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DOMAINER “HOW-TO” eBOOKS - REVEALED!!

March 25th, 2008 Posted in Domain eBooks, General Domain News

DOMAIN EBOOKS! There’s quite a few of them out there. For those who are novices and professionals, you might think you don’t need to buy a domain ebook because you’re “so well-informed and got it going-on as a domainer”. Think again. There are some MUST HAVE ebooks, whether just to re-organize your mind, or to introduce new ideas you hadn’t considered before. I admit, each ebook I read showed me one or more of some new way to look at domain monetization or inspired me to enhance previous knowledge I had about domain value.

Realistically, after reading all of the ebooks sent to me, it’s clearly apparent that none of these domainer ebooks can replace hands-on, personal, open-the-book-of-magic, and “DON’T DO THAT” guidance. How can a domain ebook compete with personal consulting? They can’t really (other than learning the basic rules for cheap), but I admit these ebooks can “generate the spark” to educating beginning domainers on the ins-and-outs of this business. Not only that, the excitement created from these ebooks can also encourage serious investors (who have read a few of the ebooks) who have money to make great domain investments with the right guidance from a professional domain consultant taking them to the next and final level of domain success. (Disgusting but realistic self-promotion here).

As of late, at least seven “how-to-make-lots-of-money-in-your-pajamas” domain ebooks have been introduced into the internet marketing stream. Luckily for me, only three of these domain eBook publishers responded, so I don’t have to get a crick in my neck reviewing them all. Plus, it shows you how easily available the publishers of the domain ebooks who didn’t respond might be available for your own questions and concerns. We’re going to find out. I know who some of the authors of these ebooks are, one way or another. Some I’ve met, and others seem to be ghosts.

So let’s start digging into these tomes to find out who knows what about the domain industry.

THE REVIEWS:

“The Domain Graduate“ (DG) [$87.00 and 85 pages]- by Sean Stafford (I requested a copy for review - received it, with a friendly email from one of the nicest people in the domain industry, Sean Stafford.) I am partial to this ebook on domains because I know Sean, and I know the editor of the book, Jude Augusta, (be watching for a one-on-one interview with him on my blog fairly soon) and I know many of the same people that Sean thanks in his ebook. (He goes a little overboard, but that just shows his enthusiasm for his product and faith in the domain industry. Kudos to Sean.)

The Domain Graduate doesn’t start talking about the meat of the matter until Page 12, but even then, it’s setting you up mentally and emotionally to what being a domainer is all about. He discusses the big sale potential of domains, but then smacks you with the truth that no big sale domains exist anymore at the registration level. Here’s the rest of the meat on this nicely designed and presented domain ebook:

1) One of the first things Sean talks about is “intrinsic value” of a domain. He states “Shortness” (which I would call “character length); then “Obviousness” (which I would call “recognition”); and then, egads… “Rememberability” (Is that that a word? I would refer to this as “memorability”). He goes on to give some good examples of length of domain, recognition and memorability in choosing a domain (but using his own words for these domain value indicators).

2) We then enter the section where examples of potential domains are discussed. Unfortunately, it’s focused primarly on the prefix letter “i”, as in “itunes” and “ipod” “idog” etc. Beginners should NOT even consider trying to buy domains with the letter “i” in front of it. They’re all gone. I will sell “iPsychiatrist.com” to anyone crazy enough to spend time trying to pick up a one word domain with “i” in front of it. I’ll sell my domain for cheap, contact me.

3) Sean makes my eyeballs pop open when he talks about his own experience in domains, starting out with only $100. At some point, he begins to buy “revenue domains” that make him $5 or $6 a month and soon he’s making $80 a month at $5 increments monthly. But I’m surprised he says he buys domains that pay out $5 a month in revenue for less than $100. Very rarely will anyone sell a domain that makes $60 a year in parking revenue for even $300, unless the domain name is nonsensical (letters/numbers that mean nothing, and the domain is making money from “linkpop” traffic - which is traffic created by forced link placements on a multitude of websites. Usually, that traffic will die off within 6 months. Sean mentions this.) Sean, if you are buying domains for only $100 that make $5 a month in parking revenue, please tell us where you’re getting them and how we can get them too!

