A Simple Guide to Domain Name Investing: How to Make Money with Your Ideas | Domain Scheme

 

Domain Name investing, what is it really? If you have stumbled across it before through a friend or browsing the web, it is commonly compared to investing in real estate properties.

By registering a domain, you are investing into a digital property. Domains are simply composed of a unique set of characters followed by a select top-level domain (TLD), such as .com. There is only one of each domain name + TLD combination, which creates value and, ideally, demand. The complexity comes from knowing what domains are worth placing your money on, learning what properties make a domain name valuable, and understanding the investing strategies that can create profit.

Like all forms of investing, the goal is to earn a return on your asset that is higher than your initial cost and upkeep.

 

The Basics of Domain Name Investing:

There are three ways to invest in a domain: buying, holding, and selling.

Buying. Buying a domain name is the first and easiest way to own a piece of the internet. When you buy a domain name, you are buying a website URL and all of the associated metadata and traffic that comes along with it.

The relatively low cost of buying a domain name is often compared to buying an apartment in a complex. You don’t have to own the land, or the infrastructure, but you do have to make the monthly payments (usually in a year’s time) to rent the apartment.

There are two types of domain names:

Wide-ranging. A wide-ranging domain name, like generic.com, will include anything from a non-descript home site to, say, the names of food.com and baby.com.

 

Why Domain Name Investing?

There are two main reasons that people choose to invest in domains; what they can do for them and how it makes them feel when they earn the income.

Personal Benefits:

Having a unique domain name is a major bonus for individuals. This is largely due to the way people speak to one another online. Though Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp has many calling Facebook a monopoly, in many other cases, the social network has lost its dominance in one market, but may gain it in another.

The popularity of private messaging on Facebook has created an incredible amount of communication. While most users would argue that they are using Facebook to engage with family, coworkers, and friends, the truth is that messaging is the social network's main monetization avenue.

 

What Makes a Domain Valuable?

One key factor is domain name length. A shorter domain name, for instance. I.am.T-1000 is not only easier to remember and type on a keyboard, it's also a lot easier to find. When starting a new company and you are seeking a domain name, you have to first understand that .com is just as much of a commodity as .com.net and .org. How many of us just type Google.com and expect it to work? In most cases, you will search multiple names or work your way up to the main one if you are going to hire a .com company for a domain name. The more expensive it is to purchase the domain, the more knowledgeable you need to be to know what it is worth to register it.

 

Where to Buy Domains Cheaper Than Expensive Ones?

Sites such as GoDaddy, Namecheap, Name, Dynadot, and Register.com provide domain names at a low price for a first-time buyer. However, the prices and products offered change frequently, especially if there is a new update to the domain registry.

Online forums provide a wealth of domain investment advice, with tutorials and how-to guides from individuals who have experienced success with this kind of venture.

How to Invest?

Depending on your needs, you can get your domain investment up and running in a matter of days, a couple of weeks, or months. Here are a few resources to get started:

If you are a real estate investor, but have no experience with domain investment, you can pay someone else to do the investing for you.

 

How to Make Money with Your Ideas?

Domain investing has been popularized through influencer marketing, where many YouTubers, social media influencers, and top bloggers have invested in and resell domain names that serve as a way to sell brand awareness. It has also been popularized through the infamous AlphaGo match between Google’s AlphaGo and Chinese Go master Ke Jie. In the match, AlphaGo defeated Ke Jie 4-1, earning Ke Jie $1.5 million USD. With that much at stake, what inspired Ke Jie to decide to sell his domain, an amateurized version of Go, on AlphaGoGo, generating an initial revenue of $1.5 million?

The answer: publicity. He wanted to get it out there that AlphaGoGo was his domain, and he used a domain that people were familiar with, Go.com, to attract the public.

 

Conclusion and Resources:

We want to share with you a simplified framework to understand domain investing. This method is the most effective, stable, and returns the highest potential of profit with relatively low risk. It is written to enable the average person to make an educated decision about domain investing for his or her website, as well as the opportunity to learn a few key strategies.

A proper domain investment strategy should be highly customized to the business and domain. The goal is to find a domain that is both unique and powerful. If we follow this approach, the person will benefit and become a thought leader in his or her community.