This is vastly different than prior years since if these names ever get sold again they will be sold based on a business value and not just a typical domain valuation.

While many domainers were spending time trying to cherry pick dropped names or pay $50k for some name hoping only to find a willing buyer who will pay 200k many brokers, developers and investors were targeting the very cream of the crop on the aftermarket and have succeeded in making 2010 the year of some of the most valuable domain purchases ever. Take for example just a sample of the names sold in 2010 – note that almost all of these were private transactions and not on dropped lists or even showcase auctions:

Legal Domains

• DivorceLawyers.com – a private sale currently in Escrow.com
• PersonalInjuryLawyers.com – UK law firm

Travel Domains

• LasVegasHotels.com – private purchase by Swiftrank PTE Ltd.
• BostonHotels.com – private purchase by Swiftrank PTE Ltd.

Holiday Domains

• BlackFridaySales.com – the rumcake dude

Insurance (ok – some way out of the budget for many domainers)

• AutoInsurance.com – private deal (unconfirmed)
• CarInsurance.com – Quinstreet
• Insurance.com – Quinstreet
• Insure.com – Quinstreet
• HealthInsuranceQuotes.com
• CarInsuranceComparison.com
• HomeOwnersInsurance.com

Health / Weight Loss

• WeightTraining.com
• HowtoLoseWeightFast.com

Gambling

• Slots.com
• Poker.org

Games

• CookingGames.com
• Boardgames.com

Cell Phones

• Ringtones.com

Even sex.com was sold but odds are that domain will be another dud imo and belongs to some group who will just change the DNS every 3 months looking for a better rev share from PPC.

I could go on and on about the wealth of premier domain names that have been scooped up by people who understand development and then ask why anyone is buying 95% of any of the junk sales reported every week but this is what makes a fascinating industry. Domainers every day watch trends and try to chase patterns but when in fact most of the money made by development is in lead generation.

From finance to shopping to games – the internet mainly revolves around 15 or 20 key lead generation verticals and when you understand that then you will NEVER have to chase any pattern.

Most developers know the good names by heart while many domainers still only understand whats catchy at the moment. How many times have you heard somebody say insurance is hot in the last 6 months?

Well… duh … insurance has been hot since 1999. So are credit cards, weight loss, mortgages, hotels, holiday names and other categories in the top list.

Frank Schilling said it best a couple years – only about 2% of all names registered mean anything so let me give you a couple life lessons for 2011

• If you can’t name the top 2% then consider ignoring all drop lists for a couple weeks and go back to domain name 101 school and learn what makes a good domain.
• Stop following trends – you should know the core names almost off the top of your head and while trends have a place how can you really pick a good name from a new batch if you don’t understand the ones already around?
• Ignore weekly sales reports. They are fun but no one has been able to find logic in them since 1941 and no one ever will.
• Spend money on good names. Do not spend money on 100 mediocre ones. Buy 1 good one.

There is also life outside of America. I have heard many comments about people looking at some domain buys and then doing a Google search saying well hey – this name gets no traffic since it doesn’t show up in Google. Oh my ….

Names with international appeal like SydneyHotels.com do not need Google USA Page 1 to be successful. While a Google US search may not show SydneyHotels.com favorably yet it’s already on page 1 of Google.com from almost all locations outside the US.

Names like LasVegasHotels.com have been (by far) some of the best acquisitions EVER with thousands of direct type in traffic every month. The new owners have a site that is continuously being upgraded and now in its 3rd version.  If you compare this site’s look, feel and functionality now versus the way it looked pre-acquisition earlier in the year using the history tool on Archive.org I think everyone will agree development like this undoubtedly makes a more valuable asset having undergone professional development.

I could go on and on but the fact is some of the best domains in the world are finally getting developed by people who can develop. Not mini-sites or these mass development services but people with actual development budgets and link building skills.

Finally… the future has begun -)

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

According to MarketWatch.com Quinstreet has purchased CarInsurance.com for $49.7 Million.

The Press release reads QuinStreet purchased all outstanding shares of CarInsurance.com, Inc. and related entities for $49.7 million in cash.

