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.org Why I am bullish on .ORG: Plutocratic guilt!

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Are you going to be buying more .ORG in Q4 2019?

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Rob Monster

Founder of EpikTop Member
Epik Founder
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A few folks have been asking about why I have recently become more bullish on .ORG. I thought the topic deserves a post, and perhaps some debate.

In short, the reason why I think .ORG will have a healthy after-market in the coming years is because of what some have called "Plutocratic Guilt". It is a term I learned from a fellow Seattleite named Nick Hanauer who probably has a bit of it -- he is really rich and he likes to talk about it, but then he also likes to philosophize about how rich people need to give back more to society. It started with his 2014 TED Talk:


The sad reality of the world is that the rich do keep getting richer and the poor are mostly staying poor and/or getting poorer, while much of the middle class gets obliterated. The GDP per capita data uses an average to mask this trend but the Gini coefficient of inequality clearly shows that income inequality is getting worse.
upload_2019-11-3_13-53-32.png

As for what to do about, it, my recipe is really simple: sell to rich people. We already do that at Epik, e.g. during October we sold 3 domains above $250K each. However, eventually rich people have enough stuff, and enough businesses. At some point, they start to care a lot more about their "legacy", which is one reason you see elaborate donor recognition walls in high visibility places. More examples here.

upload_2019-11-3_14-36-27.png


However, if you are really rich, you set up a Foundation e.g. the Gates Foundation, or more recently, the Chan Zuckerburg Initiative, etc. It is some mix of estate planning, philanthropy, tax shelter and (hidden) agenda. Most philanthropic funds are actually in the US and likely that pattern continues for the foreseeable future. Most US philanthropies choose .ORG as their extension.

upload_2019-11-3_13-46-39.png


.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Wow, and here I have a tough time getting inquires on names like analyze.org, I think I have like 2 inquiries on it on a few years, none of which went anywhere. .org takes some luck at times, if you got the right buyer, and your holding the right name, and it’s a numbers game, the more names you have, the better your chances of your number being called. I think godaddy charges $11.99 on their discount club for renewals, almost $4 more than .com renewals, you got to be strategic in buying, and holding these, it can get expensive, As mentioned above price caps are off, and greed in this space is a constant given, especially when you can extract it from people who need to keep their sites online.
 
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I was searching for something else and I had forgotten about this other thread, again in the General Discussion Forum:

HYPHENATED .COM domains are BACK IN FASHION!

I rest my case. I think high quality hyphen .COM domains at $5.49 with Epik SSL landers is a viable speculation. Let's see what the stats show. I am sharing a data point from the bridge. Feel free to ignore it.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/hyphenated-com-domains-are-back-in-fashion.1154810/


Hyphenated .coms and hand reg .orgs. Killing a new generation of newbies. These are just some bad recommendations.

The first post with that list of .orgs gave me a flashback of all the buyout threads we had a few years ago, that was insane. When the 4 character .com prices were going thru the roof and people were posting all these lists. First went thru all the 4 letters and when they were bought up, go thru the 5 letters. People were trying to do that with other extensions as well like .ws. Posting lists, keeping track of how many were left, as if it were an accomplishment to buy them all up. Some of those people that started those threads aren't here anymore. I think some were from the registrars.

2015
https://www.namepros.com/threads/what-will-be-the-next-buy-out.892273/

All 4 chinese letters .biz, all 5 numbers .biz.
All 4 chinese letters .info, all 5 numbers .info.

--------
Next...

1. 5N.org - 100k possible combination
2. 4L.org chips - 160k possible combination
3. 6N.net - 1 million possible combination
4. 7N.com premium (without 4 and 0) - 2 million possible combination
5. 5L.com chips - 3.2 million possible combination
----------
  • AAAAA.com (26 combinations)
  • ABBBB.com (650 total combinations)
  • AAAAB.com (650 total combinations)
  • AABBB.com (650 total combinations)
  • AAABB.com (650 total combinations)
  • ABBBA.com (650 total combinations)
  • AABAA.com (650 total combinations)
  • ABABA.com (650 total combinations)
  • AABCC.coms (15,600 total combinations)


 
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Been there, done that. At one point owned over 3K LLLL.orgs, all western premium letters, including all consonant. And even with that inventory and very modest pricing at just $388 it had lower sell through than bunch of random .com brandables not enough to pay a fraction of renewals even before increase, so dropped all with no regrets.

The only categories worth investing in .org are:

good letter combo LLL
Dictionary words that go well with non-profit
Words that go well with crypto
Rarely word+word combo that goes perfectly with non-profit or crypto
 
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So the task of finding some available and worthy .ORG names was not too hard.

