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What to drop like a hot potato

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iAchilles

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To say I was a little over enthusiastic on my first purchasing sprees would be an understatement. I guess I got a little carried away as I quickly sold my first domain very shortly after acquiring it. Reality has now set in and I'm now looking at a huge portion of my domains and thinking, ugh, what was I thinking!?

I'm break even as it stands, but had I done more homework I could be showing a profit.

Some of them are touch and go regarding trademark/copyright, something else I was rather naive and foolish about starting out.

It was a good learning curve and my domain purchasing is now far more selective. Obviously I still have a plethora of knowledge to learn, but I'm reading everything in an effort to hone my purchasing instincts.

I have an idea what I'll hang on to (very little in truth) and what to drop, but I was hoping for some feedback from more experienced domainers. I'm not looking for valuations but rather some helpful advice on what to cut my losses on and move on.

I'll post some of my more recent acquisitions following any replies, hopefully they'll show a bit of progression :)

Be brutal please!

Closeouts purchases: all dot com

ifindfun
funzet
triviapad
coolhoodie
raceiver
acrelot
festivalus
filesharesoftware
cafexpert
mugboss
phonefive
touchcatering
listurls
gatewaymerchant
flyyers
londontradeshow
discountpoloshirt
macguitar
parisjet


Any of these I plan on holding will have to be for the long haul as the chance of a quick sale on a re-reg is very unlikely, what i plan on keeping will be with a view to age.

Hand Regs - all dot com

ashevillemotel
bankruptcey
djralph (there is a very well known French dj by this name with dj-ralph, I've tried to make contact with no success, this domain was previously owned by a Dutch dj ralph)
ecigatlas
fallschurchhotel
fitsc
footballdivision
keywordpositioning
nflcoin
pamelalive
ttrash
licebuster
discountpoloshirt
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
These aren't all terrible, and some of these have TM's like NFLcoin and DiscountPoloShirt.

The best course of action is to do your research on all of the names.

For instance, "DJralph", you did the research and you know that this name could be in demand since some 'famous' DJs use this name.

Take your time to do some end user research and weed out the long shots, keep the ones that have a broader appeal, and hold onto the ones that could be brandable.
 
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I haven't done any research on these domains, but I'd drop them all, including djralph.
 
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I can't see any obvious commercial value/need, i'd drop and use your time on better names, don't underestimate your time cost.
 
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I have had a very quick look at the list - first impressions are important.
Personally I don't find these names very brandable. IMO there is nothing that cannot be dropped.

These ones sound a bit better:
mugboss
parisjet

But I am not saying you must keep them.

I think the best is licebuster: brandable, punchy, easy to spell and remember. Good advertising potential. Ideal buyer would be a shampoo company :)
Other extensions are available but the plural is registered in .com .net .co .ca. Obviously plural is better but there is hope. Good luck.
 
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Thanks for taking the time to have a glance over these. That's all I can ask for! It's interesting to read varying opinions.

I've done my home work and none of them really have any major search volume worth talking about. I think Theydon hit the nail on the head, the ROI in terms of time spent trying to find end users as a whole, will probably make it a losing prospect. Sure I might make a few bucks of a hand full of them. They were impulse buys for the most part.

These are the ones I was considering listing/keeping and why, is my logic wrong or does this seem like sound reasoning?

coolhoodie.com - 1k exact match searches, $1.30 e cpc and medium competition, it has also made some parking revenue.

Festivalus - I actually like this one but maybe I'm biased as a Seinfeld fan. Reminds me of Festivus. However, I've also seen the likes of Festivales sold on Name bio and a few other variations/plays on festival. It's 5 years aged.

TouchCatering - I see a lot of sales with variations not too different. There's also a host of potential end users from a quick Google of Touch catering. I stuck it up on Flippa as a test run. If that fails I'll try contact a few potential end users. It's 10 years aged.

