The biggest mistakes domainers make are...

[Adam Dicker]

Here are a couple I came up with, feel free to add your own.

1) Thinking domaining is a M-F 9-5 job, it is definitely not for you if you don't expect to work at it nights and weekends. If you hire staff make sure they also understand this. This includes web designers and programmers.

2) Thinking the first offer you get for $500 or $1000 is a good offer just because you paid $7 for the domain. Learn how to negotiate and be a salesman. Without the ability to sell/negotiate you are doomed in this industry.

3) Do not start buying names from drops just because they have good stats. They must be brandable or resalable.

4) If you have a sizeable portfolio, 95% of your revenue will be generated from 5% of your portfolio. Make sure those are renewed 5 years in advance. Do not renew your best 5% month to month.

5) Make sure you understand parking is just a temporary solution until you find time to develop each name. To be successful, each domain will need to be developed as a separate business with a business plan and a marketing strategy or it will not be successful.

6) You wouldn't take financial advice from a bum in the street so don't take domain advice from the same bums. Do not take advice from people that start a blog to promote how great they are and have no proven track record selling anything. It's not about what they bought because any idiot with money can buy something, it's about how much profit they made from their original purchase.

7) You will not sell a domain above 5k by chasing end users. To get these sales, they must come looking for you. Make sure your whois information is easily available and that you have a contact us link on all your names for sale.

8) List your domains for sale on multiple sales sites but pricing should reflect what you want out of the domain. If I want to net $1000 on a domain, list it for $1100 on sedo, $1200 on Buy Domains and $1300 on Go Daddy. This is because sedo charges 10%, Buy Domains charges 20% and Go Daddy charges 30% for premium listings. Stop worrying about commissions you may pay if you get out of it what you want.

9) When you sell a domain make sure you delete it from all sales venues, do not leave it up.

10) Take half the money you make off a domain sale and bank it, the worst thing to have in any business is zero cash flow, without cash flow you are doomed and may miss the next bargain.

11) Don't get into domain thinking you will be the next Frank Shilling or Kevin Ham because you probably won't be.

12) Don't get into domaining because you think it's easy money without work, that is simply not the case. The most successful people work 24/7 regardless of how much money they have, they just love the industry.

13) Remember that in the gold mining time, the people that made the most money were not the gold miners. The people that made the most money were the people selling picks and shovels.

14) If you didn't read this until Monday see point 1.

-=DCG=-

[draggar]

Buying 50-100-200-500 hand registrations because you think they're good as opposed to buying 1-2 premium domains - this lesson is usually learned when the first round of renewals come up.

[Stian]

Good points Adam. I think I might have a few things to add, but right now I'm so tired it'll have to wait.

[Poker]

1. Don't buy into the hype when a new extension comes out (one new extension out of many may be worth some investment).
2. Don't handreg topical names like OsamaIsDead.com etc..thinking you can flip it quick here or anywhere, you just look foolish.
3. Stretch, go for long walks to lunch, drink lots of water/juice while sitting in front of your computer all day. A cold beer at night will keep you working.

[Nathan King]

Thanks for sharing Adam; some good advice there.

[Adam Dicker]

1. Don't buy into the hype when a new extension comes out (one new extension out of many may be worth some investment).
2. Don't handreg topical names like OsamaIsDead.com etc..thinking you can flip it quick here or anywhere, you just look foolish.
3. Stretch, go for long walks to lunch, drink lots of water/juice while sitting in front of your computer all day. A cold beer at night will keep you working.

These are all great too.

-=DCG=-

[Jeroen]

Thanks for sharing.
The biggest mistake I made:

Paralysis by analysis, not taking action.

[jdk]

#5 is too true. I am amazed at the numbers of some of my developed sites vs when they were parked.

[Acro]

#15 Avoid running into Patty

[CureCancer]

never mind

[Gerry]

Regging a ccTLD (say .fr, .es, .nl) and combining it with a totally non-generic English word simply because it was available to reg.

Knowing that some ccTLD's are passionately used by the native speakers, I seriously doubt someone is going to buy FingerSandwiches.nl simply because you found it first.

And, gee...what a surprise...some geo's simply do not go with the ccTLD. AkronOhio.de

[Tia Wood]

14) If you didn't read this until Monday see point 1.-=DCG=-

If you didn't read this until Monday maybe you're out working instead of reading a forum.

#15 - Don't get emotionally attached to your domains.

[ecomindia]

wonderful points shared!!!

you should know what you are doing, how much your pocket is getting empty (investin to domaining ) and how much you are able to pull out of it (identify major chunk) - Point 4 of DCG and Draggar post

very very important .. i made a blunder in 2007 reg' 1000+ .in domains and soon in 2008 , realized after analyzing when it was time to renew, <2% were making money to retain upto 40-50 domains . I dropped about 900+ domains and retained the ones which were giving money along with few ones i felt had future (now this is your instinct).

but i was happy to realize it next year itself rather then digging my grave slowly!

and as mentione by doccom abt cctlds - why in this world a spanish word with an indian cctlds gonna give ? people just register one country language in other cctlds extn cause it is a good keyword and is available . mate, i never seen a lion and a cow living together!

also, will like to add - domainers should realize while registering domain being customer-centric thought process in mind i.e. dont register domains that makes other domainers happy , but register thinking how a end-user willl find this domain ? it will help you, i still feel we just registr for the sake we fidn it to be attractive! remember - it is your money whom you are blocking just to admire it???

[aneurysm]

Thanks very much for the post.

Would you guys advise the new domainers to look for google searches, marketable names or typos?



also, how well do the .com's with other languages not english sell?

[Krumble]

I went through a few phases in the first couple months of being in domaining. My lifecycle was like this.

1. I can't believe this name was not registered. . . . minus $7 from my bank account
2. Continue with step one until your wife reads the AMEX bill
3. From now on I will only reg what I will develop
4. Find out your wife will not be your pro bono content developer
5. Realize that there is too much to learn and not enough time
6. Troll the forums for information and advice to ensure I don't repeate my mistakes

Thank you for the great post. A lot of advice and information in a small package which is the kind of thing I need at these early stages. From what I have learned, this is not for everyone, it is not easy money, and there is a price involved with the learning curve. I am just glad my case of the stupids did not bleed my bank and only got me audited by the wife. I still swear to her that I will make it back in the future.

Regards,

Krumble

[Gerry]

I went through a few phases in the first couple months of being in domaining. My lifecycle was like this.

Excellent post. Also, laugh my ass off at number 2 (been there, done that, could not afford the t-shirt).

You get the task of writing the NOOB Dummies Guide to Domaining

[Tia Wood]

2. Continue with step one until your wife reads the AMEX bill

I'll never have to worry about that.

[Aleksandar]

Great posts so far. I can only imagine more of them coming soon. I would say, make this thread "sticky" so it doesn't get buried after a while.

I'll never have to worry about that.

I wish I could say that...

Excellent post. Also, laugh my ass off at number 2 (been there, done that, could not afford the t-shirt).

You get the task of writing the NOOB Dummies Guide to Domaining

I was laughing at No.1 already.

However, number 3 all the way.

[ninjadomain]

Please don't read this until Monday.

Another tip is to buy with a purpose.

Btw, I'm still learning.

[bigboydog_0]

nice!!!!