How do you decide whether to buy?

[sunja]

I have a list of a bunch of available short two word .com's, where both words are relevant keywords to a large-ish industry (insurance/loans, soccer, mobile phones, adult).

I search on google's traffic estimator and it says there's no traffic for those phrases, but I look on sedo, and similar domains have bids.
What other factors do you guys look at when deciding whether to buy a domain or not?

I don't have a huge budget, so I can't really just buy a whole load and hope the few sales will cover the duds (yet) so I'm wondering; how do you decide to buy?

[katherine]

Are you talking about domains that are available to register for reg fee ?
I have a very simple strategy: I register names that I know I can develop if they don't sell. If the name is decent it could at least earn the reg fee with parking for one year. Then you decide whether to renew or drop. You have little to lose. So I suggest to select names that pertain to industries/topics you are comfortable with.

[anderson33]

It is a good question, but first you must decide your reason for buying.

Are you lookng for a long term investment or short them investment?

Are you looking for a quick "filp" to generate some extra cash?

Are you looking to develop?

Are you looking to drive traffic to a specific website?

Are you looking to park the domain and generate parking income off of type in traffic?

There are some on this forum that do one of the above and there are some that do all of the above and I am sure there are a lot more reasons than the ones I have listed above.

After you have answered that question than the best thing to do is stick to an area that you know, and then research, research, and more research. This forum is a great place to start.

[sunja]

for me it's a short term quick flip, would rather not develop. (least effort!)

Yes, i'm talking about domains that are available for reg fee.

I take your (sdsinc) point about being able to develop if I need to.

Thanks for your input, both

[simon johnson]

sunja, sdsinc has a very good point. Even if you want to flip it, you should evaluate whether you could actually develop it. What happens if you can't flip it? You don't want a portfolio of names that aren't doing anything.

[dcristo]

domain flipping from fresh regs? good luck!

[draggar]

domain flipping from fresh regs? good luck!

I agree. Unless you happen to get very lucky with one that just got released and was missed by all the drop-catchers, most likely any newly registered domains, no matter how "good" they may seem won't get more than a reg fee if you try to sell them.