Sometimes I get to read different blogs by different experts in the field of domaining, of course, most of the time all you’ll hear about is how great it is (just like I do say most of the time) and that everyone should be a domainer. But common, that’s not realistic (I’m a developer I’m biased), it’s merely talking about the good stuff, how about the other side of things?…

… So you’re probably thinking what the hell could I possibly be talking about? Well I’m going to give you a little dose of reality that every newbie should know before they decide to come into this business. I’m going to show you why domaining isn’t for everyone.

Allot more than 8 hours of work time

To most of you, you probably have a day job and do domaining after work, guess what you’re missing out. If you aren’t there when the big deals happen, then you lose. What you’ll find is either you’ll find that your nighttime is all gone when you “domain”. You’ll find less sleep and thinking about the different .COMs that you’ll ever acquire. My point is that you better be prepared to sacrifice a lot of things (personal life, social life etc.) to really make the most of it. Most of the time you’ll find that you’re working more than 8 hours a day.

Be prepared to hold for 5 – 6 years

So you got thousands of dollars of spare cash, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to be successful in domaining. You’ve got to be able to hold on to your domain for at least 5 – 6 years. That doesn’t just mean the renewal fee, I’m talking about no income for that long if you can’t flip the domain. Let’s face it, whenever you buy a domain or hand register one. It doesn’t become a million dollar domain (nor it is worth thousands or hundreds), it is simply worth much to those that need the domain, so if you can’t find someone who “needs” it then you can’t sell it that high (or even worth considering). So be prepared for the wait.

Be Crazy, be in love, Develop

5 – 6 years of just holding on to domains can be boring and punishing at the same time. You’ve got to develop your domains and make money out of it. But in order for you to do that you must be crazy and be in love with your domains to really be able to develop it to its fullest. Developing it means that you must have at least a significant knowledge or willing to know more about the topic to really make the visitors feel like coming, otherwise it’ll just be seen as cyber squatting.

Read all the blogs as you can

Learn how to read, I mean seriously, you got to learn more on other domainers so that you won’t make the same mistakes. Domainers will not reveal 100% information but at least there’s a lesson for you to pick up somewhere in each post. Don’t be a fool and do it all yourself, get some advice from the experts and learn from each of their experience and insights.

Fail

You won’t be a domainer until you’ve actually failed. At some point in the lives of expert domainers, came a failure whether it is broadcasted or not. At some point, you’ll make really stupid mistakes (like when I thought the broad search results from Google Adwords were the one I’m looking for, duh) and when that happens you better learn that lesson quick and not do it again.

Quality than the numbers

What I meant on the subject is that you should focus on the quality domains and develop, the less the better. It’s not about “Oh I’ve got a hundred domains” but its more like “What valuable domains do I own”, anybody could’ve a hundred domains in less than an hour. Focus on the quality domains that you got, and learn how to develop. Develop develop develop, need I say more?