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,
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:
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:
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.
Purchase Cost and Selling Price
He provided a guideline on what one needs to pay for a name that will sell for different amounts.
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.
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,
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,
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:
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.
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.
He shared how he used the funds from those three sales:
A Great Time To Start Domaining
I would like to end with this positive view he shared here on NamePros:
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.
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,
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.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.
In another post he estimated that he spends 99% of his domain investing time on acquisitions.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.
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.
Even though obvious in retrospect, this seems like a simple, and great, way to decide what to acquire and how to price.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.
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.
In case you were wondering, those early Sedo sales were aWithout these sales, I would not have had the motivation and the conviction to keep on going.
.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:
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.All the money from my November sales was spent on names in the $200-$300 range, and a few in the $500 range.
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.
lol
