Is paying the price for Whois privacy worth it?

[Rich]

I intend to just basically buy and sell domains, not necessarily monetizing them initially, how will a privacy setting impair me from monetizing it then.
Cheers

From the questions you are asking I would hold off on buying any names till you have a good understanding of the market your getting into.

To start I would only look at .org.uk domain names. There are lots of good keyword .org.uk domain names that are still free to reg that can be flipped on here for anything from £20-£500 each.

Dont start buying until you know what makes a good keyword domain though.

 

[HiQ]

Point taken....I have however already bought one Cutpriceaudio.com

Then i jumped right into Sedo head first with it, needs that 1 bid thought to get it visibility in the auctions. I have no idea what its worth in terms of seo capability or anything like that, so i guess im in it. Sedo also tell you to go in aggressively , so went asking price £1000.00 Im thinking now that was a bit ambitious... Just gotta find a way to lower that amount, but sedo's panel system is confusing, dont like it.

Yea, im a total noob, but im in it and now i gotta keep up. I think i might try as you say the .co.uk or org.uk domain. Personally i can understand the .com or the co.uk domains, but these other ones just dont look good, no matter what is in front of them ( i know there is slightly more to them than that). I recon im going to seriously look into what you have suggested. I might have been a bit quick to judge those other TLD (at least i think thats what their called...)

 

[aceweb]

Hi HiQ,

I only buy 1 at a time now

I used to buy in bulk but I never got round to developing half the domains I registered

I registered Make Money Today on 4 days ago for $9.69 - that's using the home page - for some reason they charge $10 dollars from within your control panel - still it's less than the 12 dollars godaddy tried to charge me - and they wanted extra for privacy

Its online already and the spiders are all over it like flies on you know what

 

[HiQ]

Yea, ive only just a month ago bought Microsoft Expression Web2 (the replacement for FrontPage) and all the associated packages, so im not competent enough just yet to develop domains. At the moment i took the easy but probably least profitable route and parked it with sedo. I really just wanna buy and sell, not really develop them so much. Ive heard that is slightly frowned upon by the purists, but there are hordes of these un-developed top ranking sites out there.

Ive heard older domains are preferred, so i guess i might spend a few weeks searching for better high ranking keyword domains and then go the bulk route and build up a nice portfolio. I suppose age only really matter in terms of illustrating the domains visibility and revenue over that time, so parking it, aint gona do much, hence id better get up and dance with Expression so the domain are more value added.

 

[aceweb]

not my choice

Yea, ive only just a month ago bought Microsoft Expression Web2 (the replacement for FrontPage) and all the associated packages, so im not competent enough just yet to develop domains. At the moment i took the easy but probably least profitable route and parked it with sedo. I really just wanna buy and sell, not really develop them so much. Ive heard that is slightly frowned upon by the purists, but there are hordes of these un-developed top ranking sites out there.

re. "Microsoft Expression Web2 (the replacement for FrontPage)" - that's a poor choice - you really needed specialist niche site making software - or use wordpress - but its OK if you just want to add some content instead of parking


re. "there are hordes of these un-developed top ranking sites out there." - for keyword domain names with commercial value, that simply means there are lots of good quality links pointing in to the domain using keyword-rich hyperlinks - probably on high pagerank and relevant pages - e.g. if a parked domain was compactdigitalcameras.co.uk then there would be hyperlinks pointing in to the domain, named "compact digital cameras" "canon digital cameras" etc. on camera blogs and sites - and these blogs and sites would also be linked to from other camera blogs and sites with pagerank

put simply "reputation" is being pushed towards the parked domain

 

[HiQ]

Yes justhost has a load of editor option available including wordpress, never used it before though, but it sounds like it may be worth while getting to know it.

As a noob i actually quite like Expression web2 as it combines both code view and design view as a single view option or split page so you can see the code as you build in design view. For a pro tool it's actually quite easy to use. I guess all programs will have folks that either like them or hate them, for now though i think it'll do just fine as im getting to learn code through it aswell.

So what you are saying in terms of my reference to what ive heard about underdeveloped sites, is that it's fine so long as the the links pointing back are relevant and of some value to the end user..yes?

 

[purg]

I'm using namecheap at the moment - they're including free privacy in the price

not for UK domains, they cost almost double 123 charge.
I use namecheap for COM / NET / etc domains purley because of the market and free private guard options.

 

[SkinnerSkinner is verified member.]

Mail Boxes Etc. UK and Ireland

Thought I'd post this, this is what I have now, I have 3 of them in different parts of the country (one near my drop shippers for returns, coz well they have a retail department thats still cheaper than me and googling their return address gives them), so they have access to that, also have one in manchester and share one in london with my friend.

Anyway you choose an address like

Apartment 1
1, Harley Street

Suite 1
1, Harley Street

Unit 1
1, Harley Square Business Park

Stuff like that, so they look better.

I used to use a virtual office service that answered the phone and provided an actual office you could book hourly and conference rooms etc. However I needed food for 4, conference room, a bar and drinks, internet access etc for a big meeting, and it actually worked cheaper to book a suite at the Hilton manchester, which included exec access so food/drink/conf room etc was all included. So its worth while considering booking into a suite at the malmaison or hilton if you need more similar

Anyway I digress, check out MBE for an address over a PO Box

John Smith
Po Box 394
Manchester
M1 1AA

vs

John Smith
Suite 42
111 Piccadilly Plaza
Manchester
M1 2HY

If they google you, they see 111 Piccadilly - Offices in Manchester - Bruntwood the home of the manchester theory test centre, bupa manchester and about 20 other PLCs and blue chips, so you look the part

 

[HiQ]

purg: Since youre talking about .com and .net, i was wandering if Godaddy would be a good place to host as well as buy? At the moment i get unlimited free hosting of as many domains as i like with Justhost, so i was thinking i might buy the domains at GoDaddy and then transfer them to JustHost because Godaddy dont host additional domains for free. Does that make sense, sorry never done this sort of thing before, but im dead keen ?.. I suppose you only really need to host the domains if you intend on getting Affiliate or other content on them, which means i could probably just keep clean domains at godaddy and not bother with hosting...is that right?

