NameTrader.com

So – you saw this @nametrader fellow on Twitter and clicked his site link and now you’re here. I guess I should elaborate on who this weird “nametrader” person is!

About Me & My Domain Background

My name is Steve Jones and I live and breathe domain names – that pretty much sums it up. It’s my passion, my career, my life. I not only make a living buying and selling domain names, but also broker domains for others and consult people on their domain decisions (through Domainate.com).  Some gems I still own (either fully or with partners) are Doma.in, Autorespond.com, Who.mobi, ByYou.com, and VYO.com (Voice Your Opinion).

Me at 17 10 years ago, -30 lbs and smurfed up!

Once upon a time, I was a teenager growing up in the quick-becoming internet age. I found it interesting to see how computers have evolved even being that I vividly remember 8-inch floppy disks and the glorious text-only game of “Football” where the complex decision of “Rush or Pass?” decided both your offensive and your defensive fate.  That said, it would ultimately be games that really sucked me into the series of tubes we call the internets.  Notably, Yahoo! Chess was my online home for a good many years.  The above picture was from the midst of that, 1999, around the time when I started to understand the concept of domain names.  After all, Business.com sold that year for great gobs o’ money and many a ear perked up at that interesting news byte – that a touchless tasteless virtual piece of property could fetch millions of dollars.  Over the next bunch of years however, besides owning only 1 domain name that corresponded to a nickname I used often back then, I hadn’t developed the fascination of domains, but the curiosity slowly built up before ultimately driving me to action.

It wasn’t until 2004 that I got started in domain name speculating – not early enough to be a shoo-in for domain millionaire, not late enough to have all the great tools that make it easier now. I have been “domain aware” since the late 90s (the Business.com sale woke everyone up) but hadn’t seriously looked into them until 2003. Eventually I took the plunge and started registering a couple domains here and there that I thought were decent. 9 months later, I had spent over $1,000 on domain names with absolutely no sales to speak of and maybe $2/mo in parking revenue – oh joy! I made a $650 sale of Ringtone.cc but was still in the red until one sale changed my life – and has changed the lives of others since then as well!

I had the domain SixDegrees.org with the thought of it being a solid networking term…keep in mind this was 2004, before the MySpace and Facebook prominence. Out of nowhere, I received an offer of $2,000 for the domain, and thus started the momentum that has barely died since then, with my domain hobby turning into a side business, then into a higher income business than my day job, then into my career in 2007 thanks to the $60,000 sale of Poker.in. The trippy thing is who BOUGHT SixDegrees.org – none other than Kevin Bacon himself, to start a CHARITY! How freakin’ cool is that?! One day I hope to let him know face-to-face how he touched my life with that purchase and commend him for helping others with the charity.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past 5 years, it’s that you should not take your domain decisions lightly. Mr. Bacon didn’t and he’s reaped the moral rewards from his awesome domain acquisition. GoDaddy would love nothing more than for everyone who wants to start a website to register a domain through them – they advertise during the Super Bowl to get people to do this. The truth however is that getting a premium domain on the secondary market is the single best investment you can make in your business if you have a sense of domain values and understand what domains would be best for your business. Social media tends to blind people to the uber importance of having a high quality domain that catches eyeballs. The money I spent to acquire NameTrader.com has paid back an immeasurable amount in brandability and memorability – as can the domain you get for your business.

So – how can I help you?

• New to domains entirely? Go to my Favorite Tweets where I’m keeping track of tweets I feel are helpful domain tidbits and other related stuff people should know. Note that I will soon be making informational blog posts about domains in my blog doma.in and will be Favoriting my tweets of those blog posts, so overall that should become a good stream of domain info to acclimate you to the world of domains.
• Puzzled about anything particular regarding domains? ( i.e. where you should register, what to do if not developing them, where to buy/sell domains, etc.)  Shoot me a reply on Twitter or contact me here and let me know your question.  Some more involved questions would require a Domainate consultation but general info questions I’m happy to answer!
• Looking to buy a domain for your business? Contact us at Domainate and let us know the category, preferred extension and other criteria you are looking for along with your budget (should be minimum $xxx) and we’ll either let you know what we have that would work for you OR if your needs are beyond the scope of our portfolio, we can help you find the best domain for your budget and acquire it. Feel free to browse through our portfolio to get a feel for what we own (note that we do own some names that are not yet listed there).
• Have domain(s) to sell? Contact us at Domainate and let us know what you’ve got, any traffic data or other helpful information we should know about your domain(s) along with your rock-bottom price and we may either be interested in buying your domain OR if it’s a 5+ figure domain that’s worth what you are asking, we may offer brokering services to help you get it sold.
• Want to know how to grow on Twitter? Follow and watch @sharonhayes, my domain partner in Domainate who has become a prominent Twitter guru…she not only tweets a lot of helpful information about Twitter among other things, but she shows by example how to make the most of Twitter by how she acts and interacts with others on Twitter.  You can learn a ton about Twitter and about how to win in social media just by paying attention to what she does and reading her tweets about Twitter.
• Anything else? Converse with me on Twitter…besides domains, web development, graphic and web design and SEO, I’m into sports (watching Wimbledon as I type this), music, movies, TV, chess, and a bunch of other stuff.  Always happy to meet cool new people!

Domain registrars I recommend:

1. GoDaddy.com – Great for domains as long as before you purchase, you find the best coupon code (go to latest page and work backwards to make sure you get valid codes).  Would not suggest GoDaddy for hosting (recommended hosts below).
2. NameCheap.com – For those that don’t want to bother with coupon codes, this is a strong registrar.
3. Fabulous.com – For domain owners with big portfolios (i.e. they must approve you) – has IMO the best management system for domains.
4. Moniker.com – The best for most country-code extension domains that GoDaddy and NameCheap don’t sell.

Web hosts I recommend:

1. Rackspace.com – If you need a server, this is the place to go.  Excellent customer service and tech support.
2. DreamHost.com – Easily the most cost-effective host when they have their best sales going (sometimes you can get a domain and a YEAR of hosting for under $10!), overall has been a solid host for me for the past 2+ years.
3. HostGator.com – I’ve not had a chance to personally use them but they are the ones I hear the most positive things about.  They are like DreamHost a shared/virtual hosting solution.

Domain marketplaces I recommend:

1. Sedo.com – They are #1 for a reason…this is by far where the most domain sales activity goes on.
2. Afternic.com – Integrated with BuyDomains, they have been rebounding in the past year to become a strong domain marketplace once again.
3. SnapNames.com – Once just a backordering service, they have now aligned with Moniker.com to become a force in the domain aftermarket and domain auction realms.

If you need recommendations for anything else like Affiliate/CPA networks and whatnot, feel free to ask me on Twitter.  My motivation is not so much to get people to use the sites I like, but to keep people from using the sites I hate!

Final words of advice:

Whatever you intend to do online, stay focused on it and give it the best effort and time you’ve given ANYTHING (yes, that means turning off the TV, not endlessly surfing online, checking email and stats every 3 minutes, etc.), and you will make it a success.  The successful people that most tend to think of as “lucky” are the ones that create their own luck and opportunities through hard work, dedication and perseverence.  Do YOURSELF a favor and be the most successful you can be in the next few years so that you can then have the comfort to live the life you want for the rest of your life!

-Steve