Anyone make money from buying and selling domains?

[donal6343]

I'm thinking of moving into this area as it is relatively cheap to get started.

I have 5 domains parked at sedo.com at the minute, two of which i am hoping to realistically make money from ... ituneipods.co.uk - which would be ideal for anyone offering repairs for ipods ... and, sitegambling.co.uk - ideal for any gambling related website.

Does anyone know if it will be profitable/worthwhile?

Cheers.

[MarkPearson]

Are you a member of www.dnforum.com

Its a great place for domain name talk. I have made a decent bit of money, by buying and selling domains.

[jklondon]

made $3K from the sale of palmdirect.com to palm about 5 years ago I think! Was a student at the time so the cash was more than welcomed :) ...otherwise have a couple on sedo - try acorndomains.co.uk as well.

[donal6343]

Markpearson - I'm signing up to dnforum now....thanks!

jklondon - how'd you go about selling the domain for $3k?

Do the .com's go for more?

[jklondon]

Markpearson - I'm signing up to dnforum now....thanks!

jklondon - how'd you go about selling the domain for $3k?

Do the .com's go for more?

you wait for the lawyers to contact you! ..in that case anyway, was slighlty bizzare but guess it worked out ok.

[crus]

Hi Donal,

yep this is a key part of my business, take a look at (UP) UrlPortfolio.com, we allow you to buy and sell for free.

PM me as I have some more info, yeah DNFORUM is good, not the best place to trade .co.uk and hard to get big prices as its not really an end user environment.

D

[donal6343]

For dnforums, you have to pay to post??

I'm thinking of paying the $39 to get one of my domains in the featured section and front page of sedo.co.uk ...

[crus]

Got me a few offers but way below what I was prepared to take as they were not from end users which is where you can make cash.

D

[Astaroth]

I did make some money on a .co.uk/.com pair of domains I bought but it was because I got in the middle of an already ongoing trademark dispute. I had intentionally gone with one companies trademark having already obtained written conformation they were happy for me to do it but the 2nd company thought I was infringing theirs... they agreed to buy the pair for £5k.

There are certainly some that can be worthwhile buying but most are gone and many which are close - like your sitegambling - is probably too far from a random hit (like simply gambling would get) and not really a catchy name. The other issue you have to consider is the trademark issue - for me it worked out but others would have been much harsher in their treatment.

[Enigma121]

Markpearson - I'm signing up to dnforum now....thanks!

jklondon - how'd you go about selling the domain for $3k?

Do the .com's go for more?

you wait for the lawyers to contact you! ..in that case anyway, was slighlty bizzare but guess it worked out ok.

On the subject of lawyers...

I've got my eye on a .eu domain that happens to co-incide with a UK based business name. While there business is called this, it also has a natural language usage for the phrase.

There is a "sunrise" period underway at the moment for these registrations, only registered trademark owners / business name owners are allowed to register them.

This all changes next month when a free-for-all starts. Could it be argued that said company has now been afforded ample opportunity to get this name now?

I heard you could be forced to give up a domain if it's clearly someone else's "intellectual property".

Are we likely to run into legal action if puchasing it once the sunrise period finishes?

[crus]

Hi,

sounds to me like you are already aware of the name in use, are you planning on doing something completely different?

If not, and you are planning on doing something completely different and it is as you say a dictionary keyword or generic term then I can see no harm in regging.

D

[Enigma121]

Hi,

sounds to me like you are already aware of the name in use, are you planning on doing something completely different?

If not, and you are planning on doing something completely different and it is as you say a dictionary keyword or generic term then I can see no harm in regging.

D

No, I'm planning on doing exactly the same. The point is it's a generic name for a business activity.

It's also a UK company name (as no doubt are many generic business activities), like "Office Supplies Limited" or whatever.

I'm fairly confident that the pre-registration process helps out here. As I say the owners of the .co.uk are able to register the domain now - they simply haven't done so yet.

I'm fairly confident that they won't as looking over their site it seems to lack some recent "internet smarts" like a good pagerank or alexa standing or decent SEO. Chances are I'll catch these guys off-guard.

I'm looking for some advice from the legal eagles really to confirm this position prior to purchase.

[donal6343]

Just purchase it...surely you won't lose much, worst comes to worst, you'll have to hand over the domain?

[multilingual]

I have 5 domains parked at sedo.com at the minute, two of which i am hoping to realistically make money from ... ituneipods.co.uk - which would be ideal for anyone offering repairs for ipods ...

Cheers.

You would run into legal issues if you advertised or sold that particular name.

You are attempting to gain financial reward on the back of an already established brand name so you are walking head on into Intellectual Property law.

Take a look at www.wipo.org for some clarification.

:)

JB

[donal6343]

"ituneipods" is not an established brand name ... plus it would be perfect for someone that offers repairs "I tune Ipods"

No?

[SEOscotland.co.uk]

It infringes two trademarks that I can see. You will more than likely receive a lawyers letter as soon as the trademark owner finds out.

[donal6343]

I have just purchased channeltwo.tv and think I will get a good return for it!

Anyone agree or disagree?

cheers.

[mattk]

Again, I think you'll find that somewhere in the world there is a well established television company called Channel Two who will simply take that domain off your hands for free.

[crus]

Good buy,

I guess you are doing a web tv show about asyncronous digital subscriber lines and the wider topics of broadband and web 2.0.

D

ps If you wanna sell I may be interested in that one.

[multilingual]

"ituneipods" is not an established brand name ... plus it would be perfect for someone that offers repairs "I tune Ipods"

No?

No

If it went to court you wouldn't have a leg to stand on I am afraid.

JB

[donal6343]

okay, the "ituneipods" one is dodgy but the channeltwo.tv isn't! "channeltwo" cannot be a registered trademark and i've been told by several people it has value!

Crus, PM me, i'm willing to listen to offers.

[donal6343]

Greatdomains.com has accepted channeltwo.tv and have suggested a list price of $5,000!

[crus]

A little high I think, but thats GD for you.

As I said its a good name.

D

[Tam]

I am selling enjoyyourvisit.co.uk if anyone is interested?

Tam

[SEOscotland.co.uk]

Domains are only as good as anyone thinks they are. Likewise, someone will only pay for what they think it's worth.

Personally, I don't place much value on domain names unless it is keyword inclusive, gets some type-in traffic or contains your brand name.

It's what you do with them that counts. From a search engine perspective, they are only as good as your SEO campaign.

[webster]

woa .tv domains are really expensive!

[SEOscotland.co.uk]

Expensive and overpriced.