By Gary Geyer
The economy being what it is today, many of those 50plus –boomers
and seniors — are looking for ways of supplementing their income or
even striking it rich.
Looking to start a home based business?
Buying and selling website domain names can be a great money-
making business or hobby. (For those who don’t know the
term "domain name," LetLifeIn.com is a domain name. So are
AutoParts.com, Google.com, VacationSpots.net, BankLoans.org and
close to a billion others.) Every website has a domain name. It’s their
address. (The converse is not true: Every domain name does not have
a website.) Our competitors have domain names such as Aarp.com,
50plus.com, Eons.com, SudenlySenior.com, etc.
The very good domain names are worth a lot of money.
And I mean A LOT of money. For example: Toys.com recently sold
for $1.25 million. You read that right. Right now someone is selling
Sex.com and everyone is watching to see if it will break the world’s
record.
$$$$$$
The fact is, even the average domain names are selling for huge
amounts. They are often bought and sold purely as investments. Due
to the increasing demand, domain name speculation is becoming a
very lucrative business. Often, as I mentioned, there is not even a
website that uses a domain name that someone owns.
The "good ones"
Unfortunately, there aren’t many of those so-called "good ones" left
to buy from the sites that sell them publicly (like NetSolutions.com
and GoDaddy.com, and others). Believe it or not, it can often be
difficult to find your own name available. (I own GaryGeyer.com
but there are other Gary Geyers in the world who might want that domain name. (I’d sell it for the right price.) All, or practically all, the
dictionary "one word" domain names (like loan.com or doctor.com)
have been snapped up and are already owned by somebody. So are
3 letter domain names. They are often someone’s or some company’s
initials (ABC.com) or could be a generic name, like pub.com.
(Interesting ‘believe it or not’ trivia: The guy who owns Pub.com,
also owns Corp.com, Bar.com, Cafes.com, Grill.com, Place.com and
Shelter.com. He says he turned down a 1.75 million dollar offer for one
of them, but he wouldn’t say which one.)
The value of a domain name could be based on several factors.
The generic names seem to be the most in demand and therefore
command the highest prices. Also important is how easy to remember
the name is (like a phrase ‘AliveAndKicking’); the amount of letters
in the domain name (less is usually better, but not necessarily); how
popular the word or phrase is as a search word. (If you type in "sex,"
Google lists 582 million sites); or just the fun or quirkiness of the
name (Google.com, Yahoo.com).
There are websites that buy and sell domain names that are owned by
individuals and are available for purchase.(via auctions like the e-bay
model, brokers, listings or advertising anywhere (like a website) Often,
a price isn’t given; making an offer is preferred.)
Buying and reselling "online real estate"
You could make money buying domain names and later reselling them.
That’s where the money is. Domain names have been called "online
real estate" because they are valuable properties. A domain name
could be worth $10,000 today and $15,000 in six months. Then again,
like anything these days, the prices can fluctuate but bargains can still
be found quite often.
The top 10 money-making domain name sales
Sex is the keyword everywhere and this is true in the case of this list.
Porn websites are the biggest seller.
Sex.com at $14 million, is the most expensive domain sale of all time.
Fund.com sold in 2008 for $9,999,950.
Porn.com sold in 2007 for $9,500,000.
Business.com is being used as a business related search engine. It
sold for $7,500,000 in 1999.
Diamonds.com sold at $7,500,000.
Beer.com sold for $7,000,000 (wine.com and vodka.com are pretty
high on the list as well.)
AsSeenOnTV.com sold for $5,100,000.
Casino.com sold for $5,500,000
Korea.com is the only domain name with a country name in the list
which was sold for $5,000,000.
SEO.com (stands for Search Engine Optimization) sold for
$5,000,000.
Gary Geyer is Chief Editor of "Let Life In." and has his own list of domains for sale at GarysDomains.com
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