This week, our guest on Expert Exchange is the CEO of Investments.org, Sam Dennis. Since starting to invest in domain names, Sam has amassed a portfolio of over 22,000 domain names with names such as Laura.com and Niagara.com amongst his favorites. Aside from domain investing, Sam is also President of the traffic monetization company YTZ International.
In this interview, Sam discusses his thoughts on short domain names, the Chinese market, new gTLDs, and gives out some valuable advice to new domain investors.
NP: How did you get started in domain name investing?
Sam: I started investing in domains because of the online advertising I was doing on Google. I was spending over $20,000 a day on Google at the time, and many of the keywords that were doing well for me were costing $0.49 to $0.77 per click (CPC).
I realized some of the traffic was coming from domains because of the reporting Google provided. I figured I could cut out the middle man if I owned the traffic. In the end, buying type-in domains with real traffic was very expensive but it got my feet wet.
NP: Your domain portfolio consists of over 22,000 domains, but can you tell us your top 5 domains?
Sam: My favorites are Greenpower.com, Ontario.com, Laura.com, Niagara.com, and NWS.com
NP: Your traffic monetization platform YTZ uses the domain YTZ.com. Are short domains something you’ve always been interested in?
Sam: They have always been premium, and I got to know a lot of the friends/domain owners I know now because of our common interest in premium 3-letter domains.
NP: Given the recent popularity in short and numeric domains from China, have you changed strategy to accommodate more Chinese names?
Sam: Yes, I think a lot of domain investors have been pulled into the China whirlwind of domain names. I have invested a fair amount into these types of names, and I am still moving cash into ‘short’ domains.
NP: What do you think will happen with regards to the Chinese market in the next 12 months?
Sam: I am looking for the market to stabilize a bit. The fundamentals of the Chinese market are still the same, but a lot of money is moving into domain hand registrations ("hand reg") as people are looking to make 2-3X on their money. This is a sign that the market is very young and still developing. It needs more time and more investors before we will really know if it has long-term legs.
NP: What advice would you give to Western investors buying in the Chinese market?
Sam: I think a lot of domain investors are fairly new to investing in general. Everyone is a big spender when the market is increasing weekly, but they don’t know how to manage any type of downward pressure. When things are on the rise you need to take some money off the table, and keep it off the table. When the market is stabilizing or going down the way it is now, you really will have a lot of trouble selling.
Overall, it’s a good buying opportunity, and I plan to raise funds over the next few months and see if a good opportunity comes again.
NP: What are your views on new gTLDs? Are they an area you personally invest in?
Sam: I see little to no value in most of them. There are a few domains that look good and work (some .club domains, for instance), but it is like the top 0.1% of each of these new gTLDs that make sense. If you're looking at it from a China perspective, then it’s about how much cash you have as play money. It's easy to buy, but finding someone to sell to is a whole other story.
I am investing in this type of stuff, but only hand reg, and I treat it as 1,000% risk.
NP: What is the domain industry missing?
Sam: A lot. It's still too small and does not have a good place to buy and sell in an officiant fashion. The Chinese are ahead of us on that front with ename.com / 4.cn and so on.
NP: What do you expect to see happen within the domain industry in 2016?
Sam: It's hard to predict right now, but if the market continues to slump or go down then you will see many investors go under. Many investors are extremely cash poor and domain rich. This, and a downward market, will force small players to liquidate at any price.
NP: What are your tips for a new domain investor?
Sam: It all depends on how much cash you have. If you're new and have a relatively small amount of funds ($1000-10,000), then I would invest in Western 4 letter.com’s, triple premium and quad premiums. You can find many good ones at NameJet, GoDaddy, and NamePros. I like these a lot because of the price point $200-360 for triples and $450-750 for quads. They are ‘liquid’ to an extent and you have many different types of buyers: end users, Western and Chinese investors.
If you have $10-50K then I would do some 4 letters, some high risk stuff, and maybe one 3 letter .COM.
For real money, I would do 3L.com, Western 4 letter .COMs, and some one-word .COMs and some play money.
Overall the market is expanding a lot this year: there are many new ‘domain investors’ and there are also just as many ‘new’ domain brokers.
