Top 7 Tips For Protecting Your Domain Searches

It seems that every five minutes, someone comes up with a new domaining website or software product that claims to help domainers and Internet marketers. In reality, what actually happens is that:

a) People pay a small amount of $$ for the software – it doesn’t work and they lose their money;

b) Their keyword /domain research is misused;

c) Their identity is stolen and then sold to organized crime.

Over the past few months the industry has seen a number of these examples and the problem is getting worse! As such, I thought I’d provide some tips to help people protect their domains, keywords and future business ideas!

7 Steps To Protecting Your Identity & Your Business

1. Don’t use “bid sniping tools” or websites that provide automated bidding at auction.

Note to auction newbies -> WAKE UP! There is no advantage, it’s a gimmick!

2. Don’t hand over the passwords to your registrar or auction accounts.

That’s right – dont disclose your Namejet, Snapnames, Godaddy passwords to ANYONE – including a website or software tool! The risks should be obvious:

* The people that run the website / tool (whoever they are) can spend your $$$, under your name, with a 3rd party! Who do you think is going to be liable when it all goes horribly wrong?

* They have access to your bidding history (see your portfolio, sell the info, target your interests).

* They have access to you credit card details (self explanatory)

* They have access to your personal information (identity theft)

* You may have breached the auction companies Terms and Conditions, therefore your account could be shut down!

If you have disclosed your account passwords to a website or software tool, login RIGHT NOW (to the registrar or auction company) and change your password. Use different passwords for different accounts. That way if one is discovered, you can minimise the damage.

3. Don’t use SEO / Keyword Research Software to find or check for domain availability.

Although you might be familiar with (or might have met) people that recommend or have developed your SEO software, the question you need to ask is

* Does the software use a 3rd party to check the domain availability?
* Is this a 3rd party in another country?
* Does the 3rd party monitor, store or record your searches?
* What is the state of their Information Security?
* What does their Privacy Policy say about how they use AND protect your information?

When it comes to checking for domain availability, use your domain registrar. For example: Namecheap or Godaddy.

4. Don’t Use Keyword-Based Email Alerts

Some of these domain finding sites/software products include “email alerts” to notify their users when domains become available that match a keyword they are looking for. Again, a great source of information for Internet marketers. They can register similar domains, sell you their mates products (and get a commission), not to mention blatently copy your ideas. Don’t do it!

5. Read The Privacy Policy

If you are searching for existing domains to buy, look at the website Privacy Policy first! Seriously – go and do it! You will see first hand how they claim to handle your information. Does it provide specific details?

6. Do Your Research – Who Are These People (Really) ?

Anyone can call themselves a “domainer” but very few people do this full-time as their single source of income.

There is also a big difference between people that earn their $$$ by speaking at conferences, and those that actually “DO IT for a living”.

If you are using a website or downloadable software, who is running it? How long have they been in business? Are they just a couple of crazy kids running it out of their bedroom? If its a “plugin” for existing software, don’t assume the parent company has done their due diligence. Find out the (real) story behind the integration. You will be glad you did!

7. Whois Privacy

As soon as you register a domain name, enable whois privacy. Yes, I’ve said this for years and I sound like a broken record – but it works. In addition, don’t undermine your whois privacy by discussing your domain name acquisitions on Facebook and Twitter – keep it confidential!

Thats it! Feel free to post your thoughts, hints and tips! I hope this helped some of you – particularly newcomers to the industry.

Domainer Income Includes Trademark Checking

Over the past few months the team at Domainer Income has been testing out a new groundbreaking feature – automatic trademark checks!

That’s right. When you are viewing .au drops, all of those domains are now checked for trademarked keywords. This level of automation is something that is not offered anywhere else. It can:

1. Save you HOURS of time.

2. Potentially save you from a lawsuit.

3. Save you money, because you will be shown what auctions to avoid.

See the TM column? You can hover your mouse over it and get all the information on the trademark. Cool eh?

Why Trademarks?

Trademark infringement is one area that hurts domain investors and newcomers to the industry. It’s largely something that’s not widely talked about, so here are a few scenarios to be aware of:

Example #1

A newcomer to the industry gets sucked in by all the marketing hype around “buying aged domains”. They sign up to the latest and greatest auction site and start buying, only to find they get slapped with a lawsuit because the keywords in the domain name they just purchased were trademarked.

Example #2

Someone buys a domain at auction for $1,000 and a few days later receives a letter from the regulator that their domain infringes on someone elses trademark. The domain is taken off them, put into “Pending Delete” and the person loses their $1,000.

