IT.COM

strategy Insights on Domain Investing from Tony

NameSilo
TonyNames, known here under the NamePros handle @blogspotter, has emerged as one of the most consistent domain name sellers. The level of success he has achieved within less than two years of active selling is a rare accomplishment.

Each month he shares a summary of his sales. For example, in April 2022 he had 17 sales with a total gross of $55,275. His average sale in April was $3251, with a range from $600 to $14,888.

While April 2022 was his best month yet, and included his first two 5-figure sales, the March 2022 total was a solid $34,830. His monthly sales summary breaks down the sales by venue and number that were buy-it-now purchases versus negotiated. He works via inbound, with sales coming from the major marketplaces and associated registration streams. Month after month, he has racked up a significant number of sales at solid prices.

An impressive number of those domain names are already developed. He shared some of them in this post.

I reached out to Tony, eager to consolidate the great insights on successful domain name selling that he has offered over the months.

Make Money On The Buy

With the volume of acquisition and selling he does, Tony suggested carefully tracking how domain names you acquired in a given month have done after one year or longer. As he wrote recently,
I spent around $5500 in April 2021. April is yet to complete and I did $28,600 in sales from my April purchases. I spent $8400 in May 21, and did $43,000 so far in sales from those acquisitions, with still about 2 months to go.
He also noted that he spent far less in acquisitions the following month, June, perhaps due to search fatigue. By tracking both what you acquire and how it did, you have a powerful feedback loop.
This business is all about buying. As veterans often say, ‘You make money on the buy.’ It is kinda obvious, but you gotta keep grinding.
In another post he estimated that he spends 99% of his domain investing time on acquisitions.

He suggested he may start keeping a detailed diary, so that he can go back a year later and understand what his thinking was in that month’s acquisitions.

Only Buy Names Other People Will Like

He summarized in a single sentence the key idea for domain name investing:
I only buy names that other people will like.

Use ExpiredDomain.Net To Find Buying Opportunities

So how to find those names to buy? One of his main tools is ExpiredDomains.net. He provided a really detailed methodology here on NamePros: ExpiredDomains.net Tips.

Tony gave a bit shorter guide in this social media thread as well: Tips for ExpiredDomains.Net.

The NamePros Blog also had a guide Finding Expiring and Expired Domain Names for those just starting out with the site.

Don’t Be In A Hurry To Spend Your Money

Tony offers some sound advice to those new to domain investing:
If you are a new domain investor having a small cashflow, don't be in a hurry to spend it all. Keep building an emergency fund and wait for good opportunities. They always show up. Just be patient and show up daily.

Tony’s Pricing Strategy

Pricing is an important aspect of domain investing success. Tony prices to have the best return on investment, rather than the best sell-through rate. Some months ago, he outlined his general pricing strategy.
My pricing strategy: When I buy, I look at it and think, ‘Will it be possible to build a 6-figure online business on this name?’ If yes I buy the domain name and price it at $2000 to $5000 based on the niche. If the niche is lucrative, I price higher. The rest I price at $1988 flat. $2988 is my best performing price point.
Even though obvious in retrospect, this seems like a simple, and great, way to decide what to acquire and how to price.

Purchase Cost and Selling Price

He provided a guideline on what one needs to pay for a name that will sell for different amounts.
You won't likely get a dot com that you can sell for 5 figures for less than $500 or even $1000. That is the level of competition now. But you can get plenty of $5 closeout names that you can sell for $2000 to $5000.

Using A Buy-It-Now Anchor With Make Offer

There continues to be debate within the domain community about price-on-request, buy-it-now and make-offer pricing. Tony mainly uses buy-it-now landers that also have a make-offer option, and tends to accept reasonable offers.
I always accept reasonable offers, even if they are far off from my BIN, as long as they represent a good return on investment. Having a high BIN works great as an anchor on a combined buy-it-now and make-offer lander.

The Role of Instalment Plans

He is enthusiastic about lease-to-own (LTO) plans, and has seven currently active at Dan, bringing in roughly $1000 per month. As he writes,
LTO plans add up fast and bring some consistency into this business. A win-win for all. Don't ignore instalment sales.

The Importance of the Registration Stream

There are many ways people might discover your domain names, and one of the most important for Tony is the registration stream.

People are searching for a name at a network registrar, and the aftermarket name comes up as an option for immediate purchase. You need fast transfer enabled to get the most extensive network of registrars on the registration stream – I covered that topic in Part 2 of Domain Investing Just the Basics.

