poll I am at 5000+ now, how many domains in your "keeper" portfolio?

Tshombe said:

I'd say about 200 keepers. I've got approx 45 .COs experiment that I'll probably drop when they expire. Stuck between whether I should scale up or actually slow down and just get a few high value domains.

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I understand the challenge and struggle.

After all, there is not much leeway between around 0.5% sell through needed to break even and 1%+ needed to scale up and make a viable sustainable business out of it.

My advice would be to be really picky at this stage looking for great certain bargains with many potential uses in a lucrative niche.

1068. All on auto-renew except 2.

I have set auto renewal to on, only for my 100% keepers, which are 2-3. If I have doubts to renew a name, even if I am 98% sure to renew, then I turn auto renewal to off.

indiegrind said:

1068. All on auto-renew except 2.

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Great names there. And matching pricing too ) I assume the sell through should be lower because of that, but it should even out in the end.

kite26 said:

I have set auto renewal to on, only for my 100% keepers, which are 2-3. If I have doubts to renew a name, even if I am 98% sure to renew, then I turn auto renewal to off.

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You are big fan of .tv, right? How is it working out? I haven't really invested in .tv

Maybe, 5-6 names only and no sales so far.

You have some really quality names

Recons.Com said:

Thank you for your compliment!

Slowing down is an important phase in the process. You pick up some, get your feet wet, try to sell and see the reaction, observe what sells, what companies actually use etc. And learn both from sales and non-sales.

But the best advice for the beginning is to stick to .com mostly. I am sure many make it work with ngtlds, cctlds etc. but they probably have discovered their own unique method and niche. Stick to the gold standard until you master the trade.

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what is your avg buy price? on gd auctions and others.....dont u find it hard to find good deals with all the competitor bids? im at 1200... 99% handregs... and 99% of those off fresh expiries...i think i will be round 700 in a year....regging much less.....so basically mostly renewals now... cheers

coolhands said:

You have some really quality names

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Thank you!

What is interesting is that different categories of names can provide comparable returns, just different feel to it and different nuances.

High end names cost way more to acquire, sell at 2x to 20x of acquisition price typically, while good brandables cost $x to mid $xx and sell for 100x to 200x typically.

On the other hand, the high end ones don't take much in renewal fees, while with the other ones you are renewing tens of names daily )) So it evens out from that perspective, if you know which types of brandables to buy.

Spex said:

5000 names X ~$10 = ~$50,000/year in renewals.

Is your sell through rate enough to cover your renewals?

Personally, I sit at around 50 names at any given time

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did you take a look at the quality those domains? :p with that type of quality the renewals are not the costly part...

alcy said:

what is your avg buy price? on gd auctions and others.....dont u find it hard to find good deals with all the competitor bids? im at 1200... 99% handregs... and 99% of those off fresh expiries...i think i will be round 700 in a year....regging much less.....so basically mostly renewals now... cheers

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I haven't really averaged it out, as I look at it as two distinct categories.

Some I am fine to pay mid $xxx to low $xxxx. I probably buy about 5-10 of these monthly.

The others I buy from closeouts only at $13 to $19 including the one year renewal ($5 to $11 acquisition). I buy 5-15 of these daily.

At the end, it takes about 50% of budget per each category and returns are similar too.

coolhands said:

You have some really quality names

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Thank you, sir!

I have 10000+ , grown to this number at the end of 2019 and staying there regging and dropping almost daily. Most I reg at promos and will let drop in a year.
Keepers around 1000-1500. Transfer/renew also at promos only. My portfolio is spread at more than dozen registrars, I use own automation to manage it.

Ntmt said:

I have 10000+ , grown to this number at the end of 2019 and staying there regging and dropping almost daily. Most I reg at promos and will let drop in a year.
Keepers around 1000-1500. Transfer/renew also at promos only. My portfolio is spread at more than dozen registrars, I use own automation to manage it.

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Thank you for sharing! That is probably more profitable path, but also requires regular administration.

I am content with less profitability but building a portfolio that will be generating income just by paying the renewals.

That is why I don't chase promos for transfers etc. I find that names sell better when they stay put.

Recons.Com said:

Great names there. And matching pricing too ) I assume the sell through should be lower because of that, but it should even out in the end.

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Thank you, your names are awesome.


Used to do only make offer. Started pricing about a year ago. Sales are down overall in volume, but average price is up significantly. The majority of my portfolio is sweet spot priced. My favorite names are priced based on best and highest use case and used as a price anchor for any negotiating.

It works for me though. I might revisit pricing if it stops working.

indiegrind said:

Thank you, your names are awesome.


Used to do only make offer. Started pricing about a year ago. Sales are down overall in volume, but average price is up significantly. The majority of my portfolio is sweet spot priced. My favorite names are priced based on best and highest use case and used as a price anchor for any negotiating.

It works for me though. I might revisit pricing if it stops working.

