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

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Number of domains in my "keeper" portfolio

  • This poll is still running and the standings may change.
  • 0-100

  • 101-500

  • 501-1000

  • 1001-2500

  • 2501-5000

  • 5001-7500

  • 7501-10000

  • 10001-15000

  • 15001-25000

  • 25001-50000

  • 50000-100000

  • 100000+

  • This poll is still running and the standings may change.

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Recons.Com

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So, I finally crossed the 5000 threshold. Let's share here the portfolio sizes we currently have.

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. But feel free to mention that portfolio size in the comments too.

As for my portfolio, It seems in past year I have more than doubled the size, buying over 2500 names just from GD auctions/closeouts. Most names are with the GD (see the screenshot) but I also have couple hundred at Epic, Dyna combined.

And I rarely drop names now, with probably under 1% being pruned.

5000.PNG
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
If you could accomplish your selling for all your domains for average $10000/pc in your life then you will have $50 million in total.:nailbiting:
 
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If you could accomplish your selling for all your domains for average $10000/pc in your life then you will have $50 million in total.:nailbiting:

That is unrealistic.

However, if I build it into business that generates $5 million a year ebitda, then definitely the business would be worth $50 million.

That could be achieved, for example, by owning 150 000 names, having sell through of 2% and average sale price of 2000 post commission.
 
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But here is the beauty of closeouts: you don't really have to rush. I don't. I take my time, make my list, revisit, check again etc. Often, buy when they reach $5, although some I will grab at $11 when I see it. If the name made it through the cracks, there is about 80% chance it well make it all the way through without being picked up.
Despite a lot of negative comments on Closeout, there is still competition. I try to get the data as domains enter Closeouts in stages, between 6 to 10 am our time, do the analysis, then buy immediately. Sometimes I am too late. For example, this morning I got 3 but lost one (a 6-letter two-word .com with good commercial application).

Regarding buy-and-hold, I agree it's a very good strategy. Once a domain is acquired, set up, and then listed with BIN, there is little work to do but wait for money to come into our bank account.
 
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And I use weighted portfolio size, accounting for the fact that it is fast growing portfolio and I cannot use year end number. For 2019, the weighted portfolio size was around 2500
Could you expand how you calculate weighted portfolio size?
 
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Could you expand how you calculate weighted portfolio size?

If you are roughly adding the names at similar speed, and not many drops, as in my case, it is pretty simple calculation:

(N0 + N1)/2 = weighted portfolio size for the year, where N0 is your number at the start of the year and N1 at the end.

For more precise one, you can basically have the spreadsheet, where each name will have its value from 0 to 1 for the year, depending if it was there for the full year (1), just added (0) or in between (0.5 for 6 months), and then you just find the average of all that and multiply by the N1.
 
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Despite a lot of negative comments on Closeout, there is still competition. I try to get the data as domains enter Closeouts in stages, between 6 to 10 am our time, do the analysis, then buy immediately. Sometimes I am too late. For example, this morning I got 3 but lost one (a 6-letter two-word .com with good commercial application).

Regarding buy-and-hold, I agree it's a very good strategy. Once a domain is acquired, set up, and then listed with BIN, there is little work to do but wait for money to come into our bank account.

You absolutely get it. Agreed. If I really like the name, I will hit buy it now immediately, something like Cecond. For others, let's say I have 100 names I like that entered at $11, let's say they are comparable quality. And I have budget of $300 to spend on the day. Do I grab 15 names at about $20 each or wait for few days, and get 23 names at the same budget, albeit about 20 names out of 100 will be gone by then?

Again, grab the ones you absolutely love at $11, but for the rest, if none is clearly better than others, waiting is a good strategy. Another benefit: you don't rush and in 4 days your opinion/thinking might change. Impulse is not often your friend. And, of course, you are able to do it at your own time instead of allocating time at specific GD window.
 
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Again, grab the ones you absolutely love at $11, but for the rest, if none is clearly better than others, waiting is a good strategy. Another benefit: you don't rush and in 4 days your opinion/thinking might change. Impulse is not often your friend. And, of course, you are able to do it at your own time instead of allocating time at specific GD window.
Completely agreed. I have a shopping list that contains lesser quality (in terms of availability of obvious end users) domains which still have commercial applications. Since waiting is key, I buy these domains to give me an extra year of waiting ($20 Closeout for less than 1 year vs $10 hand reg +$10 renewal for total of 2 years).
 
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Its rather surprising on a forum of domainers that 70.1% of people who voted in the poll say they will only keep 0 to 500 domains. I would have expected more having more names.

My portfolio is a work in progress but I don’t see myself whittling it down significantly or increasing it dramatically either. A portfolio is sort of an evolutionary process with I suppose the goal being to have all sellable “keepers”.
 
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Completely agreed. I have a shopping list that contains lesser quality (in terms of availability of obvious end users) domains which still have commercial applications. Since waiting is key, I buy these domains to give me an extra year of waiting ($20 Closeout for less than 1 year vs $10 hand reg +$10 renewal for total of 2 years).

Yeah, that is another dilemma too. Do you spend more time at hand reg looking for gems but save 50% investment or do closeouts that are not only 2x to 2.5x more costly, but also provide 15% less ownership in the first year?

