IT.COM

strategy Insights on Domain Investing from Tony

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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.
Hi Tonybhai, can you share a bit more detail strategy of yours for finding new names and upcoming trends. Thanks in advance.
I have no due process and I am not that good in upcoming trends. I just read some blogs, twitter and reg a few. I didn't mass reg any meta names or such. I bought few meta names late 2020 which I think was very early and I am wondering why I didn't buy more. I am like a n00b in trending names.

I also haven't been able to create SOPs, processes due to lack of time.
 
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Hello old friend, really happy to hear you’re crushing it these days!!! I hope you have an amazing 2022!
 
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This is very useful and motivational. Thanks a lot Bob for summarizing all this information. Congratulations and many Thanks to Tony for sharing your domaining experience/sales and keeping our hopes alive as Domainers, wish you much success ahead @blogspotter!
 
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Hello old friend, really happy to hear you’re crushing it these days!!! I hope you have an amazing 2022!
Thanks my friend :)
Thanks for all the tips you shared too
And best wishes to you too for a great 2022..
 
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Hi Tony,

may I ask which company/service you are using for having ads on "high traffic domains" ?
I have been using different ad-services in the past, but they really only pay cents and might keep the money for themselves. So I stopped using any advertisements on my domains a few years ago.

I do have a traffic-domain which gets around 100k type-ins per month (according to the traffic-stats at SEDO) and I would like to test if this domain will also generate any income from the traffic via some ads.

Please let me know.


Many thanks,

Larion
 
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My question is how do guys like these (and other big players) do sales? Do they just list their domains for sale (with a BIN probably) on Afternic and other sites and wait for the buyers or do they hire brokers to actively sell domains?
 
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Hi Tony,

may I ask which company/service you are using for having ads on "high traffic domains" ?
I have been using different ad-services in the past, but they really only pay cents and might keep the money for themselves. So I stopped using any advertisements on my domains a few years ago.

I do have a traffic-domain which gets around 100k type-ins per month (according to the traffic-stats at SEDO) and I would like to test if this domain will also generate any income from the traffic via some ads.

Please let me know.


Many thanks,

Larion
Sedo has parking, If it not generating anything from Sedo, another parking comoany won't generate either. Sedo doesn't filter any Bot traffic.
For your question, I use Bodis
 
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My question is how do guys like these (and other big players) do sales? Do they just list their domains for sale (with a BIN probably) on Afternic and other sites and wait for the buyers or do they hire brokers to actively sell domains?
Different people different strategies. You need very strong domains to hire a broker and actively sell. Think min 6 figure names.

Regular people like us just list on all marketplaces and wait
 
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This is truly inspiring! Thanks for sharing your experience. As a newbie, do you recommen
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
This is super awesome and inspiring! Thanks so much for writing @Bob and sharing your experience @blogspotter, I'm glad I stumbled upon this. However, I wanted to ask, do you think it's advisable for a newbie to purchase other extension besides .com domains?
 
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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
Thanks for sharing your story! If I may ask, where do you find the best '.xyz' names?
 
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Thanks for sharing your story! If I may ask, where do you find the best '.xyz' names?
What do you mean best?
Unless you know the xyz market very well, which I doubt you do, i wouldn't recommend it.

The kinds that sell, single words, are priced out of the ordinary now. Big investors are paying 5 figures for good keywords that makes sense with the xyz extension. Light, Drive, Smart etc went for huge sums in the auctions and all went to very astute investors. And they will outspend you.

Another way is to be ahead of the curve in crypto industry and hand reg names before they start to trend. Unless you know something that many of the crypto domain investors know, it is hard.

While some good KW xyzs do come in the market, you will not be able to buy them for a price that makes sense to a newbie.

All the names that I sold were trending KW names related to web3
 
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What do you mean best?
Unless you know the xyz market very well, which I doubt you do, i wouldn't recommend it.

The kinds that sell, single words, are priced out of the ordinary now. Big investors are paying 5 figures for good keywords that makes sense with the xyz extension. Light, Drive, Smart etc went for huge sums in the auctions and all went to very astute investors. And they will outspend you.

Another way is to be ahead of the curve in crypto industry and hand reg names before they start to trend. Unless you know something that many of the crypto domain investors know, it is hard.

While some good KW xyzs do come in the market, you will not be able to buy them for a price that makes sense to a newbie.

All the names that I sold were trending KW names related to web3

Oh, just a curious newbie here! Thanks a lot for your response. I know I have to invest more time into knowledge and information, than actually investing RN, safe to stick with the '.coms', with time comes experience, I can progress from thenceforth.
 
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Haha, very excited to read this thread started by Bob (Thanks to Bob for answering my Qs and direct messages). Like Tony, I have been a web developer and even did some e commerce web sites for my spare time business in the past, never knew there was a domaining industry here right under my nose either. And I just joined NP last month, also like tony, because someone emailed me to buy my .co name that I registered back in 2010 (and i thought was a spammer email too, and asked him how to pay me :)). That spammer (actually a potential buyer) led me into reading more about how much my domain names worth. I have been a webmasterworld user for, man, over 10 years.

I am hoping to learn from you guys. Yes I read Abdul's blog about his .co names and LLLL names. Wish you all great success.
 
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Haha, very excited to read this thread started by Bob (Thanks to Bob for answering my Qs and direct messages). Like Tony, I have been a web developer and even did some e commerce web sites for my spare time business in the past, never knew there was a domaining industry here right under my nose either. And I just joined NP last month, also like tony, because someone emailed me to buy my .co name that I registered back in 2010 (and i thought was a spammer email too, and asked him how to pay me :)). That spammer (actually a potential buyer) led me into reading more about how much my domain names worth. I have been a webmasterworld user for, man, over 10 years.

I am hoping to learn from you guys. Yes I read Abdul's blog about his .co names and LLLL names. Wish you all great success.
If you have been able to generate traffic and conversions consistently, domaining will be a piece of cake :)

Good luck and welcome to the dark side haha
 
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it's truly motivated for newbies.

i luve this line: "this's the right time to start domaining"

i'm still learning and investing very wisely, i hope, one day i'll write similar post.
 
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