How to Make a Living in the Domain Business

[danielr]

Currently, I am averaging about $70,000 per year in PPC, revenue sharing, and affiliate programs. And I would like to let some people in on a few secrets. I cannot promise you will do the same, but the following information I could easily write a book and sell (but you are gong to get the best info for FREE).

I currently own close to 1800 domains and close to 1000 of them are poker domains. Yes, I know what you are thinking (all the good poker domains are gone) and its not going to help you… well I have some very interesting news for you. I read an article last December on the internet, and purchased about 10 domains because of this article. 3 of these 10 domains I purchased make an average of $25 dollars per day in PPC. Together that is $75 per day and about 1/3 the revenue that I make on my PPC per day (from these 3 domains). But before I go into this, about getting the best name, I want to discuss how I got where I am today.

When I got into the domain business just more than 2 years ago, I fell flat on my face (just like I see many of the newbees today). But I learned from my mistakes and I learned from my profits. It’s just as important to learn from what you do right vs what you do wrong. If you do something right… can you do it better?

In the first 3 months of my venture in the Domain Business and maxing out one of my credit cards, I realized that about half the domains I purchased were going nowhere. I had them parked at Afternic and moved them to SEDO a few months later. However, there was just one domain that I picked up and it purchased it by accident. It was a typo from a non trade mark site. And I was actually getting traffic and PPC on SEDO with this domain. So I started buying more similar Typos, but I was not the only person buying typo domains and the really good typos domains for PPC were bought up quickly. So I had to came out with a method that really helped me find some great typos and I am going to share this with you…..


1) Use a spreadsheet or text document that you can SORT. I personally use excel

2) Type the name of the domain you want the typo for, over and over and hit the return key after each time you type it. This will have it appear each time on a new line.

3) After each time you type the name, you MUST pick your hands up off the keyboard because it prevents a repetitive pattern.

4) Sometimes I type it about 20 times and rest and save the document.

5) If you can, do not look at the screen when you type, or if you make a mistake do not correct it.

6) After you type the domain about 500 times, then sort out your column of text. Now you are going to be able to see the most common typos you make because the common mistakes will be grouped together.

7) Sometimes I have others (type) it out because I don’t always make the same typos. My cat makes the most typos now.

About the same time learned this method, I started getting more poker domains. And yes I was lucky to grab many nice typos of poker sites. However, I currently own over 400 poker site typos which makes up over 60 percent of my PPC.

After a while I did pick up some trade marked domain typos and even found a way to dodge them (I am not going to go into that now). But if I did pick up a very good trade mark domain typo that makes a large profit, I always do a private registration. It does not stop them from taking the domain; however it weeds out the attorneys that just send the normal certified letter to scare you.


The next bit of information is how to find and get the domains that have potential. This is how I found those 3 domains last December. And in a similar example….. a few days ago I saw this article on the GOOGLE news about how GoldenSpirit is going to get into the online poker business.
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=88803

Golden Spirit is a very rich mining company in Alaska and now they want to get into the online poker business. Well they did pick up GoldenSpiritPoker.com but guess who owns GoldenSpiritPoker.Net and GoldSpiritPoker.com. Of course it is just speculation, however, I like my chances with a company who has the money to advertise. Last December I did the same with FullTiltPoker.com and it is really paying off.

The bottom line is reading as much as you can about a domain you are interested in buying can be all the inside information to score big. It does not have to be a poker domain. Big companies make mistakes by only buying the .com and not any similar domains/variations, and that is were domain buyers like us have the edge.

I have said this in other post, and maybe I am shooting myself in the foot by saying it here, but everyday… I read the news on Google about poker. I also always monitor www.PokerPulse.com because I want to know how all the top poker sites are doing. If there is a new online poker site or event, I want to know. Sometimes I wonder if I should be reading about technology more than just poker.

I am not saying everyone had to buy poker domains to be successful, however, the domain industry and technology is NOT stagnated. 2 years ago “POD” was unheard of. What is going to be the next new key words? Well it’s not going to just fall in your lap, but one of the first to know really helps. There is tons of articles just waiting to be searched and read by speculators like me and you, and it’s all FREE.

I believe that….. To be successful in the domain business you have to learn from your mistakes, your profits, and with the information I have just provided you it only takes the initiative. I can just see it, I made everyone on NamePros a millionaire.

