Commercial Property

Have you ever wondered how people make money online “buying” domain names? During the big Internet boom of the early 90’s I was fascinated with domain brokering, however, it wasn’t until years later I actually learned how to make money as a domain broker.

Your first hurdle usually comes when you find out you don’t even own the domain name, rather you are merely renting it. You can rent the domain name indefinitely, but owning it isn’t an option.

The logical question from novice domain brokers is: “If you are renting a domain name, how can you make money brokering it?” After all, if you are renting an apartment you can’t make money brokering it to another renter. Can you? In a word, no.

But you don’t need to own domain names to make money with them, if you did, domain brokering wouldn’t be so popular. Using the apartment example, lets look at it like this. When you rent an apartment no one else can rent it. You live there. You take up that space, so nobody else can use it. The same goes for the Internet.

A top level domain name can only point to one website at a time, and that is where domain brokering comes into play.

Do you see how domain brokering works? You are essentially leasing or transferring the domain name rights to another company.

While you can theoretically broker any domain name, it helps if the domain you are trying to broker has some equity.

What is domain name equity? Well, lets look at it with another real world example. If you own property in Atherton, California (currently the most expensive city to buy property in in the US), it is likely to be worth more than property anywhere else in the United States. The Internet isn’t much different. In fact, most of the offline business models have online counterparts. Domain brokering is the equivalent to a land developer. Or at the very least a real estate agent.

When you broker a domain you sell the rights to that domain to another company, or you lease the name to them for a period of time. You make money, because the domain name has value, either because it is currently trendy, or it fits into the company’s niche.

Lets explore these options a little further.

First, take the trendy option. If you have been a part of the online community for a little while, you know which sites are currently the top hangouts. They’re trendy, and there are a lot of other sites out there offering supplementary services to these sites. They are often similarly named and styled. Often, domain name brokers will create derivative names for the “in” sites. These names are now in their portfolio. As popularity grows for the site, demand also grows for good domain names to offer supplementary services through. This is where the domain broker’s portfolio comes into play.

Brokering the domain names now will result in profit. The amount of profit depends greatly on the demand for the domain name, and the experience of the broker.

One case of trendy domain brokering is casino.mobi, which was brokered for $135,000. This isn’t an unheard of amount for domain brokering, some portfolios are worth millions. However, it was a milestone for the .mobi top level domain names.

What about niches? You know the expression: “find a niche and fill it.” Niches are what drives business on the web today. They are also lend themselves to domain brokering.

Let’s use a fishing example here. But before we do we will have to zero in on our niche. Fishing isn’t a niche, it is an umbrella term. Fly fishing is a niche, so is deep sea angling. The more granular you can make your topic, the more potential you have to dominate it on the Internet.

The deep sea angling niche is granular enough to rank in, yet still gives us some room to grow. And since it is our passion, we were able to build up a lot of content on the topic. We have even found like-minded people to share our passion with. We now have a community. This domain, let us call it YourDeepSeaAnglingSite.com, now has equity.

If you were looking into brokering this domain name now, you would see that it is more valuable than it was when you first got it. How much more depends on what you’ve done with it.

These are just two examples of how to make money in the large and lucrative domain brokering industry. Which is just one of many ways people make money online today. Hopefully you have enjoyed this article as much as I have writing it for you. And that it has helped to clear away some of the mystery surrounding domain brokering.

Buying or leasing office space is a much different situation than buying or leasing a home. Over the past couple years, corporate real estatewas doing really well as businesses were booming and filling up their space quickly. However, with the economy now businesses are consolidating and getting rid of space, so things have changed significantly.

For people managing corporate real estate or handling office leasing they are going to be in for much tougher negotiations. Rental rates are at a much lower rate than they were a few years ago and companies may be less inclined to sign a long-term contract.  Companies are doing everything they can to explore cost-cutting measures. Even the simple office supplies that weren’t a big deal to purchase in the past may now need management approval.

This type of leasing climate is especially good for those companies who know they are going to weather this economic downturn just fine. Yes, there are a few out there still making money. These companies can take advantage of the lower rates and the many incentives that are being provided. If they can take advantage of a longer term lease they may end up saving a lot of money. Tenants are looking for the best deal when they look for office space and landlords are really going to the extra mile to lock them in.

Lease negotiations are in the tenant’s court right now. With discounted rent or even free rent for a period of time, this is a good time to be searching for office space. Landlords that are struggling to find tenants may offer a variety of great deals such as paying for the space to be renovated or providing the options for additional build-outs on the property. Further, landlords are offering much more flexibility with the term of the lease. In good markets, landlords might be especially stringent when it comes to lease terms and getting out of a lease early. However, now they are much more willing to talk about ending leases early, which may be a cost savings to tenants paying for unnecessary space. Tenants are also setting leases with shorter renewal options to allow for better positioning when the market does improve. While they may be cutting costs now, most companies are looking forward to a day when they can get back to normal, hire more employees and re-fill up that space they just vacated.

Even though the economy has many wishing for jobs, grumbling about unemployment or afraid for the days to come, it also holds a lot of cost savings measures of which business should take advantage. With the better lease rates, more flexibility in negotiation and the incredible incentives on the table, it is a no brainer for companies to take advantage and save some money. We won’t always be in a recession; companies won’t always be struggling to fill their office space. However, right now, for both landlords and tenants it is a very different market. And, while tomorrow may change things for the better. Today, companies should stop and look at the many ways they can make choices today to improve their financial picture tomorrow, especially when it comes to their office space.

It is no question that in the current economy many banks have struggled and some have even lost the battle. Mortgage companies as well received a bad wrap for many of their practices of approving anyone for a loan. Well, with the advancing technologies available it is no wonder that banks are turning to companies that can offer them Software as a Service (SaaS) to help them with their realtime decisioning and automation. This can be useful in Small Business Lending as well, in order to make it a much more streamlined and successful process.

The great thing about automated decisioning is that it is fast. This is good for either the small businesses or individual looking to receive a loan as well as for the bank. The software offered for this type of decision making is often provided as a SaaS. What this means is that the software is managed by an outside source, thus making IT and computer problems much less of a reality for the institution. It also allows them to have the company handle all the installation of the software and management of all the tools. They also won’t need to manage updates and any other programming because it will be outsourced to the company providing the service. This is becoming a popular way to do business as it really allows companies to focus on what they do best, rather than having them focus on solving IT and other related problems with an in-house team.

Using SaaS as a small business lending solution can allow banks to integrate multiple business and consumer data choices, mix prescreen and permissible purpose offers through all channels, and enhance the customer experience through real-time booking. These can provide the institutions the immediate, accurate results they are looking for in this type of lending. Plus the SaaS is always secure and is built to the specification of the specific customer, thus making each system unique to the user.

Time is important in the decision-making process. If a consumer cannot get a loan through one bank, they are going to want to try getting a loan through another bank. This quick process allows them to have the opportunity to do just that. With instant decision and loan origination software banks and other financial institutions increase profitability and offerings.

In this economy it is becoming more and more important for financial institutions to leverage their strengths and the technology around them to stand out in the crowd. Customers are going to choose the institution that is making headway during this time rather than being tossed back and forth in the waves. When it comes to money people are protective and have very strong opinions about how it should be lent by their institutions and safeguarded. Customers can be kept happy if they understand what the bank is doing during these times to increase protection, increase advancement and better the way they do business.