NamePros Blog

Bob Hawkes · Feb 11, 2021

Everywhere you go in the domain world these days someone is talking about decentralized domain name systems. There are both proponents and sceptics, as this recent NamePros thread shows. In last week’s NamePros Blog I summarized ideas on where domain names will be in 5 years, and...

James Iles · Feb 7, 2021

In this week's Top Topics, domain investors discuss a recent $28,500 expired domain sale linked to the daughter of a famed CEO, and is domain parking still worth it? Elsewhere, investors make predictions for where they see domaining in five years' time, and should we avoid domain names...

Bob Hawkes · Feb 4, 2021

Relatively new NamePros member dave321 asked a really good question this week: Where do you see domaining in 5 years? Typical sell-through rates mean that most of a domain portfolio is held for multiple years, so ideas about the future will impact our investment...

James Iles · Jan 31, 2021

In this week's Top Topics, domain investors react to news of Rick Schwartz's latest seven-figure domain sale, and what do you think of GoDaddy's intention to introduce BIN landers? Elsewhere, a domainer discloses a recent five-figure .TV sale, and what's one insight that has led you to become a...

Bob Hawkes · Jan 28, 2021

Choices can be wonderful, letting us feel better about an action, or empowering new ways to accomplish a goal. But is it possible to have too many choices? Are you, or the marketplace you use, presenting potential purchasers with too many possible domain name choices? Alternatively, is it...

James Iles · Jan 24, 2021

In this week's Top Topics, an investor shares their experience of hand registering domain names, and on the back of Climate.vc's $21,038 sale, we ask why .VC are names starting to sell for higher numbers. Elsewhere, there's confirmation that the Mask.com domain name has sold, and what's the most...

Bob Hawkes · Jan 21, 2021

While NameBio data indicates that average sales prices for .com domain names have been going steadily down year by year, that may not mean that retail prices have been decreasing. I think it is mainly an artifact due to changes in which venues have sales reported in NameBio...

James Iles · Jan 17, 2021

In this week’s Top Topics, an investor requests advice on the best way to build a portfolio in 2021. Elsewhere, our featured poll asks you to reveal the percentage of your overall investment portfolio that is invested in domain names, and John Berryhill has a warning about catch-all email...

Bob Hawkes · Jan 13, 2021

This week I take a look at how average prices, numbers of domains sold, and sales dollar volumes in 2020 compared to the previous year. I used the NameBio data for the analysis, looking at sales of $100 and more. Keep in mind that by no means all sales are in NameBio, and the reported...

James Iles · Jan 10, 2021

In this week's Top Topics, AbdulBasit Makrani shares a list of valuable, ultra-premium domain names that he has acquired recently. Elsewhere, investors are prompted to showcase their delivery domain names, and the power of color is discussed.

Also, an experienced domainer is back with more...

Bob Hawkes · Jan 6, 2021

I reached out to many people to see what they thought 2021 would hold for the domain world. I made it tough by requiring each to respond in just a single sentence. To get a comprehensive view from many perspectives, I included long-term and newer domain investors, business leaders, domain...

James Iles · Jan 3, 2021

In the first Top Topics of 2021, we look at whether domain investors plan to do anything differently in the new year. Elsewhere, a domainer asks for advice on a five-figure negotiation, and what do you do after getting a cease and desist letter?

Also, an investor makes some predictions for the...

Bob Hawkes · Dec 30, 2020

In this, my last post of 2020, I highlight NamePros discussion threads started in 2020 that merit a second read. In making my selections, for the most part, I excluded posts about sales, even spectacular ones, or topics that were time sensitive. In some cases I edited titles for clarity or...

James Iles · Dec 27, 2020

In the final edition of Top Topics for 2020, we take a look at Rick Schwartz's latest domain sale, and domain investors offer their opinions on the hottest niches of 2021. Elsewhere, George Kirikos reveals that View.com sold for $737,000 in 2018, and do you want to see some decent domain landing...

Bob Hawkes · Dec 23, 2020

One of the advantages of being a NamePros member is that you can buy and sell domain names without commission. NamePros allows you to get your names in front of a large audience. While many selling formats are allowed, auctions are among the most used.

My first NamePros auction did not turn out...

James Iles · Dec 20, 2020

In this week's Top Topics, several investors share their recent sales and successes. Firstly, we have Riz Memon, who reported $168,000 in sales this week. Then, there's an investor who made an $11,420 return on investment on a two-word .COM, and thirdly we feature the story of a new domainer...

Bob Hawkes · Dec 17, 2020

About a week ago I received the following message from domain name investor JudgeMind.

