By Naz Daud

Could you run a business from home and make money trading domain names? You certainly could if you were around and buying them a few years ago. But is it still possible to make money from them now? Is it possible to buy a domain, build a basic site around it - or even not bother doing that at all - and sell it on at a profit?

There is no doubt that there are still business people who are doing this. There are even websites that exist for the sole purpose of enabling people to buy and sell domain names and the websites that have been built around them.

But the trick is not so much in doing it; it is in finding the right domain names to buy that will generate your business a good profit. The cost of buying them is not expensive, but you need to be fairly sure you will get a good return for your money after accounting for all expenses. And since some domains sell for three or four figures - and some lucky people might get even more for certain choice domain names - it pays to research the market thoroughly first.

The chances are that if you just dive in and pick names you think might sell on for a profit, you will be disappointed. If you are going to start a business like this you would probably be better off at least trying to build a website around the domain name so that you have more to sell. Bear in mind that when you try to sell a domain name you only have the promise of that name to sell people. If you build a site around it you can have more control over what you promote and sell to potential buyers. This is called website flipping as opposed to domain flipping, which is the process of selling just a domain name on its own.

If you do want to try your hand at buying and selling domain names for a profit, the best bet is to work out which terms are likely to bring you the best rewards. For example at the time of writing the domain name Retweet.com had been offered for sale. Needless to say this is a term used by lots of people to re-publish messages given by others on the social networking site Twitter. At the moment the sum offered for the domain is in five figures, and looks set to go higher.

This is just one example but it does go to show how you can still start a business and make money by choosing select keywords to build a domain around. If you are going to try this though you stand a better chance of making good money if you take the time to build a website so that you have more to offer. With careful planning and researching of the market you could end up making one or two significant sales to kick off a home based business. So don't discount the possibility of making money from domain names - it can still be done if you are careful.

Source: EzinePost.com