Everyone has heard of domain names. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably heard of them: you’ve typed one into your browser or clicked on one to get here! Domain names are the universal means by which you and everyone else navigates the Internet; that little string of text (usually starting with www) that gets us everywhere, from checking email to browsing for the latest Missy Elliot video. That said, it’s easy to see why domain names have contributed to the astronomical success and ‘coolness’ of the Internet. Yes, that’s right, the internet started as a small network of college geeks connecting their computers together so they could get even nerdier. The only reason cool people like you and me started using the internet is because it became so easy to navigate and it became easy to navigate the internet, all because of domain names. If they didn’t exist, we’d all be typing long strings of numbers like 64.233.183.104 instead of google.com or 209.191.93.52 instead of yahoo.com, etc. Sounds like fun, right?

So that’s what we know about domain names. Far more important, however, is what you may not know about domains and the industry that is mushrooming around them. There is a lot of money to be made in the domain business and we are going to tell you all about it.

What makes a domain name valuable?

More than 400 million domain names have been registered as of January 2006 and an estimated 20,000 names are reserved or registered every day. So what separates a domain name worth millions from one that isn’t even worth registering? Here are some factors that greatly contribute to the value of any domain name.

The top-level domain (TLD) extension of the domain name.

The .com and .net TLD extensions currently have the most popularity because these were the first extensions to be registered in the early 1990s. Domain names on the Internet have come to be defined by these two TLDs. This does not mean that it will always be so. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), which oversees the Domain Name System (DNS) file, approves new TLDs each year, and these gain increasing popularity over time. Additional help from regional TLDs in identifying domains related to a particular geographic area .US and .EU are prime examples.

Domain name Contains popular keywords

What makes buyonline.com worth six figures and aquireonline.com practically worthless? Both are great-sounding domain names, but ‘shopping online’ is more likely to be part of a specific search term that someone would type into a search engine. Search engines read the text of your domain name and are more likely to show your website in search results for matching keywords. If your business is selling a new product, let’s call it zigtag, you can get a lot more visitors to your website by registering the domain name. [http://www.buyzigtags.com] instead of [http://www.myzigtagstore.com] . It’s all about the ‘trafficability’ of your domain name and not just any traffic but targeted traffic. Targeted traffic means visitors who come to your website because you have content that they were looking for in a search engine, for example. Great keyword domain names have the ability to automatically generate targeted traffic from search engines.

The domain name is generic, short and pronounceable.

Keyword domains can drive search engine traffic, but an even more elusive and coveted source of traffic is direct clicks (ie, people typing the domain name directly into a browser). It typically takes many months of online marketing and promotion for a domain name to generate consistent high levels of traffic, but the right domain name can come naturally. Music.com, Weather.com, buydvds.com or sellcarsonline.net are all examples of domain names with high natural write traffic. People just hope that when they go to Music.com they see something that catches their eye about popular artists or downloading music files. Also, making your domain name as short as possible and as pronounceable as possible can dramatically increase its value. Domains that are short and easy to pronounce are more easily remembered by web surfers (some of whom remember no more than a ‘double click’ of the mouse) and are therefore more likely to get targeted typing traffic.

The domain name is registered for 10 years or more in advance.

Remember how we said earlier that 20,000 domain names are registered every day? Well, an equal number of domains expire every day. Yes, around 20,000 domains fall by the wayside after being registered for only a year or maybe two. This means that thousands of links on thousands of pages will stop working (if the domains host developed websites, this is a major inconvenience for many Internet users) or it means that the domain name did not meet any of the above criteria so that be a valuable domain name in the first place. Search engines like Google are now starting to realize this and will automatically assign a higher Page Rank (PR) to websites hosted on domains registered 10 years or more in advance. Even if your domain doesn’t host a developed website, having it registered a few years in advance will make it more attractive to buyers who won’t have to pay to renew the name a year or two after getting it.