I started with a family name database. There is a decent one here:

https://names.mongabay.com/

The thesis here is that in any large enough cohort of people, someone makes it big enough to establish a charitable entity or for ego reasons needs to secure the .ORG for their family name.

To note, there is a family name called Raper. The name Raper.org is available. I opted not to register it but if you wanted a site to anonymously report rapists, there you go. It is available. Not my calling. :)

I am also interested in disease conditions since they tend to be good candidates for organizations that receive donor funding from people who want progress on that disease condition. Here is one such list:

https://www.malacards.org/categories

As a domainer, our job is to help people secure better brand names. We can do that for big money, or we can do it for no margin and a chance to improve someone's chances. That is a choice.

I did take the names that @Blitzpotz suggested since I trust his instincts blindly. :)

Here is the first list -- 146 domains found in about an hour of research from start to finish:

fontbona.org

koum.org

alekperov.org

dangote.org

kunhee.org

kuok.org

yonghao.org

ballmer.org

pegula.org

oberwelland.org

roski.org

drahi.org

saputo.org

saverin.org

sawiris.org

triguboff.org

razon.org

ilitch.org

shoen.org

glasenberg.org

eubanks.org

ragsdale.org

dubose.org

portillo.org

fraley.org

koontz.org

pridgen.org

mclaurin.org

stonge.org

albritton.org

hudspeth.org

bratcher.org

corbitt.org

mickens.org

nowlin.org

crittenden.org

mitchel.org

phifer.org

marler.org

tejeda.org

beaudry.org

dinkins.org

harless.org

turman.org

catron.org

soper.org

munger.org

coons.org

dabbs.org

sprouse.org

mowery.org

pedigo.org

pogue.org

sigmon.org

dykstra.org

turnage.org

hambrick.org

applewhite.org

klingensmith.org

solorio.org

hooten.org

chaisson.org

jamerson.org

gadson.org

smitherman.org

killion.org

liggins.org

deese.org

daggett.org

mangrum.org

skiles.org

ambriz.org

archuleta.org

thompkins.org

feaster.org

satterwhite.org

boykins.org

miramontes.org

remillard.org

reams.org

mcmillin.org

aiok.org

joym.org

vvme.org

vfly.org

tnew.org

tekn.org

mlme.org

kwww.org

jobg.org

betb.org

frme.org

goie.org

hday.org

copx.org

cbnk.org

conp.org

capq.org

xxec.org

arrowood.org

sartin.org

suttles.org

dingess.org

deweese.org

hollifield.org

rolon.org

burcham.org

fitzwater.org

leath.org

setzer.org

mccraw.org

stroman.org

burdine.org

swiger.org

mahone.org

ferebee.org

hibbs.org

mccaslin.org

tapley.org

exum.org

frazee.org

willette.org

guardado.org

littrell.org

blackshear.org

clyburn.org

cahoon.org

gailey.org

binion.org

debose.org

holifield.org

bibbs.org

stoops.org

mcmorris.org

bulter.org

dillion.org

pearman.org

tharpe.org

edmonson.org

wilcher.org

turnbow.org

shutt.org

moorer.org

audette.org

letendre.org

hartsock.org


One useful test is to combine the word or name with the keyword "foundation". And you see this:

upload_2019-11-3_21-32-46.png



So Turnbow.org looks like a logical URL shortener for them. There are of course many Turnbows, so this could be for any Turnbow for any cause. It is a common family name:

upload_2019-11-3_21-34-51.png



If I had to guess, we'll break even on this list within 60 days. Lord-willing it happens and then the rest can be handed out for whatever cause or purpose. Epik will just be happy to have end-user clients.
 
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My portfolio is about 2% .org .. I actually sold a decent call to action .org for $2.5k earlier this year.

I like .org for such domains when it comes to action on the environment, politics, engagement in various causes.

I also like .org for products and particularly services where an association or better yet multiple associations exist or should exist. Like dentists.org (even AmericanDentists.org is strong enough in my opinion), or Bamboo.org (and even something like BambooFlooring.org if the product category is strong enough). These types of industry-wide interest-groups and association come together to encourage the promotion of their products and services .. they exist for almost every category in every industry. For the service side of this category I have EventMarketing and MysteryShopper in org since they are huge industries without particularly dominant players.

.org can also be just as good as .info for information and review type websites .. and they do not need to be charities .. .org gives the vibe that it's impartial and neutral, but there's nothing stopping a company from starting a site like SSL.org to make a list of companies that offer reviews, and take affiliate or advertising money. In fact, there are a lot of companies that buy up such websites specifically so they can put their own products at the top of such lists. In this category I own a SecurityAlarms and PhoneReviews in org .. and I love the fact they're in org as someone can start what appears to be a platform neutral review site, and have Apple, Samsung, Huawai and all the rest sending you free phones to review and paying top dollar to have a banner at the top of your site.

