Suppose you are Carl and you refurbish custom cars, or you are Mary and you make a mean maple muffin. You want to create a website for your business, but carlscustomcars.com and marysmaplemuffins.com are already taken. What do you do? You need to learn how to buy a domain name from someone who already owns it.
Decide on a Purchase Method
Acquiring an aftermarket domain name is not terribly difficult. You could contact the owner directly and try to hammer out a deal or wait for it to expire and buy it then. These are not usually highly successful methods to buy registered domain names, though. Chances are the owner of carlscustomcars.com is either not planning on letting the name expire or he may try to charge you more than you are willing to pay. In that case, your best option would be to use a domain broker. There a more than a few reputable brokers online, so finding one should pose no trouble. Aftermarket domain brokers are extremely easy to use. They will contact the current owner, negotiate a fair selling price, finalize the deal, and buy the domain name for you in proxy.
Determine the Value
When your broker negotiates the price with the current owner, a few factors will be involved in determining the value of the name. A known commodity such as a brand name will almost always hold a lot of value. Established links are worth a lot, too, because they have a stable presence on the Web. Finally, a history of high traffic to the site can certainly bump the price up, as well. Once the value is determined, your broker will then work to facilitate a fair price for the domain. Hopefully, you’ll be able to buy carlscustomcars.com without having to dip into your rainy day fund.
Kick the Tires First
There is one thing you should do before you take ownership of the domain name: Make sure you aren’t buying a lemon. Just like when buying a used car, take a long look into the history of the domain. If there are existing penalties with Google or other search engines, you could have difficulties correcting an already tarnished image. Also, check to see what industry the previous owner operated the site under. It would be unfortunate if marysmaplemuffins.com was anything other than a bakery. Finally, run a quick keyword search that includes the domain name and a few relevant words and phrases to see if anything else pops up. If you are happy with the results, you can comfortably move forward with the deal.
Now that you know how to buy a domain from someone, you can take your custom car or maple muffin business to the next level. With domain name in hand—at least virtually, anyway—you can contact a web hosting provider and get your site set up. You have cars to customize and muffins to make!
If you are eager to learn more about Web hosting, domain name registrars, and other important information for creating your online project, click here.