Parking Helps Pay The Renewals

He is increasing the traffic side of his portfolio. As he wrote,
I also try to grab a name if it looks like it will have type in traffic. They help me pay for renewals of some of my portfolio without having to worry about a sale. I will scale my parking portfolio this year.

Does Not Liquidate

The NamePros Blog recently considered Selling Wholesale Versus Retail. In that article, I suggested one possible use of wholesale was for names you plan to let drop.

Tony does not liquidate at deeply discounted prices names that he plans to let drop. He outlined his reasoning:
Why I don't liquidate my expired names? In just over a year of domaining, I have had 2 buy-it-now sales that happened after expiry. Those made up for all the $10-$20 liquidations sales that I didn't have.

Early Sales Motivation

In case you have not heard his story, @blogspotter shared an analysis of his early months in domain investing in the NamePros discussion: My 5 Months Domaining Journey.

Don’t be confused by the 10 stars next to his NamePros avatar, meaning he has a 10 year plus account. Although he joined NamePros as a web developer over a decade ago, his active domain name investing period only began in July 2020.

As he says, he made some poor acquisition decisions during his first few months. By September 2020 he felt he now understood what domain names are good investments.
I began to see a pattern in what sells and what doesn't sell. And started participating in a lot of auctions with a strict proxy amount.

During those early months, Tony felt the same uncertainty of many new investors. That changed during a period of 10 days in December 2020. He sold three unrelated names, all at Sedo, for a total of about $10,000. That money, reinvested in other names, was critical in propelling his portfolio.
Without these sales, I would not have had the motivation and the conviction to keep on going.
In case you were wondering, those early Sedo sales were a .io, a .co and a .de, even though his portfolio had more .com than anything else at that time.

He shared how he used the funds from those three sales:
All the money from my November sales was spent on names in the $200-$300 range, and a few in the $500 range.
While many acquisitions are from auctions and closeouts, he hand registers some names to submit to brandable marketplaces. Recent hand registrations mainly focus on new trends such as web3, meta, etc.

A Great Time To Start Domaining

I would like to end with this positive view he shared here on NamePros:
While people regret that they didn't start soon enough, I feel blessed and grateful for all the tools and information that are readily available today. Other than the fact that I might have been able to buy some cheaper names, I think this is a great time to start domaining.

Thanks to Tony for providing so much great advice and information. He is an inspiration, showing that a recent investor can relatively quickly find consistent success in this business through hard work and a system.

In case you have not followed him closely in the past, a surprising number of his sales seem to come while he is sleeping. I think his insights here will help more of us wake up to a domain sold email.

You can follow Tony here on NamePros at @blogspotter, or on Twitter at TonyNames.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
This is an excellent piece of valuable insight.

Great job as always, Bob.

More success, Tony.
 
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It's truly never too late to start domaining, what an inspiring story, thanks Tony and Bob.
 
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Very bright and inspiring member of the community. Thanks Bob for the article, thanks Tony for sharing continuously.
 
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Thanks for the great summary Bob. I also feel 2021 was a great year overall. Hope it continues to be great :)
 
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Thanks for the great summary Bob. I also feel 2021 was a great year overall. Hope it continues to be great :)
Hey Tony, how come you didn't start domaining earlier? And thanks for providing so much information for everyone and stay humble as you are, cheers.
 
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Thanks Bob and Tony for sharing :happy:
Wish you more success @blogspotter :xf.smile: (y)
 
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Maybe we all need to sleep more 😴 lol
 
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Thanks for the write up Bob - great insights provided in the links......

Also Kudos to Tony for smashing it over the last couple of years - long may it continue.......
 
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Thank you, Sir! For this inspiring post!
 
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Great Inspiration !! Awesome post Thank you Bob
 
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Thanks for the write up Bob - great insights provided in the links......

Also Kudos to Tony for smashing it over the last couple of years - long may it continue.......
Thanks Nick
You have also been an important part of my journey,

There was A batch of names that I asked your feedback on before I "HAND registered them", not a lot about 20 or so names back in 2020

You will be surprised to hear that I sold 2 names from that batch via squadhelp. One for I think under 1500 and another fo 3988 or something. Gobe lo .com and Lexa ca .com
You said they rolled off the tongue nicely. I still use that phrase in my description of brandables on SH :)
Thanks for being there when I new nothing.


