New in Domain Business? WARNING!!!

[acesfull]

WARNING!!!! TURN BACK NOW!!!

Getting into the domain name business can ruin your life. It can consume all of your free time, get you addicted to the Internet and wreck relationships. If you experience any of the following conditions, it may already be too late...


---1---
COMBINATION SPINNING: creating every type of logical adjective+noun combination you can think of, and checking for .com availability. (Example: redwagon.com, redcar.com, redapple.com, etc., bigtree.com, littletree.com, talltree.com, etc., hotpictures.com, naturepictures.com, colorpictures.com, etc.)

---2---
MEDIA EAR: Anything you hear on TV or Radio: news, commercials, talk shows, etc. - your ear is tuned in to any new word, short combinations, medical terms, new device names, funny short phrases, acronyms, car model numbers, celebrity utterances, etc.

---3---
FUTURE MINING: Doing research by searching for new products, medical breakthroughs, new electronic devices, new energy terms, etc., which may include visiting scientific websites, medical websites, invention websites, electronics websites - AND buying magazines, like Scientific American, Women's Health, Forbes, etc., and skimming through the magazines for words, terms and phrases that are likely to be hot search terms.

---4---
MULTI-BACKORDER PARTICIPATION: Actively entering domains on two or more drop/backorder sites, like Pool.com, SnapNames.com, NameJet.com, etc.

---5---
DROP-LIST MINING: Spending considerable time, every day, researching the list of expiring domain names. Depending on your methods and tools, the time you spend each day could be one hour to five hours, or longer.

---6---
DREAM SPINNING: Domains come to you in your dreams. Often, when you wake up, the name may be difficult or impossible to recall. This can often lead to frustration, resulting in domain nightmares, where you dream about things like opening your domain account, finding all of your names are gone, or all have hyphens added to them.

---7---
DOT-COM-VERSATIONS: When speaking to anyone, no matter where you are, whatever the setting, subject of conversation - everything that is spoken, by your boss, friends, co-workers, etc., your ear and mind is tuned in to any new word, term or short phrase and is turned into a .com and analyzed, in your mind, for potential value as a .com. This is something you cannot necessarily turn off at will.

---8---
MIND DROPPING: When you get mad at yourself for thinking up great domain names, committing them to memory, and then forgetting what they were. Often, they are really great and potentially valuable domains that would have been available to register, if only you didn't forget them. It's often more painful when you had (and mind-dropped) two, three or more of them.

---9---
REMINDER-TOOL ASSISTANCE: When you think it is important enough to carry a pen and paper, so that you will never, ever forget another great domain idea. For the more gadget-minded individual, a personal recording device is preferred, so along with recording your grocery list (butter, milk, eggs), you can record those domain thoughts as they occur.

---10---
GENERIC-PRODUCT-SEARCHING: Looking for product descriptions by going to sites like ebay (looking at their category list), Sears, Home Depot, Lab supply sites, medical supply sites, etc.

---11---
NAME INVENTING: Coming up with catchy, made-up terms, like snazookle.com, sizzlepop.com, cranbora.com, cliggler.com, shazzler.com, etc.

---12---
WORLDZONE SPINNING: Coming up with two-word combinations, using category or main keyword names (like jewelry, camera, computer, music, etc.) and combining with commonly-used second words, like world, zone, etc. Examples: cameraworld.com, camerazone.com, cameraforum.com, cameracenter.com, camerastore.com, cameradepot.com, cameramagazine.com, etc.

---13---
IMPULSIVE BIDDING AND BUYING: Getting caught up in the bidding action and bidding more on domains than you'd normally pay. Sometimes, it works out and you get good deals. This also may include bidding on multiple sites, and making offers to various domain dealers and forum sellers.

---14---
JUNK BUYING: Buying too many domains in the $10 to $50 range. It is often better to buy one high-quality domain for $2,000, than 80 domains at $25 each.

[biggedon]

unfortunately, i have all of those symptoms

[muzie]

Been there too! Only after an intervention and quiet time at a facility in Upstate New York with a domain name rehab program did my life get back together. Oh wait--I'm back on the forum again and back sliding--this is not good.

[Acquisition]

You mentioned tv media, but you forgot billboard watching (and advertisements out there on the street in general).

I have been writing down phrases/terms that are out there for years. Pen and paper is on me 24-7 . I have stacked notebooks FULL of domains

Luckily I am in Toronto and not rural Kansas where ads are EVERYWHERE. Hint- Highly advertised .ca domains convert well into .com for traffic if you can grab it. Lord knows I've gotten some goodies that way. You wouldn't believe the number of companies who don't even bother buying the .com. And you wouldn't believe how many .com owners have no idea the other extention is making their name valuable.

[rebirth]

There must be something wrong with me. I never dreamed a domain before... :(

[blogcrash]

I was reading and paying atention to potential new words/ phrases and cheking if some were available.

Is this a symptom?

[james2002]

I got most of those.

