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discuss Question about high volume domain registration and selling?

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Lord Antares

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There are certain people on this forum (who I respect) who make their money by ''work horsing'' domains, i.e. registering a high number, outbounding and making a good ROI each month. I believe that this is the right way to go if you are tight with money and wish to make some for yourself.

I am not going to ask for specific strategies for picking domains, because no one will share any. I simply wish to discuss what you guys think the buyers see in those domains.

Those domains are hand regs. Most of them were available at the time of registering their own domain name. Why do you think they didn't opt for those names (they are typically generic keyword domains which they SHOULD have thought of) and changed their minds once you offered the domains?

I must admit I haven't mastered the art of finding the goods among the rubble, i.e. sellable domains among hand regs, so I admire the people who have cracked the formula. I understand that most of it comes down to quantity, but it is only the combination of quantity and quality which can give a good ROI in this case.

So, in short, what do you think that you offer these people that makes them buy your domains? Thank you.
 
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what you guys think the buyers see in those domains.

if we don't know the domains, then how can we say what the buyers saw in them?

it may be the sales pitch, it may be the similarity in the domain that the buyer currently owns, it could be a shorter version …..
or those who you think are making hand reg sales like that, aren't really making what you think they make.

too many variables to quantify

imo...
 
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if we don't know the domains, then how can we say what the buyers saw in them?

it may be the sales pitch, it may be the similarity in the domain that the buyer currently owns, it could be a shorter version …..
or those who you think are making hand reg sales like that, aren't really making what you think they make.

too many variables to quantify

imo...

That's why the question was directed to the people who do that.
 
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I simply wish to discuss what you guys think the buyers see in those domains.

If your referring to the end Buyer, they see 'Relevance'

The most promising of all outbound sales are usually when the contact is using the plural and the singular is a better fit (or Vice versa) They are using a hyphen or an elongated version of the domain your attempting to sell. You can find them but it takes a lot of time , your then of course looking for multiple potential buyers, ie several sites using a variation, Not just one and of course don't try to sell it to a Trademark owner

These are the obvious opportunities. The only other real way is to be ahead of the crowd in an area that you are familiar with, or have a good grasp of. And by ahead, I do mean at least 5 years. And even then at 5 years ahead, you'll still be only picking-up the best of the rest. (If you got the subject matter right)

There isn't a quick fix answer. Most of those making regular sales, picked up these domains many years ago, Or work the drop lists or auction sites. You really do need plenty of spare time and a strong awareness plus the money to bid on the domains that do eventually sell and of course the constant yearly renewals for those that don't
 
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There isn't a quick fix answer. Most of those making regular sales, picked up these domains many years ago, Or work the drop lists or auction sites. You really do need plenty of spare time and a strong awareness plus the money to bid on the domains that do eventually sell and of course the constant yearly renewals for those that don't

There are certain people on this forum registering dozens of domains every week and outbounding them. They typically sell within a month if they sell at all. These people live of the difference between the revenue from selling these domains and the costs of spending money on hand regging and paying workers/ads to sell them. Some of them do it successfully.

I am interested in this approach as it's the ''budget man's'' version of domaining and it is more consistent. Therefore, I wonder what people see in their handregs that they themselves hadn't picked them up when registering their own domains.
 
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If your referring to the end Buyer, they see 'Relevance'

The most promising of all outbound sales are usually when the contact is using the plural and the singular is a better fit (or Vice versa) They are using a hyphen or an elongated version of the domain your attempting to sell. You can find them but it takes a lot of time , your then of course looking for multiple potential buyers, ie several sites using a variation, Not just one and of course don't try to sell it to a Trademark owner

These are the obvious opportunities. The only other real way is to be ahead of the crowd in an area that you are familiar with, or have a good grasp of. And by ahead, I do mean at least 5 years. And even then at 5 years ahead, you'll still be only picking-up the best of the rest. (If you got the subject matter right)

There isn't a quick fix answer. Most of those making regular sales, picked up these domains many years ago, Or work the drop lists or auction sites. You really do need plenty of spare time and a strong awareness plus the money to bid on the domains that do eventually sell and of course the constant yearly renewals for those that don't
Good points made.
 
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There are certain people on this forum registering dozens of domains every week and outbounding them. They typically sell within a month if they sell at all. These people live of the difference between the revenue from selling these domains and the costs of spending money on hand regging and paying workers/ads to sell them. Some of them do it successfully.

I am interested in this approach as it's the ''budget man's'' version of domaining and it is more consistent. Therefore, I wonder what people see in their handregs that they themselves hadn't picked them up when registering their own domains.

I believe that most of those hand regs aren't fresh regs. Sometimes, either the users forgot to renew them or at the time they were registering their own domains, that particular domain was off the market or was too expensive. By the time the domainer finally drops the name, usually after some years without selling, the 'drops domainer' picks it up and sells for low xxx
 
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There are certain people on this forum registering dozens of domains every week and outbounding them. They typically sell within a month if they sell at all. These people live of the difference between the revenue from selling these domains and the costs of spending money on hand regging and paying workers/ads to sell them. Some of them do it successfully.

