Is a quick flip realistic?

I'm just curious if it's a realistic expectation to simply buy & flip a .com domain without building it out?

Meaning if, theoretically, I had a good one or two-word .com domain, would it be realistic to have it sell withing... a week? 30-days? 60-day? years?

I would like to focus on quick-flips... so if that means buying/investing like $10-20/domain & then flip for $50, I'm OK with that. Rather have speed.

Appreciate the feedback.

EDIT: a further comment - I had a separate post about tools/resources, but for this I'd like to just ask: what's a good site/source that I could analyze to figure out how fast a keyword is selling? Meaning, let's say "crypto" is the keyword... so how fast are domain names with that keyword "crypto" is selling?

The authority and real value of the domain is a factor to consider a long with the desired profit that you have chosen to make on it after flipping it.

Lioncern said:

The authority and real value of the domain is a factor to consider a long with the desired profit that you have chosen to make on it after flipping it.

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So, to go back to my strategy. I want quick flips, and I am willing to accept small profits.

Again, an example: I buy a $10-20 domain, and in theory it's a "valuable" domain.

With all that said, is it realistic that I can sell within 2-4 weeks for $30-50? Vs me trying to sell for $100s, $1000s, and me sitting on it for months?

Thanks lioncern.

I'd also be interested in knowing this. I'm looking into freelancing at the moment and have a huge range of skills in coding & SEO but just not sure where to put my efforts yrt.

At minimum, you’re stuck with whatever domain is transferred to you for 60 days because that’s how long you have to wait to transfer one.

Unless you sell the hosting account with it.

PHPInjected said:

At minimum, you’re stuck with whatever domain is transferred to you for 60 days because that’s how long you have to wait to transfer one.

Unless you sell the hosting account with it.

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This is true. Aside from that, you can never know that your two word domain will get sold for $50 or you'll get stuck with it. Successful domain flipping involves owning a lot of domains so people have what to choose from.

Successful domain flipping also involves knowing your product. Knowing which domain metrics will sell and learning by experience where & when to list them.

There’s a good combination of skill/experience & luck involved in that, but you need to be well-informed.

Domaining used to be extremely lucrative at one point. With the internet being new and everything - brandable domains used to be prime real estate. And much like real estate - squatting, selling, flipping went highly.

It's all about perceived value when it comes to domains and has less to do with anything else. As far as I remember, the factors to be considered are length, keyword, brandability and extension.

Like everything else, domaining further silos into niches as well. The most important being -

- Keyword domains
Exact Match keyword domains with a history of keywords attached to them.

- Expired domains (with a link + content history)
Domains with websites and a link history expire. If you're able to grab these, there's a decent-sized market for it among SEOs and Affiliate marketers.

As far as vanilla domaining is concerned, there are too many 2-word domains you can purchase. A few years ago, this would've fetched you a good markup. However, today even the most seasoned domainers can be seen on websites desperately trying to get rid of their portfolios either via extremely tiny markups or via heavy discounts below the reg. fee to offset their losses.

The problem with what you're expecting is consistency.

Say you register 20 domains that you think look and sound great. That's a $200 investment right there. The chances of you flipping 4 of them for $50 to recover your investments are too low. And further, the remaining 16 quickly turn into liabilities.

TL;DR - The cost-benefit analysis on domains, simply doesn't translate that well anymore.

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To others reading this. Yes, I am back!

I have done some domain flipping. Some of mine have sold in less than a year, but some haven't. What I've also noticed is that what customers like can be pretty random. Sometimes the domains I thought were good did not get bought, while my lesser domains did get bought. It is very, very, very hard to make a profit in this area. I like your idea of starting at the low end because it minimizes risk - although then profits will be smaller too. But yes, I feel that you'd have a higher chance of getting sales when flipping a $20 domain to a $50 one, as opposed to buying a $100 domain and selling for $200.

Building it out will generally get you a higher chance of selling it, but it's also a lot more work, so that's a trade-off you will have to think about.

BlogPro said:

The problem with what you're expecting is consistency.

Say you register 20 domains that you think look and sound great. That's a $200 investment right there. The chances of you flipping 4 of them for $50 to recover your investments are too low. And further, the remaining 16 quickly turn into liabilities.

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100% agree with this - this is the major issue in domaining is how to make sure that the profits from your sales cover all the domains that don't sell (you also need to factor in renewal fees if they don't sell after a year). Because some of your domains just won't sell - that's part of domaining.

Domaining is not an easy way to make a quick buck, instead a good analogy is thinking of it as legalized gambling lol but with a slightly higher chance of making a profit! It's still not easy to make a profit with it, and (at least in my domaining niche) I don't use it as my main way of making money (I make it from blogging), but domaining is a side gig for me that brings in a little bit of extra money.

jexie said:

I'm just curious if it's a realistic expectation to simply buy & flip a .com domain without building it out?

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What's in it for the buyer?

jexie said:

So, to go back to my strategy. I want quick flips, and I am willing to accept small profits.

Again, an example: I buy a $10-20 domain, and in theory it's a "valuable" domain.

With all that said, is it realistic that I can sell within 2-4 weeks for $30-50? Vs me trying to sell for $100s, $1000s, and me sitting on it for months?

Thanks lioncern.

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you can give it a shot. you could even sell them as a package and instead of selling them for $30, you could go for $25 each, but the cost of selling them all together

What is your budget?

It's possible. I've done it before, but it's no sustainable/long term business model.

Reminds me of a method I read on here long ago where this dude would find businesses with weebly/wix/no websites, purchase their domain, and sell it to them. I'd recommend doing something a bit more calculated like that rather then searching for a needle in a haystack.

There are many factors to consider. Like value of the domain. Also luck.

I've been flipping domains more as a hobby. I like to create a brand for them and sell them as a package rather than just a domain. It helps bring up the value a bit and helps the customer see potential in the domain if it's branded properly. I have been able to do quick flips with smaller profits, but honestly, I prefer to sit and sell for more now. If I know they have value to someone out there, I don't mind sitting. Best of luck to you on your domain flipping journey!

You generally will get stuck with most your domains, so you have to flip them for a good multiple to make up for all the ones you're stuck with.