The Ultimate Domain Name Resource Guide

I moved the majority of my domains to GoDaddy for a couple reasons.  First, most buyers already have a GoDaddy account which makes transfers much easier.   Second, I buy a lot of domains so I joined the Discount Domain Membership which allows me to hand register a domain for $8.29 per year.  Can’t beat it. Add the fact that there is hosting, domain aftermarket and auctions, and it’s a great fit.

Domain.com is a new one for me.  I have used other services to register domains but felt they were lacking the bells and whistles (customer service) that GoDaddy.com provides. Domain.com seems to have it all together and is a good alternative if you’re not looking to put all your eggs in one basket.

When I first entered domaining, Fabulous.com seemed like the cool place to be.  It was due, primarily to someone I had come to know as Mike Fabulous.  I actually thought it was his name.  Turns out he was just a good guy, working for the company that gave it a face.  Fabulous is still a good place to register names at competitive  prices.

I don’t have any names registered with NameCheap at the moment but it is a popular registrar with good pricing.  Definitely deserves to be on the list.

Efty was a game changer for me.  The best thing to come to domaining since parking.  I joined Efty’s platform and shortly after had a couple inquires.  That quickly led to some sales.  That’s a simple combination that had me hooked.  I joined the premium services and have been going strong ever since.

They continue to make improvements to the system which you don’t see in many other solutions.  While, I’ve interviewed Doran and posted about my experience with Efty before, I encourage you to head over and try the free version.  You’ll love it.

Domain Punch offers a variety of software related to domaining but the one I tried out was Watch My Domains for Mac.  It was several years back but I was impressed by what I saw.  This was before Efty came along.  Watch My Domains offers a solution to manage your domains on your system.  Efty offers more than domain management and is a more complete package.  But if you are looking just to track your domains. expirations, and registrars all in one place, this software will do that.

It’s been a couple years ago now, but I interviewed Tim Koutroubas, the founder of ToughDomains back when the service was in beta.  It has come along way since. The platform allows users to manage their portfolios and sell in the Tough Domains market place.  Worth a look into if you are considering any of the options in this section.

Evergreen was co-founded by Adam Strong and Jen Sale.  Adam was one of the first domainers I met on my quest and was very kind from the start.   The more I learned about him the more I respected him and his reputation. He will always be my #1 recommendation when it comes to ethical, experienced brokers in the business.

Buckley Media specializes in domain name brokerage and acquisition, naming and branding. Our experienced team, known for its exemplary customer service and strong, authentic relationships in the domain industry, startup industry, and established corporate universe, provides targeted, strategic outreach and stellar service to our valued clientele. Specializing in maximizing value in both buying and selling ultra-premium domain names, the Buckley Media team epitomizes professionalism, expert guidance, a throughly customized approach, and trust.

Dave Evanson has made some great sales and if you follow him on social media, you already know that.  I interviewed Dave Evanson a while back.  Definitely a great guy to work with if you need to buy or sell a premium name.

Andrew Rosener captains the ship at Media Options.  With proprietary tools, a global reputation for confidentiality, and a network developed from decades of expertise and access, they are a domain broker who can work with virtually every domain owner or seller worldwide.

Dofo.com collects information on domain names. Their engineers comb the Internet using unique algorithms they have developed and provide you with an overflow of data on more than 350 million domain names.  All in a truly clear way. Dofo.com saves you the time of sifting through multiple sources, and it’s free.

DomainTools has over 10 billion related DNS data points to build a map of ‘who’s doing what’ on the Internet. Government agencies, Fortune 500 companies and leading security firms use our data as a critical ingredient in their threat investigation and cybercrime forensics work.

DomainIQ was a great suggestion from Logan Flatt (@LoganFlatt).  They have three plan levels and plenty of information to offer.

Estibot was the first automated valuation tool I discovered.  It uses an algorithm unknown to me, but clearly incorporates some stats such as popularity of individual words, uniques searches on the exact match term, etc.  Because of those things I do believe that it has value as a tool, but I don’t recommend you ever use an automated tool as your end all be all source.  Aside from just estimating value, it provides other tools as well and assists in discovering leads.

GoDaddy now offers domain appraisals using an automatic system.  I have found GoDaddy to be a very generous an loose appraisal system, favoring high values when I don’t believe they are nearly as valuable as stated.  Use at your own discretion.

DomainShane, now DSAD.com was founded in 2009 and is a blog that talks about domains from the views of normal working guys.  Daily domain lists injected with premium domain owner interviews make this my favorite.  That and the fact that I write for DSAD.  Plus Shane is one of the coolest dudes in the industry.

Raymond Hackney is the founder of TLD Investors, one of my favorite blogs in the industry.  Raymond knows the domain industry and keeps you up to date with what’s happening in a timely manner. 

Elliot Silver runs Domaininvesting.com.  Back when I first found his site it went by the name ElliotsBlog.com.  I had dabbled in some domain names prior to reading Elliot’s blog, but once I stumbled across it, I decided to dive in to domaining head first.  The rest is history.

Another of my favs is The Domains, run by Michael Berkens and Raymond Hackney.  The site has been around since 2007 and is loaded with great info.  Definitely one to read on a regular basis.

Andrew Allemann is Editor at DNN.  Residing in Seattle, he’s been in the industry since ’97 and is well respected.  The blog is supplemented by one of the few domain podcasts of any quality that you will find.  I highly recommend the podcast as well.

Domain Name Wire editor Andrew Allemann reviews the latest news in the domain name business including: buying and selling domain names, domain name monetization, legal issues, new top level domain names (new TLDs), and businesses.

KickstartCommerce podcast shares insight pertaining to search marketing and domain investing ideas to grow your business.  Launched by Alvin Brown, the Neil Patel of domain industry content.

DomainSherpa is the source for unbiased, authoritative information to help you discover, acquire, manage, monetize and sell domain names.

DBR is home to me as far as domain forums go.  This is where I “grew up” domaining, learning from this community, lead by Donna Mahoney.  Some refer to this as the “elite forum” or the “exclusive forum” of the industry.  Call it what you will but this community is the finest group I have ever interacted with.  Willing to share, happy to engage and ethics are the backbone of this group.  Bullshit is not tolerated.  It is a private forum which contributes to high standards.  Special thanks to Donna for all she does!!!

In 2003, Adam Dicker purchased DNForum.com, one of the most popular domain name forum today.  The site has a friendly community and welcomes both beginners and domain industry experts alike.

NamePros is an another popular forum for domain name investors. Its services include forums and domain name auctions. The forums implement a freemium business model, whereby membership is free, but paid subscriptions offer additional features.

ESQwire.com was founded by entrepreneur Ari Goldberger and is an Internet law firm with a wide range of services.  I haven’t had to leverage any legal services in my domaining career, but Ari’s reputation is solid.

Bernstein IP is a boutique law firm offering legal services  in connection with international Internet law issues with a focus on Internet Registries and New gTLDs.

ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.  This is a nonprofit agency that basically organizes the internet.  The URDP is the policy that is used to govern domain name disputes.

“There can only be one.”  While, in my opinion, there are a few too many low quality blogs in the domaining space at the moment, Domaining.com showcases a great sampling of some of top blogs in the industry.  I credit domaining.com for the great network of domainers, experts, dialog and discussion in the industry.   Many of these blogs would have few followers and fewer comments and discussions without it.  Thank Francois!