This is a continuation of the domaining series that I hope is helping many budding domainers out there. After answering the question, "How much should I pay?" I'm now going to tell you some places to buy domains.

The first and safest place to buy a domain is from your own network. I know that this won't help you out if you haven't established a network but trust me when I say to you that the single most important thing that you can do as an up and coming domainer is to hang out with other domainers, help people out and generally be nice.

So where can you go? The best place to start is the forums, such as:
http://www.domainstate.com/
http://www.dnforum.com/
http://www.namepros.com/

The first thing to do is a LOT of reading of other people's posts. Forums can be quite daunting at first and you can meet all sorts of people (good and bad) but generally speaking I've found most people quite helpful as long as you remain humble.

When you feel that you can answer a persons question in a forum then answer it. If you want to ask a question then ask it. By answering and asking questions you are beginning to build a reputation as a person that could be worth while doing business with. A by-product of asking and answering questions is that your total number of posts score will go up. Quite often before doing business with anyone new in a forum I use the "posts" score to help evaluate my risks in dealing with that person. The higher the score the less the risk, so get posting.

One VERY IMPORTANT thing to consider in forums, never, never, never be rude, post for the sake of getting your total number of posts up and always read the rules prior to posting. If you ever have a moderator move one of your posts then accept their decision graciously. There's not much that you can do about it anyway.

There are a number of closed forums (ie. private) that you need to get a recommendation to join. The only way that you can get into these forums is being good in the public ones. You may even want to start getting some experience in the whizzbangsblog.com forum - the first step should be to introduce yourself.

You can also purchase domains in domain auctions, some of them are run by:
Snapnames.com
Pool.com
Sedo.com
Namejet.com

Each of these companies provide a marketplace for domain names. In my experience the competition is often quite stiff but every so often you can pick up a bargain.

There are also auctions which are held in person at the domain name conferences such as:
TRAFFIC
Domain Round Table
DomainFest

Of course the best place for purchasing domain names is often dreaming names up and then registering them. I know a lot of domain name owners that have been quite successful with that method of acquiring domains. You just have to have a good imagination and a lot of luck!

I know that there are many other places where you can purchase domains. If you have any favourites then feel free to post your thoughts here as a comment or drop a note in the forum.

The next challenge we need to deal with is, "I've got a domain, now what?" How do you manage your domain names?

Wiki: Domain Round Table, DomainFest, Namejet, Pool, Sedo, Snapnames.com, TRAFFIC 

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