Domaining Tools and Resources

This list of domain name resources is under development. I will be constantly adding resources to the list on an ongoing basis. If you know of a resource that belongs on the list, please let me know.

Links in each category are organized alphabetically.

Domain Name Industry News

Domain Industry Organizations

Blogs by Domainers, About Domaining:

Domain Name Forums:

Where to Back Order Expiring and Deleting Domain Names:

Domain Name Auction and Sale Sites:

Domain Name Parking Services:

  • Domain Spa - http://www.domainspa.com/
    Domain Spa was one of the first domain name monetization services. Like Domain Sponsor, they have now developed a self-optimizing and traffic learning system that will analyze and auto optimize your domain page. They monetize their pages using Ask.com, ePilot, Miva, Enhance, iBoogie, Alphacom and ExpiredTraffic.com.
  • DomainSponsor - http://www.domainsponsor.com/
    Domain Sponsor calls themselves “the industry leader in domain monetization, providing the industry’s only complete optimization package built on simultaneous execution of semantic, behavioral and landing page optimization.” My opinion: their pages are ugly, but payouts and CTR is good. What else could you want? Domain Sponsor is particularly good for hard-to-optimize domains.
  • Dotzup - http://www.dotzup.com/
    Established in 1997, Dotzup is a very selective parking service that creates custom landers for high traffic domains. Dotzup does not accept adult, gambling, trademark or international domain names. Dotzup themselves own 100,000 domains and not surprisingly they boast they theirs is the “cleanest” portfolio in the world. I personally find their parking templates to be unattractive (see for example http://www.quotes.com), but if they accept your domain they guarantee that they will beat what your current income.
  • Fabulous - http://www.fabulous.com
    One of the best. Fabulous is looking specifically for good generic and type-in domains. Good payouts for gambling related names in particular. Excellent portfolio management tools, and Fabulous is a domain name registrar as well.
  • Gold Key - http://www.goldkey/
  • I have no personal experience with Gold Key, but I’ve been told that they do not have a minimum portfolio size to accept your application, so you can join with only one domain if that’s all you have.
  • NameDrive - http://www.namedrive.com/
    I have not used NameDrive.com’s services myself, but they are an industry leader and many domainers praise their good payouts and attractive page layouts. One unique offering of theirs is that if you park a domain with them for a month, they will offer to buy the domain for an amount equal to between 6 months and 8 years of the traffic generated (you are not obligated to sell).
  • Parked.com - http://www.parked.com/
    There’s been some buzz lately about Parked. They pay twice a month, have simple page layouts with good CTRs, and they optimize domain names using a system they call Domain Magic, a self-learning proprietary Internet advertising optimization technology.
  • Parking Panel - http://www.parkingpanel.com/
    Parking panel offers traditional (and very attractive) PPC templates, but they differentiate themselves by also allowing you to drive traffic directly to a cost-per-action (CPA) landing page form if they have a lead generation client with open orders in their system that is currently looking for your targeted traffic.
  • Sedo - http://www.sedo.com/
    At Sedo you can buy and sell domain names, or just park them to earn money from your domains’ natural traffic. The bulk of my domains are parked with Sedo and I have been happy with their optimization tools and payouts. The only exception would be domains whose traffic is hard to pinpoint - i.e. you’re not sure what the visitors are looking for. For those domains I recommend DomainSponsor.com because of their automatic, adaptive optimization system.
  • TrafficZ - http://www.trafficz.com/
    TrafficZ has been around for a while. They’re known for detailed stats and good customer service. The new page designs are overly complex in my opinion, though they do allow you do design your own banner if you wish. They combine PPC payments and CPM, which may be good for domains with high traffic but low CTRs.
  • WhyPark.com - http://www.whypark.com/
    A different kind of parking service. You pay a one-time flat fee for an account that lets you park up to 100 domain names, and you keep 100% of the parking revenue. They allow you to customize your page extensively with your own code, or you can choose one of their pre-designed layouts.