This is not just a domain name sale but I will be happy to hear from anybody who thinks so for the pure entertainment of it all.

View the full story here

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

It was a simple text link saying “Commercial Mortgage Rates” or something like that. People email me every so often to verify this or someone from c-loans.com will ask if its ok to give out my information and its always a nice reminder why you should incorporate content of all sorts within your site, even if its just a single page on a closely related topic.

I am certainly not recommending adding content about weight loss on a mortgage site but if you have a site on apartment rentals why not take the time and develop a little content about home loans, commercial buildings and personal finance.

You never know how much a click can be worth.

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

However what if Google changed local results one day and stopped displaying ALL organic results. Well, it seems like Google is testing this as reported by Coverseon here:

http://blog.converseon.com/2010/08/13/google-removes-organic-results-in-local-tests/

This is why learning SEO and development is more important each and every day as if you bank your portfolio on things remaining the same – well, you just might need a life belt after all

Have to love this business

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

People like Rob Monster of Epik are trying to take this industry to the next level and that is exciting – Fabulous, Domain Sponsor, SmartName .. Man, its like the Culture Club song that stuck in your head throughout the entire 80′s – sounded the same in 1981 as it did in 1989. Someone should consider writing a theme song for the parking companies similar to this.

As for domain conferences. We need to embrace the fact that owning a domain name is not the end game. Yes, it is for some people and thats OK – but do we continue to cater to ourselves or embrace the world growing around us? After all – we are the people complaining why others do not get it … maybe its because we dont?

I honestly wish the TRAFFIC conference disappeared completely and we all embraced the future rather than trying to sing the same old song again. DomainFest is making headway here while TRAFFIC seems to be dying a slow death. Anyway, thats another story – at the end of the day its only important what I do with my life and not what you or any of the event organizers do.

So where is this incredible list of monetization providers?

You can search for domains right?

By the looks of domain names people bid on at Snap, NameJet and other drop services I do question most peoples ability to even search at all but rather simply follow the herd – clearly evident by the abundance of junk people try to sell (they had to buy these names at some point right?)

However, I do welcome any postcards from never never land when you sell your triple hyphen .info to some for fool for $200,000.

Back to the List..

This is as simple as it gets and the way to find monetization companies outside of Adsense is right in front of you.

Yes. It’s all on one website.

A website that if you spend a day clicking through or highlighting the text of company names (manually searching on Google – its tough, I know – buy a bandaid for the awful pain I am causing your fingertips) you will learn more about who can monetize your domain better than any parking company or TRAFFIC conference will ever tell you.

Its not Rocket Science at all .. the information has been online since the first day you dreamed of developing except no one ever told you.

Here it is …enjoy

List of Sponsors for LeadsCon

List of Exhibitors for LeadsCon

List of Attendees for LeadsCon

Ironically when did any of these people speak at a DOMAIN conference?  Hello organizers ….List of

Speakers for LeadsCon

There are 1,000 +/- companies here. Many have lead offerings and understand the lead generation industry as well as you think you do about domain names.

Making money online is hard but for those serious its a lot more fun than looking at drop lists every day after day after day right round right round day after day.

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

This could be the post one day…. Are you prepared?

I am not someone who lives under the illusion that my blog is popular or anyone actually wants to read what I have to say.

However I am fully aware of the power that domaining.com has to provide traffic to people.

In fact, I would say out of all the industries online domaining.com is up there for being the largest SINGLE feed provider of traffic to industry blogs within an industry using a percentage scale

Ok that was a mouthful so let me put it this way.

The New York Times probably gets 50% of its traffic from MULTIPLE feed providers who highlight their news.

Smaller sites may get 80% of their traffic from MULTIPLE feed providers who highlight their news.

However in the domaining world ….

Most domain industry blogs I would guess receive 50 to 75% of ALL their traffic from a SINGLE feed source depending on your blog and excluding thedomains.com and that little guy high above Central Park -)

Even if its not 75% – its at least 40% since almost none of these blogs have any kind of substance for minor or highly searched topics, are not indexed in Google news (again, excluding MHB, the likeable guy with the funny bull riding helmet site and of course the news sites like Domain Name Wire)

Whatever the number is its high – drastically high from a single source.

