So you’d like to go a step beyond a simple WHOIS search and become a real Domain Detective, good, you should! I play detective several times a day whether I’m looking at buying a domain, looking at a potential deal, or protecting my own brand. I’ve tried every single tool I could imagine and Domain Tools has been my go-to tool for years now, and for good reason, it has everything you could want and a whole lot more.

Today I thought it would be fun to show some of the features that have made me such a big fan of Domain Tools. So watch the video below and in under five minutes you  will be ready to be a Domain Detective yourself.

I get a lot of emails from blog readers every week and as many of you know, I take the time to respond to every single one of them. Heck, if you’re going to take the time to read what I write, I will take the time to respond to you and help in any way I can. Unfortunately this often leaves me as the bearer of bad news as I have to tell people every week that what they thought was investments, are really just collectables, often valuable only to them.

Now there is nothing wrong with making mistakes, that’s how we all learn, it’s not learning from your mistakes that can be dangerous. Domaining can be an incredible investment opportunity, or a massive waste of money, just like real estate or the stock market, it all depends on what kind of return you are making on your investment, or lack thereof.

So I decided that I would put together a simple quiz that you can take to determine if you are actually making investments, or just building-up a collection of domains that will sit, collecting digital dust, for years to come. After taking the quiz, if you find-out you aren’t really investing, good! Now is the perfect time to make a change and turn things around, identifying bad habits is the first step to creating good ones.

Answer the questions below honestly and at the end I’ll let you know whether you are investing, or just collecting.

1. How much money did you spend on domain names in 2011?
2. How much money did you make from selling domain names in 2011?
3. How much money did you make from monetizing domain names 2011?
4. Did you turn down any offers on domain names you own? If so, what was the total of the offers?

Remember, an investment is something that pays you. Take a look at how much you spent on domain names and compare this to what you made selling and monetizing domain names. If you are spending more money than you are making, you might be tricking yourself into thinking you are investing, when in fact you are collecting.

However, there is a caveat here, if you turned-down offers that could have made the year profitable then you might have some solid investments, and yes, it’s okay to wait to sell these when you’re ready, and for the price you want.

So where do you go from here?

Well, if you are an investor, pat yourself on the back! This is a very challenging industry and if you’re making real investments, you should be proud!

If it turns-out that you’re a collector, don’t panic! Take this post as your wake-up call. Stop buying domain names that you can’t sell and don’t make you money. Look at how much money you spent on domain names last year and look at how you could have spent that money better, most likely on fewer domains. There are lots of incredible resources out there to learn more about how to make good investments.

Want to make money selling domains? Make sure to watch my interview with Toby Clements and he’ll help point you in the right direction.

Want to make money developing and monetizing domains? Make sure to read my article on Domain Development 101.

(Photo Credit)

As some of you who have been reading my blog for a long time now know, I’ve been using Afternic since just about my first day in the Domaining world. My first interaction with the company took place through a blog post I wrote back in 2007. They were some of my first readers and also went out of their way to help me feel welcome in the domain industry. Fast-forward to 2011, four years later and I’m still a big fan of Afternic.

The company has continued to innovate over the years rolling-out a first-class parking platform with Smartname and constantly growing the Afternic DLS partner network. Recently they’ve added an “Instant Transfer” feature that takes all the complexity out of transferring a domain name after a sale. So I thought it was about time I did a follow-up from my posts back in 2007 and 2008 and take a look under the hood at Afternic now in 2011:

As I’ve been keeping my focus on .COM domains this year I’ve found myself becoming a bit of a detective. .COM domains tend to have the most long and rich history since these typically are the first to be registered with any popular keyword phrase.

Understanding the history of an expired domain name before you buy it can help you better understand the development and resale potential of the name. I recently purchased an expired name where I would not have bought the name without finding what I did in the DomainTools WHOIS history…and I’m glad I did since I made $x,xxx on the resulting flip less than two weeks later. (Sorry – can’t disclose the name as I’m under non-disclosure…which I’m finding is more or more common as I sell .COM names to end-users)

Here’s the process I followed and why the WHOIS history was so essential to this purchase. I look back to who originally registered the name and found that it was a domain investor in Europe, a year later that investor sold it to a major company in the niche the domain is in. That company proceeded to build a very popular and lucrative
website on the domain and kept the name until now when they let it drop.

