My Favorite Domain Name Research Tools

As domain investors many of us have a heavy arsenal of tools to help each of us save time, and hopefully, in our own special ways, gain a bit of an edge. When I say edge I don’t mean cheating the system in any way, but I do mean having the opportunity to put research and solid data to use to mine great domains. Notice I use the word “mine” here, I use this because some aspects of domain investing is like gold mining, finding areas that you think have good potential and successfully mining domains that return a profit either by monetization or resale.

However, also like gold mining there are certain ways you can better determine if you have a chance of finding gold. Sure, it’s not an exact science but we as domain investors are a bit like modern day gold miners crossed with real estate brokers. We try to figure out what areas are going to be the most valuable and we buy there, you can’t always be right, but those who have been can make a lot of money.

I thought I would share some of the tools that I use and as usual open the discussion to all of you as well!

DomainTools

Domain Toolsthis is definitely the tool that I use the most, and that might be because it does so many different things, a bit like a swiss army knife of domain research goodness. I use it to look-up all the information I typically need to know before I pull the trigger and buy a domain. I want to know who owned the name before, what they did with the name, where they hosted it, the list goes on. I pay the $49.95/month and it is worth every penny. If you’re making more than a few hundred dollars a month in the domain industry this should be a no brainer.

LeadRefs

LeadRefs – this tool has really grown on me this year. Lead refs does a darn good job of finding potential end-user buyers for domain names. The tool typically looks for owners of similar domain names which means it really works the best on short domains. Like most lead generation tools it only works on good domains, crappy domains won’t sell because nobody is interested in them.

Protrada

Protrada – there is nothing like constant innovation and Protrada has been innovating non-stop all year. I first started using this tool last year and find it is one of the best platforms out there for buying expired domain names. By allowing you to sort drop lists a zillion different ways you can really narrow down the types of names that are presented to you. They have been putting a ton of time into their website builder tool which is really starting to take-off.

Estibot

Estibot – this is probably the tool that I’ve used the longest and I still love it. While you may not agree with the exact value Estibot provides every single time, it is fantastic for giving you a rough estimate of a price range. Like any estimation tool I wouldn’t use this as the basis of any decision but instead use it to compliment other important data points.

NameBio

NameBio – this is also a tool that I’ve been using for a long time and I still use it just about every day. NameBio is great for quickly seeing what similar domains sold for so you can get a better understand the market that you are either buying or selling in. It is frequently updated so you can see recent sales data along with plenty of past sales data to give you the full picture.

Microsoft Excel – I have to give a shot out to Excel, I use it daily because it’s still one of the best tools on the planet for organizing data. While I don’t update all the spreadsheets myself any more, I do like checking them and seeing what’s changed. If you’re running a business, you’re using Excel.

So those are the tools that I use, what about you? What tools do you use in your daily Domaining activities?

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton