opinion Is Domaining based on pure luck

[dhyinc]

While we invest in domains, I need your views on whether Domain business is based on pure luck...I understand there are top domains which get buyers, but what about the good domains? is it on luck that a buyer may find you...

what do you think?

 

[Eric Lyon]

It could be argued that there is luck involved in every business deal that's ever happened. Learning, practicing, experimenting, and repeating is a good way to increase your "luck" in any business including the domain business.

 

[.X.]

You have to have just a tad of luck in most anything we do, but luck is not the foundation to success, hard work, desire, attitude, understanding, rationalized thinking are just a few things that it takes to maintain in the domain name industry IMO.

so no, it is far far from just being lucky, if it were just luck, I would have been gone a long time ago, broke as well.

 

[bmugford]

No. It if was just about luck way more people with bad domains would be making steady sales.

Brad

 

[equity78]

Your question seems to be is it all luck? NO it's not. There is a lot of luck involved with domaining, first off you can't just go and make your own way, you need the misfortune or negligence of others. By that I mean there are plenty of names that sit and don't sell for 15 years, many brandables have been like this and then someone lets the name drop and someone else picks it up and sells it passively, just putting it on Sedo and Afternic (nothing that requires skill or high intellect) in three months. That is pure luck, now you will not be able to make a living doing that, outliers happen and other bits of luck happen as well.

Look the whole secondary market is based on luck, GoDaddy and all the other registrars that sell their customer's expired assets and pocket the cash got lucky. ICANN could have easily implemented rules that said all names expire after 30 days and are released back into the wild. A registrar cannot profit off of expired domains, they didn't and that was very lucky for companies like GoDaddy.

Understanding linguistics, marketing, trends, the temperature of the culture and knowing how to sell are all real skills you need to adapt to make a living or a hobby where the juice is worth the squeeze.

But for anyone telling you that luck played no part in their success in this business is either lying or in denial.

 

[Russkie]

for the registries / registrars - it's a proper super profitable business, as for the rest - ghostly hope. we simply hand our money to registrars this is why they need us for.

 

[.X.]

for the registries / registrars - it's a proper super profitable business, as for the rest - ghostly hope. we simply hand our money to registrars this is why they need us for.

That is the misconception in many many cases, domaining is not a slot machine, the ghostly hope you speak of is due to an over abundance of jumping in feet first without learning the industry as a whole, the industry is very diversified, selling domain names is one single aspect of a very large industry with many many opportunities from designers, coders, webmasters, affiliate marketers, and list goes far on.

There is no Ghostly hope of finding the prizes, expand yourself within the industry and find your best niche within it, then work way your out into ventures outside of your main niche.

Domaining is far from being one dimensional

 

[Fancy.domains]

I would say domaining is everything but luck!

People living from domaining (year after year) are able to do so because they have good / great names and are professionals. Not because of some random luck.

Knowledge and hard work is everything...

 

[pinkdragon]

Yes, you can be lucky and find a great name available for reg fee; you can be lucky to win an great name on an auction for low $xxx; sometimes you can be lucky and sell one of your names and make a great ROI. Apart from that, domaining involves a lot of time and hard work. Domaining is not equal with lottery.

 

[Furquan]

It could be argued that there is luck involved in every business deal that's ever happened. Learning, practicing, experimenting, and repeating is a good way to increase your "luck" in any business including the domain business.

He said all very well.

 

[WingMan]

Some people were "lucky" to have discovered domaining 15-20 years ago when all the good names were available for cheap. Some domainers were not born then or were too young to have participated! But in general, domaining needs a lot of hard work. You need to interact with other domainers and really need to spend the money when necessary. That said, some domainers are naturally more talented at spotting great names than others and there isn't much anyone can do about it.

 

[DonDraper]

It can depend on the model a domainer uses, in certain business models skills and competence could be a real asset that guarantee a long term value.

 

[WatchDogue]

Believe a number of posters have offered excellent perspectives on " hard work" vs " luck " with which I concur.