I am sure some people who thought they were “famous” and all of a sudden lost a feed only to be banished to the bowels of Google since their site wasn’t famous at all – just had a link on domaining.com

My point here is have you even optimized your own blog or just rely on the power of some really powerful feeds that you believe just wont go away.

What if they did?

Your voice is only as powerful as your followers.

SEO is not just a way to make a money but its also a way for you be less reliant on single sources for readership and build a following of people who want to find your blog – not stumble across it since you just happened to be the headline of the day.

For those who know me I hold nothing back in my opinions about the lackluster support of development in this industry by some of the people who talk about domains.

When you hear a domain is worth xx and surely with a little development you can make 5 times x on your money … who are you listening to? You be the judge of that here – All I will say is knowledge comes from experience – not sales.

On the other hand there are many people who are legends in the development business but can you name them?  Why not … you own domains and want to develop? Seems like you have been spending too much time reading domain blogs

2010 is not like 1999 when it comes to developing.

People are not hiding as much as they used to. Public information is easier to find and people understand there is so much information available that they are more willing talk (excluding the secrets of course).

In all our industry blogs I can not name one who actually focuses strictly on speaking about people who have developed domains. Not regurgitating domain sales but a one or two article per week success story with articles about people who bought domain names and developed them with success.  Success is defined as a lot more than seeing 6 blocks of Adsense ads and a compete score of 86 visitors a month. Fusible is the closest thing we have to do this and they do a good job but we need something a lot better to attract more outside money and industry street credit.

Instead of a blog with domain sales listings, Adsense ads, hosting ads, auction ads etc.. from all over the place – how about a single site with true stories about development, SEO tips, articles from SEO people etc. Essentially a domain success / SEO blog.

Question:  There is no money in this idea?

There can be if you have a plan and do it right. Quality content and design is rewarded with quality visitors and opportunities (many times outside of just the purchase of an ad).  Plus unless you are MHB or that pretty purple tie guy there is no money in your current domain blog anyway.

Think about …  give up something that’s not making money to do something better … gee, what a conundrum you face.

Question: Why don’t I do it?

Maybe I will when my son goes to college. He is almost 5 now so odds are the opportunity may still be there.

Remember, I’m not a hater – I’m a pure believer that this industry needs to grow by people who understand development and domains. A couple weeks ago I was informed of a meeting next month by a national reporter to talk about “the future of domains”. The invited and confirmed list of this included many of the biggest domain owners out there.

However when I saw the list (and even though some of the people I consider friends and are well known in this industry) I looked at the list and said….. Even if I was invited, I would probably skip the meeting as only one of them had any experience in development.

Just one.

This is a great business for buying and selling domains but most people do not want to be brokers or sellers – they want to do more. So how do we embrace the future of our industry …?

Talk to those people who do more than just buy or sell or any meeting about “the future of domains” is going to end like this …

“Lots of good domains to buy, how much you think I can sell this for?

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

My SEO knowledge is derived from 10 years of experience yet I would be a fool to think I know it all. Many Many people know much more than I do so in the wake of my own advice I realized that chanting this mantra is not doing any good without providing a list of some resources (where I promise you no longer have to listen to people trying to sell you a watch after a list of domains

So with due credit to DailyBlogTips.com for making this list easily accessible (and reminding me about a few forgotten ones) below is a list of 25 valuable resources about SEO development. There are many theories by people who dream and many people that do. Your job is to find common elements by people who have proven projects and that’s where the real SEO knowledge will come.

If you want to dream listen to dreamers – if you want to produce listen to producers.

Enjoy … I added ViperChill.com myself.  It’s a new one for me but lots of good tips from the few emails I’ve read.

