One of the first things you should realize is that buying and selling domains is no different from any other business. It takes time and work to get things off the ground and moving in the right direction. You need to learn about the market you are going into, watch the aftermarket auctions for a few weeks to learn what kind of names are selling, and what makes those names worth buying. Choosing the right name is what the game is all about. Remember that generic names that are specific are the best and .com is still the best dot to get ; for example , go after diamondrings.com or sportshoe.com and stay away from nike.com or anything that has ?rus? in it. Big companies will go after you if you tread on their copyrighted names and trademarks. Toys R Us has made it clear that they will go after anyone using ?rus? in the name. Here is the site that can help you search to see if your phrase already has a trademark http://www.uspto.gov/main/profiles/acadres.htm.



One of the best ways to find domains is to search for domains that are fixing to drop or expire, if they are not renewed. The first thing I look for is if the domain has any internet traffic going to it. If it does, then I know when I park it I will get some of my money back from people clicking on the advertisements. Remember to always park your domain somewhere so that you can earn some money on it. Even if a domain only brings in $1 a month, that domain has paid for itself in the first year and anything over that can be used to purchase new domains. When looking for these domains, you need to be careful. If it was a page that just forwarded you to another domain, then the numbers will include both domains. The best way to find domains that already have traffic is to check the list of domains that are fixing to drop. One of the best tools I have found for locating domains is a program called Domain Research Tool. This is a helpful program that will allow you to search a lot of domains in a short amount of time. It gives you feed back on how much traffic a domain gets and if it is ranked on any of the major search engines. Using a program like this, that works quickly to show you the information that you need, can mean the difference between getting a good domain. The second thing I look for is to see if there are any other available extensions available under the name I'm looking at. If there are a lot of extensions available under the name, then I tend to shy away from it; but if only 1 or 2 are available, I will do more research about the domain. I'll look to see if it was parked before and if any of the extensions are up for sale.

This should be enough to help you get started on your way to building a good solid domain portfolio. This is a very exciting time to be buying and selling domains. The value of domains is only going to go up.