Am I already too late in the game?

[Tia Wood]

It seems to me that all the good names have already been taken, and all the good aftermarket names are taken by established players.

So is it totally worthless coming into domaining now?

The door is closing but it is not too late. You can find good domains without spending a lot of money. But your advantage would be to work smarter, not harder/more expensive.

[dcristo]

Leverage what you have. You understand the industry you work in better then 99.9% of domainers, so make the most of it.

[Banned: VioxxLawyers]

Web development is the way to go. Try affiliate marketing and/or AdSense.

[carlton]

...Don't let anybody talk you into non .com or .net extensions, it's far too hard for you to make money in those niches.

I don't agree with what the poster above has said. People are succeeding with non-com extensions.

I would suggest that you hold off on making fresh registrations as most everything of value has already been taken. Reserve your investment money for a targeted industry name in real estate, legal services, or finance. Focus instead on buying one or two higher quality names as opposed to trying to build a portfolio based on unregistered names. Assembling a quality portfolio is much more expensive/difficult today due to the sheer number of players in the game aggressively competing with one another.

If you secure a good couple of names, be (patient) and careful not to flip them too quickly ... because what looks like a neat profit today may be a regretted sale tomorrow. Spend dollars wisely and don't make hasty purchases. Stick to generic, descriptive names two to three words in length.

[katherine]

...
Don't let anybody talk you into non .com or .net extensions, it's far too hard for you to make money in those niches.
...

I don't agree with what the poster above has said. People are succeeding with non-com extensions.

I am not for the dot-com-only mentality but I would usually advise newcomers to stick with .com at least in the beginning.
It's too easy to make mistakes especially with exotic TLDs like .cc, .ws or .tv or IDNs. Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against these, but I consider these TLDs a speciality market. Even the pros are struggling to resell these extensions.

Since the OP is US-based I would suggest investing in .us. There are still some decent keywords available, and 5-figure sales are already happening.
I think .us is a sleeping giant. Of course there is no proof that .us will overtake .com in the US but looking at the trends it's safe to assume the ext will continue to grow and gain momentum. The sky is the limit.
Don't put all your eggs in the same basket though.
With .us you need patience while .com domains are more liquid (more demand).

Although it may sound conservative I would suggest to focus on .com, that where the big money is.

Another source for good domains is the expired domains drops, if you have a budget (it takes money to make money).
I still find some gems in the expired domains from time to time.
Don't spend all your cash on the most desirable drops, if you focus on the LLL .com for example, you will enter in a bidding war with other people and end up paying end user price, not reseller price.
The trick is to spot the overlooked domains with 1-2 keywords that are decent, developable, business-like regardless of link popularity or overture score.
Often you will have little or no competition. I get a lot of domains for the minimum bid of $60 (being the only bidder).

It all boils down to your investment profile. You can find your own niche and specialize in the industries you are familiar with. There are inifinite strategies for succeeding in the business:
- some domainers invest in generic keywords with high resale potential (example: business.com was bought for $7.5 millions back in 1999 and is now for sale at $400 millions...)
- some domainers invest in traffic domains and make a living from PPC revenue, this may include TM/typo domains and the associated risks
- some domainers reg fresh domains and develop them into fully-fledged business ventures, they are more the 'webmaster' type. The 'hardcore' domainers being more focused on parking and reselling than development.
etc

[Bill Roy]

Simple answer:

No, you are not too late.

The market is evolving and there are plenty of opportunites for you and others.

Welcome to the greatest business in the world.

[petrosc]

I had the same worries when I first started domaining a few years back. I tried everything and lost a lot of money(I had a very small budget each month but it added up). At first I tried reselling, but realized that it's too late for that unless you have a big budget. Reselling fresh registrations is the hardest thing in this business. So in order to become a reseller you need to have budget.

Then I tried registering typos - worked my ass off and found out how to register names that have traffic. Whenever I found a name that was making $20-30/mo I sold it for $500-600 which paid for my next registrations. As much as it hurt selling revenue names, I repeated this until I had enough revenue to stop selling names in order to buy new ones. The start is slow(might take years with limited funds) but the revenue increases logarithmically if you keep investing your previous month's revenue(or most of it).

