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Experience 100 days in domaining

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GreatBrand.in

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It is custom in many places to appraise performance after the first 100 days and accordingly take necessary measure to change and define strategy. WKXV (doing publicity of my dot com domain i.e. Week 15) where after 100 days, a new era begins is very important for a new start, new birth and new life and therefore we decided to share our candid and critical views, our 100 days experience in the domaining:

On 15th May 2020, during the peak of pandemic here in Europe; I received an email:

Dear sirs,
You are the owner of the domain name XXXXXXXX. Is this domain name for sale? If so, what is the asking price?

Prima Facie it looks like spam email but he was referring about my 4L (dot) in; a domain which I hand reg in 2019 for my own startup and his email also contents his complete signature, company name and address. After verifying online I was sure that the email is genuine and the person is a serial entrepreneur based in the Netherlands. I responded that though I registered this domain for my personal use with 5 years validity If I like your idea and offer; I may sell and then after a chain of emails, the deal was concluded in 10 days. The person was so impressed that he transferred entire amount as an advance in my bank account directly without escrow or any broker and the next day when the amount appeared in my Indian account I transferred authority code. His last email was "Thank you, never expected such smooth transaction".

His offer was in US$ four-digit which was approx. 20 times higher than the price mentioned in the GoDaddy valuation tool or any other valuation. And even during that time, I was intuitive that my domain price is not fairly valued which stands true as just after 2 weeks similar 3L (dot) In; was sold at US$ 50,000 at SEDO auction. Anyway, I was and am happy as I wanted to experience a successful completion of this process and also because I found a friend who can do justice with my domain. For me it was also a validation of my old beliefs that my domain name choice was good that's why an entrepreneur found my detail from Whois and contacted me without any publicity and second dot (in) has a great future prospect. Also because I am passionate about brands and love to spend time in creativity so I was confident that I can create several good domains and thus seeing this as a new opportunity where I can enjoy my work and also get paid. In the very first process I learnt my first lesson: Believe in your own intuition and not on the software or valuation tools

This success was very timely and I guess sent by God as I was stuck in my studio apartment alone far away from my Family and Friends. All offices were shut and we were forced to work from home since March-end which continued till the beginning of July. All those news were very gloomy and pessimistic mainly about Italy and Spain except some video footage of cheering doctors from their apartment which made me even more emotional. I had visited all those places in Italy and Spain just 6 months ago and I knew how extrovert Italian and Spanish are. Before this email, I was literally crying and praying the entire day for them which has a psychological impact also. So I guess this domaining opportunity has helped me to divert my mind and stop watching youtube and news channel. Thereafter with overexcitement within a week, I brought more than 20 domain without thinking too much about an extension so purchased .online, .studio, .shop and so on. Later I started investing my time in detail research and realised that renew cost of this domain extensions are very high and if you are not end-use it may severely affect your profitability. My second lesson: focus on the domain extensions which offers low renew cost and better return.

In the middle of June, I came across NamePros and read a lot; different and diverse topics. I was greatly benefited from the writeup and experiences of @Bob Hawkes for me he is Professor Bob @Nikul Sanghvi and @AbdulBasit.com during my first month. I also enjoyed reading @xynames and @frank-germany for their different approach and rational thinking and would like to thanks all of them. All these companies name Dan, DynaDot, SEDO, Flippa, Epik and domain lingo were alien words for me and only month ago, I realised that DAN and Undeveloped is the name of the same company. I was so naive that for me domaining means GoDaddy only :). During my research, I came across Mr. Brent Oxley's small but very impressive domain portfolio which tempted me to build something similar, of course within my budget constrain.

Thereafter from the starting of June, I started building my small and manageable portfolio. In the middle of July, I joined NP and here too my starting was very funny. I posted the requirement of 4L and 3L domain in a different place and not under request heading. Anyway, my experience of buying 4L was extremely good and I met some amazing people like @SouthernGuy @skyful and of course @wallet2it. They helped me to do all kind of experiments like using Paypal, Dan, Escrow etc. related payment modes which were main intentions as I had no experience while buying a domain from GoDaddy or any other market place. My second post of buying 3L domain backfired but gave some very important lesson. Actually, in that post I mentioned looking for 3L and budget is US$5,200 which was a big amount for me and only budget available at that time. Then because of this lower ball price I was trolled like anything, some even suggested to block me from NP :) Here I met @Shaan Chopra who rescued me and after realising my innocence approach another colleague and @Samer introduce me to the website shortnames where I can see detail information of all liquidate domains including past sales record. Thank you that site is very useful and hope that one day I will have those Jewels in my portfolio too.