Throughout 2020 I’ve been watching the prices of auctions at venues like GoDaddy soar to new highs. Prices are now almost out of reach for the average investor. Seeing this shift in the auction prices...

James Iles · Dec 13, 2020

In this week's Top Topics, we have two featured polls. Firstly, Raymond Hackney asks domainers to share whether they're more optimistic or less optimistic about domaining today. Secondly, Bob Hawkes asks for domainers to showcase some portfolio outliers.

Elsewhere, investors share their opinion...

Bob Hawkes · Dec 9, 2020

There is an elegance to single word domains. Few valuable single word domains are available to be registered in most extensions, and it can be challenging to find those that are unregistered. Steven Tey encountered that, and said to himself ‘there must be a tool that makes it easy to find...

James Iles · Dec 6, 2020

In this week's Top Topics, a domain investor announced their latest blockbuster sale, a $55,025 payday from a three-year-old hand registration. Elsewhere, a domainer shares their story of being a victim of a domain scam, and do you leave your WHOIS data public?

Elsewhere, investors pay tribute...

Bob Hawkes · Dec 2, 2020

A couple of weeks ago I introduced questions around the setting of minimum offers on buy-it-now priced domain names. Thanks to all who have responded to the various linked polls. In this article I provide a summary of the results and comments.

Setting the minimum offer too low may harm...

James Iles · Nov 29, 2020

In this week's Top Topics, we take a look at the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals that are live in the domain industry. Elsewhere, a domain investor reveals a $10,000 sale from a hand-registered name, and there's a new domaining podcast aggregator available. Also, a $45,000 buyer of HeyDay.co...

Bob Hawkes · Nov 26, 2020

A domain name, such as example.com, has the top level domain (TLD) .com combined with the second level example to make the complete domain name. This post considers situations when the structure of the domain name is TLD1.TLD2, that is both halves of the domain name...

James Iles · Nov 22, 2020

In this week's Top Topics, a prolific .TV domainer shares their latest .TV sale, which ranks as the ninth-largest publicly-disclosed .TV sale of 2020. We also discuss domain value to see if there is a correlation between the number of low offers you receive and that domain's value. Elsewhere, an...

Bob Hawkes · Nov 18, 2020

In most cases, marketplaces require specifying a minimum when you enable make offer on your domain names. Is it better to set this minimum offer low, so more prospective buyers will start a conversation? On the other hand, that might have a negative impact on price...

James Iles · Nov 15, 2020

In this week's Top Topics, there's a warning for domain investors to check their Network Solutions domains, and are all one-word .COM's good investments? Elsewhere, someone asks for advice on how to stay focused as a domain investor, and is outbound marketing just spam?

Check Your NSI...

Bob Hawkes · Nov 12, 2020

Earlier this month ScienceAndTechnologyResearchNews.com sold for $2025 at GoDaddy. That was the first sale over $2000 during the last 5 years of an unhyphenated domain name longer than 30 letters, at least from sales recorded on NameBio. It was not the longest name sold by far. For...

James Iles · Nov 8, 2020

In this week's Top Topics, we see two ends of the spectrum. At one end, we have an investor who shared a $10,000 .TV sale, and at the other, a domainer discloses that they lost a $25,000 sale thanks to the domain's archived history.

Elsewhere, I share details of a major domain acquisition by a...

Bob Hawkes · Nov 4, 2020

When talking to potential buyers, be sure your language reflects their viewpoint and concerns. It is easy to slip into domainer language and talk about number of TLDs (top level domains) the term is registered in, or the age of the domain name. In most cases that will be counter...

James Iles · Nov 1, 2020

In this week's Top Topics, an investor reveals the $10,000 sale of a .CO domain name that occurred thanks to outbound marketing and an experienced domainer is back for a third round of advice for new investors. Elsewhere, we explore what happens to domains owned by corporations when they face...

Bob Hawkes · Oct 29, 2020

Anecdotally, it seems that 2020 has been stronger than normal in .co sales. There are regular sales over $1000 reported on NameBio, sometimes multiple in the same day. I take a look at how .co has done compared to the past ten years, to see if this really is a stronger than normal...

James Iles · Oct 25, 2020

In this week’s Top Topics, domain investors discuss the latest blockbuster sale from Mike Mann, and a domainer shares some advice on selling your domains for clearance prices at Afternic. Elsewhere, we see which keywords may have lost value thanks to the coronavirus, and an investor asks for...

Bob Hawkes · Oct 22, 2020

A domainer can ask any price he or she wants for any domain name. Each domain name is different, so looking at what prices others ask will not inform how any particular domain name should be priced. However, since there are frequent discussions around prices being too low or too high, I thought...