4) We then hear about the top five registrars to buy your domains from, before we hit “My Story”. This is interesting, because now we have an inside look at a domain professional and how he arrived at where he is today. Oops! It’s only one page, and his theme is becoming a “money person” if you start out being a “time person”. We need more info on Sean’s “My Story”, because I know he can spill more beans than he does. Sean is a part of a very powerful domain service called “DNZoom.com“. He knows stuff!

5) The Domain Graduate then touches on ROI - how to figure pricing in with parking page revenue to return your investment. It takes into consideration the renewal fees over the length of the domain revenue range. So if you pay $100 for a domain that makes $1 a month, that’s $12 a year with an average $4 profit margin. So making $4 a year in profits, applied against your initial $100 cost, you’re looking at 20 years to recover your $100. Of course, parking revenue is expected to jump every year, so you could soon be making $10 or more a month on that domain, which would quickly pay back your investment and start generating decent profits.

6) There’s a good discussion on the process of sales and “pushing” or “transferring” domains to the buyer. This is sometimes a worrisome aspect for many domain buyers, because they don’t understand the process of receiving the domain they just bought. This is also an area where some beginners can get ripped off, so I recommend this section be read several times.

7) There’s a chapter on domain traffic and how to figure out beforehand (but it’s still an educated guess) if the domain will receive some traffic. Traffic most likely equals revenue, there’s more to that story though. Then DG goes on to discuss typos, generic typos and skirting the thin ice with potential TM domain typos. The latter warns you need an iron tummy and an even tougher attorney.

Domain tasting is next, which is quite odd for this book, since most domainers, especially beginners, aren’t in the position to use domain tasting to any satisfactory degree, and also ICANN, our super-powerful “friend” that oversees our industry, has poo-pooed this mass registration monopolizing. Maybe it’s in the ebook for simple educational purposes in case the beginner comes across another (ho-hum) article about “domain tasting”.

9) Next there is more on parking domains, and the value compared to revenue generated by building out a domain instead of parking it. A good domain name that is built into a nice content rich website will generate more revenue than a parking page. He left out one of the best parking services, which surprised me! This parking service is a major leader in the domain industry.

10) A few pages describe a simplistic but wise approach to the domain aftermarket, which is all about selling your domains. There’s more to talk about in this area, though.

11) Here comes the list of the best parking services. This part should have been moved forward in the ebook to when parking revenue was being discussed. It gives the Domain Graduate a bit of a disjointed feeling, jumping around from subject to subject, without completely wrapping up the topic in one chapter. However, the information provided here on the different parking services is indepth and fairly comprehensive. Probably the best details of any of the other domain ebooks.

12) Back to buying and selling. Good points, but shouldn’t this have been placed in the earlier content regarding the “aftermarket“? I like the examples of people trying to sell domains on “brandability” and “potential”. However, with domains, you never know what domain will soar and everyone is signing up on it because somebody developed it. For example, I’m surprised at this new “social network” site called “Naymz.com”. Really? Is this site going to catch on? Over Facebook and Linkedin? I was scratching my head on “linkedin.com” even two years ago… the domain goes against basic domain-buying principles: Don’t buy a domain ending in “ed” or “ing”, and anything with a preposition in it, such as “of” “in” “at”, etc.

13) Continuing the aftermarket discussion, there’s a page or two of locations of where to buy and sell your domains. He then talks about being a “savvy buyer”. He describes people who try to sell domains that don’t have value, in one instance, someone who joined together high-powered words but in conjunction with each other that made their phrases nonsensical. I have seen these types of domains myself, and their owners seem to be hellbent on convincing you that these strange association word phrases are somehow valuable. At this point, you are told to learn to hold your tongue. This is advice I usually fail to follow.

14) Seeing a “vision” for a domain name as part of your evaluation of a domain before you buy is covered nicely in DG. I like this part of the discussion, because your attachment to a domain that logically plays out with products or services can be invested in to pay off big if you really want it to happen.