I am interested in this approach as it's the ''budget man's'' version of domaining and it is more consistent. Therefore, I wonder what people see in their handregs that they themselves hadn't picked them up when registering their own domains.

I think your getting only a limited response to your post purely because your painting a picture of domaining that doesn't really exist. Sure, I do understand that certain NP members create that illusion. But, if you ask them to list examples and sales - they don't because they can't.

Now, of course there are some members that do create a living purely by domains but these members are long in the tooth as far as domaining goes and equally they have the finances in place to support their judgement on domain investments.

The short-cut (and cheap investment) answer your looking for, I'm sorry to say doesn't exist. Now that said, there may be members here that may actually live on, lets say $300 a month (as a local/average cost of living) I'm quite sure, if they are bright enough (Good English skills) and do a lot of outbound that income could be achieved at a reasonably low investment cost. You'd have to put in a lot of hours though. Mostly (and probably) you'd be looking to pick up domains from distressed sellers here or on other domain boards. With your own ability to identify potential buyers further down the chain.

The advantage to that approach is of course your working with domains that you aren't committed to purchasing. But once again your probably be working to small margins
 
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I think your getting only a limited response to your post purely because your painting a picture of domaining that doesn't really exist. Sure, I do understand that certain NP members create that illusion. But, if you ask them to list examples and sales - they don't because they can't.

Then you're implying that they're lying. I understand why you would think that, but there are some reputable members on here reporting their weekly revenue by doing this method. They also list their monthly (or whatever sales) in the sale report thread.

I don't see why one would find this idea unreasonable. It makes sense. It is very simple. It focuses on quantity, rather than quality.

Reg dozens of domains per week, send out a hundred emails per domain and sell ~10% of your hand regs in a relatively quick amount of time. This approach does make logical sense, although it requires a lot of work, something someone who is not ''just'' a hobbyist can do. Hobbyist typically don't do outbound (or not nearly as much) due to the lack of time or preferring quality over quantity.

But I do not believe that this model is bad, if done correctly.
 
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It can be done but it's rare and a full time commitment, and I found anytime I've done it over the years that it really drained the fun out of domaining. That's part of why I haven't done it for a while, but also because I have skills outside of domaining that pay better so that's why I now play the low quantity waiting game of much higher returns.

Since I don't do it myself anymore I'll share with you the following secret.

The trick to having the highest sell through rate is to find domains on the droplist or closeouts that is an upgrade name for an existing active end user. This is why it's a full time commitment as you need to research so many domains and guage just how much an end user is using their existing name.

Let's take for example an end user named Mamas Bakery. They are currently using MamasBakeryNewYork.com as their existing domain. Their website is active, gets traffic and has presence. On the droplist or closeout you see MamasBakery.com. That's a huge upgrade on their existing domain. There is a very high chance they will want it. You buy it for $12 + renewal and offer it to them at a ridiculously low price of $499. They will snap it up.

Rinse and repeat.

Upgrade names will yield best returns at this outbounding game, of that I'm sure.

Another option is find keyword domains related to what an end user offers. Some end users like this for marketing and SEO purposes.

Take for example a company named SEO specialists who operate out of Example Town. You browse the droplist or closeout and see ExampleTownSEO.com. There is a decent chance they will give you low $xxx for it as it greatly compliments their existing offering.

Remember if you're playing this game, upgrade names and relative keywords.

In addition I'm fairly sure Dropping.com has an end user column so you can filter / sort by how many possible end users are out there for domains.

Thanks
 
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First of all, thank you for taking the time to write all that. I appreciate it greatly.

I've tried your upgrade approach several times, where I clearly had the better domain (mine was ''XXXYYY.com'', while theirs were ''XXXYYYproject.com'' or ''XXX-YYY.com'' etc), but I failed to get a response or any interest. I suspect that might have been because those were not successful businesses that the owners put time into. They were inactive or had small traffic. I suppose the crucial thing here is that the business must be active enough that spending $xxx for an upgrade would be a must, given the chance. Would you say that this is the case?

Also, I quite like the general keywords one. I have some plans with that one. The primary benefit I could see with that one is more end users = higher chance to sell with at least one. What would you say about this method. Have you tried it?

I've also never heard of Dropping.com. So far, expireddomains.net has been my bible. I will check it out.

I suppose it all comes down to the time that needs to be invested in order to make this profitable. If you are from a first world country, especially if you skills that pay better. If you live in a random shithole, the kinds of turnovers I've heard of here make this method more than appealing.

Also, I know that you code. I'm sure you are aware that this whole process could be automated. Finding end-users and contacting them can be automated. Even finding domains could be automated if you are clever enough about it. Have you ever considered this? I am interested in your take on it.

Thanks.
 
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When a really valuable domain drops you can't register it for $10. Drop catching process is already automated by a few dropcatching services. You may only join auctions or can register the dusts for reg fee which noone interested except you. Buying domains from auctions is risky if you don't know how to sell and for how much. Hand register is risky because if a domain was valuable it would not be available to register. Go figure.
 
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