NamePros Blog

Domain blog covering the latest domain news, domain sales, reports, analysis, advice, interviews, strategy, and more.
Namecheap AuctionsNamecheap Auctions
SpaceshipSpaceship
SpaceshipSpaceship
Subscribe to blog

information Top Topics: Free for sale landers; Are minisites dead? Afternic shared useless graph; Dan canceled BIN sale; Own landers vs Afternic DNS

Welcome to a fresh round of Top Topics here at NamePros!

Free "for sale" landers at NamePros launched on April 1st; Are minisites dead? Afternic shared useless sales graph on 2022 domain sales; Dan canceled sale after buyer took the BIN option; Should you create your own landers or...
 
Last edited:
12
•••

analysis Is Domain Name Aftermarket Trending Down?

Diverse opinions have been expressed, on NamePros and elsewhere, on whether the domain aftermarket has recently dropped.

Certainly there are reasons for a possible decline.
  • There is considerable business uncertainty.
  • With inflation rising, the cost for a business or individual to...
 
78
•••

information Top Topics: What to do with 27k domains; Where is the next Dan.com; OpenAI's first UDRP filed; Domain liquidation lessons; Chat.com sold for 8 figures

Happy April with a fresh round of Top Topics here at NamePros!

You're not a real domain investor without a few thousand domain names; Which service will become the next Dan.com? OpenAI filed a UDRP against the domain ChatGPT.com; Lessons learned about liquidating domain names; The...
 
Last edited:
22
•••

strategy Will Anyone Really Use This Domain Name?

The most important point in last week’s NamePros Blog article Six Years of Domain Name Mistakes was to acquire names that will have multiple potential users who are in a position to pay a solid retail price.

Each domain name is unique, and it is not possible to give a definite...
 
Last edited:
51
•••

information Top Topics: Domain sales drought; WHOIS privacy & spam; Dan sales via Afternic woes; HugeDomains keyword valuation; Namecheap discounts domains by 3%

Welcome to a fresh round of Top Topics here at NamePros!

A domain investor hasn't scored domain sales for what appears to be a long time; WHOIS privacy did not stop spammers from pitching services; Dan & Afternic integration has a few flaws, according to a domainer; HugeDomains as a...
 
Last edited:
15
•••

advice Six Years of Domain Name Mistakes

NamePros is full of tales of mistakes made and mistakes to avoid. Personally, I have made my share of mistakes. This post is about the mistakes I made during the last six years. While I won’t cite specific cases, the article is also informed by mistakes that I have read on NamePros.

More...
 
Last edited:
118
•••

information Top Topics: Anyone.com launches; Selling my oldest domain; ICANN registrars are expensive; Afternic's new beta feature; Epik targets domain investors

Welcome to the latest edition of Top Topics here at NamePros!

Reza Sardeha rolls out Anyone.com as a real estate market disruptor; Domainer receives an offer for their oldest domain name; Becoming a domain registrar is inherently expensive; Afternic launches "lead center" as a beta...
 
Last edited:
8
•••

analysis Is GoDaddy Appraisal Value A Useful Filter?

When seeking names on the buyer requests section at NamePros, or filtering a list of expiring names for consideration, domain investors often use filters to make the size of the list manageable. For example, they may seek only names with a certain minimum age, maximum length, or minimum...
 
Last edited:
53
•••

information Top Topics: MedicalRecordsReview.com auction paid? New domainers are doomed; Market crash ahead, says Rosener; Cash loans for domains; Uni Market RIP

Welcome to the latest edition of Top Topics here at NamePros!

Did MedicalRecordsReview.com really sell for almost $70k or payment failed? Domaining newbies: The train has left the station; Markets will crash up to 50% according to Drew Rosener; Where to get a loan by mortgaging your...
 
11
•••

information Actionable Information From The 2023 Global Domain Report

Recently InternetX and Sedo released the 2023 Global Domain Report.

The report provides a wealth of information of interest to domain investors. It includes a detailed analysis of Sedo sales and search data, and premium domain name sales overall. In addition, it looks at...
 
Last edited:
45
•••

information Top Topics: One.com woes; The future of domain value; Make your own landers; CEO makes offer directly; Domainer GPT to come?

Welcome to a fresh, weekly edition of Top Topics here at NamePros!
A domain investor with domains at One.com is having serious management issues; Will domain names become obsolete in the future? Domainer's own landing pages make him proud; Should you accept an offer from a company's...
 
Last edited:
14
•••

interviews An Interview with Sten Lillieström: Part 2 Creating Effective Brand Names

Sten Lillieström challenged some common assumptions about domain names and brands in the first part of the interview. This week, I ask him questions around the theme of how to create an effective and distinctive brand name.

Creating A Great Name

Let’s focus on how to create...
 
