Probably done with "domaining", I suck...

[Clover]

I have most of my domains listed on Dan, Epik, GoDaddy, and Afternic, I've never made a sale on any of those platforms, well, I did for $100 once but I had sold the domain + 2 other matching ones all for their reg value 2-3 days prior

I get many complements on my domains and my ability to find good hand regs upon request, I was making $100 sales and was doing good at getting my money back for the ones I started with, but the past couple months I've not had any bites, not a buyer in sight, due to the markets and inflation I presume, but still, I feel like I'm holding on for a fantasy sale that will never happen, even a low $xxx offer would give me some hope. So far, this journey has given me a small profit, but with much research, and take a lot of time... Just not sure if things are balancing out.

Thanks.

 

[johnn]

According to the profile. OP is a man.
Unless he changed to a she?

 

[Fayaz Ahmed]

Many people will give you many different suggestions, but IMHO the real problem you have is: you don't have a domaining strategy.

Yes, every domainer must have a domaining strategy to get success from this field. For starters, you must know the answers to the following questions:

1. What names are you buying/registering and why are they valuable?
2. How long are you going to hold those names?
3. How much do you know about the potential buyers of your names?
4. How are you going to sustain the cost of you domain names (buying + renewal cost)?
5. If the domains are not sold in X years, what is your plan with them?

If you don't know the answers to the above questions, that means you most likely don't have a proper domaining strategy. Please read more about different domaining strategies before you invest on them further.

For example, my domaining strategy is to invest only on names I myself am interested in to develop if they are not sold. So basically my domaining cost will come from my own development. I know the fields well enough to develop myself, either with content or with a startup. So basically I cannot lose from domaining even if a single domain is not sold in the next 10+ years. This I can do with 100-200 domains easily, so the number of domains I have will always be within this range.

Some domainers I know have a huge amount of money they can invest for 10/20 years, and even if they lose all the money they invested on domaining, it doesn't matter to them. So their strategy is to acquire really good names with a lot of money and then hold them for a long time, only to be sold with a huge profit margin.

Some domainers have a decent job and invest a fixed amount of money in domaining. So domaining for them is like a hobby. They don't depend on this investment, so nothing will happen if they lose them all. So they are basically diversifying their investment portfolio with domaining. They are actively learning from the community, experimenting with their names and spending only their spare time and spare money on domaining. They usually don't make a lot of profit in the beginning, but have a potential to do so in the long run.

So you see, all of the above three group of people are happy with domaining. Why? Because they are well within their limits and they have a strategy. There are many other successful domaining strategies as well, these are not the only ones. Now the important question is: What is your domaining strategy?

 

[Sjpals]

Absolutely. What becomes clear with each passing month / year is that there are layers of hurdles to overcome in domaining in order to truly master (or at least understand) it well, e.g.
- The name itself and various criteria (length, TLDs including those on sale and those owned by end users), companies using part/all of the words in names, traffic, CPC, etc.
- watching auctions, doing the research for a possible acquisition name, then setting a bid amount, and hoping not to be outbid
- filtering on various sites like expired domains, Namebio
- reading various sites for the latest trends to get an edge over other domainers.


These are tasks that are demanding, time and eventually money wise. Not everyone has the patience or temperament to do these every day/every other day for weeks and months on end.

No wonder beginners want the quick fix with handregs - it's an alluring way to circumvent the time and money demands of domaining.

The reason domaining is not an easy business is because there a no (or few) shortcuts.

ahhh yes, learning what all the filters are and what they do on expireddomains .net when there are no instructions!

 

[Mkt Sales Leads]

ahhh yes, learning what all the filters are and what they do on expireddomains .net when there are no instructions!

Which is why it's worth reading posts by @blogspotter and @Bob Hawkes on how to use it.

Believe it or not, the information is actually out there if you do the research.

 

[marijuanadomain]

In my previous job, if I F up, people die.
If I f up in domaining, did anybody die?? did anybody get piss off?
That why I love hand reg domains and have fun...while earning easy peasy money on this BS stress free hobby
It is Domaining that relives my stress
It is all about your attitude and your expectations.

 

[Sjpals]

Which is why it's worth reading posts by @blogspotter and @Bob Hawkes on how to use it.

Believe it or not, the information is actually out there if you do the research.

I was referring to the information on the website. The website itself doesnt seem to give any instructions unless I have missed them

 

[Armageddon]

I start in this business in 2010 & my first sale was in 2014
So was 4 years long but worth
Wish you good luck

 

[Mkt Sales Leads]

I start in this business in 2010 & my first sale was in 2014
So was 4 years long but worth
Wish you good luck

So you renewed domains for 4 years without a sale?

 

[Armageddon]

So you renewed domains for 4 years without a sale?