Of course I always want to make sure I’m not picking-up a name that someone accidentally dropped so I did some more research and found-out that the company let it drop because they moved their site to another domain. If I were this company I’d keep this domain considering all the backlinks, etc. associated with it, but hey, to each their
own.

Knowing that one of the most reputable companies in this niche had owned the domain and successfully developed and monetized it helped me feel safe buying it as I knew it had good development potential, but also knew that some of their competitors might be interested in buying it – I was right.

I sent an email out to a total of seven different companies and gave them a bit of history on the domain name. Two responded with interest and I ended-up selling it to one of them for a nice profit. If I wasn’t able to see the WHOIS history I probably would have never purchased the name but knowing it’s past history really helped me make this
decision.

It’s fun doing the detective work and along with WHOIS history DomainTools has a number of other excellent research tools that can provide critical information when making a buying or selling decision.

P.S. Just so you know this is not a sponsored post and DomainTools is not paying me to write this. As a tool that I can’t live without I just wanted to give thanks and share my experiences with all of you!

On my 30th Birthday I announced my new book, the Domain Investing Handbook. The initial idea was to pre-release this on my blog and offer an introductory price that is $10 below the intended sales price. The results have far exceeded by expectations with some truly amazing feedback – here’s one of my favorite testimonials:

I received your book yesterday and almost finished it in a day.  I am re-reading it again and will use it as I go forward in domaining.    To avoid information overload, I am only reading your blog and Rick Schwartz, along with the DNJournal.   If I can’t get it from you fellas then it isn’t meant to be. Thanks again for the great info.  Nothing but great content.

The day has finally come, after over a year of work I am excited to announce the release of my new book, the Domain Investing Handbook. When I set-out to write this book I had no idea what a big project I was taking on. My goal was simple – create the book that I wish I had when I started Domaining back in 2007. What I thought would only take a few months to complete in 2010 continued into 2011 with hundreds of hours of work and over six different full-scale revisions.

Now, on my 30th Birthday, I am proud to release what I can honestly say is the best piece of writing I have ever released in my life. The book covers everything from the basics of Domain Investing through Developing, Monetizing, and selling revenue domains. I have put extra care into outlining every single success and failure I’ve had along the way, what I learned from them, and how you can build a consistent monthly income stream with domain names.

This week is the soft-launch of the book, I am announcing it on my blog and sending-out review copies to bloggers in the Domaining, Affiliate Marketing, and Web Design community. In two weeks the full-scale launch will begin which includes targeted press releases, social media campaigns, and much much more.

Now for a fun story that I think all of you will enjoy. Up until this week my plan was to call this book, Domain Monetization – The Definitive Guide. I own the domain name DNMonetize.com and since my previous book, Domain Flipping is on DNFlipping.com I thought this would make the most sense. However something bugged me about this, the book is about a whole lot more than monetization, it’s about investing. Also by the time I finished the book it really felt like much more than a book, it was a Handbook, something I could see people printing out and having on their desk, a trusty guide to use for their first year in the industry and beyond.

Then it hit me, I don’t own the killer domain for the book. I immediately went over to Go Daddy, entered DomainInvestingHandbook.com in to the search box, closed my eyes, and when I opened them I saw the .com, .net, and .org were all available. That’s right, I registered this domain name two days ago, and if someone else owned it I would have gladly paid four-figures for the name – it describes exactly what this book is, and of course it’s a .com!

So there you have it. I still can’t believe it’s done. Daina has compared me writing this book to the dissertation process that her and her fellow PhD-mates go through. It really has felt a bit like a dissertation and after hundreds and hundreds of hours I couldn’t be more proud of the results. I have worked hard to make this book have a little something for everyone.

I would like to thank all of the incredible people who helped me edit this book and make it what it is today. I am going to be adding a page to the book and a section to the website once I hear back from everyone on exactly how they want their name to appear and what website (if any) they want to promote. While I had planned to publish this book while I was in my 20′s I missed the deadline, but I’m excited to have this as my first major achievement in my 30′s, and not a day too soon!

I hope that all the time and energy I put-into this book helps each and every one of you either start or grow your Domain Investing business. As I say in my book, these are the good old days, enjoy them!

I thought now would be a good time to give everyone an update on all of the exciting projects I am working on. One of the biggest problems that most Domainers have is endless great ideas, but little or no execution. Ideas are great but actions speak louder than words, this year I have been laser-focused on several major projects that will be coming to fruition soon. These are all projects that started-out as ideas and soon will become a reality.

