Google Maps + GeoDomaining = A New Way To Make $$$

Here at Domain Superstar we’ve been working like crazy to create new, unique, premium tools for our members. Today we’re announcing the release of a ground-breaking new tool that utilizes Google Maps, GeoNames.org, and domain availability checking to help our members find great, valuable geodomains.

Although many of you are already familiar with the concept of geodomaining, I’d like to give a little background for those of you who aren’t. Briefly, geodomains are any domains that are tied to a geographical location like NewYork.com, London.co.uk, or France.fr. In addition, geo-domains often have keywords associated with a particular location (HartfordDoctor.com, ChicagoCarInsurance.com, etc).

Many geodomains have the potential to be very lucrative for the owner. Many types of search engine queries only make sense in the context of the searcher’s geographic location. If someone is looking for a doctor, chances are they are going to look for a doctor in a city near them (this can also apply to real estate, lawyers, and countless other niches). Having a geodomain that exactly matches these searches gives the owner the opportunity to capture and monetize the majority of this traffic.

Our GeoDomain Finder allows our premium members to find these geodomains with ease. The tool uses the Google Map’s location to find all towns or cities in the immediate area, then checks to see if domains using those towns or cities are available. Free members can check the availability of .COM domains for any of these locations. Premium members, however, can check multiple tlds, add keywords before or after the location name, and can optionally include the state code with the location name. These features on this tool alone easily justify the $47/month premium membership fee (which will be increasing to $77/month for new members who sign up after May 1)!

To try out this tool for yourself, head to our dashboard now!

A New Tool For Dictionary Domains – Over 700 Available!

Here at Domain Superstar we’ve been really busy coming up with exciting new tools for our members. Just in the last week we’ve added the geo-domain finder Google Maps mashup and the bulk keyword domain finder to our beta dashboard, where you can preview the full versions of these tool before they are added to the main site (when full functionality will only be available for premium members).

In addition to these two new tools, we’re moving our Dictionary Domain Tool out of beta and onto the main dashboard. This tool scans all of our domain repositories (auctions, dropped and dropping domains, and our keyword domain repository) to find available 1 word dictionary domains available for hand-registration. You may be surprised to find out that dictionary domains are still available, but we have over 700 of them available for registration right now in this tool! In fact, as mentioned in our last blog post, Joel just used it to hand-register Leucadendron.com, a type of flower, that has a CPC of $0.63 and 590 exact monthly searches in Google.

Both free members and premium members can access this tool, but free members will only be able to see the available .COM domains. Premium members will have full access to all 700+ domains in our dictionary domain tool, so sign up for the premium membership to find all of the great domains available for registration.

We’d also like to mention that on May 1 our price for new premium members will be going up to $77 so sign up for our premium membership now to lock in your low monthly rate of $47 (which will never go up)!

So go find some dictionary domains…and when you do, be sure to let us know about it in the comment section!

Update: We had a few people mention that they were having problems viewing the dictionary domains using Internet Explorer. This issue is now fixed and the tool will work for all browsers.

Bulk Keyword Domain Finder

The Bulk Keyword Domain Finder is a tool that allows you to paste in a list of keywords (or upload a file) and then the tool will check to see if there are any domain names available that match exactly to the keywords.

How the Bulk Keyword Domain Finder Works

For example, if you paste in a list of keywords related to dogs like “Pit Bull”, “Labrador”, “Cocker Spaniel”, etc. etc. then the tool will check to see if the domain names PitBull.com, Labrador.com, CockerSpaniel.com, etc. etc. are available to register.

Additional Bulk Keyword Domain Finder Features Available to Premium Members

Free members can check up to 25 keywords at a time with the .com TLD only. Domain Superstar premium members can check up to 250 keywords at a time by pasting them in or up to 1,000 keywords at a time by uploading a text file. Premium members also have the availability to check multiple TLD’s. Sign up to become a premium member now!

HINT: This tool is especially valuable if you have a long list of keywords that you have downloaded from Google Adwords or Wordtracker (both free sources for keywords). It is even more valuable if you run Adwords PPC campaigns because now you can use the tool to check and see if there are any available domain names that match exactly to keywords in your Adwords campaign.

This is very valuable because you will likely be able to improve your Google Adwords quality score almost instantly simply by directing your PPC campaign clicks to landing pages on domain names that match exactly to the keywords that you are bidding on.

For example, if you are bidding on the keyword “Cheap Acai Suppplements” then if you can register the domain name CheapAcaiSupplements.com then you will likely easily lower your CPC spend by having a domain name that is super relevant to the keyword phrase that you are bidding on. You would likely be able to make back the $8 you spent to register the domain name in no time.

