Domain Names – Page 2

Have a plan for the domain you are purchasing. It may seem like something simple, but having an idea of what you are going to do with your domains before you purchase can ensure you are making a sound investment. If you don’t go through this step, you may end up selecting a bunch of domains that seemed great and be left wondering if you will ever be able to make money off of them.

Much like our previous post on trends recommended that you understand the trend you are interested in buying an IDN in, you should have an understanding of what IDN you’re purchasing and how you might be able to position it. For example, you may be excited to see that “abc.ws” is available for a great price, but before you buy, think about what you plan to do with it. Will it make sense to park the domain and with the hopes of turning a great profit when the right buyer comes around, or do you plan on developing the site yourself and branding it in a way that ties into your current business. Both are great options; just decide before you buy so you don’t regret a bunch of mediocre domain purchases that you can’t figure out a use for.

IDN Buying Tip: Follow the Trends

Trends and fads come and go, and there are a number of ways that businesses and individuals can capitalize on them, domain names being one such way. The key to trends and domaining is the anticipation of a trend. For example when the iPhone first came out, those within in the technology world and those who followed the news, knew that smartphones were about to be huge. A domain like smartphones.com was a great idea and surely enough sold for $95,000 and is now owned by Samsung. Follow the few tips below for how to pick the best IDNs based off trends.

Stick to What You Know and Understand

In order to anticipate a trend you need to understand it. Don’t try to search for trends in medical devices if you have no interest in them and don’t understand the industry. If you know cars or fitness, look for trends there Things can get a little tricky for IDNs as many time your will be purchasing an IDN in a language you do not speak. To avoid this, turn your energy to global trends, like the example above, smartphones are definitely a global trend.

Use Tools

You can also do your research in a foreign language by using tools like Google Alerts of Google Trends. With Google Alerts you can set a search term and have news and blog results sent right to your inbox. You can see what terms are getting a lot of news coverage and gernerating chatter across the world and decide on a domain based off of this info.

Google Trends similarly allows you to enter a word or phrase into a search engine and see the trends for that word or phrase. The results can show you where searches are happening, how often, in what language and some top stoies associated with your search. This is a great tool for insight into country and language searches to take some guess work out of selecting your IDN.

Trends Come and GO

Some important advice for trend watching is that as quickly as trends start, they can end. Do you research use common and try to anticipate your risk with certain trends. Trend based domain purchases are not for everyone, but they can be a very lucrative investment.