$30,000 to spend...what to do?

[polyromcom]

Someone offered to give me $30k to invest domains (because of my decent track record at a much smaller scale). He asked what my "strategy" would be, what my "business plan" was and I said that I didn't really have one... Everything was transaction-dependent, meaning that I looked for good domains that were either undervalued or unregistered, and picked them up and tried to turn them back over.

If you had $30k, do you think you could spend it effectively in domains? If so, what would a tangible strategy be? Would you hope to profit on parking? Would you buy mid-priced domains for hold value? Would you buy names to develop?

So far I've only been involved with about $2k of my own money and done very well, but how to articulate a real strategy for 30k....?

Any ideas?

Thanks!
P

 

[werty]

I would define a strategy before using $30K from someone else. I was offered something similar by an investor, but declined for now. But I would say development, and end user sales would be the way to go.

 

[polyromcom]

Thanks, yes, certainly given the amount, I should be careful in defining a plan. Did you decline because you didn't think it was worth your time? That's the one problem I'm having. Takes a long long time for me to spend $2,000 much less $30,000.... Thanks for your reply.

 

[seven]

You don't have to spend it all at once. You've just got a bigger wallet to use if you see something that would have previously been out of your hands.

Instead of looking at it as $30,000 to spend, just continue your same winning formula with the knowledge in the back of your mind that you can spend more if you see a good deal.

 

[Venga]

...
If you had $30k, do you think you could spend it effectively in domains? If so, what would a tangible strategy be? Would you hope to profit on parking? Would you buy mid-priced domains for hold value? Would you buy names to develop?

So far I've only been involved with about $2k of my own money and done very well, but how to articulate a real strategy for 30k....?

Any ideas?

Thanks!
P

If you have done well so far, adopting a NEW strategy smells risky (i.e. how do you estimate parking profits if you weren´t much into parking yet). I´d say go through the results your own 2K generated, calculate the real profits and turnover time and question how repeatable your previous success feels (i.e., if you flip domains, but most of your profits came from one or two sales, a certain amount of luck may have been involved, nothing to really count on for the future.) If you have some experience, you probably got a feeling too where you could have done better in the past if only funds were more sufficient. 30K is not really an enormous investment, so he probably rather wants to see a somewhat sound strategy than a fully developed business plan.

 

[wussadotcom]

I am pretty simple, if it was me I would buy quality domains that I know how to develop. Simply put a great domain with a great development sells and also can recoup revenue while waiting to strike the seal.

 

[wussadotcom]

I am pretty simple, if it was me I would buy quality domains that I know how to develop. Simply put a great domain with a great development sells and also can recoup revenue while waiting to strike the seal.

 

[syncvb]

I am feeling lucky! Can you give me $1K out of that $30K and then plan for the rest!:lol: Just Kidding!
My two cents on your situation:
Divide the $30K into 4 parts and keep one safe in safe.
1 part can be used for exploring new strategies to make profits.
2 parts should be used in the same way as you have done with your small money because you have an expertise in that.
Or you can shuffle among the above parts.

 

[glaxxon]

Depends on the expectations of the buyer. Is there any time boundation?
Otherwise go ahead with your earlier strategy.
You can also invest a small portion on some new strategy or invest in a big site and develop it for returns.

 

[kev]

I've sent you a PM with a wee idea :tu:

 

[orcus]

For 15K, buy 4 or 5 LLL.com's and flip them as and when you get good returns. For the remaining 15k, buy very good potential domain names and develop them.

 

[DustinG]

I'd say you take the $30,000, Head to the casino and put it on Red 1:2

 

[werty]

Here's what I would do: Take 15k-20K to spend. Save the extra 10K-15k.

Use the 15K-20K to buy:

40 solid domains at an average price of $500. Of course, if you are going to pay $500.. Make sure the domain is worth more. Look for bargains. Alternatively you could lower the average price to $250 and make it 80 domains instead. Focus on building a diversified portfolio; just like stocks. Different sectors and industries.

