poll Do you believe in hand-registration?

Arpit131 · Mar 16, 2019

Do you believe in hand regs?
As for me, that is the only way I invest in domain names. I never bid on auctions or buy from reseller market(unless it is for self-development).

What is your opinion on hand reg?

EbookLover · Mar 22, 2019

BrandableDomain said:
I think hand regging is the best way to start when you are a rookie domainer, because making lots of mistakes on $9 domains sure beats making lots of mistakes on $59+ domains.

Hate to play devil's advocate again, but that can backfire in a big way. People have registered a boatload of REALLY BAD names in short order. That low fee per domain adds up but they don't see it right away because it's so easy buy a handreg. Or they figure that, no matter how bad they may be, one of them is going to pay for the rest and maybe more. It's like gambling. "At least one of these has GOT to be 'IT'"!

Then they go on the appraisal forum when it comes time for renewal and dump the whole list asking which ones they should keep. The answer is usually only 1 or 2 or none.

Henry Y · Mar 22, 2019

MadAboutDomains said:
I question the point in investing in 5g domains. 4g came and went at the click of the fingers. I can't see the target market for these domains, it's a technology that sits in the background... Unlike VR which has a following.

I understand your doubt. I am not investing in 5G+keyword or similar domains. I am investing in the domains that is closely related to the unique features of 5G technologies such as very low latency. Products and apps will have new functions that can only be realized by existence of 5G, and I invest in the domains that are related to the functions.

BrandableDomain · Mar 22, 2019

EbookLover said:
Hate to play devil's advocate again, but that can backfire in a big way. People have registered a boatload of REALLY BAD names in short order. That low fee per domain adds up but they don't see it right away because it's so easy buy a handreg. Or they figure that, no matter how bad they may be, one of them is going to pay for the rest and maybe more. It's like gambling. "At least one of these has GOT to be 'IT'"!

I never meant to imply that it is a good idea to ever go on a spending spree in hand regging. So I completely agree with you that it is a very bad idea to quickly register a “boatload” of domains in a very short time.

Because what may seem to be a good name at the time may not look so great a year later.

What I am trying to say is that no matter how slowly and cautiously you evaluate and buy your domains - only the names you feel certain are valuable - you STILL end up in retrospect having made a lot of mistakes.

So I’m glad I made most of my mistakes for $9 each instead of $59. I look at them as valuable lessons and part of the cost of my education.

ThatNameGuy · Mar 22, 2019

Arpit131 said:
Do you believe in hand regs?
As for me, that is the only way I invest in domain names. I never bid on auctions or buy from reseller market(unless it is for self-development).

What is your opinion on hand reg?

Thanks Arpit131. Despite my being berated (not my description, but another members) for hand registering domains, I thought I would share a little about my strategy. I'll mention again that I've started, NAMED, managed, succeeded at and failed at dozens of businesses since college in 1970. For anyone who cares to see names of some of the businesses I've started just go to my Linkedin bio that's attached to my profile here on Linkedin.

Over the last 18 months I've amassed a portfolio of approximately 1,500 domains. The out of pocket cost of amassing this portfolio is between 12K and 15K or less than 50% of the cost of the"average" new car in America. However, the amount of time spent doing this is over 2,000 hours when considering time spent learning about all aspects of the domain industry. I make a point of immersing myself in everything I do, and domaining is no different. Before critics claim that I'm a hypocrite by denouncing so called "hoarders" and "scalpers" (term used by Verisign to describe domain investors), my strategy in accumulating my domain portfolio couldn't be further from the truth.

I'll start off by sharing why I hand registered over 20 domains just yesterday. I live in a region of the US that has been referred to as "Hampton Roads" for decades. If you look at a map, my area is best identified as southeastern Virginia where the Atlantic Ocean merges with the Chesapeake Bay, one of the most prolific estuaries in the world. There are seven different cities that make up Hampton Roads with a total population of 1.7M people. My city, Virginia Beach has 500,000 residents, and Virginia Beach is considered one of the largest resort cities in the world.

Recently, a group called Reinvent Hampton Roads was formed, and in coordination with our regional Chamber of Commerce and our Economic Development Council, it's been challenged to come up with a new name for our region. For those of you that have gotten to know me, this is right up my alley. While so much of the re-branding of this area is political, I do my best to stay away from the politics. Currently I own about 100 domains associated with this region that are ALL hand registered. My out of pocket expense for these names is less than $1,000. Here are six of the 20+ names i registered yesterday, all of which are .com's; SeaVaRealty, SeaVaHomes, SeaVaHealth, SeaVaNews, SeaVaSports and SeaVaKids.com.In case you didn't notice, SeaVa Virginia meaning either Southeast Virginia or Virginia by the Sea is one of the names I'm supporting. In addition, I own other similar domains for other names I'm supporting.

