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strategy How many domains have you dropped from your portfolio this year so far?

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I had been curious to know what drop strategy/approach domainers have adopted when it comes to holding some names and dropping the rest. Having seen a lot of domainers following an aggressive drop strategy it got me thinking how many domains domainers drop on an average from their portfolio as I feel this could be a valuable metric to understand and develop a strategy of not holding on to or, getting attached to a particular name, and only acquiring quality names.

So, How many domains have you dropped from your portfolio this year?

Are these drops mainly from what you handregged or, even those that you acquired a long time back but see no potential in no longer retaining it? What made you feel its no longer worth retaining?

I recently asked this question and got many interesting responses from the industry leading domainers on Twitter that maybe worth looking into

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Jason says he cut his portfolio by 12% which seems a significant figure, and is further planning to liquidate another 12% of it, and replacing it with better ones!

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According to @Bob Hawkes he has dropped some 250 names or, about 38% of this portfolio which is a massive figure, as is the portfolio. Nevertheless, its important to diversify investment into different sectors, amazing advice!

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@TERADOMAIN says he DROPPED 0, which is surprising and justifies his user name QualityNames, I 'm really surprised that some people are consistently able to maintain a 0 drop rate and 100% hold. This was an interesting observation. I'm on the same boat right now though very apprehensive if its a wise decision to hold on but great too know some are doing it!

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@Keith DeBoer liquidates about 5%
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lastly @Robbie has dropped only one, still very impressive
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How many have you? What are your thoughts on dropping names? How has this year been?
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
The fear is you will receive an offer as soon as you dropped them.
Fomo is real, it happens to the best of us. I've liquidated names in a tough spot to find they later sold at end user pricing. One of the reasons I delete my sale listings as soon as I move a name..don't remember receiving a higher offer (outside auctions) after I've sold it and it's just common courtesy to delete from marketplaces right away. It works the other way around too, sold xx valued liquidations for xxxx plenty of times, and hand regs you wouldn't expect to sell near final expiration. I've also went a year without selling a name, regular sales are not guaranteed to many domainers without full-time commitment or large sought-after portfolio.
 
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That's a lot! how many do you hold currently?

Whats your drop and reg/acquisition strategy?

Cheers

Currently, I am at 6900+ domains. And I am doubling every 12 months. So next year this time I should have around 14K names.

I am dropping less than a percent, because, as Hiren wrote, the homework is done at the time of buying. Another reason is that I value my time high, so all the hassle of buying to test for a year or two is not worth it for me. Third reason is the experience: the names I dropped or was about to drop often get offers/buys that would pay for all other names I would be considering to drop for couple of years. Basically, even the worst of my names should be able to get 0.5% STR among them, enough to pay the renewals for the batch and I don't need to worry so much.

Few drops here and there are either of experimental nature or I just can't remember what I was thinking 1-2 years ago getting the name or something that GD manages to slide in occasionally with mistypes that look fine at first glance and GD puts higher value on them, so you don't even suspect that it could be a typo. Very sneaky.
 
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Somewhere between 1-2% every year.
 
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So, How many domains have you dropped from your portfolio this year?
How many have you? What are your thoughts on dropping names? How has this year been?

I never let my domains dropped, before buying it I must to like it and understand what I am investing

If that doesn't sell, I'll make sure I can use the domain myself in my project

Because my budget is limited, I don't want to buy just any name just because of the trend

I only hold about 10 names and I'm proud of them
 
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sorry double post
 
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Huge culls this year ending up a lot lighter. Getting inbound on the names i am dropping as getting picked up. Got rid of typos and worst of my brands and some gtlds that aren't worth holding.
 
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I only hold about 10 names and I'm proud of them

Same, I don't hold a lot either. Whenever I acquire something, mostly liquid domains like 4L.com I know whom I can flip it to, mostly b2b sales and only few end user sales for long hold worthy domains.

As I still feel I lack the experience to build a portfolio so just a few investment worthy liquid domains is all I possess!

Cheers
 
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Same, I don't hold a lot either. Whenever I acquire something, mostly liquid domains like 4L.com I know whom I can flip it to, mostly b2b sales and only few end user sales for long hold worthy domains.