• Aaron Wall’s SEOBook
• SEO Moz
• Matt Cutts
• Search Engine Watch
• Search Engine Roundtable
• Search Engine Journal
• Top Rank Blog
• Pronet Advertising
• Marketing Pilgrim
• SEO Chat
• Search Engine Guide
• SEO Blackhat
• Stuntdubl
• Graywolf’s SEO
• SEO by the SEA
• Link Building Blog
• Jim Boykin from We Build Pages
• SEOpedia
• David Naylor
• Bruce Clay
• Blue Hat SEO
• SEO Refugee
• Small Business SEM
• ViperChill.com

Disclaimer – if you find SEO sites boring, would prefer to read about domain sales OTHER people are making or refresh domaining.com every 10 minutes then either (a) enter rehab (b) double check if you even like the internet and (c) realize you’re not a developer

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

The number of backlinks to a site from trusted and relevant sites gives great weight to a websites organic search ranking. For those old timers who have wonderful one or two page websites with NO fresh content and NO plan for developing links but rather just taking advantage of a prized placement in Google’s organic search well – the success of your website is essentially a time bomb waiting to explode (sink is the more appropriate term). One day you will wake up and see how Google has crushed you to the bottom of the rankings and then you will complain, contest and even grumble how Google screwed you over.

Without a solid plan for developing fresh content and building backlinks you might as well just be quiet, collect your check and try to find a buyer while you still have traffic. In SEO terms you are about as relevant as a dinosaur.

Real developers love the old timers – Why?

Because they are just waiting to be outranked. In fact, we love you more than the WebMD’s and Expedia’s of the world because without your first page ranking the SEO job would be a lot harder to do.

So how to get backlinks.

This is the true second stage of development.

First, you can buy links

There is no way I am going to list or even hint at companies that sell backlinks. The buying/selling of links is a red hot topic and one Google continues to try and challenge. It’s extremely hard to calculate one type of link from another however the pure concept of link popularity is based on organic links. Links from people who like your work enough to link to it – not those who have paid for self promotion.

What I will talk about is the value of links from time tested human edited directories. Google currently gives great weight to sites listed in Dmoz, The Yahoo Directory and others as these directories manually approve sites using quality Google has considered trustworthy and relevant from the dawn of time.

Do you have a Dmoz.org listing? I bet 99% of new developers do not yet when it comes to human directories dmoz.org is the gold standard for getting in. Its free and the Dmoz editors are inundated with listings to review but once you get in it is a solid link and will almost always boost your rankings.

A list of some of the popular human edited directories where you can submit your url are listed below. Most require a one time fee while others have a free submission option.

Dmoz.org

note that Dmoz actually has a great forum for webmasters at – http://www.resource-zone.com/forum/ – You will need all the tips there to get in!

• BestoftheWeb
• JoeAnt.com
• Hot vs Not
• Yahoo Directory
• Business.com
• Uncover the Net
• Wow Directory
• Skaffe
• Gimpsy

There are lots more but find them yourself

Of course, Google places a different value on all of these but all of them have some kind of value and ironically are priced somewhat in line with how we view the important of each one. Some of these directories will stand the test of time while others may become less relevant but while the Google ranking mystery still gives weight to them its certainly worth looking at for serious sites you are developing.

Backlinks without Payment

How to get backlinks without payment?

The best answer to this is the same kind of answer you would receive if you asked a real estate professional how to get the best deals. “Ask around, cultivate relationships with the people who have access to information” they would say.

This is the same principal to apply when building backlinks to your website. Your website is not some kind of design project where you simply hope people will come by spurting out 1000’s of backlinks across random networks – your website is a business and your business needs to embrace the community already established.

Let me give you a perfect example.

Do you own a personal finance site?

Can you name 20 other personal finance sites that DO NOT begin with MSN or The New York Times?

If the answer is no and you have already started your backlinks plan then dude, scratch your current plan and start over.

Visit this link

http://www.wisebread.com/top-100-most-popular-personal-finance-blogs/

This is a super list of some of the most popular financial blogs around by a top 5,000 site Wisebread.  A site by the way that takes guest writers

http://www.wisebread.com/guest-post

Google the terms “top 100 _____ sites” with your category of development in the space and find the small and large players in the community. Develop relationships, comment, join the forums, invite these people to write an article, ask the owners if its ok to quote an article without asking for anything in return (this time), buy a small ad and/or simply become a name they know.

Submitting guest articles is an incredible way to get good organic backlinks but I warn you based on 75% of the comments I see around most of you can’t spell nor have any kind of artistic talent (lets hope those people are just parking names) so before submitting any article run it by someone you know. First impressions count heavily as everybody and their dog wants a backlink from the poplar blogs and no one owes you anything – even if you have a pretty domain.

