Can you please tell me if this is viable?

[Krane65]

I recently inherited some money from my father, and I'm looking to get back into the domain industry again. Maybe even develop an associate amazon site. Can you truthfully tell me if there is still money to be made with domain names, or am I likely to lose my shirt?

 

[ontiscal]

I am not sure I fully understood your point about avoiding .com. Could you elaborate a bit?

.com is the king, the reference, the extension that every end user/investor/domainer wants.
Every powerful/great/prospect .com is taken; every .com dropping is monitored; new trend keywords are monitored: the .com domain market is completely saturated.
I'm not saying that buying a .com domain is not a good investment.
I suggest that buying a good reg fee .com domain or buying a good .com at auction at the right price is very hard for a BEGINNER. So the chance of making a mistake when buying a .com is high.

Different story for the other TLDs especially the new TLDs. The market is still immature, more space for new investors. It is still a risk, but if the market takes off, it is easier to make a profit. Of course, if the market does not take off in the short term, the renewal costs could eat up all the capital, but every investment has its own risks.

I'm a beginner. I want to buy a reg fee domain for $12.
What is available as .com? A short name that is unthinkable or a 3-word domain name? As a novice investor, I have to ask myself ten times why that .com domain is still available.

On the other side. I'm a beginner. I want to buy a reg fee domain for $12 with a new TLD. I can buy a dictionary_name + new TLD. You are buying a great name (may be will never sell) but for sure it's not a bad name. You are betting your entire investment on the fact that this new TLD will be successful because the dictionary name is not under discussion.

 

[boker]

.com is the king, the reference, the extension that every end user/investor/domainer wants.
Every powerful/great/prospect .com is taken; every .com dropping is monitored; new trend keywords are monitored: the .com domain market is completely saturated.
I'm not saying that buying a .com domain is not a good investment.
I suggest that buying a good reg fee .com domain or buying a good .com at auction at the right price is very hard for a BEGINNER. So the chance of making a mistake when buying a .com is high.

Different story for the other TLDs especially the new TLDs. The market is still immature, more space for new investors. It is still a risk, but if the market takes off, it is easier to make a profit. Of course, if the market does not take off in the short term, the renewal costs could eat up all the capital, but every investment has its own risks.

I'm a beginner. I want to buy a reg fee domain for $12.
What is available as .com? A short name that is unthinkable or a 3-word domain name? As a novice investor, I have to ask myself ten times why that .com domain is still available.

On the other side. I'm a beginner. I want to buy a reg fee domain for $12 with a new TLD. I can buy a dictionary_name + new TLD. You are buying a great name (may be will never sell) but for sure it's not a bad name. You are betting your entire investment on the fact that this new TLD will be successful because the dictionary name is not under discussion.

Partially you are right, but this way you will not gain enough experience for latter, to learn what it's valuable and not. I would say that a combination of .com"s fresh drops, fresh drops cctlds and one words gtlds will be the less riskier start and the way to learn. So, with a budget of $500 to 1k a beginner can start the first year, learn what sells and not and evem make a profit, you will have roughly 100 domains, for which you paid an average of $6 for coms, through promotions, $2-$3 for certain cctls and from $1 to $10 for certain ngtls at promo.

 

[bmugford]

.com is the king, the reference, the extension that every end user/investor/domainer wants.
Every powerful/great/prospect .com is taken; every .com dropping is monitored; new trend keywords are monitored: the .com domain market is completely saturated.
I'm not saying that buying a .com domain is not a good investment.
I suggest that buying a good reg fee .com domain or buying a good .com at auction at the right price is very hard for a BEGINNER. So the chance of making a mistake when buying a .com is high.

Different story for the other TLDs especially the new TLDs. The market is still immature, more space for new investors. It is still a risk, but if the market takes off, it is easier to make a profit. Of course, if the market does not take off in the short term, the renewal costs could eat up all the capital, but every investment has its own risks.

I'm a beginner. I want to buy a reg fee domain for $12.
What is available as .com? A short name that is unthinkable or a 3-word domain name? As a novice investor, I have to ask myself ten times why that .com domain is still available.

On the other side. I'm a beginner. I want to buy a reg fee domain for $12 with a new TLD. I can buy a dictionary_name + new TLD. You are buying a great name (may be will never sell) but for sure it's not a bad name. You are betting your entire investment on the fact that this new TLD will be successful because the dictionary name is not under discussion.

I am sorry, but does it really make sense to avoid the extension where the vast majority of money is?
The extension that end users are the most likely to buy.

I sell other extensions too, but there is only (1) .COM.

Good .COM are expensive for a reason.

It's rare, in my view, that someone can't make money with .COM but are going to make money with more obscure extensions.

It's simple supply and demand.

Outside a handful of popular extensions, there is an endless supply of other extensions fighting for a small percentage of market share.

Brad

 

[boker]

I am sorry, but does it really make sense to avoid the extension where the vast majority of money is?
The extension that end users are the most likely to buy.

I sell other extensions too, but there is only (1) .COM.

Good .COM are expensive for a reason.

It's rare, in my view, that someone can't make money with .COM but are going to make money with more obscure extensions.

It's simple supply and demand.

Outside a handful of popular extensions, there is an endless supply of other extensions fighting for a small percentage of market share.

