What Domains Should You Buy?

Somebody asked me this week which domains they should buy to "make the most money".

This question or variants of it, are probably the most commonly asked of most domainers, by people wanting to get into the industry, or those who just simply don't believe that you can money from this game.

The answer I gave was the same one that the world's greatest investor, Warren Buffet always gives when he's asked which stocks to buy. The answer is, "Buy what you know".

Domaining and investing are very similar, in fact, done correctly, domaining should be an investment.

In the investment markets, people think they can come in and make a quick killing by doing day trading - that's buying shares one day, only to sell them later in the day, or within a very short timescale, hopefully for a profit.

Many domainers (especially newcomers) apply the same strategy to their domains - they think that they can register a new domain name and then pop along to Ebay, Sedo or Afternic and sell their newly acquired name for a profit.

This isn't investing, it's speculation or opportunism, often with no foundation and nothing more than blind hope.

It's also the quickest way to losing your money.

Like stock investing, a domain portfolio performs best when held for the long term.

Just like the stock market, it's also best to buy names in markets that you understand and can write about.

If you know a particular niche market, buy relevant names that you know people will be searching online for.

When I first started out, I bought recruitment names, because I had many years experience as a recruiter. I still own those names today, up to 10 years later. All they cost me is the renewal fees, though many earn their keep (and more) from Google Adsense.

They do this because I understand the recruitment industry and so was able to write unique content for the mini sites I published.

I try to keep to this strategy of buying only what I know, but occasionally of course, I do deviate - but that is with the knowledge of the Internet behind me, together with specialist search engine optimisation skills.

Beginners simply can't do that.