As I still feel I lack the experience to build a portfolio so just a few investment worthy liquid domains is all I possess!

Cheers
One sale at 10k as better than 100 sales at $100. How hard is it to get 100 sales? One your making money the other your working for it. Got to have that high quality so buyers flock.
 
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Your as good as your worst domain on NamePros I have been told none of my names will ever sell but they do but you will always be judged on worst domain never best.
 
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If selling cheap counts as a drop I've broken even on quite a few rather than letting expire. I honestly dropped about 10% of my domains in 2020 so far, and sold about 20% of them cheap the other 60% have been good sales with about 10% holding long-term.
 
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Somewhere between 1-2% every year.

Thanks for your insights. I have been following your completed sale metrics for a long time, no wonder your drops are so few!

Cheers
 
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In the process of dropping 2,000 domains over one year. Cutting from 17k back to 15k.
 
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Your as good as your worst domain on NamePros I have been told none of my names will ever sell but they do but you will always be judged on worst domain never best.

You will be judged by the worst but you will be remembered by the best.
Make a $1M or "just" six-figure sale and nobody will ever mention the former.
And even without spectacular sales, if you keep balance in your folio, people may scratch their heads over some names but refrain from judgements.
 
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Excellent question and topic for an insightful discussion.

I have dropped, I believe, 3 domain names this year and am considering allowing 2 more to leave home in November.

The past few years I had realistically " thinned the herd " so I'm down now to just a handful of names that may have seen their final renewal on my dime.
 
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I've dropped around 100+ domains over the past few years and am down to around 200. I'd like to be around 100 if that's possible.
 
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If a domain must be dropped then you made a mistake when you acquired it.

I dont like to drop any domain, when I buy a domain I aim to hold on it.. however I made many mistakes as everbody else and I did remove many domains from my portfolio in the past. I think in 2019 I only dropped 5 domains and liquidated 100+ domains. In 2020 no dropped domains so far but liquidated 25 domains.
 
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My total number of domains at the end of 2019 was approx 4400. By the end of February, I decided my registration, purchase and renewal strategy was unsustainable. Which had all been expanded with the intention to grow from 2K to 5K domains. So I decided I needed to halve my current stock of domains back to 2K, because the expected effects of Covid-19 was likely to have on my cash-flows in 2020. I'm expecting my cash-flow to half in 2020. So every month since, my ambitious target was to drop half of my expiring domains each month, and purchase almost zero new domains each month. I haven't managed that target. But I've had a good attempt. I'm expecting to have under 3K of domains by the end of December, which will be approx in line with my current, depleted, income. I'm expecting to have dropped 1.5K of domains in 2020 with almost zero additions. Approx 1/3rd of my portfolio. I would say, this has been mostly successful.

So. What have I cut? Most of my .NET, .ORG, .US and .BIZ. Probably half of my NGTLD's (it probably should be more). Some .CO, although I would say I still like .CO in my portfolio, rightly or wrongly. Tried to whittle out most domains over 12 chars or 3 words. Less made-up short brandables also. So less diversified, and more concentrated on .com, and I took a long hard look at my .com portfolio also. Because there is no way I could reduce my total portfolio by 50% without cutting down on my .coms as well. With this long hard look, I know I have let some gems go with the drops. But that is only human and expected. I'm realistic about it. I simply thought, when I decided to drop, that I had better domains in my portfolio, worth concentrating on. I can't say I have lost sleep over the slip-ups. But I've got better at selecting the domains to drop/keep. All my drops I've offered for sale here on NPs since March, at fixed reseller prices of $29 for a .com with renewal. It hasn't recovered much. But that wasn't my strategy. Better to let other members have a chance to try their hand, than to anonymously just let them drop. Beauty is sometimes in the eye of the beholder.

So. I think this drastic cutting of my portfolio, has been successful, IMHO. I think the average value of my domains has increased significantly, and a lot of dross has been culled. Partly this dross accumulated by me being prepared to take more risk to grow my portfolio. Which I think was not the right strategy from the beginning, with or without the effects of the Covid-19 epidemic. I will continue these efforts in 2021 until I get closer to my target of 2K.
 
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