James Iles · Oct 18, 2020

In this week’s Top Topics, domain investors are asked to share a one or two-word .COM in the High Roller Club, and someone receives a $100 offer for a domain name with an interesting message attached.

Elsewhere, Dofo releases its September domain industry report, and why did Jewelry.com rebrand...

Bob Hawkes · Oct 14, 2020

This week the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson, both from Stanford University, for their work in better understanding and optimizing auctions. The Nobel Prize press release says

This year’s Laureates, Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson, have studied how...

James Iles · Oct 11, 2020

In this week’s Top Topics, an investor is wondering what to do after receiving a healthy initial offer on a domain, and AbdulBasit Makrani shares some of his 2020 acquisitions. Elsewhere, a seasoned investor shares some advice for new domainers based on the investor’s own experience.
...

Bob Hawkes · Oct 6, 2020

This week a source confirmed that the domain name world.travel has been sold in the aftermarket by Top.Domains for $41,000. This is significantly more than any sale in the extension listed in NameBio. The domain name shares an interesting current redirection use with another major...

James Iles · Oct 4, 2020

In this week's Top Topics, we take a look at the final installment of AbdulBasit Makrani's Afternic experiment results. Elsewhere, an investor discloses a $3,000 sale of a cryptocurrency .ORG domain name and a domainer asks for stories about overpaying at auction. Also, have you watched Andrew...

Bob Hawkes · Sep 30, 2020

On Sept 22, 2007 Joe Gebbia sent this short email to Brian Chesky about how they might make a few dollars to help with the rent.

Brian, I thought of a way to make a few bucks - turning our place into ‘designers bed and breakfast’ - offering young designers who come into town a place to crash...

James Iles · Sep 27, 2020

In this week’s Top Topics, investors share the longest domain names in their portfolios, and just how do you win auctions when they close while you’re sleeping? Elsewhere, a domainer asks whether your sales for September are down, and how do you safely sell a domain name in exchange for bitcoin...

Bob Hawkes · Sep 24, 2020

This article lists a selection of free tools to help evaluate a domain name. It covers how you can quickly determine how many similar names are registered or for sale, prices of sales of similar names, the popularity of the name for business use, and the history of the domain name. In about ten...

James Iles · Sep 20, 2020

In this week’s Top Topics, we profile a hand registered domain that was reportedly sold for $8,000, Dofo releases their domain industry report for August, and an AMA chat uncovers a six-figure domain sale. Elsewhere, there are some further details disclosed about the record-setting $30 million...

Bob Hawkes · Sep 17, 2020

The original intention was that extensions would play a key role in specifying the type of website that would be on that domain name. Domain names ending in .com were originally intended to be commercial in nature, while .org was intended for organizations, mainly nonprofit ones, and...

James Iles · Sep 13, 2020

In this week's Top Topics, we feature a six-figure, three-letter .COM sale, and there's a general discussion about disclosing domain sales data. Elsewhere, a seasoned domainer comes up with a list of ten mistakes made by new investors, and just how do you come up with ideas for hand registration...

Bob Hawkes · Sep 10, 2020

The .app domain extension was released for general availability by Google on May 8, 2018, after a short sunrise period with higher registration costs. Now in circulation just over two years, I thought this an opportune time to look at aftermarket sales and health of the extension...

James Iles · Sep 6, 2020

In case you missed it, a UK-based portfolio owner revealed the recent sale of the domain name LT.co.uk for a price of £83,000, which equates to around $110,000. If this is charted by NameBio, the name would be the second-largest two-letter .CO.UK domain sale in public history. It would...

Bob Hawkes · Sep 1, 2020

It is too easy to acquire domain names. There are so many enticing names sitting in auctions, closeouts, or available to hand register. In fact a whole section of NamePros regularly offers names of every type and price range.

There are far more attractive names than any one person can...

James Iles · Aug 30, 2020

In this week’s Top Topics, an investor asks how you can accumulate a sizeable portfolio of thousands of domains, and a $10,000 .TV sale is announced. Elsewhere, KeepAmericaGreat.com is put to use by Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, and Verisign is proposing using the URS system for .COM and...

Bob Hawkes · Aug 26, 2020

In August 2016 many in the domain industry were bidding in expired auctions, searching the closeout lists, creating brandable names, speculating in new or repurposed extensions, and chasing elusive single word or very short .com names. Joseph Ciprut was taking a somewhat different...

James Iles · Aug 23, 2020

If you are going to share details of a domain name sale, I’d urge you to disclose the domain name that was sold. There was an interesting discussion that was created over the weekend documenting a two-word .COM domain sale which occurred via Afternic.

According to the discussion, it was...

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