new clients, but I believe the current economy also had a part to play. With so much uncertainty, the constant doom and gloom talk of failed financial systems around the world and probably being in midst of a recession – people are searching for alternative ways to make money. It’s not surprising that they are looking to start online businesses or to improve existing online presence.

It’s not only that we’ve got 5 new clients in the space of 3 months, we’ve had a lot of inquiries for small projects too – things we’ve had to turn down in order to put more effort into larger projects. We’ve also come across more people who are interested in what we do and wanting to know how they can benefit from being online.

A little Case Study

Take for example Clive, I met him for the first time in 2008 through a client. He’d been working at an events company, on a good regular salary and with hardly any interest in having a website or starting an online business. I remember him slightly mocking his friend for whom I’d just finished making a site. Now fast forward 12 months and I get a call from him asking if I’m still in the design business. We meet up for lunch and I’m surprised to find out how much his knowledge of “online business and marketing” has improved. He tells me he lost his job a few months after we’d first met and since then he had two other jobs.

Clive was fed up of moving from job to job and with the downturn in the economy he has also had to take a few pay cuts along the way. After watching how his friend (my client) had slowly turned his site into a full-time job making steadily increasing income, he was ready to give it a go. Even he’d noticed more people becoming “interested in websites” – his musician (dj) friends over the past year had “all gone online”.

Its just one example but in general I’ve seen more interest from people – whether bar staff, dj’s & musicians or business owners. There is definitely more interest and intrigue.

The Internet is Still Open!

The Internet is still somewhat untapped. Despite a larger number of people browsing the net, its still a very small percentage of people who have seen the benefits of having an online presence.

People are starting to look at alternative ways to not only make money but also save money. Traditional advertising costs ie. newspapers, television etc. are very high – there is a huge market online – advertising and having a presence online is going to become (and in many cases already has) more beneficial whether you’re real estate company, restaurant owner or musician. Not having a website for your company (or even for yourself) is regardless how big or small – is going to help your competitors. People are realizing this.

With all the doom and gloom of the economy, this could actually benefit a few business sectors – for example, pawn brokers boomed in the last recession – in this digital age it could be web developers and online businesses which benefit more.  If ever there was a time to get your web design / development portfolio into shape – it is now. Be active and be prepared.

Categories
Available Domain Names Domaining

Available LLL.in Indian Domains 29.03.09

Nine days since the last scan and despite tons of names dropping in between, it would appear that the best ones – especially ones that don’t contain ‘anti-premium letters’ are taken up pretty fast. Not surpising really, $4 per registration during the promotion for fantastic investments – you can’t go wrong! So here’s the latest installment of available LLL.in domains – this time I’ve compiled a list containing only pronounceable CVC (consonant vowel consonant) domains only.

The last list turned out to be quite helpful and most of the names from it have already been registered… so don’t wait around too long, its only $4 per registration, these won’t last forever at this rate!

All names were available at the time of writing, last checked at 16:30 on 29th March 2009 (GMT).

update: 15 out of 34 names already taken! they’re going fast!

  1. KUQ.in
  2. DUQ.in taken
  3. JIQ.in taken
  4. KIW.in
  5. GUQ.in
  6. GUW.in taken
  7. JUQ.in
  8. JEQ.in taken
  9. LEQ.in
  10. MUQ.in
  11. QUS.in
  12. QIJ.in
  13. QET.in taken
  14. QUV.in
  15. QEV.in
  16. QOR.in taken
  17. QIM.in taken
  18. QUX.in
  19. QUD.in taken
  20. QUF.in taken
  21. QUG.in
  22. QOB.in taken
  23. QUJ.in
  24. QEJ.in
  25. QUK.in
  26. QOF.in
  27. QEK.in
  28. QEL.in taken
  29. QAV.in
  30. QEN.in taken
  31. QOJ.in
  32. QAW.in
  33. QAY.in taken
  34. WUX.in taken

There are probably a few more that I missed during scan – but either because I omitted names that contained “UH” endings or similar difficult to pronounce letter combinations. Anyway, these are pretty rare – some contain double ‘premium letters’ (marked as bold) and in most cases also contain an anti premium letter. However, with cvc type names (non-meaningful ones) its more about the vanity / brandability rather than use as acronyms. If they can be used for both then thats an added bonus.

