discuss Baffled by people against hand reg

[Laguna]

As many of you know, I hand reg all my domains. Most posts I have read are all against it. I am baffled by this as ALL domains were originally hand reg . Your comments and opinions are welcome but NO personal comments about my way of doing things please.

 

[Laguna]

MidasCoffeeChain In dot com

For someone who wants to ( or already has) open a chain of coffee bars.
Am I on the right lines now ?

 

[mistressbellek]

dude. ok. lol. In 365 days, I'll be seeing your autono domains in tower. And i'll pass on them.

ur attitude was exactly mine, and everyone's when they started domaining. They ask for advice, then when people who have been on NP for like 2124234 years say "dats bad" I used to just ignore them and think I was right...

It's your money, so... go ahead and get all the autono domains you want, I guess.

you can always prove me wrong by showing me evidence that the abbreviation is starting to be adopted, and I'll always be open to such evidence btw. But from my cursory research, it seems like it's non-existent.

I’m not a dude . I’m a woman. My intentions are not to prove you wrong. I never asked you for advice either. Enjoy your weekend.

 

[Kate]

MidasCoffeeChain In dot com

For someone who wants to ( or already has) open a chain of coffee bars.
Am I on the right lines now ?

Not at all. What makes you think there is one human being on this Earth who will want to buy it from you, when they could just make up another brand name.
Why not register something that you could use for some useful purpose ? You are accumulating names that will never be put to use.
And since you already registered the domain, see if the registrar offers grace delete.

The key is not to own a big portfolio but a small number of quality names that will attract end users. Rather than allocate your disposable income toward bad regs that nobody wants, buy just a few aged, quality names instead.
Quality > quantity.

Just to clarify I am not against handregs, but against bad handregs. It's hard to find good handregs, that are good enough to resell. I think you need to analyze the market more until you get a feel of what kinds of names are in demand.

 

[Laguna]

Not at all. What makes you think there is one human being on this Earth who will want to buy it from you, when they could just make up another brand name.
Why not register something that you could use for some useful purpose ? You are accumulating names that will never be put to use.
And since you already registered the domain, see if the registrar offers grace delete.

The key is not to own a big portfolio but a small number of quality names that will attract end users. Rather than allocate your disposable income toward bad regs that nobody wants, buy just a few aged, quality names instead.
Quality > quantity.

Just to clarify I am not against handregs, but against bad handregs. It's hard to find good handregs, that are good enough to resell. I think you need to analyze the market more until you get a feel of what kinds of names are in demand.

I look at what sells on namebio every day and that just confuses me more as most have no meaning what's so ever lol . I just used the GD appraisal tool on 6 of my .coms and all came back in xxxx which for hand reg I'd be more than happy with

 

[Kate]

The automated appraisals won't sell domains and are just for entertainment. You should discard them completely. Pretty much any domain will be appraised above regfee anyway, it's like you have nothing to lose but then why are these names free to register if they are valuable ? Obviously it can't be that easy or everybody would be doing it.
Remember that the registrar has an incentive that you buy domains from them.

While many sales are puzzling and one of a kind, many domain names sold are obviously quality domains and that is why they sold. Some patterns are hard to miss. For instance, good, short names in .com or mature TLDs is stuff that is in demand whereas arbitrary strings on exotic TLDs are things that don't get much interest from end users.

Again, if a domain name is available in 2018, has been sitting unregistered for ages or worse never been registered before you should really think hard before pulling the trigger, especially if the plan is not to develop it but resell it.
This game is more difficult thank you think and the majority of domainers are losing money. Thus the dropout rate is very high. Domaining is a boulevard of shattered dreams.
So don't make it more difficult than it already is. The likelihood of a sale is much stronger when you have good domains. Bad names are liabilities and detrimental to your financial health.

 

[Internet.Domains]

The thing about hand regging future tech is the psychological effect of owning a part of the future. Whether it takes off or not, most likely there hasn't been a lot lost. It's generally done in good fun, with some possibility at the end. It's under ten bucks at most registrars. You can hand reg 100 names for well under a $1000 bucks. Not too many people are going to be drastically effected by some hand regging. If it's going to change your lifestyle, stay away. Otherwise enjoy it.

