Biggest Mistake MADE

[JamesDavid]

I thought it would be informative if some people wanted to share the biggest mistake they MADE. NOT the biggest mistake they didn't do. People wont learn from your mistake "I thought of facebook but never developed it".

What will be informative is if people just say a mistake they MADE.

I will go first..


I can say the biggest mistake I have MADE would be buying into the gTLD hype and registering 5 .asia domains.. I want to say that at the time I pre-ordered them they were like almost $200 a piece..

I secured 5... and let the 5 drop after the first 2 years...

It was a costly mistake as the $1000 could have been used elsewhere..

I will NEVER buy into the gTLD hype again..

 

[alien51]

My biggest mistakes so far....

1. Paying FULL-PRICE reg fee for 20+ domains the first time i got excited about domaining. After i got the domains and started researching around, that's when i found out that there's such a thing called "coupon codes" to get discounts. Great! It's just like buying a pair of pants at full price, that goes on sale after the day you bought it.

2. Parking a lot of my domains at SEDO for an entire year, and getting only 7 dollars worth of revenue. Why it took me so long to realize that domains parked at SEDO don't get indexed by search engines, so people can only discover them by typing the exact URL on the browser. My entire 1 year revenue took only 5 clicks from Adsense in just 1 week on just 1 domain after i pulled them out of SEDO and turned them into websites with content.

3. POTENTIAL big mistake? Many people here in Namepros appear to hate YAHOO/MELBOURNE IT. I have read so many horror stories from them. But guess what, I transferred a couple of domains to YAHOO/MELBOURNE IT last year. So far, all is good. I'm waiting the day I transfer out my domains... maybe that's the time the horror stories will show up?!? LOL

 

[kidd3r]

Being greedy has hit me more than once.

I've turned down mid $x,xxx quite a few times only to end up punting for $xxx months later.

 

[BeautifulDomainNames]

Wow! Some of these are horror stories.

My worst was turning down $2,700 because I was asked to sign a contract which stated I would never the "words" in the name that was being bought. I bulked and then 5 days later I get an email threatening a WIPO (it was serious and it was a big company), so I eventually wound up giving that and a few other names to the company.


- Darlene

 

[Coopey]

Accidently putting $360 in as a proxy bid for a domain instead of $160 and not realising until the NamePros Live Auction what I had done. This type of domain was selling $120-$150 at the time and thanks to domainer-domainer hype still increasing, so I thought "oh, go on then, I'll join in and have a go at a quick flip" thinking I could turn $160 into $250+ in a month if I won.

In the live auction it got bid up to $360, which was the highest the runner up could/would go.

It was an LLL...

.mobi


(I, of course, honoured the sale and paid within 12 hours of the auction end. I still have the domain. Apart from a defensive reg I took and then dropped, it's probably the only .mobi I'll ever own...)

 

[bmugford]

Most of my "mistakes" I learn from, but my biggest was just not realizing the potential value of domains sooner.

I have been online since 1995, but did not realize the potential value of domains until much later.

Brad

 

[DU]

My biggest mistake was engaging Snoop in conversation in the .TV forum....

Just KIDDING!!!!

Mine was not having the money when I realized I needed to register some domains in 1994!!!! I didn't have the balls to get a loan.

Second was getting paid more money than I had seen before in and around Y2K and not paying attention to the internet bubble from a domain name standpoint.

My biggest mistake now? Getting involved in the first place! It's cost me a fortune in time that I won't get back... but I've learned a lot.

 

[ssamriga]

Lucky for me I haven't made any really serious mistakes yet (that I know of).
The worst probably is investing around $1000 in L-L-L.coms in 2007, and now dropping them

 

[WordWalker]

It comes to show that you should never just sit idly and watch a wave pass, even if you're unaware of what's to come :p I regged one .tel when they first came out but eh they never picked up. It was a small investment and didn't hurt anything to try.

If it's a premium name, I'd hold on to the single dotTEL you registered. That story has not yet played out. Mobile devices have already overtaken total units in service of both desktops and laptops. When a super critical mass (whatever that number is) of mobile devices are in play, someone will come up with niche based uses for dotTEL. At that point, even if a very, very small percentage of mobile devices adopt dotTEL technology for their specific niche, the actual number of dotTELS in service could be huge.

No doubt, Acro will soon jump in with his usual dotTEL two cents, but I guess that's what makes this country a great one. Not Acro - I'm referring to free speech!

 

[randomo]

I have been online since 1995, but did not realize the potential value of domains until much later.

Yup. I've been online since the late 1980s (still remember the dialup noises from that 300-baud modem), but didn't pay attention to domains until the 21st century. Sigh.

