Acquiring "parked" domains

[web-content-king]

What is the best way of trying to acquire a domain name that is "parked" not by a registrar and has no for sale notice, but does not have relevant content? Sedo.com? Just emailing the domain owner directly?

The problem is I would not be willing to pay more than a few hundred dollars for any of the domains I'm interested in, unless the owners could provide third-party verifiable proof of traffic, because the domain really is not worth more than that. Basically, an easy-to-type-in domain name would be a nice thing for returning visitors to have, but with bookmarks, links, RSS, email newsletters, etc., I think the type-ins won't be so important for repeat visitors (correct me if I'm wrong). However, it seems that there are plenty of domain owners who wouldn't think it worth the bother to transfer a domain name for a few hundred dollars.

What do you guys think?

This has probably been discussed before, so if there is a good thread please point me to it.

[tt]

i'll try to answer this as best i can, regarding a parked domain you can always do a whois lookup on any given domain www.centralops.net and locate the registered owner. Email them and express your interest in the name and your offer. Do not get into a discussion about the name at this time, If the owner is interested they will contact you back. But remember most owners of parked domains have them there for a reason They are making them money.

For all the reasons you described above and more. Most of these are purchased from drops where they used to be a website and had people using them/ search engines indexed the name ect.

I happen to own several hundred domain names and make a reasonable living from them and the PPC. A good thing to keep in mind for a typo domain if you typed it most times it means many others do the same thing as well. A good idea when making your offer is this most domainers hold names as long as they can make at least 1-5.00 / day from PPC so if you are offering me 200.00 for a domain that costs me 6.99 to renew and I make 365.00/ year off that name I will refuse your offer quickly. But if the offer would pay me 3x's my yearly PPC revenue right now 9 times outta 10 i would sell it.

3 letter domains are of course more expensive in all TLD's they range from 100.00 to xxxxxxxxxx.00

Another good place to find reasonbly priced domains is at ebay.com

a great community that discusses domains is www.namepros.com you can answer all your questions there.

[web-content-king]

thanks for that detailed advice.

But the thing is that it's assuming a bit much that they really are getting $1/day from every parked domain, isn't it? As long as they're making more than the $10/year it takes to register the thing, why would they relinquish it?

Also, not all keyword-domains are created equal; some keywords are very high-value, some lower; some are on keywords that are searched on a lot (and therefore presumably typed into url windows a lot), some are on keywords that maybe show 100 or so searches a month.

Basically, how do I do a good mini-appraisal of a parked domain's value, so I can decide if it's worth going to a pro appraiser?

Thanks.

[onlinetv]

Originally Posted by web-content-king

thanks for that detailed advice.

But the thing is that it's assuming a bit much that they really are getting $1/day from every parked domain, isn't it? As long as they're making more than the $10/year it takes to register the thing, why would they relinquish it?

Also, not all keyword-domains are created equal; some keywords are very high-value, some lower; some are on keywords that are searched on a lot (and therefore presumably typed into url windows a lot), some are on keywords that maybe show 100 or so searches a month.

Basically, how do I do a good mini-appraisal of a parked domain's value, so I can decide if it's worth going to a pro appraiser?

Thanks.

That was GREAT advice too. I am almost EXACTLY the same. Now you are going into more detail. I have hundreds of great domains, a few crappy ones. The great ones earn 20 or more a day. A couple 1 a month. You ask how to value them? When they are parked you said it yourself, you have a budget. Make an offer.

What the gentleman said is right, they will counter offer and you decide. As you may know, if it is a good word a couple hundred aint gonna make it. If they are parked you figure his minimum of a dollar a day they earn to hold, so how can you convince them to sell? You have to offer at least $400 unless it is a seriously crippled domain (bob-s-g-ood-eating-bar-and-pub.co.uk kind of thing)

But, try it on, I had 5 dollar offers for OnlineTV.com more than once. Appraisals could kill you and cost more than a domain sometimes.

Bottom line on all domains sales and purchases is what you are willing to pay and what they are willing to sell for. If they meet, you greet. Go into the negotiations with the intent to buy in your budget. You must KNOW what you want to pay and what you are WILLING to pay. That is something no appraisal guy can do for you. The appraisal guy might tell you not to buy where you were willing to, and you might lose a domain for that. Go ask the guy, worse thing you can get back is a counter offer.