Paris Jet

Mug Boss

Lice Buster

Football Division - This works better on this side of the pond, football (soccer) leagues are referred to as divisions, so primera division, 1st division and so forth. I suspect I'll get some joy with it, though I'll have to age it first. It gets visits and clicks.

One's I'll re-evaluate based on parking revenue... Essentially if they pay for themselves I'll keep them.

Fllyers - this has almost paid for itself on parking revenue, parking is funny, it's almost always the domains I never expect to generate revenue that actually get clicks and searches.

Filesharesoftware - 180 exact match searches, $15 ecpc, I'll see how parking revenue goes, it's getting residual hits and it's 10 years aged, still no clicks.

GatewayMerchant - only 50 exact match search, but it's getting visits and searches, still no clicks. $15 epc

More recently I've gone for a few .nets. Granted they're nowhere near as valuable as .com at least they have better search volume and they're quite catchy (imho) along with some potential for commercial value. I've tightened up the belt in terms of purchasing and I'm being far more selective.

Shark Eye
Hard Wired
Skill Game
 
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It's good you are learning as you go. Obviously I'd keep those earning their regfee, or just below it. Say earning >$6/year. I'm sure you know that searches are not related to visitors. A good minimum for searches is 1k. YMMV.

I disagree with you about FootballDivision.com. I can't see any business naming themselves as FootballDivision.com. It's way to generic a name. YMMV..... Maybe a sports outfitter for their football line of apparel?
 
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It's good you are learning as you go. Obviously I'd keep those earning their regfee, or just below it. Say earning >$6/year. I'm sure you know that searches are not related to visitors. A good minimum for searches is 1k. YMMV.

Great advice, thank you. I was wondering what's a good starting point for EMS. Sorry! I should have clarified, when I said search I mean users interacting on the parked pages and using the search function. It's frustrating to see lots of searches and no clicks in the traffic reports. Though Voodoo did pay me on a bunch of search activity on one domain with no clicks registered one day. I've no idea how that happened. I'll take that Q to the Voodoo thread. :)

I disagree with you about FootballDivision.com. I can't see any business naming themselves as FootballDivision.com. It's way to generic a name. YMMV..... Maybe a sports outfitter for their football line of apparel?

For a store, that's my only hope really - an apparel store. But I think it has other uses too. Some ideas I had in mind were affiliates, news/media, official pages, fantasy football. Obviously the price will vary dramatically depending on the potential end user. I'll start reaching out and see what kind of response I get.
 
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Fantasy Football maybe. But you've got to find a startup which doesn't have their domain yet. A bit of a tall order, unless you are in the know.
 
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Fantasy Football maybe. But you've got to find a startup which doesn't have their domain yet. A bit of a tall order, unless you are in the know.

You're probably right, I'm not going to spend much time if any trying to find an end user. I'll re-evaluate based on parking revenue come renewal time.

Last hail Mary on a few...

Touch catering, I just contacted 20 potential end users and pointed them to the Flippa auction. I also contacted a few Dj Ralphs, there's quite a large number of them but only a handful with professional looking sites, if any.

My work on these is done. Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to give me feedback and for all the input, I got some invaluable information.

Onwards and upwards. :)
 
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cheers
forget hand reg
buy in cash rich niches
spend more money on fewer names
good luck
 
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Do not renew.
Put them all on auction here and take whatever you get for bids.
 
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Do not renew.
Put them all on auction here and take whatever you get for bids.

Followed your advice on this, it beats going through the motions of listing at 99cent on eBay. Still though, feels like a gigantic waste of time. I've only myself to blame! :)
 
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Followed your advice on this, it beats going through the motions of listing at 99cent on eBay. Still though, feels like a gigantic waste of time. I've only myself to blame! :)

I wouldn't look at it like its a waste of time. While the biggest battle may be learning what names to pick up, you gotta learn how to do the rest..selling them, transferring, etc. It's all a learning experience. Even if you know how to do all those specifics already, you're still meeting buyers, making connections, etc.
 
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