Domainers buy website domain names and sell domains for profit.  Maybe you are not a domainer, but have some ideas about buying domain names for profit.  Where do you start?

If you want cheap domain names, and by that I mean you only want to pay $10 or less for a domain name (the registration fee) and don’t want to sign up with the various drop services, you still have some options.

How to Find Domain Names

You can search for and find domain names at godrops.com

This site allows you to search for recently dropped domain names that have been tasted, but not registered.

Tasting describes the process of registering a domain name, seeing how it performs, and then returning the non-performing domain names to the registrar for a refund within 5 days.  This serves as a quick filter, preventing you from searching through lots of undesirable domain names.

Domains with hyphens, numbers and domains that are not dot coms are undesirable.

How to Evaluate Domain Names

You could simply pick the ones that sound good to you.  This is an unreliable approach for selecting a domain name.

Instead, you might evaluation a potential domain name by gathering some relevant data before making the purchase.

Let’s run through an example. Today godrops.com shows that premiumstoves.com just dropped and is available for registration.

Search Google

Search Google for “premium stoves”, “premiumstoves.com” “premium” and “stoves”

How much search volume is there?
How many paid ads are there?
What do the top listings look like?

Search the Google AdWords key word tool for premium stoves

Is there any search volume?
Is there adequate search volume?
How much competition is there?

Also, take a peak at Google Trends.

Gather information at Estibot

Enter your domain name at estibot.com and look at the collected data.  A domain name that already has traffic and ranks is generally better than one that does not.

Enter in another domain name or two to get some perspective.

The dollar figures should be taken with a grain of salt.

Search the Wayback Machine

Visit the Wayback Macine and enter the domain name.

Was a website ever built on the domain name?
If a website was built, does it look good or not?
Was the domain name parked?
When was the domain first indexed by the Wayback Machine?

Search and Evaluate Domain Names for Free

This quick evaluation demonstrates that premiumstoves.com does not fit my profile for possible acquisitions.

Additional Domain Name Search Resources

Bust A Name – enter a few key words as it searches for matches
Make Words – combine key words into domain names that are available
Dot Center – find expired domain names
Domainsbot – creates and searches for domain names based on keywords
SmartPageRank – helps you find domains based on criteria you set.
If you want to purchase software, consider the Domand Research Tool.

There are hundreds of additional resources to find, select, evaluate and purchase a domain name.

How do you find domain names?

How do you evaluate domain names?

I will be happy to udpate the list with your suggestions.