Author: Keith deBoer

The Brandable Insider: Where Do We Go from Here?

Keith deBoer 23 Comments

I feel the biggest hurdle to considering domain names as legitimate assets is how discretionary (random) prices are. In 2010, you could find two-letter .com domains that sold for around $100,000 (JF.com, XI.com and SZ.com) and one domain for $8 million (FB.com). That is an 8,000% difference! – Giuseppe Graziano, GGRG.com

Despite two decades of conventions and commerce, domaining is still in the latter part of its Wild Wild West stage. Why? Well one reason is because the market is so fragmented. There are at least a dozen different marketplaces all with different rules, terms and procedures. Until there is a centralized organization that all markets report to and that requires an agreed upon, standardized set of rules and conditions, for all transactions, that will remain the case.
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The Brandable Insider: Slinq.com, Zunky.com, TheLearningSpace.com

Keith deBoer 1 Comment

I haven’t done a recently-sold review in a while so I thought now would be a good time. I’ve picked an array of names, in different styles and genres. All of them sold for under $600. For each one I’ve given my thoughts on why I think the name works and what industries it might be used for.

In most cases, I think these names sold at higher than “normal” prices which is great for the sellers, not so good for the buyers. What’s interesting about that though, is that people like Rick Schwartz and Drew Rosener say that while the low end of the aftermarket is currently way overpriced, many high end domains, particularly 3Ls, are going at bargain prices. Go figure. Here’s the names.
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The Brandable Domainer: Hand Reg to Sale in Two Weeks

Keith deBoer 6 Comments

The way most people want to negotiate in an email. They want to lay out their whole game plan and their chain of logic. What happens in that static communication is the reader gets a chance to look at where the email starts and where the email ends and they get to sit there and stare at it. Then if they don’t like where it ends they just move back, four or five moves, and take off in a different direction. So my first recommendation is to make one move at a time in an email. — Chris Voss, Author of Never Split The Difference

A couple of years ago I hand regged a domain and sold it two weeks later. Doron says our readers really like to hear the details of successful domain sales. Even the small ones. So I’m gonna give the details of this one for you. As I’ve done before I’m going to publish the exact content of the emails so you can read and analyze them for yourself.

Domaining like everything else in life is a learning experience. Looking back at the emails I see some things I did well and some areas where I made mistakes or could have done better. Hopefully you can learn from them too.  (more…)

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The Brandable Insider: How to Find Good Domains for Hand Registration

Keith deBoer 12 Comments

“Want to be successful in the domain business? Don’t piss your money away” — Michael Berkens

Every year it becomes increasingly more difficult and time consuming to find saleable brandable domains that are available for hand registration. It’s now so laborious, that its value for domainers that have good paying jobs and/or enough funds to purchase quality domains in the aftermarket, is questionable. However, as I mentioned in last week’s blog, if you have the time (maybe you’re unemployed) and enjoy spending hour after hour “panning for brandable gold” here are some tips on how to find good brandables.
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The Brandable Insider: Hand Reg Is Dead. Or Is It?

Keith deBoer 6 Comments

The big $$ is with the end user. You have to be patient and position yourself with a commercial location to be in THEIR PATH. – Rick Schwartz, the Domain King

I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard someone say hand reg is dead. I don’t think it’s true. I’ve sold a few dozen hand registered brandable domains over the past two years for prices between $2k and $3k. Was it easy? No. Did it require hundreds of hours of hard work? Yes. Was it worth it? Well…..maybe.

Domainers can still hand reg saleable brandable domains but it’s becoming increasingly difficult and very, very time consuming. To make matters worse, only a tiny percentage of what we reg and renew will sell to an end user in any given year.
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The Brandable Insider: From $19 Purchase to $4k Sale in 6 Months

Keith deBoer 8 Comments

When I BUY a domain I put a value on it and I stick with that value. PERIOD! Offers much lower than my value MEAN NOTHING!! — Rick Schwartz

In October 2016 I acquired a strong brandable in the Go Daddy closeouts. I was very surprised that no one had bid on it and I bought it immediately. About 6 months later, I got an email from someone who was interested in buying it.

Now……….. whenever I get an inquiry on a domain, the very first thing I do, is research the person making the inquiry. I don’t respond to their email until I have some intel on the ID of the potential buyer. Why? Because my sale price and negotiation strategy may vary greatly depending on the identity of the person wanting to buy the domain.
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The Brandable Insider: Lower Commissions and New Programs at BrandBucket

Keith deBoer 1 Comment

Good news for owners of premium brandables who are looking for boutique, enduser sale prices on their domains. BrandBucket, announced today that it’s reducing commissions for high end sales. According to Managing Director, Michael Krell:

“Over the last year we have received many requests from buyers for premium names over $50K, but haven’t had the inventory to fulfill this demand. In an effort to attract the best names to our marketplace, we will be reducing the commission rate for names priced above $50K. Effective immediately, our commission rate for names priced $50K-$99K will be 20% and names priced $100K and over will be 15%. This change will apply to both current and future names on the marketplace.”

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The Brandable Insider: A Look at Y Combinator’s 2017 Demo Day

Keith deBoer 1 Comment

“Step back and think about the difference in how end users use domains, the capital they have to invest in their name, [instead of] like a pure domain collector, and you can easily start to determine what areas make the most sense.” — Bruce Marler of Vegas Condo

In this week’s brandable entry I’m taking a look at some of the hits and misses at Y Combinator’s annual Demo Day. The event was held last week and featured pitches by more than 100 startups. Sitting in the audience were scores of investors and venture capitalists looking for their next, startup-to-acquisition, payday. The event included businesses from all over the globe and went on for two days.

Here’s a sampling of brands from the event, examined purely from a brandable domaining point of view. In my subjective evaluation I gave no consideration for the quality of business models or how well the brands corresponded to a given product or service. My approach was purely, would I be interested in buying this domain if I saw it available at a reasonable price. I also limited my list to companies who were already hosting their business at the exact match, dot-com for their brand.
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The Brandable Insider: Some of Mike Mann’s 2017 Sales

Keith deBoer 2 Comments

“In the future, fortune could well favor those who didn’t sell their good domain names too cheaply, or too boldly.” – Frank Schilling

Mike Mann is the outspoken founder of BuyDomains.com and the non-profit, Grassroots.org. He’s also the author of the free, eBook Make Millions and Make Change. Mike is no stranger to self-promotion and often posts his sales on Twitter listing both the sale price and the date/amount of purchase. His return on investment ratio often turns a lot of heads, especially among new domainers.

What’s missing in those snapshots of recent sales are the millions of dollars in renewal fees that Mike and his partners pay each year. When you consider that most of Mike’s (published) sales are for domains he’s held for 4-5 years, the cost of renewals for his entire portfolio of 250,000 domains looms ominously overhead.

But my purpose today is not to speculate on Mike’s profitability levels. My reason for mentioning him is so we can dig into the brandable portion of his recent transactions and maybe gain some insight into what end users are currently buying.
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The Brandable Insider: Analyzing One Hundred Info-Tech Brands

Keith deBoer 4 Comments

Your brand is the single most important investment you can make in your business – Steve Forbes

Each year, Wealthfront, the automated investment service, releases a list of the most desirable, mid-sized tech companies. Wealthfront believes that the most important financial decision any young person can make is where they choose to work and launch their career. With this in mind, they publish an annual list of the info-tech companies most likely to turn into big business. In other words, the best of the best.
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