As mentioned previously Website Flipping is the process of either developing a new website or purchasing a previously developed website with the intention of selling it within a time frame for a profit. Within this article the development of a new website shall be covered.

- Developing a new website

In order to develop a new site it is necessary to decide upon the subject matter for the website then purchase a domain name, design the site then finally host the created site so it is available on the World Wide Web (WWW).

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- What is Website Flipping?

Website Flipping is the process of either developing a new website or purchasing a previously developed website with the intention of selling it within a timeframe for a profit.

As the weekend draws to a close, numerous .me Land Rush auctions which were due to finish a number of days ago are far from closing as they continue to extend daily. Insure.me which has been covered frequently remains active despite climbing $710 in  over two days. Hug.me has doubled in the past two days and both Insure.me and Hug.me have over 12 hours remaining but an auction extension is highly likely as has been the trend for the past few days.

Despite the countless auction extensions, around 250 .me Land Rush auctions have closed thus far with why.me topping the list for the highest priced at $6,600. Assessing the completed auctions the bidding activity looks encouraging but a few domains which sold between the $75-$200 price should have fetched more and provided a good buy for the successful bidder.

Trademarked domains also seem to appear within the auctions like myspace.me, macbook.me and pepsi.me. Whether the companies themselves shall prove victorious in the bidding battles, if they are participating at all, or another party shall all be revealed but bidding for a domain like myspace.me is not a positive investment due to the legal matters with such a name so it is advisable to steer clear of such trademarked names and use the money for other, more wiser, investment purposes.

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The original closing date for a selection of .me Land Rush auctions was set for 24 hours ago, but, one day on and the auctions are still running. Why.me which is currently at $6,580 is the current second highest priced domain and is set for closure in just under 3 hours. Insure.me continues to dominate the number one position for the highest priced .me in the Land Rush auctions and is currently at $25,010 with just over 14 hours remaining.

Just over 100 auctions have already closed and a few bargains have been had by a number of successful auction winners. I have browsed the list of recent sales and a few names stand out as good buys. These include fetch.me, risk.me and wants.me all selling for $75.

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The .me Land Rush auctions for insure.me, survey.me, why.me and many others were due to come to an end today but checking the auctions site it appears the Land Rush auctions have been extended by 24 hours. I have heard of auctions being extended by small periods of time (e.g. 5 minutes) if a bid is placed within a few minutes of an auction closing but, if speculation is to be believed, the domain auctions have been extended by 24 hours. If this is true, the closure for domains such as insure.me and hug.me could take a while.

Further to yesterday’s auction updates some intense bidding activity has been taking place. The highest bid domain is still held by insure.me and the price has almost doubled overnight from $12,517 to $23,405. This trend also seems to have continued with other domains in the top 10 highest priced auctions with all doubling in price within 24 hours and in the case of ski.me rising by 414% from $910 to $3773.

I have again added the current top 30 highest bid domains.

insure.me	110	23H 4M	$23,405
why.me	99	23H 14M	$6,005
hug.me	51	1D 4H	$5,505
ski.me	31	13H 11M	$3,773
survey.me	59	22H 13M	$3,105
portland.me	208	1D 4H	$2,105
ride.me	26	23H 37M	$2,020
sky.me	11	23H 46M	$2,005
drug.me	21	23H 46M	$2,005
secure.me	57	1D 4H	$2,005
tutor.me	33	1D 4H	$1,655
kuwait.me	52	1D 4H	$1,605
social.me	38	20H 6M	$1,535
profile.me	20	1D 4H	$1,505
uno.me	7	1D 4H	$1,305
elect.me	29	1D 4H	$1,265
bible.me	123	20H 3M	$1,255
california.me	22	15H 44M	$1,200
flywith.me	21	20H 9M	$1,117
pics.me	15	23H 49M	$1,031
realtor.me	70	23H 47M	$1,010
ass.me	7	22H 5M	$1,005
brand.me	68	21H 32M	$1,000
obama.me	39	5H 51M	$921
blogs.me	20	22H 2M	$905
videos.me	17	23H 48M	$805
question.me	30	23H 46M	$795
myspace.me	22	1D 4H	$705
voyeur.me	30	23H 37M	$705
bangor.me	20	23H 40M

 

  $696

Yesterday, I wrote about the .me Land Rush Auctions which are currently taking place and with just under 24 hours remaining for many domains like insure.me, why.me and hug.me I thought I’d provide an update on the current bids.

Insure.me still remains the highest priced domain but has only increased in price by a few dollars, $12 to be exact from $12,505 to $12,517. Why.me still holds the second spot but has had significant bidding activity over the past 24 hours causing the price to increase by over 400% from $810 to $3,505.

