F.A.Q.
Frequently Asked Questions about Domains
Q: How do I get started searching for a domain name?
A: The best place to start is with the tools you can use for free at Google Suggest and WordTracker. Most professionals use both. Google Suggest gives you an ide of what people are searching for, Wordtracker shows you daily searches for that word in combination with others. From there you can just go through the tools in our left menu, or follow the 'checklist' on our homepage.
Q: All the good names are taken, how can I find a good name?
A: It is late in the game for top-level domain names and the easy ones are taken. There are still some good domains out there, but it is work to find them. You can try different extensions than .com such as a .net, .org or .us. You can also go to the domain name aftermarket and look through the domains for sale from private owners. Very often you will also find domains for sale on some of the forums. See our listing of domain name forums in the left drop-down menu.
Q: Why would I want to buy expired domains?
A: Expired domains are sometimes better than new ones, especially if they have some residual traffic and/or have good backlinks. Sometimes you can see domains and sites for sale in places like Sedo where you can see the backlinks and traffic count. If you are lucky, you can find an expired domain that is actually listed in the DMOZ and other leading directories. A good way to get started is with professional software to help such as ENom Expired Domain Software.
Q: Where can I find expired domains for sale?
A: Tdnam, Namepros, and more offer lists of expired domain names. We will be compiling links for this as we expand this site. Read more about it in the Expired Domains Guide.
Q: Where can I learn more about domains and the business of domaining?
A: Educating yourself about domains is free and easy if you have the time to go out and look over some of the many forums that are out there. We have listed all of the major forums that professional domainers use in our drop-down menu to the left. Some of them will charge for some services, but you can find a lot of information out there for free. Additionally, there are some groups on Linked-in for domainers.
Q: Which is the best top-level domain extension?
A: There have been many discussions on this subject, and dot.com is the best by far - yet .net and .org have followings and are much cheaper to get get for a novice buyer. Good sites have been built on other extensions besides .com. Also, country level domains can be quite popular - mostly for content in their own language. A site called gadu-gadu.pl sold for over $155 million. It had both a hyphen and a country level domain - something a lot of domainers might sniff at.
Here is what we found:
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This exercise shows how many of these types of domains are actually found in real live Google searches. Click on any of them
to run a current search yourself!
Q: What is an "Internationalized Domain Name (IDN)?
A: These are most often domain names which have foreign characters. A lot of novices get tricked into buying such names thinking that they will be valuable, for example a recent auction at Sedo showed the domain name duba.com up for sale. But using the spanish upside down exclamation point instead of the letter "i". This is unlikely to ever be found by anyone and a complete waste of money. The real dubai.com is worth millions of dollars, and plenty of unwary or ill-informed buyers bid up the price of this worthless domain to hundreds of dollars.
Q: Where can I learn or read more?
A: You can start with a book called the Virtual Real Estate eBook. Download it for starters to learn the basics, then explore some topics at the forums. If you want to enter the domains business as professional, you can invest in a book that explains how to turn $8.00 into $2000 per month with domain names.