Hi, I am GiGi! I am ready to sell some domains!

BoomingNames.com said:

Welcome! Search the topic that is holding you back from taking a further step.

Seek guidance when you are stuck at any point. A lot is here on this forum for you to be successful, you have to clear your head after reading the practical steps.

Go for it Brother,

Stay Blessed!

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Ategy.com said:

Hello Gigi .. and welcome to NamePros!

I think a large number of us started the same way. I myself had a huge DJ / Club Music community (many) years ago. I grew my portfolio over the years with cool names I found here and there that I hoped to one day develop. But I never figured out how to turn 24 hour days in to 30 hours days .. so it never really happened! lol

First thing .. remove blog and hobby from "business, blog, hobby", otherwise you'll have a difficult time making the high multiples needed to eventually make a profit.

On that note .. buying for $10 and selling for $50 might seem like good money .. but in domaining, unless you're flipping at wholesale, that model is going to lose you money because of renewals and the fact that the average portfolio only sells about 1-3% of their domains a year. almost always less for newcomers because almost everyone overvalues their domains when they start (GemstoneHunter isn't completely horrible or worthless, but it's going to be a very tough sell in the higher multiples). I personally aim for about 100x ... which ends up being vastly less due to renewals and the costs of all the domains "not yet sold".

Overall though, it seems like you've at least got the right idea and have pointed yourself in the right direction .. which is already further than a lot of newcomers. But yes .. most people who attempt domaining do lose money. The problem with holding "decent" domains, is that even decent domains don't sell fast enough or at high enough multiples to actually make someone a profitable overall portfolio ... the domains you buy need to be far above average in quality .. and just as importantly .. you need to buy them at good value .. because while it's very easy to buy very good domains .. if you don't buy them cheap enough, then you'll never find yourself making money. That being said .. be careful with hand registrations when you start .. they are the pitfall of most new domainers.

Anyhow .. best of luck to you going forward!

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Ategy.com said:

The names I share at NameCult (here at NamePros as well) are all expired domains going to auction at GoDaddy Auctions. For the closeouts, they are domains that went to auction yet slipped through the cracks. It's important to remember that about 99% of approximately 50,000 expired domains that go to auction each day actually are horrible. In fact, the ones I list are simply the "best ones" .. but by no means are even the majority of those ones I'd recommend buying (for most it really depends on the price they end up at).

Every night I take about 2 hours and simply go through the raw list of names. It is a lot of work .. lol .. no real shortcuts if you want to find some good names that others might miss. (It's easy to find the obvious good names .. but if they are obvious then many others will find them and they will likely go way up in price.)

If you want to get a good idea of what domains I target and why, check out the following thread ...

At the end of the day what makes a good domain "good" can stem from a multitude of elements. Domaining is one part science and one part art. The science part is based on metrics, domain data and more importantly industry/niche knowledge. The art is phonetics, plays on words, finding names that are memorable for any number of reasons. If there was a simple answer then everybody would be making tons of money domaining rather than most people losing money.

Your background in affiliate marketing can be a serious bonus and a serious detriment. Bonus in that you know what niches have money and demand flowing through them .. but it can hurt you as well because while you could have the talent to make affiliate money from below average quality names, most END USERS will likely need and want stronger brands. Effectively meaning that you might find a domain like GemstoneHunter to be above average because YOU have the skills to make money with it .. but the reality is .. that most people would not. I'd even hesitate to say GemHunter was a good enough domain to maintain a profitable portfolio if that gives you an idea.

Feel free to PM me if there's anything specific about my portfolio you'd like to know (definitely check out the that link above if you want to see a lot of them and the reasons I got them). Long story short I used to have a big music community 15ish years ago .. until 2 years ago I bought a small handful of domains to "potentially develop" .. I only really started "domaining" late 2016 .. so I am by no means a big expert in the field. Although I have taken a lot of time to learn and spent a LOT of time in the trenches going through lists.

One thing I very much recommend if you're out walking a lot is to download @DomainSherpa and @DomainNameWire podcasts .. go back 3 years and start listening. I walk my dog TONS .. so have listened to each Sherpa Review at least 3-4 times now (shout out to @Michael Cyger for those) .. if you're interested in the data/metrics aspect of domaining and serious about being in it for the long term then I suggest you also check out his DNAcademy (aff link in my signature .. lol)

Ok .. gotta go work on today's list .. hope that helps .. have a good one!

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GiGiNetix said:

I did not even realize "gemstonehunter" was three words, I was thinking of it as "gemstone" and "hunter"....

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GiGiNetix said:

Hmm, thanks for the info. It is very insightful and I will check out your lists. That is a lot of work to aggregate all those domains! 50k a day! Holy smokes I had no idea how large the domain name industry is! I already feel like I am way over my head lol

I did not even realize "gemstonehunter" was three words, I was thinking of it as "gemstone" and "hunter" lol, and yes, although I feel I can market the sh*t out of it to my niche audience, I now see your point, that others would be like "huh?" and not see the value I see. Perspective is everything!

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Ategy.com said:

I think GoDaddy Auctions accounts for about half the domains going to expiration auction each day (domains from a few other registrars also go through GoDaddy Auctions) so I think there's about 100k domains that expire a day that go to auction.

I definitely recommend you check out my lists to practice. Each day pick a few of the ones you like best and track them at auction to see if they sell or not. But ultimately for best results .. once you've got a better idea on what makes the best buys (AS A DOMAINER), you should be going through the lists yourself to try to find good names that others have missed. Yes it is a lot of work .. but in the end you can save a lot of money finding a few good names here that nobody else finds .. which means you can get them really cheap or hopefully even at closeout (after the auction ends with no bids, the domains can be bought without competition at $11 .. then it drops a dollar a day to $8, followed by a final day at $5).

I think Gemstone is a word .. but it's not the best root/base of the word which would indeed be Gem (there'd actually be a missive difference in potential demand/pricing between the two domains .. to the point where I'm sorry to say there's virtually no value in GemstoneHunter). Those are things you need to keep in mind. Others being: Singular vs plural .. verb tense ... American vs British spelling.

Yet don't get too caught up on word count and other "rules/guidelines". Length most definitely also is important, and I'd also recommend sticking to .com when you start. But all those types of rules are basically to help new investors not get too far from standard which can result in a lot of losses .. eventually you'll find your own niches where you're most comfortable That being said .. I'm in the middle of closing a 4 figure ($xxxx) sale for a 16 character long .net! Last week I closed a 4 figure one word .co sale.

All that said .. I do think GemstoneHunter most certainly could make for a good site and decent brand .. it's just that the demand and potential multiple are not enough to be part of a profitable portfolio for a domainer. Whether a domain is a good buy as an end user .. or whether a domain is a good buy as a domainer are two COMPLETELY different questions.

At the end of the day .. the only real rules that matter is that the domains you buy actually have an end user demand .. and that you buy them at a very good price that allows you to mark up your sales price at a significantly high enough multiple that allows you to make profits when you include ALL your costs including acquisitions, renewals and domains you don't sell.

Eventually you'll get a gut feel for things ... but definitely don't ignore the data you can get from the various domain tools out there. As I've said many times (I'm sure i'm likely not the first .. lol) .. domaining is a magical coming together of science and art!

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dande said:

Welcome to the community. I am a kind of interested to see some other names you've been holding.

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