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Thank you ) Why change a working formula? ))

I have an aggressive pricing on my favorite names too, maybe top 10% of all. The ones I perceive are hard to replace. Or I have my own development idea. Those happen to be my best sales as well.

Your portfolio name is perfect

Bout 1500...got rid of many hundreds over the last couple of years. Not that they can not be good or great names, I decided to let go of all but a few.info, all but a few of .net and I kept a few dozen .org. There is a sprinkle of .tv in there that I will hang on to for a while.

@Recons.Com Fantastic portfolio! thanks for sharing with us!!

Your site overall looks great..but just small feedback that footer texts are not clearly visible in that colour.

I have around 135 now, haven't decided yet about how much to renew as maximum still have 10+ months expiry left. Probably it will be around 60-70 domains.

At the moment, I'm in a no-profit, no-loss stage. Made 2 low xxx retail sales along with regular wholesale sales.

Let's see where I can go from here.

Thanks for the poll and thread @Recons.Com and congratulations on reaching the portfolio milestone and all your success.

I like your way of thinking re keeper names.

Recons.Com said:

For the poll, I am asking to include only the keeper names, those you are likely to renew, not the heavily discounted names you are holding for a year only.

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With certain promotions it can make quantitative sense to try some discounted registrations for a year when holding them long term at much higher annual cost may not be warranted. I have quite a few .co, .me, .ca and several new extensions that I would place in that category. Subtracting those, and a number of legacy that I also considered one year trials to see if they got interest, my keeper portfolio is slightly under 100, and I never plan it to be much larger.

Thanks again for generating an insightful discussion.

Bob

No comment. lol

Recons.Com said:

You are big fan of .tv, right? How is it working out? I haven't really invested in .tv

Maybe, 5-6 names only and no sales so far.

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Dangerous job especially during Covid 19 era. I am .io fan too, hard game but the days you took easily and cheaply an .io have ended.

Used to own hundreds of domain but now just 60. Saving money for a good domain name.

I currently have four domain.

Recons.Com said:

I see you are registered here since 2015. But when did you start really buying? Checked out your portfolio and not sure what you are trying to do there, because the mix is not conventional at all.

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i am starting 2020

Surender Singh said:

@Recons.Com Fantastic portfolio! thanks for sharing with us!!

Your site overall looks great..but just small feedback that footer texts are not clearly visible in that colour.

I have around 135 now, haven't decided yet about how much to renew as maximum still have 10+ months expiry left. Probably it will be around 60-70 domains.

At the moment, I'm in a no-profit, no-loss stage. Made 2 low xxx retail sales along with regular wholesale sales.

Let's see where I can go from here.

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Thank you for the portfolio feedback and checking out the website! The developers have requested to come back with the complete list of bugs and additional features. And that is the part I hate most )) I'd love to find a developer that is hands-on and reacts to normal on-going feedback and fixes things ) There are quite few things to tweak/fix there.

Being at breakeven at the beginning stages is awesome. You already are getting live experience and will develop the gut feeling telling letting you improve with each round. Regarding drops, just reanalyze each name and decide per case basis. Basically, the question would be "instead of renewing this name at $8.50, can I find an obviously better one at expired names?", if the answer is yes, then go ahead and drop.

But also remember, that most sales come from the names that have been in your portfolio for longer. At least, that seems to be the case for me.

Bob Hawkes said:

Thanks for the poll and thread @Recons.Com and congratulations on reaching the portfolio milestone and all your success.

I like your way of thinking re keeper names. With certain promotions it can make quantitative sense to try some discounted registrations for a year when holding them long term at much higher annual cost may not be warranted. I have quite a few .co, .me, .ca and several new extensions that I would place in that category. Subtracting those, and a number of legacy that I also considered one year trials to see if they got interest, my keeper portfolio is slightly under 100, and I never plan it to be much larger.

Thanks again for generating an insightful discussion.

Bob

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Thank you, dear Bob.

Agreed that those names would distort the picture and the data in the poll wouldn't be as useful.

E.g., epik had $1 or so promo on .co. So, I could have bought 10k names and even maybe double my money. I could also then boast that I have 15K names ))) Only to drop all of them in the next cycle. By the way, I don't typically do it, because of the non-sustainability of the model without the required work of making the list, registering, listing on marketplaces, delisting etc. Eventually, I might do it too by automating the process, but won't count it towards my basic model and portfolio numbers.

As for your portfolio, it is understandable, although with your analytical skills, I am confident you'd be successful scaling up too. It is not as risky as it might seem.

1000 names, mix of expired bought at promos and closeouts, could cost you around $10K. Priced at $1500 post commission each in average, you'd need only 7 sales to breakeven within the first year and anything above being your profit. So, if you sell 10, you know it is a good business for you. If you sell 5 and decide to drop the rest, you've only lost around 2.5K$. Accordingly, with 250 names, you just use 1/4 of those numbers, if you are risk averse or want to be pickier with the names or grow slower.