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Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name
161–170 of 202 posts
Re: Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name
#162I've been casually interested in small time domain name "investing" (with and without intention to develop) since the early days and when it so happened that during a stint at GoDaddy, I was charged with the UX of the domain auction product, imagine my surprise to discover were a handful of very big players, some of whom ran bespoke software (not unlike a Bloomberg terminal) and were so profitable for the company tha…
My understanding is that Godaddy employees are forbidden from buying and selling domains and have been for at least the 6 years I've been purchasing the occasional domain in their auction platform. When were you at Godaddy?
Re: Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name
#163wow, I've run a domain registrar since 1999. Most domain name purchases are crap, domains are not assets but for a tiny tiny fraction of the top sites. don't be a fool and give your money to a registrar. Build a business by solving problem that many folks have. After you solved a problem buy a domain to market your solution.
author here.. why not find a domain that addresses a problem? then build business around it?
What some of the posters here have pointed out is that buying a domain name early scopes your idea and limits the possibility of you adjusting the purpose/audience/main concept of the start up.
Scoping is not bad per se, but starting up an idea is more of a creative process than concrete problem solving. You might not know what problem you're yet about to solve.
Re: Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name
#164But could we all agree that a shorter, easily spelled, 'radio-friendly' (unambiguous) .com domain can save a load on marketing costs?
I work backwards from my startup ideas and check the drop daily for domains that match my keywords. It doesn't take a lot of time and occasionally I find something perfect.
Re: Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name
#165[deleted]
Re: Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name
#166I sometimes buy domain names on my phone, late at night, in my bed. Usually after hours of laying in bed building out a business in my mind and iterating over and over to see where it leads. Buying the domain name seems to be the last step in the processes, it helps me sleep. I look at the list of my domains every once in a while and pick ideas to work on, but sometimes I have no idea what drove me to buy them, like…
I do the opposite : ) I buy the domain, and then put myself to sleep skipping through biz avenues.. A fun tool to use for hand-reg domains (if you didn't know already) https://instantdomainsearch.com/
As an aside, I first heard about instantdomainsearch.com from Beau at a Y Combinator event. He was working on Snipshot, and considered the domain search as an old side project that wasn't all that interesting anymore. It's interesting to see that the domain search is still up and running and Snipshot is gone. I wonder which one made more money in that decade+.
Re: Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. Descriptive.dot.com domain names are the equivalent of generic cereal boxes. I want to go to Amazon for my books, not books.com. I will never go to food.com, or glutenfree.com, or anything of the like. Amy's Kitchen on the other hand sounds compelling. I trust my pets with rover.com, but dogsitting.com? No way.
You're putting the cart before the horse. Going by domain name is the equivalent of planting your business on the side of the highway. You're going to get a ton of traffic just based on walk-ins alone.
What about taking the generic domain name and redirecting to a domain name for your actual brand?
Re: Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name
#168Not to burst your bubble but I'm convinced we're moving into an era where your domain name and TLD are becoming less and less relevant. Google and Social are all that matter. Had you asked me 4 years ago if I'd ever consider building a business on .io or .co I would have laughed in your face. Now I'm building products on both of them. FWIW, I used to buy/sell domains and I think it's a terrible investment strategy no…
gotta disagree, with all due respect. But I do like the .io extension.. but confused - you say Google & Social are all that matter.. Google indexes domains. And once a user visits a domain and has a positive experience, the domain would be that much easier for them to remember. And with social, you don't own or control the content - so if they fold (or change the rules), you're up the creek.
The point is returning people dont remember your domain anyway. They type the first few chars of your brand and hope for a suggestion. Thats why "getbrand.com" domains are a bad idea, and tlds dont matter because costumer akquisition happens over social or backlinks anyway.
Re: Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name
#169until google stops marking keywords in the domain and urls as bold I won't believe domain names (and paths) matter less than page titles and contents.
Re: Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
good trap tool for godaddy to get domains you are interested in
Do you have personal experience getting sniped with LDS? I've used it a half a dozen times and always had success.
I've been sniped a few times with instantdomainsearch.com when actually proceeding through to godaddy, but then not buying it within about a day. Haven't had any issues when not going through to godaddy, though.