If you buy a domain name that contains words that are trademarked, you risk losing your financial investment in the domain name, as well as legal fees and your time dealing with a potential legal issue.

Understand and learn how to minimize your risk. Not doing so could be an expensive lesson for you to learn.

Ryan Colby of Sedo discusses the 15 factors that he uses to assess the value of premium domain names, and what you need to know before you start working with a domain name broker to maximize the value of your premium domain names.

Why is Ryan such a good source of information? Ryan has sold over 7 million dollars in domain sales in the last 11 months, and has brokered 2 of the top 10 publicly recorded sales on Ron Jackson’s DN Journal sales chart for 2011. He also currently has 64 premium domain names under contract, including 3D.com, Italy.com, Laptops.com, Margarita.com and Optometrist.com.

The millions of domain names that are bought and sold every year have given rise to an industry of countless domain name investors.

Despite their vast numbers, however, most domainers fall into one of four types: Freshmen, Hustlers, Builders and Aristocrats.

Coupons.com recently received $200 million from investors in a deal that values the 13-year-old coupon company at $1 billion.

In a rare interview, Steven Boal, President and CEO of the hugely successful Coupons.com, sat down with DomainSherpa to talk about that recent investment, and the immeasurable benefit the company has gained from having a single, generic keyword domain name.

The Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved plans that will make sweeping changes to domain names. This article includes what your business needs to know to prepare.

The ICANN Board of Directors approved a plan to dramatically increase the number of generic top-level domains (gTLDs) – from the current 22, which includes such familiar domain extensions as .com, .org and .net – to any number, if approved through the ICANN process. Hundreds could be approved next year.

When domain name lease agreements go wrong, what can someone do in the instance that they own the domain, lease it to somebody else, but in the end, the person that’s leasing the domain doesn’t return the domain to them?

Any domain name that reaches expired status and is not renewed by the owner will likely be auctioned by an exclusive auction service.

If you really want a domain name, find out which auction service the domain name will be auctioned at and get your bid ready.

Mike Mann has essentially built a startup business incubator where entrepreneurs receive resources (including a domain name), mentorship, connections and – in many cases – customers, waiting for services.

If you want access to one of Mike’s super premium domain names, watch this interview.

Buying a domain name may cost more than you are willing or able to spend; instead consider these four alternatives to buying a domain name:
1. Leasing
2. Rent to own
3. Giving a piece of the company
4. Partnership

All come with pros and cons. Make an informed decision.

Have you ever been bored at work, school or home? The next time you’re bored, think about this interview.

After years of adding content to Bored.com, Eric Borgos was able to sell his domain name, website and traffic of 70,000 daily visitors for $4.5 million – a 10x multiple of earnings. In the process, he gained some financial security for his family.