PS: Is there a difference between a normal hosting account and a reseller hosting account? In my case im with JustHost, can anyone enlighten me about this, cause i never herd of this untill i saw it today on Namecheap (whom arent so cheap...) ? I thought an account is an account and as a reseller you either buy more and add them onto your account or you create new accounts for each one..am i confusing myself unnecessarily over here or what.


Skinner: Thanks for that advice there. My wife is actually quite senior at a business center where they do this virtual office and real office sort of stuff. She will see about getting me a nice deal at their plush offices in the city. If not then then id defo look Bruntwood and a few other options.

Cheers

 

[feKIX]

Shame those MBE's dont include Cornwall. Skinner, can you recommend some good drop-shippers? I am currently searching around but find many have limited products?

 

[purg]

Only real difference between reseller and host account is that you can sell hosting to a third person. HeartInternet quickly became popular for the UK market but they do have limitations. Dont even consider them if you expect to have 300Mb – 500Mb databases (ie. a small forum).

The only reason I use namecheap is for historical reasons. When I first started looking at domains they where the cheapest with discount codes also offered 20 free info domains per order (long gone offer). Shame I didnt know about domains and so bought many crap domains.

I gave up with reseller accounts moving to a VPS (SLHost) which allows more scope to tailor while still giving you the opportunity to resell hosting. Only go down the reselling route on a VPS if you know what your doing and able to harden the security. I just shared the account with a friend but also hosting freely real life friends and family.

Today I have almost stopped in the domain arena so moved back to a hosting package. For my needed Servage offered what I needed also being know for allowing adult sites. This adult side of Servage is sometimes looked at as a negative but personally not found this to be true. Ive got all the sites in my sig hosted with them also whois2 with a fixed IP address.

I cant comment on JustHost or GoDaddy but as you can see, just mix and match. Buy domains through one company and host with someone else.

My only other advise is to find a hosting company that offeres unlimited domains on a single account. Some are better than others so its trial and error.
(if you do decide on Servage, PM me, I have affiliate links that give max discounts)

so i was thinking i might buy the domains at GoDaddy and then transfer them to JustHost because Godaddy dont host additional domains for free. Does that make sense, .............

 

[HiQ]

Hey Purge

I raised a similar question elsewhere and luckily combined with all of your input and theirs, i now understand the hosting and buying side more or less, so thanks for that.

By resell hosting do you mean this is when you actually sell an entire site and not just a domain name ? Also could you elaborate more on VPS or maybe just point me to some info about it. Im not sure VPS sounds like something a noob should get involved with at such an early stage, but if i do, what exactly are the pro's adn con's?

Thanks

 

[purg]

Its early for me, not filled up with coffee yet so might go on a bit....

First off I have to agree, VPS or dedicated servers isnt for beginners. They cost a lot and honestly would be wasted money until you have the sites and a good flow of income to justify it.

Read up about VPS on WIKI but in short:-
A dedicated server; you own / control everything, applying patch to OS or config IPTables down to where the webserver looks for html/php/asp pages. This means you have total control with fixed 1 to 1 bandwidth.

VPS you still have access to almost everything except you share the hardware with other people. This means you dont have to update the OS and have tools that help with security. This also means you share the CPU and bandwidth with others.

-----------
Keep it simple at the start. Never know you might not like the financial drain until you have a few sites that pay for your online upkeep.

Find cheap good domain registers, Enom, GoDaddy, 123, 1and1, Daily, Namecheap, etc.
They all have pros and cons that only you can decide on.
For example 1and1 register domains VERY slowly but sometimes cheapest place where 123 are generally always cheap for uk domains. Namecheap expensive for UK but cheap for others also offer free privacy guard for first year.

Next as with domains, find a good place to host sites from.
This is done by updating your domain’s name server option to the hosting company name server.
I would suggest companies like Dreamhost or Servage (cant list more because they are the own two ive used) they allow unlimited domains on 1 account at a stupidly cheap price. Dont be fooled, cheap price equals cheap service, with hosting you get what you pay for in speed and uptime. When you have the sites to support better and better hosting, only then move. No point throwing money away, if thats something you like doing then donate to me.

Until you know what you want for hosting, only buy hosting that offer 30 day money back guarantee. Check it out with a couple of domains and see if you are feel happy with the service, able to host multiple domains and comfortable with control panel (some are horrid).

 

[HiQ]

purg: Thanks for all that very, very useful info. To be honest just the sound of VPS sounded like something i should steer clear off in the beginning. I will certainly seriously look at doing that when i get more established in this business as it sound very worth while. cheers

I have today gone and bought a few domains that are quite varied, simply to see what sort of feed back they get, just so i can get a gauge on my way of thinking, which obviously needs to be honed in still.

Here is what i got just today and this will be the beginning of my portfolio. It could be better, but hopefully it's not a bad start. Let me know what your thinking is (all) dont hold back, i need to get a clear message , good or bad..

They are all listed in the Merriam-Webster dictionary with one being from a Urban dictionary and babybookmart. Here goes:


BABYBOOKMART.COM

DEADMARCH.COM

PROFESSEDLY.COM

STRIKEOFF.COM


Please, your thoughts...thanks