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Want to build a side business? buy a great domain name

deepsouthventures.com

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Re: Want to build a side business? buy a great domain name

#111

Post by exclusiv »

kristopolous wrote: post #25
Marazan wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a guy who accidentally spent 4 figures on a domain he didn't want. And it was no big deal to him because he knew he'd be able to break even on it due to his expertise He's an expert domain reseller. Novices would get burned.

I've been in the room with people spending well over $10,000 on domains. It's crazy. I could never guess that actually happened until I saw it myself. I thought those prices were just absurd fantasy

I spent over 100k on a domain. Sometimes there are very few great options that ever come up and if you value the brand name itself and the fact that search traffic on the domain has a financial value (and you're already bidding a lot of $ on those terms for a single click) then it can easily pencil out.

Re: Want to build a side business? buy a great domain name

#112

Post by exclusiv »

ericzawo wrote: post #11
josefresco wrote: post #9

For anyone interested, or likes looking at recently deleted/expired domains, Pool.com has an interface to find these: https://www.pool.com/deletingdomains.aspx?ia=DomainsDeleting... I'm not in the business, but occasionally browse to see if any "local" domains pique my interest. You'd be surprised how many people "let" their domains expire - if I was a less than ethical hacker, I'd be able to hold many local organiza…

What a shitty thing to suggest doing—especially at this time.

If you want to snag it before it gets returned to the registrars then it's a good option.

Just because someone lets something expire doesn't mean they can't afford the registration during a crisis. They have a redemption period anyway before you can snag it with Pool or SnapNames. An annual domain name registration is not expensive.

Re: Want to build a side business? buy a great domain name

#113

Post by exclusiv »

ValentineC wrote: post #87
kebman wrote: post #69

I tried to register a really cool name. Suddenly it was registered after all. Funny how that goes... Thought me to never trust a domain name registrar again. Could I have sued them? Perhaps, but at the time that was way too economically risky a prospect for me to undertake, while most likely having to pay court costs even if I won.

> I tried to register a really cool name. Suddenly it was registered after all. Funny how that goes... Thought me to never trust a domain name registrar again. Let me guess… GoDaddy?

Yes, don't search for domains at GoDaddy unless you are going to buy it right away if available.

Re: Want to build a side business? buy a great domain name

#114

Post by DoreenMichele »

eightturn wrote: post #26
alexpotato wrote: post #10

I think this is a much better article about this from the same guy: https://www.deepsouthventures.com/i-sell-onions-on-the-inter...

thanks Alex (author here).. that domain article was one of my first, so I was (and still am) trying to find my writing voice. whatever that means.

Don't sweat it. A runaway hit like the onions piece is like catching lightning in a bottle. It's not really something you can plan and, so far, I haven't found a formula where you can reliably recreate it to any degree.

(I've had two posts do about a tenth as well on HN as your onions piece, both on different blogs of mine and that didn't result in follow-up posts on those blogs being similarly successful. So my opinion is somewhat informed by firsthand experience, fwiw.)

Re: Want to build a side business? buy a great domain name

#116

Post by Doctor_Fegg »

tamask wrote: post #18

My mind works exactly the opposite way. If I see a domain like BikeTours.com, I immediately assume that the business is built primarily on the domain name, and the quality of the product or service is inferior. Hence I don’t click it. But I assume the majority of internet users don’t think this way, so it can be a profitable strategy. Edit: Well, thinking about it, it’s not always true, but at the very least I check…

I laughed out loud at this example, because I run a site with (what I reckon to be) one of the best domain names for exactly that use-case:

https://cycle.travel

Re: Want to build a side business? buy a great domain name

#117

Post by tylerchilds »

nelaboras wrote: post #98
bonestamp2 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> https://startupname.website The best one I got was roofpotato.com Sell rooftop potato garden kits? I guess that's my life now...

Just got "girlfriendtape.com", can't decide between revenge porn and amateur porn.

I don't even know where to start with "mightbrabancon.com"

Re: Want to build a side business? buy a great domain name

#118

Post by dangwu »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #116
tamask wrote: post #18

My mind works exactly the opposite way. If I see a domain like BikeTours.com, I immediately assume that the business is built primarily on the domain name, and the quality of the product or service is inferior. Hence I don’t click it. But I assume the majority of internet users don’t think this way, so it can be a profitable strategy. Edit: Well, thinking about it, it’s not always true, but at the very least I check…

I laughed out loud at this example, because I run a site with (what I reckon to be) one of the best domain names for exactly that use-case: https://cycle.travel

Do you think having an unusual TLD (travel) is hurting you at all? If someone told an average person to go to "Cycle.travel", I'm not sure that they would understand that to be a web address.

Re: Want to build a side business? buy a great domain name

#119

Post by Normille »

ryan29 wrote: post #94
Normille wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've looked at that pool.com site a few times, out of idle curiosity. Every time I do so, I never fail to be amazed at the absolute mountain of complete junk domains that has registered. They seem to fall into two categories; the "my cat walked over the keyboard" + com ones, like 342yfgtg.com and the "maybe if I add another word, I'll find a combo that's not been already registered" + ones, like "topgoodholidaybargai…

Yeah. There are tons of bad domain names on those drop lists. I wonder what the deal is with that too. The new TLDs aren't that bad IMO, especially if you want something short and memorable for a quick site. Last year I wanted a non-SSL site to help out with captive portal redirection and I was able to register wifi.help rather than some crazy long name on an ogTLD.

Not all the new TLDs are terrible. A few of the short ones like me [for a personal site], or info for a reference site are OK. But I think a lot of the other ones do sound really dodgy. If I saw a link to a company website with a domain name like bargains, blackfirday, creditcard, discount... [to pick just 4 at random near the top of a very long alphabetical list] I'd avoid them like the plague.

They just set off alarm bells in my head that, at best, I'd be venturing on to some godawful spammy site, loaded down with a dozen hacky-tracky javascripts and, at worst, I'd be opening up my computer to god knows what insecure data processing.

Funny how the xyz domain [which, to be fair, wasn't one of the worst of the new ones] attained a measure of respectability when adopted by Google, in their Alphabet guise.

Re: Want to build a side business? buy a great domain name

#120

Post by eightturn »

mysterypie wrote: post #96

The advice is to buy descriptive domain names and build a business basing your decision "solely off the domain name" that you're able to find. His About page claims that he himself does this. But does he actually do that? Of the examples he gave – ComputerCamp.com, ShippingSupply.com, KobeBeef.com, CameraBag.com, Pacifiers.com, ZoysiaGrass.com, SouthernCookbook.com, Ziplines.com, CannedHam.com, SexyBastard.com – ever…

author here. I sell onions on the internet. does that qualify? Check out my homepage for other developed domain projects.
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