toolsThese are my top 5 recommendations for essential domaining tools that any domain owner MUST have in their arsenal. They are all extremely cool and allow domain portfolio owners by making information available extremely easily.

1. FreshDrop

One of my favourite tools for finding domains about to drop as well as available domains. It provides sortable lists of domains, you can change the displayed names via filters. Also provides essential information regarding the drops including number of google results with or without the extension as well as age of the domain. I’ve caught a number of excellent tdnam domains found through this site. Visit this domain tool at http://freshdrop.net

2. Estibot.com

This is probably the best automatic domain valuation tool on the planet. While I don’t necessarily think that the valuated dollar figure is alway correct, it does provide excellent insights into domain metrics including search metrics, number of ads, max ppc value and much more. The new beta release goes above and beyond anything that you could possibly even expect – the valuations also take into account previous sales reports, tlds registered in and other relevant information to allow a much better valuation. You can visit Estibot at http://estibot.com

3. HosterStats

http://freshdrop.net

Once you find that perfect domain you should ideally research it, what was it used for before,  where was it hosted, what markets did it address and a lot more. The three main info heads at this site include Domain History, Hoster Statistics and DNS Statistics. What I find extremely interesting though are the Registration counts it provides by TLD. Great for research, you can visit this site at http://hosterstats.com

4. DomainTools

This started as a quick whois service and has morphed into one of the most relevant domain owner resources on the planet. Aside from detailed whois info on the fly, domain search, registrant alert, mark alerts, dns info tools, domain suggestions and much more. You can visit the site http://www.domaintools.com

5. Domain Portfolio Manager

After you buy the domains and research it, you still need a tool to manage your portfolio of domains. This is one of the best tools for portfolio management and updates whois info like registered date and expiry date on the fly. It allows you to sort domains by expiry, registrars and also allows for categories including having multiple categories per domain. You can visit them at http://collectionmanagers.com