Last edited:
41
•••

information Top Topics: MarketingAgency.com value; SSL for PPC; Problems in the domain industry; Dan.com and A Records; Flipping NamePros sales for thousands of $

Welcome to a fresh, weekly edition of Top Topics here at NamePros!

The owner of the domain MarketingAgency.com sought feedback about its value; Using SSL for domain parking is a necessity; What are the main issues that domain investors face? Using A records on Dan landers—pros and...
 
Last edited:
9
•••

interviews An Interview with Sten Lillieström: Part 1 Challenging Persistent Domain Name Views

I am delighted for the opportunity to interview Sten Lillieström, a creative domain name investor interested in the brandable side of domain name investing. Sten, handle @trelgor, has been a NamePros member for more than a decade, and has achieved Top Member status.

During 2022 Sten had...
 
Last edited:
53
•••

information Top Topics: Namecheap wasn't hacked; Catching dropped domains competitive; Use Wix to sell domains; Personal woes; Gov domains vs. com for US agencies

Welcome to a brand new edition of Top Topics here at NamePros. This week:

A concerning email from Namecheap points to third party's service infiltration; Dropping competition appears to have increased a lot since the pandemic; Comparing Dan.com and Wix.com as a domain selling...
 
Last edited:
8
•••

analysis The .AI Domain Extension: Sales, Pricing, Auctions, Use

With so much interest in artificial intelligence of late, it was suggested by a NamePros member that I should take a look at the .ai domain extension.

While it is almost certainly true that .com is the dominant extension for large, established artificial intelligence companies, .ai has found...
 
Last edited:
42
•••

information Top Topics: Former owner insults domain seller; GoDaddy to lay off 8%; Bard vs ChatGPT; Pitch a better domain to a company; Domain traffic as a metric

Welcome to a fresh edition of Top Topics here at NamePros. This week:

Former domain owner insults the seller who made an outbound pitch; GoDaddy to lay off 8% of its global workforce; Google rolls out Bard in response to ChatGPT; Should you attempt to sell a better domain to a...
 
Last edited:
6
•••

information GPT and Similar Artificial Intelligence Technologies: Implications for the Domain Name Industry

Since OpenAI introduced ChatGPT-3 in late November 2022, it seems everyone is talking about ChatGPT.

Earlier in the NamePros Blog, I ‘interviewed’ ChatGPT on domain topics. I think most will agree that ChatGPT did an impressive job on most answers.

Many investors are registering domain...
 
Last edited:
74
•••

strategy Outbound Calls: Success Takes Practice

In order to be a successful domain investor, you need plenty of practice or training. You can choose to invest in domain courses, find a good mentor, or role-play with domain investors or family members. Regardless of the type of business that you are planning to get into, there is no shortcut...
 
15
•••

information Top Topics: Best landers at Sedo; Success with hand-reg domains; 100 oldest .coms; Is dotDB shutting down; Escrow.com when selling to strangers

Time flies by when you're buying and selling domain names—Welcome to a fresh edition of Top Topics here at NamePros.

What is the best domain lander that you can use at Sedo? Can you be a successful domainer by only hand-registering domain names? Check out the 100 oldest .com's; Is...
 
Last edited:
9
•••

information Reporting Domain Name Sales

Without reported domain name sales, we would all be operating in a blind fashion. This article covers the arguments for and against reporting domain name sales, as well as how to report domain name sales at the main venues.

Why Report Domain Name Sales?

Over the years there have...
 
Last edited:
55
•••

information Top Topics: TXT.com sold for $300k; Domain brokerage scams; How to save Epik; Afternic listings hijacked en masse; Sales of .XYZ domains analyzed

Happy end of January and welcome to another edition of Top Topics here at NamePros.

The ultra premium domain TXT.com was sold for $300,000 dollars in a brokered deal; Domainers discuss their personal experience of being scammed by an unscrupulous domain broker; Investors using Epik...
 
Last edited:
6
•••

analysis Dollar Volume Per Domain Listing (DVPL)

One measure of domain name sales success is the sell-through rate (STR). For your own portfolio, that is simply the number of domain names that sell in a time period, usually one year, divided by the average number of domain names for sale during that period, and expressed as a percentage...
 
76
•••

information Top Topics: Domain infringement claim; Why are short domains selling high; Multiple TLDs as a metric; Outbound domains safely; Don't give up on gTLDs

Welcome to another edition of Top Topics here at NamePros. Here's a selection of active discussions for your reading pleasure:

Is it an infringement for an app's developer to name it after a domain name they don't own? Why can short domain names sell for thousands of dollars? When a...
 
Last edited:
8
•••

news Domain Name Sales Commissions

The last week has seen heated debate following the announcement by GoDaddy/Dan that commissions would be aligned across the Afternic, Dan, GoDaddy and Afternic platforms, resulting in savings for many, not all, sales at Afternic, but higher commissions at Dan.