Renew , drop , register etc..must try any option to stay in domain name business


You say list your names on any major marketplace
Do you make advertising about your names on social media , to promote your names? ( Twitter , tiktok , facebook etc )

 

[DigitalAsset]

Domaining is a slow business. You will need a lot of study, work, patience and perseverance to make a profit. Good luck to you.

 

[Ariff BD]

domaining is like a showbiz career. A percentage of it will only be successful.

 

[alcy]

none sucks at domains there is just those who do and do not put the needed hours... and its many hours. its that simple really

 

[phantasmagoria]

Only advice I could give is to aim high, always look for the best, don't settle for low quality names. Don't register domains that we all know wont sell. I made the same mistake too, I currently have 16 domains for sale, and even I thought they were all above average, but I know now I'm not going to renew 10 of them, I could tell which one is worth it and which one isn't. The trick is to forget they exist until that day comes when someone gives you an offer, and that's what happened to me on several occasions, the highest one being almost 7K.

Also think long term, I had to register my domain for almost 6 years before it got sold, things that might be worthless now might be worth a lot in the future. What I like to do sometimes is go to tech websites and just ctrl a and ctrl c the entire site and then use a parser to parse them and feed it through a domain name checker, 100 times out of 100 id say its taken but you'd be surprised some of the names that are up for registration, you also have to be quick, always have domaining in the back of your mind so when something happens where a new trend starts or news, always check to see if its available for registration.

I had one huge opportunity few months ago that I let go with shiba inu domain name, saw it on a feed, checked to see if it was available, and it was, I was ahead of the curve for a brief few hours, before it blew up. I checked again later and the domain was taken, i checked registration date, it was just registered literally few hours after I checked it. You gotta be quick.

 

[Surya Giri Kurniawan]

I can pay my bills with Domaining before Covid pandemic. Until middle of 2021, there was downtrend but still get something from domaining. Even I sold 1 domain in Dan and some Swedish domains at another marketplace. After that, it's really suck. It seems only luxury names survived since middle low end users also got problem in their business. I heard a lot of companies from New York move to other cities, and in my country a lot of houses at high end locations are sold, but at suburb office spaces and houses are sold out. So only invest in a very good name, or if your money is not good enough to buy luxury names, buy cheap names you can hold at least 2 years...

 

[NameBuyer.com]

I went through your portfolio. After 18 months in domaining (part time) , I am still not sure about what sells for how much but got a fair idea on what won't sell.
I usually write down all the names popping up in mind every now and then. Also handregged some of them out of "FOMO". But often when I look back at my list after some months, they were not as sexy as they seemed once. I hope after one more year of listening and takings notes from domaining podcasts, my domain appeal might get even better. Start listening to podcasts of Domain Sherpa, Brandable Insider, Kickstart commerce, Josh.co , DN wire etc. Read and stick to what experienced nameprosers post here - Bob Hawks, Twiki... to name a few. Good luck my friend .

I think this is how a lot of domain investors feel when starting out. When I first started, I'd have website/software or product ideas and that's how I bought my first couple hundred domains.

Whether it's domains, or any other business, it's important to build upon your branding skills and business sense, and engage in Accurate Thinking regularly.

Rick had a post a couple years back and I thought it was a good way to classify the domains you own or are thinking of purchasing. The types of domains at the bottom 3 of the list are worthless domains.

If you stick to the 3 highlighted above, and in particular Commercial Domains, you'll have a much higher chance for success. How do you do that? Just check Google for any of the domains you bought. If there is not a single business, facebook business page, marketing campaign, commercial project, or significant social media account running under that name, what do you think your chances are of selling it? The world has billions of people and the internet has been around for decades already so if you are not seeing some usage out there on the exact terms the domain is made up of, for a large percentage of your domains, your chances are pretty bleak.

Years ago I bought ASliceAbove(dot)com. I'd consider it one of my lower quality names and I bought it as a budget domain at $13.50 in 2013. When I bought it, it sounded like it would be a good name for a pizza place. I looked, and it used to be owned by a cake business, and the name "A Slice Above" was currently used by several pizza places. At the time I was trying outbound again (bad idea), and none of the current businesses wanted the domain even when it was in the low $xxx range. Does it matter that none of the current businesses are interested in the domain? No, doesn't make a difference at all. If the name is already in use in 2 different states, it is just a matter of time before a new store, or chain of stores opens up in a different state or location.

So the most simple advice I can give if you are starting and want to be successful is ONLY buy names that have some real usage by either an existing business, an existing marketing campaign, or commercial social media usage.

Anything else is really speculating, and you shouldn't be doing that until you have more experience. If you do speculating in the future, I would track those separate from your main portfolio and stats. Then if those are dragging the rest of your portfolio down, you can more easily drop the bad ones out of the bunch.

If you've found some domains with current usage for that exact term, then personally, I would price them no less than $1,450 each. You can attain a decent sell-thru rate at that price range and $1,450+ will go a lot farther than a $250 sale.

