“The bottom line is you have to work way smarter and harder now. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you can go out and buy a few domains and that’s it.”
— Tia Wood, Domainer and web consultant
The brandable domaining landscape is always in flux. It’s an evolving business environment in a slow, but constant, state of change. New technologies and cultural shifts create and destroy consumer habits, interests, fads, emerging markets and brandable domaining sales trends.
(more…)A great domain name has to ripen. Like planting a fruit tree. In TIME it may bear fruit. I don’t think about selling. Never do. For some Domainers business is a sprint and always running. For others it’s a marathon. I am on the marathon side. Turtle always wins.
– Rick Schwartz, The Domain King
My final entry for this three part series is an exploration of the Buy and Hold style of domaining. Traditionally it’s a long term, passive style of domain investment wherein domains are held for years despite regular, albeit sub-par, offers. Trends and fluctuations in the domain markets don’t affect the Buy and Hold domainer who possesses a deep sense of conviction and unwavering faith in his/her asset’s value and their strong potential for very lucrative paydays.
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“In my years of scanning expiring domain name lists I’ve found that only 7% – 12% of all names, that expire, mean anything to more than one person”– Frank Schilling , founder of Uniregistry
There are many resources for acquiring brandable domains such as hand registration, a fellow domainer, or “the drops”. But one of the most popular methods is trolling the vast pool of domains that expire daily.
Aside from the expiring domain auctions at places like GoDaddy and SnapNames many domainers look for gems in the GoDaddy Closeouts. This is a precarious task since all the domains that reach the Closeout marketplace have already been examined by dozens of other domain investors and been deemed unworthy of a bid at auction.
Therefore to be a successful Closeout domain buyer one needs an eye keen enough to see treasure where others saw trash.
(more…)I don’t have some secret method to my madness. I have a wheelhouse that I feel comfortable with and I usually stay in it.
– Domain Shane
In the stock market there are different kinds of investors and traders. There’s short term day traders and then there’s a style called, swing trading. In this approach the trader doesn’t attempt to anticipate every market move but instead takes positions in stocks that have established a clear trend. The swing trader maintains his/her short/long position for as long as the stock stays within their preset parameters.
In this style or system of trading the investor misses out on the beginning and end of the trend but, when successfully executed, he/she will capture the meat of the move and obtain a handy profit.
A swing trader in the stock market has a correlate in domaining. It’s what that I call a “trend rider.”
Whether they know it or not, this niche is where the majority of domainers reside, most of the time, and it’s the place that I call home as well.
(more…)Successful domain name investors buy domain names that other people want. – Michael Cyger
One of the biggest, current and future, trends in technology is artificial intelligence (AI). Whether you realize it or not AI is already embedded in your daily life and it’s increasing all the time.
Each time you contact Amazon customer service, make a banking transaction, use your smartphone, your Echo virtual assistant or a late model car, some type of artificial intelligence is at work. Already some 47% of all companies have embedded some type of AI into their business model.
ReadmoreAfter being shot down numerous times, I humbled myself and came to the stark realization that this is a much more intricate process.
Before we buy a domain we should have a concrete plan for selling it. For veteran domainers this is an almost instantaneous calculation when they consider a domain purchase. Beginners, on the other hand, may need to write down and think through their plan before hand. In either case a practical plan should include both a buy and sell price, a list of potential customers and preferred methods for transactions (sales venue, payment process, commission and escrow fees etc).
Without a plan we might acquire a domain with little to no marketability or overpay and lose potential profit.
This process will be different for different types of domainers including what I call flippers, trend riders and investors.
(more…)“A diamond is a chunk of coal that did well under pressure.” — Henry Kissinger
Profitable domainers fail 97% of the time on the way to selling 3% of their inventory each year. Domaining is a highly speculative endeavor. To be profitable means walking a virtual tightrope of income, expenses and probabilities. On top of that we have to compete with thousands of other domainers from around the globe. So if we want to exceed – we have to excel. On the other hand, if we want to fail, there’s at least eight ways to do it:
Read morE“[The] booming eSports space….. I think that is going to be the next ‘crypto wave’ for domains. I’m seeing so much action in that area.” – Drew Rosener on Domain Sherpa, Oct 2018
One of the fastest growing industries of our day is eSports. Startups in this space are spawning faster than Fortnite warriors and, more importantly, established corporations like Google, Sony, Microsoft, Doritos and Coca-Cola are investing at an increasingly rapid pace. Money is on the move. Just this week Epic Games announced it’s putting up $100 million dollars in prize money for competitions in 2019. The July, World Cup alone, will include $30 million in total prizes. But it gets better…..
In many ways, most domain name investment is better labeled as speculation……… Less is more – quality over quantity. Don’t invest unless you understand the quality of a domain, and your options to cash out.
– Alan Dunn at NameCorp
I’ve just completed my fourth year of an exciting and profitable domaining adventure. So today, at the start of a new year, I’m looking back and sharing my reflections on my past successes and failures. This includes insights, stats and some year over year sales analysis.
Keep in mind that I characterize myself as a journeyman domainer investing, almost exclusively, in dot-com, brandable domains. Everyone’s journey is different but here’s the story of mine.
Most investors across their entire portfolio, would say their average is 2% – 3%. They’ll sell 2% to 3% of their domain names per year.
– Michael Cyger
This past week Andrew Allemann at Domain Name Wire did a great interview with veteran domainer, Mark Levine, about his 2018 brandable domain sales. In the interview Mark lays out his domain acquisition strategy and sales philosophy as well as sample sale details, his portfolio size, acquisition costs and other items you don’t often hear in this type of discussion. So I highly recommend it.
At the same time, despite his best efforts, Andrew may have left many readers with a skewed picture of Mark’s actual bottom line profit on the 48 domains that he sold this year through Afternic, BrandBucket and Efty landing pages. Some might think that Mark’s $114,000 in sales minus the $3,400 he paid for those domains would mean a 97% profit. Right?
Nope. Not even close.
I would estimate his bottom line profit at 50%.
Here’s why.
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