15) Back to “selling domains” (Sean, please keep your train of thought together within each chapter covering each topic). The Domain Graduate goes into great detail, albeit Sean’s confession he’s not a big domain reseller. Lots of good ideas in this chapter though. I learned a thing or two here. He ends the section by discussing Appraisals, which I agree is a tricky section of domain selling. You can pay a lot for a domain appraisal, up to $99 per domain. That’s a waste. There are automated appraisal systems online, which basically tell you what you will learn in this ebook. However, I am an appraiser for bulk domains, and my “secret” is I teach you the lowest price your domain is worth, so you don’t cheat yourself. That’s the most important part of an appraisal. Why? Because any domain can sell for 10 times what you thought it would sell for. It depends on the buyer. So you can’t appraise a domain by any factors we discuss about it’s maximum selling price, only on the minimum price expectation. I was the first domain appraiser to introduce this domain value reporting theory.

Sean writes a few more pages about domain ethics and other issues important to delve into once you start your domaining life. These are topics to engage yourself in, and it’s great that Sean brings them up. Overall, the Domain Graduate is a well-designed book, backed by many respected people in the domain industry, and he gives you a lot of follow-up benefits that are valuable to a beginner. This is the only ebook that I know of that has such a dignified backing of professional domainers. I’d like to see another update of the book, this time having a lot of the content gathered together in a more cohesive manner. There certainly is enough information for beginners and professionals alike to learn and/or brush up on their domaining tactics, and I’m waiting to see what other great additions Sean and his team will be bringing to the table to help us domainers “graduate”!

I rate it a healthy A-. Pick up the Domain Graduate and their six other ebooks and services worth over $1000 here.

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“The Domain eBook“ [$67.00 - with 85 pages] - by Zach Bastich (requested copy for review - received one with a nice email from the author). This is a nicely designed ebook, with a Table of Contents and Glossary. However, it doesn’t get into the meat of what you’re looking for until page 8. On that page though, it starts out very well. Previous pages state that Zach has a “Masters on the Domain Name System from the University of Paris, Sorbonne, France”. He also described himself as a “big fish” in the industry. Let’s check out the “big fish” claim first:

1) A google check on Zach Bastich returns this info: Zach Bastich = (no results returned.) OUCH!!! (this made me kinda sad, his email was so nice!) Darn! He said he was a “big fish”, but he doesn’t seem to be even an anchovy in the scheme of domain selling history. What am I (or you) to make of this? Not sure. I still decided to find out what his ebook tells us how to become successful domainers. Then I searched on “Domain Ebook” and I got 39 google result pages. Not too impressive. But, let’s give Zach the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he knows something we don’t know yet. Maybe he likes flying under the radar.

2) By page 8 of “The Domain eBook” (DBE), we’re already into “come-on” blather of Chapter One. Yes, we want to make it big selling and monetizing domains, thanks for reassuring us on why we bought the book, Zach. By page 10, we start with “identifying your niche,” which is a good beginning strategy in domaining. However, that just leads us to Google screenshots looking at search results whittling down to sub-niches, a wasted page.

3) Then it’s “prospective sub-niches” where he utilizes one of my strategies I introduced years ago (at least publicly) - and that is finding a “future trend” that you are guessing may become popular. It’s a good strategy, but he also says to “focus on what you’re interested in”. Well, if you’re not into future technology, it’s going to be hard to focus on nano-substance atomic particle reactive clothing (for example). All I can say is, he gives a page of general discussion on this topic, but you need substantially more direction and information on how to capture future trend domains successfully. (Successclick will help you learn this very valuable and important process in buying domains.)

4) The next few pages are spent on finding good keywords, a little off-topic for domain valuations, even though we all know about finding good keyword generic domains, but this is directed to building good websites with the right keywords. (*NOTE: he has a link to the Overture Search Tool (OST), which is no longer available as I write. I don’t know why Overture stopped this service. If any one knows why the OST disappeared, and has alternative free online keyword search tools, I’d like to have your input in the Comments section). Anyway, there are five pages promoting keyword software programs, which doesn’t really jive with the intricacies of domaining. It seems it’s just a horn toot to sell more stuff.

5) There’s a few pages of discussing the “two valuations” of domains, reselling them or developing them. At this point, no mention of parking them is made. It covers the discussion of domain values solely on the domain itself, and does a good job of describing what to consider. There are six pages covering the mundane interpretations of domain value: ie., domain length, hyphens, numerals, branding, etc. - maybe mundane, but definitely required reading for beginners.

