subject: Private Domain Registration: Should You Use It As A Website Flipper? [print this page] As a website flipper, you may think that private domain registration is a great business move, but this article may change your mind. Granted, it's always advisable to safeguard your private information, but is that really beneficial to your website flipping business? Before discussing why you shouldn't use private domain registration, here is an explanation of what it is.
Private Domain Registration
When working with a registrar like GoDaddy or NameCheap, you have the choice to register the domain privately. Some registrars will ask you to pay a small fee to withhold your information from the public. A non-profit corporation, ICANN watches over the registration of domain names, and it is a requirement for registrars to maintain a public WHOIS listing of the registered domains. This means that if you don't opt to register privately, anyone who performs a WHOIS search can get hold of your personal information.
Why a Website Flipper Shouldn't Use Private Domain Registration
Don't panic. There's a perfectly justifiable reason why you shouldn't use private domain registration. As a website flipping professional, you probably have many currently unused domains and websites under your name. These possessions are in fact assets that are a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week advertisement for you. Savvy buyers are site-shopping even outside of Flippa. The truth is, a potential buyer may even be looking at one of your parked domains right now. Don't you want them to be able to get a hold of you?
If they have been in the business long enough, potential buyers are aware that the best way to get a hold of the website or domain owner is by conducting a WHOIS search in order to obtain contact information. Then they'd be able to find out if you are interested in selling.
Imagine how many potential buyers you may have lost because your contact information was inaccessible to them. By opting out of private domain registration, you can make it easy for anyone to contact you, increasing sales with very little effort and earn more from flipping websites.