The point I want to make here is my portfolio consists mostly of names that are "niche" and "industry" specific. I accumulate domains for the real estate industry, the mortgage and lending industry, the healthcare industry and other domains with valuable key words such as "incredible" valued at $5,000, as in IncredibleVegas, and "Lifetime" valued at $2,000 as in LifetimeGolf.

Finally, my strategy differs from the "average" domainer due to my business experience, and my unwillingness to listen to old school strategy. Have a nice weekend everyone

EbookLover · Mar 22, 2019

BrandableDomain said:
I never meant to imply that it is a good idea to ever go on a spending spree in hand regging.

I know. I'm just saying that hand-regging as a starting point for news has a big downside, too.

NameLlama · Mar 23, 2019

Do not blieve without evidences
Where is your evidences that hand egg is profitable overall

EbookLover · Mar 23, 2019

Who said anything about "eggs"

ThatNameGuy · Mar 23, 2019

NameLlama said:
Do not blieve without evidences
Where is your evidences that hand egg is profitable overall

Actually...every domain ever registered was once hand reg'd, and hand registrations for profit are commonplace. I've actually been paid handsomely to find business names for others. Just this past week I was paid to come up with a name for a foundation to support army veterans who have suffered from traumatic brain injuries. They agreed to pay me, but I may donate it back to the 501c3 that it's intended for. because I could use the tax deduction

Arpit131 · Mar 24, 2019

ThatNameGuy said:
Finally, my strategy differs from the "average" domainer due to my business experience, and my unwillingness to listen to old school strategy. Have a nice weekend everyone

How are your sales percentages? And price range?

ThatNameGuy said:
Actually...every domain ever registered was once hand reg'd, and hand registrations for profit are commonplace. I've actually been paid handsomely to find business names for others. Just this past week I was paid to come up with a name for a foundation to support army veterans who have suffered from traumatic brain injuries. They agreed to pay me, but I may donate it back to the 501c3 that it's intended for. because I could use the tax deduction

When you say handsomly, what does that mean? because different geography has different understanding of it.

ThatNameGuy · Mar 24, 2019

Good Question...handsomely like beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. In my case, the friends running this non profit insisted they pay me because of some of the things I have done with them and for them. This type of name can best be described by this comment made at NamesCon by Paul Nicks of GoDaddy;

"High volume investors doing closeouts, reg fee and selling on average $300-$500"

I hope this helps.

dncafe · Mar 24, 2019

Fancy.domains said:
Personally, I never search for .com names to hand-reg. If Dropcatch / Hugedomains have dissed it, it’s for a reason.

Yea, but those same names can be sold for $299. So if you can hand reg it and list it on Afternic for 5 months and get $250 out of it, it's worth it in my opinion. HugeDomains and others drop some good names that were priced way too high, so they never get a buyer, but when that buyer sees that same domain for $299 that was previously $2,499, they buy it.

ThatNameGuy · Mar 25, 2019

dncafe said:
Yea, but those same names can be sold for $299. So if you can hand reg it and list it on Afternic for 5 months and get $250 out of it, it's worth it in my opinion. HugeDomains and others drop some good names that were priced way too high, so they never get a buyer, but when that buyer sees that same domain for $299 that was previously $2,499, they buy it.[/QUO

dncafe said:

Yea, but those same names can be sold for $299. So if you can hand reg it and list it on Afternic for 5 months and get $250 out of it, it's worth it in my opinion. HugeDomains and others drop some good names that were priced way too high, so they never get a buyer, but when that buyer sees that same domain for $299 that was previously $2,499, they buy it.

Click to expand...

Excellent point dncafe...the very reason why Verisign referred to domainers as nothing more than "hoarders" and "scalpers"...........their words, NOT MINE. As an example, I just hand registered the domain WikiFreedom.com that GD appraises for $1,552 because similar domains have sold for that amount. Checking HosterStats(.)com (thank you JB), i see where starting in 2007, the domain has been purchased, dropped and repurchased four different times. I'm now the 5th owner of the name. While previous hoarders and scalpers asked as much as $3,000 for the name, it probably isn't worth any more than maybe $500 at tops. I just started buying/accumulating domains with the word "wiki" as part of the name because it's very recognizable. Yesterday I bought IncredibleWiki where GD values the keyword at $5,660. Granted, Wiki isn't as incredible as sex, but it's still pretty darn incredible.

It's the hoarders and scalpers that berate our truths because it negatively impacts their game. Keep up the good work dncafe because the truth needs to be shared.

poll Do you believe in hand-registration?

Do you believe in hand-registrations? Sort by votes

Yes. I frequently register

I prefer aftermarket but also hand-register SOMETIMES

I only do hand-registrations and NOTHING ELSE

No. All good domains are gone.

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