Yesterday, I had to renew a couple of my domains for some of my other sites but while I was doing that, I saw a domain name lookup feature in which allowed me to sort domains that were recently expired. That triggered me to go on a mini spending spree of purchasing domain names.
There are a lot of different places to go to for domain registrations and GoDaddy was the main one I went to. Though, I’m not a big fan of all the extra fees they tack on, especially with the Whois privacy.
For those of you that aren’t fully sure on what that is, its basically a system in which keeps you anonymous on the domain purchase (or not). So, if someone were to look you up in a whois database, then your full name, address, phone number, e-mail address, etc wouldn’t appear. A lot of people like to stay anonymous for various reasons but working online, you should know some of the obvious things. 
But rather it would just say the domain owner is private and they would supply some sort of default e-mail address to get in touch with you. Check out the screenshot below on the whois privacy for DatMoney.
Some domain registrars, like GoDaddy, charge like an extra $10 of something on those lines for the private whois but since I found out that Name.com doesn’t, I have been using them as my domain registrar in the meantime.
Anyways, I was looking at some domain names that recently expired and there were a bunch of good and catchy ones, in addition, they were actually pretty cheap domain names. But I didn’t just buy random domain names but rather ones that I saw potential in, things I knew I could build a site on and enjoy it.
I purchased a few but the main ones were good keyword domains. I simply did some keyword research and found that some of these keyword domain names have a lot of people searching for those terms.
On top of that, I actually managed to buy a couple of LLLL.com domain names.
The LLLL.com domain names were a hit last year and the year before. They are basically four letter domain names and the reason why they are so popular is the simple fact that you probably won’t find too many four letter domain names (or less) nowadays.
I was actually pretty surprised these were available so I figured I’d just snatch them up. I don’t even know what I’m going to do with them yet but I checked a free domain appraisal and each of them were estimated at $150-$200. So, if that is right and I sell it for somewhere around that price, I just profited like 1500%… I think I did the math right?
The purpose of this post is just to look at the most logical places that are right in front of your face. Because usually those are the same places that will help you out a lot in a sprint… and the long run.
I use Godaddy, and agree with you on the fees for Whois privacy. But thats free enterprise for ya. Wonder how much money they scoop with those fees…gotta be millions!
I just don’t use private registration. Not sure the real benefit of doing that. Anyways, nice catch on some of the 4 character domains. Let us know how they sell!
Brandon – Hey, I stopped paying for the whois privacy but name.com gives it away for free so I don’t have to worry about that anymore.
Knup – Most people use the whois privacy because if they own a bunch of sites, they don’t want everyone knowing they own all of them. Plus, there are some people who work online under a pen name… plus, I just don’t think its cool that people can get your full name, where you live, your phone number, etc simply by your website URL. But that’s just me…
Jay
I mostly use godaddy, but i’m trying to look for another domain name registring company. I ocassionaly do this as well just buy some domain names and hope they will be worth something in the future.
Oh, I am so flippin’ jealous! (pun intended
)
I keep thinking of domain ideas and just don’t follow through because I’m trying to narrow my focus now.
I use name.com too. I have for years and am quite happy with them and their competitive rates (and they have seasonal sales, too).
I used to use GoDaddy but now I just use their search tools… overcharging newbies is their true cash cow.
If I don’t have private Whois, I get a lot of “You’re not protected!” snail mail.
Have fun
go daddy watch out…more competition!!
congratz on the new names you were able to get
If you get your domain through Google (Google apps for your domain) it’s still just $10 including privacy, but you’re really registered with enom or GoDaddy. Not sure who you’d call if there was a problem though! I used to spend LOTS of time on Whois or GoDaddy dreaming of niches and also spent a lot of money that way over the past year, $10 at a time.
christie´s last blog ..Personal Development for Smart People
I still used Godaddy to this day and however I do believe they have their server overloaded. Godaddy is simple and easy to use and is fine for extremely low traffic sites that do not have performance concerns. In comparison however Hostgator also has a simple to use interface but the response time that was noticed is much faster and the server seemed much better and did not seem as overloaded.
Christie – I actually used to do that too when I first started on Blogger. But Name.com does the same thing with the whois privacy as well as give you Google tools to work with all for free… and its even cheaper than $10.
And if you can find Name.com promo codes, it gets even cheaper than that!
Jay
I use a Blogger blog with a custom domain. I do not know how the feature of Whois privacy may help a person but otherwise I think it is least important from where a person registers a domain name. But a person must be concerned when buying hosting as this may affect a site a lot. Godaddy is no doubt one of the reliable hosts, Hostgator is reliable too. Domain flipping can be a very good online business if done properly. As you have stated 4 letter domains are really rare these days.
The definite attempt to get the things working will eventually succeed just as you said in sprint & long run…
Btw, where would you rather win, either in sprint or in marathon?
Chris Peterson´s last blog ..Download Unlimited Free Website Templates
I’ve been buying a lot of domain names lately too.
I use Godaddy for my other domain because with Godaddy your domain will be indexed by Google within 3 days after purchased and it only cost you $10 per annum.
Ireland Money Online´s last blog ..Make money with paid online surveys
In comparison however Hostgator also has a simple to use interface but the response time that was noticed is much faster and the server seemed much better and did not seem as overloaded.
It is important to select a reliable hosting when buying a domain. Domain and hosting provider will probably similar with each other. The only difference are the cost and the ability of hosting provider to get your domain indexed ASAP.
Online Money´s last blog ..Get indexed within 48 hours or less on Google
4 character domain are nice but always it cannot be possible as it may be already available on the internet or used by someone else.