How To Find And Sell .CO Domain Names For A Profit?

Registering for .CO domain names has been pretty interesting since its official launch. If you read my previous post about .CO domain names, I mentioned about the possibility of these type of domains being an interesting form of generating revenue, due to the possible speculations surrounding the domaining industry. Today, I have found two deals (one closed and another ongoing) that might just prove that this is indeed a potential market to explore. Recently, E.CO has been auctioned for a massive $81.000. This week, and still undisclosed, it is expected that the first .CO domain will be sold for a six figure amount, making it the first in the history of .CO domains. The story broke out from the “facilitator” of the deal, who preferred to keep it undisclosed while the auction is underway.

Anyway, I’m not sure if all of you are interested in domaining, but being in the game is really not a whole lot complicated and all you need is a little bit of capital (primarily to register the domain name) and a whole lot of creativity and patience. Domaining is not the concept of buying and selling websites, but rather registering (or buying) a domain name to later sell for a profit. Before, good domain names were only those that are only one or two words that contain type-in keywords. Domaining has gone a long way and it is now extended to phrases or “exact” matches.

How To Find A Good Domain Name?

Note that this method is not exactly to develop a website. Although you can use this method for increasing your AdSense revenue, or improving your affiliate sales (see below), this is more tailored towards finding and selling a domain name. If you can register or buy a domain name (for cheap) that passes this formula, then rest assured that you have almost a winner.

The formula:

Find “exact matches” that have at least 500 to 1.000 searches and has a CPC equal to or higher than $5. That’s it.

Simple really, but I will right out tell you that it will be very difficult (unless you are feeling lucky) to find keyphrases that will pass this test while having the domain name available for registration. Most likely, and this is the reason for this post, you will find a .CO name available and should that be the case, you are then closer to making a good profit out of it. If you can not find an exact match, try lowering the density of your keywords and search again.

Please remember that this is not a “get rich” scheme and it is not guaranteed that you will make tons of money out of it. Your profit will depend on what you want to gain. As I say, every bit counts and I prefer 10% of 100, than 100% of nothing.

Tools to help you find your Domain name?

To find keywords or keyphrases that could help you pass the formula given above, I only recommend Google AdWords Keyword Tool. It is free and the data it provides are reliable. There could be other tools out there that you prefer to use, and regardless, just make sure it gives you the information you are looking for.

Here is an example.  For the purpose of this post, I have done this search today. Using Google’s AdWords keyword tool, I started with the coveted term “SEO”. If you see the results below, I have filtered the results with at least 500 searches and CPC over $5.

Now What?
Once you have found some variations for a domain name, use your favorite registrar and search if the domain name is available. I would concentrate only on .CO as it is almost likely that all other TLD (top level domains) will already be taken. Obviously if you find it available for either, .com, .net. or .org, all the better. And before I forget, avoid using hyphens, or domains based in trademarks or person names as the marketplace is very sensible with these kind of domains and will probably not accept your listing.

Using the example above, I have chosen the term SEO Rates. Went over to my registrar and searched for the domain availability. Guess what? Yes, the seorates.co domain name is “still” available.

Where to list your .CO domain name?

There are many websites that will allow you to sell only domain names. Flippa.com is one of them and recently, one of the highest authorities in the domaining world, domaining.com, has created a marketplace (not aff link) that is exclusively dedicated to .CO domains. They have a strong user base and can be the perfect service to sell your .CO names.

What if I decide To Develop A Website?

Should you wish to go this route, you will have to do just about everything there is on the book about blogging, optimization and all that. Thing is, since you have found a “targeted” phrase, you will be able to use this domain name to maximize it to your favor. Do not doubt that, “exact matches” on your URL will get you faster to the top of search engine rankings, provided you have the content to back it up.

That’s it. Hope you have found this post useful and that it has provided you with that added incentive you were looking for to begin your journey to being a domainer 🙂  If not, use it to target keywords for your next post. You might just get lucky and improve your AdSense earnings, considering you are targeting “high” CPC keywords. It can also help you to boost your rankings for particular keywords, provided the competition is not too high 😉