I could be wrong .. but it seems crypto domain buyers are also fine with .org if it's a great SLD. But in that case I don't tit's it's so much .org as more the fact they're fine venturing away from .com because their target audience is very internet savvy and don't get thrown off by a non .com as much as conventional audiences. I personally have a cool pair CoinSeller and CoinBuyer, as well as BitcoinPlanet.

Other good domains for .org are things for which articles could be written that in turn could produce leads. For example, I own StormDamage in org .. which could feature reports of storm damage or tips on how to avoid damage, what to do if you're faced with a storm or damage. What's smart about that type of domain, is that there are natural advertisers with huge money .. insurance, renovations, cleanup services, etc. I also own ReduceMyDebts which also could feature articles on loan consolidation (huge business).


That being said .. I most definitely recommend anyone interested in investing it .org domains be VERY careful .. there's only a very small spectrum of names that will ever sell.

I personally do not recommend 4L in .org. 4L in .com are themselves a challenge but worth it much more than .org because there is 10x the demand and 10x the end-user pricing (Note: I also advise people against people buying random 4L .com). Beyond that, you'd actually need a FIVE word organisation to sell a 4L .org because the final word is organisation. Selling 5L .com's as pure acronyms is a super longshot lottery .. add in the 10x/10x offset for .org and the math simply isn't there unless you really snipe only the top 0.01% 4L .org with multiple EXISTING potential end users.


The other problem with .org is indeed the 10x/10x sales momentum intensity difference from .com. So while you need to be very careful and picky of what you select, there's also the plain and simple fact that while ~$10 in a .org could be a good investment .. most of the time there's simply a better investment opportunity in .com. NOT ALWAYS though .. as I go through the expiring lists each day I do check .org's .. and there are most definitely without a doubt great .org's to be had even at closeout. (@Rob Monster .. what sort of bounties do you pay for good names? lol)


As for @Rob Monster's cross-promoting of Epik within discussion threads. I think the bigger problem is lack of community engagement from other registrars more than anything else. The fact he has a promotion ongoing for .org, and then starts a discussion on why he thinks .org's can be good investments is not a bad thing for the community .. AS LONG AS .. he continues to actively be involved in the discussions and debates (which in all fairness .. he most absolutely does even if some people don't necessarily always agree with his strategies). Even if you think what he says is wrong, then NamePros members still win because his points can be challenged and debated publicly (as is the case here). Given his experience and placement in the industry as not just the CEO of a fast growing registrar, but also as a staff member of a registrar who is deeply involved on the development and build-out of the platform, the wealth of inside information and knowledge he can (and does) share with the community can be invaluable at times. So in this particular case I don't agree with the 4L recommendation .. but he has no issue with me or anyone else challenging those types of opinions .. and more importantly .. the other bits of information and insider things I've learned from his participation here vastly outweighs the things I don't agree with.

It's also important that any further references to such promotions be on topic (even if anyone doesn't agree with him on that topic) .. and to be honest .. I think he is all things considered. What's important is that any other CEO or employee from any other registrar is also welcome to participate in the discussion and use math based on their own prices. In this case I think he just looks a bit bad from his repeated threads because there are no other registrars being as active in the NP community as he is, so it appears inappropriate or out of place .. when in fact it's the lack of community engagement by all the other companies in the industry which is what we should all consider inappropriate.
 
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a li'l hand reg
-
tooled.org
 
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So the task of finding some available and worthy .ORG names was not too hard.

I started with a family name database. There is a decent one here:

https://names.mongabay.com/

The thesis here is that in any large enough cohort of people, someone makes it big enough to establish a charitable entity or for ego reasons needs to secure the .ORG for their family name.

To note, there is a family name called Raper. The name Raper.org is available. I opted not to register it but if you wanted a site to anonymously report rapists, there you go. It is available. Not my calling. :)

I am also interested in disease conditions since they tend to be good candidates for organizations that receive donor funding from people who want progress on that disease condition. Here is one such list:

https://www.malacards.org/categories

As a domainer, our job is to help people secure better brand names. We can do that for big money, or we can do it for no margin and a chance to improve someone's chances. That is a choice.

