Logish Empire has a new store!

Other than domain names, the store seeks to sell affordable domain tools, ebooks and articles for my reader’s investment needs. Have faith that I’ll evaluate every product to ensure its quality. I too have had enough of monkeys out there selling substandard products.

What has Logen been doing?

Other than worrying about the exams?

I’ve been planning and will be writing blog articles that will be beneficial to fellow domainers. Remember the last post where I complained about my lack of organisation and focus? I’ll be dealing with that problem, which has implications on earnings and stress-levels. 

Where domain name income comes into play, I’ll try to apply what I’ve learnt in Financial Management to manage the cash and investment plan for domain names.

Logen, are you sure that’s all? What about your own domain investments?

Hmm… I’ve been developing some of my domain names with content.

However, I have a huge problem with procrastination. To add on, I’m not really supposed to do these things at this period because my exams are round the corner.

Anyway, I’m liquidating certain domain names to fund renewals of other domains and web hosting account.

That’s all people.

Logen Lanka

Yet, I refuse to let go of the work to be done on my domain names. Part of the reason is my lack of funds to sustain my web hosting account and some domain names. These things require renewal in a few months time.

Therefore, I’ve been trying to liquidate certain domain names and monetise the others, in order to maintain my cashflow. Now, learn from my mistakes…

When you invest in domain names, especially when starting out:

• Buy only a few domains (less than 5)
• Decide on how and when you want to sell your domains
• And prepare necessary funds to sustain your expenses

In short, have a written plan and never take on more than you can chew. It will help you to move forward in times of stress due to work or school. In those times, you are bound to forget your full investment plan. Thus, you have to be organised!

Take me for an example. I bought 30 domain names, of which I intended to develop half of them. I hadn’t factored in school projects, exams and social uncertainties in time management. Right now, I’m having difficulty in focusing and completing the crucial domain investments.

To make matters worse, my information and plans weren’t expressed on paper. You can imagine trying to remember detailed plans for over 10 domain names.

Following this entry, I will try to work out some solutions on being organised with your/my domain names. And how to get an influx of cash to sustain your/my expenses in investment. I’m also planning to create a format for you and me to use to plan cash inflows and outflows.

I’d be happy to hear some tips from some of you on this matter.

Logen L.

However, it isn’t necessary to acquire domains through registrars!

There are two basic means of acquirng domain names:

• Directly from your good old domain registrar
• From domain traders and investors

Registrars

• Moniker.com
• Namecheap
• GoDaddy.com (recommended)

These are some reliable domain name registrars, which I have had some form of dealings with. Their prices are reasonably cheap.

The advantages with acquiring your domain with a registrar is with the initial cost. It is a standard low price. Lower than that of a domain trader’s price.

For example, GoDaddy.com charges $10.69 (before discount coupon) for a dot com registration. So that is the price you pay for the first year, and the years after.

Yet, if you buy from a domain trader, it will cost significantly more, depending on the domain name.

Domain Trading Avenues

• Ebay
• Namepros

The above two are markets where domain names can be bought. The pricing are known to be reasonable for the average domain name trader. Experienced domain traders will tell you that there are more than the two places I’ve listed to buy domains.

But as a starting point, I’d advise you to try trading in these places. You should begin above to get a feel of how the basic market works. Learn how to negotiate and network. And have a feel of how domain names are valued.

Domain names sold by domain traders and investors are likely to have relevant traffic. The domain may even have been used for a website before. This would mean very valuable traffic for you. However, the bad news is, for the traffic, the domain name is worth much more.

If you are confident in selling your acquired domain name at a higher price than you paid for, go for it. You may even be lucky to acquire a domain trader’s unwanted domain name at below registrar’s price.

Warnings on Domain Name Safety

I have mentioned that domain registrars are involved no matter how you acquire your domain name. Be sure to dig up news on your registrar. Thor, a recent commenter, reminded me on this. And I thank him for that.

There have been news of registrars who hijack their customer’s domain name. There are also accounts of registrars shutting down sites and imposing fines for uninvestigated abuse of policy.

Always research on your registrars. While some news on domain registrars are reliable, take the information with a pinch of salt. Here’s your homework; dig up news on the registrars I have listed above. Reason if the news you have found is reliable or biased. Remember, no registrar is perfect and are bound to have dirt on them.

Let me just tell you to stay away from NetworkSolution. Do not even search for domain names on their site. There are accounts of them registering searched domains, to prevent the person searching from registering the domain elsewhere.

Also, when dealing with domain traders, maintain reasonable skepticism over their reputation unless they have proven themselves otherwise. Check their trader’s reputation, Ebay reputation, Paypal reputation or anything that verifies that they are true to their word when they transact.

Logen Lanka