There are so many ways to make money online – you can create AdSense websites that earn money when people click on your banner ads; you can sell wholesale items on eBay for a huge profit; you can even work as a freelance graphic designer or a freelance writer on sites like Elance.com and Guru.com. But one of the best ways to make money online is to sell domain names.
Domain names are defined as “hostnames that identify Internet Protocol (IP) resources such as web sites”. They are incredibly easy to purchase, but it does take some time to develop them into profitable websites.
So how exactly can you make money selling domain names?
1. Supply and Demand
Like any offline or online business, selling domain names is all about supply and demand. Some domain names are in high demand; for example, social.com recently sold for a whopping $2,600,000! You can bet that there were multiple bidders that drove the price up to such an astronomical number. But other domains, especially those with very long URLs, will find it very difficult to sell for a reasonable price.
So what is the lesson here? Try to find domain names that are short, catchy and memorable. Although there are not too many left, you can still find the odd gem.
2. Private Sale or Auction?
There are advantages and disadvantages in both methods. With auction sites like Flippa.com, you have a level of security that is offered by the site. Also, auction sites are very useful for people who have niche specific domains; without online auction sites, buyers and sellers would have a hard time meeting. You do have to pay a small fee to the auction site though.
On the other hand, with private sales all the money goes straight to your pocket. You can also sell your site to global corporations for millions of dollars if you contact them privately. There is, however, less legal protection if you decide to go down the private sales path.
3. It’s All about Marketing
Selling a site is just like selling any product, in that your marketing campaign must be effective if you want to be successful. Work out beforehand how you are going to market the site and raise peoples buying temperature. A great way to do this is to establish a loyal group of followers.
Your site must be informative, entertaining and helpful if you are going to grab the attention of internet users. Base your site around a concept; let’s use pet food as an example. If you create a website dedicated to gourmet pet food you can guarantee that a group of pet lovers will flock to your site. Once your site gains some loyal followers it will be much more attractive to potential buyers.
4. Transfer Site Ownership
Once the sale is complete you must transfer the website from your dedicated server to the new buyers server.
Selling domain names doesn’t have to be a complicated affair, just follow the steps in this article and you are sure to succeed.
