interviews $40K Annual Profit from Part-time Brandable Domain Name Investing – With Doron Vermaat

[DomainSherpa]

How does @Doron Vermaat earn $40,000 profit per year while only investing 10 to 15 hours per week? Find out in this interview.

Vermaat shares:

• How he learned to value brandable domain names
• What he does as soon as he purchases a new domain name
• How (and how fast) he responds to inquiries from potential buyers
• Why he ends each email with a question
• How he softly pushes just a little further to increase the sales price

http://www.domainsherpa.com/doron-vermaat-namerockstar/

 

[richface]

Great Interview Just listened to it now. What an honest and very open guy Doron is.

 

[Bros]

Another really good episode. Also DNGeek is an awesome and very useful site. Thanks.

 

[daica85]

Great Interview Just listened to it now. What an honest and very open guy Doron is.

Me too, nice interview and just watched on it. Thanks.

 

[Sulabh Sharma]

@DomainSherpa Hello Michael Cyger, I am talking a bit off topic. Can you please tell me the reason for choosing "Sherpa" after "domain" on your domain name. I was checking over Doron Vermaat website and found a name coffeesherpa dot com. And some unusual question popped up in my mind.

 

[GoKaizen]

http://www.domainsherpa.com/why-we-selected-domainsherpa-as-our-site-name/

@Michael Cyger

@DomainSherpa Hello Michael Cyger, I am talking a bit off topic. Can you please tell me the reason for choosing "Sherpa" after "domain" on your domain name. I was checking over Doron Vermaat website and found a name coffeesherpa dot com. And some unusual question popped up in my mind.

 

[DomainSherpa]

What @Adam27 said. Thanks, Adam.

Doron Vermaat website and found a name coffeesherpa dot com

Sherpa related domains are great brands. MarketingSherpa had a really big following, and it influenced my decision to go with DomainSherpa.

Doron also likes Ninja domains and many others. We can learn a great deal from what @Doron Vermaat is buying.

 

[Buypolar]

 

[Candace]

Nice Interview Mike. I really appreciated you doing the interview and @Doron Vermaat for sharing.

 

[Doron Vermaat]

Thank you everyone for the kind words and thank you Michael for giving me the opportunity to do to the interview and share my experience.

 

[DomainSherpa]

@Buypolar: Are you saying that I'm the blind, or were you just making a joke?

I'm happy to have you on the show so you can share some of your expertise. That's the sign of a true leader -- someone who gives back to the community.

Feel free to PM me if you have something to share with the community. I'd welcome that.

Best regards,
Michael

 

[DomainSherpa]

Thank you everyone for the kind words and thank you Michael for giving me the opportunity to do to the interview and share my experience.

Thank you, Doron. I've already used your negotiation tactics with a buyer who made an inquiry on one of my domains. He went from a $100 offer to $3,000 (and "looking at some other options") after I asked him if he wanted to make an offer for my consideration. Fingers crossed it works out for both sides.

Best,
Michael

 

[GoKaizen]

Kaizen!

One of my favorite quotes of all time is by W. Edwards Deming: “In God we trust; all others bring data.”

 

[Buypolar]

@Buypolar: Are you saying that I'm the blind, or were you just making a joke?

I'm happy to have you on the show so you can share some of your expertise. That's the sign of a true leader -- someone who gives back to the community.

Feel free to PM me if you have something to share with the community. I'd welcome that.

Best regards,
Michael

I do not think you are literally blind. I do think your show misleads people and pushes your friends' agenda. It is also important to mention that your own domain ventures are misleading. You reported $230,000 in domain sales last year which was subsequently verified by an independent source. What you did not state was that one of your sales made up for more than 50% of your total sales (or so I have been told). While a big sale does get people excited, it doesn't make someone worthy of a $499 fee. Who knows if that sale is repeatable. Then we must consider the fact that we don't know how much you spent to make up your sale's numbers, that's where the problem compounds. So while you are not literally blind, you are definitely leading the herd blindly into the slaughter house. I am sure you will have a counterargument but even Efty's business model is built on the premise that most "domainers" will not make any money.