I did take the names that @Blitzpotz suggested since I trust his instincts blindly. :)

Here is the first list -- 146 domains found in about an hour of research from start to finish:

fontbona.org

koum.org

alekperov.org

dangote.org

kunhee.org

kuok.org

yonghao.org

ballmer.org

pegula.org

oberwelland.org

roski.org

drahi.org

saputo.org

saverin.org

sawiris.org

triguboff.org

razon.org

ilitch.org

shoen.org

glasenberg.org

eubanks.org

ragsdale.org

dubose.org

portillo.org

fraley.org

koontz.org

pridgen.org

mclaurin.org

stonge.org

albritton.org

hudspeth.org

bratcher.org

corbitt.org

mickens.org

nowlin.org

crittenden.org

mitchel.org

phifer.org

marler.org

tejeda.org

beaudry.org

dinkins.org

harless.org

turman.org

catron.org

soper.org

munger.org

coons.org

dabbs.org

sprouse.org

mowery.org

pedigo.org

pogue.org

sigmon.org

dykstra.org

turnage.org

hambrick.org

applewhite.org

klingensmith.org

solorio.org

hooten.org

chaisson.org

jamerson.org

gadson.org

smitherman.org

killion.org

liggins.org

deese.org

daggett.org

mangrum.org

skiles.org

ambriz.org

archuleta.org

thompkins.org

feaster.org

satterwhite.org

boykins.org

miramontes.org

remillard.org

reams.org

mcmillin.org

aiok.org

joym.org

vvme.org

vfly.org

tnew.org

tekn.org

mlme.org

kwww.org

jobg.org

betb.org

frme.org

goie.org

hday.org

copx.org

cbnk.org

conp.org

capq.org

xxec.org

arrowood.org

sartin.org

suttles.org

dingess.org

deweese.org

hollifield.org

rolon.org

burcham.org

fitzwater.org

leath.org

setzer.org

mccraw.org

stroman.org

burdine.org

swiger.org

mahone.org

ferebee.org

hibbs.org

mccaslin.org

tapley.org

exum.org

frazee.org

willette.org

guardado.org

littrell.org

blackshear.org

clyburn.org

cahoon.org

gailey.org

binion.org

debose.org

holifield.org

bibbs.org

stoops.org

mcmorris.org

bulter.org

dillion.org

pearman.org

tharpe.org

edmonson.org

wilcher.org

turnbow.org

shutt.org

moorer.org

audette.org

letendre.org

hartsock.org


One useful test is to combine the word or name with the keyword "foundation". And you see this:

Show attachment 133981


So Turnbow.org looks like a logical URL shortener for them. There are of course many Turnbows, so this could be for any Turnbow for any cause. It is a common family name:

Show attachment 133982


If I had to guess, we'll break even on this list within 60 days. Lord-willing it happens and then the rest can be handed out for whatever cause or purpose. Epik will just be happy to have end-user clients.

I thought these were going to be hand regs?

The first few I clicked go to Epik Make Offer pages like -

https://yonghao.org/

fontbona.org

koum.org

ACCEPTING OFFERS
Domain owner will consider reasonable offers

You were talking about Make Offer .orgs at Epik?

Ah, I see your response below. I thought it was going to be a list people can hand reg. These are names you just bought? Ok, just reread your post above, got it.
 
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I thought these were going to be hand regs? The first 2 I clicked go to Epik Make Offer pages like - https://yonghao.org/

fontbona.org

koum.org

ACCEPTING OFFERS
Domain owner will consider reasonable offers

Our software is so fast, it already set up SSL landers -- right after they were registered, they were automatically added to the Epik marketplace database with Make Offer, and the SSL landers activated.

That's all hand-reg just from the family name database.

If I wanted to continue researching targets, I would have gone on to the disease condition database, but turns out it was easy to find 100 just from common last names.
 
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Wow, and here I have a tough time getting inquires on names like analyze.org, I think I have like 2 inquiries on it on a few years, none of which went anywhere. .org takes some luck at times, if you got the right buyer, and your holding the right name, and it’s a numbers game, the more names you have, the better your chances of your number being called. I think godaddy charges $11.99 on their discount club for renewals, almost $4 more than .com renewals, you got to be strategic in buying, and holding these, it can get expensive, As mentioned above price caps are off, and greed in this space is a constant given, especially when you can extract it from people who need to keep their sites online.

Remember, a lot of the world spells it analyse, with an s. I think domains that have multiple spellings are always a tough sell.
 
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Our software is so fast, it already set up SSL landers -- right after they were registered, they were automatically added to the Epik marketplace database with Make Offer, and the SSL landers activated.

That's all hand-reg just from the family name database.

If I wanted to continue researching targets, I would have gone on to the disease condition database, but turns out it was easy to find 100 just from common last names.