On the other hand, there are many stories of veterans paying $10,000, $100,000 and upwards on a domain only to be holding on to it for years with no significant inquiries.

Pick and choose your battles, and most importantly enjoy the journey.

 

[Laguna]

The automated appraisals won't sell domains and are just for entertainment. You should discard them completely. Pretty much any domain will be appraised above regfee anyway, it's like you have nothing to lose but then why are these names free to register if they are valuable ? Obviously it can't be that easy or everybody would be doing it.
Remember that the registrar has an incentive that you buy domains from them.

While many sales are puzzling and one of a kind, many domain names sold are obviously quality domains and that is why they sold. Some patterns are hard to miss. For instance, good, short names in .com or mature TLDs is stuff that is in demand whereas arbitrary strings on exotic TLDs are things that don't get much interest from end users.

Again, if a domain name is available in 2018, has been sitting unregistered for ages or worse never been registered before you should really think hard before pulling the trigger, especially if the plan is not to develop it but resell it.
This game is more difficult thank you think and the majority of domainers are losing money. Thus the dropout rate is very high. Domaining is a boulevard of shattered dreams.
So don't make it more difficult than it already is. The likelihood of a sale is much stronger when you have good domains. Bad names are liabilities and detrimental to your financial health.

Thanks Kate, great post. I will learn a lot from that 1 post alone. Thanks again

 

[bmugford]

The thing about hand regging future tech is the psychological effect of owning a part of the future. Whether it takes off or not, most likely there hasn't been a lot lost. It's generally done in good fun, with some possibility at the end. It's under ten bucks at most registrars. You can hand reg 100 names for well under a $1000 bucks. Not too many people are going to be drastically effected by some hand regging. If it's going to change your lifestyle, stay away. Otherwise enjoy it.

On the other hand, there are many stories of veterans paying $10,000, $100,000 and upwards on a domain only to be holding on to it for years with no significant inquiries.

Pick and choose your battles, and most importantly enjoy the journey.

The problem with that is the ongoing cost. If you buy 100 handregs that is $1000 + $1000 a year in renewals.
If you buy (10) decent $100 domains the ongoing cost is far lower.

Over 2 years the cost is $1100 vs $2000.
Over 3 years the cost is $1200 vs $3000.

A hand reg portfolio can quickly turn into a liability.

Also, I would argue that 10 well selected low $XXX domains have far higher odds to make sales.
Then again you need the experience to know what is good and for what price.

Brad

 

[Laguna]

The thing about hand regging future tech is the psychological effect of owning a part of the future. Whether it takes off or not, most likely there hasn't been a lot lost. It's generally done in good fun, with some possibility at the end. It's under ten bucks at most registrars. You can hand reg 100 names for well under a $1000 bucks. Not too many people are going to be drastically effected by some hand regging. If it's going to change your lifestyle, stay away. Otherwise enjoy it.

On the other hand, there are many stories of veterans paying $10,000, $100,000 and upwards on a domain only to be holding on to it for years with no significant inquiries.

Pick and choose your battles, and most importantly enjoy the journey.

Love this post. These experienced domainers don't talk about the huge amount of money they spend on quality domains that have been sitting around for years tying up their money.

 

[Laguna]

The problem with that is the ongoing cost. If you buy 100 handregs that is $1000 + $1000 a year in renewals.
If you buy (10) decent $100 domains the ongoing cost is far lower.

Over 2 years the cost is $1100 vs $2000.
Over 3 years the cost is $1200 vs $3000.

A hand reg portfolio can quickly turn into a liability.

Also, I would argue that 10 well selected low $XXX domains have far higher odds to make sales.
Then again you need the experience to know what is good and for what price.

Brad

Totally hear you Brad, but if you look at yesterday's sales on namebio, how many could you honestly say we're probable sale material ?

 

[bmugford]

Totally hear you Brad, but if you look at yesterday's sales on namebio, how many could you honestly say we're probable sale material ?

Probably not too many, but if you buy crappy domains because a handful of 130M .COM regs sell a day that is still not a good business model. You need to factor in the likelihood of a sale, and you need to account for all the domains that don't sell in a given year as well.