[Acquisition]

Well it's just like any other business. The more you put in, the more you get out.

Plain and simple.....

[Tia Wood]

Nice post.

You forgot Drunk Registering

[blogcrash]

Nice post.

You forgot Drunk Registering

yep ... lol

[stock_post]

I am on the top of the list
"Dumb Domineer" -- if I spelled that correct, put in second place, would you?

[screwdriver]

I have to admit, I recently got addicted to looking at lists of expiring domain names, which can be in the thousands.. spending a lot of time to pick up a few decent ones worth the reg fee.

Trying to keep it under control is something I am struggling with..
Should have read these warning signs before hand.

[Marketing Guru]

And don't forget Auction Aping: Looking at large auction sales, then checking for the same keywords in other tlds.

For example, ArtClasses.com just sold for $15,000 at DomainFest yesterday, and today I woke up to find 'ArtClasses.biz' in my NameCheap account.

Strange symptoms. Is there a cure? Besides bankruptcy?

- Marketing Guru

[biggedon]

And don't forget Auction Aping: Looking at large auction sales, then checking for the same keywords in other tlds.

For example, ArtClasses.com just sold for $15,000 at DomainFest yesterday, and today I woke up to find 'ArtClasses.biz' in my NameCheap account.

Strange symptoms. Is there a cure? Besides bankruptcy?

- Marketing Guru

that is a classic fallacy in the philosophy of domaining

and surely is a factor in many domain registrations.

[MAllie]

I'm older than most (if not all) of you, and I've been doing the make-up name thing for years, only I was doing it to get slogans for consumer competitions. Won only one big one and lots of little ones, but it was probably worth it for the fun alone, especially in those pre-net recession days of the 70s & 80s when the alternative was talking to yourself or reading yet another library book.

[Domainate.com]

---2---
MEDIA EAR: Anything you hear on TV or Radio: news, commercials, talk shows, etc. - your ear is tuned in to any new word, short combinations, medical terms, new device names, funny short phrases, acronyms, car model numbers, celebrity utterances, etc.

Actually, with my ear being tuned in to domains mentioned on TV, I've made a nice chunk of change.

Funny list though.

[Marketing Guru]

that is a classic fallacy in the philosophy of domaining

and surely is a factor in many domain registrations.

You are right that an aped generic domain will typically never challenge the dotcom in value. No one would say, for example that ArtClasses.biz is worth anything close to the $15,000 that ArtClasses.com sold for.

That said, having a high sales price for a dotcom version can help sales by highlighting the value of the keywords. Good keywords are good keywords. And as long as the non-dotcom domain is appropriately priced it can be a great deal.

In this example, ArtClasses.biz is only priced at a realistic, tiny fraction of the dotcom 0.25% (one quarter of one percent).

- Marketing Guru

[Domainate.com]

You are right that an aped generic domain will typically never challenge the dotcom in value. No one would say, for example that ArtClasses.biz is worth anything close to the $15,000 that ArtClasses.com sold for.

That said, having a high sales price for a dotcom version can help sales by highlighting the value of the keywords. Good keywords are good keywords. And as long as the non-dotcom domain is appropriately priced it can be a great deal.

In this example, ArtClasses.biz is only priced at a realistic, tiny fraction of the dotcom 0.25% (one quarter of one percent).

- Marketing Guru

It has to be a realistic sale though, and I think this is where most people screw up on the "that ext sold so I'll get this ext" logic. I think we all know some of the ridiculous fluke sales that go on, and owning even the .net of a .com that way oversold at $10,000 oftentimes won't do you any good because the person you're telling it to would just say "well there's no way in hell I'd have paid $10,000 for the .com so what's your point?" I've made a number of attempts at the similar-name sale or same name different extension sale and am 0 for probably about 10 or so.

[Marketing Guru]

It has to be a realistic sale though, and I think this is where most people screw up on the "that ext sold so I'll get this ext" logic. I think we all know some of the ridiculous fluke sales that go on, and owning even the .net of a .com that way oversold at $10,000 oftentimes won't do you any good because the person you're telling it to would just say "well there's no way in hell I'd have paid $10,000 for the .com so what's your point?" I've made a number of attempts at the similar-name sale or same name different extension sale and am 0 for probably about 10 or so.

I agree, the original dotcom sale needs to be realistic. For another example, ToyRecalls.com just sold for $10,000. With the low sales prices lately, I think it was a realistic sale.

So I regged ToyRecall.US which is not only an Auction Ape, but also a topical media term. The extension is appropriate since the recalls are typically US-based. Combine that with a very, very cheap price for ToyRecall.US and I think its a good combination for a quick sale. We'll see.

- Marketing Guru

[IBN]

Been there too! Only after an intervention and quiet time at a facility in Upstate New York with a domain name rehab program did my life get back together. Oh wait--I'm back on the forum again and back sliding--this is not good.

domain name rehab program (dot) com is available to register. I don't understand the problems you guys are talking about.