Domain " luck " may surface should one inadvertently learn of or hear of new, emerging real world fields and advancements ( ex in tech or crypto) and then quickly pounce and acquire brandable / keyword laden domains in those fields.

IMO most success with domains evolves from one's hard work, constant research and capital risk taking.

 

[DOMAIN ILLUMINATI]

Is domaining based on pure luck?

This question starts actually with the question what luck (or bad luck) is.

The common understanding of (bad) luck is, that (bad) luck is a random event.
But this is not true because in reality, (bad) luck is nothing other than (negative) positive fate.

As fate is the result of A) destiny (originally created by THE CREATOR OF LIFE, believe it or not - it's your decision) and B) how we react to our past destiny, our future (negative / positive) fate depends on A) our previous destiny and B) on our own reactions = decisions to it.

It (the future part of our fate) is hidden from us until it (becomes the present part and) enters our life.

This said (written), domaining is neither based on pure (bad) luck nor based on pure react = decision making, it is definitely based on a mix of both.

In this context, the one extreme would be that you can have a domain name that has ultimative low quality - but if it is in your destiny that someone will buy it, then you will definitely sell it.

The other extrem would be that you can have a domain name that has ultimative high quality - but if it is not in your destiny that someone will buy it, then you will definitely never sell it.

Patience (the result of knowledge) is the keyyy

 

[Kate]

It's 99% about domain quality, 1% timing, and 1% luck.

 

[MasterOfMyDomains]

For some yes. 100% because they have no clue what their doing.

 

[indiegrind]

Someone can get lucky. But repeatable year to year success is about education, smart investing, marketing/presentation of the name and communication/ negotiation skills.

 

[Argentum]

Considering thay all good names are taken years ago yes domaining for newbies is more about luck and waste of money.

 

[barman]

This is a limiting self belief. If you think that it's all based on luck, and you fail, then you'll blame it on your "bad luck".

There's a lot of work involved in finding domains, understanding whats valuable, buying and selling. The harder you work, the "luckier" you get.

Sure it's not as easy as it was 15 years ago, but 15 years from now they'll be saying that about today. "Oh I wish I started in 2019 when it was easy."

 

[Internet.Domains]

Luck is always a factor, but you decide on how much influence it has on your success through hard work.

 

[Furquan]

It's 99% about domain quality, 1% timing, and 1% luck.

Then its make 101℅

99% Domain+1% Quality+1% luck = 101

 

[imadoer]

I was having some bad luck last week. A friend of mine who was making sales lent me some luck as soon as he did boom offers and sales started coming in this week I must have sold like 8 domains and have 2 pending since the luck was borrowed I will give it back eventhough I dont want to

True story

 

[EmpireNames.com]

Considering thay all good names are taken years ago yes domaining for newbies is more about luck and waste of money.

Disagree... i am newbie and i earned handsome money in last 4 months...Total time i am in this business since 9 months... so dont discourage newcomers please....Yes they should read before investing... we can say that

 

[xynames]

#1 Good names
#2 Exposure
#3 Negotiation skills

The luck may come into play where the search done by the potential buyer lands on your domain name or finds it in a marketplace before it lands on or finds another. But somehow, domain buyers know what they want, and if what you have matches their needs, they tend to find you.

You gotta reel a buyer in like a fish. Just because he bites doesn’t mean you’re going to land him.

Of course - in the end both buyer and seller benefit. But you’ve still got to convince the buyer sometimes of how and why it’s beneficial to him to pay your price, or why your price is correct. And therein lies the skill in reeling.

It also goes without saying that you have set up some streamlined, user friendly means for the buyer to contact you (i.e. a landing page submission form) once he lands on your domain. And have your domain listed in all the good marketplaces, which gets back to exposure.


How you get good names, depends on a combination of skill, time (labor hours) put into the endeavor and how long you have been in the business. Obviously the further back in months or years you go, the better the pool of names.

 

[DOMAIN ILLUMINATI]

It's 99% about domain quality, 1% timing, and 1% luck.

Then its make 101 %
[...]

100 % true hahaha but I assume it was intended because {101} stands for {one o one} which stands for {basics}.