Read read read as much as you can, buy tools that will help you find names and learn how to use their every little function, experiment with registrations and you will find out what works and what doesn't.

Also, as noted above, be creative and always try to think of new ways to profit from your domains. I tried a million things, kept losing my money and then one day one of them worked, within only 2 months I earned back all the money that I invested the previous years and now it's only profit, and it's increasing each month

[wrdekle]

time is something I have a lot of (college's out!).

I need to research more about IDN's though. Seem a bit complicated...

It isn't really that complex. But that perception keeps the domaining masses away for the moment and it is helpful.

This is a good thread, lots of opinions, lots of people in lots of niches. But only in IDNs are people still regging prime single word generics in .com and .net. I caution you to always try to find a native speaker to give you advice on your regs. Dynadot gives you 5 days to cancel your order if you mess up. Cheers.

[sashas]

Thanks everyone for all the info here.

I just got my first offer for a domain I regged just a week back, so that has given me some hope.

I've decided to keep my eggs in the Asian market. I think that market will explode, with the internet boom in these countries.

petrosc,
I think I'm in the same boat as you. I have limited budgets each month, but I'm pretty determined to make a decent income out of domaining so I can atleast focus on my other ventures.

But again, thanks everybody for all the opinions and advice. Its a lot!

[Tia Wood]

I have limited budgets each month, but I'm pretty determined to make a decent income out of domaining so I can atleast focus on my other ventures.

I too work on a limited budget. I don't have $200,000 to throw at a good name. So I work the best way I can. I use my skills as a web designer to develop my own domains and increase the value. I also use my data mining skills to research and find good available domains. 1/3 of the time I'll buy from a reseller, 2/3rds of the time I use fresh registrations. There are no rules in this game. Take what skills you have a run with it.

Also, whatever money you make put it right back into domaining.

And last but not least: read, read, read. There's a link in my sig to a domainers guide which contains different links for reading as well as general advice.

Tia

[randomo]

I too work on a limited budget. I don't have $200,000 to throw at a good name. So I work the best way I can. I use my skills as a web designer to develop my own domains and increase the value.

Hey - I'd like to do that too, but I don't have any skills as a web designer.

What is a good way for a newbie to learn web design?

(This seems very relevant to the thread, as development seems to be where the best money is.)

Thanks for any advice.

[DomainBuyerBroker]

Buy quality instead of quantity. Make a list of 20 domains you would love to own that you think you can buy for $1000 or $2000. There are A LOT of good domains out there for under $2000.

Ask the owners for a price and I'll bet within a couple weeks you will have a gem that even your grandmother would appreciate

[DomainMagnate]

I'd love to have a domain my grandmother would appreciate
But at her 97, it's probably a little too late to explain how domaining works

[randomo]

I'd love to have a domain my grandmother would appreciate
But at her 97, it's probably a little too late to explain how domaining works

I'd offer you WildGrandmas.com, but I sold it in February ....

[Ubiquitous]

It's never too late.

And the myth that .com is the only extension worth buying is exactly that ... The majority of my revenue has come from TLD's located in countries smaller than rhode island. In fact selling just two of them paid for the reg fees for my entire portfolio. To be successful it takes hard work no matter what you do ... although nothing worth doing ever comes easy as they say (myth #2?).

Regards ~

[petrosc]

Buy quality instead of quantity. Make a list of 20 domains you would love to own that you think you can buy for $1000 or $2000. There are A LOT of good domains out there for under $2000.

Ask the owners for a price and I'll bet within a couple weeks you will have a gem that even your grandmother would appreciate

i know you know what you're talking about

[Dale Hubbard]

My 2c:

1. Think 'niche'.

2. Watch the news for announcements for keywords. 'wii' and 'iphone' come to mind as the last ones I acted on as soon as news broke.

[sashas]

Thanks again everyone

I've finally decided which areas to concentrate on.

Just made my first sale, so thats given me a lot of hope...

[Dale Hubbard]

Thanks again everyone

I've finally decided which areas to concentrate on.

Just made my first sale, so thats given me a lot of hope...

Perfect. A domainer with a plan and a little confidence, tempered with a little caution has an excellent chance of making money

[sashas]

aZooZa

Thats what I do too.
New York Times ran a story about flat rate wifi, and I bagged the domain name...
the news always helps...