Buying Domain Names

In many instances, having a generic domain name as a standalone brand, or forwarding a generic domain name to an existing brand’s website can play a large role in the growth of that online business. This is especially true for informational websites, and may be less important for transactional websites.

When the sole purpose of a website is to give information, and there are a number of sites that provide the same information, the consumer may be more likely to simply navigate to the generic domain name. Why bother to remember a complicated domain name when you can find the exact same information on the generic domain name?

However, when a website is transactional, whereby a visitor makes (or considers) a purchase, a generic domain name is important, but less so than for an informational website. With a transactional site, there is much more to the customer experience than simply finding information. The visitor pays close attention to brands, pricing, fulfillment and customer service. Because of this, consumers are more likely to remember the site that gives the best all around service.

The bottom line, in my opinion, is that if you are developing a business around the domain name and plan to generate revenue by selling products or services, the domain name may be less important than the other attributes in building a positive customer experience. If your website is informational in nature, and you plant to generate revenue  from advertising/ppc links, having the generic domain name may be critical.

Throughout the past several months, I’ve had many conversations with a fellow domain investor about different speculation strategies focusing on newly registered domain names. He and I frequently share stories of new registrations along with the motivation behind speculating on certain new names.  I want to share a few brief pointers for registering relevant domain names on a speculative basis.  

Travel and geographic-related domain names may be worth speculating on, as their value has climbed and always seem to be in high demand.  Sometimes you can create a relevant domain name by combining a travel destination with a travel-related keyword to form a new name with some value. The key is that the new domain name must make sense, and the keyword should have some click value (be it a large ticket item or an expensive service).

Example:

When I am planning a vacation, there are several things I search for prior to departure:

1. Hotel
2. Transportation
3. Sites
4. Restaurants
5. Etc…

To make the most of #3, I frequently search for a tour guide online, in order to visit attractions that will be most interesting to me and my fiance. With that in mind, I believe the terms “tour guide” and/or “tour guides” could add value to a travel destination.  Turns out, CroatiaTourguides.com is available to register.  Whether it has much value, I don’t know, but I like the name for under $10 because there are plenty of  tour guides in Croatia,  and there are many people looking to find them online.

Other types of speculative domain registrations I  occasionally  take a chance on are  relevant health related domain names.  With most health or wellness related issues, there are cures or forms of proactive products.  Oftentimes this is in the form of creams, pills, shots, patches….etc.  Sometimes newly discovered and/or trendy plants and herbs are publicized, causing great demand for their related products.  

Example:  

One way to speculate on this type of domain name is to stay on top of these marketplace trends and buy relevant domain names.  Using the herbs or the health issue, you could add keywords to the end of the domain for potential products that may be developed and marketed.  Recently, I’ve heard quite a bit about fish oil.  I know the pills have become popular, but maybe there will be another application.  Perhaps a cream could be in the works? As of today, FishOilCream.com is available to register.  Maybe this name (and product) stinks, but if it does become popular, it will cost under $10 to secure this name.

The final type of name I would like to discuss are state/local professions and activities. These are my favorite types of speculative purchases because they are less about speculation and more about hunting for unregistered gems.  You can search through the yellow pages or various online directories to see if a particular profession exists in a specific area, and if it does, there is probably at least a small amount of demand, and certainly the ability to add content.  This topic is something that  Frank Schilling  discussed a while ago, and it’s something I like.  Personally, I own WashingtonDoctors.com, NewJerseyDoctor.com, and VirginiaMortgages.com among others I bought in the aftermarket, and I am a big fan of this type of name.

Example:

One way to become inspired is to search through your local phone directory to see what professions exist where domain names don’t.  Let’s say you live down in Palm Beach, Florida.  When I was down there last, I noticed nearly every home had a swimming pool.  These seem to be high value commodities, so presumably there are people who would pay quite a bit for a lead.  PalmBeachSwimmingPools.com is available to register.”Relevant” is the most frequently used descriptive term in this post.  In order to make a wise speculative purchase, the domain name must be relevant.  You probably wouldn’t find much value in registering FloridaMountainClimbing.com for example.  If you stick with relevant domain names, you may come across something of value.  

You should stay away from registering names that contain the trademark of another company. I would advise that you do a search of the  USPTO database  before registering a potential trademark infringing domain name.  

Again, please keep in mind this is purely SPECULATION!  Just like investing in the stock market, I would only advise a small amount of domain names in your portfolio be of the speculative nature – although some might argue that most domain names are speculative if they aren’t developed.  Owning too many speculative names may be cost prohibitive and wouldn’t be something I would advocate.