You, Swetha and Nikul have been of great help to me.. And the .TV guys, Ammudamus and Donnie passively.
Swetha told me where the good xyzs dropped, the premium and non premiums, Her numbers, etc.
Actually for a few months after I talked to Swetha, some GREAT xyzs were actually affordable. But I was doing so many other things, I slept on them. Well you win some you lose some.

My early education was studying XYZ and .TV
I sold a few xyzs but yet to sell a .tv lol but I have some good TVs as well.


But they were crucial in that they helped me understand how to navigate the non .com TLDs
 
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thank you for the great read and your time, Tony
 
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Hey Tony, how come you didn't start domaining earlier? And thanks for providing so much information for everyone and stay humble as you are, cheers.
Oh Man, don't ask me.
I think it is a 8 figure opportunity cost for me
Nothing gets me more than when SOme people say they stumble upon Domaining while searching for a name.

God Damn it, I have been searching for names since 2006 or so, and I never stumbled upon it. I even registered on namepros in 2007 and I didn't make a single post. I have been buying from godaddy auctions for as long. I even bought from SEDO. I thought they were squatters 😱😱😱😱

ALso had a few bad experience. I was going through some personal issues and couldn't renew a website (making $2000+ a month) and it got auctioned off my godaddy for 500 bucks 😫😫😫 to some Japanese Spammer who put up porn links on my Website and he won't reply to my email.
SO I never knew there was legit industry I guess. I don't really know the reason. I am just assuming.

I mean being in the web development industry, I don't know why.

BUT I WAS SO CLOSE to being a Multi-millionnaire domainer hahaha,

SO, I mostly buy short names and I "KNEW" all good names are taken.
And in order to get a good name, I THOUGHT I either had to learn to dropcatch or buy from godaddy.
Somehow I never knew that the people I was bidding against were all domainers. I didn't even know the term domainer. I had never come across Afternic or DAN. But Sedo and Godaddy I somehow knew.

So I used to bid for short names on godaddy and would buy if i get a name under 300.
I still have many short names that are under my old dev company.
Oh Man.... DOn't remind me... Oh Man.. Right under my nose hahaha

Another reason I never explored was, other than the short names, my preference was .net and .org and I could always register great 2 word .nets and .orgs
I have sold 6 figure websites on .net and .orgs lol
Imagine if they were .coms 😅😅😅😅

The only change that I brought to my business after domaining is I started using .coms
We just rebranded a 2 word .org to a 2 word .com last year LMAO. Bought from godaddy Auction 😅



Another reason could be that I operate in competitive niche and I was very busy so I never had the time to think.
I once did a mass experiment on developing MINI EMDs and I didn't have time to register them to I paid someone $10 per name +reg fee to search and Hand register me hundreds of names.

Hear this, I dropped 4L. coms that I didn't develop because I didn't know I could liquidate for 100s of dollars lol

Many stories that I find amusing thinking back.

I thought everyone hitting up to buy names from me were spammers/scammers. I had used privacy on my unused domains but still some would get to me.
I never had a sales lander. I DIDN'T know you could put a sales lander LMAO

Luckily a Godaddy Broker reached out to me for a 4L.com I wasn't using and that was what led me to back into domaining.
Many more things I came together I guess. The pandemic gave me more time as I had to quit going to the gym and saved me 2 hours. Then I stumbled upon Namepros, again.

I was so ducking close.

But I am here now. No regrets.
This is the best business ever.

Oh Man, It took me years of sweat and tears to develop a site to flip into a 6 figure exit.
Here, all I have to do is buy a nice domain and wait. Crazy racket you all are in lol.

In two years, domaining will be my full time gig.
 
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Oh Man, don't ask me.
I think it is a 8 figure opportunity cost for me
Nothing gets me more than when SOme people say they stumble upon Domaining while searching for a name.

God Damn it, I have been searching for names since 2006 or so, and I never stumbled upon it. I even registered on namepros in 2007 and I didn't make a single post. I have been buying from godaddy auctions for as long. I even bought from SEDO. I thought they were squatters 😱😱😱😱

ALso had a few bad experience. I was going through some personal issues and couldn't renew a website (making $2000+ a month) and it got auctioned off my godaddy for 500 bucks 😫😫😫 to some Japanese Spammer who put up porn links on my Website and he won't reply to my email.
SO I never knew there was legit industry I guess. I don't really know the reason. I am just assuming.

I mean being in the web development industry, I don't know why.

