Thanks for the interesting/funny/valuable post
@urljunky
I think the most important mistakes I make/made are:
(1)
being too brash - get excited, buy a domain without thinking it through. Someone (can't find the post or I would credit them) gave advice to when you have a good idea for an available name write it down, look up evidence, consider it again the next day, and then sleep on it once more, and wait another day before buying. It's good advice, even if you do sometimes miss out.
(2) be
too focussed on what I find an attractive name, without enough attention to what others will think. I think bouncing domain name possible purchases off those NOT in the domaining community can be very insightful and helps temper undue personal bias.
In terms of advice,
(a) I would urge people to
always use evidence (real evidence, not simply a bunch of people posting something). We are fortunate to have so many sources of evidence, on everything from registration stats, spam stats, sales information, for sale information, robotic estimates of worth, etc. etc. Yes, some of this is more well based than others, but you can learn a lot by really delving into the information.
(b) I think whether you are in it for a hobby, or in it as a business,
you should have a business plan. By that, decide how much you are willing to "invest" and stick to that. Also have a specific plan on how you plan to promote/sell your domain names. Also set a goal of each week doing one new thing to help with that.
(c) In conventional investment
an exit strategy is a good idea. When you own a stock, what would be the conditions under which you would sell it. The same is at least as true for domains. Decide for each domain in your portfolio what would be the price you would sell at.
Bob