Don’t forget to leave a comment if you decide to register something… that way I can tick it off the list and keep track of things and help others save some time.

Happy investing 😉

Categories
Available Domain Names

Available .com Domain Names 27.03.09

Back by popular demand!!!… well actually not… this is the first of its kind – available .com domain names list. I did have a few readers request that I post up some available / expired .com domains list along with the usual other lists – so here it is. I’d love to hear some feedback, tell me whether I should create these lists for you – or maybe my picks are totally worthless – in which case I’ll just stop here.

This first list consists of 20 recently dropped (expired and available to register) domain names. A nice mix of brandable domains and some keywords.

  1. SuperCoolDomains.com – what a way to start huh! lol… this would be quite nice for a domainers portfolio
  2. ProducingFood.com – a recipe site?
  3. FashionChicks.com
  4. DesignClerk.com
  5. DesignDiary.com – perfect for a designers blog
  6. DesignCrate.com
  7. PhotoStumble.com – like Stumble.com but just for photos?
  8. BachelorChat.com – forum for bachelors?
  9. VodkaMakers.com
  10. TelegraphCompany.com
  11. SocialistWeb.com
  12. SovietMedia.com
  13. HdTvGuideBook.com
  14. SublimeTickets.com – brandable name for a ticket reselling website like TicketMaster.com
  15. GrooveCore.com
  16. LonelyBrides.com – adult site?
  17. PrestoPromotions.com
  18. RecipeDemon.com
  19. KeywordPark.com – domain parking for keyword names only?
  20. ScriptZoo.com – something like hotscripts.com, directory of scripts?

That’s yer lot! Let me know if you register any, or just drop me a comment and tell me what you think of the names. I’ll also consider taking requests, so if you want to see some “blog” related domain names, let me know…

Next list: April 1st 2009.

Categories
Domaining

Register .in Indian Domains for $3.99!

I don’t think this offer is going to last for much longer, but here it is anyway… you can now register any Indian domain extensions (.in / .co.in / .net.in etc) for just $3.99!!! That’s a massive saving on the normal price of $14… There isn’t going to be a better time to start picking up some Indian domain names – especially 3 letter .in domains.

Name.com are amongst the registrars who are offering this promotion, you’ll also find similar deals at Mitsu.in and some Directi Resellers such as Whiz.in / Answerable etc.

I’d highly recommend Name.com above others. They have a very fast & easy to use interface, good customer support, the currency is in USD and they accept PayPal without adding extra fees.

So, if you missed out on picking up some LLL.in domain’s in the past – now’s the time! The buyout occurred over a year ago, however not everyone could afford the renewal prices and some LLL.in names have been dropped. They’re getting picked up pretty quick though – so have a look and see if you can grab some good ones before its too late again. Check the available domains section to see some lists that I’ve drawn up – you’ll find some good LLL.in domain names in there.

Good luck!

$3.99 Indian Domain Names @ Name.com – no coupon codes or promo codes required.

Categories
Domaining Make Money

Are .info Domain Names Profitable?

When considering purchasing .info domain names for investment (whether new registrations or purchases made in the secondary market), it’s important to focus on how you’re actually going to make money from your portfolio. In fact this applies to all kinds of domain names, not just the .info extension.

I’ve found that a lot of people look down on the .info extension – without a good reason in most cases. I completely understand for some people investing in .info extension isn’t as worthwhile, usually because they have such big and rich .com portfolios that the smaller returns you get on .info’s just takes too long to add up.

But! For the majority, I’d say it is still worth investing in if you can find the right name to fit the extension. This is very important… you have to be careful which name you pick because unlike with many other extensions the .info’s work well mainly within the “information” niche.

At the time of writing, you can hand-register .info domains at a number of domain name registrars for around $1 each. GoDaddy for example is offering new registrations for $0.99 + icann fees = $1.12 per domain.

These promotions are not new, they’ve been ongoing since the release of the .info extension a few years ago. A lot of domainers and developers say that these promotions have hurt the extension – making it appear as “cheap” and “spammy” (more explained on this later). This may be so, but it still doesn’t take away from that fact that there is money to be made on them.