Geo Domain Finder

The Geo Domain Finder is a tool that allows you to enter in a location (city, state, zip code, etc.) and then it will check the availability of all domain names that are an exact match to cities in that location.

Premium members also have the option available to them to choose keywords to append or prepend to the city and also to choose which TLD they would like the tool to check (free members can only check a limited amount of cities and only the .com TLD is available to them).

The tool is a Google Maps mashup and incorporates a visually appealing map display with automated city lookup and automatic geographic domain name availability checking. Start using the geo domain name finder tool now!

How to Use the Geo Domain Name Tool

Here are a few different ways that you could use the tool to find some great geo domain names.

Option #1: Enter in a zip code. The tool will then return a number of different domain names that match exactly to cities that are nearby the zip code that you entered. For example, if you enter in the zip code 60601 ( a Chicago zip code) then the tool will search for and return the availability of many different domain names that match exactly to cities close to Chicago. For example, Peoria.com, Aurora.com, Rockford.com, etc. etc.

Option #2: Enter in a state plus a keyword to add to the end of the domain name. Let’s say that you want to find mortgage geo domain names for different cities in the state of Florida. For example, if you enter in “Florida” and “mortgage” then the tool will check TampaMortgage.com, OrlandoMortgage.com, MiamiMortgage.com, etc. etc. The possibilities are really endless with this option especially since you can add more than one keyword and you can choose to add the keyword to the beginning of the geographic location or to the end.

Option #3: Enter in a city plus a keyword to add to the beginning of the domain name. If you want to find a bunch of domain names that start with “Guideto” and ends in a city close to Las Vegas then enter in “Las Vegas” and “Guideto”. Doing this will give you geo domain names like GuidetoParadise.com, GuidetoSunriseManor.com, GuidetoSanBernandino.com, etc. etc.

Extra Geo Domain Name Features for Premium Members

Domain Superstar premium members have access to many extra features with the geo domain name tool. Premium members can search multiple TLD’s, prepend and append keywords, and check more available domain names at once than free members. Sign up for premium membership now!

Dictionary Domain Finder

The Dictionary Domain Finder tool is a database that contains only dictionary domain names. Free members have access to view all of the .com dictionary domain names and premium members have access to the entire dictionary domain database to view dictionary domains from all different TLD’s. Dictionary word domains are of course very valuable so get started using the tool now!

What is a Dictionary Domain Name?

A dictionary domain name is a domain name that is an exact match to any word that is in the dictionary. For example, “jumping” is a word in the dictionary. If the domain name jumping.com or jumping.net was available and discovered by our tools then it would be available for you to see in our dictionary domain name database.

Additional Dictionary Domain Names Available for Premium Members

Domain Superstar premium members have access to many more dictionary domain names than free members. The cost of a premium membership can easily pay for itself with even just one great dictionary domain name (not to mention all of the other additional things that premium members get). Sign up for a premium membership now!

What is the Best Domain Name You Have Hand Registered in the Last Year?

I always love hearing stories about people who have hand registered domain names years and years ago and now they are worth big bucks. However motivating it is, I sometimes get tempted to say that there are no great domain names available to hand register anymore (especially .com’s).

However, this is definitely not the case. Let me tell you about probably the best domain name that I have hand registered in the last year and then you can tell me yours.

Here is the best domain name that I have hand registered in the last year or so and a short back story on how I found it:

Marinater.com/Marinaters.com – I hand registered both of these fairly recently and found both the plural version in our keyword domain repository. I was also very pleased to see that after checking with our instant domain search tool that the singular was available as well. I am currently redirecting the singular to the plural and I have recently developed the domain by paying Site Graduate to build out a mini site and then I have added some small things here and there to further monetize the website.

The keyword “marinater” gets 260 exact match monthly average Google searches and has a CPC of $1.44 so all in all a great one word domain name.

If you have not used our keyword domain repository or our type-in traffic finder then I would challenge you to spend some time using all of the tools on our dashboard and find yourself some great domain names to hand register. The type-in traffic finder also has a new feature that allows premium members to search for multiple TLD’s (free members can only search for .com’s) so I would also encourage you to sign up for a premium membership as the membership will quickly pay for itself and the price will soon be increasing from $47/month to $97/month (existing premium members will never see a price increase so sign up now to lock in the low price forever).

Bonus Domain: I just couldn’t resist adding another domain that I literally hand registered less than 24 hours ago: Leucadendron.com (I also hand registered the plural version as well). This nice one word domain name (it’s a type of flower) has a CPC of $0.63 and 590 exact match monthly average Google searches for the keyword “leucadendron”. I found the singular version of this domain using our soon to be released dictionary domain tool (members have access to this tool already via our beta domain dashboard but the tool is not yet publicly available for use). Yet another reason to sign up for a premium membership now!