The Future

This will be the first in many new features that we are making available to our Professional Members. We have some VERY BIG surprises for 2011.

Thanks again to our customers who continue to support us and inspire our team to innovate.

Who Are You Supporting?

If you surround yourself with people, then THEIR values and beliefs will have an effect on you.

Think about that for a moment – if you were in a room with successful like minded entrepreneurs, then you WILL feel some very positive energy, wont you?

What you may not know, is that OTHER people will judge YOU on the people you:

1. Promote (to your email list, at events, or via Facebook / Twitter)
2. Support (via ads on your blog or people you provide services to)
3. Associate with (conferences and interviews)

Why should YOU care? It’s simple….

When other people see who you promote, they may think twice about getting involved with YOU.

If you are seen to promote unethical people and products, then YOU are tarred with the same brush. Guilty by association. In addition, next time YOU have something to say or a product to promote, people will question it. They will also question YOUR decision making capability.

Scenario – How It Affects You

You get an email from someone you saw at conference a few times, asking you to promote his new product. You think it might make you some extra $$ per month, so you promote it to your list. But afterwards you find out that the person is dodgy and their product was a straight copy/paste from somewhere else. People complain, YOU are associated with it, and the industry is now talking about YOU.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there. What is EVEN WORSE is if YOU continue to promote it !! Why? Because people form an opinion that YOU don’t know what you are talking about. They know this person or product is dodgy, but from THEIR perspective, YOU lack the insight to see it.

In 2010, if you have promoted a person or a product (which has turned out to be dodgy), then LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES. Don’t promote them again! Stop yourself – seriously, learn how to SAY NO. Nobody said it was going to be easy, but people will respect you a LOT more if you can admit (even if it’s to yourself) that you made a mistake. All you need to do to fix this, is change your approach.

We are coming up on a new year. In 2011 I’d like to see the industry clean itself up. That starts at the grass roots level, with people like YOU.

Next time someone asks you to promote their product, STOP and think about it. Don’t just look at “all the other people on the bandwagon”. Ask yourself:

1. What will be the impact to MY reputation if this doesn’t work out?

2. How will people view my organisation if I’m seen to promote this?

3. Will I miss out on other (more valuable) opportunities if I promote this?

4. Who are the competitors to this product or person? Will they support me and my business if I’m seen to promote, FB Like or endorse this product/person?

These questions should help you determine the consequences of your actions. In the corporate world this is called reputational risk. It’s something that is closely guarded and protected above all else.

What I’m asking, is that you THINK about this – starting today. I wish you the best for 2011.

When Are You Going To Do This? [Video]

If you are not making enough money from domaining, then I have a few questions for YOU:

1. When are you going to stop collecting domain names?

2. When are you going to monetize that group of domains you bought months ago?

3. When are you going to stop trawling through auctions late at night, buying domains that just end up sitting there doing nothing?

4. How are you going to get the knowledge you need to monetize your domains and start earning REAL $$$ from them?

At what point do you admit to yourself that you need help? Well… that’s exactly what I’m offering a limited number of mentoring students.

Apply now at http://www.MentoringBySimon.com – be quick, applications are closing!

The Biggest Announcement I’ve Made In 2010

I can’t guarantee I will ever do this again, so this may be your ‘now or never’ chance to get in. Applications close Friday Oct 29 at 5pm PDT.

Here is the link I mentioned in the video: > http://www.MentoringBySimon.com/

New TV Show For Domain Investment – Episode 1 [HD Video]

It give us great pleasure to announce the very first episode of Domainer Income TV.

The show is unlike anything you have seen before. Its run by professional domain investors who are raising standards and are bringing a new level of education and transparency to the marketplace.

Given the scale of tv series, the show will be run on its own dedicated site at http://www.DomainerIncome.TV (yes, we are putting a .TV domain to good use).

Domainer Income TV could not have happened without our team who worked tirelessly to put this together, especially Tristan on Pre Production, Aaron on Post Production, the musical genius of Sebastian our Composer and Eric with our great Set Design.

Most of all we would like to thank all the people who will appear in the series and those behind the scenes that made the interviews possible. All of these people have given up their valuable time to help educate and grow, the domain investment industry.

Episode 1

Our first guest is Oversee CEO and President Jeff Kupietzky. Oversee owns over 950,000 domain names making it one of the largest owners of Internet Real Estate in the world.

Mobile Support

For those on mobile devices, we have FULL browser support for:

* iPhone/iPod Touch / iPad
* Andriod
* Touch-Based Blackberry
* Nokia S60 series and above

If you have any of these devices, you are going to love the new site – it has been designed and optimized especially for mobile browsing! So head on over to Domainer Income TV and check it out!