Remember, the strongest backlinks you can have are from sites with relevant content to yours. If you are selling used cars online and have 500 backlinks from domain name blogs it means about as much as a bone does to a cat.

Think relative, think time, think relationships.

Court popular website owners as you would that hot 21 year old girl sitting across the classroom your first day of college. Sweet, slow and always give more than take – Charm is a magical thing.

Check the Backlinks of Your Competition

Yes, its possible to find a crystal ball of all the backlinks associated with similar sites. Try Backlink Watch (painful site but good data) or the Yahoo Site Explorer tool.

What else.

Not tonight.

Take some of this and run with it.

P.S. I have some clients who are interested in exchanging backlinks with site owners however its all about quality. Send me an email if you like – domainrock @ gmail dot com – with a list of sites you could offer a guest post or link on in exchange for another.

I am only going to reply to people I think we can match up as part of SEO goodwill ambassador program that seems to be happening here so please do not take offense if I don’t reply.

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

As we all know Adsense and other forms of PPC have declined over the past year but developers who have real content with a mix of other revenue sources have continued to see growth in both impressions and revenue.

First of all you need to understand your market. Whether it’s the flower expert / domainer combo Domain Shane who knows more about a Lilly than all of us combined or Morgan Linton’s deep motivation to inspire us and learn about every single topic in this world to conquer the web you also need to understand your limitations and get focused.

(Morgan has no limitations so like a young Jedi he may just surpass you all)

As domainers many people own hundreds if not thousands of names which all sound cool and quite likely the owners know something about the industry but too often when you look at your portfolio you probably feel like jack of all trades and master of NONE – this is human nature – Einstein’s are very few and far between.

The first rule of thumb is define what you are developing or what you WANT to learn about. Passion comes from having love of a topic – SUCCESS comes when you have time to focus on that SINGLE Passion.

This does not mean you can’t succeed at a wide range of things but for each one you need to commit the time. For new developers you need to take the time to focus on one project, the second will be easier and so forth – but without committing time to learn you might as well just stick to flipping domains.

How to find other Revenue Possibilities outside of Adsense?

SEARCH THE ORGANIC and PAID LISTINGS for sites without brand names.

If you’re looking for information on car insurance then odds are Allstate.com is not going to have examples of affiliate programs as they are only interested in selling their own products. Do a Google search for your industry’s main keywords and find popular sites that have advertising realted services you think will match your content.

Although Allstate may not have what you’re looking for a site like 123ABCInsurance.com (random URL) quite likely has an affiliate relationship with a publisher of car insurance ads if they are ranked in the first page or showing in the Adwords ads. This method can be used in any category for finding popular affiliate programs.

In fact, I would say that a LARGE percentage of advertisiers are still playing the PPC arbitrage game with single revenue coming from affiliate programs so click on the Adwords ads you see to find more examples and sources of who people are using to earn income outside Adsense.

THINK ABOUT AD PLACEMENT BEFORE DESIGINING

A lot of first time developers don’t really think about incorporating ad placements other than a 160×600 or 300×250 block from Adsense however quite a number of standard sizes exist.

http://www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/1421/1443/1452

This is a link to all the standard online media sizes as coded by the Online Advertising industry (yes, there is one – quite likely more popualr than any domainer group – sorry ICA

Most affiliate programs will provide custom graphic work for your website if you show any kind of volume so do not limit the design just to the popular 2 sizes most people use with Adsense – leave your design open for change.

The lesson here is to contact and call companies direct about affiliate programs. Not only will you sometimes score a higher payout but also get the custom content you need instead of being subject to just what the affiliate manager uploaded to a site like Commission Junction.

UNDERSTAND WHAT AFFILIATE PROGRAMS LOOK LIKE

Affiliate programs are more than just links.

Take unemployment.com – one of the great sites owned by one of the masters of industry in the domain space who I will leave nameless. At first you may think the ad to the left for Stimulus Grants is an ad served by Adsense or something similar but its not. When you click on it you end up at this page

http://www.stimulusgrantapproval.com/

and … remember these words ….