 

[DraftMaster]

Very Great Article.

i'm sure thats lot of people will do that now.

 

[billinchina]

If you had a business running on a domain and someone registered a typo (I'm currently a business owner in this situation), I believe that the person who registered the typo should be willing to give it to you for the registration fee if you asked them for it. I shouldn't have to file a couple thousand dollars worth of UDRP disputes to get names which are stealing my traffic. I'm not talking generic typos either, just business specific typos... Lets say that you register a typo and the business owner never asks you for it. If they don't mind and never contact you, then that's one thing (still questionable but probably not angering them). However, if they contact you and ask for it, I think you should give it to them for free as a decent citizen would. I wouldn't suggest using Whois Privacy or false whois info to make things more difficult.

This is just my 2 cents on this issue.

 

[yesonline]

Very good article, thanks.
Btw, does anybody notice the golden spirit uses a .WS domain name? They don't even to buy their .COM version?

 

[mole]

Typos for a living, and chicks for free...

 

[Midano]

Getting without giving? Let's see...

1,800 domains x $8 each = $14,400/year for the registrars.

A parked domain only gets roughly 50% of click revenue. Ask Sedo if they're happy to have these domains parked with them.

A parked typo domain also gives a chance of better exposure to site's competitors.

A typo domain simply utilizes traffic, which otherwise would've been lost completely to 404/"can not be displayed" vacuum.

In other words - many different people benefit from typo domains. Including some attorneys.

 

[ndelong]

Good points. I don't see how typo domains hurt the owner of the original domain, unless the ads displayed on the site directly compete with the business of the original site. For example, a famous case of a user who registered Amazom.com and then put Barnes and Noble affiliate banners on the typo site.

As for claims made that the registrant of typos should give up the domain for free, I do not agree. Business is business, and if the typo does not infringe on an active US trademark, the domain owner has no legal claim.

 

[kbossons]

Nice thread, thank you very much for this.

 

[danielr]

If you had a business running on a domain and someone registered a typo (I'm currently a business owner in this situation), I believe that the person who registered the typo should be willing to give it to you for the registration fee if you asked them for it. I shouldn't have to file a couple thousand dollars worth of UDRP disputes to get names which are stealing my traffic. I'm not talking generic typos either, just business specific typos... Lets say that you register a typo and the business owner never asks you for it. If they don't mind and never contact you, then that's one thing (still questionable but probably not angering them). However, if they contact you and ask for it, I think you should give it to them for free as a decent citizen would. I wouldn't suggest using Whois Privacy or false whois info to make things more difficult.

This is just my 2 cents on this issue.

Sorry I have not repsonded earlier, but I have been answering the hundreds of PM's about this post. Hmmm, I dont mind but maybe I should keep more quite here and just read instead of speak

Bill, thanks for the info. I thought it was funny when I read your response. I was just 5 months ago that I had 2 typos for AFTERNIC.COM. Afternic did NOT come to me as ask me for them, I went to them and asked if Afternic wanted the domains ( I was going to just give them up outright). You (afternic IT) told me to just let them expire and I did. I did not even offer them to others who would use them to display their domain portfilios. I cant count all time times I go to Afternic.com and make a typo.... and it leads me directly to somebodys redirected URL to display they afternic portfolio. I never redirected my afternic typos to my domain portfolio because it is not targeted traffic, Only Domain Sellers visit afternic to check thier stats. So I guess now i will be a victim of my own success when I get redirected more often.

Another import factor that I think everyone should see. Just type in any typo for PartyPoker.com.... PartyPoker is the single largest online poker site. You will find half of them are redirected to PartyPoker Affliate programs, for example www.pokergame.com is a partypoker affilaite and who ever owns that domain is probably making $150 a day on it or more. You can tell that is an affiliate site by looking at the end of the URL which will have wm=XXXXXXX. The other 40 percent of PartyPoker.com typos will be fabulous/Roar parked pages. This is the parking I mostly use and make $8.50 per click. I own www.PartyPokerSite.com and when I applied as an affiliate with PartyPoker, they were very happy to have me with that domain. PartyPoker does not even care about a trade mark because they have so much money they cant even shake a stick at it.

Another quick issue about typos, is getting targeted traffic with typos. I some typos for google/yahoo, and yet cant really do anyting with them. They get traffic, but nothing targeted. For these domains I use DomainHop parking. I do this because of the landing page is more of a search engine type page.

