poll I am at 5000+ now, how many domains in your "keeper" portfolio?

[Recons.Com]

So, I finally crossed the 5000 threshold. Let's share here the portfolio sizes we currently have.

For the poll, I am asking to include only the keeper names, those you are likely to renew, not the heavily discounted names you are holding for a year only. But feel free to mention that portfolio size in the comments too.

As for my portfolio, It seems in past year I have more than doubled the size, buying over 2500 names just from GD auctions/closeouts. Most names are with the GD (see the screenshot) but I also have couple hundred at Epic, Dyna combined.

And I rarely drop names now, with probably under 1% being pruned.

 

[lock]

Honestly, if I settled at 5000, I could spend just a year completing a listing for each and then maybe spend just 10 hours a months with renewals, closing the sales etc.

I don't understand what kind of management is required. Put the renewals on the autopilot and check your mail for sales notifications.

Well if you divide 5000 by 365 days not a lot of time per individual name over a year. The only option would be to park and wait. Only thinking it would over whelm myself in current situation.

 

[Recons.Com]

Well if you divide 5000 by 365 days not a lot of time per individual name over a year. The only option would be to park and wait. Only thinking it would over whelm myself in current situation.

You don't need time per name. You list them once on external marketplaces and, optionally, on your own (with or without logo/description etc.). The time required would be just for responding to inquiries, handling transfers (often not needed either, if, for example, it is fast transfer at afternic or mls sedo) etc.

 

[LUCKYMONEY]

Wow
Those kinds of numbers ain't easy. I have just two now.

 

[rajdomains]

So, I finally crossed the 5000 threshold. Let's share here the portfolio sizes we currently have.

For the poll, I am asking to include only the keeper names, those you are likely to renew, not the heavily discounted names you are holding for a year only. But feel free to mention that portfolio size in the comments too.

As for my portfolio, It seems in past year I have more than doubled the size, buying over 2500 names just from GD auctions/closeouts. Most names are with the GD (see the screenshot) but I also have couple hundred at Epic, Dyna combined.

And I rarely drop names now, with probably under 1% being pruned.

Show attachment 157164

@Recons.Com congratulations on such a huge portfolio. Nice domains

I owned about 2500+ domains in 2015 but now I am left with around 500. Now I am investing in only those names that I think I can renew.

May I know how many domains you sell per month with 5000 domains in the portfolio?

Thanks
All the best...

 

[Recons.Com]

@Recons.Com congratulations on such a huge portfolio. Nice domains

I owned about 2500+ domains in 2015 but now I am left with around 500. Now I am investing in only those names that I think I can renew.

May I know how many domains you sell per month with 5000 domains in the portfolio?

Thanks
All the best...

Thank you. You have nice names, btw. Noticed you sell your LLLL.coms at almost reseller prices on your website ) Interesting strategy.

Sell through: I normally look at annual numbers at the year end. And I use weighted portfolio size, accounting for the fact that it is fast growing portfolio and I cannot use year end number. For 2019, the weighted portfolio size was around 2500 and I sold 35+ domains. If for 2020 my weighted number will be at 5000, I'd expect 50-60 sales in total. Starting from 2021, I am targeting 2%+ sell through, so if I have 7500 names weighted, I should have 150+ sales.

 

[kite26]

Another useful rule which i follow is to avoid overload a specific month with renewals (say June for example). It's better idea to spread the renewals. Also, months I have more renewals on months I know that usually I am more comfortable. It's a whole microstrategy to play the game better.

 

[pavan kumar t]

Holding 3000 domains portfolio 97% .com,
Max % of domains bought from closeouts, rarely I will do hand reg.my aim is to reach 5000
I am going to drop 5 - 10% to maintain quality.

 

[rajdomains]

Thank you. You have nice names, btw. Noticed you sell your LLLL.coms at almost reseller prices on your website ) Interesting strategy.

Sell through: I normally look at annual numbers at the year end. And I use weighted portfolio size, accounting for the fact that it is fast growing portfolio and I cannot use year end number. For 2019, the weighted portfolio size was around 2500 and I sold 35+ domains. If for 2020 my weighted number will be at 5000, I'd expect 50-60 sales in total. Starting from 2021, I am targeting 2%+ sell through, so if I have 7500 names weighted, I should have 150+ sales.