BUT I WAS SO CLOSE to being a Multi-millionnaire domainer hahaha,

SO, I mostly buy short names and I "KNEW" all good names are taken.
And in order to get a good name, I THOUGHT I either had to learn to dropcatch or buy from godaddy.
Somehow I never knew that the people I was bidding against were all domainers. I didn't even know the term domainer. I had never come across Afternic or DAN. But Sedo and Godaddy I somehow knew.

So I used to bid for short names on godaddy and would buy if i get a name under 300.
I still have many short names that are under my old dev company.
Oh Man.... DOn't remind me... Oh Man.. Right under my nose hahaha

Another reason I never explored was, other than the short names, my preference was .net and .org and I could always register great 2 word .nets and .orgs
I have sold 6 figure websites on .net and .orgs lol
Imagine if they were .coms 😅😅😅😅

The only change that I brought to my business after domaining is I started using .coms
We just rebranded a 2 word .org to a 2 word .com last year LMAO. Bought from godaddy Auction 😅



Another reason could be that I operate in competitive niche and I was very busy so I never had the time to think.
I once did a mass experiment on developing MINI EMDs and I didn't have time to register them to I paid someone $10 per name +reg fee to search and Hand register me hundreds of names.

Hear this, I dropped 4L. coms that I didn't develop because I didn't know I could liquidate for 100s of dollars lol

Many stories that I find amusing thinking back.

I thought everyone hitting up to buy names from me were spammers/scammers. I had used privacy on my unused domains but still some would get to me.
I never had a sales lander. I DIDN'T know you could put a sales lander LMAO

Luckily a Godaddy Broker reached out to me for a 4L.com I wasn't using and that was what led me to back into domaining.
Many more things I came together I guess. The pandemic gave me more time as I had to quit going to the gym and saved me 2 hours. Then I stumbled upon Namepros, again.

I was so ducking close.

But I am here now. No regrets.
This is the best business ever.

Oh Man, It took me years of sweat and tears to develop a site to flip into a 6 figure exit.
Here, all I have to do is buy a nice domain and wait. Crazy racket you all are in lol.

In two years, domaining will be my full time gig.
haha wonderful story, enjoyed reading your journey and funny that you were staring at domains for so many years, and now at lastttt, you got it haha Don't worry I also encountered domains in 2008 for websites only, but only got serious in 2011 with domain investing after realizing it's true potential and then even stopped in 2017 living off the earned money from domaining and restarted last year again. It's addicting indeed and you can work anywhere in the world and travel. Always good to hear success stories of others, may you buy your six figure domain next like you said on Twitter which is my goal too and then hopefully sell it for lots and lots more. All the best to you Tony, cheers again haha
 
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Great work, thank you for letting us know the logic of winners!
 
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I also have been staring at domains for 15 years or so, before I really started this, mostly out of accident and some curiosity.

Edit: Back then you could still handreg most 4-letter .coms, including pronounceable ones. I had about 50 and let them expire. figure that.
 
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I also have been staring at domains for 15 years or so, before I really started this, mostly out of accident and some curiosity.

Edit: Back then you could still handreg most 4-letter .coms, including pronounceable ones. I had about 50 and let them expire. figure that.
I didn't know about the Handreg.
I already assume handreg was not available and somehow, I always searched for names on godaddy auctions directly.

Only recently did I learnt about closeouts but I always wondered why I have to bid on some names and why I could buy some names directly but never gave it much thought,

If I knew about these in 2007-8, I would have totally dominated it. Man.
I was young and used to work like Mad those days.
I would only go out once or so a week and rest I would grind 17-18 hours a day
Total Neckbeard Mode.
In a Mancave of sort. Well I shaved daily and cooked since I like to cook, and I don't play games or listen to RAP lol.
It was always Mozart Beethoven Vivaldi Handel. But rest were the same as regular Neckbeards.
I had my office in my bedroom and I was always working. Kinda like greed hahaha as if sleep cost me money. It was the easy money days on CPA, CPC etc.
If I diverted some of those time and funds on domains, i would have a great portfolio lol

But I don't regret. I could do it all over again.
But family and kid made me take a step back. Also I got super fat and started devoting time on fitness.

But I was happiest in my Mancave. I still have a Mancave lol
 
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Who is Tony ?
i know epik also have Tony
 
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Hi Tonybhai, can you share a bit more detail strategy of yours for finding new names and upcoming trends. Thanks in advance.
 
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