If you talked to me a few years ago my list of projects would have been thirty pages long and I’d only finish three of them! I’ve learned that if you want to get anything done you have to limit your projects to no more than ten, and even that can be a challenge. Of course there are a million other project ideas I have…however I’m not even thinking of working on these until my main projects are completed.

Xelot
Our first software product has proven to be even more time consuming than we thought but that’s just how coding goes. Daina and I are excited to have finished the algorithm and are still in the internal testing phase. We expect to release the software to our beta testers over the next couple of weeks. While I would have loved to release this earlier, quality trumps speed in my book so I’d rather do it right than do it quickly. On top of that we have been deep in the patent process as we will be filing several patents around the algorithm and system we are developing. Soon you’ll see a nice “Patent Pending” graphic on the Xelot homepage. It’s been a blast and we can’t wait to have the beta testers tear it apart and help us make it even better.

Kayaking(dot)org
It’s official – Kayaking(dot)org now features the most comprehensive online kayaking directory on the Internet. It’s taken months of paying an employee to spend 20 hours/week populating the directory manually. Sure, we could have just scraped data from another Kayaking site but I’m much more interested in creating fully verified and accurate listings. You will also notice a brand-new US map that has increased interactivity and made it even easier to access the directory. Traffic is growing and we are getting ready to do a press release next month. Work has also begun on a new Facebook App we’ll be launching over the next few months. If you want to learn more about this project make sure to subscribe to my newsletter as I’ll be covering our development and brand-building efforts in more detail there.

Domain Flipping v3
The Third Edition of my popular eBook has been finished for a while now and is back from editors and now with my desktop publishing company. I am really proud of this edition and as usual it’s taken way more time than I expected to get it right. Next month I’ll be releasing the book as well as a few extras that will make this my best product launch ever and a valuable resource for the community.

MorganLinton.tv
My live online television show was a lot of fun last year and was able to bring together Domainers from all over the world. I am in the process of obtaining another sponsor that can help me take the show to the next level. This will also be re-launching in April with a brand-new look-and-feel, format, and increased frequency. I’ve been consulting with some online video experts as well as friends in the film industry to really make the right moves to get the show more professional and exciting. If you thought MorganLinton.tv was over you were wrong – I haven’t even scratched the surface yet!

ccTLD Investors Magazine
I launched my ccTLD Magazine and then made the mistake of getting involved in too many projects to keep the focus. Live and learn right? Now I’ve put-together a comprehensive plan for how I will make this site the #1 ccTLD resource in the world. It’s going to take a lot more time and dedication but I’m passionate about ccTLDs so it’s going to be a lot of fun. In case you haven’t noticed I’ve been updating it more regularly and will have some new case studies coming-up soon following specific ccTLD investments from start to finish. I’m sure I’ll still make some mistakes along the way but this is part of the fun when you’re building a business right!

DomainInvesting.tv
My online television show about Domain Investing is getting ready for it’s International debut on the iTunes store. I can tell you that this has been a huge learning experience for me. The learning experience is – creating a professional 30-minute show is unbelievably time consuming and expensive. For those wondering about a revenue model associated with this project please understand that there is none! I have loved every minute of putting this together – it’s fun, but not a business. In the end I hope the show will help exposure investors all over the world to our industry. My goal here is simple – have fun making my own television show that will help all of us get more exposure for our industry and our domains.

Of course there are more projects on the radar for 2011 but many of these won’t be even looked at until the projects listed above have been completed. It is absolutely critical to set goals for yourself, understand your priorities and actually finish what you start – turn your ideas in to reality. It might not be easy all the time, and you’re bound to hit road blocks along the way but it’s worth it! One of my all-time favorite quotes is from Yoda (yes, geek alert) and I thought it would be a fitting way to end this post, “Do or do not, there is no try.”

I was going through my posts from 2010 trying to put-together a roundup post of my favorites articles from last year. It was then that I stumbled across this post and thought, “you know what, if there was one post that everyone should have read last year and should re-read this year…it’s this one.” It the post I did about why most Domainers quit.

Since it’s the beginning of a new year many Domainers are either gearing-up for their best year ever or packing their bags and heading for the hills. Well if you’re one of those hill bag packers (I hope you’re not) then this post might just give you a reason to stay in the game. Remember, it’s never too late to make money but if you aren’t willing to change your perspective, you’ll be doom to fail the same way you have in the past. Unless of course you didn’t fail in the past in which case pat yourself on the back and still read this post, because a good plan is the key to success!