I am not lucky with LLLL. coms I am holding 50% of them from years (which are actually priced for end-user) Newly acquired domains are listed at reseller price to sell fast.

All the best for your sales, you have a nice strategy. I will also try to apply the same.

 

[DonDraper]

930 and 90% keepers

 

[doofer]

It's intriguing that some people have huge portfolios, that with average sell through rates, they barely cover the cost of renewals. Why amass such a huge portfolio if you are not going to actually profit at the end of the day, surely that's just an expensive collection you have to maintain !? Also interesting that people seem to reg then drop vast numbers of domains, with the resultant loss. As somebody else said, surely quality is better than quantity, unless you go for a strategy of volume ie large turn over, small profit, thus negating renewals. I guess we all have our own paths we take.

 

[ThatNameGuy]

So, I finally crossed the 5000 threshold. Let's share here the portfolio sizes we currently have.

For the poll, I am asking to include only the keeper names, those you are likely to renew, not the heavily discounted names you are holding for a year only. But feel free to mention that portfolio size in the comments too.

As for my portfolio, It seems in past year I have more than doubled the size, buying over 2500 names just from GD auctions/closeouts. Most names are with the GD (see the screenshot) but I also have couple hundred at Epic, Dyna combined.

And I rarely drop names now, with probably under 1% being pruned.

Show attachment 157164

Thanks for sharing...i own about a thousand mostly .com domains. While it's taken about a year, my portfolio has evolved from mostly new TLD's with extensions like .loans, .today, etc. to 95% .coms.

Renewal costs are less than 10K a year, and with income from domains and other businesses I operate, I manage fine. I'm currently in the process of developing a few domains, and if just one is successful I'll be really hard to live with

 

[DomainsMaven]

@Recons.Com congratulations on you 5000 plus domains.

You have a good taste in domains. You know what you are doing. Good luck my friend.

 

[bmugford]

It's intriguing that some people have huge portfolios, that with average sell through rates, they barely cover the cost of renewals. Why amass such a huge portfolio if you are not going to actually profit at the end of the day, surely that's just an expensive collection you have to maintain !? Also interesting that people seem to reg then drop vast numbers of domains, with the resultant loss. As somebody else said, surely quality is better than quantity, unless you go for a strategy of volume ie large turn over, small profit, thus negating renewals. I guess we all have our own paths we take.

Quality is important, but so is quantity with the average sell through rate.
If you only own 20 good domains, the odds of making an end user sell each year are low.

Most people don't make it to thousands of domains unless they have a solid, profitable business model.

I have just under 6,000 at the moment. I have been in the same range for years.
I buy some, sell some, drop some.

Brad

 

[kite26]

Quality is important, but so is quantity with the average sell through rate.
If you only own 20 good domains, the odds of making an end user sell each year are low.

Most people don't make it to thousands of domains unless they have a solid, profitable business model.

I have just under 6,000 at the moment. I have been in the same range for years.
I buy some, sell some, drop some.

Brad

I agree with you 100%.
I just want to mention for those who are new that it is crucial to follow the model which fits for them most. Everyone has different needs, goals and financial status. Carefully organise it and don't hesitate to ask anything here on Namepros. An excessive large portfolio (even having quality) it is still a risk. This period is weird and all we wait the meta-Covid era. So, be careful.

 

[BRDavid08]

Just started ..I have only 35 domains.

 

[Ntmt]

Quality is important, but so is quantity with the average sell through rate.
If you only own 20 good domains, the odds of making an end user sell each year are low.

Most people don't make it to thousands of domains unless they have a solid, profitable business model.

I have just under 6,000 at the moment. I have been in the same range for years.
I buy some, sell some, drop some.

Brad

I agree, additionally to said above I feel comfortable operating my 10k portfolio (about 10% keepers) since I have permanent deals flow. It allows me gradually increase prices for each domain along with portfolio growth because with large ammount of domains they still sell with higher prices. Cash flow allows to turn down lower offers and stay firm during negotiations. So I believe in numbers game so far. )

 

[Bonsu]

I have 200+ names currently. But keeping just 10 that has offers. I am more of a flipper but gradually setting up a model for long term investment

 

[BrandEntrance.com]

About 100 or so are keepers. I register 2 - 5 years ahead for names I really like.