Typographic domains

You may be surprised by the number of Internet users who can’t write. For the record, we are not. Literally millions of domain name typos are logged every day. Domain names that are close enough to the spelling of another domain that receives good click-through traffic are likely to receive many accidental click-throughs per month. While this will increase traffic to the typo domain, people generally get smarter once they see the wrong page has loaded. Developing a website on a typo domain that has content similar to that of the domain spelled correctly is the best method for using typos. The traffic these domains receive is less targeted than those that fit the aforementioned criteria for a valuable domain name. Even so, a large part of the domain name secondary market profits comes from domains with typos.

These are the basic principles one should look for in a domain name that is, at the very least, worth registering.

How do I convert my domain name into real money?

Now that you have the .com/.net domain name that has great keywords and is easy to remember, you’re probably thinking ‘oh, so I’m just going to sit here and wait for Bill Gates to offer me 7 figures, right? ‘. The simple answer is that any valuable item if used underneath becomes a failure (yes, that’s a technical term).

Here are some ways to make your great domain name work for you:

1. Develop a website

Build a content-rich website that is relevant to the keywords that may be in your domain name. This method has unlimited potential for traffic and earnings. We don’t have to tell you the millions that are made every day by the top websites on the Internet. These websites use a combination of keywords in their domain name and website content that is relevant to those keywords. If you can’t find the right keyword-rich domain name for your area of ​​interest, don’t despair. Some of the major websites on the internet just made up words or acronyms that could mean anything, Yahoo and Google being the best examples. It’s all about business development and the more you promote your website and domain name, the more you’ll earn for your products or services (or receive advertising) over time.

2. Get involved in the domain aftermarket.

Millions are traded daily on the Internet buying and selling domain names within the secondary domain market. If you have registered a name that someone else really wants, they may be willing to pay you much more than the registration fee to obtain it. Sometimes much more. Business.com sold for $7.5 million while website.com recently sold for $700,000 and Blogster.com sold for $100,000. You might have a great domain name, but you’ll miss out on numbers like that if you don’t get involved.

Here are our top picks for domain name aftermarket websites:

http://www.Namepros.com – Buy, sell and discuss domain names.

http://www.dnforum.com: Exchange domain names online, pay a one-time membership fee for full access to the forum.

http://www.websitebroker.com: Do you have a great domain name with a fully developed website that you want to sell? This is the place for it.

http://www.sedo.com: Perhaps the most complete and international domain trading service. Please use Escrow to make sure you get what you paid for.

[http://www.Great] Domians.com: The trusted marketplace for domain names.

2. Park your domain name to earn money

Many websites now offer domain name parking services. With this service, you can park your domain name by allowing a parking service like sedo.com to use your domain to display your ads. They do all the work. All you have to do is set up your domain nameservers on theirs and with a little promotion of your domain name (on your part) you will earn money. You will be paid for each person who clicks on the ads displayed on your parked page. Some parked domains make up to $100 per day, but really good names can make over $1000 per day. Most parking services allow you to park as many pages as you like, so the potential income is unlimited.

Getting started with domain name parking is easy and few parking services will charge you to park your domain. Here are some of our top-rated parking services:

http://www.sedo.com – Along with selling and exchanging domains, sedo has become the leader in parking programs. With millions of dollars paid daily.

http://www.parked.com – One of the highest-revenue paid parking services in the business

http://www.activeaudience.com: Another well-paying parking service. Tens of thousands of domains already parked.

http://www.freeparking.co.uk: Great service outside of the UK. Expect medium payouts

http://www.webcom.com: They are not as big as the others, but they are easy to use and they pay on time.

With all the great opportunities to make easy money in the domain name business, there’s no reason not to get involved. But don’t be fooled. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. You will need patience and the insight of experts, but you can be sure that by reading this article you have already done half the job. Now that you know exactly what makes a domain name valuable and how to make money from it, you’ll surely avoid the most common ‘newbie’ mistakes and be well on your way to making lots of money fast.

Ready to get started but don’t want to spend a lot? Here’s our top pick for one of the ABSOLUTE cheapest domain name registrars on the internet: