discuss Decade domainers: What was domaining like when you started? (TRENDS)

[Jv1999]

It's interesting to learn how domaining has progressed! I've been curious about what domaining was like in the early days if nP and beyond.

I'll go first:

When I started in '16, 4Ls were all the rage, along with CHIPs. No one ever knew 4L coms were valuable until they randomly boomed along with CHIPs. There were stories about people mass selling 4Ls on eBay and making alotta cabbage.

For those of you who don't know, CHIPs are Chinese-flavor domains that are either all numbers up to six length and don't contain 0 or 4 (unless they're at the ends or in a pattern). 4L chips don't contain vowels or v.

There was some self-driving trend too that happened along that time... with one person spending 2k on fresh hand regs. Idk what all happened with that ^_^ as I haven't kept up.

What about you guys in the 00s and 10s?

 

[biggie]

Hi

when i started in 2002, NP wasn't born yet, neither was the bot or nb
you could reg 3 char.com at drop time
many 4 letter were still available to register
3 letter.com were selling for $$$ and i bought my first one for $750
3 letter .org were $20 > $50

it was a lot less competition and less lowballers.
domainers were willing to make decent offers and sales were brisk.

i could reg/catch a name at 11:45 am and sell it, before 5pm same day.
it was not uncommon to sell domains to the same person or buy from same person, more than once.

by 2006 > 2007, was making 5 figures in ppc, alone.

and still have a couple of names from back then, that continue to earn a few bucks.

imo....

 

[The Domains Domain]

Hi

when i started in 2002, NP wasn't born yet, neither was the bot or nb
you could reg 3 char.com at drop time
many 4 letter were still available to register
3 letter.com were selling for $$$ and i bought my first one for $750
3 letter .org were $20 > $50

it was a lot less competition and less lowballers.
domainers were willing to make decent offers and sales were brisk.

i could reg/catch a name at 11:45 am and sell it, before 5pm same day.
it was not uncommon to sell domains to the same person or buy from same person, more than once.

by 2006 > 2007, was making 5 figures in ppc, alone.

and still have a couple of names from back then, that continue to earn a few bucks.

imo....

Love a history lesson, thanks for sharing your experience!!

 

[dncafe]

boomed along with CHIPs.

"CHIPS" was a Chinese pump and dump scam, spamming this site along with many other domaining communities and marketplaces

 

[dncafe]

Early 2000's you could buy 3 letter .COM's for $300. I used to own sets of LLL.com/net/org back then. Sold them all way too soon.

 

[Jv1999]

"CHIPS" was a Chinese pump and dump scam, spamming this site along with many other domaining communities and marketplaces

was it really? because on nb, i still am seeing recent huge amounts for repeating 8s and 9s for the numeric domains.

i'm also not seeing too many 4Ls on NP auctions without vowels, so they're either hoarding them or valuing them higher or something..

 

[Jv1999]

Early 2000's you could buy 3 letter .COM's for $300. I used to own sets of LLL.com/net/org back then. Sold them all way too soon.

well $300 early 2000s must've been worth like $1000 today...

But stiiiiil... I guess if you're talking 2004, and you held until 2017... That's 10x profit, but that's a long time too.

 

[biggie]

"CHIPS" was a Chinese pump and dump scam, spamming this site along with many other domaining communities and marketplaces

Hi

chips, was more like a trend, than a scam.

simply because those who bought them, got the names they paid for.

as with most other "trends" there is always pump, then dump names on those who jump on bandwagon too late.

i had chips, before they were being called chips, so those investments paid off.

.mobi wasn't a scam either, but "pinky" and others hyped it up before iphone was released
and when .mobi wasn't the default, then the dump was on.

imo...

 

[energiaklasa]

$300 in early 2000s would worth at now about 2000 in my country

 

[branding]

I wasted a lot of ink, pens and stamps filling in forms and sending them to register my domains. Things have improved.