Park them all. Try to flip some right away, and ones with less keyword competition develop. Take $5K out of the 10K for development. Save the extra $5K for renewal fees, and a bit of cushion.

Just a sample plan of what I would do. I declined because I am doing more than ok with my own money. Also I am still improving my techniques and strategies, and don't need investor pressure on my back right now.

 

[nrmillions]

I have been in your situation before. Here is my advice. Dont ever invest someone elses money. What I would do is charge them a fee such as $500 or $1k for you to teach them everything you know about the domain business. You can help them sign up for the forums, teach them about DNJournal and its sales reports, tell them to read NameBee or Domaining.com everyday, have them order the Domain Game book from Amazon, sign them up for GoDaddy, Afternic, Sedo, Snapnames, Namejet, PayPal, Pool, etc. Then they will have a basic foundation to be able to teach themselves more and be able to invest their own money themselves if they still feel that domains would be a good investment for them. You will have helped teach them something new but it will not be your fault if they make no money. People new to the industry dont understand it and expect to make money immediately. They will wonder why a domain they bought for $500 hasnt made them $100 in parking revenue the next day or why they havent gotten a $20k offer for it within a week.

 

[wayne_chance]

Buy lots of short domains and domains with '3d' , buy whole set of domain that start with 'super-cool-?????" fish, games,stocks etc. just add dictionary words till your almost broke. Then sell them all on ebay for a starting bid of 10,000,000 USD.

 

[werty]

There you have Wayne's recipe for failure.

 

[Archangel]

And this, boys and girls, is how ppl become broke. I'm pretty sure you are just joking with this but really, your advice would see the death of many endeavors. It's a waste of money.

Buy lots of short domains and domains with '3d' , buy whole set of domain that start with 'super-cool-?????" fish, games,stocks etc. just add dictionary words till your almost broke. Then sell them all on ebay for a starting bid of 10,000,000 USD.

 

[johname]

if you change your "strategy" because you got more money to spend you might get different results. Stick with what works and just scale up a bit. Good Luck

 

[redrabbit]

Personally, I would definitely look into development.

I'd suggest, take about $5000 and invest in some bargain LLL.com's with a good history. Take another $1000 and develop each of these up, you'd be surprised at how much you can get done for $1000 if you outsource to the right people.

Take another $500 and place it into cheap based advertising coupled with your own marketing tactics.

Wait a few weeks and take a look at the results. Hopefully you will have something good to show your investor. Attempt selling the names at this point.

It depends, whether or not this is a short term or long term project.

Following this, I'd say go ahead and purchase a bunch of $500-$1000 keyword-rich names with a minimum of 20,000 exact searches per month. Develop these up into little niche sites, or whatever.

 

[onewordonly]

I have been in your situation before. Here is my advice. Dont ever invest someone elses money. What I would do is charge them a fee such as $500 or $1k for you to teach them everything you know about the domain business. You can help them sign up for the forums, teach them about DNJournal and its sales reports, tell them to read NameBee or Domaining.com everyday, have them order the Domain Game book from Amazon, sign them up for GoDaddy, Afternic, Sedo, Snapnames, Namejet, PayPal, Pool, etc. Then they will have a basic foundation to be able to teach themselves more and be able to invest their own money themselves if they still feel that domains would be a good investment for them. You will have helped teach them something new but it will not be your fault if they make no money. People new to the industry dont understand it and expect to make money immediately. They will wonder why a domain they bought for $500 hasnt made them $100 in parking revenue the next day or why they havent gotten a $20k offer for it within a week.

I have to agree, the first thing that came to mind when I seen this thread was why invest their money anyway? Unless they are paying you a substantial fee or % then is it worth the risk, time and worry? Maybe if it's a family member, a very close friend or your partner then you might feel better about doing this but even then I would consider the consequence if something goes wrong. I like the ideas above by nrmillions as you can still workout something with them.