Domain Flipping for Profit – Is It Still Viable?

In the web industry, there’s a practice called domain flipping where a domain is bought only to be sold at a higher price.

Prices can range from less than $10 to more than $60 million. Hitting the gold mine is definitely not a guarantee but making a decent profit might still be viable.

Getting to Know Domain Flipping

In domain flipping, all you need to do is buy a domain and try to sell it in various online platforms. By doing this, you’re basically placing a bet on a domain name, assuming that other people may find the name valuable to them.

Who would buy that, though? You’d be surprised that many business owners are willing to purchase a domain name with a seemingly unreasonable price, as long as it can add value to the brand. I bet you also won’t mind spending some extra money on a domain name that really represents your site’s content.

The point is, there’s a market for this. A lot of people – called domainers or domain flippers rely on this for a living. Given the low barrier to entry, you can try it yourself too.

Getting into Domain Flipping

Before going further, let’s set our mindset right. This won’t make you rich overnight. Like any online business, you have to be consistent while picking up knowledge along the way.

1] Researching Potential Domain Names

The fact that you’re betting doesn’t mean that you have to buy random domain names. The more research you do, the better.

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For this, you will at least use two services. The first one is NameBio, which is a website that stores the history of domain sales. The second one is a domain name generator – find out more about this here: Best 20 Domain Name Generators: Get Domain Name Ideas Instantly.

From the former, you can get valuable information about domain names, which includes the purchase date, official registrar, and, of course, the price at which it was purchased.

While using a domain generator you can do several things – first is simply checking whether the domain is available or not, secondly and more importantly, get similar, free domain names to snatch.

Be explorative and don’t be afraid to try out new things.

2] Register the Chosen Domain Names

Once you’ve got a list of your potential domain names, pick a registrar of your choice and register them there. Generally, you will need to pay for the 12-month plan for each domain.

But, what if the names are not available? Obviously, you can’t tell the current owner to give up their domain for you. But, there’s still a chance for you to bid on certain domains which are listed under the Redemption Grace Period (RGP) – a period of warning for the owner to pay for the renewal fee (usually 30 to 90 days), otherwise the domain is up for sale.

For this purpose, you can use drop catching services like NameJet, DropCatch, and Pheenix. They will purchase the domain on behalf of the top bidder. All you need to do is register to the service and place your bid there.

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3] Sell Your Domain Names

Yes, re-selling your domain names is the end goal. But, it’s not as straightforward as it sounds, since you may need to wait for a while to finally get the buyer.

To enhance this process, you should consider combining the three most common ways of marketing domain names into one strategy. First off, list your domain names in several domain marketplaces like Flippa, Namecheap, and Bido.

After that, place some premium ads on social media or Google to bring in potential buyers. To support both, create a landing page or a website containing your offers and profile.

By doing the three altogether, you tick all the boxes. You get all the basic functionality from the marketplace, reach a wider audience through social media, and have an online presence that can boost your reputation.

Not convinced yet?

According to the Netcraft January 2018 Web Survey, there are more than 1.8 billion websites, either active or inactive. With the high number of internet penetration rate at 58%, we can expect that there will be more even more websites in the coming future.

The data above screams opportunities for the domain industry because, guess what, every website needs a domain name. Some are still available and can be purchased through registrars, while some others are for everyone to bid on. In Flippa, for instance, it’s not uncommon to see domain names with a six-digit price tag, let alone lower than that.

With that being said, I think the question is not whether domain flipping is still viable, but more like whether we are willing to accept the risk and try. It’s true that we may need some money to start. It could be anything from $10 to thousands of dollars depending on how many domain names you want to buy and how far you’re willing to go with the ads.

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All in all, considering the opportunities, it’s a risk worth taking.