How to Monetize Your Domain Name Portfolio

A domain name is like real estate. Without a website, a domain name is raw land with no building on it. In the real estate world, that raw land carries expenses in the form of taxes and some maintenance.

Domain names too carry some expenses in the annual registration fees that you must pay to the domain registrar, which can add up if you have a lot of domain names in your portfolio. A portfolio of 1,000 domain names would need to earn $8,000 to $9,000 per year just to break even. How do you monetize those domain names even before building websites on them?

Typo Domain Names and Top Domains Deleting Dec. 2, 2006

Today's list of deleting domain names contains quite a few typo domains, or fat-finger domains (a similar phenomenon is fat-finger dialing for phone numbers). Use of typo domain names is commonly called "typo-squatting."

Typo domain names are domain names that are similar to well-known domains and potentially generate substantial traffic when web users mis-type a domain name. For example, users who are trying to access the hugely popular website CraigsList.com (aka CraigsList.org) may type in a domain such as craigslits.com, craigdlist.com, or crsigslist.com — some of tomorrow's deleting domain names.

Toshiba Wins Trademark Arbitration Case to Reclaim Domain Name

Toshiba Corporation recently announced that they have won in arbitration against Selavy Media for Selavy's use of the domain name ToshibaToner.com. According to Toshiba, Selavy was running a parked pay-per-click website on the ToshibaToner.com domain name, which directed visitors to competitor websites, and was profiting from the goodwill associated with the Toshiba name.

Evaluate a Domain Name's Traffic Value Before Purchase with New Catch and Release Service

Every day, tens of thousands of Internet domain names expire and become availalbe for re-registration by members of the public.

But when it comes to potentially valuable domain names, individuals who try to catch those released domains don't stand much of a chance against companies that put a lot of computing power behind registering valuable web domains just seconds after they are released.

In addition, domain registrars have one big advantage in determining the value of domains, which is that they get a 5-day grace period after registration before they are required to pay for a domain.

Now for the first time, individuals can have a similar luxury with the introduction of a new service from Pool.com called "Catch and Release." Though the service still requires a domain name to be available for registration, it may prove to be a valuable tool for domain investors to determine the potential value of a domain before purchase.

Dot .Info Domain Names, Expiring and Deleting Domains: Dec. 3, 2006

What are dot-info (.info) domain names selling for in 2006, and what domain names can you register today? Years ago when dot-info domain names were introduced I thought it would probably be a waste to register them. Annual fees were $60 or so, and it never seemed that dot-info domains would catch on for regular use over a dot-com. It's really third best, and the dominant domain would always be a dot-com.

But the landscape has changed, and today, premium dot-info domain names can reach strong valuations.

What Are Domain Names Worth? 2006 Domain Auction Prices

To get an idea of the value of Internet domain names recently, we've organized a list of some of the latest real domain sales (and non-sales). The sales figures are from the TRAFFIC 2006 East/Moniker Live Domain Name Action in October, 2006.

Top Dot-com (.com) Domain Name Sales
Recent sale prices confirm that dot-com domain names remain the gold standard. The top seller — the generic domain cameras.com sold for $1.5 million.

Generic and Branded Domain Names in Corporate Marketing

How Brand Thinking Has Enslaved Corporate America on the Internet
We're currently developing a few of our health-related domain names. A colleague of mine in the pharmaceutical industry said she was speaking to a Pharma Company executive about health and medical-related domain names, and his opinion was that a premium health domain name such as Menopause.com should be worth about $10,000 to his company. He didn't understand why it would sell for well over $1 million. At least at his level, his focus was in finding a unique branded name.

Domain Types - Expiring and Deleting Domains: Dec 5, 2006

It's virtually impossible to get the best domain names any more without paying the current owner of the domain name a huge premium. Domains like Money.com, CreditCards.com, Disease.com, Life.com, etc. were all taken long ago.

When checking the list of domain names that are pending deletion, there are several different types of domain names to consider attempting to register. The vast majority of expiring domain names are just plain bad domain names that never should have been registered in the first place. Which deleting domain names should you go after for investment or resale?

Protecting Your Valuable Domain Name Assets

If you own valuable domain names there are many things you'll need to protect them from over the years, including domain theft, domain host hijacking, corporate bullying theft, and more.

A domain name can be a very valuable asset like real estate, but as a new kind of asset class, traditional protections may not be as strong as they would be for other assets. And to make matters worse, traditional enforcement authorities often pass the buck about who's jurisdiction the virtual world is in.

Evaluating Domain Names for Registration or Purchase

Common word dot-com domain names are often thought to be the most valuable. But it really depends on what the domain name is. Is the word one that is marketable in some way? If not marketable by it's topic alone, is it marketable because it sounds good?

Today's list of deleting domain names has some very good prospects, but also some domain names to stay far away from. We'll explain why.