If your trying to flip domains or jump on trends as a domain name investor, have you updated your search lists lately?

Its always been a tough adjustment to admit a trend I really liked, didn’t pan out or take off. Or, was I just too early?  I’ve probably bought over 30,000 domains over time and I’ve made mistakes. In some cases I’ve picked the wrong trend. I did a lot of names with 20 at the end. I was lucky to have one buyer who grabbed 4-6 over the years. But overall I clearly admit I overinvested.  Now I need to look at 30 and 40.

On the other hand, I have also been so ahead of time, and had seen no sales, I’ve dropped names just when companies were starting in those areas.  I think I’ve been dropping clouds name too soon. Its still a dominant topic globally. In the case of still strong trends, I need to be upgrading my inventory as other speculative investors drop names unavailable 3-4 years ago.  If I’m going to pay $9 for a renewal, am I renewing a name not as good as a drop I can get for reg fee?

And my advice to you domain investors out there is your adjustments need to based on the use of the name also, not just for the topic. I stayed too long at the table with 3 word names and high PPC names. I had high hopes for english word names in insurance and education. Still great themes but I had to finally admit, bestinsurancebrokers.com wasn’t in demand, insurerocket.com was what buyers wanted.

And for you website owners, its a good time to review the “extra” names you registered to fence off your name or brand.  If you got the .biz and .info and .mobi, let em go.

For those running registrars, have you updated your spinners to show more brandables, than common words.  Sure online was awesome in 1999, and is still strong, but it may not rate the top 5 anymore in endings.

But that’s water under the bridge (not sure I even understand that saying). I need to reprice down names that aren’t the “for sure” five figure names I once thought. I also need to update my saved searches on the platforms to see new categories. Although apps have made searching easier on mobile, saved searches that are emailed to me are still the easiest way to spend 3-5-30 minutes reviewing upcoming prospects, I’m killing time and maybe grabbing a great name.

Here are some moves I have made over the years in closely related words and some places I’m searching more now.

1. In one words, the top 100,000 words are almost all gone. The “cut line” is now in the slightly used tenses, and names with two suffixes show themselves often on drop lists.  Boy plus a suffix is boyish, then add “ness” and you get boyishness and then add one more and you have boyishnessly.com. So I’m being selective on discretionary words only when I’m the end of the line.

2. I’m especially searching for one words in other languages, antiquated words or pseudo-languages and informal slang.

3. And I am rating positive one words names and marketing attributes much higher than negative, street/adult slang and negative oriented names… unless its something you want to avoid.

4. Real Estate has moved form the foreclosure focused names to the “buy my house” type names.

5. Mortgage has moved from NoDoc Loans and Subprime to Jumbo and Prequalified

6. Insurance has moved from the basic “quote” names to “Bundle”

7. Say goodbye to 3DTV, 4KTV seen more now, 5K?

8. Videogaming morphed into Gaming and now Esports, even E-Sports

9. I am trying to upgrade in VR, this is one that has another leg up, I believe, as the devices actually come out. And I’m still bullish on virtual+ two words names.

10. Protein and Lo/No Carb Diets have moved to Keto

11. In Geos I go for more Colorado cities and Nashville (Close to me), and the renewal of downtowns in the big cities (Pittsburgh, Cleveland). Maybe less for me are Florida and Arizona. Also many cities in the 50-100k population space are growing faster than big cities. Less California as more people move out.

12. Handheld devices are now 5G instead of 3g and 4g. Maybe “text” along with mobile. QR codes seem to be out.

13. Wellness and Balance seem to be increasing in popularity, so less generic keyword “medical” domain names. Also ends with Care I Like.

14. Sustainable and climate are words I’ve added, looking for better names than the mainstays Green and Organic; where I wont grab everything like I used to. Also ZeroCarbon.

15. In brandables its tough to see trends because everything is taken, and being held. I was always more of a combo brandable, in a two word name I wanted one word to make sense. I’ve had to add more color+animal and 5 letter random with repeating letters somewhere, pippi.com, zozzo.com.

16. Longer 6-7-8 Numbers name aren’t all taken anymore, I think some better opportunities exist in 4 characters, even if numbers, so LLNN, NLLL and LLLN.

17. Casino seems to have become as popular as the generic term gambling.

18. In global geos I think, maybe over-optimisticly, that regions with conflict may join the global community. I have some North Korea and Iran names.

19. Realty has joined my lists, along with homes and real estate. I’ve also added properties especially globally.

20. I’m doing less names in dating, more in social groups and friends.

21. I’m searching for 2025 as opposed to 2020.

22. I haven’t sold many names with the word “china”, so buying less.

23. AI and data and machine learning have taken over the searches I used to do in nanotechnology.

24. Then there is 3d printing. Still the future,  but I’ve gone more for small niches in additive manufacturing and other sectors than 3dPrinting plus any word. Plus the dash factor still exists, 3-D?

Good luck. If you have more this, less that add in the comments and check to follow us on social media and subscribe to get posts each day.