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Ok I know this may be a controversial title / topic but I guess all are here to learn from past mistakes and understand if one is really on the right path or not. I am seriously considering liquidating all my domains as I really dont see investing in domains as a worthy option. I did a small comparative analysis (based on my total investments in purchasing domains + renewing them for almost 10 years now) to other investment forms and get a feeling that I may have lost a fair bit of earnings if I had invested them elsewhere.
I get a feeling that domaining works - but mostly for well connected large investors with deep pockets. They are able to keep purchasing (at very low rates) from sellers like us, activate their networks and sell the same domain at multiple times. So one will say well they also work and contacts are built over years. Yes I agree. But why cant we get the same leads / contacts directly? Like a user wants x domain why would they go through some such investor ask them to purchase rather than getting it directly through us who are the real owners?
I hold a very small portfolio of domains - average age of domains now is around 10+ years. Based on the various topics covered in this forum and across the web almost all domains are
I will mention here that even I have taken part in many auctions on NamePros and got domains at a cheap price but the point I am trying to make is that even the seller would have invested quite a bit getting the domain and due to one reason or another has to liquidate. Hence a domain according to me becomes an illiquid asset. Another issue is there is no know benchmark for pricing. Like if its stocks or real estate you have some basic benchmarks - say if property is in specific area the appx rate you may fetch is $X or $Y and same for stocks. But for domains its like a jackpot - like I keep saying - price of a domain is only what someone is willing to pay for it. If you like the price you complete the deal or you keep holding the domain till its sold.
This creates what I would say a monopoly kind of situation where just a few top level traders or investors then control the market. Like today I may participate in a few auctions, get domains at a cheap price. Then what? I have to resell it to earn something out, which I find almost impossible.
In the past 10 years I have been able to sell exactly 3 domains - all end users and got decent $X,XXX per domain. But that took care of around 3 years of renewal fees. Then what? Nothing just sitting on around 100 domains with hardly any revenue as now most of us use ad blockers so no income from parking/ads unless I am missing something.
I also read quite a bit about sending emails and making calls. I would consider all this as spam. Any unsolicited email or call would be marked as spam and this may affect our domain ratings too if too many mark our email as spam.
I have listed on marketplaces like sedo, dan, afternic etc too - in all these years have got just 2 offers (which we took forward) other offers were like $XX or around that trying to get the domain cheap.
Developing domains is no easy task, as I run a couple of sites doing reasonable traffic and sales via affiliate income but it requires a lot of time which unfortunately for small investors like me is less as we also do other work to support this.
Hence, my ending note is I would really like to know if domaining works for small investors. And how do you market your domains so that we can get a reasonable amount out of it.
Hope this post is taken in a positive spirit and constructive criticism and suggestions are very much welcome.
I get a feeling that domaining works - but mostly for well connected large investors with deep pockets. They are able to keep purchasing (at very low rates) from sellers like us, activate their networks and sell the same domain at multiple times. So one will say well they also work and contacts are built over years. Yes I agree. But why cant we get the same leads / contacts directly? Like a user wants x domain why would they go through some such investor ask them to purchase rather than getting it directly through us who are the real owners?
I hold a very small portfolio of domains - average age of domains now is around 10+ years. Based on the various topics covered in this forum and across the web almost all domains are
- a) Aged average age is roughly 10+ years
- b) Have meaning/sense together
- c) mostly 2 word domains which can be product/service names or meaningful 2 dictionary words
- d) Can be brandable - to test had put a few domains in brandbucket and a couple are also listed one around the 4k mark.
- e) Appraisals on GD - ok say can divide this around 50% 1k-2k 25% 2-3k and remaining lower or higher
- f) Then came the wave of new gTLDs so got a few during the initial period one word small words, words that make sense together and kept renewing it but still no luck. So when I hear some random domain sale directly from the registrar or investors at amazingly high prices I again get the feeling which I have - if you have connections you can make a deal and exit.
I will mention here that even I have taken part in many auctions on NamePros and got domains at a cheap price but the point I am trying to make is that even the seller would have invested quite a bit getting the domain and due to one reason or another has to liquidate. Hence a domain according to me becomes an illiquid asset. Another issue is there is no know benchmark for pricing. Like if its stocks or real estate you have some basic benchmarks - say if property is in specific area the appx rate you may fetch is $X or $Y and same for stocks. But for domains its like a jackpot - like I keep saying - price of a domain is only what someone is willing to pay for it. If you like the price you complete the deal or you keep holding the domain till its sold.
This creates what I would say a monopoly kind of situation where just a few top level traders or investors then control the market. Like today I may participate in a few auctions, get domains at a cheap price. Then what? I have to resell it to earn something out, which I find almost impossible.
In the past 10 years I have been able to sell exactly 3 domains - all end users and got decent $X,XXX per domain. But that took care of around 3 years of renewal fees. Then what? Nothing just sitting on around 100 domains with hardly any revenue as now most of us use ad blockers so no income from parking/ads unless I am missing something.
I also read quite a bit about sending emails and making calls. I would consider all this as spam. Any unsolicited email or call would be marked as spam and this may affect our domain ratings too if too many mark our email as spam.
I have listed on marketplaces like sedo, dan, afternic etc too - in all these years have got just 2 offers (which we took forward) other offers were like $XX or around that trying to get the domain cheap.
Developing domains is no easy task, as I run a couple of sites doing reasonable traffic and sales via affiliate income but it requires a lot of time which unfortunately for small investors like me is less as we also do other work to support this.
Hence, my ending note is I would really like to know if domaining works for small investors. And how do you market your domains so that we can get a reasonable amount out of it.
Hope this post is taken in a positive spirit and constructive criticism and suggestions are very much welcome.