Now it’s your turn! What is the best domain name that you have hand registered in the last year?

Find Great Keyword Domains For Multiple TLDs

In a previous post, we discussed using our Type-In Traffic Finder to hand register valuable keyword domains. Thus far, the tool’s been a fantastic success, garnering thousands of searches in our site’s first month. But what if you don’t specialize in .COM domains?

Well today we’re happy to announce the inclusion of alternative TLD’s in our Type-In Traffic Finder for our premium members. Initially we’re offering the ability to find keyword domains for .NET, .INFO, .BIZ, .US, .DE, and .FR keyword domains, and we’ll be adding additional TLDs as our premium members request them.

We think that this additional feature will be extremely useful to both our existing and new members. To check it out, you can sign up here to lock in the existing monthly rate and have unlimited access to all of our current and future tools. We’ve included a screenshot below to give a quick example of some of the great domains still available for registration.

Do it Yourself Website Development vs. Custom Website Development

Once you have made the decision to develop your domain(s) the first major question that usually pops up is “Should I do the website development myself or should I hire someone?” There are obviously pros and cons to each which I will discuss below.

However, before you go any further please take a look at our newly released website development tutorial videos and our custom website development services by visiting our tutorial videos page and our pricing page respectively.

The website development tutorial videos are designed for those people who want to take a “do-it-yourself” approach to developing their domains and “watch over my shoulder” as I take a domain and develop it from scratch into a fully functional money making website.

The custom website development services are designed for those people who just want to pay someone to do their website development for them (Domain Superstar premium members receive a 25% discount on all website development services including professional copywriting, graphic design, and hosting).

You can view Tutorial Video #1: How to Choose Domain Names That Will Make You Money (available to everyone) by viewing the YouTube video in the sidebar or you can view the full screen video by clicking here.

Premium members can view Tutorial Video #2: Using Wordpress to Get a Professional Looking Website Online (available to Premium Members only) just by logging in. To view a full list of all upcoming tutorial videos then please visit our tutorial videos page.

Ok, let’s get right into the pros and cons of “Do-it-Yourself” website development and custom website development (paying someone else to do the work for you).

“Do-it-Yourself” Website Development Pros and Cons

Here are some of the pros and cons of “Do-it-Yourself” Website Development:

PROS:

1. Cost – The #1 benefit is that if you do your own website development then it doesn’t cost you any MONEY although you should be sure to factor in the value of your time. If your time is more valuable purchasing domain names, dealing with customers/clients/advertisers, running your business, etc. rather than attempting website development then by all means spend the money for someone else to do your website development.

2. Learning – Another great benefit to doing your own website development is that you will likely learn a great deal as you go along. Granted, you may not have as much of a polished looking site when you are done but you will most certainly improve.

3. Agility – If you do all of the website development yourself then you can become very agile and nimble when you choose to attack a niche. You could very well watch our tutorial videos, build a site, and monetize a site all in a matter of a few short hours.

CONS:

1. Lack of Professionalism – Have you ever seen one of those sites that you recognize right away as being designed by its owner? Yes, we’ve all seen those type of sites and while well intentioned they are most likely a conversion disaster. Don’t turn off potential customers and leave money on the table by putting up a sub par looking website just because you wanted to do it on your own.

2. Lack of Scalability – You may be the best web developer in the world and pretty darn fast to boot but chances are you won’t be able to really scale your efforts in order to maximize all of your domain’s earnings. Sometimes a multi layered approach will work. Build some of your websites on your own and then pay someone else to develop some of your other websites.

3. Cookie Cutter - After a while almost anyone is bound to start making a lot of their sites look somewhat similar. Not necessarily a bad thing but if you want someone else to add another perspective then it is probably a good idea to enlist some help. This is especially true if you have a lot of sites in the same niche and want to ensure that they do not all look like they are owned by the same company.

Custom Website Development Pros and Cons

Here are some of the pros and cons of Custom Website Development:

PROS:

1. Specialization – If what you do best is buying/selling domains, monetizing domains, running a business, etc. then your time is probably better off doing those very things. Let someone who specializes in website development build your site out.

2. Professionalism – Yes, of course your website can look professional whether you designed it or someone else designed it. However, chances are that letting a professional web developer take a crack at developing your domain names will make all of the difference in the world. The better looking your website is (as long as it is functional and properly designed to get the best SEO bang for your buck) then the better it will convert. Because who wants to throw away money by letting visitors leave your site never to return?