But a classic example of a good typo (non poker domain) would be AlamoL.com . I only make about $28 dollars per year in PPC on a domain like this. After the registration fee - I have about $20 in profit. Well its not enough to do retire on, but when you get 2000 domains like this your not going to be eating at the local soup kitchen.

In the post that I provided, I only gave the main techniques about typos and did not go into detail. I also use a system on repeat characters to find some decent typos... A good example of this would be FreeCreport.com , I got lots of typo from FreeCreditReport.com (if you can see the overlay in the CRE) in the text.


I will respond to others questions later. My wife is 6+ months pregnant and must drive her to the Doc. And the Answer is yes, its a boy and his middle name will be POKER.

 

[DropLister]

nice, my third highest traffic name is a typo, spreadfirefix.com, typo of spreadfirefox.com

 

[kektex]

even though I hold a typo of the most popular cellphone company in my country which gets around 30 type-ins a day I`m not making that much money from typos.I made some foolish regs when I was getting started in domaining (around 8 months ago so I`m still a newbie ). That`s why I`m afraid of regging typos.

 

[slaughterbeck]

Daniel, forums and the internet for that matter exist because of people like you. Generous and willing to give their knowledge to help inform the community, thank you again for sharing.

 

[jamminsport16]

Dang I read it all. Was very nice. So do you ever advertise your domains danielr? Or just 'strictly' typo? And how do you pick such good ones.. I read your technique but it seems like I can never get one that pays lol.

PS: http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cach...om/showthread.php?t=6548+partypokersite&hl=en

is a heck of a lot of domains lol :P

 

[Oysterboy]

Hugely informative thread - thanks Daniel. I've never thought much about typos and you've definitely lit up the little light bulb which sometimes lives above my head. :blink:

 

[ApeXX]

If you had a business running on a domain and someone registered a typo (I'm currently a business owner in this situation), I believe that the person who registered the typo should be willing to give it to you for the registration fee if you asked them for it. I shouldn't have to file a couple thousand dollars worth of UDRP disputes to get names which are stealing my traffic. I'm not talking generic typos either, just business specific typos... Lets say that you register a typo and the business owner never asks you for it. If they don't mind and never contact you, then that's one thing (still questionable but probably not angering them). However, if they contact you and ask for it, I think you should give it to them for free as a decent citizen would. I wouldn't suggest using Whois Privacy or false whois info to make things more difficult.

This is just my 2 cents on this issue.

I would never "give" a typo domain away that was making me money, if anything I would sell it to the site/company. As long as it is not trademarked, there is nothing wrong with regging a typo.

 

[dabb]

I don't see how typo domains hurt the owner of the original domain, unless the ads displayed on the site directly compete with the business of the original site. For example, a famous case of a user who registered Amazom.com and then put Barnes and Noble affiliate banners on the typo site.

I would think that most typos that (intelligent) people register do fall into this competitive area. If you want to do decent with PPC, you really need targeted traffic that you can stear to a particular (hopefully high paying) category. Most clicks worth anything deal with products for sale, memberships, services, etc. Any parked typo of such a site will 100% surely display ads of competitors.

Your chances of "getting in trouble" are probably much less if you registered a typo of say a large "how to refinance" discussion forum than registering a typo of a major financial institution. In the first case, there's really no argument for damages. But in the second case they could argue every single visitor you "stole" cost them a potential financing deal or sent them to a competitor.

As for claims made that the registrant of typos should give up the domain for free, I do not agree. Business is business, and if the typo does not infringe on an active US trademark, the domain owner has no legal claim.

I would happily give up a typo domain to it's "rightful owner" if asked. The last thing on the planet I need is lawyers on my ass. I got my first C&D letter last month and not only did I cancel that domain, but several others that seemed "risky". Unless I have a magic domain making me thousands, it's not worth the hassle in my book.

 

[harkster]

I love this kind of open discussion. I think (and just did) it is a good idea to go over and read the May feature article at DNJournal.

Got question for Dan. Do you think there are so many gambling sites using Golden that it could hurt GoldenSpirit? Or could it be a plus?

Wow that string --goldenspiritpoker-- is typo heaven. Could not resist one.

 

[EbookLover]

Thanks for the OP. Really useful to many folks here, I'm sure. It goes to show you tht much of this business is based on research which can take up a lot of time if you are not organized.

edited to remove my remarks to the outrageous post from the first page.

