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opinion Hand Registering Domains Is Not Domain Investing

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Admittedly, this may be somewhat a sensationalized title. But hand registering is only a bridge or gateway to investing in domains. This article discusses why. What are your thoughts? Looking forward to them. Here is the link to the article:

Hand Registering Domains Is Not Domain Investing
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
I have names I won at auction $xxx years ago still sitting for $xxxx and I have handregs that sold for $xxxx same year I reg'd them. :cyclops:
 
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I have names I won at auction $xxx years ago still sitting for $xxxx and I have handregs that sold for $xxxx same year I reg'd them. :cyclops:

This is speculation. And sometimes it works out. But it carries with it higher risk.
 
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more such threads - Verisign stocks are down..
 
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Search Engine Optimisation is a good strategy for making a domain name's website more visible to others on the web, which could lead to other benefits, like increased value of your investment.
 
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Thanks for the thumbs up.
 
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Maybe a bit of Adsense revs would do no harm.
 
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And a bit of Adsense rev wouldn't harm either.
 
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Search Engine Optimisation is a good strategy for making a domain name's website more visible to others on the web, which could lead to other benefits, like increased value of your investment.

I'd be inclined to think of it as an investment of resources in your domain name investment.

Yes. Since you have put time and other resources into SEO then it becomes an investment. Likely because you see a clear value into investing all those resources. And even if the name is low quality, if your SEO drives traffic to the site then it increases your material assets.
 
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This is speculation. And sometimes it works out. But it carries with it higher risk.
Speculation and high risk is also when you buy an xxx-xxxx domain, nobody will guarantee you that you will sell it for a profit in a decent time frame. Actually, an $8 domain has a lower risk, because you can always liquidate it for $20-$50 and recover your investment. When buying stocks, they have the short term investment option and as in domains, there is no broker who will invest only in shares which will bring him profit, the main thing is that he will be making profit at the end of the year or at the end of the investment, exactly as in investing in hand regs.
 
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Speculation and high risk is also when you buy an xxx-xxxx domain, nobody will guarantee you that you will sell it for a profit in a decent time frame. Actually, an $8 domain has a lower risk, because you can always liquidate it for $20-$50 and recover your investment. When buying stocks, they have the short term investment option and as in domains, there is no broker who will invest only in shares which will bring him profit, the main thing is that he will be making profit at the end of the year or at the end of the investment, exactly as in investing in hand regs.

That's why, whether you are hand reg'ing or bidding on sellouts or buying on the aftermarket, you need to do research and do so based on the most information you can acquire. Anytime you are buying domains blindly or only on hyped info then you are speculating. Experienced domainers have a bank of info they acquired from experience and can make quicker decisions. But anytime you have to liquidate domains it usually means you were speculating. When it comes to investment worthy domains you will usually do all you can to hold on to them.
 
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It should be noted that there are domains that only have a special meaning to you and almost no one else. You may have found a domain you really like and want to develop it as a business site, a blog, a hobby site, etc. So by means of developing it, it turns into an investment. Because you invested time and money and you are pretty sure will generate traffic.

There are many analogies to illustrate this principle. If we use real estate, which is the most common one, then we can illustrate it this way. You can buy property in the desert, in a rural area, or in a swamp at a cheap price. But you are hoping it will one day become profitable. That is not an investment. It is speculating. If you buy property in a metropolitan area, it is an investment. Will it go down in value? It may. But you know that if you hang on to it or develop it, it will increase your assets.
 
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That's why, whether you are hand reg'ing or bidding on sellouts or buying on the aftermarket, you need to do research and do so based on the most information you can acquire. Anytime you are buying domains blindly or only on hyped info then you are speculating. Experienced domainers have a bank of info they acquired from experience and can make quicker decisions. But anytime you have to liquidate domains it usually means you were speculating. When it comes to investment worthy domains you will usually do all you can to hold on to them.
Say it again loud and listen how it sounds. Experienced domainers can use their experience to hand reg only good domains. So, investing in forex or trading cryptocurrencies is not investing? You can liquidate, even when you are investing in high properties, a lot of investing strategies are based on liquidating. What you want to say is that there is a difference between long term investment and short term investment, both are based on a certain degree of speculation and risks.
 
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Experienced domainers can use their experience to hand reg only good domains.