Domain Research Tools

  • Acronym Finder - http://www.acronymfinder.com/
    Find out what any acronym, abbreviation or initialism stands form. Good for exploring the possible worth of short, acronym-like domains.
  • Alexa - http://www.alexa.com/
    The classic traffic measurement tool used by virtually all domainers. Alexa assigns a ranking number to every website showing how its traffic ranks against all other sites. Provides other assorted information as well, such as sites linking in, and recent traffic growth.
  • DNS Locator Search - http://www.dnslocator.com/
    DNSLocator.com allows you to look up all domains and websites hosted on a particular nameserver. Their search totals include .com, .net, .org, .biz, .us, .info and are limited to domain names that are considered (active) within each TLD zone.
  • Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine - http://www.archive.org/index.php
    The Wayback Machine Data is a service provided by Alexa. They have archived billions of websites going back many years. Using this tool you can search their archives to see what a website looked like in previous years. Suppose you’re trying to monetize a domain name that you purchased. It’s getting traffic but you’re not sure what the visitors are looking for. Check the archives to see if there used to be a website on the domain, so that you can deduce what your visitors are searching for.
  • NameBio.com - http://www.namebio.com/
    Provides a searchable database of domain sales histories. Give you the price, the date sold, and what service the domain was sold through.

Domain Research Tools: Getting Ideas for Domains to Register:

Domain Research Tools: Traffic Estimation Tools

Tools for estimating traffic to a domain or website, and getting a demographic analysis of visitors.

  • Alexa - http://www.alexa.com/
    Alexa, which is owned by Amazon.com, is one of the fundamental tools of domain name analysis and valuation. Alexa assigns a traffic ranking number to every website that shows its popularity position on the web. It also provides a number of other stats for each website, such as the number of pages viewed per visitor, the national origin of the traffic, and a list of incoming links.
  • Compete.com - http://www.compete.com/
    Enter up to three domains and this tool gives you a graph showing traffic levels over the last year.
  • Quantcast Open Internet Ratings Service - http://www.quantcast.com/
    Enter a domain and Quantcast gives you a wealth of good information, such as number of monthly uniques, visitor demographics, and similar sites. Only works for higher-traffic sites.

Free Keyword Research and Suggestion Tools

Keyword tools are vital for SEO, but they can also be used as domain name analysis tools. Popular keywords form the basis for good generic domain names. And if the specific domain you want is taken, a keyword tool may help you come up with an acceptable alternative. Keyword tools can also help you optimize your domain’s parking page, or to analyze a domain or website you’re thinking about buying.

Some of these tools are repetitive, but many present data in different ways, so you may like one more than another.

Domain Name Appraisals: Automated Tools:

(Note: These tools are handy, but inherently flawed. Because they are simple calculators, they cannot understand the nuances of language that can sometimes make a domain valuable or worthless. For that reason, professional domainers do not rely on these tools for appraisals. For beginners, however, they can be a good starting point).

  • Estibot - http://www.estibot.com/
    Estibot is a free, automated domain name appraisal engine. Values your domain name based upon 30+ characteristics of the domain name, including recent domain sales in a similar category. Josh, the creator, is a member of the NamePros.com community and has a Ph.D. in neuroscience.
  • Leapfish.com - http://www.leapfish.com/
    Another automated domain name value estimator, with a link to a (paid) expert appraisal for potentially valuable domains.
  • swift appraisal - http://www.swiftappraisal.com/
    This automated tool is slightly different. It asks you to rate your domain name based on marketability, memorability and clarity, then takes those factors into account in appraising the domain’s value. It’s possible that you get a more accurate appraisal as a result. The obvious flaw in the system is that many domain owners will rate their domains too highly, thereby skewing the results.

Webmaster Tools:

Other Domaining Websites

  • Domains Magazine - http://domainsmagazine.com/
    I put this site in the “Other” category because it has no original content. It’s a collection of domain name related articles aggregated from other websites. Nevertheless, you may find some useful articles here.
  • DomainTools.com - http://www.domaintools.com/
    Jay Westerdal’s Domain Tools presents a suite of useful domain name tools, including a wildcard search of all current/deleted/expired whois domains, and a domain name suggestion engine.

Great Blogs About Making Money Online

Some of these blogs, while not specifically about domain names, are great resources that should not be missed by any serious domainer:

Domain Financing

I created a separate category for Domain Capital because I couldn’t think of where else to put it:

Popularity: 4% [?]

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One Comment to “Domaining Tools and Resources”

  1. Vic | March 21st, 2008 at 10:52 am

    This is a really valuable collection of quality domaining tools and resources.

    IMO, it would be useful to most classes of domainers, ranging right from wannabes to pros, to varying extents.

    BTW, do I remember right that Rick Latona also runs a Domain Financing company? I’m lazy to check right now, but I think it is probably Digipawn.com.

    You might want to check and add it to the Domain Financing category. HTH.

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