Here are some of my favorite tools that I think don’t get the pub they deserve in the world of domaining:
Archive.org – When you’re about to buy a domain, take a few minutes and see what it’s been used for in the past. You never know… In the 90’s I let the domain for one of my websites expire and it was snatched up by a porn site. If you don’t like what it was years back and the domain hasn’t dropped since then you might want to think twice.
DomainTools Domain Monitor – We all have domains we wish we had. We wait for them to drop. This tool alerts you when it’s expired or renewed so you can decide on your next steps. Sometimes you may want to make an offer on a domain but first wait to see if the owner will let it expire. If they renew it then you can contact them with an offer. DomainTools can also send alerts when a new domain for a keyword is registered and when the contact info or nameservers change for a domain.
The Domain Game – My favorite book to learn all about the history of domains and domaining. Symbolics, Schwartz, Schilling… they’re all in there.
Trademarkia – The Google of trademark search. These guys were pioneers in simplifying the tedious and complex USPTO search interface. Anytime you’re dealing with a domain that’s not completely generic and keyword-based you want to check for possible trademarks. They also can help you apply for a trademark for your domain.
Namebio – Pricing a domain is never an exact science. But Namebio provides a pretty thorough historical record of past sales for domains. Just type in a keyword and you can see what specific domains sold for, what domains in that niche have sold for on average, and how they’re trending.
Domain Superstar – This site is amazing. It’s full of unique tools for domainers. One you won’t find anywhere else is a tool for finding domains on topics trending on Twitter. But there are tons of others. It helps to go there with a specific domain theme in mind (like 3-D or virtual reality) and then use each tool to find those diamonds in the rough.
This post was written by domainer Matthew Crowder. His domains are listed over at BuyNamez.com.
