Domains Available For Registration #17

It's time for another free list of available domain names. All available at the time of this post and ready to be purchased at the domain registrar of your choice. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Happy domaining!

.

Does Commuter Traffic Become Domain Type-In Traffic?

I wonder what percentage of commuters notice the domain name references on billboard advertisements and business signs? Of the percentage that do notice, how many actually retain the proper URL and visit the website at a later time or date?

We've all heard of expired domain names and the traffic they can receive from existing links that still point to the domain. But what about type-in traffic from outdated advertising material?

Does this exist at all and if so, is significant type-in traffic generated from outdated billboards, magazines, or even vacant business that didn't remove their signs when they closed shop?

Case in point, the photo (top left) shows a vacant building formerly used by a lending company. The lending company may be gone but the signs are not. Rather impressive signs I might add. Despite closing for some unknown reason, they obviously understood the value of promoting their company and website to the traffic passing by.

What's even more intriguing and not evident from these photos is the fact that this building is located on W150th Street,  less than 100 feet away and in plain view of all traffic on I-71, just south of

Cleveland, Ohio. Between the street and highway, I estimate that at least 250,000 people drive by these signs every day. That’s a conservative guesstimate, it may be significantly higher but I have no documentation to back it up.

Some of these daily commuters are in the market for a mortgage or personal loan which probably increases the likelihood of them noticing these rather distinct signs as they pass by. Perhaps they make a mental note and jump online to check it out as soon as they get home or to the office. I’m sure it happens but how often? That’s what I’d like to know.

Here’s the kicker that may inspire you to try and find out for yourself. At the time of this post, the domain name you see in these photos doesn’t resolve at all. It doesn’t expire until 2011 and appears to be under the control of a web design company which was probably hired by the lending company. I sent out a few emails to the design company and to an individual who I believe was the owner of the lending company. I didn't receive a reply. That was the extent of my attempt to acquire it, mostly due to time constraints.

It seems a shame that this potential traffic, both highly targeted and mortgage related, is being met with a “page cannot be displayed” error. Without setting up a testing period it’s impossible to know how much type in traffic the domain receives and therefore impossible to assign a value to it. If it does receive significant traffic, how valuable would this domain be to another mortgage broker if the current traffic was redirected to their existing site?

There are a lot of unknowns when trying to acquire and monetize a domain like this. You have no control over how long the references to the domain will stay in place. Imagine buying this particular domain and having the building's owner take down the signs the following month.

If anyone follows through with this and acquires this domain, I'd love to hear how it works out for you.

.

Available Domain Names List #16

 When creating the new image format for the available domain lists, I completely forgot to accomodate the growing percentage of users accessing the web through mobile devices. The original graphic was much too wide so I've slimmed it down and made it longer in an effort to make it fit into a mobile browser window.

I only have access to a few mobile web devices so I would appreciate feedback from mobile users as to whether the page and list image are rendering in a readable format. Thanks.

New Format for Available Domain Name Lists

In an effort to level the playing field, I've decided to post future available domains in an image format. This will prevent copying and pasting of the entire list into your registrar's lookup form. My hopes are that the majority of you who register a few names from each list will only be inconvenienced slightly while the few that attempt to register every name on the list will be inconvenienced to a greater degree.

I know this isn't going to be a silver bullet solution but if it helps the readers who have always observed my requested "5 domain limit" get a few more names from those that don't, than I'm all for it. Trust me, it's requires a lot more work on my end too but it's become obvious that it's necessary.

I really think I needed to make this change anyway. I've got a suspicion that posting long lists of domain names probably looks fishy to the search engines and I don't want that to hinder the blog's progress. On the plus side, I can probably get some additional love through Google's image search.

Domain Flipping Revealed

Earlier this week, Namepros.com member Randomo revealed that he sold exactly 1,700 domains in 2007 mostly through quick turnaround sales (domain flipping). At first glance, 1,700 domain sales would seem to equate to easy profits but a closer look at the numbers reveals that flipping domains is, in fact, hard work.

First off, in order to sell 1,700 domains in a year, one would have to average just under 5 domain sales per day (7 days a week). Flipping 5 domains a day is one thing, getting high sales amounts for all of them is another. Randomo was kind enough to disclose that his average selling price was 3 to 5 times registration cost. This exact amount is open to interpretation but when totaled up, it appears that he was able to generate somewhere between 50k and 70k in revenues through domain flipping. These are my estimates based off the information provided.

To determine profitability we need to factor in the acquisition costs for the 1,700 domains that were sold. Again, the exact figures were not provided but I can safely assume a minimum of 12k if all domains were bought at standard registration fees and perhaps as high as 22k if the average domain acquisition cost was $12.95. Deducting the acquisition costs reveals the domain sales profits to be somewhere between 28k and 58k. This is a very wide range but it should be helpful in determining a worst case and best case earnings scenario.

The last factor we’ll consider when it comes to domain flipping is time. After all, these domains don’t find themselves. Once registered, it also takes time to market and sell them. Receiving payment and transferring domains to a buyer’s account isn’t always the smooth transaction that one would hope for. Randomo estimates that on average, he spends between 3 to 6 hours a day domaining. That comes out to 4.5 hours a day or roughly 1642 hours a year.

Using my guesstimated figures and translating them into an hourly wage, the best case scenario would have Randomo earning approximately $35 dollars an hour for his domain flipping efforts. The worst case scenario would still be pulling in $17 an hour. Either way, I believe the data shows that domain flipping, while profitable, does require work and is not a quick path to easy riches. Having said that, don’t discount the current and future value associated with the list of domain buyers that he has built through his efforts. That’s a valuable asset that’s hard to place a value on.

Many other factors were revealed in the Namepros thread namely, the types of domains sold as well as a list of the locations they were sold at. Visit the domain flipping thread for more details.

.

« Previous Page