Biggest Mistake MADE

[JamesDavid]

I thought it would be informative if some people wanted to share the biggest mistake they MADE. NOT the biggest mistake they didn't do. People wont learn from your mistake "I thought of facebook but never developed it".

What will be informative is if people just say a mistake they MADE.

I will go first..


I can say the biggest mistake I have MADE would be buying into the gTLD hype and registering 5 .asia domains.. I want to say that at the time I pre-ordered them they were like almost $200 a piece..

I secured 5... and let the 5 drop after the first 2 years...

It was a costly mistake as the $1000 could have been used elsewhere..

I will NEVER buy into the gTLD hype again..

 

[DU]

My biggest mistake was believing that a broker for a top domain firm was working for me when he was actually working me for a big client. Cost me at least mid five figures to low six figures.

Think he still makes a living out of the 'favor' he did this big company.

But you live and learn.

This is something to consider in ALL walks of life... buying a house? leasing a house?

Is YOUR realtor playing both sides?

This is a top lesson to learn: knowing who's on your side. No reps allowed - but nice lesson

 

[Archangel]

I think I did the worst. You can consider it a mistake I made or a mistake I didn't. I dunno. You decide:

Several years ago, I saw an auction on eBay for about 100 L-L.com domains. Practically all were @ $1 and finished around $1 or had no bids. I won one for $1 but told the seller I really wasn't interested (that's a bad thing to do, very unethical. But I was still learning the ropes). He said it was okay and we exchanged positive feedbacks and left it at that. My mistake was passing up a L-L.com that I was rightfully offered for a tiny buck AND not buying all the rest of them for $1 each. I could have been pretty damn rich if I did it. I've lost sleep over it

Edit: I meant to say I saw 1 auction for 1 L-L.com and he had about another 100 L-L.com auctions.

 

[freezer]

Since when did experiences become mistakes?

 

[Kate]

Mistakes become experiences only if you learn from them.

 

[UR-PC.com]

Great thread idea.

My biggest mistake was many, lol.

1. When I first got into buying domains in 1998 I regret not registering more high quality domains instead of buying a handful I felt had potential but back then I didn't know any better so I bought some decent domains and the rest were just crap.

2. In the 12 or so years I have been into this business I regret not being on top of the industry news and I let a lot of decent domains go because I didn't have the money to register them or I didn't care at the moment because I was busy with other stuff in my life.

3. I regret not spending more time developing my websites. <--- THIS IS MY BIGGEST MISTAKE!!!

4. Never taking advantage of PPC programs or parking my domains to at least make some money to justify registering them instead for many years I never tried to even park them and I lost huge amounts of money paying for them yearly out of my own pocket.

5. Not being apart of namepros.com until recently on a daily basis when I should have been a regular on this forum since the day it started.

6. Being to young and naive when I first got into this business and not being able to see what the trends where at the time to take advantage of them.

7. Passed on all the offers I have had on selling some domains because I felt they were worth more but probably should have sold a few that I had decent offers for.

I could go on all day long about regrets I have in this business but the mistakes I made are what make me a better person today. I feel I learned a lot in the 12 or so years I've been in this business and am learning every single day something new.

 

[pit]

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away... I registered a bunch of short VOIP domains. I wish I had never let them go. namebio.com/search.php?popout=true&page=1&results=25&price_min=0&price_max=10m&length_min=0&length_max=50&num_results=undefined&domain=voip

 

[daj]

Mistakes?

Registering domains that I personally like, but nobody else finds valuable.

Getting hung up on .com domains only, even though I've made most of my profit selling domains in other extensions.

Wasting my time pitching emails off to sellers of domains that I want to own (even one's where .com is the only registered domain), thinking I could possibly get the domain for low $xxx, to only find they all expect a buyer with deep pockets to buy their domain, and most won't even consider selling a domain for less than $x,xxx. Domaining is the only business in the world where many sellers expect a 10000%+ profit.

