Is it a waste of money to purchase variations of a domain name when your intention is to flip it?

9 replies
If you're buying a domain name with the intention of flipping it for a profit, is it wasteful and/or a bad strategy to purchase all of its variations: plural/singular alternates, hyphenated, under various other TLDs, etc.

Let's say the target domain name is:

mikescookies.com

Then would you also register any/all of the following?

mikescookie.com
mikecookies.com
mikecookie.com
mikes-cookies.com
mikes-cookie.com
mike-cookies.com
mike-cookie.com

mikescookie.org
mikecookies.org
mikecookie.org
mikes-cookies.org
mikes-cookie.org
mike-cookies.org
mike-cookie.org

mikescookie.net
mikecookies.net
mikecookie.net
mikes-cookies.net
mikes-cookie.net
mike-cookies.net
mike-cookie.net

mikescookie.ca
mikecookies.ca
mikecookie.ca
mikes-cookies.ca
mikes-cookie.ca
mike-cookies.ca
mike-cookie.ca

(in case that Mike is Canadian )

This is obviously out of hand. What are the considerations when determining if it makes sense to purchase variations of a domain name? When it does make sense, how far should it be taken? Does it ever make sense if your intention is to flip the domain, thereby lowering your interest in protecting the brand?

Thanks.
#domain #flip #flipping #intention #money #purchase #variations #waste
  • Profile picture of the author Jack Gordon
    Registering domains to flip is a dangerous game.

    While this strategy *might* have been borderline justifiable before this year (if the domain was strong enough) it is dead now.

    In the age of 1000+ GTLDs, you will never protect all of the reasonable options. And most newly registered domains will not garner a price that would justify this aggressive technique.

    99+ times out of 100, you will lose.

    I would instead focus on higher-priced, higher-quality .coms and the occasional very strong .GTLD
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    • Profile picture of the author Jason Freeman
      What I have seen some people do is offer these as a package deal. I would not waste time trying to get all the variations unless you plan on keeping it.
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    • Profile picture of the author superwebdev
      Originally Posted by Jack Gordon View Post

      Registering domains to flip is a dangerous game.

      While this strategy *might* have been borderline justifiable before this year (if the domain was strong enough) it is dead now.
      By "this strategy," do you mean registering all of these domain variations (as per the absurd example above) or do you mean domain flipping in general?

      Originally Posted by Jack Gordon View Post

      In the age of 1000+ GTLDs, you will never protect all of the reasonable options. And most newly registered domains will not garner a price that would justify this aggressive technique.

      99+ times out of 100, you will lose.
      So do you recommend not purchasing all of the variations of a domain name or just avoid domain flipping altogether?

      Originally Posted by Jack Gordon View Post

      I would instead focus on higher-priced, higher-quality .coms and the occasional very strong .GTLD
      Do you mean to "focus on" buying "higher-priced, higher-quality .coms .." with the intention of flipping them or to do something else with them?

      Thanks for the reply.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tim3
    I think Jack has it right above.

    It would likely be cheaper to register a trademark and sell that with the domain instead.
    You can see the costs here (US)
    Current Fee Schedule - Effective January 01, 2014
    Signature

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    • Profile picture of the author superwebdev
      Originally Posted by Tim3 View Post

      I think Jack has it right above.

      It would likely be cheaper to register a trademark and sell that with the domain instead.
      You can see the costs here (US)
      Current Fee Schedule - Effective January 01, 2014
      Well, this was an extreme example of registering a ridiculous number of variations on a not-amazing domain name.

      It becomes more clear what to do when you're dealing with something like book.com. In that case, you'd want to register its plural and both singular and plural on pretty well any TLD that you can get them on.

      I guess I'm wondering about those middle cases when there are a few variations and it's a pretty good name but not a common four letter word.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jack Gordon
    I mean domain flipping is a tough business to get right, and in most cases nobody is going to get it right by registering new domains anymore.

    I certainly am not implying it can't be done, but it is going to be very difficult to build a business off of it.

    Sticking with better quality .com domains and aggressively marketing them can be lucrative, but it requires work, more than many are willing to do.

    The GLTDs have, in my opinion, destroyed the aftermarket potential for most of the old non .coms (i.e. net, info, org, etc)

    Again, not to say there aren't exceptions. But I don't see anyone building a business off of mediocre domain flipping anymore. There are just too many interesting alternatives that are freely available, and will only grow in acceptance as time goes on.
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    • Profile picture of the author superwebdev
      Originally Posted by Jack Gordon View Post

      I mean domain flipping is a tough business to get right, and in most cases nobody is going to get it right by registering new domains anymore.

      I certainly am not implying it can't be done, but it is going to be very difficult to build a business off of it.

      ...

      The GLTDs have, in my opinion, destroyed the aftermarket potential for most of the old non .coms (i.e. net, info, org, etc)

      Again, not to say there aren't exceptions. But I don't see anyone building a business off of mediocre domain flipping anymore. There are just too many interesting alternatives that are freely available, and will only grow in acceptance as time goes on.
      I understand. That makes a lot of sense.

      What about if we only stick to non-hyphenated .com variations and your domain name is, let's say, coffeebean.com. Would you not also register coffeebeans.com? What if beancoffee.com is also available? Or is that a step too far?

      Originally Posted by Jack Gordon View Post

      Sticking with better quality .com domains and aggressively marketing them can be lucrative, but it requires work, more than many are willing to do.
      Please excuse my noobness but what does "aggressively marketing them" mean? Building a site / application and pulling in ad revenue? Selling it? Starting a blog and generating ad revenue from the inbound traffic? What is it that we're marketing? How is the money being made?
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      • Profile picture of the author Jack Gordon
        Originally Posted by superwebdev View Post

        I understand. That makes a lot of sense.

        What about if we only stick to non-hyphenated .com variations and your domain name is, let's say, coffeebean.com. Would you not also register coffeebeans.com? What if beancoffee.com is also available? Or is that a step too far?


        Please excuse my noobness but what does "aggressively marketing them" mean? Building a site / application and pulling in ad revenue? Selling it? Starting a blog and generating ad revenue from the inbound traffic? What is it that we're marketing? How is the money being made?
        If coffeebean.com and coffeebeans.com were both available, you would want to grab them and sell them as a pair. Of course, they are not available. And yes, beancoffee.com is a step too far.

        Of course, those are extreme examples in the other direction. You are not going to easily find domains like that available to register or cheap enough to speculate on.

        And aggressively marketing, in the world of domain flipping, means researching potential endusers for the domain, contacting them, and persuading them to pay you a good price for a domain that - before you contacted them - they didn't even know they needed.
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        • Profile picture of the author superwebdev
          Originally Posted by Jack Gordon View Post

          If coffeebean.com and coffeebeans.com were both available, you would want to grab them and sell them as a pair. Of course, they are not available. And yes, beancoffee.com is a step too far.

          Of course, those are extreme examples in the other direction. You are not going to easily find domains like that available to register or cheap enough to speculate on.

          And aggressively marketing, in the world of domain flipping, means researching potential endusers for the domain, contacting them, and persuading them to pay you a good price for a domain that - before you contacted them - they didn't even know they needed.
          I see. Thanks for the information. I've purchased a bunch of .com domains recently and they're all decent six and seven letter names. I just don't know if I should get their plural counterparts. I've wasted too much money in the past buying domains and web hosting and the like and never doing anything with any of it only to let it all expire. It's so hard to know what to do sometimes...
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