7 valuable lessons learned from 21 domain names purchased

Throughout my blogging journey, I had purchased 21 domain names and it is still counting till today.

For your information, I don’t build a blog around those 21 domains because that will be crazy.

Out of those domain names, only 30% of them I have blog/website on top of it. The rest of them are purely parked for nothing.

In the end, these domain names expire due where I don’t renew them because it is just too silly to keep them.

So, of all the domain names that I had purchased and only manage to utilize some of them, here are 7 lessons which I had learned.

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1. It should not be too long.

There was once I bought a domain name over with 20 characters and the main reason is to have all the keyword stuffed into a single domain name. It is completely a bad idea because having a too long domain name makes your potential incoming visitor has difficulty to type it out. Although you can put it in the way that it can be easily remember, but typing 20 characters surely not an easy thing as well.

Resolution: Limit yourself to 10 characters for your next domain name purchased. You can go up to 15 but make sure that is your limit.

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2. Don’t hesitate.

Don’t hesitate when it comes to buying. If you think you had already spotted a good domain name, click on the ‘Buy Now’ button. It is only $10 and if you really don’t like it in the end, just don’t renew it. Domain name is not an expensive investment and hence, you should not hesitate for too long.

Resolution: As long as my next domain name fall within my criteria of a good domain name (which I will mention at the end of this article), I will not hesitate to buy it.

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3. Learn how to give up.

Don’t just keep renewing your old domain names for no reason. If you are not working on those domain names, then sell it. If nobody buy your domain name, this means it is not worth keeping as well, so don’t renew it. Learn how to give up because if you are keeping too many unused domain names, you ended up investing for nothing.

Resolution: I keep an eye on all my domain name renewals because I will only renew domain name that I think is worth keeping. By doing so, I had get rid at least half of my domain name and that saves me over $100 a year.

4. Always look for .com only.

If you tell a person that your brand name is xxx, they will usually assume your website is  xxx.com. And if you are so unlucky that your competitor is using xxx.com domain, I can say that you had lost probably 20-30% of your customer to your competitor just by not having a .com domain name.

The .com extension is a common website extension to many people. Just like the hyperlink colour is blue and that as well is one of the highest CTR colour for Google Adsense. So, if you are looking for a domain name, always look for .com extension.

Resolution: Always look for .com. Even if you like it to be .net or .org, make sure you buy the .com and redirect to your .net/.org domain. I would rather change my business name in order to get a .com extension if it happened to be unavailable.

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5. Create a brand, not keywords.

During the old times, people like to hunt for domain name that has highly searched keyword in it such as seotips.com, marketingtips.com, and etc. However, that is not the reason why you rank number 1 in Google for that keyword anymore with the implementation of Penguin, Panda and Hummingbird algorithm.

Instead of keywords, you should find and create domain name that sounds like a brand. A couple of good examples here are Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Samsung and etc. They don’t contain keywords and yet they are all big companies in today’s world.

Resolution: Don’t waste your time in focusing a keyword rich domain name. Think of a brand that is short and cool looking and most importantly, it ends with .com.

6. Good domain names don’t expire.

There was once I found a domain name which I really like and it is going to expire in 2 months time. I then went to the URL and saw nothing was developed on top of it. At that time onwards, I monitored the domain name expiry and hoping that it will expire and I can get it cheaply.

After waiting for more than a month, I finally saw the owner place a renewal of 2 years to the expiring domain name. At that time onwards, I believe that good domain names don’t expire because it is so good that people are willing to renew yearly for nothing. So, don’t spend your time waiting.

Resolution: I don’t wait for domain names to expire anymore. Instead of that, I continue to search for other domain name because waiting is killing my time.

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7. Domain flipping is too late to start.

I’m sorry to pour a pail of cold water on to you but I do believe that domain name flipping is something too late to start now. There are plenty of internet marketers who had been doing this since many years ago and it is not something that you should look into if you just started your internet marketing career.

Flipping domain name is not the only way to monetize on the internet. There are still tons of method for you to make money online.

Resolution: Buy a domain name because you want it and not because of flipping it.

Lastly, my rules on domain name

Of all the lessons learned, I formed my own rule when it comes to buying a domain name. By having this rule, it ensure that my next domain name purchased will not be a waste.

Here are my rules to the next domain name:

1. It can’t be too long – 10 characters is my limit and if not possible, the most I would go is 15 characters.
2. It does not have to be keyword rich.
3. It MUST have the .com extension.
4. It must be easy to remember.
5. No hyphens or numbers

With these rules in placed, it ensures you as well that your next domain name will be an awesome one.

What are your experience in domain name investment so far.

Feel free to share with us below.

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