Always scroll down to the bottom of any lead generating page in your industry.

As you can see here there is an affiliate program for grants which seems to provide some really great high quality images for your website as well. I’m not familiar with this program but I do know grant leads pay well and having less Adsense will certainly help with SEO in the long run.

Adsense was never launched with the intention for people to create sites made for Adsense with 3 or 5 units of ads and 100 words of content in total. It was created for additional revenue for CONTENT publishers to earn revenue. You are not a content publisher with a made for Adsense site – you are a spammer and Google will catch up to you, mark my words. Remember, Google’s first and foremost goal is to reward relevant, original and fresh content in the SEO rankings.  FRESH is not a one pager that was put up a year ago.

Some of the BEST Affiliate Programs

Insurance

SureHits.com – http://www.surehits.com/

Insurance.com – http://www.insurance.com/about-us/affiliate-program.aspx

eHealthInsurance.com – http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/about-ehealth/affiliate-program

HealthInsurance.com – http://healthinsurance.com/hi/Affiliates/Overview.aspx

Weight Loss

Jillian Michael’s through Linkshare or quite possibly direct – remember, always call and ask them direct if you are a publisher with good and consistent traffic.

http://www.amwso.com/jillianmichaels.php

up to $55 a sign up (tiered schedule)

Mortgage

LeadPoint – www.leadpoint.com – These guys are the best. Not only do some of the most popular mortgage sites around use them (such as mortgageloan.com and leadsteps.com) but they have a number of options such as URL forwarding, complete custom forms, direct form post and more. Payouts are WEEKLY !!!!

Quinstreet.com – These guys are one of the largest marketers in the world yet many people reading this probably don’t know who they are except they paid a $20 million + sticker for Insure.com. Visit this page and speak with them – they do a lot more than mortgage.

http://www.quinstreet.com/who_we_are

HOTELS & TRAVEL

Expedia.com – many of the big travel sites use a simple expedia affiliation located direct at ian.com or expediaaffiliate.com – For example, take a look at londonhotels.com or most all of Federated Travel’s hotel domains to see how one could use this code.

Booking.com – probably the biggest affiliate provider to hotel publishers outside of the USA with still a super strong presence in the USA. One example of a custom display of thier affiliate code can be found on LasVegasHotels.com

OTHER LEADS

LeadPile is pretty good from what I’ve heard (have no experience with them). What I have seen is a lot of thier form code is iFrame stuff and I’m not a fan of iFrame’s for anything.

FOREX

I know a couple people who use the eForex affiliate program and do very well

http://www.eforexaffiliate.com/affiliates/rates.php

DENTAL PLANS

Dentalplans.com offers text links, banner ads, LANDING PAGES and more for your dental insurance domains.

AFFILIATE COMPANIES

Of course, for the newbies the main affiliate companies that offer 1000′s of affiliate programs are Linkshare.com and Commission Junction (cj.com)

Just remember every developer will almost always go through this stage

Stage 1: Website = No Revenue

Stage 2: Website + Adsense = Revenue

Stage 3: Website + Adsense + Affiliate through Affiliate Companies = Revenue

Stage 4: Website + Some form of Text Ads + More Direct Relationships + Some Affiliate Company Stuff = Revenue

Stage 5: Website + Some form of Text Ads + Direct Relationships = Revenue

There are 1,000’s of affiliate programs out there – some good, some not so good so read the affiliate blogs and learn about all the revenue that’s available. Even better spend a few bucks and attend an affiliate marketing conference like:

http://www.affiliatesummit.com/

The money spent to attend this conference will quite likely be worth 100 times the cost of any single TRAFFIC conference to people who want to get serious.  On the home page of affiliate summit they list over 850 companies attending … 850 !! ….. have there ever been 850 companies in attendance at a TRAFFIC show??

And all of these 850 companies have interest in talking to you about how to earn affiliate income!

You already have your domain  … so graduate and move forward.

Good luck to all - there are many more sources but I only have so much time so hopefully this helps some of you.

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

You see – that’s the power of the internet and a good domain name.