 

[freety85]

Great topic @Recons.Com , thanks for opening the poll. Congrats on reaching 5k domains, i am sure you will sell around 60+ a year. I have learned a lot from you and others sharing their purchases to being more selective on picking names and put in significant amount of work to find something that works. Currently have 300 domains, I only renew the .coms only around 170 (reinvesting 100% of the profits - I am targeting 500-700 by the end of this year) . This month was good for me so in total in the past 6 month have had 5 sales ( 2.35% sell through on the .coms / half a year) unfortunately still part time with daily 2h time investment.

 

[Recons.Com]

I definitely wouldn't say I know what I'm doing ) My main goal has always been "not lose too much money" through this experience, as there's so many things we just can't control.

So far I've gotten lucky and made a few sales so I try to focus on optimising the "process" of deciding what to buy, and only buying when I can answer "Yes" to two questions:
1) Is there a viable business model behind this name? (i.e Can I come up with 3 business cases? What's the industry status?)
2) Would I use the domain name for my own business?

I feel like if I follow the process, worst case scenario I will be holding quality names that I can use myself at some point in the future.

It's been a tricky market in recent weeks if I'm following only these rules, so I have been turning a bit more experimental, but if I'm being honest, I don't see my current model to be a scalable one, so I do need to try and figure out where to go from here.

It's been good fun tho ))

You have got the most important part figured out. I use exactly those two questions. What is the business model and would I use it myself. Although I am guilty of holding some nice sounding, nice to have names )) But the beauty of the large portfolio is that you don't have to get it right with every name )) Heck, I have bunch of .us names that rarely sell, yet I am sticking to them ))) I even went on buying spree lately and spent another low $xxxx on those. I just need to figure a way to present those great names and market them better.

And you are also right about scaleability. Finding a nice niche is not enough if it cannot be grown. That is why I experiment with certain types of names regularly and decide for myself. Like I bought couple hundred VR names and dropped almost all. Or don't buy many 5Ls that don't have particular meaning, as it seems they are not that hot with buyers etc.

 

[Recons.Com]

just out of sheer fun curiosity question.. when did you start to domain and how long did it take you to make any profit? was it slow at start? the profits i mean...

for most people domaining is very hard.. with long learning curve.. and often months or even years of negative balances... before they start seeing some profits. and thats only if they do things right and persist learning through the negative balances... which is not obvious to keep at something with much passion when you see negative results!

bad regs add up fast.. .so do renewals.. its super easy to eat away all profit and sales through new bad regs and renewals...

but we basicaly all start off in same bad way.. its just human to need to experience stuff on our own.. good and bad...instead if relying on others experiences and advice.

i started to domain 5 years ago... made tons of useless regs.. even if most i did not really renew.... i kept regging things that never sold.. tons of money wasted.. all sales profits wasted.. i was in negative for long time.. but kept at it.. then started to see some profit.. with all the mistakes and wasted money..... after all expenses and sales, i now basically sit at +50k since i started.. which makes for a pretty low annual avg of profit i know... but i am nonetheless proud of the progress i made and of this number because it represents to me much effort and work and ups and downs.. and most importantly i now know it can only get better.. because the knowedge i gained thru all errors is something no one can take away from me... nor really teach with words if we do not put the time and effort ourselves ... and domaining and picking good names has become a feeling intuition and instinct now.. like second nature... which in my view is the aim of domaining.... that kind of intuiution... same way that this experience and intuition is priceless in many other jobs or areas of life..
i have much left to learn.. but i feel the path is right and the experience and knowledge gained priceless going forward.

happy sales and domaining to all!

My path is not typical. I have been developing sites since 1999. And I'd buy names for my next ideas and they'd often sell for good money, including LLL.coms, LLLL.coms but I still did not look at it as a standalone business until 2015.

