Welcome to The Domain Game

The Domain Game is one of the hottest games around these days, with everyone wanting to get in on the act. The game is to buy and sell Domain Names, the new Real Estate of the 21st century. It's an addictive game with the potential to strike it rich (but with an equal potential to financially drain you).

I'm a newbie to the Game, but not to Domain names - I've purchased several over the years and had several names in my "portfolio" long before I decided to see if they had any resale value. I've always bought Domain Names with the intention of building a website (or even better, a Web Service) behind them. I'm a technophile who spends a large fraction of his life developing software, and these days I've mostly gravitated towards building web-based applications using PHP and mySQL. While I have no real talent for layout, thanks to the fine people at the Open Source Design Group I have used a selection of open-source templates that I modify to use within my designs. Most of my previous work has been for corporate Intranet and Extranets, but I'd like to apply it now to the Web in general. I have a database-driven website and content management system that I've been perfecting for about a year now, and I want to offer it out as open-source soon - it's specifically geared to the management of a network of web sites. And that "network of web sites" is precisely what inspired me to start collecting a portfolio of Domain Names in the first place!

Recently I started parking some of my Domains at SEDO and offering them up at a fair profit. The thought here is that I probably won't get any serious offers (which is OK, as I fully intend to develop these sites anyway) and I'll just perhaps earn some PPC revenue. My fiancee has also been bitten by the Domain Game bug and she's started a small portfolio of more saleable names that I am going to manage for her - this in turn has inspired me to amass more saleable names of my own. So now I'm in the Game!

With any endeavor that has the potential to deplete my already strained financial and time resources I'm always very careful to research all the facts before I dive in head first. So I've spent a few months researching Domain Name Sales from every angle I could think of, and every day I'm looking into new sources and reading new postings on Blogs and forums to keep up to date with this fast paced Game. And now I'm starting this Blog in an effort to try and inspire more communication about this Game. Further, I'm also developing some of my properties into domain name web sites. One of them will be a niche site specifically focused on gathering all of the information that one would need to play the game. Another will be a Web Service that, when developed, will allow subscribers to manage and research their portfolio and speculations. I intend to make this the best of the best, I'm currently evaluating every domain-related piece of software that I can get my hands on in an effort to design the ultimate" domain research tool. The intention is to offer a free (advertiser-supported) and a pay subscription to the service, which I hope to make too invaluable for any serious player to refuse. Note that I haven't released the URL's for either site yet, as they are both in their infancy right now.

I'd love to hear from any and all who have been playing the game, or who are also just getting started with it. In turn I plan to pass on information that I've digested from all of my ongoing research.

Let the Games Begin.....