Introduction
Table of Contents
Is buying and selling domains profitable? We take a close look at this method of earning money that is normally not spoken of. With 1.9 billion websites and growing daily I would say there is profit to be made. A small group of marketers make good money flipping sites. With some diligent research and an eye for potential winners it can be profitable. In this post we look at where you can search domains to buy and a couple of methods to earn money once you’ve bought them. I think you will find one of the methods the most rewarding and profitable. So. read on and let’s find out.
Which is the best site to buy domains
One of the most popular websites for purchasing expired domains is GoDaddy auctions.
You will not only receive a lot better prices, but you will also be able to locate quality domains at a reasonable price range via GoDaddy auctions due to its big client base.
You may also use keywords to look for domain names that interest you in the GoDaddy auctions area. For example, if you input the keyword “fitness,” it will return a list of all the domain names that match the term “Fitness,” allowing you to quickly create a list of all the domain names that match your chosen keyword selection.
The screenshot below demonstrates how GoDaddy auctions function with domain auctions and keyword domain searches.
Another site that is popular and can find some great deals is justdropped. I browse this at least every couple of days and mainly look for product domains. You will need to signup for this site for get more metrics and get emails sent to you for newly expired domains. What I do is click the ‘Daily Deals’ tab and see what domains have recently expired, this is not the full list. Only signup members get the full list. You wont need to sign up for daily deals. Below is an example of what you see.
Some other sites you can browse which are very popular are listed below:
snapnames.com
namejet.com
domcop.com
expireddomains.net
flippa.com/domains
Get an appraisal of the domain
GoDaddy can appraise your site, they will give you an estimated value. They are not accurate but you can get an idea of what ball park your looking at. The report will give you a price based variables such as extension, length, value of keyword. The report will also give what comparable sites have sold in the past.
You can also use estibot.com to get appraisal.
The five key points to remember when looking for domains to purchase is the following.
- Popular
- Ext i.e .com
- Short
- Memorable
- Keyword for SEO
How to make money with expired domains
There’s two methods that I primarily use and I’ll explain them in this section.
Method 1
The first way is to search and find GEO domains. These are domains that will have a business type with a geographical location. For example you may find something like sandiegoboarhire.com, what I would do is reach out to boat hire clubs in the San Diego area and contact them with an offer. Now this was popular back in the day due to less businesses having websites. Although with new businesses opening daily and looking for domain names, it still has appeal.
Method 2 (my favorite)
I absolutely love this method because you could double, triple and more the value of the domain by simply doing some work. Here’s what I have done and still do this day.
I look for product domains, for example from the justdropped expired domains above there is an expired domain that is perfect for this method. The domain in question is called storageenclosures.com. I would either get someone on fiverr to build me an affiliate site and include at least 10 posts related to storage enclosures, i.e best storage enclosures, strongest storage enclosure, best outdoor storage enclosures, you get the picture. By doing this it would add substantial value to the site when it came time to selling it. You could easily sell this for $1,000 with an investment of around $200 if you paid someone on fiverr to create the site for you.
Where to sell domains?
My favorite site to sell domains is GoDaddy. It’s easy, and personally I like the auction concept where the price could skyrocket if more the one person likes the domain. The other site that is popular is flippa.com/domains.
Final Thoughts
As you can this method as the potential to make big bucks. There’s few people I know spend full time doing this method. For most people I think it’s more of a side project. Just like buying collectables that go up in price with time. Although, using Method 2 I described can be done on a full time basis. For example if you bought a product domain each week built an affiliate site around it you could easily flip it for $800. That’s a could profit if it only cost you $99 to buy the domain.