Domainer Income To Launch Domain Investment TV Show

The big news is that next week we will be launching our new show on domain name investment – Domainer Income TV.

We have had some very talented people working on this project for months.

One thing I can promise you is that its going to be VERY different from anything you have seen before.

Stay tuned.

Pros and Cons: Buying New, Dropping, Expired and Domains For Sale

When it comes to getting a domain name, should you register a new domain, get an expired domain, back-order a dropping domain, bid on a domain name at auction, or buy a domain name for sale or make an offer to a domain name owner?

Well, the answers to all your domaining questions are here! Check out this GREAT article over at Kikabink news which covers everything from expired domains through to private sales. Enjoy!

The Hidden Cost Behind Domain Name Portfolios

A few weeks ago I received an email from someone who had a large portfolio of domain names for sale. This isn’t unusual, but what can be frustrating is seeing the same mistakes and unrealistic expectations, over and over again.

Consequently, I thought there are some interesting lessons for newcomers to the domaining industry, so I thought I’d share them. For confidentiality reasons I’m not going to reveal any information that could identify the seller or their domains. I have also “rounded out” the numbers below:

Parking Revenue: US$3993 per month
Price: 20 months parking revenue

The knee-jerk reaction for many people will be “$4k a month of parking revenue” is pretty good. From my perspective, it was “What’s the COST to me to keep this portfolio going?” After reviewing the documentation, I saw there were 3,300 domains. Of course, what was omitted from the documents was the COST to renew these domains. I know from experience, it costs about $17 per year for EACH of these domain names (they are ccTLDs). So you do the math…

Registration Fees: $56,200 per year
Parking Income: $47,916 per year
LOSS: -$8,284

Doesn’t look so good anymore does it? Now that is assuming that you are buying the portfolio for parking (not development or splitting it up for domain sales etc..).

The reason I’m pointing this out, is that there are many domains for sale at the moment and many newcomers (both investors and bloggers) to the industry.

If you are just starting out, domain investing can be time consuming and hard work. Don’t fall into the trap of buying up big straight away, you will almost certainly lose your $$$.

Expired Domains Explained

I wrote this guide to expired domains a few years ago, in order to help newcomers to the domaining industry. Given I’m still getting questions via email and posts on forums, I thought I’d post it up on Domainer Income. Hope it helps.

Purchasing A Domain Name

Anyone can register a domain name. The person or entity (company) that registers a domain name is typically called a registrant. The company that sells you a domain name is called the registrar. For example: Godaddy or Moniker. The company that manages the top level domain is called a registry.  For example: Verisign manages .com

Domain Expiration

A domain name is registered for a period of time. Depending on the type of domain name, it can be registered for up to 10 years. Once registered, the domain name becomes active. You can see the status of a domain name by viewing the whois information and looking at the status field. Note that there are a variety of different status codes (which is beyond the scope of this article).

In the first five days from the date of registration, a domain can be deleted by the registrar and the money refunded to the entity who purchased the domain name. This is called “Domain Tasting“. Most registrars do not allow you to do this; those that do, usually charge you a fee.

Domain Renewal

Lets say you register a domain name for 1 year. Usually 30 days before a domain expires, the registrar will send you a reminder notice, asking you to renew. In this example, if you don’t renew and the 1 year period is up, the domain name changes status to Redemption Grace Period. When this happens, the website and email for the domain name stops working. Of course, you can still renew your domain name and get it back.

If your registrar (eg: Network Solutions) has an agreement with a backordering company (eg: NameJet), then the backordering company is informed that your domain name has changed status. The backordering company may display the domain name on their website as being “available soon”. However, a user may decide to renew their domain name at this point and pay fee to get it back.

Dropped Domain

If the user does not renew their domain name, the domain state changes to Pending Delete. It stays in this state for approximately 5 days.

Once the Pending Delete period is finished, the domain name has expired. The domain is then released by the registrar (in theory) and becomes available to anyone to register. This process is called “the drop”. What happens in reality is that the registrars “hand over” their expired domains to the backordering companies, who then auction them off to the highest bidder. Domains that go through this process are also called dropped domains.

Expired Domains

Most domainers would agree that almost (if not) all expired domains are renewed and tasted. This is done to see if the domain can be monetized. If it can’t make money, then its left to expire. At this point each day, a large list of expired domains are available for anyone to register.

And that’s the circle of domaining life! Hakuna Matata.