Also, only stick to .com in the beginning. Out of the top 100,000 websites in the world, about 64% are .com, .net & .org. The majority of the other 36% are made up of .gov, .edu, and country code domains.

Accurate Thinking

Below is a video from Dan Lok on Accurate Thinking. Some of his videos are a little cheesy and "salesy", but many of them are pretty genius in getting you to think differently.

 

[disaac81]

Bear in mind that now is not the best time, economies across the globe are struggling, and things are only getting worse for the short-term.

I am hoping this drop in interest in names (at least from what I have experienced) is due to the initial adjustment and not going to go on for too long.

Inflation still battering peoples ability to spend, and interest rates will be increasing in a hope to curb inflation. Recession is probably already here, not sure for the US but I think the UK must be in one, although they can do all sorts with the figures to say it isn't

 

[Bookwormlux]

With all the advises from 100 different directions. He sure will quit now.

Why do you think so?

 

[branding]

Bear in mind that now is not the best time, economies across the globe are struggling, and things are only getting worse for the short-term.

I am hoping this drop in interest in names (at least from what I have experienced) is due to the initial adjustment and not going to go on for too long.

Inflation still battering peoples ability to spend, and interest rates will be increasing in a hope to curb inflation. Recession is probably already here, not sure for the US but I think the UK must be in one, although they can do all sorts with the figures to say it isn't

On the upside, the dollar is quite strong at the moment, compared to the euro, so I can actually drop pricing a bit and make the same profit.

I also have quite some funds accumulated in $, the higher conversion number somewhat irons out inflation for me.

But I agree. This is not the best time to sell if you need those sales for liquidity.

 

[likemike]

For all of the hype in this business, Johnn hit the nail on the head. Great words to live by! Thanks Johnn! Good luck in your future endeavors Clover. Think of buying just one really good name rather than a bunch of names perhaps in the future.

 

[redemo]

I don't care about selling domain names. Couldn't give a rat's arse about sales. Wouldn't give a fart in the wind for a sale. Selling is pushed morning, noon and night on this forum. To me it's like listening to the same broken record playing on repeat. Couldn't give midnight piss about sales. I care about profiting from domain names. That's all. Million users on the forum - how many have turned a profit? 1% would be 10000. I doubt even that. How many N.P. domainers have even made one profitable sale? For all the millions spent how many quit in the first year? That's why I left the forum. Too much focus on selling when clearly most people lose and quit. Fact is you need to focus on profit, not just sales. The smart domainer does this....and makes a profit. You do what you like but really listen to the feedback you've been given on this thread, and I especially like the smart advice from @poweredbyme "If you fail in an industry you will likely fail in all industries" because winning is all about strategy, and your strategy should always be how to make profit.

 

[Mkt Sales Leads]

If you fail in an industry you will likely fail in all industries, unless there is a downtrend in that particular industry. The opposite is also correct, billionaires operate in multiple industries successfully.

All industries have some most common things which are more powerful than industry specific common things. If you study well what are the most common things, rules, facts of business, you will likely success in any business. That's a kind of deduction/induction in logic. Changing industry will rarely help without fully understanding the most general things in business.

Some of those most commons things are resource allocation, market condition, macro economic variables, technological developments, productivity, etc. That list is long but every single thing in that list has an ultimate power over industry specific things.

That's why the 'grass is greener' approach to changing environments doesn't always work.
As the saying goes: "wherever you go, there you are".

 

[Reallybigidea.com]

You can qiut domaining but domaining can't quit you.

 

[Fayaz Ahmed]

You can qiut domaining but domaining can't quit you.

I agree. The OP obviously doesn't want to quit domaining. Instead, he wants advice to change his mind or feel comfortable domaining.

This is why we are here anyway. This is one of the most important reason why same minded people flock together. We want advice, comfort, share our success & failure with, attention etc. etc. And many good comments show exactly that.

IMHO, this all is fine. So everyone, please be nice & have fun domaining.
Domaining is not a zero sum game, so we can all have a happy ending here

 

[Mkt Sales Leads]

I agree. The OP obviously doesn't want to quit domaining. Instead, he wants advice to change his mind or feel comfortable domaining.

This is why we are here anyway. This is one of the most important reason why same minded people flock together. We want advice, comfort, share our success & failure with, attention etc. etc. And many good comments show exactly that.

IMHO, this all is fine. So everyone, please be nice & have fun domaining.
Domaining is not a zero sum game, so we can all have a happy ending here

One of the most encouraging actions the OP can take is to get a spreadsheet and copy + paste the various sold domains sold reported here, on TLD investors, Namebio, DN Journal etc into the first column.

Then the Op should create another column about how many extensions that domain is taken in, plus various other columns on sales price, length, cost per click, any SEO links (if a horrid looking name sells for more than it should) etc.

As that data builds up, the Op should then notice the differences between those names sold and any handregs they haven't sold.

Then draw a conclusion as to next actions.

 

[redemo]

wherever you go, there you are

Love it.