Phew – this series has been exhilarating and exhausting! This is by far the most commented series I’ve ever had on my blog and I think it comes from the fact that all of us use different metrics for buying, selling, and dropping domains. Remember there is no right or wrong answer here, I can only tell you what’s worked for me. Since this is MorganLinton.com you can always expect to hear my side of the story

Okay, now onto Part Three. This one you might have not predicted and I didn’t either but sometimes things just work-out like magic! Rick did a great post in 2009 about the top 20 questions he asks when buying a domain name. I’ve been reading Rick’s blog since 2007 and this post has always been a favorite of mine. The timing for this could not have been better as it ties directly into the third part of my series.

Please don’t get this confused with me saying that Rick uses the same criteria that I do for dropping domains – his is probably different, but the questions he listed in his post are a GREAT way to evaluate your portfolio and filter-out the junk. I really look up to Rick and have for years and learn from him every day (or at least every day he posts on his blog) and these 20 questions are absolute Gold! Originally I was going to list a set of my own ten criteria at the end but after seeing Rick’s post today I thought that his would be much more appropriate and well, better than mine since he’s been in the game since the beginning and he is the Domain King! So here it is, the last step:

Step 3: Take the names you have left and run them through Rick’s list of the 20 questions he asks when buying a domain name. If you can make it all the way to the bottom of the list without your domain meeting any of the criteria…it’s time to drop it!

So in the end I did cheat a bit since step three really has 20 parts to it…but at the end of the day don’t you want to really drill-down and find-0ut which names to keep and which to drop? I can promise you this was not coordinated by Rick and I at all and I did not mention to him that I would be using his 20 questions for buying names in my guide. Also this does not mean that Rick endorses my methodology – only that I do endorse his and I would like to thank Rick for helping to shape me into the Domainer I am today.

Of course as Rick says in his post, you need a gut instinct that Rick and Frank and many other legendary Domainers have and have had for a long time. My gut instinct is nowhere near these guys but with each name I drop and each name I buy I feel it gets a little better and the same should be true for you.

For me I don’t buy anything but .com’s if I’m thinking of reselling, everything else is for development. Maybe you love selling .net’s or .org’s, we’re all different. I don’t really want to sell anything for under $1,000, just not interesting enough for me. Maybe you don’t mind selling lots of names for $50-$100. We’re all different and it doesn’t make anyone right or wrong…as long as you’re making the kind of money you want to make in this industry then what you’re doing is working for you!

If however, and this is the big IF – you’re not making the kind of money you want to in this industry and you don’t know why your names aren’t selling or aren’t making money…then it’s time to drop the junk and put your money into some good domains that will allow you to reach your goals. We’re only halfway into the first month of 2011 – you have the whole year ahead of you…are you ready to take the next step?

I get a lot of questions from new Domainers about what Domain Names I am currently buying. The answer to this question has changed over the years as I’ve learned more about what works for me and what doesn’t. Of course I’ve also had the opportunity to get incredible advice from some of the top Domainers in the industry so this also has helped steer me in the right direction.

I’ll keep this short and sweet as my current methodology is fairly cut and dry, almost like a science. I follow a formula now whereas in 2007 and 2008 I was much more focused on experimenting, now the experiments have been conducted, the experts have been polled…I know what works, or at least what has worked for Domainers making the kind of money I want to make in this industry. I also know what has worked for my own business and what has failed miserably, every day I hope for another failure because I learn the most from these.

I break down my domain purchases into three categories. If you aren’t doing this it’s probably very hard to stay focused or build a cohesive strategy. Any strategy you devise should be based on past successes, or if not your own then the successes of someone else. This is why someone would spend over $100,000 to have lunch with Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, or Steve Jobs – they all have achieved incredible success and have valuable insight to share. In the development and monetization space my experience with SEO and development really helped me create a successful model. In the sales space I am still learning and basing my strategy off of advice given to me by some of the most successful Domainers on the planet.