A few months ago I registered about 50 two word .info domain names – the total cost was about $55 – within a few weeks I sold 5 of these domains for over $30 each. Fair enough, it hasn’t changed my life, but that’s a pretty good return on investment however you look at it. Just from selling 10% of the names I’d made a total of $180. That’s about $174 profit from $6 investments. Not bad eh!

So what about the other 45 names?

Since registering them over 7 months ago, I’ve already sold about 40 of the names. Other than the first 5, the rest of them I sold for $2 – $5 each. A couple went for $10 each. Still I made profits on each and every single one of them so far. And, the best thing about it is that I still have 10 left. Out of these 10, I’ve developed one into an information/review site for domain registrars – and from the other 9 I will keep 6 (the best ones from the 50) and probably drop the other 3.

So based on my own experience, I’d say .info domains are definitely profitable – IF you know what you’re doing.

I think a lot of people have bad experience with .info’s because they registered poor names – names which don’t fit the extension – and in some cases people took a gamble on LLLL.info domains thinking a buyout would occur and they’d make good profits. Wrong.

Brandable domains don’t suit the .info extension and more often than not they don’t make profits… neither do acronyms (with LLL 3 letters being an exception).

If I see a website’s url as — BestLaptops.info (as an example) then automatically I’d assume that site to be some kind of information base, reviews site or price comparison site rather than a site actually selling laptops. I don’t expect it to be a company – I expect it to be either an affiliate site or just a site filled with information about which are the best laptops. Most people view .info’s in this way – and I’m assuming that’s what the intention is behind .info

I see people register domains such as  “iComputerShopping.info” – from experience I can safely say these names do not sell well – especially to the reseller market. With names like this you’re trying to brand what is intended to be an information site… not a company or product. It just doesn’t make sense. Below are a few more examples of names that don’t really work…

  • TotalBlogger.info – what’s this supposed to do? provide information about someone who’s a total blogger? good brandable name, but wrong extension.
  • MissFashion.info – same as above
  • 247ShoppingMall.info – could be a site about all the 24 hour shopping malls, but very restricted and again branding rather than keyword based.. wouldn’t get much organic traffic.
  • UKLK.info – four letter .info, hard to resell to domainers, possible to sell to end-users who own companies with those letters, but this creates a lot of work trying to find the end-user.

You see, there are a number of reason’s why a numerous types of domains don’t work well with .info – there are a lot of things to take into consideration when buying them.

I only buy names that I can quickly flip to other domainers or at aftermarkets such as sedo / ebay / tdnam etc. I prefer not to chase end-users with .info domains because its hard enough to find buyers for .com’s – it takes a lot of time. And time is money.

I see it like this… the amount of time I’d spend trying to find an end-user for a $500 brandable or acronym .info name – I could flip 100 .info to resellers for $10 or so and make more money with less effort. So I don’t bother going after brandable .info domains – they’re just too much hard work to sell.

Below are some examples of names which make sense with the .info extension –

  • VirusInformation.info
  • HipHopMusic.info
  • DivorceProcedures.info
  • FinanceSchools.info
  • EnergyProviders.info
  • StudentAccounts.info

Ok, most of those names are mine – so it would seem biased. But think about each of them – they fit the extension and would be very easy to develop a site / mini-site on them. The ease of seeing and realizing the names potential – together with the ease of development (basic blog/wordpress / mini-site) helps to sell these names to resellers. Lets take “StudentAccounts.info” for example, it would make a perfect site for students to learn about which accounts /credit cards are best for them as a student. Turn it into a simple blog and allow user reviews / comments – add a forum perhaps? Now, just add a few affiliate links or google adsense – and there you have it – easily developed / easily monetized useful site for a niche.

I’ve had offers above $40 for most of those names – but I’ve declined, mainly because I have development plans for them or because they are parked and getting good traffic. I know that by spending an hour or two on each of the domains – I’ll have them developed to a basic stage – enough to earn me $5-$10 per month in adsense revenue at least. So it’s not worth selling for so low… I’m just not in that much of a rush.

So, to conclude this article – I think .info domains names are definitely worth investing in. If you can find them to hand-register, then its a bonus. But even if you can’t find good suitable names to hand-reg you can still have a look around at the aftermarkets and forums – there are occasionally names being sold for under $30-$40 … which in the right hands could be worth a lot more.