What kind of profitability do you expect from your domain investments? If this kind of reg gives you enough, why bother sharing?

Just register top 10K, 50K or whatever matches your criteria, be assured that all names are forever in your register at cost, drive all the traffic to your registry landings, and make your xx% annual return, if that is what you are saying is achievable here.

And yet, you are not doing this and want others to register and hold the hot potatoes.

Reality is that many might be ok to register their last name in .org for hand reg, but they won't pay $xxxx that is required to even break even with such investments. Even the family that own turnbowfoundation was not interested in turnbow dot org for hand reg fee and now you assume they'll pay xxxx for that?

Also, consider that most non-profits have board that makes decision and operate on xxxx budget for a year, they will never agree to pay and any contact you find is probably not authorized to make such decision.
 
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Remember, a lot of the world spells it analyse, with an s. I think domains that have multiple spellings are always a tough sell.

Remember, for domain investments US spelling is what matters most. So analyze is more valuable than analyse, defense more than defence etc.
 
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Remember, for domain investments US spelling is what matters most. So analyze is more valuable than analyse, defense more than defence etc.
Oh yes, I agree with that. But equally it does reduce your potential buyer pool.
 
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Recently purchased:

2019-11-03_20.42.40.jpg
Presumably I'm going to be rich based on this logic!

Generally speaking though, I do think orgs are a tough sell. You need very specific words to even have a chance.
 
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Oh yes, I agree with that. But equally it does reduce your potential buyer pool.

Come on!!! If it reduces the pool for such an amazing name as "analyze", then what are the chances for the trash no one wants for years at hand reg???
 
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What kind of profitability do you expect from your domain investments? If this kind of reg gives you enough, why bother sharing?

Just register top 10K, 50K or whatever matches your criteria, be assured that all names are forever in your register at cost, drive all the traffic to your registry landings, and make your xx% annual return, if that is what you are saying is achievable here.

And yet, you are not doing this and want others to register and hold the hot potatoes.

Reality is that many might be ok to register their last name in .org for hand reg, but they won't pay $xxxx that is required to even break even with such investments. Even the family that own turnbowfoundation was not interested in turnbow dot org for hand reg fee and now you assume they'll pay xxxx for that?

Also, consider that most non-profits have board that makes decision and operate on xxxx budget for a year, they will never agree to pay and any contact you find is probably not authorized to make such decision.

Believe it or not, I am reasonably good at leading software development projects that use technology to empower people. I have been doing it for a while and it is getting easier for a number of reasons. I choose to share and scale what works, rather than spend my day domaining.

So, yes, I was a domainer for an hour tonight just to test a hypothesis and in response to @JB Lions' challenge. While I am guessing most of the domains will get dropped, I will roll the tiny dice for a year, in part to validate my plutocratic guilt hypothesis and see who shows up.

ICYMI, there are a few billionaire families in that list. I don't know about you, but I would gift any one of those domains, just for the chance to get a phone call with the executive director of the family office for one of these families.

All that said, I am reasonably confident that there are still a meaningful number of .ORG domains worth owning. For folks that want to find them and bring them to me, I will happily pay finders fees for domains that I agree are worth registering.

Specific to Turnbow.org, it looks like there has been at least one past owner in recent history, according to DomainIQ.com:
upload_2019-11-3_22-8-50.png


More importantly, there are a lot of Turnbow's. That is not a great example. Here is a better one:

upload_2019-11-3_22-16-0.png


I think he should own Ballmer.org.
 
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(@Rob Monster .. what sort of bounties do you pay for good names? lol)

The bounties are typically $15 each. Of course it can be more for a great name. It is pure margin since we do the actual registration and for some people it backs into decent hourly compensation though probably not too exciting for you! The suggested names are usually nice to have hand-reg names. We have bought many hyphen names recently on this basis with multiple folks bringing lists. In the process, I did give some free coaching on what to look for in a hand-reg. I think it is a helpful way to help folks bootstrap into the business, e.g. if they have no other funding source. I would strongly encourage other veteran domainers to do this, especially for emerging market domainers who could benefit from both coaching and dollars.
 
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Believe it or not, I am reasonably good at leading software development projects that use technology to empower people. I have been doing it for a while and it is getting easier for a number of reasons. I choose to share and scale what works, rather than spend my day domaining.

So, yes, I was a domainer for an hour tonight just to test a hypothesis and in response to @JB Lions' challenge. While I am guessing most of the domains will get dropped, I will roll the tiny dice for a year, in part to validate my plutocratic guilt hypothesis and see who shows up.

ICYMI, there are a few billionaire families in that list. I don't know about you, but I would gift any one of those domains, just for the chance to get a phone call with the executive director of the family office for one of these families.