Brad

 

[Laguna]

Probably not too many, but if you buy crappy domains because a handful of 130M .COM regs sell a day that is still not a good business model. You need to factor in the likelihood of a sale, and you need to account for all the domains that don't sell in a given year as well.

Brad

Could you send 3 examples of things that will sell in the near future please

 

[mistressbellek]

Could you send 3 examples of things that will sell in the near future please

Be careful it’s not safe to predict future domains

I still do it and will continue. That’s how trends and brands are created. It’s no ones business how I spend my money.

 

[JB Lions]

MidasCoffeeChain In dot com

For someone who wants to ( or already has) open a chain of coffee bars.
Am I on the right lines now ?

No. Like most, when I first started it was hand regs. Life changed when I moved up and bought better domains. Then I would do a few hand regs a year, if something popped up. Cyber Money 2017, when .coms for going for $5, I dipped back in to kind of challenge myself to see I could make money with hand regs, a personal challenge. And I can. Some examples.

Examples of something popping up, Trump talking about Space Force. I hand regged TheSpaceForce.com. Can I sell it for more than $8.47, of course.

I put some hand regs in my NJ auction this month, 4 of them have bids. Now, if I had no reserve on all of them, lowest is $69 or 8x what I paid for them:

studenttraveldiscounts.com
historicalwalkingtours.com
bookinfluencer.com
hockeynewsletter.com

Now you can Google any of that and should be able to figure out why I bought them. Some are based off my own sales, or what you mentioned, checking out what else is selling via Namebio and bounce off those sales. I sold beernewsletter. com so I hand regged some other newsletter names. Influencer names are being popular, so I hand regged some of those, like the one above. I've sold some wedding .coms, so I hand regged some niche wedding names like aquarium, theater, cave etc. plus weddings.com. Why? Because they're all real businesses. Like I said earlier, it's harder with hand regs, most of mine will always be thru the aftermarket but if you put in some work, you can reg some names that have a chance.

With my hand regs, I'm in a no lose situation right now. My personal hand reg challenge.
Bought about 20 during that Cyber Monday sale, invested $100. The plan was any money over $100, force myself to buy more hand regs. Sold a few of those initial 20, made more than that $100. The money over that $100, went right back into hand regs. Sold more hand regs. So worst case scenario with my hand regs, I break even. Can't lose money.

 

[Laguna]

No. Like most, when I first started it was hand regs. Life changed when I moved up and bought better domains. Then I would do a few hand regs a year, if something popped up. Cyber Money 2017, when .coms for going for $5, I dipped back in to kind of challenge myself to see I could make money with hand regs, a personal challenge. And I can. Some examples.

Examples of something popping up, Trump talking about Space Force. I hand regged TheSpaceForce.com. Can I sell it for more than $8.47, of course.

I put some hand regs in my NJ auction, 4 of them have bids. Now if I had no reserve on all of them, lowest is $69 or 8x what I paid for them:

studenttraveldiscounts.com
historicalwalkingtours.com
bookinfluencer.com
hockeynewsletter.com

Now you can Google any of that and should be able to figure out why I bought them. Some are based off my own sales, or what you mentioned, checking out what else is selling via Namebio and bounce off those sales. I sold beernewsletter. com so I hand regged some other newsletter names. Influencer names are being popular, so I hand regged some of those, like the one above. I've sold some wedding .coms, so I hand regged some niche wedding names like aquarium, theater, cave etc. plus weddings.com. Why? Because they're all real businesses. Like I said earlier, it's harder with hand regs, most of mine will always be thru the aftermarket but if you put in some work, you can reg some names that have a chance.

With my hand regs, I'm in a no lose situation right now. My personal hand reg challenge.
Bought about 20 during that Cyber Monday sale, invested $100. The plan was any money over $100, force myself to buy more hand regs. Sold a few of those initial 20, made more than that $100. The money over that $100, went right back into hand regs. Sold more hand regs. So worst case scenario with my hand regs, I break even. Can't lose money.

I have only spent 500 in total so far so not concerned about any losses at the moment .I have a year on most before I have to renew but I won't be renewing any. If I can't make a profit on my outlay I will stop. But I'm 100% confident I can within a year

 

[Kate]

Love this post. These experienced domainers don't talk about the huge amount of money they spend on quality domains that have been sitting around for years tying up their money.

