When I first started domaining I would have called myself a "flipper". I bought and sold A LOT of domain names. I pretty much started with very little money and dug out domain names that made sense to me and that I could purchase at a fair amount. It took a lot of time to do this. This time = WORK

Back in the day of domain tasting, I was up at 4 am and often worked until 10-12 at night. That’s what it took!

I used eBay and domain forums to flip. I was sure to save any email addresses from people who purchased from me, because I knew they purchased domains. These saved email address became golden because they became the people who purchased the most domains. The payments came quick, the transfer of the domain often took minutes.

As I sold domain names, I would buy more. Sometimes I would spend a little more money. As I was finding good domains at fair prices that were higher priced, it was easier to make More Money! Instead of hand registering domain names for around $9 and selling for $100 or so.. it was more interesting to buy a $200-$500 domain name and sell for $1,200 to $4,000. The money was adding up a lot fast. More money to fuel the fire buying.

At some point I turned the key and started "holding" domains. This brought me into domain parking and just selling when a decent offer came in. I rarely went "looking" for a buyer.

Well, as we all know.. times have changed. The $400 a month I was making from domain parking has literally dropped down to about $50 a month even though I still own my best producing domains. Not really worth parking any more.

I went to lunch with a well known domainer yesterday who lives about an hour from me. He’s rolling in cash still, yet I’m sitting her near the edge. He called me out on it just by talking with him and this was the first time we met in person.

He’s flipping!

I need to be flipping!

Grant it, you need to know when to hold but I need to start flipping domains and developing the goodies that I am passionate about!

Flipping to me, is different than when I first started domaining. I know a lot more now! eBay buyers of the "good" domains are often flippers. Same thing goes for the forum buyers. Flippers that know end users are the right buyers. Sometimes the buyers are "big buyers" and from past contacts.. they become "go to" buyers.

Contacts and your research are KEY!

Example: I have been sitting on this one domain for a little over a year. I was stuck in my "holding" mode and waiting for the buyer to come to me. The domain didn’t make much, if any parked. It’s a strong keyword domain but parking it isn’t going to bring in the traffic. Development is best for the domain due to its keywords.

Sat on it over a year.

Reached into my contacts list today that I knew of a past buyer of a similar domain i sold. I sent out one email to this buyer and a fair price for the domain. SOLD

A flash from the past!

It really isn’t hard to sell a domain. I got this reminder today. If you do your homework from the start and buy domain names that make sense, buyers are waiting! Yes, more times than not, you will have to go to them because not everybody thinks of domain names daily. Planting the seed by them seeing it and at a fair price will often lead into a sale.

Really, there are 3 tools you need to help you find a buyer for your domain name. Well 4 really.

The domain name! Shitty domain names are hard to sell. Make sense domain names are a lot easier! Be sure to buy at a fair price or you may be looking for a pretty long time to find your buyer.

Google. Search keywords related to your domain name you wish to sell. Look at advertisers for the term, sites that rank lower if you are selling the exact match term. I always go at least 3 pages deep for the term I am searching. Take the domain name for the indexed page and grab whois contact info and drop them an quick email.

Whois. The answer to your contact information!

ZFBot.com is a free domain research tool I blogged about a little while back. This free keyword search tool will provide you with already registered domain names and the DNS they are using! This is like using Google, but showing you domain names that companies are using that are not ranking well. If you have a better domain name than they are using, repeat the Google process above and grab whois contact info and drop them a quick email.

I will be taking 5-10 domain names per day that I own and put my nose to the grind stone and start selling domain names again! The time to buy is still right for those who know where to look.

The simple fact is, you still need to plant the seed and this takes you doing it!

* Small update: 2 domains sold so far today and working on a third. So reaching out is working.