All that said, I am reasonably confident that there are still a meaningful number of .ORG domains worth owning. For folks that want to find them and bring them to me, I will happily pay finders fees for domains that I agree are worth registering.

Specific to Turnbow.org, it looks like there has been at least one past owner in recent history, according to DomainIQ.com:
Show attachment 133988

More importantly, there are a lot of Turnbow's. That is not a great example. Here is a better one:

Show attachment 133989

I think he should own Ballmer.org.

Cool. I know you are great at leading the software dev projects. So why not to add another one? You could hire someone to do all that work using your methods and guidance.

Also, I appreciate the experiment, but are you still recommending people buy it before we find out the result of it?

And, why not use Epik overall data and share with us? For example, N number of sales in xxx to xxxx range for median of xxxx and average of xxxx out of Y number .org names listed?

Then, we could extrapolate if it is worth using the 7.5$ promo?

I used $5 promo on 3000+ 4L.orgs of great quality, the ones that in .com would sell for $500 to $1000 wholesale and ... lost money. That is a real life experiment that I am sharing.

That is far bigger sample size than your 150, lower price and much more liquid category.

Basically, what I am saying is this: please be careful promoting the categories that can lead people to lose money. You mention it a lot that for some people few hundred bucks is a lot of money, and yet you advocate that they spend $750 on a speculative investment?!

They could just as well register 125 .coms at $6 dynadot or epik promo, sell 1 or 2 at xxxx, and keep renewing their names and building on it, instead of trying their luck for a year.

Isn't that a better investment?
 
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They could just as well register 125 .coms at $6 dynadot or epik promo, sell 1 or 2 at xxxx, and keep renewing their names and building on it, instead of trying their luck for a year.
Isn't that a better investment?
I think that more than anything else is the problem with .org .. not that they are necessarily bad at all .. it's just that there are generally better and easier opportunities with .com's.

If you take 5 hours plus $500 to invest for .org and then do the same for .com .. at the end of the year you'll likely have a bigger profit with the .com's.

BUT .. that's also not to say that the .org $500 attempt won't also be profitable! Based on that one $2.5k sale I made earlier this year, and the very little volume (aka expenses) I had in .org, in terms of percentage of pure overall profit, I'm probably higher in org than I am in .com! lol .. So everything @Rob Monster is saying isn't all that far-fetched (even if I'd personally target slightly different types SLD's within .org) .. and the biggest thing I'd say he was wrong on is that demand in .org isn't actually "growing", because there's been good demand all along. The whole ngTLD experiment hasn't affected .org nearly as much as .net (which also itself isn't a horrible TLD if you know what to buy).
 
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I think that more than anything else is the problem with .org .. not that they are necessarily bad at all .. it's just that there are generally better and easier opportunities with .com's.

If you take 5 hours plus $500 to invest for .org and then do the same for .com .. at the end of the year you'll likely have a bigger profit with the .com's.

BUT .. that's also not to say that the .org $500 attempt won't also be profitable! Based on that one $2.5k sale I made earlier this year, and the very little volume (aka expenses) I had in .org, in terms of percentage of pure profit, I'm probably higher in org than I am in .com! lol .. So everything @Rob Monster is saying isn't all that far-fetched (even if I'd personally target slightly different types SLD's within .org) .. and the biggest thing I'd say he was wrong on is that demand in .org isn't actually "growing", because there's been good demand all along. The whole ngTLD experiment hasn't affected .org nearly as much as .net (which also itself isn't a horrible TLD if you know what to buy).

I know I agree with you 99% of time, which is not strange, as logic dictates that clear minds should arrive at similar conclusions )) I am speaking like a Vulcan now ))))

You are spot on that at .org promo that is higher than .com promo and with better opportunities with .com, even if there is something that could be profitable in .org, you'd be better of redirecting it to .com

At least, you won't have to dump it next year, as you'd be facing 35% cost increase from promo, while with .org, your starting promo is already 25% higher than .com promo and the renewal will be another 35%-50% premium over .com

All that for less sell through probability.

Again, there are some good .orgs, no argument there, that might make sense even at $11+ renewals, but those are exceptions. And your one sale is too small of a sample size. I am down to 16 .orgs from 3000+ peak, haven't sold anything for the past 2-3 years (average holding during the period over 100/year), and that is including names like normandie.org (French region), t-e.org, i-i.org, aaaz.org, worldtoken.org (new), LLBB, RFL, stambrose, saintphilips (these have plenty of orgs that could use an upgrade, but no inquires so far)...

