Domain Name Consulting

The domain name business is a specialized field, and there aren’t a whole lot of qualified people who are able to offer expert domain name insight and advice. As a result, I think domain consultants can earn hundreds of dollars an hour for consulting fees.

Domain consultants can be engaged for a variety of tasks by many different types of companies. I want to share some thoughts on how a domain consultant can be engaged for businesses of different sizes and in different fields.

Large companies (Fortune 500) that don’t have a Domain Name Manager on staff can hire a domain consultant to work with the IT department on the following tasks:

  • Create a domain name acquisition strategy to ensure domain names are acquired before a product or service launch.
  • Establish a protocol to keep domain names secure and renewed,
  • Draft an RFP process to hire a domain name broker to acquire or divest domain names.
  • Review domain name portfolio to ensure the domain names are being used optimally.

Small to medium sized business (SMB) can work with a domain consultant on the following tasks:

  • Ensure the right domain names are owned, and if not, create an acquisition plan.
  • Optimize the domain portfolio.
  • Create a process to ensure domain names are renewed on time and kept secure.

It is not just companies who use domain names as a part of their business that can use domain consulting services. People in the domain investment space, or people looking to get into the domain investment space can also hire a domain consultant to evaluate their portfolio or help them with a business plan. This can be a bit tricky since most of the *qualified* domain consultants also operate a domain consulting business, and this can create a conflict.

There aren’t a lot of qualified people or companies that are able to offer expert domain consulting services. Most of the people who excel in the domain investment business are busy operating their own businesses and don’t offer domain consulting services (I do not offer domain consulting services). If I were hiring a domain consultant, I would only choose someone who has clearly had success in the domain business and is a trusted advisor.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

8 COMMENTS

    • Golf Central is a great name, but it also has an active US Trademark. Granted TMs are only as good as what a plaintiff wants them to be. If they don’t enforce the TM their claim becomes weakened… so I’ve read… I would be hard pressed to recommend any company open themselves up to liability with an already active US Trademark.

  1. Eliot, you should consider a series of articles on consultants for domainers. I had to figure things out by myself but for instance, lowers, cpas etc that specifically target the domaining industry.

    For instance, if you’re just a small time domainer with a day job and suddenly find yourself selling domains for tens of thousands of dollars, the tax burden would be huuuuge as they say in TrumpLand…what do you do then?

    • Tax issues are critical. Someone else asked me to write an article about domain name and taxes last week, and here’s what I told him:

      Tax law is a complicated matter and I am not well enough versed to write an article about it. The law differs based on location, and it also differs depending on the personĀ’s treatment of domain names. Further, tax law differs based on whether a person operates a company, LLC, or if they sell a name under as an individual.

      When I started making money, I gave my accountant an e-book about domain name taxes, and he used that to get an understanding of my business and its tax implications. I think there are so many issues, it would probably be irresponsible for me to share any tax guidance.

      I appreciate your thinking of me for this, but it is beyond my expertise.

  2. I once named a business for a friend while meeting in a restaurant about it, picked out the matching .com and got her set up with Go Daddy immediately after we left, and in no time at all she was doing well, then featured by one of the biggest local TV news personalities who had hired her services in one of the biggest cities in a TV news report. It was a .com I had almost even registered myself shortly before.

  3. The sad reality is that consultants in the domain industry follow the same pattern as other industries multiplied by x100, where you have followers of followers of followers doing it for the first time and writing as if they were an expert 1 to 6 months into the game. Many of them have never sold a domain over $xx and are simply spinning someone else’s content to give the illusion of experience.

    It can be hard for a new investor to make the right consultant choice and many times, sadly, get lead down the wrong path. While it’s important to understand that what works for one, may not work for another and that there are lots of viable strategies out there that work, a consultant should be vetted somehow to ensure they practice what they preach prior to hiring them.

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