One of the tools at DomainTools I have underutilized over the years is their Brand Monitor tool. This tool allows users to see what domain names are registered in various keywords they select. I recently started using this tool, and I want to share how I am using it.
I selected the keyword for one of my favorite domain names. Each morning, I receive an email from DomainTools that has a list of the newly created domain names that contain the selected keyword. I could also choose to have the deleted domain names sent to me as well, but that isn’t really necessary for my purposes.
The daily Brand Monitor email I receive is helpful for two reasons. First, it shows me the domain names that are registered that contain the keyword I am monitoring. This can help me stay aware of what new brands might be launching that use my keyword who may want to upgrade in the future. Second, I can do a Whois search on the registrations to see what companies are buying domain names with the keyword. This is helpful on names that get many inquiries because I can do more due diligence before replying. If monitoring a long keyword or multiple keyword term, it might produce a good list of leads to contact when selling a domain name in the future. Perhaps the person or company registered the domain name without realizing that the exact match term could be had for a price.
One thing to keep in mind is that you might see totally unrelated domain names if your keyword is too broad or is a part of other common words. For example, if I were monitoring the term “event,” I am sure I would see a lot of registrations related to unrelated keywords like “prevent.” Users are able to add keywords to exclude for each brand monitor, so this can be overcome, but it could also eliminate seeing potentially related keywords depending on the spelling. The only good example I can think of from my portfolio is “cooter” which would see lots of “scooter” registrations, but eliminating “scooter” would prevent any plural or possessive keyword “cooter” registrations from showing up.
It is a good idea to keep track of what other domain names similar to yours are being registered. The DomainTools Brand Monitor tool is helpful in this respect. For the account I have, I am able to monitor 10 brands at a time. Depending on your keywords, this could produce too many results to be effective, so I am going to monitor just a few.
Is this a sponsored post?
I have cancelled my domaintools memebership due to their overpriced services.
No. If it were a sponsored article, it would be clearly marked.
I use DomainTools’ Whois History Tool many times per day to do due diligence on acquisitions and to get more information for articles.
Are you using it more than 25 times per month?
I have never tracked my usage.
You probably should – you’ll hit that newly updated incredibly meager limit of 25/month like a brick wall and then be told you can only buy more lookups if you upgrade to their enterprise (5 figures annually) program. That is unless of course, you have a secret deal with them, in which case i’m jealous. And bitter. After being a very happy paying customer for over 10 years, i now hate domaintools.
It’s not worth the 99 bucks a month.
Thanks, Elliot. BTW – Go Red Sox!
Elliot: Appreciate your discussion of this tool… HOW you personally use it… WHY you use it… and your interpretation of possible results. Thank you. ~ Alan