Brad

You are right Brad, but as a beginner, you are most likely to be inspired when investing in an .ai or .io (they are more expensive, but in trend) or a cctld where it's less competittion or an exact match ngtls which will be in trend. If you start buying .com's today as a beginner, you have a few options. You can go to auctions, but it's very unlikely to know the naximum value of a domain at auction. If you win the auction, that probably means that you overpaid, because the hundreds or thousands of more experienced domainers didn't bid up to that price. If you try to hand reg, it's very difficult even for experienced investors, because even the trendy keywords are hunted years before a certain industry to take off. For example meta when was trending, the most meta .com's were bought 1-2 years before, for ai, domainers started investing in 2021 or before, so in 2024-2025 when sales took off, most of them were bought already. The only chance is a brandable, but you need to be very lucky, a closeout, but it's rare for a overlocked good closeout to pass the screening of domainers or a fresh drop, but usually the good one"s will be catched. So, practicly regarding .com's you have a choice between a brandable (but you need know how) and fresh drop, but lower value, for which is less competition, which will usually sell for xxx to end users and for which experience investors will not bother.

 

[ontiscal]

I am sorry, but does it really make sense to avoid the extension where the vast majority of money is?

Imo avoid .com simply because there is too much competition.
Then after some year of experience you can invest on everything.

Let's make this simply exercise. Justy now the first two domains on auction on DropCatch are:
lunax.com
same.net
they have reached almost the same auction value (timeframe unfortunately is different).
Assuming they have the same value and will close auction at the same price range.
From a beginner point of view , is it easiest to identify the value of lunax.com or same.net?
And this is a simple example because .com is short and brandable. But make .com more complex and stay simple with .net ....

 

[Kuffy]

Allocate $100 to domain speculation. When you've grown it to $150, then try a bit more. If you lose it, then buy Bitcoin instead.

This is not financial advice of course.

 

[VadimK]

If you want to start this business, I would like to give you two suggestions:
1) Do not purchase .com domains. It is the largest and most requested market, but also the most competitive: the probability to build a portfolio overpaying it is high.
2) Do not purchase any domain whose renewal cost exceed $40

That's one of the worst pieces of advice one could give and receive. Without understanding the .com market (what sells and what buys), there is zero chance you succeed in other extensions. How do you know what to buy? The pool of buyers is hundreds of times smaller. A dictionary word or three-letter name is available in a new TLD? Who cares - no one even knows that this extension exists. That's a classic mistake: oh, I'll be playing on a field where almost no one is playing. Well, that's precisely the case - no one is playing there because there is no money, not because everyone is stupid competing with thousands of .com domains. Almost everyone is in .com because you can make money there.

Another trick here is that registries reserve many of the more or less decent premium regs of the few thousand most important words, leaving you with garbage.

I've played a lot with new extensions over time already after years in .com - xyz, shop, tech, bet, world, art, cn. Many of my names were taken between 150 and 400 TLDs - but it's time wasted for the most part. Something may sell occasionally, but I don't believe in any long-term strategy or profit going outside of .com. Maybe some country codes if you understand the local market, mentality, and language, but that's it.

So, my advice would be the opposite - learn .com for at least 1 to 2 years, then go any tld you want.

 

[MasterOfMyDomains]

Lots of terrible advice here.
Answer to op’s original question
No

 

[biggie]

I am going to inherit total around $100,000 when all is said and done.

Hi

I was being sarcastic and you missed it

being able to read between the lines is crucial

imo…

 

[DrJacoby]

@Krane65 Why are you ignoring my questions?

1) If you were profitable before, why did you quit?
2) If you were NOT profitable, how can you expect to make money this time?

 

[Joe drake]

I recently inherited some money from my father, and I'm looking to get back into the domain industry again. Maybe even develop an associate amazon site. Can you truthfully tell me if there is still money to be made with domain names, or am I likely to lose my shirt?

heres your answer your welcome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[likemike]

Investing in domains can be very rewarding but as many will tell you it's important to become educated before making any investment. Good luck with the journey!

 

[Joe drake]

I recently inherited some money from my father, and I'm looking to get back into the domain industry again. Maybe even develop an associate amazon site. Can you truthfully tell me if there is still money to be made with domain names, or am I likely to lose my shirt?

All kidding aside, if you already have a gold account and feel the need to ask “Will I lose my shirt?”, chances are you might repeat the same mistakes you’ve always made. That said, if you focus on high-end domains and aren’t afraid to overpay in auctions—because let’s face it, most domainers are cheap—then you actually have a shot at making it work.

 

[DrJacoby]

if you focus on high-end domains and aren’t afraid to overpay in auctions—because let’s face it, most domainers are cheap—then you actually have a shot at making it work.

If overpaying works (making a profit on portfolio scale), then you're not overpaying.

 

[biggie]

If overpaying works (making a profit on portfolio scale), then you're not overpaying.

Hi

yeah, you’re just paying more than those who won’t bid higher and those who missed or were not aware of the auction

and sometimes those who are willing to pay more, tend to be the ones who sell for the highest prices

imo…

 

[Corey]

Diversify...1/3 Gold Bullion, 1/3 Silver Bullion & 1/3 on educating yourself on what is required to be an affiliate and or domain investment.

Don't put all your eggs in the one basket.

Cheers
Corey

 

[DTR Alex]

I will recommend your second option, which is becoming an Amazon associate... it won't require much capital, so you can put rest of the money in FD or MF...