If you’re somewhat new to the industry, you may find it difficult to be profitable because it’s not necessarily easy to recognize the value of any given domain. Even if you’re experienced, you may have this concern as well. Maybe you’re looking to buy a name on the aftermarket and it seems like a good deal, but when you look to flip it, you can’t find anyone interested. Perhaps you’ve gone after a name on the drop and after a short bidding war, you win the domain. But again, now there seems to be no interest in the name from anywhere. One suggestion I have is to focus on a niche.
Focus on a Niche
Domaining is similar to many other professions in that there are many directions you can go. Doctors can be podiatrists focusing on the feet or cardiologist focusing on the heart.There are any number of directions a doctor can focus his training and career. So too can a domainer. Let’s look at just a few of the domain bloggers and their specialties:
- Rick Schwartz, RicksBlog.com – Generic, Dictionary words.
- Shane Cultra, DomainShane.com – Focus: 5 letter dot coms and garden related domains.
- Morgan Linton, MorganLinton.com – Focuses on ccTLD investments.
Two Benefit
1. You will learn your domain specialty better than most.
Focusing on a specific area will make you knowledgeable in that area, dare I say, even an expert. You’ll be more in tune to which names are becoming available and how names in that area have sold in the past. You might develop other contacts with domainers in that niche as well. You’ll learn how the search engines treat this type of domain/tld. Most importantly, you’ll learn from your experience in this niche which will put you at an advantage over domainers who spread themselves thinly across every possible domain category in existence.
2. You will learn your buyer better than most.
Having your focus in a niche area, chances are you will gain a better understanding of the buyers of this type of domain. There may be certain characteristics that they look for and other traits they avoid. There may be a specific pool of buyers and you’ll develop a network with them and be established as a credible domainer.
Specializing in a niche area does not mean you can’t or shouldn’t invest and explore outside that niche. Having an area of focus will help you learn more, faster and have greater success. Branching out in the other areas can help broaden your business scope, but better to start with a centered approach and slowly expand and build upon your successes.
8 comments
Great point I have 2 main areas where I focus camping and product domiains I build into sites and then names I hand register and try and sell to end users. This way I try not to buy names that do not fit in the two groups.
@Brian, great way to stay focused.
This is great advice – it’s easy to get overwhelmed if you try to focus on too many things at once. Also, sometimes you never know what your niche might end up being until you try. The part about learning your buyer is key. One of the things I like about domaining is that it challenges me to learn new things: like about red wine, precious metals investing, and well, German car rentals. LOL.
So often newcomers end up registering names that just “sound good,” completely neglecting the industries they know the most about. If you have the inside scoop on a field, you’ve already got a leg up when it comes to qualified leads and finding buyers. Do what you know!
@Nadia, I agree. Domaining has opened up new worlds of learning about different topics.
I certainly stand to take a lesson from this discussion as my portfolio is a bit of everything 🙂 I can totally identify with the need for focus and its impact on success.
VERY sound advice here!
Great article.
It does open up new learning about different topics. I love looking at domain names but the challenge is always the keyword research. I am trying to find a generic domain name, preferably an EMD which meets all the metrics (eg )reasonable search volume, competition not too high, adword value etc) which I have a keyword strategy for, AND some knowledge of. I guess it’s practice. I guess that is what everyone is trying to do, but for some the challenge is greater. Love keyword research but I don’t seem to ever uncover any niches.