I'm not sure what friends you're referring to, Rich. I consider everyone on the forum to be my peer.
I honestly don't know you well enough to have an opinion. Does it matter to you?
Okay, I went back and read through your posts. Here are all the statements I found that could be interpreted as concrete plans for action:
So I see what you're getting at, but the above only addresses the "what" of your plans, and not the "how". I'm curious to hear about how you're going to:
No, I'm the only person I know who invests in domain names. I do have a few friends who are in IT or run online businesses, but mostly the people I talk with daily work regular office jobs and are your typical internet user.
You misunderstood what I said. Friends I've talked to know what a domain name is; they do not know about the domain name industry.
No, I know nothing about that market except for what I have read. No personal experience with it whatsoever. I'm here to learn. That's why I'm hoping you can provide us with more detail about your plans.
Sure! I'm always happy to help. I've shared my own advice in some of your other threads, which you're welcome to go back and read. And if you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to address them.
I've had some moderate success at conducting outbound. My experience has been that the names that sell best are those of exact match products and services like the following (in .com):
- ParkingLotDesign
- CustomBarnDoors
- VisualInterpreter(s)
- ScarlessBreastReduction
- BicyclePacking
- OrnamentStorage
Total sales of these amounted to $9,785, and total purchase cost was $90, so it can definitely be lucrative. But it's also very time-consuming. I usually send out at least a dozen personalized emails per name (some members here send way way more).
I would say that my success ratio has been maybe 1 name sold out of every 5 or 6. And most of those names are either hand registered or bought at GD closeouts. So technically, the real cost of making the above sales was more like $630 plus hours and hours of emailing.
Additionally, it's very important to pick the right kinds of names. Hundreds (or more) of dollars can easily be wasted on names that seem like viable outbound options, but are difficult to find buyers for. I have lots of tips I could share about that as well, but I don't want to ramble on too much!
Anyway, I'm starting to move away from the outbound model, because with a full-time job and a couple active kids, time is a bit of a premium. I'm trying to focus on acquiring better quality names that "sell themselves" so to speak. The trick here is acquiring them at good prices (I'm generally aiming in the $100 to $1,000 cost range, depending on quality). It takes a lot of work and research, but over time my goal is to build a modestly sized portfolio of names that can be sold in the mid $X,XXX to mid-high $XX,XXX range. I scale slowly, but like you I enjoy hunting for (and catching) good names.