Advice

I have the lease to own (LTO) option enabled on nearly all of my inventory-quality domain names. The maximum length of the lease term is generally set based on the price of the domain names. There is one category of domain name I won’t offer LTO on – trend domain names.

For trend types of domain names – either a hot topic or something along those lines, I want people to pay in full before using my domain name. I don’t want them to pay a fraction of the cost, use the domain name while the topic is hot, and then dump the domain name back to me once the trend has subsided.

There are many helpful domain investors who share tips, insights, and thoughts on social media. It’s super helpful to see what others are doing and where they are finding success. There is much more real-time information available now than there was when I started out.

Despite all of the data that is freely shared, there is no vetting and/or minimal verification of information. I would imagine most people who share are doing so with good intentions, but even the most transparent people don’t share *everything.*

I took a quick dive into domain investing Reels and TikTok videos. I watched several short videos created by people I don’t know. That doesn’t mean they’re not domain investors as I am sure there are many people who are actively investing in domain names under the radar. The premise behind these videos seems to revolve around how easy it is to make money from domain investing. My reply – it is not easy.

The videos I watched seem focused on buying expired domain names either at auctions or via marketplace where a platform lists recently acquired expiry names at what would appear to be wholesale prices. The videos then advise to get an idea of the value of these domain names – either by using a domain appraisal tool like GoDaddy’s or by looking at the asking prices of similar domain names.

In my GoDaddy control panel, I have the ability to search for domain names based on their current nameservers. One thing I do from time to time – and should do more often – is look through the nameservers to ensure nothing stands out as incorrect.

The other day, I was looking for domain names parked on specific nameservers so I could make an update. When I clicked the nameserver search button at GoDaddy, I noticed quite a few nameservers I did not recognize as being set by me. In addition, some were very old nameservers I haven’t used in a long time (like Moniker DNS).

After a few seconds, I realized the unrecognized nameservers were connected to domain names I won at auction at domain registrars I don’t use. Instead of managing the domain names there for any time, I had immediately transferred them to my GoDaddy account. For whatever reason, I neglected to update the nameservers. This was an own-goal for me, but I am glad I caught the error and updated the domain names. The domain names set to Moniker nameservers are two personal domain names I previously used for forwarding but now keep just because.

Searching for domain names by nameserver is something I plan to do every so often. I don’t have enough names that this will ever become a major issue, but it’s such a simple search that I might as well do it every so often just to be sure nothing slipped through the cracks.

I have to assume other registrars have similar search functionality, so this could apply to people who use other domain registrars.