Pro business tip: Offer deep discounts to those who pay for a year upfront. The attrition rate in this industry is substantial, so your goal must be to squeeze as much money as possible out of them while they are here. The current model is not sustainable.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

FWIW: This Sherpa review has

28 Likes on Facebook
8 Likes on Twitter
8 Likes on NamePros

**As of time of post and not including my FB 'like' and NP thank**

 

[Eric Lyon]

Great interview, guys!

The discussion about Estibot has been moved: Read here.

 

[TURIST]

Thank you for sharing your vision and niches you are busy with.
It's interesting the percentage of inquires for your domains you bought recently and one or two years ago.
How many domains do you stil own from your very first year in domaining?
Thank you.

 

[Doron Vermaat]

Thank you for sharing your vision and niches you are busy with.
It's interesting the percentage of inquires for your domains you bought recently and one or two years ago.
How many domains do you stil own from your very first year in domaining?
Thank you.

Great question. I decided to look this up and from the 120 domains I bought during my first year I currently still own 49 of them. 35 domains I let drop and I sold 36 of them (10 to end-users and the rest on NameJet or here on NP to other investors).

 

[Chris Hydrick]

@Doron Vermaat - Thanks for sharing the email correspondence behind your recent sale at minute mark 62. Really helped gain visibility into the effectiveness of your sales and success play books

Quote from their why us page:

 

[N-A]

Doron,

You say you net approximately $40,000 per year in sales. Is this something that you’re likely to keep up, or has the partnership between you and Michael Cyger going to keep you even busier to where you will drop your domain name investing activities in the future to earn revenues solely from Efty?

In other words, is it likely that Efty subscriptions will make you two more – or less – money than part time domain investing in the future?

I ask this because I believe it to be a very valid question here. Domain name investing is hard work and there are many activities we face each day as you mention in this interview with Michael Cyger: reading blogs, keeping up with forums, etc.

However, offering a service to domain name investors such as Efty does may be an avenue that some investors with a hidden talent should look into. Don’t you think?

If someone can fill a void in this industry much like you and Michael Cyger have with Efty, @Michael with domain entertainment via the Domain Game and @Eric Lyon through his comics, then isn’t it possible that they can make more money following in your footsteps and thinking outside of the box as well?

Thanks

 

[Doron Vermaat]

Doron,

You say you net approximately $40,000 per year in sales. Is this something that you’re likely to keep up, or has the partnership between you and Michael Cyger going to keep you even busier to where you will drop your domain name investing activities in the future to earn revenues solely from Efty?

In other words, is it likely that Efty subscriptions will make you two more – or less – money than part time domain investing in the future?

I ask this because I believe it to be a very valid question here. Domain name investing is hard work and there are many activities we face each day as you mention in this interview with Michael Cyger: reading blogs, keeping up with forums, etc.

However, offering a service to domain name investors such as Efty does may be an avenue that some investors with a hidden talent should look into. Don’t you think?

If someone can fill a void in this industry much like you and Michael Cyger have with Efty, @Michael with domain entertainment via the Domain Game and @Eric Lyon through his comics, then isn’t it possible that they can make more money following in your footsteps and thinking outside of the box as well?

Thanks

Great question David. To answer your first question, no I do not think I will ever drop my domain name investing activities (unless domain names will loose their value). First of all, it's a hobby of mine, and one I am very passionate about. I do re-invest the fast majority of my profits into higher quality names which has allowed me to spend less time on domaining but still grow my overall sales. In our industry, it's those that flip or broker domains who always need to work to have cash flow. Once they stop working their income stops as well. I'm not a flipper. So If I want/need to spend more time on family, projects, traveling or my business I can easily do so without seeing my sales decline because I have a portfolio that constantly works for me..