6) Further discussion on what makes a “bad domain” and also when to register a domain before somebody steals it (a case study from his personal experience… if true, a stomach churner!) If you have the basic understanding of domain value, and you come across a domain never registered before, don’t hesitate, register it immediately and worry about its value later. That’s what’s called the “Eight Dollar Ante”. In other words, if you want to play, you gotta lay down your $8 (or whatever you’re paying for new registrations) and then hope your ante keeps you in the domain poker game.

7) There’s some further link references, one to a domainer forum I had never heard of! It seemed to have a modicum of members, too! That surprised me, because I thought I found all the “worthy” forums. As of this writing, I have signed up but not yet participated in this domainer forum. I may do a later blog on the forum if it rounds out nicely. *NOTE: I did discover the forum is run by none other than —– Zach Bastich!

Here’s a part I didn’t agree with - listing of several registrars he claims are “respected” as domainer registrars. I think his list is wrong, but it’s all a matter of experience and opinion. Not familiar with one of them, but very familiar with two that are listed, and I would state that these registrars are DEFINITELY not considered favored sites for domainers to use. I don’t think I should mention names, but the initials of one of the registrars listed is “GODADDY”. Figure out those initials and you’ll get which registrar I’m talking about.

9) Now we’re into domain appraisals. Guidance is “buy domains first, don’t trust anyone to appraise a domain you haven’t yet registered” — that’s a no brainer. Getting appraisals are discussed as two groups: manually and automated. Nice review of this process, but too much, too soon for beginning domainers. Additionally, automatic appraisals might give a respected company name to “sanction” the appraisal, but that’s all you’re buying. Most appraisals, even automated, are fairly expensive. Successclick will give you bulk appraisals MANUALLY (by experienced human eyeballs) for as low as $5 a domain. This is a great value if you have 100 domains or more. Unfortunately for this ebook, it doesn’t include Successclick as an appraisal source. I am willing to let that slide, since I worked for large domain companies prior to launching my Successclick service late in 2007, so please, domain ebook authors, update your ebooks to reflect Successclick for Bulk Domain Appraisals.

10) There are domainer endorsements for this ebook, one important hawk blast comes from Adam Dicker of DNforum.com. Then there’s some other endorsements, one in particular that alarmed me! There was even a photo of this endorsee that scared not only me, but frightened my cat!

11) Finally, The Domain Ebook covers parking your domains, and lists several of the parking services to use, forgetting at least one important player in the industry. The book gives pros and cons for each parking service, and helps you understand the procedures for parking your domains.

12) Lastly, the selling strategies. Lots of pages covering this angle, where to go, who your buyers might be, how to handle them. He wraps up the book by discussing C&D threats and a few other bothersome domaining issues that can come up, but after he updates some of his referral links, his glossary of links at the end of the ebook can help you move forward in becoming a more knowledgeable domainer.

This is a decent domain ebook, even with the few items I don’t agree with. It covers areas that some of the other ebooks don’t cover, so the purchase price is worth it just on that count alone. I rate The Domain eBook a nice B+. Click here to buy the book.

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“How I Sell My Domain Names“ [$37.00, and claims of "over 90 pages"] -by Edwin Johns (didn’t have a “Talk to author” or “Contact” page to request a copy for review). Yipes! No way to contact “Edwin Johns”, the author who “owns a degree in GeoPhysics” and several other non-domain specialty certifications in such areas as “Astronomy and Atmospheric Science Research”. No matter though. He’s made enough money to live on Penang Island with “his lovely wife, PhaikSim and little princess, Julia.” That seems to be a nice life choice. Let’s find out more on Edwin. I did a grueling google search on “edwin johns” and came up with the following:

“http://www.discussnames.com/showthread.php?t=1994″ - this forum post was dated 2004 — hmmmm…
“http://www.webproworld.com/domain-discussion-forum/54419-how-run-profitable-domain-business.html” - another forum post dated 10/2006. Where is some real news coverage in the domain industry on this successful domainer named Edwin Johns?

I’d love to give you more information for Edwin Johns’ ebook on domains. However, he’s busy on his little island and can’t help provide more info. His testimonial page has a lot of endorsements. I wonder how these people contacted him. He must be doing something right though, so if you want to grab it anyway just to cover all your bases, use this link! It’s cheap!