Contrast that with .com, where I sold 1% in 2019 just by listing on Afternic without landers and slapping $xxxx price and then tell me if I have $5K to invest a month, why should I waste that on .org, if there are some great .coms that I am passing, because of the budget?
 
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@Recons.Com ... Yup .. I certainly agree with what you're saying. But maybe one thing we're overlooking is the bounty-hunter factor Rob usually uses. With the newer domainers who are bounty-hunting for him, maybe the fact there is less competition and demand for .org drops, combined with the fact that Rob obviously doesn't take all suggestions, then maybe that skewed model could be more effective with less obvious but still good domains (specifically like .org's)?

Not to toot my own horn, but I have had experience in marketing and significant experience dealing with people .. I taught myself Basic/Pascal in highschool .. I used to DJ (much like domaining in that it's an interesting hybrid of technical skills and creativity) .. I used to have a large online community that I build from scratch .. I watch the news most nights .. I take interest in learning about new things .. and so while I'm not so much an expert at any one thing, I've got a strong broad range of knowledge and interests .. PLUS added to that, I've got a fairly complex domaining system that I've tweaked and perfected over the last 2-3 years (my excel formulas are so complex they bring my PC to it's knees .. lol) .. so for me it's easy to find a handful of great invest-able .com's a week at closeout or near closeout pricing. Yes it's slightly more than hand-reg's .. but the quality is significantly higher. Given the combination of things making up my process (including knowledge and experience), it would be very difficult for someone new to duplicate what I do and have anything close to the same results. Meanwhile, after I grab those good domains, they are no longer part of the .com pool of available names.

I'm sure yourself and others have similar skills and systems and thus sucking up what would have been other great potential domains. After all of us profitable domainers have grabbed the best .com domains, what's left? DEFINITELY a lot of good ones .. yes .. but how easy are those to find if they got past the rest of us. The difference with .org is that there are a lot of good profitable domainers that just don't bother looking, so many more flow through the crack to and beyond the drop.

That being said, I did also acquire 100 .com handreg a few days ago with the $5.99 offer that I'm also very happy with .. but those 100 were a list I'd been building for a while. Before that I don't think I'd made more than 20 handregs in total over the previous 3 years since I officially started domaining.
 
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I see that the problem of this thread is that you are encouraging domainers to go and register 100 .org domains right now.. some new domainers that have no experience my jump in and do that and waste money!

For new domainers: please do not start registering .org, put your money in safer investment and stick with .com for now. Later after you become more experienced you can start buying .org or .net domains. And when you buy .org domains stick with "one word" .org only!
 
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@Recons.Com ... Yup .. I certainly agree with what you're saying. But maybe one thing we're overlooking is the bounty-hunter factor Rob usually uses. With the newer domainers who are bounty-hunting for him, maybe the fact there is less competition and demand for .org drops, combined with the fact that Rob obviously doesn't take all suggestions, then maybe that skewed model could be more effective with less obvious but still good domains (specifically like .org's)?

Not to toot my own horn, but I have had experience in marketing and significant experience dealing with people .. I taught myself Basic/Pascal in highschool .. I used to DJ (much like domaining in that it's an interesting hybrid of technical skills and creativity) .. I used to have a large online community that I build from scratch .. I watch the news most nights .. I take interest in learning about new things .. and so while I'm not so much an expert at any one thing, I've got a strong broad range of knowledge and interests .. PLUS added to that, I've got a fairly complex domaining system that I've tweaked and perfected over the last 2-3 years (my excel formulas are so complex they bring my PC to it's knees .. lol) .. so for me it's easy to find a handful of great invest-able .com's a week at closeout or near closeout pricing. Yes it's slightly more than hand-reg's .. but the quality is significantly higher. Given the combination of things making up my process (including knowledge and experience), it would be very difficult for someone new to duplicate what I do and have anything close to the same results. Meanwhile, after I grab those good domains, they are no longer part of the .com pool of available names.

I'm sure yourself and others have similar skills and systems and thus sucking up what would have been other great potential domains. After all of us profitable domainers have grabbed the best .com domains, what's left? DEFINITELY a lot of good ones .. yes .. but how easy are those to find if they got past the rest of us. The difference with .org is that there are a lot of good profitable domainers that just don't bother looking, so many more flow through the crack to and beyond the drop.

That being said, I did also acquire 100 .com handreg a few days ago with the $5.99 offer that I'm also very happy with .. but those 100 were a list I'd been building for a while. Before that I don't think I'd made more than 20 handregs in total over the previous 3 years since I officially started domaining.