So I started growing the portfolio since then pretty much doubling every year and have been in 6 figures every year in sales. Now my sales haven't doubled every year, because the landscape keeps changing. For example, BB & BR were selling at very high rates in 2018, but in 2019 they dried up, but my extended portfolio helped fill the gap via afternic sales. Also, of course, there were some loss categories, but I did not consider them mistakes. They were part of learning and hedging. I was one who said chinese prem things was pump and dump, but still hedged by investing around $10K into west/chinese prem LLLL.orgs. Made most of it back through small regular sales in $xxx, but once the renewal fee went up to $12, just dropped the rest. Never bought into numerical fad, but still got one 5L for mid $xxx that is still sitting there ))

Launch, improvement and growth of my own site will make it more predictable, while saving a lot on commissions. There is a huge difference between paying 35% on a sale and paying 3% (credit card fees). 2500 sale on BB will net you $1650, on Afternic - $2000, on your own site $2425.

 

[Recons.Com]

Thank you for the post. Currently holding 12 keepers, will be dropping 5 other names in a couple month. Just started developing my domain site a couple days ago.

Good start. You seem to be on the right path.

 

[Recons.Com]

I'm at about 1100 domain names. Everything with just 3 registrars. Everything set to manual renew. Once per month I pay renewals, review quality and traffic, and decide on drops. During the month I add names, sometimes 30-50 in a month, sometimes 0-10. Just depends.

I sell two ways. Passively through Afternic and by quarterly scheduled auctions. This year, I skipped my 1st qtr auction because of what I perceive as problems at NJ.

I'm very happy with right around 1k domains.

Interesting. Thank you for sharing. I haven't tried auctions. Growing the portfolio at this rate is already taking huge amount of time.

What are the quality and traffic criteria you use to decide if a name is worthy?

I sometimes look at names at the time of renewal and tell myself "what was I thinking a year ago buying the name?!", then I research the name and discover that there few companies that could upgrade using it. My next thought "hm, maybe I should trust myself of a year ago more" ))

But the funniest thing with owning thousands of names is that you don't even recognize them and often are pleasantly surprised ))

 

[alcy]

My path is not typical. I have been developing sites since 1999. And I'd buy names for my next ideas and they'd often sell for good money, including LLL.coms, LLLL.coms but I still did not look at it as a standalone business until 2015.

So I started growing the portfolio since then pretty much doubling every year and have been in 6 figures every year in sales. Now my sales haven't doubled every year, because the landscape keeps changing. For example, BB & BR were selling at very high rates in 2018, but in 2019 they dried up, but my extended portfolio helped fill the gap via afternic sales. Also, of course, there were some loss categories, but I did not consider them mistakes. They were part of learning and hedging. I was one who said chinese prem things was pump and dump, but still hedged by investing around $10K into west/chinese prem LLLL.orgs. Made most of it back through small regular sales in $xxx, but once the renewal fee went up to $12, just dropped the rest. Never bought into numerical fad, but still got one 5L for mid $xxx that is still sitting there ))

Launch, improvement and growth of my own site will make it more predictable, while saving a lot on commissions. There is a huge difference between paying 35% on a sale and paying 3% (credit card fees). 2500 sale on BB will net you $1650, on Afternic - $2000, on your own site $2425.

35% is a lot... but then there is something like dan which is flat 9%
mass paypal payout so no extra paypal fee etc.

9% and 3% is not that big diference no? but I guess u do not want to go down that path.

in fact if u add a lead which is mostly what I do from my bodis inquiries... its only 5% on dan. basically equivalent to someoen paying you direct to paypal at the 4-5% fee. minus the chargebacks risks etc.

 

[ThatNameGuy]

35% is a lot... but then there is something like dan which is flat 9%
mass paypal payout so no extra paypal fee etc.

9% and 3% is not that big diference no? but I guess u do not want to go down that path.

in fact if u add a lead which is mostly what I do from my bodis inquiries... its only 5% on dan. basically equivalent to someoen paying you direct to paypal at the 4-5% fee. minus the chargebacks risks etc.

Fees whether they're 35% or 9% are relative. I use to be in the debt recovery business, and I charged an "average" of 30% to collect a $1,000 debt, and my liquidation/recover percentage of the debts was 20%. Many of my competitors charged a fee of just 20%, but their liquidation/recovery was just 12%. Who do you think got the most bang for their buck? My clients of course.......but it was hard to educate clients on how this is so. Fortunately I had some very good sales people who could explain it to our clients, and once they did, we had a client for life