Basic Strategy

Focus on fields which interest you. Becoming a successful trend watcher or niche domainer requires skill, discipline, patience, and persistence; all of which will be easier to sustain if this doesn’t feel like work and would be something you’d enjoy doing in your free time. To stay ahead of the competition, trend watching domainers are constantly researching the niches they’ve chosen to specialize in. Trend watching requires good sources and enormous creativity. Many new domainers often make the mistake of entering the trend watching field unprepared.

“He who chases two hares catches neither”

To be successful trend watching, you need to pick a sufficiently small niche so that you can become an expert in it. Once you get the gist of it, you might consider adding additional niches, however the importance of keeping the number of niches you decide to trend watch in low must be emphasized – it’s impossible to watch trends across various fields and become an expert in all of them.

“Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today”

In competitive niches, it’s important to remember that time is not on your side. Domains related to new technologies or discoveries are often registered within minutes. There simply is no time to procrastinate.

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”

Not every trend will materialize. Others will take far longer to come about than you initially anticipated. While I recommend focusing on a limited number of niches, I also recommend diversifying your holdings within those niches.

“Focus on quality, not quantity”

While it’s true that cornering a niche does put you in a much better position when it comes time to sell, having 20 MT9 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MT9) domains also exposes you to 20 times more risk than having one. Consider that carefully before deciding to go on a buying binge. Newer trend watchers often get carried away and register more domains than they should when they think they’ve found the “next big thing”. Stick to .com, .net, and .org and only the strongest of terms. In the MT9 example, this would mean sticking to MT9.com, MT9.net, MT9.org and strong multi-keyword terms, such as in this case: MT9Player.com. As a general rule, I try to stay away from registering multi-keyword terms in anything but .com. Ask yourself: “Would I buy this domain if I was a business in this niche?” If the answer is no, move on. If yes, examine it further. At the end of the day, a domain is worth what someone will pay for it, not what I say it’s worth and certainly not what any appraisal service says it’s worth. Elaborating now on the previously asked question – If you were a business in the industry your niche domain caters to, how much would you pay for it? Finding endusers takes time, there are renewal fees associated with waiting for an enduser to find you or for the trend to mature to the point where an enduser might be interested in it, and there’s always the possibility that the trend won’t pan out.

Reece Berg – www.LLLL.com