discuss How to avoid domain Addiction

Domain addiction can happen during the early stages of building a domain portfolio. It's best to start slowly and gradually expand your collection of domain names. Furthermore, by reviewing annual sales reports and evaluating your domain name renewals, you can gain a better understanding of your situation.

It may be better to set buying rules before the urge appears. Breaks are useful too.

Why avoid it?

katerleonid said:

Why avoid it?

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so helpful

The low price of registering domain names catches a lot of people out. If domains were $100-$200 or more each, most people would hesitate to register names and would likely only register the really good ones.

The reality though is that in these times that we are in, 99.5% of worthwhile/good/great names are already registered (or being used for a live business) and so what is left is mostly junk, and junk that some people have convinced themselves and only themselves, are good names.

It is often the case that people jump/dive into registering domain names with little to no preparedness or understanding of what they are doing. Newcomers need to study for some time, I would say at least 9-12 months before registering or buying any names, so they can properly understand what makes a good domain name.
The combo of a lack of education/knowledge, a lack of a plan, an addictive personality, low cost of entry and a decent sized available credit card balance, with often all result in a bad experience for many people. Such people will then sometimes come onto this forum seeking help and understanding from others as to what went wrong with the "good" names that they registered.

But domain names is part science and part art and then timing plays a huge part. Firstly, in finding a name available to register (rare but possible) at the time a person seeks a name out and then waiting for a buyer to come along, which could be years, perhaps many years away.

I think your list of tips is good, but I would add to it, to speak the name out loud to yourself several times, over a few days or so. See what you think of a name then.
Plus, I do not do anything online until I am ready to register a name (I write a name and variations of it first by hand and then I type any that I like into a text editor document and then leave it for 1-2 days. I then do a whois search, search for Trademarks, web searches, archive.org, etc). This is because I do not trust any registrar not to snoop on what I put in my cart and then leave it there for a while. So I only use one of my registrars when I am actually ready to register a name.

Also, think what else you could use the money for that you were tempted to spend on some names.

These are superb suggestions, @Liaminvestor Thank you so much for starting this thread.

Liaminvestor said:

1. take regular breaks for a week or two, or even months...
2. Leaving the domain in cart for 24 - 72 hours before registering,
and thinking few times if its really good
3. Strong discipline, time spending on it, and how much to invest
4. i leave namepros for a week or two regularly

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Domain addiction is real, and can be harmful. In many ways a break helps to reset, and you will come back more efficient and grounded. I'm not sure I can easily take a break from NamePros though, that is simply too much to ask!

We used to go camping for a week or so each week without Internet and without cell service. It was good in many ways, including a forced break from online in general and domains in particular. We have not brought ourselves to give away our camping gear yet, but have not gone camping for a few years. One of our last big camping experiences was in the Canadian rockies, and I swear all of our campsite neighbours in tents like 1/4 or 1/3 our age. So you young people - go camping!

Thanks again for raising a key idea that we should all think about.

-Bob

PS Back in 2019 I wrote the following article on NamePros Blog that discusses different types of breaks, which seems relevant to this discussion. https://www.namepros.com/blog/time-for-a-break-from-domain-names.1156986/

irregular, unpredictable domain sales are "variable rewards", and these strengthen addiction



(Google AI)


How to fight it? I dunno. This article claims that

Unconditional love is one of the best remedies against variability that leads to addictions

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https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Reward_diversity_in_preventing_addictions

I'll tell this to my wife.

Leaving domain names in cart is not a good idea. If you really like a name, register it right away (or after a couple of hours of checking). If you are not sure, put it into an Excel and get back tomorrow, but don't leave good names sitting in your cart or in search boxes of registrars.

Success can be addictive in any asset class.

Domains can also become addictive because they're collectibles.

Cut your CC

Play with house money.

Due to the potentially long horizon for a return on investment with domains, I think a lot of investors convince themselves that they must spend and spend until some as yet to be determined point in future when they will start generating profit... and before they know it they're tens of thousands of dollars in the hole and digging deeper with just one more domain in perpetuity.

At the start you must take a risk and invest some money but I think it is very important to get to profit as soon as possible and only reinvest profits from then on[1]. I think that if someone isn't selling then they shouldn't be buying. If you're buying hundreds, thousands or millions of domains and you're selling them profitably then it isn't an addiction, keep going, keep buying, it's a great business... but if you're buying and not selling, that's not good. You can't buy well if you can't sell well.

Sell your first domain, transfer half of the profits back to your bank account and use the other half to buy more domains. Repeat. Every sale will teach you more, make you a better investor, and banking your profits will keep you in the black. No addiction avoidance necessary.

[1] There are exceptions, if you're rich and have money to burn, go for it, spend big from the start, whatever.

I do not think that I am addicted, but I enjoy very much to be here.
This thread is a very good example of, that you can get a lot of information.
You would most likely not get it all, if NOT places like this.
Therefore thank you very much, to all of you !!!

I'd qualify myself as a domainer by accident.
I buy domains because I have projects for them, and yet, I'd say I'm addicted too, haha!

I only attempt to sell if I rename the project I bought the domain for, or if I give up on it; if I think the domain is valuable.
The reason why I sell is mostly an attempt to somewhat recoup what I spent in the first place. I don't expect to make a living out of this, not even a profit, so long as I can get back some of the money I feel like I wasted.

I just love domains, I love making sure I'm getting the perfect domain names for my projects, and I'm quite proud of the collections I gathered for them.
I think my bigger addiction in this might be projects though, haha!

Being busy paying my renewals stopped my addiction.

It looks like addiction, I've bought 3 and want more... try to persuade myself to buy only when I really need, but don't stop thinking of buying while they are there...

VadimK said:

Leaving domain names in cart is not a good idea. If you really like a name, register it right away (or after a couple of hours of checking). If you are not sure, put it into an Excel and get back tomorrow, but don't leave good names sitting in your cart or in search boxes of registrars.

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This is a risky but quite logical check-valve for treating domains as replaceable / losable assets on purpose. What is not replaceable or losable can be debated.

If you change the terminology and replace ''addiction'' with ''dedication,'' you'll realize that there is no need to avoid it.

Liaminvestor said:

One of the disadvantages between domains and my other investments is that Domains can become addictive,

tips i find that works for me to avoid getting it addicted,

1. take regular breaks for a week or two, or even months...
2. Leaving the domain in cart for 24 - 72 hours before registering,
and thinking few times if its really good
3. Strong discipline, time spending on it, and how much to invest
4. i leave namepros for a week or two regularly

if i feel to much;

i change password of the Go Daddy account and give it to someone close to me to me to hold for few days

a addiction is very hard to cope, need to control it before it becomes one

How do you guys deel with that?

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I stopped checking expired domain auctions, that was a game changer for me

True! i started few weeks ago, already feel like im addicted!