When I realised that budget is not sufficient for 3L, we started aggressively participating in Auction including GoDaddy expired domain and there, after two weeks in mid-July, we realised that few companies have formed monopoly there. We did bidders profiling, studied their pattern and accordingly at the beginning of August changed our bidding process. That is really fun and we are thoroughly enjoying competing with Bots :)

After 15 days of this costly experiment (during initial stage we end up buying), our domain acquisition rate through bid is still less than 1% but our success rate is 100% because in all those bids where we engage we decide the price and poor Bot has to compete :). Here we rediscovered limitation of machine learning and artificial intelligence over human's emotional and unpredictable mind: our third lessons. No wonders Bots still do not understand sarcasm :)

In August, we got encouraging response and validation about our strategy when we received and politely declined all 3 offers; two in $X,XXX and one $XX,XXX as we are not yet ready for any sales. We think our beautiful Models (domain) have just arrived on the stage, let them do some ramp walk, participate in a few more fashion shows (currently using SEDO and DAN only) and thereafter we will talk about sell :)

On this special occasion, we would like to thank all colleagues from this vibrant forum who had directly or indirectly helped us to learn and understand this new sector and played an important role to shape and reshape our perspective, plan and future strategy. Thank you!

Best wishes,




 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
hey brother, can u help me how these domain selling works? i am from chandigarh
 
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hey brother, can u help me how these domain selling works? i am from chandigarh

Sure...
1. First choose best quality of domain either hand register which is extremely difficult as more than billion all type of possible names are already registered. Then better to buy from expired domain list or auction at cheaper rate.
2. Again repeating quality of domain is extremely important and its testing is simple. Just ask yourself a simple question if have a company, will you give that name to your company and stick with it for life ? If your answer is yes go for it.
3. Dot (com) command premium over others and has cheaper renew fee, so try to stick with it.
4. Ensure that you not maintaining privacy and people can find your email address while looking domain WHOIS. This has happened with me as person liked my domain name attractive and got in touch with me without any sells effort from my side.
5. If you want better exposure (advertisement that your domain is open for sale) please open an account in several market place like DAN, SEDO, Afternic etc and then place your domain there.
6. Thereafter you need to wait for right person who is willing to buy your domain at premium. Here three things define your waiting period: quality of domain, trend of sector (sometime ago IT and tech were fashionable three years ago BitCoins etc) and other important thing is pricing.

It is game of patience so if you have quality domain keep 5 to 10 years annual renew fee separately i.e. mentality prepare to invest Rs.5K on each domain and wait for right investor.

You can also do an outbound that mean you approach to potential buyer through different social media but that need special marketing and communication skill and also you may not be able to command premium. Thank you

You can check my website GreatBrand.in for more detail.
 
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can u place my domain for sale at ur website?
u can charge fee if sell through u ?
 
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Hi brother I'm not too good with outbound letter. Can you help me with one. Thanks
 
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Hi brother I'm not too good with outbound letter. Can you help me with one. Thanks

I am also not good in outbound sell whatever inquiries I have received all are inbound. They found in marketplace and approached me. So I will suggest you to invest more time and efforts when you are buying so that you can put less effort during sale. Follow the current trend and find short and memorable domain keeping end user in mind. Thank you!
 
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Thanks for a sincere feedback. I have gt some Hunreg names with me. If you don't mind I can share with you and help me check them out b4 I reg them.

And do hr sell that most in marketplace?
 
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Wow! Your approach to business and domaining it's wonderful!
If you start a company and go public with shares, let me know! B-)
Good luck for your domain journey :xf.smile:
 
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Wow! Your approach to business and domaining it's wonderful!
If you start a company and go public with shares, let me know! B-)
Good luck for your domain journey :xf.smile:

Thank you so much for your kind words.
I am working professional who tried and still trying his hand in new startups so I think like an entrepreneurs while choosing domain too :)
 
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Sure...

5. If you want better exposure (advertisement that your domain is open for sale) please open an account in several market place like DAN, SEDO, Afternic etc and then place your domain there.

Forgive my ignorance as I am new to this. Are you saying that I can have a domain for sale on mor ethan one of those marketplaces?
 
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Forgive my ignorance as I am new to this. Are you saying that I can have a domain for sale on mor ethan one of those marketplaces?

Yes, more exposure and reaching to wider customer base is always good but please ensure to use BIN only at one place and accepting offers in other places just to avoid selling same domain to two customers at two different marketplaces at the same time. Rare case but better to avoid. Thanks
 
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