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discuss Domaining success = Buying the right domains?

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If success in domaining just comes down to buying the right domains - the ones that some end user is going to pay five figures for "some day" why is it that despite all the discussion on industry blogs and forums we see such low turnover (99 percent of our domains do NOT sell in a typical year)? Obviously we are not collectively selecting the right domains.
 
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Because most domainers are buying the wrong domains.

Be assured that the investors that buy the right domains have more than 1% sales.

So, if the industry is composed of only five domainers who have 100 domains each, and one of them sells five names, the stat for the industry is 1%, but it is 5% for the successful domainer.

The 1% stat does not reflect the fact that a few are doing it right and the majority are doing it wrong.

The 1% stats don't reflect the pricing element. You may have 100 premium names listed everywhere, priced at 10 million each. By pricing them so high and not selling a single name, you are affecting the stats.

So the point is you might be indeed choosing the right names, but the wrong price.

Choosing the right names is extremely important, but even that is only part of the game. Where you list them, who you contact, how you price them, how you negotiate, etc., are also very crucial matters.
 
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A sales pro friend once told me I couldn't close a screen door.

Don't underestimate the value of a good sales associate.
 
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I wanted a name for a dns management site, and I must have looked through getting on for 5 thousand names to try to find one. In fact I managed to find 2 possible names - dnsbad.com was one that I rejected, and I went with manageyourdns.com . Virtually all of the other names were rubbish in my opinion. Just random collections of letters,pairs of unrelated keywords, or a keyword with some random letters or numbers. It's no wonder they are still available. The other causes are the "gold rush" niche names - the rush for RMG names is a recent example. How many of those names will be on the drop lists in a years time?
 
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Mike Mann sells less than 1% of inventory each year, but makes millions.

On the other hand, one could price all their domains at $xx each and achieve a 90% sell through rate, but lose money overall.

So it's not just how good the domains are, but also : acquisition prices, renewals, and sales prices.
 
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Obviously we are not collectively selecting the right domains.
The way I see it:
  • Pick the right domains and you'll make sales. You'll achieve the holy grail of 1% turnover.
  • Pick the wrong domains and you'll achieve 0% turnover. Yes it's that bad lol.
While it sounds like a joke I am somewhat serious.
It's always quality > quantity. Domainers own too many domains and not enough quality.
 
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Quality is wonderful, but we all should agree that owning a large portfolio is also important. The business model of HugeDomains is working and proves that you can sell even rubbish domains if you wait long enough...
 
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It is a mixture between quantity/quality and their inherent business models.
- Owning a modest quantity of super-premium domains waiting for great paydays is fine.
- Owning thousands of good .COMs producing a few passive end user sales/month is also fine.
- Owning 10s of thousands of average brandcentric .COM domains is also fine as it will churn out a residual stream of end user sales most weeks, as long as you're picking the right types of names/keywords. This model is for highly experienced domain investors only.

Quality of the keywords, acquisition prices, renewals, time invested in seeking such names are all elements to be taken into consideration.
 
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A sales pro friend once told me I couldn't close a screen door.

Don't underestimate the value of a good sales associate.

Yes.

A: Fight for "good" names with all the others => get low ball "reseller" offers.

B: Buy crap / not so great names and sell the crap out of caol.com to NewCastle...KACHING!

C: ???
 
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Yes.

A: Fight for "good" names with all the others => get low ball "reseller" offers.

B: Buy crap / not so great names and sell the crap out of caol.com to NewCastle...KACHING!

C: ???

I don't know about "crap" names but a good sales associate can turn a 2k domain into 5k.

Anyone who thinks Mike Mann is getting lucky turning 3 word domains for five figures doesn't understand business.
 
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Knowing that a one-word e-commerce .COM domain could have been acquired for $100 twenty years ago is of little value to an investor today. One needs some ability to gauge the future demand for a class of domain but control acquisition and renewal costs until that end user comes knocking. As well, one needs to be flexible to shift gears if they see that certain types of domains are not selling and apparently are not going to ever sell.

When I got into domaining late 2005, I knew I had missed the big opportunity of the late nineties. However, I knew that Latin America tends to be at least ten years behind technologically so I thought perhaps there might still be some opportunity with Spanish domains. I am still waiting. Ditto with .TV. Waiting for a market to develop can get rather expensive particularly if it constitutes a large portion of your portfolio.

I believe Google algorithm changes, hundreds of new extensions and an influx of users to social media networks has dampened the demand for domains particularly in alternative extensions. What will it take for end users to really wake up to domains as brands rather than low $XX expenditures? In industries like retail, single-digit turnover would quickly result in bankruptcy. We are just now starting to see the CHIP bubble deflate. How long can the massive runup in speculative registrations be sustained without end users to pay renewals?
 
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