Sure, you could buy a domain for $200 and flip it for $2,000 the next week but the success is short lived and generally only fuels your fire to keep flipping domains.

However when can you start avoiding the idiosyncrasies of this industry and gamblers high from selling domain names to graduate to the point of this entire industry?

Some old school domainers will blog about traffic names but its sooo short sighted and only defines why the amount of information you can actually extract from some of these people is so limited.

Domain names are sort of like your piece of real estate in this world however very few domain names will ever bring in seven figures for a sale and I can guarantee 99% of people reading this do not own one. What you do own is a pipe dream with your triple hyphen .info.

What’s the $2 million sale?

Well, it’s not a pipe dream.

Very few people know me but those that do understand I have sold more names than probably anyone reading this blog (excluding Mike Mann of course) and have had my fair share of development success and even entered this business as an end user in the mortgage origination industry generating in excess of $100 million in mortgage loans. Granted, I also have a couple failed companies so its not always rosy but I do have the qualifications to give a teaspoon of advice in this industry.

Over the last year I have noticed more and more white noise across the domaining blogs and it’s become quite comical at best. You see – for the newbies – most people who comment on blogs really only have a couple sales, no development to speak of and little real knowledge of the domain industry. These facts are obvious by the blither of commentary across many of the popular blogs. Furthermore, some of the “popular” blogs are written by people as new as you – which sort of negates the whole “professional” viewpoint you need right?

(Obviously there are some great people who comment across the blogs like the Castello Brothers but the ratio seems to be about 100 to 1 for every qualified comment)

I’m not going to criticize anyone specifically as people enjoy one blog or another for reasons which are their own so all I want to do on this USA holiday weekend is simply show you what a $2 million sale looks like.

$750 a day.

Yep – that’s it.

You get a site up and running and enough content where traffic and net income is consistent within a $750 a day range and most likely you have $2 million in your pocket.

Why?

$750 a day income is equivalent to $273,750 in ANNUAL profit.

It’s easy to find a buyer for 7-10 years x income of almost any website generating consistent and verifiable revenue.

7 years revenue at $750 a day is $1,916,250.

Does $750 a day sound like a lot … sure and it is hard work however how about $375 a day – then you got a $1 million site.

$375 is 7 good mortgage leads a day
$375 is 7 good weight loss leads a day.
$375 is 15 good car insurance clicks a day.

You see … it’s not anything that’s impossible to reach. In fact, it’s easier to do than studying for your MCAT.

My advice – and probably my only post this summer is …

If you really want to make money in this industry long term do the following things:

First and Foremost

Filter out the white noise – stop subscribing to half the junk about domain names online and learn about what makes a good one. Do not try to find reasons why ALL domains sell for as much as they do because you only need ONE and almost EVERY domainer has a different theory on every sale. Many times, no theory at all since a large portion of sales only make sense to the buyer.

Secondly

Look at the authors qualifications. Many (not all but close) domain bloggers have never developed anything more than a mini-site. Some have simply paid other people to develop a site and still don’t have a clue about development so head over to the SEO and affiliate blogs once you secure your domain name. Hell, even start in the SEO and affiliate forums to learn what makes a good domain – many of those guys know more about domains than domainers …. Why, because they use them!!!!

Thirdly

Keep your small daily goal alive. The $300 or $500 a day is all you need to bank your million in a couple years.  Sometimes thinking about a million dollars seems unimaginable and will beat you down before you ever get started.

A daily goal will make it seem easier and reachable for many of you.

And Finally…

Live life to the fullest – take calculated risks and only take advice from people you trust … not just because they have a fancy blog online. Life is too short – I have had a particular bad year with losing loved ones and having accidents or health problems happen to those very unexpectedly – do not think you will always have the time to do what you want to do so live your dream now. I know it sounds like a cliché but one day I promise you will heed the same advice to people.

Happy July 4th to the Americans but remember Europeans get a months holiday every year, paid maternity leave, free medical insurance, thinner women, better wine, stronger currency, real cappuccino (in a small cup NOT a bowl), secondary languages that are usually mandatory, cool clothes and more – so have your fireworks but when Tuesday comes you’re all back to work

©2012 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.