Keyword Domains and Hand Regs

Some time ago I was contacted by one the readers of Solid Namer, who wanted to experess his satisfaction with the blog. We did communicate a few times after that and this time it is my turn to thank him, because it appears that “Atufo” was an old rat in the domain game and he allowed me to share parts of his mails.

Guest writer Atufo:

Hello Solid Namer

You asked about my experience selling hand regs. I did OK selling hand regs although not in a major way. My biggest sale ever was US$900 for kaivalya.com, so I definitely consider myself to be still a beginner, even though I have been involved “on and off” in a small way for a long time (since 1998). Due to a chain of events, I let go of most my domains in 2005. This year, 2008, I started to develop a new portfolio. Naturally, my first step was to look up the domains I let go, to see if they were still available. I was both saddened and encouraged to discover that many of the names I had let go are registered now by someone else. I was saddened because I like the names. I was encouraged because the fact that someone kept the names was an indication that I had chosen names that were desirable to others. About 25% of them have websites with content.

This time around, I think it might be easier for me because there is so much more knowledge around and there are so many more people showing interest. I have been reading a lot since March of this year. The things you posted were also very helpful in filling the gaps in my knowledge of how things are done now.
As for selling, I have not offered even one domain for sale since I got started again this year. But I have purchased a few very low-cost domains from various people, just as a learning experience. The domains I bought are nice enough, but I mainly purchased them in order to get practice in going through the steps of a domain sales transaction as it is done these days.

Solid Namer: When I sell domains I prefer using EscrowDNS, they are fast and reliable. They also handle the domain push (except when the domain is regged at Enom) which eliminates the risk of being scammed by the buyer. Many Escrow services only takes care of the money and checks the whois to see if the domain has been pushed properly. Some scammers, however, change their whois right after they receive your domain to YOUR registrant details and claim that you never pushed the domain. That way the escrow firm cannot see that you HAVE pushed the domain and they will send the money back to the buyer, who then gets the domain for free. I usually sell low ticket domains under 200$ through Paypal.
I have acquired enough domains to get me started in business now, so my next steps will be to (1) put some content sites at the domains and to perhaps link the sites together. (2) offer a few domains and maybe make some sales, to get experience with that.

So far, I am mystified by the great concern that people have over the key words that are in their domain names. I notice that Google gives just as big a weight to names in the other parts of a URL that follow the domain name.

For example, the following URL is at the top of the Google search report for a search for “hand regging” (2,920,000):
solidnamer.com/hand-regging-domains/37/

This URL is number 6 in the search report for “drugs” (176,000,000)
www.oas.samhsa.gov/drugs.cfm

Also, in many Google searches I do, the domain name of the top-ranked listings don’t contain any of the key words that are in the search string. The rank is determined mainly by the content of the web pages at the site.

Since that appears to be true, I am wondering: What part am I not seeing? In other words, if the keywords in the domain name only have a secondary effect on what sites appear at the top of the search engine listing, is it really so important to have a domain name that contains the generic keywords, since it appears that one can get results that are just as good by simply putting the keywords in another part of the URL and/or having a web site that has some relevant content.

Solid Namer: This is actually a very hefty discussion with two groups. Some believe that keyword rich domains are in fact important while others claim what you suggested that SEO and content is all that matters. I agree that content is king, but personally I have had too many positive experiences with keyword rich domains to believe that keywords possess no value in domain names. I am pretty sure that Google rewards domains that match search strings 100% if you are rewarded when the domain does not match the search 100% I am, however, not sure. I often times find it hard to rank well for most competitive keywords, but when the keywords in my domain match a common search phrase, I have found it much easier to rank well for that phrase in Google. You only need to add some quality content containing that exact phrase.

I will publish some more of Atufo’s mails later on. Thanks again!