I won't be sharing Efty's financials but what I can share is that Lionel Petitiaux and I (that's the founding team btw- not Michael and me) worked (and continue to work) countless hours on building the early version of Efty and the platform was free of charge for many months in beta until we deemed the service good enough to start charging for it. And even then we decided to charge a very modest fee (some say we're crazy to charge that low of a subscription fee when most other software tools in the industry cost $49/month or more) because our focus now is on growing the user base and the platform.

Running a startup is not easy and many people that try fail. Running a business that serves the domain name investing community is even harder. Efty manages hundred thousands of domains from hundreds of investors and this comes with great responsibility. Users (rightfully) expect 100% uptime and a fast, secure and reliable platform to manage their portfolio. You have to be standby 24/7 for support, client services and to scale the technology when needed. The stress and anxiety this sometimes comes with are a nice bonus but so are the many great emails and messages from users that have been so successful using the platform

Honestly, the idea for a service such as Efty isn't the hard work. It's the execution.

There are many domain name investors in our industry that have also developed services or products. Does Frank Shilling make more from Uniregistry than from his domain investments? Does Aaron Strong makes more from his domain investments than from NameBio.com, Domain Agents or Whoisology? You tell me. All I now is that they are happily and successfully doing both

 

[Branded Domains]

Great Interview guys....Brandable part was best..I have learned something about brandables..

 

[N-A]

@Doron Vermaat thanks for your detailed reply.

I singled out your activity with Michael Cyger and didn't bring anyone else in, because well, this was your interview and it was focused on Efty and your domain investing activites, not Frank Shilling.

In the beginning of the interview, you state that it's your anniversary with Michael Cyger becoming a business partner. After viewing Efty.com's about section, I read more detail about this:

In 2015, Michael Cyger, publisher of the award-winning educational website DomainSherpa.com, invested in Efty and joined the leadership team.

Together, they're building Efty into the one tool that every domainer loves to use and can't live without.

It sounds like you two, the interviewer and the interviewee, have more in common than is being put across. Almost as if this were conveniently set up to be an advertisement; at any rate, there's definitely bias involved as so put by @Buypolar.

But, let's not get into that. My question that was beat around the bush was: Is it possible for others in the domain name industry to think outside of the box, much like yourself, and be able to profit by introducing a new product or service to domain name investors?

 

[Doron Vermaat]

It sounds like you two, the interviewer and the interviewee, have more in common than is being put across.

Michael clearly states in the beginning of the interview that he is an investor in Efty and part of our leadership team so I do not see how he could have been more transparent about that.

But, let's not get into that. My question that was beat around the bush was: Is it possible for others in the domain name industry to think outside of the box, much like yourself, and be able to profit by introducing a new product or service to domain name investors?

I encourage everyone to do so. The more innovation in our industry the better. Even if you fail it's a great learning experience to try and do a startup. But as I wrote in my earlier response it usually seems a lot easier from the outside than it is.

 

[N-A]

Michael clearly states in the beginning of the interview that he is an investor in Efty and part of our leadership team so I do not see how he could have been more transparent about that.

As I so stated in my first post. I never said it wasn't transparent, I was just referencing the above post where Buypolar states that he pushes his friends' and his own agenda. Try not to quote just a snippet of what I said to put words in my mouth, as I've been accused of doing so in the past,

In the beginning of the interview, you state that it's your anniversary with Michael Cyger becoming a business partner. After viewing Efty.com's about section, I read more detail about this:

I encourage everyone to do so. The more innovation in our industry the better. Even if you fail it's a great learning experience to try and do a startup. But as I wrote in my earlier response it usually seems a lot easier from the outside than it is.

This seems like the best answer regarding the topic that I'll get out of you as you don't want to reveal financials or claim whether Efty is a profitable venture or not. What I got from this is to basically try and it's possible to become profitable.

Thank you for the interview @Doron Vermaat and Michael Cyger. I look forward to the next one.