discuss Starting Over...

[DanBingham]

Have you ever thought about selling your entire domain portfolio in order to start over?
Perhaps you were one of these people, and if so, was it a decison worth taking?
Or, was it the worst mistake of your domaining career?

 

[Kenny]

Berkens sold almost whole portfolio to GoDaddy... not to start over but to finish the active domain career...

Did he stop? I think the operative word here is "Almost".
I thought I heard of him participating in some auctions after the GD sale.

Maybe not.

Peace,
Kenny

 

[Recons.Com]

I just drop domains without any offers after year or two.

Most of my sales for 2018 are more than 2 year old holds without offers.

 

[NYJimbo]

Most of my sales for 2018 are more than 2 year old holds without offers.

I think this is always really weird to see. I mean, you reg a domain today and it takes 12-24 months to sell. Its like planting a seed and knowing you have to wait and have no control over it so you just have to sort of "forget' about it until it "matures".

Makes you wonder how many expires/drops would have made people real money if they held them a bit longer.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Did he stop? I think the operative word here is "Almost".
I thought I heard of him participating in some auctions after the GD sale.

Maybe not.

Peace,
Kenny

Domaining is like narcotic... at least for real domainers...
So it is impossible to stop completely... )

 

[NYJimbo]

Domaining is like narcotic... at least for real domainers...
So it is impossible to stop completely... )

I have to do a 5-domain-a-day fix or I go into withdrawals.

 

[Recons.Com]

I think this is always really weird to see. I mean, you reg a domain today and it takes 12-24 months to sell. Its like planting a seed and knowing you have to wait and have no control over it so you just have to sort of "forget' about it until it "matures".

Makes you wonder how many expires/drops would have made people real money if they held them a bit longer.

but it is strange to expect offers on all names within 2 years, when you know that even quality names sell at 0.5% to 2% ratio a year and often have no previous offers.

That should not be a criteria for holding names. Instead you should have subcategories of names that you look at as a group based on length, keywords, structure, suffix or any other similarities. For example, "I have held 50 names with *** ending for 5 years and none sold, so maybe I should reduce those or get rid of altogether".

 

[WatchDogue]

We have owned a domain portfolio since the 90s' and have never thought about selling 'em all and starting over again.

Over all the years we have dropped some names with sheer delight, dropped some names with mixed emotions, sold some names with apprehensions, sold some names with joyous jubilation, and used a number of names for personal sites and projects but, have never tried to or considered selling 'em all and re-booting.

Have taken on some niche names for pure speculation and have taken a few new domain pathways over the years but have essentially followed the domain path we started on.

 

[xynames]

Selling in bulk for anything Quality is usually a mistake. Done it before when I wasn't actively managing my own portfolio and had a manager handling most of it, collected high five figures for a set of domains and found out the domains were sold pretty quickly afterwards individually for a combined high six figures - for 10X more. If a buyer thinks that a bulk portfolio is worth buying for something substantial it is probably worth a lot more.

Now, the stuff I see being posted on here for "fire sales," the domains where almost no one will even touch them for even free, are a different matter. But if a portfolio is worth selling at all, it is worth waiting to sell at fair market prices.

 

[BrandChimp]

I am selling about 80% of my portfolio.

The mistake: I have sold 7 domains on BB last year + 2 on Afternic to end users. I have spend that money in renewals and it killed the profit. + I have to pay taxes on top of that! Not much $ left to reinvest..

Lesson learned: Owning a huge portfolio of domains priced under $3K - 30% commission - $100 for a logo is expensive and risky.

New strategy: Investing in a small number of domains worth $6k+ and pay less commission!

 

[BaileyUK]

I think for many of us that started early pre-1999, have to accept the best of our portfolio has already moved on, (mostly sales) to think we can replace on a daily like-for-like basis is long gone. I personally couldn't imagine starting from scratch. There are far too many savvy operators out there these days, and have been since around 2010 onward.

If I was back-in I'd be tracking *distressed sellers rather than the drop markets. It would be very time consuming but I think there would be some great negotiated bargains to be had.

I'm using the word *distressed, purely as an operative term, those trying to keep up with renewals but with the occasional 'Blinding ' (or just worthwhile) domain in their portfolio or those just seeking sales more urgently than most. There are methods and matrix.

Domaining has always been a dog-eat-dog world, so nothing new, It just has the luxury of being at a keyboard distance, so nothing personal either