Not knowing about domaining in the 90's when I was still a teen so I could of had a hand in registering some great domains.

 

[Eric]

Hmm... my biggest mistake was selling a project that I worked for several years on (had become my 'baby' :p ) for only ... well, I won't mention the price. Other than that, domain wise... making my first domain a .info, that was made worse with the keywords I chose :p

 

[Embrand]

I think I did the worst. You can consider it a mistake I made or a mistake I didn't. I dunno. You decide:

Several years ago, I saw an auction on eBay for about 100 L-L.com domains. Practically all were @ $1 and finished around $1 or had no bids. I won one for $1 but told the seller I really wasn't interested (that's a bad thing to do, very unethical. But I was still learning the ropes). He said it was okay and we exchanged positive feedbacks and left it at that. My mistake was passing up a L-L.com that I was rightfully offered for a tiny buck AND not buying all the rest of them for $1 each. I could have been pretty damn rich if I did it. I've lost sleep over it

Edit: I meant to say I saw 1 auction for 1 L-L.com and he had about another 100 L-L.com auctions.

This one made me feel almost good about my mistake :hehe:

 

[cache]

in 1989, went through the whole process of applying a domain for the company I worked for, but did not realize the value of domains. This is a multimillion dollars mistake.

 

[Archangel]

It comes to show that you should never just sit idly and watch a wave pass, even if you're unaware of what's to come :p I regged one .tel when they first came out but eh they never picked up. It was a small investment and didn't hurt anything to try.

This one made me feel almost good about my mistake :hehe:

 

[firefly]

My biggest mistake was probably not looking for, or finding a site like Namepros before I started registering names.

Could have saved myself some money and grief (on some crap domains) if I had found this place before then.

 

[DnEbook]

loverobo.com
spacerobo.com
robosrus.com
roboauctions.com
usedrobos.com
robotbin.com
robotdate.com
rentalrobo.com
promorobo.com
newrobotic.com
robotoyshop.com
robopetshop.com
robotoyrepair.com
repairrobotics.com
spaceylove.com
spacejournals.com
spaceoddessy.com
freespacetour.com
spacedater.com
spacechocolate.com
spacelessons.com
spacecomic.com
spacebible.com
spacegum.com
spacefart.com
spaceluv.com
spaceygirl.com
spacecrash.com
spacewines.com
spacegrave.com
spacerecruits.com
thespacediner.com
spacetraveltour.com
spacetravelcam.com
spaceboulevard.com
spaceagefashion.com
hovercabbookings.com
horizonspacetravel.com
freeonlinespacetravel.com
ROBOBEERDOTCOM​

let's just say i wanted the worlds first interactive piece of art ..... let's just say i didn't have the space cash to keep regging them , lets just say i could have purchased great product domains instead , lets just say ..... oh why bother !

 

[humbug1s1k]

My biggest mistake was probably not looking for, or finding a site like Namepros before I started registering names.

Could have saved myself some money and grief (on some crap domains) if I had found this place before then.

I can relate to that!

 

[WordWalker]

For me, the question is whether it was a mistake to invest in only domain names over the past five years instead of allocating the same total dollars to acquire both domains and physical gold (of course, the gold would have been dollar cost averaged over the same five year period)?

The final chapter on this investment primer has yet to be written. Only time will tell...

Search "Numero Uno Domains" for a portfolio glimpse...

 

[alien51]

My biggest mistakes so far....

1. Paying FULL-PRICE reg fee for 20+ domains the first time i got excited about domaining. After i got the domains and started researching around, that's when i found out that there's such a thing called "coupon codes" to get discounts. Great! It's just like buying a pair of pants at full price, that goes on sale after the day you bought it.

2. Parking a lot of my domains at SEDO for an entire year, and getting only 7 dollars worth of revenue. Why it took me so long to realize that domains parked at SEDO don't get indexed by search engines, so people can only discover them by typing the exact URL on the browser. My entire 1 year revenue took only 5 clicks from Adsense in just 1 week on just 1 domain after i pulled them out of SEDO and turned them into websites with content.

