discuss Come journey through the last decade with me

[Dave]

I've been a Namepros member for over 10 years now. I thought it'd be fun to share some old threads with you guys, some of my old personal ones and some of the standout moments for me as a Namepros member for over 10 years. This maybe a very informative thread for those who are new and don't know many stories from way back when. So let's begin...

Remember, we were all beginners once (and mostly clueless)..

Most of us at the start were also clueless when it came to picking good domain names, so you're not alone if you do or have ever felt like this..

AndGive.com - What was I thinking here? AndGive what? Seems like I was excited about the idea at the time..

TagACloud.net - I must surely have been smoking something funny that day.

Granted, I was still young when I joined Namepros, it was my idea of a private social network that inspired me to pickup PrivateSocial.com that I later sold instead that inspired me to join Namepros in the first place. The best part was being told that the value was $0, but it was one of the earliest domains I sold for good money on Sedo. That was my first real lesson in how subjective domain names can be.

..but you may also find a gem or two early on and not even know it..

DJYR.com - Funny to look back and see how difficult it once was to sell these kind of domains. This wasn't the only LLLL I hand regged back then, picked up many more but was told they were not worth much. Another lesson learned, something that maybe not worth much one day can go boom not long after. If I had kept all the 4L .com's and 5N .com's I regged back then, I estimate I'd have made at least 6 figures during the big boom..

Long tail EMD domains with high search volume were all the rage back then (2007 - 2011?)..

One could still hand register random keywords that may have 10,000+ keyword search volume per month. I remember finding some that had 50,000+ per month. The domain name was one of the biggest factors affecting SEO back then. One was almost guaranteed top 3 on Google if their domain name had the exact keywords a consumer was searching for. That was when I first developed a network of affiliate sites on long tail keywords, anything ranging from loans, financing, insurance, products etc. Micro sites were all the rage.

I recall some offering microsite services back in the day, which built up sites similar to how I described above.

(Unfortunately I have been unable to find any old threads regarding the above, but to all newcomers I assure you that is how it once was)..

Surprising sales that continued to inspire..

CamRoulette.com ($151,000) - I recall posting about CamRoulette.com back in early 2010. It had been hand registered in only Dec 2009. This thread is a great read with a great short domaining story for anyone who has never heard about it.

My venture into .UK domains and becoming a UK registrar (2011)..

This was a big turning point for me in regards to domaining itself (rather than development). I had some good $xxx and low $xxxx sales in domaining up to this point, and I did well with development of websites during 2007-2010, but when I ventured into .UK domains I built a consistent revenue stream, rather than the now and then or once every few months type of sales I had been doing previously.

Also the UK market really helped open my eyes up even more to what a quality domain is, most .com's that sell for $xxxx would never even sell for £50 in .co.uk, it was this stricter nature that helped me become a more experienced domainer.

I became a Nominet member and registrar and over many years developed and fine tuned my own drop catching system. (I have been programming and developing software and websites since I was young, anyone remember Net Yaroze on PS2 with Basic?).

Here are some of my .co.uk sales I can share (unfortunately I can't share all sales with you, this is just a selection, I've sold hundreds of UK domains, more than any other TLD I have owned):

Equator/co/uk
Manic/co/uk
Paddles/co/uk
PortableToilets/co/uk
Tampons/co/uk
uwe/co/uk
Nutritious/uk
Friendly/co/uk
Grandmaster/co/uk
vpc/co/uk
bet123/co/uk
jpn/co/uk
Crypt/co/uk
LiveLife/co/uk

The .tv goldrush of 2010

March 18th 2010, this was a fun time for any investing in the .tv TLD. I remember being there early morning with a script at the ready hoping to bag some good domains. Even after automating all my requests, several API's became flooded and I ended up with somehow a grand total of 0 domains. I have never seen something so competitive in all my years of domaining.

Here is the only thread I can find on .tv goldrush. https://www.namepros.com/threads/03-18-2010-tv-goldrush-landrush-good-news-bad-news-updates.645723/

However I have sold some .tv domains over the years. Personal two favourites that stand out are Daisy.tv (cannot reveal price) and CanaryIslands.tv.

Don't worry if you miss out, there are always opportunities..

• We've had EMD domains ranking highly in search engines. (The only one I got right).
• We've had .tv goldrush of 2010. (I missed this).
• We've had China buying up numerics and short premium LL/LLL/LLLL domains. (I mostly missed this, having sold most LLLL and numerics before the boom. I did have some left over though).
• We've had crypto and crypto domains (Missed).

My point is, if you feel like you've missed one opportunity then I am sure something else will come along in the future. Whatever the next big boom will be I'm hoping this time I'll have one foot in the door.

Here's to the next 10 years, folks.

Please feel free to discuss or ask questions.

Edit: Fixed some grammar.

 

[DanBingham]

Great post - thanks for sharing!

 

[Name Trader]

@Dave - Thanks for the reminders. My experiences aren't so different to yours (except I own only a couple of UK domains). As for the future fads? I bought my first emoji domain recently This was a rare diversion for me. I've been concentrating on dropping pretty much all my non-com domains (with a couple of .tv exceptions), including more than half of my NGTLD's.

 

[Dave]

Thanks for the reminders. My experiences aren't so different to yours (except I own only a couple of UK domains). As for the future fads? I bought my first emoji domain recently This was a rare diversion for me. I've been concentrating on dropping pretty much all my non-com domains (with a couple of .tv exceptions), including more than half of my NGTLD's.

I think most of us who joined mid to late 2000's have maybe gone through similar experiences. I made this post as I think it is a nice read for those who have only joined in the last few years. I wonder how many knew about the .tv goldrush, EMD's and such. I for one love a bit of history, so I try to provide some examples and summary here.

I too will only focus on UK, .com and maybe a .tv here or there for the foreseeable future (will always have a soft spot for it ).

Thanks.

 

[Skyvisum]

What a journey it has been for you and the others who have spent decades in domaining.One thing in domaining is that there are always opportunities if we read, research and stay up to date.You read the reported sales thread,check sales daily in namebio .com and you marvel at the figures.I ask myself when will I make my first sale (that gives confidence).Then,after a sale,you want 4 figures and then after that,you want 5 figures and then want those 6 figure sales that inspires and then you hear 7 figures .

Good thing,namepros forum opened my eyes to a lot of strategies and then I kept reading and watching out and investing for the long term. Making sales gives hopes and makes it easy to continue because domaining is not for weak minds.You need to have guts but don't overprice every name in your portfolio.Some you just don't want to sell too cheap but some, you just have to.

One thing I expect as a domainer is to always move up to the next stage,hand reg if you are smart,buy from the aftermarket,from bargains if you are sure you will make some returns or some profit to help with renewals as you wait for the high figure sales.With time, you will realize what works best for you and will spend less time hand registering if it doesn't turn out to more sales.

Thank you for the post @Dave and it was fun reading .I should be reporting another 4 figure sales next week and hope the New Year bring me the 5 figure sales that I expect with confidence.

 

[Grilled]

Excellent thread @Dave

-- to the New Year!​

 

[BrandBoogie]

Great post! Definitely looking forward to the 10!

 

[Amzymayor]

Fantastic content. Thanks for sharing your experience with me