Very true.

So, investing in forex or trading cryptocurrencies is not investing?

Depends on the domain and whether you have the intention to hang on long-term if it does not sell short-term or if you don't get an offer you are happy with. If you reg for 12 USD with the hopes of selling for 20 USD. That is not investing. You will end up dropping the domain.

You can liquidate, even when you are investing in high properties, a lot of investing strategies are based on liquidating.

Registering with the goal of selling short-term is prospecting or arbitrage. Even in liquidating there are assets that will make the buyer profit because the seller is taking a loss.

If you are selling or liquidating garbage domains then you are not selling to an investor. You are selling to another sucker. Sorry to be so blunt. But so many people are just not getting it.
 
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Very true.



Depends on the domain and whether you have the intention to hang on long-term if it does not sell short-term or if you don't get an offer you are happy with. If you reg for 12 USD with the hopes of selling for 20 USD. That is not investing. You will end up dropping the domain.



Registering with the goal of selling short-term is prospecting or arbitrage. Even in liquidating there are assets that will make the buyer profit because the seller is taking a loss.

If you are selling or liquidating garbage domains then you are not selling to an investor. You are selling to another sucker. Sorry to be so blunt. But so many people are just not getting it.
You don't get it, if I invest $1 and get $5 for every $ invested it's a great return, you don't get these returns in real estate or stock exchange. If I use 1k to invest in $8 hand regs, with the intention to only sell a few and drop anything else and to make 5k at the end of the year, that's a great investment. If you can replicate and reinvest everything at the end of the year, believe me, you can't get these returns with passively waiting with an xxxx aftermarket buy, waiting for an average of 5 years. At the end of the day, that's a great investment, no matter what you want to call it.
 
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You don't get it, if I invest $1 and get $5 for every $ invested it's a great return, you don't get these returns in real estate or stock exchange. If I use 1k to invest in $8 hand regs, with the intention to only sell a few and drop anything else and to make 5k at the end of the year, that's a great investment. If you can replicate and reinvest everything at the end of the year, believe me, you can't get these returns with passively waiting with an xxxx aftermarket return, waiting for an average of 5 years. At the end of the day, that's a great investment, no matter what you want to call it.

You are prospecting. If you are so lucky then good on you. Would you hang on to those domains and give them to your children as an investment? I am not saying there is no money in prospecting.

But I would postscript that by saying you would be foolish to invest 1K in 100 hand regs. That is gambling because your are assuming a few will sell to make you a 4K profit. What basis do you have for that assumption? If you have expendable income then you can take that risk.
 
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Also, we have to separate the verb from the noun. I invest money in buying a dozen eggs. Those eggs don't make it an investment. The verb has a broad meaning but the noun is more specific.
 
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This is more or less semantics. But if we view our reg's as investments then we should be informed as much as possible before we register them and have a good level of confidence that they will be an asset. Bottom line, don't blow your money. Whether it is .99 or 8.99. Know what you are doing. Hate to see domainers losing money and leaving the business.
 
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You are prospecting. If you are so lucky then good on you. Would you hang on to those domains and give them to your children as an investment? I am not saying there is no money in prospecting.

But I would postscript that by saying you would be foolish to invest 1K in 100 hand regs. That is gambling because your are assuming a few will sell to make you a 4K profit. What basis do you have for that assumption? If you have expendable income then you can take that risk.
By assumption you mean the same as the guy who bought naturalbeauty for 65k and sold it for 10k a few years latter? How many aftermarket purchases do you have and will never sell? Don't try to convince somebody in something that you believe in, without telling all the facts.

Also, we have to separate the verb from the noun. I invest money in buying a dozen eggs. Those eggs don't make it an investment. The verb has a broad meaning but the noun is more specific.
That's some kind of gibberish?

This is more or less semantics. But if we view our reg's as investments then we should be informed as much as possible before we register them and have a good level of confidence that they will be an asset. Bottom line, don't blow your money. Whether it is .99 or 8.99. Know what you are doing. Hate to see domainers losing money and leaving the business.
You should hate to see people trying to convince others to invest in stuff, when they are not prepared to do so, only to have a few extra views to a book.
 