 

[Domainace]

A friend told me way back in the mid-90s about regging domains to squat on them. I looked, and found most words (like money, business tec.) were taken, so just regged a couple "brandables" for my own use and lost interest. He regged numerous trademarked names, but also picked up a couple nice geo domains at least that he still has. It all seemed like such a long shot then, and renewals were $35.

That and I "won" pusuit.com at Snapnames for $79 this year. (And editing is one of my day-job skills!)

 

[kotan]

I regret not being aware of domain name values despite being online in the 90's and building webpages back then. I was still in my pre-teen years that time btw =))

But setting the stupid fact aside, I entered domain investing just last year and like any newbie, I went domain crazy. Now I realize it takes more than just sounding good. A domain that sounds nice and looks valuable to me might be how it is only to my eyes.

Another regret is a rejected offer for a domain that I bought during those 'domain crazy' seasons. Should've taken and ran. Greedy me.

Still continuously learning though!

Nice thread! I hope this helps out a bunch of us to avoid common mistakes.

 

[alien51]

If you think about it, we "regret" a lot of our mistakes in domaining based on "hindsight". Because if you went back in time, you would most likely commit the same mistakes again simply because the "facts" and "realizations" were not available or not well defined to you at that time.

Domain prices were very expensive, domain parking not yet invented, what the heck is the internet, etc, ... come to think of all the uncertainties. A lot of people who struck gold on domaining early on either was a genius visionary, or simply someone who took a leap of faith and won.

But for many of us common mortals, it's all just hindsight regret.

 

[kotan]

but yes, mistakes have built us better on how we are right now (hopefully). more mistakes will come in the future and it only leaves a lot more room for improvement upon ourselves :D

 

[KingDon]

Everyone makes mistakes, and everyone has pinched their nose a few times while going into their portfolios over the years, it's a learning process.

My mistake in the beginning, was buying quantity, lots of domains, instead of buying one quality domain name. If you're going to spend $10K on renewals each year, buy one name worth $10K instead and develop it.

There are some really nice names out there in that price range, and you could change your life with the right combination of incoming producing names.

Now for the most part, I only buy names that I'm going to develop, a name that services a niche market; at least that's the new direction I've taken over the last few years, and it's worked better than expected.

Mistakes, they go hand in hand with success. Those who do this and can think like Spak when buying, will live long and prosper; those who think like Captain Kirk, well they're too emotional and will loose their shirts to the Spaks of this business.

 

[Joe Abraham]

The biggest mistake I've made is to buy domain names with very long word, these domain names are not easy to remember and easy to forget. I should try something shorter.

 

[gemstar]

Ok here we go. I had a magazine,
Income Opportunities.It was 1993.Saying internet is future. I was looking into this market as I have been involved in mail order opportunities back then.Had removed myself from this because of other distractions (girl friends) and cut it off. Was going to reg one character domains. Well that is history.:bah:

 

[Archangel]

Very true. With what I posted earlier, assuming I bought those 100 L-L.com's, I'd had to have paid to renew them all for a few years before they matured enough to pull a profit. Otherwise, I'd had to have relied on faith to blow a total of $3,000 or so on something that, at the initial time, didn't look promising. I highly doubt I'd have one it different with a do-over unless I knew what the issue was.

If you think about it, we "regret" a lot of our mistakes in domaining based on "hindsight". Because if you went back in time, you would most likely commit the same mistakes again simply because the "facts" and "realizations" were not available or not well defined to you at that time.

Domain prices were very expensive, domain parking not yet invented, what the heck is the internet, etc, ... come to think of all the uncertainties. A lot of people who struck gold on domaining early on either was a genius visionary, or simply someone who took a leap of faith and won.

But for many of us common mortals, it's all just hindsight regret.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

Buying the domain of the gym that I go to, then putting something inappropriate on to it.

I got letters from their solicitors to my house and I didn't have a leg to stand on.

Not only did it get me in to trouble, but I nearly lost my gym membership too

To be old and wise - you have to be young and stupid!

I'm going to be really wise then !

Luke

OOH and selling LLL.co.uk for £2,400. Oh how I wish I had my favourite domain back!

 

[SlimPickins]

wowsers.... some of these are GREAT (sorry) mistakes!! I haven't made a "doozy" (yet) but, as of now, my mistakes as such would be starting out hand-regging (crap) domains at.... 1&1:ghost: ... and not finding NP soon enough to prevent some of the brainless "gosh! THIS is still available?!" hand-regs early on.

 

[Semtex]

My biggest mistake was being asked about a domain that I paid $60 for, and was asked 2 or 3 times for a price on the domain. I shot out a $1200 price and they countered with $300. I let him stew on the name for about a month and then I contacted him back. They went ahead and changed their business name and would no longer be needing the domain.

I have since learned the lesson to sell for a decent profit no matter what the counter offer is. Most people don't want to keep counter offering you over and over. Their first counter offer is usually their only counter offer. Take the money and reinvest in something better.