Mixergy events have been a labor of love since 2004.

Venture Capital Journal: startups & investors meet at Mixergy events.

How Domainers Profit - The Susan Smith Interview


You ever go to a web address and see a page full of links? Those links are all ads and the pages are owned by “domainers.” To learn how that business works and how anyone can profit from it, I talked with Susan Smith of DomainSponsor.

Here are some of the things I learned from her. (Download the interview for more.)

The easy days are over - In 1996, Scott Day bought watermelon.com for $3,000 and a crate of watermelons. He went on to build a domain empire that included bed.com, dress.com, and even GeorgeBush.com Today, the easy-to-get names are gone.

You have some already - Chances are good you already own some domains and aren’t doing anything with them. Try running ads on them and see how profitable they are. Maybe you bought PartySupplies.com with a plan to build a party supply empire one day. Until you get around to it, use that domain. If you send it to Susan, she’ll run ads for you and help you figure out how profitable it is.

You can contact Susan here: ssmith[at]domainsponsor.com

Don’t Tase Me Bro - New words, concepts and ideas keep popping up into the language. When you hear a phrase that you think will stick around buy that phrase as a domain name. (DontTaseMeBro.com is already taken.)

Did I miss something? If you have any other lessons from domainers, add them to the comments.

Right click to download the interview

September 17, 2008 | Filed Under Interview, podcast 

comments

5 Responses to “How Domainers Profit - The Susan Smith Interview”

  1. chris banach on September 17th, 2008

    the real term is “Domain Parker”.

  2. Robert Sanchez on September 18th, 2008

    it’s funny, because I have a few friends who have gotten into this, buying domains like parisyouth.com and buyitcheap.com. But they really don’t have any clue how much work would go behind actually making a beneficial site for that domain; I just emailed this to my friends, maybe they can start making some money until those domains become popular! thanks andrew

  3. Reichart on September 18th, 2008

    That was very well presented.
    I’m impressed.

  4. Anton Rolls on September 21st, 2008

    This is the kind of thing that turns the internet into sludge. You people make me sick.

  5. Andrew Warner on September 22nd, 2008

    Sorry you feel that way, Anton. One of the things we discussed in the interview is how domainers are moving away from just offering a page of links and starting to build out their sites. Maybe “domainers 2.0″ will be more appealing to you.

Leave a Reply