I have added the current top 30 highest bid domains.

insure.me	86	1D 0H	$12,517
why.me	81	1D 5H	$3,505
hug.me	35	2D 5H	$2,000
survey.me	42	1D 5H	$1,505
portland.me	99	2D 5H	$1,010
uno.me	5	2D 5H	$1,005
secure.me	47	2D 5H	$1,005
sky.me	7	1D 0H	$955
ski.me	22	1D 0H	$910
obama.me	38	1D 5H	$905
california.me	19	1D 5H	$835
brand.me	51	1D 0H	$670
social.me	21	1D 5H	$620
kuwait.me	40	2D 5H	$605
gilmore.me	8	2D 0H	$605
spoil.me	36	1D 0H	$595
ride.me	16	1D 0H	$510
ass.me	5	1D 5H	$505
videos.me	10	2D 0H	$505
drug.me	16	2D 0H	$505
voyeur.me	25	1D 0H	$460
bible.me	43	1D 0H	$455
buzz.me	21	1D 0H	$455
enroll.me	31	1D 0H	$430
youand.me	21	2D 5H	$410
realtor.me	29	1D 0H	$405
question.me	16	2D 0H	$405
pics.me	8	2D 0H	$405
escort.me	14	2D 0H	$405
tennis.me	12	2D 5H	$405

Check back tomorrow for the final closing prices.

So far the basics of domaining have been covered followed by buying domain names. In this article the selling of domain names shall be covered including the numerous sources for selling domain names whether they be online or offline.

- Selling to a buyer directly

It is possible to contact buyers which you feel would be interested in purchasing your domain name directly. This may be done via e-mail or using other methods like telephone or postal mail. Although this targets potential buyers individually and may be more time consuming and resource intensive, sourcing an end-user buyer directly could have the maximum rewards financially especially if dealing with a large firm with lots of buying power.

You may send out hundreds of e-mails and not get a single response back or you may receive multiple responses of interest from just a handful of e-mails sent. The key is to target your market carefully and send information to potential buyers that would make use of the domain. No point sending out a food and beverage related domain to a large banking firm right?

- Domain Auctions/Marketplaces

The following sites have previously been covered within the Buying Domain Names section but it is worth covering them again.

• Sedo -Sedo is the global marketplace for buying and selling domains. With over 690,000 members it offers the world’s largest selection of domains with over 12 million domains listed for sale.
• Afternic
• Pool
• TDNam

In addition to listing your domain(s) on the above sites, from time to time it is possible to submit your domains for live domain auctions which are taking place frequently. Moniker regularly holds live and extended online auctions but remember to always read the live auction terms & conditions prior to agreeing to auction your domain(s).

Domain Forums

The three main domain name forums which are specifically domain name related and are a good source for selling your domains at a fixed price or accept offers are:

• DNForum.com 
• Namepros.com
• DomainState.com

The following forums are not solely domain name related but do, however, have active domain marketplaces.

• SitePoint Forums
• Digital Point Forums

Thus far, the basics of domaining have been outlined along with buying domain names and after this article you should have an insight into selling domain names. The forthcoming articles include:

• Part 4 of 5 - Developing Domain Names
• Part 5 of 5 - Monetising Domain Names

Keep checking back for parts 4 and 5.

July 17th 2008 marked the date the .me domain extension became available for open registration but since this date Land Rush auctions have been taking place for names which received multiple applications during the Land Rush period.

In just less than 2 days marks the close of Insure.me. The bidding is currently at $12,505 and if current bidding activity is anything to go by this name could rise in price by another few thousand dollars. A lot of people may be thinking the domain is already highly overpriced given that the .me extension is only less than one week old but the Insurance industry is a very lucrative one with many sectors which this domain can be used for like motor, home, travel, life, pet, health & business to name but a few. The brandability and memorability of this one is huge and can this name can be seen being resold to an end-user for a decent profit if an end-user isn’t the winning bidder of the auction when it ends.

Numerous other .me domains also end at the same time or shortly after the close of insure.me. The current next highest bid domain is why.me at $810 followed by california.me and ride.me which are at $515 and $510 respectively.