The main NamePros discussion on...
 
Last edited:
59
•••

information Top Topics: Help.com sold for $3M; Epik keeps investors' money; Dofo.com to be retired; Bodis PPC revenue drops; Twitter to sell premium usernames

Welcome to another edition of Top Topics here at NamePros. Here's a selection of active discussions for your reading pleasure:

Help.com was reported as sold by DNJournal, for a whopping $3 million dollars; More trouble at Epik as investors cannot register domains with existing...
 
Last edited:
4
•••

analysis Does Domain Name Age Matter?

The question of whether aged domain names have greater value has been discussed in various NamePros threads over the years. Here are a few of the points expressed:
  • Age by itself does not determine the worth of a domain name.
  • In the past, there were fewer domain names registered, and a...
 
Last edited:
52
•••

information Top topics: Whois.com drops ball with .IO special; Dan fees upped to 15%; W3.com and others stolen; Premium domain pricing definition +1 more topic

Domain investors, welcome to another great Top Topics session here at NamePros:

Whois.com mass-canceled .io domain registrations after its price special backfired; Dan.com, a GoDaddy brand, jacked-up fees to 15% and domain investors aren't happy; A cache of premium stolen domain names was...
 
Last edited:
7
•••

analysis 2022 Domain Name Sales Slightly Down

For each of the last four years, I have looked at NameBio reported domain sales in a number of extensions. The data reflects the situation just after the close of the year. While some sales for the year get reported late, by using a consistent procedure from year to year, the trends should...
 
Last edited:
63
•••

information Top Topics: GoDaddy auction relists; Predictions for 2023; Tech trend keyword buys; Domain Buyers' Legal Rights; New Terms at Dan.com

Happy New Year, domain investors! Welcome to the first Top Topics session in 2023 here at NamePros:

Can you relist domains at GoDaddy immediately after the auction ends? Predictions among domainers for the brand new year; Investors are seeking tech trends and buying the related...
 
Last edited:
8
•••

opinion Domain Name Investors Make Predictions For 2023

The more accurately we can predict the future, the better position we are in as domain investors. With that in mind, I sought views on: How Do You Think 2023 Will Be In Domain Investing?

That discussion thread included a poll on overall optimism or pessimism about domain name investment...
 
53
•••

information Top Topics: MotherDuck.com raised $47 million; Crypto Domains in 2023; Multi-dropped domains' Value; Domainer seeks advice; Epik victims team up

Merry Christmas! Get ready for this week's Top Topics column here at NamePros:

MotherDuck.com, a domain sold by Mike Mann, raised $47.5 million dollars as a start-up; Should you keep investing in crypto domains in 2023? What's the value of domains that dropped several times but have...
 
Last edited:
8
•••

tools Seven More Free Tools For Domain Name Investors

Here are seven tools not covered previously in the NamePros Blog, at least not as described in this article. For example, these tools can help you find all combinations of a couple of terms in domain names for sale, or find the domain ages for a list of domains in one pass.

Domain research...
 
74
•••

information Top Topics: Vultures took my biz idea; 3377.com sold at $113k; IRS & PayPal/Venmo/CashApp earnings; Outbound sales approach; .SBS & .CFD TLD charges

Is the World Cup 2022 over yet? Get ready for this week's Top Topics column here at NamePros:

A business idea that involved the registration of a domain vaporized after the domain was taken soon after; The domain 3377.com was auctioned off for a whopping $113,000 dollars at GoDaddy; The...
 
Last edited:
1
•••

information Why Domain Investors Should Take Note Of The Fediverse

Powerful centralized social media giants have probably not been good for domain investment. Some businesses have opted for social media presences instead of a domain name and website. Those businesses could lose control of their online presence, and demand for quality domain names has been...
 
Last edited:
59
•••

information James Iles now at GoDaddy; Registrar alternatives to Epik; XYZ projects with millions in funding; Domaining Pros & Cons; Ballet.com sold for $1.16 mil

Get ready for this week's Top Topics column here at NamePros:

Domain expert and author, James Iles, has been scooped up by GoDaddy as domain investor liaison; Investors discuss registrar alternatives to Epik after recent woes; There are plenty of companies with multi-million dollar...
 
Last edited:
13
•••

interviews I Did Not Edit Any Responses In This Domain Name Interview With OpenAI ChatGPT

Artificial intelligence plays critical roles in many sectors and applications. Up to now, AI has probably been under-utilized in much of the domain name world.

Over the past week, many domain investors have delighted in posing questions and requests to the newly-released OpenAI...
 