1. I find way more .coms in closeouts that are investment grade than I can buy per budget. I am buying 5-10 a day, but easily could be buying 50+. I have about 600 right now in my watch list and then I am just narrowing to better 5% of those, but up to 1/3 could make a decent investment.

2. If they don't have skills to choose a good .com from closeouts or drops (yes, there are plenty in there too, can find tens any day, but more time consuming, which is the biggest drawback for me), then how can they tell a great .org (good doesn't cut here) from the junk? I'd argue that being able to choose sellable .org requires even better understanding of domain market.

Come on, admit that however you look at it, it is a bad advice to tell people to go and reg 100 .orgs at $7.49 each!
 
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Come on, admit that however you look at it, it is a bad advice to tell people to go and reg 100 .orgs at $7.49 each!

When did I say it was good advice? lol

I simply said there most definitely are good buys to be made in .org .. but then I specifically said it's easier and more profitable in general to put the same money in .com!

That being said .. I think buying 100 domains of ANY kind is a bad idea for new domainers. Nobody should be buying domains based on quota .. even if that quota is just ONE domain .. they should be buying based on quality .. which includes both .org and .com (although obviously the SLD needs to be significantly higher in .org .. I don't think anyone is arguing against that though).

So yes .. telling people to go out and buy 100 .org domains for the sake of buying .org domains is wrong .. but at the same time to me it's implied that those 100 domains should be of a certain minimum quality .. and as long as quality is the main deciding factor of acquisition, then it isn't wrong to buy 100 of any type of domain AS LONG AS you're actually able to find 100+ domains of sufficient quality to be profitable as a portfolio.

I'm also not sure if Rob was specifically literally telling people to actually buy exactly 100 domains .. I think he was using 100 because it's easier to hypothetically explain the probabilities and math (ie .. buy 100x @ $7.49, put them for sale at $749 and hope the quality gives you a higher than 1% sell-trough rate).

With the names above I'm not sure he'll get that 1% sell-through .. but I do understand the theory .. and I do see how someone could see this working and offer it as advice (even if it wasn't something I'd advise). I've seen people say/suggest far worse.

All that said .. it really comes down to quality. I personally think there could be some categories/genres of domains where you might hit over 1% with .org's priced at $749 .. but my choice would not include 4L. Again .. it really comes down to the specific quality of names.

As for the newcomers who are bounty-hunting for him .. it's important to note that it relly isn't costing them anything but time .. so as long as getting credit for more in bounty-hunting fees than they would get working at the next best job available to them, then there aren't any real losers if he's sure about getting a quality of over 1% sell-through at 100x cost.
 
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@Ategy.com

As far as sell through goes, good quality letter 4L.com sell through has been on level or better than good quality brandables.

Also, plenty of non-profits do use 4L acronyms, it is just that they will gladly go creative and use 3L + word, 4 words, word+3L, 4L+place etc., but won't pay low $xxx.

How can we expect non-profit workers who are not focused on shareholder profit maximization and don't hire fancy degree guys or the most entrepreneurial ones to know the value of exact match brand?

And, again, if a worse investment category has reg price of $7.49 at promo, when much better category is normally priced $8.49 and often sees $6 promos, is it a good advice even to waste time looking through the lists and registering those names?

I understand you are trying to be diplomatic, but the truth is the truth, no matter how it is spinned. There are no alternative facts here.
 
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I thought I was pretty clear!? lol .. I think the problem with this thread is that there are two topics for which people think must have the same answer ...

Q1- Should Rob be recommending people buy .org's as part of their overall portfolio strategy?
A1- If he sees it's possible to find and acquire sufficiently strong in quality domains for it to be a profitable component of a portfolio .. then yes!

Q2- Do I think it's a good idea to focus on .org over .com?
A2- Not for me personally given my specific situation. Also, in terms of general advice, then it really depends on the particular skill set of the domainer in question, but in general I'd recommend people start with .com. Although there are tons of potential pitfalls newcomers make with .com as well .. I actually recommend people don't buy any domains when they start .. and to spend a lot of time learning before spending. Ironically enough .. bounty-hunting for Rob or anyone else is probably a fantastic zero-investment way to get your feet wet .. particularly if the person hiring shares the sales information on the domains the bounty-hunter hunted.

But to be clear .. given specific knowledge, skill-sets and tools .. it could indeed be easier to find available 9/10 quality .org domains then it is 7/10 .com domains (which is what you'd need in order to be equally profitable). But just as important to stress, is that that is far from being the case for me and you, because we kick-ass at finding .com's (lol) .. but I can't say it's impossible .. .org isn't as bad as some people think. Definitely fewer sales .. but there's less competition, and you can certainly find great .org SLD's for a fraction of what the .com would have cost.
 
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