Wednesday, November 11, 2009

How To Make a Fortune With Expired Domain Names!

Would you like to know where millionaires like Richard Rosenblatt, the former owner of MySpace are currently investing their money? Well, he is investing millions of dollars into domain investing. There is a way that you can make money too, with expired domain names!

Business 2.0 magazine reported that domain investing is creating a new class of millionaires who are making as much as $20,000,000 per year in passive income from simple domain investing.

The field of domain investing is a fairly new one which is just ready to explode with profits. The web has become the new real estate boom. Instead of investing in condos and flipping old houses, people are investing in expired domain names.

So what exactly is an expired domain name? It's a domain name that someone had bought and didn't renew for some reason or another. And each day, somewhere between 15,000 and 70,000 domain names are not renewed and fall into the category of expired domain names.

What makes some of these expired domain names so valuable? Well, some have a lot of traffic directed to them already. Some people spent time building a website and a business online, directing taffic to it, exchanging links and developing listings with the search engines. Then they gave up on it or went on to something new. When the original person doesn't renew the domain name, it becomes an expired domain name and anyone can buy it.

You may be thinking. How can I make money with someone else's expired domain name? Well, there are several ways.

My favorite way is the easiest and simplest. Right now, when a domain name has expired, the parking company parks the domain. They put ads on it. When someone goes to that domain and clicks on an ad, they make money. Now if YOU own that domain name, and register it with a parking company, which is free, by the way, YOU can get those checks when someone clicks on one of those ads. It is really that simple to start a residual income. Those checks will continue to come in month after month as long as you own that domain name.

Another way you can profit is to resell expired domain names, the same way that you would resell real estate. For example, the highest reported domain sale in 2006 was $7,500,000. Now chances are that you're not going to stumble onto a million dollar website that no one has noticed, but even if you spend $60 and double your money, that's not such a bad investment!

Here is another idea. Search for domain names with the same keyword list that you use for your own website. Suppose you have a business selling jewelry, for example. You can purchase expired domain names with the same keywords and then point the visitors from the old websites to your new website. This will give you instant traffic!

While there is no way to determine the actual amount of traffic going to a particular expired domain, you can find out its link popularity in the major search engines.

These are just a few ways that you can make money with expired domain names and if you're a creative person, I'm sure you'll think of more. In no time at all, you could be on your way to making a residual income with expired domain names!

Your Identity - Picking A Domain Name To Register

Perhaps the most poignant scene in Arthur Miller's play The Crucible happens at the end when the protagonist, John Proctor, refuses to sign his name on a false confession. When asked why he refuses to sign the document, even though it could save his life he cries out in anguish, "Because it is my name. It is the only name I will ever have." It is a heartfelt and stunning reminder that our identity begins at birth when our parents name us. A web site also depends on its name, which is why choosing a domain name that best represents your site and its purpose is something to be done very carefully indeed.

Choose the right name

When you are ready to start a web site don't just run to the first registry you can find and type in the first thing you think of. Sit down and do some research about your site and what you hope it will accomplish. What is the goal of your site? What kind of images do you want customers to associate with it? If you could sum up your site in one word, what would that word be? The best domain names tend to be names that are short and easy to remember and something to do with the topic or service your web site provides. If you are going to attempt humor with your domain name, make sure it's a joke that not just you can understand. Overall, the name should add to the quality of your web site not distract from it.

Check availability

As you're picking a name for your web site, one of the common things to happen is you find the absolutely most perfect name possible, go to the registry and type in the name in the lookup box and lo and behold - its already taken. Then you have a problem. You're already sold on the idea, and now it's not workable. Make sure to have a lookup box from the registry available as you are choosing the name for your domain site so you can check availability instantly. You should also check names that are similar to the domain name you are choosing to make sure there won't be confusion later on in and your advertising doesn't accidentally send your customer to someone else's site.

Pick the right extension

Many registrars will also let you choose the extension along with your domain name. That means that you get to choose whether your domain name will be a.com. or .net .biz or any of the other approved for public use extension names. Be sure to pick one that does not mislead your customers or clientele. If you're really selling something, choosing an .org which is largely for nonprofit organizations or a .net which is for social networking, may seem like a brilliant way to get people to your site. However, customers know when they've been conned and it tends to backfire on the business. Choose the proper extension for what you're doing and let your site's integrity sell itself.

What's in a name? Everything. Careful and thoughtful picking and use of the name for your web site will help keep your enterprise on the top of its game.