 

[Gene]

Zquest -- ease up man... after I explained the bigger picture to him, he came around. He now understands how it benefits everyone -- the consumer, the advertiser, and the PPC owner.

 

[EbookLover]

Yeah, I saw that and that is why i edit my post while you were posting. Still mkaes my gut churn, though. PPC is not really a great justification as much as freedom is, IMO, but definitely PPC is useful.

 

[danielr]

I know there are a few that would like to see this thread burried but I guess the cat is out of the bag.

I have been helping others struggling in the domain business for the last year and gave them many of my secrets and their are many secrets that I have NOT listed yet on this forum or other forums. And I took a lot of flak from them for making a post like this but I have made them thousands of dollars and spent countless hours on the phone with them... as if it was not enough.

But I am not a greedy person or I would have not even made the post. However by telling others, They buy up the poker domain market, which in return makes many of my domains more vaulable. But I believe there is plent of wealth on the internet to go far.

But In this post, I want to tell others a TIP that I have learned the hard way in the past and hope onthers do not make the same mistake. Every once in a while you will find a great name and you buy it right away and thats great. However, if you find a really good name that has great potential, you must buy the .NET and the .ORG also. Also there may be other variations of the name that you will think of but do not come to you right away. So when you find that great name you must keep your mouth shut for a while and DO NOT LIST IT on sites like AFTERNIC or SEDO for at least a week. There are many vultures on these sites just looking at the newly listed domains, and I can promise you that if you list a great domain and you missed a variotion of this name .... that might even be a better name, you are not going to get it. Not everyone thinks of every possible variation right away. So when you find that great name, but it, get the other good extensions, and think about it. Waiting a week before you list it so the public is not going to make that big if a differnce.

I did this very thing after I purchased PokerPod.com / net / org and a while later I got some other variations that I know others would have stolen.

 

[Vonna.com]

I'm trying out your suggestion and have registred thise domains:

pookerpages.com
pokerpagess.com
pojerpages.com
pokkerpages.com
pokerrpages.com

I did not use the excel thing but have used Overture keyword suggestion tool to see how often a typo is search for, this should give you a impression of how "GOOD" the typo is

I found all the most visited poker sites in alexa , just searched for poker and sort by alexa rank.

As a expert do you know what TYPO will perform the best ?

 

[danielr]

I like your strategy.
The reason why I say this is by getting typos for pokerpages.com - which is a very informative site about poker. I am sure lots of new and experienced poker player visit that site. Now that you will be getting typos, I feel you have the best chance of sucess at SEDO parking, because the links that display will be very closely related to what people are looking for. I think as pokerpages.com grows so will your traffic and PPC.

Getting the most revenue on your Poker Traffic also depends on where you park. Majority of my domains are parked directly at Fabulous, Some of my poker domains are with poker site affiliates or my own poker sites. The Poker domains that deal with Poker Instruction I park at SEDO. Some domains that are in between pokersites and poker instruction are at Domain Sponsor. The poker domains that I am very interested in Selling (that do not get much traffic) are parked at Afternic. I have never had much luck selling domains at SEDO but have had great success selling at Afternic.

Got question for Dan. Do you think there are so many gambling sites using Golden that it could hurt GoldenSpirit? Or could it be a plus?

Wow that string --goldenspiritpoker-- is typo heaven. Could not resist one.

I have noticed that more an more poker sites are using the word "GOLD", HOLDEM", and "CLUB" in their names. There are so many new poker sites starting up, it is hard to keep up with them all. But these new sites are just SKINS of the major networks.

Another interesting aspect of GoldenSpiritPoker is if they will actually use this name. Just because they bought GoldenSpiritPoker.com does not mean they are forced to stick with it. That is why I only bought a few domains and will just watch, so so many others.

 

[mole]

The reason why I say this is by getting typos for pokerpages.com - which is a very informative site about poker. I am sure lots of new and experienced poker player visit that site.

pokerpages? wow, what kind of generic name is that? Is the lesson here that development is what makes traffic soar?

 

[danielr]

"With a lot of developement, some luck, and a good name....you can rule the world"

If Bill Gates never said that then I am sure he meant to say it.

 

[mole]

If Bill Gates never said that then I am sure he meant to say it.

Well you did, so there :D I agree with this development thing, its amazing what you can do with a bit of effort. Look at that savetoby.com site, who would have thought...