Eventually, I will be doing both, but now closeouts are easier. I also like keeping "history" of the name and its age record. It is a selling point at my website to mention the age, as a possible quality signal for search engines. And eventually, I will have all these quantified and no more guesswork. I.e., investment and return for each type of name. Funny thing is with that data, the decision might still be do both. Let's say if both provide profitability above 25%/year and there is a limited inventory to buy in both.
 
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Its rather surprising on a forum of domainers that 70.1% of people who voted in the poll say they will only keep 0 to 500 domains. I would have expected more having more names.

My portfolio is a work in progress but I don’t see myself whittling it down significantly or increasing it dramatically either. A portfolio is sort of an evolutionary process with I suppose the goal being to have all sellable “keepers”.

Same here. I was expecting higher number for larger portfolios. Could be certain usage bias as well, the smaller the portfolio, the higher desire to learn and interact with peers and share.

You have a good eye for names and good methods. So why the decision not to scale up "dramatically"?
 
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Yeah, that is another dilemma too. Do you spend more time at hand reg looking for gems but save 50% investment or do closeouts that are not only 2x to 2.5x more costly, but also provide 15% less ownership in the first year?
The analytic work is done only once, in the Closeout stage. I either pay $11 to buy immediately, or wait until it drops if nobody likes it.
 
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The analytic work is done only once, in the Closeout stage. I either pay $11 to buy immediately, or wait until it drops if nobody likes it.

Ah, cool. So, there are no names that you would take at $5+8.47?

That differs from mine. I either take at $11 or at $5

Do an experiment. The ones you want at $11, pick the really great ones and pay $19.50. Then leave 20 of the ones you'd buy at $11 and could do fine without having them until they reach $5. And see how many survive the eyeballs in 4 days :-D You might be surprised. I normally see like 15 out of 20 surviving. And I can have them at 15x13.5 instead of 15x19.5, a saving of $90 on the batch, enough to buy 7 more closeout names at $5+8.5
 
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Ah, cool. So, there are no names that you would take at $5+8.47?
Since the difference is not large, I have never thought about taking it at $5. As I process over 10,000 domains everyday, there is always opportunity, so I don't mind if someone pick up my targeted domains at $5.
 
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Since the difference is not large, I have never thought about taking it at $5. As I process over 10,000 domains everyday, there is always opportunity, so I don't mind if someone pick up my targeted domains at $5.

The difference seems small at first glance, $11-$5=$6, or even $19.5-$13.5=$6. But at the same time, it is $6/$13.5=44.4% difference. Meaning, for every 100 $11 names, you could buy 144 $5 names. When you scale up, the difference is even bigger, 1000 names vs 1444 names... That could mean 4+ extra sales in a year with the same initial investment.

I haven't empirically noticed that my $11 names sell at 44% better rate to justify the payment premium.
 
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That is unrealistic.

However, if I build it into business that generates $5 million a year ebitda, then definitely the business would be worth $50 million.

That could be achieved, for example, by owning 150 000 names, having sell through of 2% and average sale price of 2000 post commission.
I know. I was kidding, your comment and advice are very good.:xf.grin:
 
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I know. I was kidding, your comment and advice are very good.:xf.grin:

Thanks for clarifying :) That is what I thought. Just was an interesting calculation to make what it would take to get to that. With 1% sell through, even more names would be required. At the same time, there might be other opportunities to generate extra income once you get to 150K names. Overall, I think 150K-200K portfolio of good names could have $50MM value
 
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Just discovered this thread and scanned all 10 pages. Thanks @Recons.Com and everyone else that shared information. Great stuff! It affirms beliefs I’ve had on scaling for a long time but have never followed through with myself. Kudos to you for doing so. I’ve had approx. a 5% sell rate on 250 names for the past 4 years. My buys are all hang reg or close outs. I’m seriously considering 90 minutes a day and gradually scaling up to 3-5k .coms. My price points are about 35% of yours but it looks like the net would end up being in the same ballpark.
 
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Just discovered this thread and scanned all 10 pages. Thanks @Recons.Com and everyone else that shared information. Great stuff! It affirms beliefs I’ve had on scaling for a long time but have never followed through with myself. Kudos to you for doing so. I’ve had approx. a 5% sell rate on 250 names for the past 4 years. My buys are all hang reg or close outs. I’m seriously considering 90 minutes a day and gradually scaling up to 3-5k .coms. My price points are about 35% of yours but it looks like the net would end up being in the same ballpark.

You have an amazing eye for names and if anyone should scale it is you, definitely.

Price: I have yet to establish true price elasticity of domains. That info would be gold and I need big enough sample size to do true testing on bunch of parameters, including pricing. So, your target pricing is mid-high $xxx mostly? Agreed that at 5% the overall revenue might even be better than 1-1.5% with high prices.

Ultimately, I am targeting 2%+ sell through at $2K+ average sale price, but will test with random group of names lower pricing.

I am hoping to finish my book on branding within a year. Hopefully, it will be helpful both for startups for them not to repeat the classic mistakes many do, and for domain investors, as it might be the first one of its kind that properly addresses the value of a great domain name as part of overall branding of a company and/or product. More educated business owners, imo, will lead to more sales for investors and higher success rate for entrepreneurs.
 
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Trending downward to focus on increasing business responsibilities :xf.frown:
 
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i am at second majority currently, 101-500

wow who is vote 100000+ to keep? :xf.grin:
 
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