Domain flipping is a type of online business you may not be familiar with or do not like in its entirety. Like any other business, it has two sides – losers and gainers.
In case you doubt if domain flipping could be an actual business, the domain insurance.com sold for $35.6 million in 2010.
Likewise, in 2014, cars.com was flipped at $872 million. Facebook founder and CEO also purchased Fb.com for about $8.5 million in 2010.
Generally, the concept of domain flipping is registering a domain name and eventually selling it in the future at a higher price.
For instance, Fb.com initially belonged to The American Farm Bureau Federation. With the name resounding with the Facebook business brand, Zuckerberg was more inclined to pay for its acquisition.
If you want to know how much a domain is worth or confirm if it is available, you might want to check out Saw.com (you can learn more about how domain appraisals work here: https://saw.com/appraisals/).
Below are some essential tips to make money with domain names;
Understand the importance of domain
A good domain knowledge would help you understand which industry and names to target.
A domain name is synonymous with a brand name. You are visiting this site mozbot.co.uk probably by typing it directly in your browser box or through a search engine.
The vital thing to note is that Mozbot is the domain name while .co.uk is the extension.
Domain names are as crucial as extensions. A company may have beaten you to purchase a domain name with the .com extension, but you can still beat them to buying the country code top-level domain (ccTLD).
Imagine registering the Cocacola.co.uk domain before Cocacola registered it. The company’s expansion into the United Kingdom (UK) will prompt them to reach out to negotiate a price for the acquisition. Technology-focused platforms are also becoming more interested in .io extensions.
Anyone looking at investing in domain flipping can leverage this strategy, although it may be hindered by some legal technicality, such as trademark.
Research domain names with potential
Thousands of domains are registered daily. You have to be strategic to profit substantially from the domain-flipping business.
By following social media trends and observing general issues, you can generate domain name ideas.
The domain hotels.com was purchased for $11 million in 2001. You may decide to register land.com or a popular slang among your peer.
Etsy, a popular e-commerce site, was coined while one of the co-founders was watching a show. He had heard eh si an Italian word that translates ‘oh yes’, and it sounded Etsy, thus the arrival at Etsy.com.
A similar platform in Africa, Jeugmark.com, was coined when the founder was researching possible names and typed Youth Market on Google and got Jeugmark as a translation in Afrikaans, an African language of West Germanic origin.
When considering domain names with profit potentials, you should not be limited by your primary language. The future buyer may not be from your region.
Register domain in more than one extension
The .com, which stands for “commercial”, is the most popular domain extension. Some companies, whenever they discover the .com version of the domain name they are interested in is already taken, they opt for other extensions such as .xyz.
A typical example is the case of Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company. Its official website is abc.xyz while abc.com belongs to ABC entertainment.
Registering a domain name you are confident of its profitability in more than one extension ensures the potential buyer would have no choice but to purchase from you.
Domain snipping
This strategy is also known as domain drop catching. It involves re-registering an expiring domain name before the original order do the same.
Domain name registration has an expiry date. Most domain registars offer a minimum of one year validity with the exception of .ai extensions which usually require at least two years minimum.
When a domain name registration expires, the owner is given a Redemption Grace Period, usually between 30 to 90 days.
After this period, the domain name may be released to the general public with the opportunity to register it.
List on different domain marketplaces
Once your domain names are registered, list them on different domain-flipping sites.
The more marketplace you have the domain names, the higher the exposure and chances of a potential buyer finding it.
Whenever a domain name is sold, make sure to delist it from all other platforms you may have announced it for sale.