That's what an investment is: money tied up in something.
But it's better to have $1000 tied up in one single quality domain, than in 100 handregs that nobody wants.

For example I have bought (and sold) LLL.com for 20K (or somewhere in that range). It's a lot of money tied up.
But these names are highly liquid and coveted by end users. If faced with a financial emergency (happens to everyone), you can resell them quite fast at wholesale price to another domainer. At a small profit normally, or you might take a small loss if the timing is unfortunate but you still have cash in hand.
Those names are assets, whereas the 100 handregs are liabilities that will just drain your wallet.

If I can't make a profit on my outlay I will stop. But I'm 100% confident I can within a year

This is not going to happen I think. You should accept that the first year will yield a negative return for you.
This is no different in the real world, many new businesses also record a loss in their first years of operation and only become profitable later on. However, they have something: a business plan. Domainers need a business plan too, treat like a real business. If you treat like a hobby, you are unlikely to make any meaningful profit. Hobbyists are collectors and they tend to buy more than they sell.

Remember that it takes patience. There is no rule that says you need to become profitable from Y1. But the sooner the better.
Ponder this story:
How a Fishmonger Lost $300K Learning the Domain Name Ropes – With Andrew Rosener

 

[JB Lions]

I have only spent 500 in total so far so not concerned about any losses at the moment .I have a year on most before I have to renew but I won't be renewing any. If I can't make a profit on my outlay I will stop. But I'm 100% confident I can within a year

At the end of the day, inquiries/sales will let you know if you're on the right track or not. No guessing involved. You're either getting some action on them or not. Of course, I haven't checked your setup, some people aren't setup to sell. Recent example of bulloney, where he didn't do anything and landing page was some GoDaddy broker page where people have to pay money, just to send in an offer. That's a straight up sales killer.

Since I mentioned newsletter above, I just hand regged 2 more I had on my watchlist, webmaster and swimming plus newsletter. Do I get excited about these? Nah. But this is more of a fun thing, since there is no risk at this point at all. Let's me experiment, try things out. They all have to meet some minimums, which I feel separates them from some others I might have my eyes on. Nothing too deep. I only buy .coms. So with these hand regs, if I see they're registered in another extension, that's like 1 point in my head. Were these ever developed? If so, another point. It shows somebody in the past bought and developed the domain. An example with the one I just registered, webmasternewsletter:

WebProNews:

https://web.archive.org/web/20010518233358/http://www.webmasternewsletter.com

 

[xynames]

Don't bother replying to him. I realize now that he's been trolling everyone. Very smart troll though.

It’s not so much that he’s trolling he’s just unwilling to change his ways. As I’ve posted before

OP not seeking advice. He’s seeking justification.

He’s naked not wearing clothes but keeps asking hoping that someone somewhere will tell him that he’s wearing a royal mantle of purple.

He keeps hand regging the same sort of domains, and wants someone to tell him that he's done a great job. So far, this has not happened.

 

[Laguna]

It’s not so much that he’s trolling he’s just unwilling to change his ways. As I’ve posted before he’s not seeking advice just justification.

He’s naked not wearing clothes but keeps asking hoping that someone somewhere will tell him that he’s wearing a royal mantle of purple.

Was it even necessary to send that again ?

 

[mistressbellek]

It’s not so much that he’s trolling he’s just unwilling to change his ways. As I’ve posted before


He’s naked not wearing clothes but keeps asking hoping that someone somewhere will tell him that he’s wearing a royal mantle of purple.

He keeps hand regging the same sort of domains, and wants someone to tell him that he's done a great job. So far, this has not happened.

Why should he change his ways? I missed the memo where you were deemed domain god. One of his domains alone will get him xxxx min if it was marketed right which I’m sure he’s aware of. If there was a low xxx Bin right now on vibrogasm I’d pay right now.. he knows it’s worth more, so I don’t expect him to put a low bin on it. Stop with the domain bullying already. It’s such an immature way of self projecting your own insecurities. @Lagunaboy if your domains were really worthless you wouldn’t have gotten so much attention on your post.

Kudos to you