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1. There is no consensus about the difference between investing and speculating among financial experts. Someone thinks speculation is an investment strategy, while someone does not. You are recommended to read more financial experts' opinions in this matter. There are some articles and comments from financial experts: https://blogs.cfainstitute.org/investor/tag/investment-vs-speculation/. For your information, CFA Institute is a global association of investment professionals.

2. If a person develops a website for his business use, then he is running a business, not doing an investment.

3. The goal of arbitrage is to get a risk-free profit. Selling in short term is just a general characteristic of arbitrage, not the goal of arbitrage. Selling in short term without risk-free profit is not arbitrage. Arbitrage opportunity generally happens in short term in the financial markets because market prices and exchange rates fluctuate frequently and are balanced soon.

4. It is almost impossible to have arbitrage opportunity in domain investing because no one can guarantee a risk-free profit, unless one has an accurate insider information that a buyer must buy a specific domain name.
 
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You pay for the registrations you are investing. Period.

This thread is pointless and just yet another version of a topic debated to death.

You keep paying high dollar at auctions— I will keep doing hand regs and backorders. ✅

Don’t have to throw wad of cash at a domain that has no greater chance to sell than a hand reg. ✅

Every domain purchase is a risk and an educated guess at best. ✅
 
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Here is the thing.
It is very hard to sell hand regs for $xx,xxx +.

You can sell them to xxx or xxxx, but 5 figs is not viable at all.

To me if you want to brand yourself as a domain investor, you need to spend good cash on good names, and sell those names for a fair mininum of $5000 (name clearly worth 5000 or more)

The $xxx or low $xxxx sellers, Id call that domain entrepreneurs.
Whose goal should be to become domain investors.

Thats my view.
 
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Here is the thing.
It is very hard to sell hand regs for $xx,xxx +.

You can sell them to xxx or xxxx, but 5 figs is not viable at all.

To me if you want to brand yourself as a domain investor, you need to spend good cash on good names, and sell those names for a fair mininum of $5000 (name clearly worth 5000 or more)

The $xxx or low $xxxx sellers, Id call that domain entrepreneurs.
Whose goal should be to become domain investors.

Thats my view.

So, by your view, even if I've sold $20K+ this month with a $16K net profit (or more, month is not finished yet), of only $xxx to low $xxxx range domains, I am NOT an domain investor.

I'm reaching 6-fig investment soon, yet again by you I am NOT a domain investor.

May I ask you what are your proven results so you judge everyone else with such arbitrary numbers and methods of labelling?

Edit: And for your information, there's a little company nobody heard about, called HugeDomains, whose bread and butter are these rubbish domains priced in the low to mid xxxx range.

Of course, they are not investors... they are "entrepreneurs", as you politely named what would otherwise be a wannabe domainer (not an "investor").
 
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So, by your view, even if I've sold $20K+ this month with a $16K net profit (or more, month is not finished yet), of only $xxx to low $xxxx range domains, I am NOT an domain investor.

I'm reaching 6-fig investment soon, yet again by you I am NOT a domain investor.

You have not mentioned whether these names were first year hand reg's. Somehow I doubt it.
 
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This is obviously a nuanced topic, with a lot of varying opinions.

I don't have a problem with handregs - I like them, I've sold them, and I have one particular hand-regged (two-word) .COM that has gotten 5 offers on DAN and Afternic already this month. If that one sells for anywhere close to the 6-figure BIN I've got on it, I may get my first celebratory tattoo: $8.47.

(Or at least a fridge magnet). I don't actually want a dollar amount tattooed on my body. :)

The problem is, a lot of people treat it like a numbers game; I don't. I'd prefer quality over quantity. Maybe it works out well for some people to register 100s of different combinations at one time, using coupon codes, but I'd rather get 5-10 decent, commercially-viable names than end up with hundreds or thousands of names that don't mean very much.

If the keywords or term have commercial value, and are something companies are currently advertising for, nobody's going to care too much that it's a handreg.

Most people spending too much money on handregs are registering the wrong terms. It's risky business for newcomers, because it's easy to get caught up and register awful names that end up being dropped.

[I've sold hand-regged .COMs from $500 to $5500]

I just hand-regged a name today - it previously had 15 years of history. ("product" "documentation")
 
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By reading this thread, I realized that what I have been doing in the past 20 years is wrong.
Thanks for the information.
 
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