Be careful with your money; test the market once in a while to see if you can sell domains for the price advertised.
--
Thanks to Sam for participating in our Expert Exchange; he's given out some excellent advice here to both new and established investors.
In this interview, Sam discusses his thoughts on short domain names, the Chinese market, new gTLDs, and gives out some valuable advice to new domain investors.
NP: How did you get started in domain name investing?
Sam: I started investing in domains because of the online advertising I was doing on Google. I was spending over $20,000 a day on Google at the time, and many of the keywords that were doing well for me were costing $0.49 to $0.77 per click (CPC).
I realized some of the traffic was coming from domains because of the reporting Google provided. I figured I could cut out the middle man if I owned the traffic. In the end, buying type-in domains with real traffic was very expensive but it got my feet wet.
NP: Your domain portfolio consists of over 22,000 domains, but can you tell us your top 5 domains?
Sam: My favorites are Greenpower.com, Ontario.com, Laura.com, Niagara.com, and NWS.com
NP: Your traffic monetization platform YTZ uses the domain YTZ.com. Are short domains something you’ve always been interested in?
Sam: They have always been premium, and I got to know a lot of the friends/domain owners I know now because of our common interest in premium 3-letter domains.
NP: Given the recent popularity in short and numeric domains from China, have you changed strategy to accommodate more Chinese names?
Sam: Yes, I think a lot of domain investors have been pulled into the China whirlwind of domain names. I have invested a fair amount into these types of names, and I am still moving cash into ‘short’ domains.
NP: What do you think will happen with regards to the Chinese market in the next 12 months?
Sam: I am looking for the market to stabilize a bit. The fundamentals of the Chinese market are still the same, but a lot of money is moving into domain hand registrations ("hand reg") as people are looking to make 2-3X on their money. This is a sign that the market is very young and still developing. It needs more time and more investors before we will really know if it has long-term legs.
NP: What advice would you give to Western investors buying in the Chinese market?
Sam: I think a lot of domain investors are fairly new to investing in general. Everyone is a big spender when the market is increasing weekly, but they don’t know how to manage any type of downward pressure. When things are on the rise you need to take some money off the table, and keep it off the table. When the market is stabilizing or going down the way it is now, you really will have a lot of trouble selling.
Overall, it’s a good buying opportunity, and I plan to raise funds over the next few months and see if a good opportunity comes again.
NP: What are your views on new gTLDs? Are they an area you personally invest in?
Sam: I see little to no value in most of them. There are a few domains that look good and work (some .club domains, for instance), but it is like the top 0.1% of each of these new gTLDs that make sense. If you're looking at it from a China perspective, then it’s about how much cash you have as play money. It's easy to buy, but finding someone to sell to is a whole other story.
I am investing in this type of stuff, but only hand reg, and I treat it as 1,000% risk.
NP: What is the domain industry missing?
Sam: A lot. It's still too small and does not have a good place to buy and sell in an officiant fashion. The Chinese are ahead of us on that front with ename.com / 4.cn and so on.
NP: What do you expect to see happen within the domain industry in 2016?
Sam: It's hard to predict right now, but if the market continues to slump or go down then you will see many investors go under. Many investors are extremely cash poor and domain rich. This, and a downward market, will force small players to liquidate at any price.
NP: What are your tips for a new domain investor?
Sam: It all depends on how much cash you have. If you're new and have a relatively small amount of funds ($1000-10,000), then I would invest in Western 4 letter.com’s, triple premium and quad premiums. You can find many good ones at NameJet, GoDaddy, and NamePros. I like these a lot because of the price point $200-360 for triples and $450-750 for quads. They are ‘liquid’ to an extent and you have many different types of buyers: end users, Western and Chinese investors.
If you have $10-50K then I would do some 4 letters, some high risk stuff, and maybe one 3 letter .COM.
For real money, I would do 3L.com, Western 4 letter .COMs, and some one-word .COMs and some play money.
Overall the market is expanding a lot this year: there are many new ‘domain investors’ and there are also just as many ‘new’ domain brokers.
Be careful with your money; test the market once in a while to see if you can sell domains for the price advertised.
--
Thanks to Sam for participating in our Expert Exchange; he's given out some excellent advice here to both new and established investors.