3. Scalability – You will hear me mention this word a lot in other posts as well. There is absolutely nothing wrong with working out of your basement all by yourself but if you truly have high aspirations and want to take your business to the next level then consider outsourcing as much as you can. Guess what? You can still keep working out of your basement if you want to but if you can outsource and scale a winning business model quickly then you can start adding some extra zeros to the end of your revenue stream even while working out of your basement. Do what you do best and then try to find others to fill in the gaps.

CONS:

1. Cost – Yup, it’s going to actually cost you some money to hire someone to build you a website or monetize your domains with some real content. If your time is worth more than what it would cost you to do it yourself, or if you know that you will realize a positive ROI in the long run, or if you just plain aren’t confident enough in your web development skills then you shouldn’t let cost hang you up.

2. Lack of Control – One negative to letting someone else develop a website for you is that you will not be able to control every little detail. Yes, this will save you some time and possibly a headache but for all of us super anal people then it can be difficult to get used to at first. Keep in mind though – you most likely are in the domaining/online business/small business/MONEY MAKING BUSINESS and not in the business of building websites (excluding all of the professional web developers who are reading this). If your goal is simply to take a domain name and then turn it into a money making asset as quickly as possible and in the best way possible then you will likely have to get used to giving up some small form of control.

3. Time – If you snag a great domain name and are just itching to get it developed into a full blown money making website then if you hire someone else to build the site for you it may take longer than you had hoped.

What Web Development Method Should You Choose?

So what method should you choose? Whether you are a “do-it-yourself” kind of person or someone who prefers to outsource web development (or maybe you are a little of both) there is something that we hope is of value for you with our premium membership. Tutorial videos for the do-it-yourselfer’s and custom website development services for the outsourcers. Sign up for premium membership now to get started finding great domain names with our super premium domain name tools and then turning those domain names into money making assets!

5 Reasons Why You Might Not Be Making Money Domaining

What is the #1 goal of almost any domainer? Making money. Of course, domaining is fun but spending thousands of dollars on domain names only to see them not bring in any cash flow or to not turn a profit when resold can take the air out of the sails of even the most happy go lucky domainer. Here are 5 reasons why you might not be making any money domaining:

#1 You Buy Domains Without a Clear Monetization Strategy

Domain monetization is really pretty simple in concept when you boil it all down. You can make a profit as a domainer when you buy a domain name and it brings in a steady cash flow through any number of different ways (parking, affiliate programs, advertisements, selling a product/service, etc.) or you can sell the domain for a price greater than you purchased it for.

Of course there are thousands upon thousands of different sub avenues to pursue once you choose one of the two monetization methods but for the most part those two avenues are all you have.

You can fail very easily in your domaining money making efforts if you just snap up domain names without at least first giving thought to how you will be able to monetize the domain names.

#2 You Aren’t Willing to Do the Necessary Domain Name Research

You must have a handle on the different metrics that you can use to research any given domain name and determine how much it is worth. Our domain name tools will save you a lot of time and do a lot of the heavy lifting for you (especially if you are a premium member and can schedule personalized domain alerts for yourself).

You must understand how having a domain name that matches specific keywords phrases that get searched in Google is valued. Our Type-In Traffic Finder and our Keyword Domain Repository can help you find domain names that are exact matches to keywords with search traffic in Google.

You must understand how data from Google, Yahoo, Alexa, Compete, and other sources all can help you in your research to find a great domain name. Our All-In-One Domain Auction Tool can help you make this kind of research a snap.

#3 You Are Not Willing to Invest in Yourself

Let’s say that you find a piece of software that will save you a lot of time and money (maybe like any number of the different pieces of software that I recommended in an earlier post “Do You Make These 7 Mistakes When Developing Your Domains?”).

If you are not willing to invest in yourself and your domaining business to constantly learn new things and learn how to do things better and faster then you most likely will be left behind at some point.

Realize that you do not know it all. Invest in yourself to learn as much as you possibly can. This investment can be in the form of software, our premium membership (where we will very soon be releasing premium members only domain development training tutorials and custom domain development services), or even just business books to help yourself run your domaining business better.

#4 You Don’t Follow Through

When you find a great domain name to buy and you either buy the domain name or bid on the domain name and then have the wining bid on the domain then it is definitely a high.

It’s easy to be excited about developing the domain name or even flipping the domain name for a resale profit during the initial rush. It’s sometimes much harder to stay excited weeks or months down the road when the monotony of writing good solid content or emailing potential buyers sets in.

If you have a problem following through with your plans for domaining profit then you are most likely leaving a lot of money on the table.

#5 You Don’t Pull the Trigger

You can do all of the research you want, read every news article on domaining, and use all of the domain name tools on our dashboard until you are blue in face but if you don’t take a risk and pull the trigger then you won’t make a penny. Take action and get started finding some great domain names now!