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“Domain Name Investing“ [$34.99 - by Ryan Andes] - request for copy came back as “failed permanently” email from his “Contact” link on his site. One of his “endorsements” is from an “Alan Reed” who claims to make $1500 A DAY after reading Ryan’s book. I did some searching on Mr. Reed, and alas, there were cobwebs in the search results on this character. Geez, I thought I knew almost everyone who made $500,000+ a year with domains. Or at least heard of them. I found immediately a little discrepancy in his “sales” pitch. He states “as he writes this” he bought “Phone-system.org” a month earlier, and then resold it for $1000. A nice little flip. However, the whois records shows the domain was bought in 2006, and “updated” in January 2008. That’s about two years of sitting, not a month turnover time. . No matter, nice profit. But I hate to see blatant — well, let’s just call them “miscommunications”, when selling a product. Even more telling, unless the seller was a customer of the strangely mysterious “Key-Systems Gmb”, this deal didn’t happen this fast since we all know that you can’t transfer a new domain or “updated” domain for 60 days, and dem’s da rules!

Let me end this review by stating, hey, who knows? These guys who I’ve never heard of might have some great info in this ebook. If you want to take a chance and find out, you can buy it here.
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“Expired Domain Secret“ (74 pages $47) - by John Khu (no way to contact author on his website. I had to hunt down his whois, which I did and sent him a request via his registrant email contact. It’s been a week with no answer as I write.)

From the start, I have a feeling this guy “received” a lot of information from other domain ebooks. His name is pretty prominent on google searches, but there’s something not right. He’s an entrepenuer (aren’t we all) dabbling in “self help and health” in some of his google results. Is it the same guy? And what’s with creating a whole ebook on finding out about an “expired domain secret”? Is he talking about one expired domain? Only one secret? How about a bunch of secrets? The title of this book doesn’t really sound well thought out.

Meanwhile, his website tauts only one segment of domain investing, and that’s buying “expired domains”. Hmmm… all of us know this can be rewarding or a waste of time and money. He better know what he’s talking about. I checked his other stats on DT and I find he has a whopping THIRTEEN other domains under his registrant info. Dang, he’s picky! Wonder what those domains are? Here’s a list of chapters he covers in his ebook. I found these listed on another website review of his book (or it could be just a self promotion page - who knows?):

Chapter 1 - What Are Domains?

Chapter 2 - Expired Domains Described.

Chapter 3 - Expired Domain Name - Unexplained Secrets.

Chapter 4 - The Domain Name Expiry and Deletion Pattern.

Chapter 5 - Expired Domain Names - Their Values and Importance.

Chapter 6 - Creating Instant Traffic using Expired Domain Names.

Chapter 7 - Generating Wealth by Investing in Expired Domain Names.

Chapter 8 - Laying your Hands on Expired Domain Traffic.

Chapter 9 - Tools to assist you in Buying Expired Domains.

Chapter 10 - Laying your Hands on Expired Domain Names.

Chapter 11 - FAQ on Expired Domain Names.

Chapter 12 - Resource List on Expired Domain Names.

This seems like a fair representation of the domain investment experience at the basic levels. For the price, not a bad investment. There’s a purchase guarantee, so I say there’s no harm to Check it out!

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“Domain Cash Vault“ - ($29 - $47 - no page count apparent) by Brian Pubrat. Well, first, I will refrain from commenting on the author’s last name, other than to say he sounds like a fun lad to hang with in Ireland at the local tavern. However, I can tell you that I didn’t get to read his book, because I received no response from him. Hell, doesn’t he know who I am?!! Apparently not. So, my advice for this book is: Find out who Brian Pubrat is, check out his name on the domain news sites and forums, such as DNjournal.com, DomainNamenews.com, Domainnamewire.com, Domaining.com, DomainNews.com and the Conceptualist to see if he’s a player. If not, that doesn’t mean anything. Keep looking though. Google him in quotes, put the word “domains” behind his name. I did, and all I found from Google was that Brian Pubrat, if it’s the same dude, runs “platespray.ca” which sells a spray for your license plate to distort your plate numbers from those new redlight “gotcha” cameras. His product seems to diffuse light or something and prevents the Law Dawgs devices from tagging your license plate. He’s a Canadian, or so I surmise.