56
•••

information Top Topics: Swetha's Shocking Sales; Epik Escrow Mess; Best Registrar for Valuable Domains; Your Exit Strategy; Registrant Unresponsive to Abuse

Welcome to December & the 2022 Holidays! It's time for this week's Top Topics column here at NamePros:

Super domainer Swetha's sales record came under scrutiny and the "shocking" results are in. Epik and its new CEO are trying to make amends but its Escrow services and Masterbucks token...
 
10
•••

analysis The .TV Domain Extension: Sales, History, Pricing, Types, Use, and More

During recent seasonal promotions several registrars offered .tv domain names at the lowest price in many years, perhaps forever. I suspect I was not alone in picking up some names for a trial investment in the extension.

That brings up questions such as:
  • Who are typical buyers of .tv...
 
55
•••

information Top Topics: Black Friday domain deals; Where do your buyers go; Domains spotted in Qatar World Cup; Elie Eweka interview; Expired Fintech Domains

Hopefully you're done shopping for the Holidays! About time for this week's Top Topics column here at NamePros:

Black Friday deals involving domain services are still ongoing, so find out where to save money. Do you know the path your domain buyers follow to get in touch for a domain? The...
 
Last edited:
6
•••

reviews Review and Interview: Accidental Domain Investor by Elie Eweka

There are various domain name books. Some concentrate on branding and company naming, others on the nuts and bolts of domaining as a career. Some books are mainly hype, unrealistically portraying the selling of domain names.

This week, the book Accidental Domain Investor was published by...
 
Last edited:
53
•••

information Top Topics: XMX.com expires, sells for $252k; False alarm by .TV Registry; Advice on buying websites; DAN/Afternic integrate; Domain Market Crash?

Can you believe it's almost Thanksgiving? Time for this week's Top Topics here at NamePros:

XMX.com, a former crypto brand, was sold for $252,000 dollars at an expired domains auction at GoDaddy. People received messages the .TV Registry deems their domains invalid; in reality it was a...
 
Last edited:
14
•••

information A Deeper Look At Domain Name Fast Transfer Sales Networks

What if your domain names would be seen at many different registrars? In addition, when a name sold through any of those registrars, the entire transfer process was automatic. You just wait to be paid.

That is the promise of the so-called fast transfer networks. Traditionally there have been...
 
Last edited:
87
•••

information Top Topics: Marketplaces bundling payments; $100 million company domain lost; Create logos for your brands; Dot .com king of corporate choice +1 ...

Happy Saturday folks—time for this week's Top Topics here at NamePros:

Do marketplaces bundle payments for concurrent sales? Dan and Sedo are compared. Somehow, a company valued at more than $100 million dollars let one of their domain assets expire. How to create logos and other brand...
 
Last edited:
11
•••

various Don’t Miss These Great Domain Name Articles By James Iles

This week it was announced that @James Iles, is stepping back from his weekly NamePros Blog article to concentrate on other things, including his own domain name information site at JamesNames.com.

James has made a huge contribution to the domain name community through his...
 
Last edited:
41
•••

information Top Topics: Get drastic with asking prices; Sports.gg scores $96k; Compare Sedo vs. Afternic domain sales; Keep investing in Meta domains?

It's time for this week's Top Topics here at NamePros. In summary:

A drastic tweak of your domain asking prices might produce more sales. Get details about how Sports.gg sold for $96k. Read about how Sedo & Afternic fare in sales performance. The big question: Should you keep investing in...
 
Last edited:
18
•••

strategy Making A List… And Updating It Often

The most successful domain investors have a system. That system may include many elements, but one of the most important is a method for acquiring quality names that businesses will want. As is said, “you make money on the buy.”

But there are so many names to search. As I write this, the list...
 
Last edited:
54
•••

information Top Topics: Reactive.com Sells for $168,450 at DropCatch; The Previous Owner Wants Their Domain Back. What’s the Standard Practice?...

In this week's Top Topics, we look at two six-figure domain sales, one of which sold at DropCatch after former owner Accenture let the domain expire. Elsewhere, we ask which companies you trust in the domain industry.


Reactive.com Sells for $168,450 at DropCatch

This week, one of...
 
14
•••

information The Original Domain Name System Plan

The domain name system (DNS) has robustly served the Internet well for more than three decades. That is a testament to the expertise and foresightedness of those who developed the concepts and specifications.

Now extensions like .com, .net and .org can be used for any type of...
 
40
•••

information Top Topics: Bull.xyz Sells for $199,888; How Do You Handle Renewals?...

In this week's Top Topics, we take a look at two six-figure .XYZ sales that recently happened. We also feature a question about outbound domain sales, and how do you handle domain renewals?


Bull.xyz Sells for $199,888

Domain investor Swetha Yenugula has shared details of her...
 
10
•••
Appraise.net

We're social

Escrow.com
Spaceship
Domain Recover
CryptoExchange.com
Catchy
URLs.com
NameFit
  • The sidebar remains visible by scrolling at a speed relative to the page’s height.
Back