All domain names are only registered for a limited amount of time.Registrars can choose to use the name for a period of between 1-10 years. After this the rights to these domain names expire and the user has to renew the name again. If they don't do this it will be placed on hold for a short time and then deleted. This means it is then availible for anyone who wants to buy it. Is it realy profitable? Can somebody to share their experiense? Thanks a lot!
Let me tell you that some registrar services offer up to 100 year registration, however the question is, how affordable is your domain? All people believe they own the "last treasure" on earth when more often they own crappy names so if you register such junk for 1, 5, 10 or 100 years, does it really worth? Depend on the development more than then name.
Buy low and sell high IMHO, I don't think there's that much opportunity profiting from new regged domains. The big potential is in knowing the real market value of already registered domains and finding the right buyer.
Yes, its NSI.. and it costs $999. It may not make sense for a lot of people but if you're Amazon, Google, or even just a really successful web-entrepreneur, $999 to secure your domain for the next hundred years is peanuts. Any website that brings in more than $10k a year could probably benefit from it... especially when you calculate price increases over the next 100 years. As for selling domains: I bought Grasshopper.org for $150 after the organization folded (it was advertised on the radio in Chicago quite frequently) - sold it for an exponential sum afterwards. Later, I bought TheUnexplained.org for $8 and held it for 2 years. Just sold for $200 US.