To wrap up Mr. Pubrat’s website “marketing expertise”, his final words on his standard, cheesy long-scroll, multi-colored boxed content come-on, says: “You know the pitch - You have seen it a thousand times if you’ve been on the internet very long. But I will be perfectly honest (as opposed to his insinuations that he’s been previously dishonest!). I don’t like those kind of sales tactics, anymore than you do, so I’m not going to beat around the bush.” Then Pubrat proceeds to display, almost image by image, word for word, with all the sales pitch ad nauseum, those very “sales tactics” he says he doesn’t like. I respect this kind of cheekiness once in a while.

If you haven’t found out anything remarkable about Pubrat’s domain successes in your online search queries, don’t lose heart. Maybe Mr. Pubrat is making big money with domains and has chosen to stay under the domain industry radar, even if he’s trying to sell you his expertise on following in his footsteps! So here it is folks! It’s only $29, and Domain Cash Vault might hold some valuable secrets. It’s only the cost of a cheap breakfast for three at Denny’s, but maybe not as tasty. Still, for me, the curiosity factor is worth the measly $29 purchase price. I recommend getting this domainer ebook based on the author’s name alone.

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“Domain Names Revealed” (DNR) [72 pages - $19.95]- by [No author listed on the webpage, but there was an email address for contact. A domainer by the name of Ben Page answered with a well-written response to describe his book.]

The book starts quickly on page 4 with “What is a Domain Name” and answers that question very nicely and easy to read. The page layouts and designs are rudimentary, no fancy intent is clear in this ebook. Ben goes on to explain the TLD definitions and their usages and restrictions. Not bad. He continues with a small list of extensions and their meaning, and segues into domain authorities (ICANN) and registration language for the process of registering a domain and the results of not renewing, step by step. Good info, but the writing is a little slackish. He uses “&” for “and”. That irks me.

Then the ebook progresses into finding value in a domain name. Mr. Page covers “traffic revenue” and the tools to discover possible traffic magnets. His first focus is on Alexa. My personal experience, which covers almost 10 years now, tends to bypass Alexa as unreliable. This thought is followed up by other domain experts. He does provide a simple understanding of how to use Alexa, which is nice.

Then DNR walks you through the various websites that can give you a heads up on certain domains (although this isn’t an exact science), and then the book lists some software choices to help you with evaluating domains, warning you to spend your money slowly until you get more familiar with the process. I like that!

The ebook Domain Names Revealed progresses into other valuation processes, such as domain character length, extension, years alive, links, avoiding contractions, prepositions and other ‘filler’ words such as “the”, “and” and “of”.

We now move into the interpretations of domain types, including acronyms, misspellings, hacks, and keyword generics. Nice coverage. What I’m noticing now about this ebook is that it is very easy to read and understand. So far, I’m impressed with the knowledge and flow of the book. To prevent stupid registrations, our author saunters into “beware of cybersquatting” and explains what that is. Great!

Now here’s where I’m a little perturbed, but it’s me, not the author. Heck, I should be promoting my services better. He’s talking about domain appraisals and my SERVICE isn’t included. ARGGGH! No matter, he does make the point that appraisals can be expensive and are not always dependable. That bypasses MY APPRAISALS! My appraisals are the least expensive, and are ALWAYS dependable. (I don’t appraise at high end, just low end… but no more about my secrets, just contact me for appraising your portfolio, you’ll be glad you did.)

So far, I’m pretty impressed with Ben Page’s book, Domain Names Revealed, and I’m only on page 30!!! Page THIRTY out of an ebook with 72 pages! What else can this guy say? Here’s what: He explains that “flipping” domains can be profitable. (True!) He covers the steps you need to find the domains (not too much in detail, because if he did, he’d be revealing many domainers’ tricks, including his own, which could be detrimental.) Uh oh. BANG! He discusses finding these domains using the domainers’ worst registrar “friend”, GoDaddy.com. If ever there was a registrar that doesn’t cater to domainers, GoDaddy is it (*even if they have decent customer support - or the illusion of it). In almost a decade of domaining, I have only once used GoDaddy’s bulk search features to find available domains. It was a nightmare. They charge you for the domains you search for in bulk, then wait until you go back to tell them that the domains are not available, you delete them, you watch for your funded account to be reimbursed, and holy moses, too much work and elbow grease for domainers with serious domain-buying intent. *I have a blog article coming up soon regarding some other “anti-domainer” features on Godaddy.