NOTE: as you can probably tell, I’ve written this article in free flow – not a great structure to it, so I do apologise. But I will be doing a full write-up on .info domains within a few weeks so stay tuned. In fact, register for a free account and add yourself to the mailing list – you’ll get a weekly newsletter with all the sites updates and articles… oh and available domain names lists.

Till next time 😉

Categories
Available Domain Names

Available LLL.in Indian Domains 20.03.09

If you missed out on getting some quality LLL.in (3 letter Indian Domains) before the buyout occurred just over a year ago.. then here’s your chance. The buyout lasted the year and a lot of domains have dropped as expected – but they’re getting picked up real quick, especially with current promotional offers from registrars like Mitsu.in (around $4 per new registration). I’ve listed my pick of the best from the current drop list – these names are now available to hand-register.

A lot of quality names in there including double premiums and good semi-premiums. At $4 a pop… you can’t really go wrong. When (not IF) the buyout occurs again, these same names will easily jump in price. During the first buyout, similar names were sold off for between $15-$30 and more in some cases. So as I said, when it occurs again – you’ll be looking at some good return on investments.

  1. DZP.in – double premium with one low quality letter
  2. DHY.in
  3. FJG.in – triple semi-premium domain, no bad letters
  4. FJU.in – triple semi-premium domain, no bad letters
  5. FJL.in – double semi plus single premium letter
  6. DSZ.in – double premium with one low quality letter
  7. ETQ.in – excellence through quality
  8. DXS.in
  9. EBQ.in – double premium with one low quality letter
  10. FSY.in
  11. BQR.in – buy quality routers
  12. BQE.in – buy quality electronics
  13. FNJ.in – financial news journal
  14. EGV.in – premium plus two semi premium letters (electronics, games & videos)
  15. CEQ.in – pronounceable cvc with double premium letters

These names were available at the time of posting. They might be around for long though.

Normally it costs $14 to register .in domains, however there are currently a lot of registrars doing promotions… so take advantage of that.

Register them at Mitsu.in for just under $4 (however, currency at mitsu is in Indian Rupees, so you’ll have to work out how much it is manually).

You can also register .in domains at most Directi Resellers for around $5 – $6

You can also register them at Name.com for $9.99

Please remember to post / leave a comment with any names that you register from this list. I’ll publish another list this weekend, so keep your eyes peeled.

Categories
Domaining

Cats.net sells for $7000?

Just a few days ago the auction for cats.net ended at Sedo with the highest bid at $7,000 (usd). Does this indicate a major fall in the current market for .net domains? Or was this a fair price for such a domain? Well I personally think not. $7,000 for such a premium domain name, despite being a .net is very cheap indeed. The buyer definitely got the better end of the deal.

So what did this domain name sell for so little? I think it had a lot to do with how the sale was promoted, or the lack of promotion for that matter. The name was auctioned off via Sedo and I didn’t even hear about it till after the auction had finished. Actually, I only found out about it after it had been posted on a forum.

We were able to hear from the current owner (the seller) and it turns out the name was put into auction without a reserve price and he made no efforts to contact potential end-users to let them know about the auction. This, together with the current financial situations has meant that a good name has gone for such a low price.

Another thing that surprised me and many others was that the domain name hadn’t been promoted to possible end-users. The seller hadn’t previously made any attempts at contacting people in order to try and get a sale. This wasn’t because he didn’t think to do it, but he chose not to. And I think this hurt his pockets somewhat.

A lot might argue that there isn’t much end-user potential for this domain, possible because its not a product but an animal/pet. Well, I’d disagree. The name it self can have many uses and would appeal to the “cat food” industry or “pet products” and could even be used a cat lovers community / forum. There might not be a huge number of advertisers for the keyword but there are definitely a lot of uses for it.

I think a fair price would have been around $10,000 minimum to about $14,000.

So, there could be some lessons to be learned from this sale. It’s good to be proactive with your domain names. Contact potential buyers, send out emails and promote your name. Sitting on them and hoping people will come and make offers isn’t always going to get you the biggest sales. If you’re not good at contacting or finding potential buyers, then hire a broker (if you have a premium name that is). Get your name evaluated as well to see what kind of price to expect. Do all of this before sending it to auction – and even then… alert potential buyers and let people know the name is in auction. Don’t let it go under the radar and miss out on getting some extra bids.