3. POTENTIAL big mistake? Many people here in Namepros appear to hate YAHOO/MELBOURNE IT. I have read so many horror stories from them. But guess what, I transferred a couple of domains to YAHOO/MELBOURNE IT last year. So far, all is good. I'm waiting the day I transfer out my domains... maybe that's the time the horror stories will show up?!? LOL

 

[kidd3r]

Being greedy has hit me more than once.

I've turned down mid $x,xxx quite a few times only to end up punting for $xxx months later.

 

[BeautifulDomainNames]

Wow! Some of these are horror stories.

My worst was turning down $2,700 because I was asked to sign a contract which stated I would never the "words" in the name that was being bought. I bulked and then 5 days later I get an email threatening a WIPO (it was serious and it was a big company), so I eventually wound up giving that and a few other names to the company.


- Darlene

 

[Coopey]

Accidently putting $360 in as a proxy bid for a domain instead of $160 and not realising until the NamePros Live Auction what I had done. This type of domain was selling $120-$150 at the time and thanks to domainer-domainer hype still increasing, so I thought "oh, go on then, I'll join in and have a go at a quick flip" thinking I could turn $160 into $250+ in a month if I won.

In the live auction it got bid up to $360, which was the highest the runner up could/would go.

It was an LLL...

.mobi


(I, of course, honoured the sale and paid within 12 hours of the auction end. I still have the domain. Apart from a defensive reg I took and then dropped, it's probably the only .mobi I'll ever own...)

 

[bmugford]

Most of my "mistakes" I learn from, but my biggest was just not realizing the potential value of domains sooner.

I have been online since 1995, but did not realize the potential value of domains until much later.

Brad

 

[DU]

My biggest mistake was engaging Snoop in conversation in the .TV forum....

Just KIDDING!!!!

Mine was not having the money when I realized I needed to register some domains in 1994!!!! I didn't have the balls to get a loan.

Second was getting paid more money than I had seen before in and around Y2K and not paying attention to the internet bubble from a domain name standpoint.

My biggest mistake now? Getting involved in the first place! It's cost me a fortune in time that I won't get back... but I've learned a lot.

 

[ssamriga]

Lucky for me I haven't made any really serious mistakes yet (that I know of).
The worst probably is investing around $1000 in L-L-L.coms in 2007, and now dropping them

 

[WordWalker]

It comes to show that you should never just sit idly and watch a wave pass, even if you're unaware of what's to come :p I regged one .tel when they first came out but eh they never picked up. It was a small investment and didn't hurt anything to try.

If it's a premium name, I'd hold on to the single dotTEL you registered. That story has not yet played out. Mobile devices have already overtaken total units in service of both desktops and laptops. When a super critical mass (whatever that number is) of mobile devices are in play, someone will come up with niche based uses for dotTEL. At that point, even if a very, very small percentage of mobile devices adopt dotTEL technology for their specific niche, the actual number of dotTELS in service could be huge.

No doubt, Acro will soon jump in with his usual dotTEL two cents, but I guess that's what makes this country a great one. Not Acro - I'm referring to free speech!

 

[randomo]

I have been online since 1995, but did not realize the potential value of domains until much later.

Yup. I've been online since the late 1980s (still remember the dialup noises from that 300-baud modem), but didn't pay attention to domains until the 21st century. Sigh.

 

[Domainace]

A friend told me way back in the mid-90s about regging domains to squat on them. I looked, and found most words (like money, business tec.) were taken, so just regged a couple "brandables" for my own use and lost interest. He regged numerous trademarked names, but also picked up a couple nice geo domains at least that he still has. It all seemed like such a long shot then, and renewals were $35.

That and I "won" pusuit.com at Snapnames for $79 this year. (And editing is one of my day-job skills!)