Thankfully, we go to the “Selling Domains” chapter. Ben puts up a simple “pro/con” table on the basic ways to sell a domain. You know what, he covers it quite nicely! I have no argument with him so far. Then BANG! again. He talks about selling domains on eBay. Hey, I don’t know many domainers who have sold domains successfully on eBay, but I know about ripoffs and ridiculous domain prices featured on ebay. I can’t comment about it because I’m a noobie regarding ebay. When I want to start selling my grandfather’s personal belongings, I’ll learn more about eBay. For now, domain noobies, don’t get excited about ebay selling. DNR then goes through the process of using auction sites, listing sites, and just plain old “hope I get contacted through a whois listing” sale.

DNR then covers pushing and transferring domains (with screenshots from GoDaddy, ugggh — by the way folks, GoDaddy “borrowed” their current domain management system from BULKREGISTER.COM, which I designed along with Eric Rice, Bulkregister’s General Manager at the time. (Bulkregister was scooped up by Enom in 2006). I wish we patented it back in 2005.

We next delve into expiring and deleted domains, picking them up for cheap (beware the other bidders!), flipping them, and other techniques that a majority of the professional domainers use, including myself. This book is doing very well, and I’m on page 44. I may hate this book because it could save a client of mine about $500 for this type of data (although I hold your hand and answer questions in great detail).

Now we’ve reached the area of my contention, PPC parking of your domains. He lists just a few sites for parking. I won’t list them here, because I know all the guys with these sites, but please… don’t put GoDaddy in a list of places to park your domains!!! DNR seems to favor Sedo, and that’s good, Sedo works hard, and they sell a lot of domains. Their crew is top notch, I know Matt Bentley, Tim Schumacher and everyone’s buddy, Jay Finnan. They pay quick, they sell international. Okay, enough about Sedo. The ebook overlooks three main parking services that blow away the other parking services he lists. An oversight? Referral commissions? I don’t know, but the biggies in Parking Revenue aren’t listed. That’s okay though, you’ll find them soon enough, like now: TrafficZ.com, Parked.com, and Domainsponsor.com to name a few. Click the first two links to set up a powerful parking account based on my long-term relationships with these companies.

On to the buildout of domains into websites, using affilites and other means of monetizing your domain. It’s covered in DNR very simply, but adequately. Selling backlinks, getting affiliate programs setup, and other means of making money are covered in this chapter. My surprise was I think I actually learned something new from reading this chapter. Won’t tell you what it was, nor whether it will work, but it seems sound. I’ll check it out and if it doesn’t work, maybe post it later.

Ben’s book, Domain Names Revealed, rounds out the rules by talking about selling tips, ways to increase value, enhancements and optimization techniques, and wraps it up for the beginning domainer (I think there’s some stuff in this book for seasoned pro’s too, just for a “refresher course” when they get distracted). He lists some great links for domainers, gives away a free bonus ebook, and shows you how you can also make money from selling his ebook. (I must say, clicking on my links to his affiliate program within this review will NOT hurt me or you nor Ben. It will make all of us happy, so click and buy!)

My professional evaluation of this ebook, based on price, information, ease of reading, and inspiration is a B+. A good rating, because I’m a hard sell. However, the price of this ebook ($19.95,) on showing people how to buy/sell domains for a living, makes it a MUST BUY. If you buy any other Domain ebook, that’s okay, but definitely spend some large-pizza-and-some-cokes money to get Domain Names Revealed. You can’t lose. It’s my choice for BEST DEAL.

+++++++

Some of the sites were smart enough (?) to auto-update the date of their “ad” to the current date the user was at their site. It’s a little disconcerting to see the current date listed on a website for encouraging a sale every time you visit the site. How’d they know I’d be viewing their website and have that day’s date visible? Isn’t technology amazing? *ahem*

SUMMARY RUNDOWN: The final question to ask yourself is, “can I become a successful domain investor (domainer) with an investment in an ebook that costs less than $100?” I can answer that for you with a simple “no”. However, the books I reviewed can definitely get your feet wet and organize your mind in preparation to understand the business, and can show working domainers a few new tricks. The three ebooks I reviewed here are definitely worth the price for people serious about making money in the domain industry.

Parking will be your first domain monetizing step. Your first move to make the best revenue from parking your domains is to sign up for these two domain parking services: TrafficZ and Parked.com (you should own at least 50 domains to qualify)

Good reading and much success to you!