I have included the current top 30 highest bid domains and will be updating the top 30 tomorrow and at the closure of the auctions.

insure.me	85	1D 20H	$12,505
why.me	41	2D 1H	$810
california.me	16	2D 1H	$515
ride.me	16	1D 20H	$510
spoil.me	26	1D 20H	$505
brand.me	38	1D 20H	$485
ski.me	15	1D 20H	$406
realtor.me	29	1D 20H	$405
social.me	16	2D 1H	$405
survey.me	23	2D 1H	$366
escort.me	10	2D 20H	$330
videos.me	7	2D 20H	$320
obama.me	17	2D 1H	$316
buzz.me	15	1D 20H	$311
sky.me	2	1D 20H	$305
thats.me	19	2D 1H	$305
enroll.me	15	1D 20H	$210
ass.me	3	2D 1H	$205
pics.me	7	2D 20H	$205
satisfy.me	7	2D 1H	$205
hardcore.me	2	2D 20H	$205
excuse.me	5	2D 1H	$205
blogs.me	5	1D 20H	$170
she.me	5	1D 20H	$155
amuse.me	7	2D 20H	$155
bye.me	8	2D 1H	$145
gambling.me	8	2D 1H	$145
atlanta.me	6	1D 20H	$140
vacations.me	3	1D 20H	$130
page.me	9	1D 20H	$120

The buying of domain names can be broken down into two sections.

1. New Registrations

It is possible to search the WHOIS database (Pronounced “Who Is”) to check the availability of a domain name. Domains that are available in a particular extension may be purchased for a period of time specified by the buyer. This is usually in years and the buyer has the option to renew the domain name as the expiration date approaches. If the domain name is not renewed the domain is usually dropped by the registrar which the domain was registered with.

Where can I register a domain name?

Of the thousands and thousands of domain registrars out there I have provided a few domain registrars which I would personally recommend:

.com/.net/.org/.me/.asia/.mobi +more…

GoDaddy.com - Go Daddy is the world’s largest domain registrar and highly recommended as they are competitively priced and support is solid too. Very few other domain registrars offer 24/7 telephone support like Go Daddy does. Keep checking Internetuals for Go Daddy promotional codes which give discounts on domain registrations.

.co.uk domains

123-reg.co.uk - 123-reg has been providing domain registration services since 2000 and are a UK based company. They are competitively priced for .co.uk domains and I would highly recommend them.

Other domain registrars:

• Namecheap.com
• Enom.com

2. Registered domain names

If a domain name is already registered this somewhat limits the options of buying the domain name. A goal of a domainer is to purchase a domain for as little as possible so if/when it comes to reselling the domain name they are able to maximise their profits. The following shows the methods available to a domainer of purchasing a taken domain name.

- Contacting the owner directly

It is possible to use the WHOIS database to determine the contact details of the domain owner and you may then approach the owner directly via e-mail, telephone or mail. The owner may not be willing to sell the domain name at all but an e-mail enquiring whether the domain is for sale should answer this.

NOTE: It is wise to research the domain name at the below links as it may be listed for sale and sometimes with an asking price but remember to always negotiate.

A domainer would regularly check the following sources for purchasing registered domain names.

Domain Auctions/Marketplaces

• Sedo - Sedo is the global marketplace for buying and selling domains. With over 690,000 members it offers the world’s largest selection of domains with over 12 million domains listed for sale.
• Afternic
• Pool - As well as a domain marketplace Pool also offers a domain backordering service for domains that are pending deletion due to expiring without being renewed.
• TDNam

Domain Forums

The three main domain name forums which are specifically domain name related are:

• DNForum.com 
• Namepros.com
• DomainState.com

The following forums are not solely domain name related but do, however, have active domain marketplaces.

• SitePoint Forums
• Digital Point Forums

Thus far the basics of domaining have been outlined and after this article you should have an insight into buying domain names. The forthcoming articles include:

• Part 3 of 5 - Selling Domain Names
• Part 4 of 5 - Developing Domain Names
• Part 5 of 5 - Monetising Domain Names

Keep checking back for parts 3 to 5.

The best method of successfully progressing through life whether it be in general or in business is to progress by making as few mistakes as possible. Those that learn from other people’s mistakes are the ones that succeed most in life. Throughout the forthcoming weeks and months I shall be performing various experiments as well as partaking in numerous challenges with the aim for you, the readers, to learn from my mistakes. Ultimately, the hope is that you would be inspired by the results and the step by step guidance will provide you with all the information required to carry out and succeed with your own ideas.

Domain Names

The $100 challenge - The $100 challenge involves a start-up capital of just $100 and the aim is to generate as much revenue as possible over a certain period of time via domaining (domain buying/selling/flipping e.t.c).

Web Development

Web 2.0 Startup - I shall create a web 2.0 startup using only a small amount of start-up capital and guide you through the process including mistakes I make during creation/marketing so you can avoid.

Powerful Methods of Website Promotion

I shall analyse and experiment various methods of promoting your website for maximum exposure. This shall include both free website promotion methods as well as paid promotion.

Website Monetisation

I shall experiment with various methods of website monetisation and review various advertising solutions like Google Adsense and Adbrite. The aim of the experiment is to find the best way to maximise revenue from your site with a given amount of traffic.

The challenges and experiments ahead shall hopefully provide you with inspiration and an invaluable insight which you may utilise to your advantage in your future projects.