It is absolutely critical that you have expectations for every domain that you buy. However expectations along are not enough – you need to have good solid data on why your expectations would be true, it can’t just be a wild guess. By breaking your purchases into categories you can set realistic expectations for yourself from the very beginning. So here’s what I’m buying in each category and why:

Domains for Development
About 75% of the domains I buy are for development. I don’t buy hundreds of domains each month but I do buy between 20-30 for our development portfolio since there are so many opportunities at the moment. I buy my domains either by hand-registering through Go Daddy or Moniker, or buying expired names which I do almost exclusively with Snapnames.

I am looking for domains in categories and with keywords that I have been successful with over the last three years. I only buy in markets that I know and have strong affiliate or lead generation options. If you have to ask yourself, “How would I make money with this domain?” then it’s not a great development candidate. I focus on credit, debt, finance, law, government, and taxes. While I have developed domains in many other niches these are the proven winners.

I also try to look for exact-match search volume below 5,000 and a CPC above $5.00. This has nothing to do with PPC but instead I want to understand how much competition I’m going to have and how much people are willing to pay for a lead. I pick a search volume below 5,000 because these are hot niches but they aren’t wildly competitive. This is why I don’t develop many generics – ranking well for a term with 300,000 exact-match searches requires major SEO and link-building. When you buy domains with an exact-match search below 5,000 there’s a good chance you can get on the first page of Google or Bing within the first few months.

As for TLDs that I’m buying, for development I focus on .com, .net, .org, .info, and .us. I definitely buy more .us than anything else. Why? That’s an easy question to answer – I’ve made the most money and ranked the quickest with .us domains. This is my experience, it’s always worked for me and I can usually buy a .us name for under $5.

Domains for Resale Now
While domain sales is not a major part of my business it is a growing component. I’ve sold a few thousand dollars in domains over the last few months and it’s definitely an area I’ve been putting much more focus on this year. Much of my strategy in this space comes from expert Domainer buddies of mine who have made millions buying and selling domains. These are the people that have done it and in my opinion the best people to learn from.

For immediate resale I buy only .com. I used to buy .net and .org and .us but have learned this year that the vast majority of Domainers want to buy .com domains. They will always command the highest price and if the corresponding .net or .org sold for a pretty penny you have a good idea what your domain could sell for.

I don’t just buy any .com name. Right now I focus almost exclusively on product domains. Why? This is one of the hottest areas that investors are buying in right now. If you look at the domain sales lists and auction results it is clear that product domains are hotter than they’ve ever been. Like I’ve been saying this whole post – I want to focus on what works.

As we all know the sales market has been tough this year which is another key reason why you need to be focusing on the most active patches. My budget for buying domains for resale is usually between $500 – $2000 and I buy pretty much everything from Snapnames. For domains I’d like to resale this year I look for names that are at least a few years old with as high exact-match search volume and CPC as I can find.

Right now I don’t have any incredible five-figure sales to speak of, this is a new path for me and I’m hoping to share my successes with all of you over the next year!

Domains for Resale 3-5 Years From Now
Some domains in my portfolio are long-term investments. I know we’d all like to think our portfolios are 100% liquid but if you’re taking some risks and trying-out new markets then you really aren’t 100% liquid. About 25% of my portfolio consists of domains that I consider to be excellent long-term investments. Most of these are ccTLDs that I think have huge potential, just not this year or next year.

Just like stock market investors make short and long-term investments Domainers should too. Just because sales and interest is low in a particular space doesn’t mean that there won’t be opportunities in the future. It just means you have to understand the market and how it’s trending. A good example here is India. Right now India has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, it will soon have more Internet users than anywhere in the world and that’s why I believe .in and .co.in have incredible potential.

Long-term investments are definitely the riskiest purchases you’ll make which is why these only represent 25% of my portfolio and are all names I’ve bought for under $500. I’ve tried to focus on domain names that make sense with the given TLD, I wouldn’t buy a US city in the .mx extension, however I do own some great highly searched Spanish words in .mx. This is the same reason I own CricketGames.co.in, cricket is one of if not the most popular sports in India.

I have also talked to major Domain investors about long-term investments and their advice has been to buy the best. Focus on getting strong one-word and two-word domains in these speculative spaces. You don’t want to have a second-rate domain here, you should be buying the best. The TLDs I focus on most for long-term investements are .in, .co.in, .mx, .de, .fm, and .tv.

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There – I’ve spilled the beans, now it’s your turn, what are you buying and why? If you’re another blogger reading this feel free to follow-up with a similar post, this would be a great topic to share and compare with each other. Remember, there’s no right or wrong here, it’s all about what makes money!