Step by Step Guide
Think of great domain names
I apologize because this is actually a multipart step. It's also the hardest, so I'll help you with coming up with great names.Come up with great domain names. For this you need my copyrighted local domain generator.
Alright yippity skippy, read through the steps first and you'll know what to do with all the friggin domain names.
Then you need to double check that the great names you have come up with are not taken yet. For this I recommend using my new Domain lookup feature.
Now to see how valuable your names currently are use the Word Tracker Keyword Tool. This is a free tool.
You can see how many times that combination was searched last month. Now what you want is something at least in the hundreds if not the thousands, but we are also concerned with the future potential as well as the current potential.
For websites that are taken you can get a feel for how well they are doing with a little research. Using Alexa.com and at the top of the page click traffic rankings, you will see how well a competitor site is doing, and you can use a whois lookup from a registrar and find out who owns the domain name that is already taken. Although more and more people are registering with private registration, meaning that their contact information is kept hidden.
Buy the domains
(I used to review several places to buy domains and park domains on this site. But I felt that was giving too many options and decisions, when there really is only a few good solutions. I'll give you the places that give the biggest bang for the buck - both inexpensive and high quality.)
- Buy .com, .net, and .org domain names for $6.99/yr with free private domain registration. This is the most reliable inexpensive option. I use 1and1 exclusively for domain registration, and hosting.
Park your domain names
Time to make some moolah.
Parking your domain name means that instead of hosting your website and developing it. A service provider will host your website for free and put advertisements on your site. Instead of seeing the empty web page, like this...
You see an actual website with links, like one of my sites, majormoolah.com.
Feel free to type this into the browser address bar to see how it works.
I have reviewed a few of the services that provide parking of domains. Why do these companies do this for free? Actually every time someone clicks on an advertiser link they make a little money, and give you a little money. After a short while you can see your account balance rising and rising. It actually is a really good deal, because of how little you have to do in order to start earning money. Personally I use Sedo.com.
- It's free, easy to setup, and there are no contracts. Once you sign up and create an account, you can easily setup all of your domains registered at 1and1 to point to sedo servers. Sedo does all the work for you and pays you monthly. There minimum payout for a check is $50.00, but if you have a Paypal account they will pay you in $20.00 increments. Sedo keeps great statistics about how many times your domains are viewed, your click rate, and how much you are earning on average for those clicks. Sedo has a great feature to make your sites look a little different. Choose from different colors and images to make your site look a little more real. This is who I use and recommend.
Alternatives to parking - developing.
- Now I know what you are thinking. Why don't I just do this myself, and skip the middle man. Sure it might be a little bit of work, but won't I make more money? Yes you certainly will. The problem is you can't just sign up for advertisers, that are relevant to the domain name you selected without first adding some relevant content. So now you are a writer, and publisher, and have to sign up individually for a bunch of advertisers for your site. Who do you think you are William Hearst? For all that time you've spent developing one site, you could be buying and parking other domain names that are slipping through your fingertips everyday, and parking them, letting someone else do all the leg work, while you sit back and get paid, you wanker.
WhyPark.com - I present this option because it actually is a good option. I've made a ton of money with this program and split my domains between WhyPark and Sedo.
- Now there is one service that attempts to provide you with the content and then you insert your own advertising. This is a little appealing, but setting up the advertising, can still be a bit of a pain. Try it with one or two domains, and if you think the extra reward is worth the extra hassle, then say la vie to parking, and hello WhyPark.
If you decide the development of your site is the way to go, and sometimes it is. If you've captured a domain name of a topic you are particularly interested in, then it may be worth expressing your opinions on the subject and pulling in your own advertisements to make some money. For this route you'll want to investigate how to make money with advertisements. I suggest you use someone else's step by step guide to help you get through this.
Sell your domain names
If you delay step 4 as much as possible you'll typically end up making a lot more.
By using Sedo.com your domain names are listed for sale in their huge database. You can either set a price or ask that people make an offer. It all depends on the quality of the name that you have selected. You could sell a domain for ten or fifty bucks, or it could go for several thousand dollars. If you've really hit the jackpot, then you're selling for more than ten grand.
Good Luck!
Domain Name Generator
Domain Lookup
Parking Service
Sign up with Sedo to park your domains for free, and earn one of the highest payouts around.
Buy Domains
1and1 sells domains cheaply and lets you manage them easily.
Featured Item
WhyPark will easily convert your parked domains into cash making sites.