 

[Jv1999]

I wasted a lot of ink, pens and stamps filling in forms and sending them to register my domains. Things have improved.

I really don't think that's how people registered domains in the 00s or 90s lololol

 

[STIJL]

I remember when domain names cost $35.00/year paid two years in advance. I started online late 1998 and I remember the early days people were actually buying doaames to develop not just for investment.

1998-2004 there was a lot of small business build outs.

 

[Jv1999]

I remember when domain names cost $35.00/year paid two years in advance. I started online late 1998 and I remember the early days people were actually buying doaames to develop not just for investment.

1998-2004 there was a lot of small business build outs.

I.. can only imagine the massive amounts of dictionary kings you have, sir *bow*

 

[branding]

I really don't think that's how people registered domains in the 00s or 90s lololo

My first reg is from '94 I think. Had to send in the form by snail mail together with an id photocopy.

 

[BaileyUK]

When I started in the 90's I think the biggest concern was Is this Internet thingy going to last. Am I spending money on just a fad. It wasn't that the internet was a bad idea but who was going to pay for it all. (turned out to be us) It really was a nerds playground and most of the public were only just getting familiar with networked terminals in the office. The internet didn't spark much interest in the common man. Understandable because there wasn't much there.

Don't get me started on the cost of Dial-Up connections. Then I found Easyspace and Network Solutions...The First online Casinos to my mind - except nobody really knew what the game was and who won. You just knew the size of the bet

 

[The Domains Domain]

My first reg is from '94 I think. Had to send in the form by snail mail together with an id photocopy.

OMG! Love this, thank you for sharing it with us

 

[branding]

OMG! Love this, thank you for sharing it with us

That wasn't the worst. At the time, for my ccTLD, you couldn't register a domain as a private person. There were companies offering 'proxy' services but you don't want to have a domain registered in someone else's name right?

So I had my dad set up a subsidiary of his company, I wasn't of legal age to run one, and use that to register my domains. Had to process most by sending in a signed form. Even small ownership changes (like change of email) and transfers were processed by snail mail.

I think that's my first endeavour related to domains as I offered these service to peers .

Kids these days don't know how blessed they are and how easy it has gotten to maintain a domain portfolio.

 

[CarlosN]

Here is a guide on how to register a domain, published in 1996:

The rush to the Internet and the web has already quickened enormously since I have been on here. It's like a bloody feeding frenzy free-for-all. It used to be you had to be a weenie to belong to this community. No more. Soon the web will be inundated by millions of Compuservants and Americans Online jamming the pipes with accesses to the Cindy Crawford home page.
So jump on the bandwagon! Beat your neighbor to the best seats in the house! Register your very own domain name, so that you can personalize your little segment of the net. Domain names are just that, nomenclature for areas online. You can take any word, any name, any combination of numbers and letters, and claim it as yours!

It used to be free, now you have to pay $50 a year for the priviledge ofyour own address. Some people aren't standing for it, Refuse to Pay!.

Continue reading:
https://links.net/webpub/domains.html

 

[The Domains Domain]

Here is a guide on how to register a domain, published in 1996:



Continue reading:
https://links.net/webpub/domains.html

This is everything

 

[.X.]

VOIP... mini website... Parking.. adsense

 

[NamesMax]

A lot of value was based on Google Page Rank.

 

[Jv1999]

A lot of value was based on Google Page Rank.

That's still true today

Except emds aren't a thing anymore since Google removed keywords in domains as consideration.

Crazy how Google can just unilaterally update overnight that keywords in domains are weighed in again and suddenly the domaining industry just explodes again... then they take the update away and all that money just disappears.

It's fascinating because it's probably the first economy ecosystem that's wholly inside a private company... so the laws can touch it.

I guess crypto is the other private economy system where you can pump out overnight updates that can pump and dump money.

 

[biggie]

That's still true today

Except emds aren't a thing anymore since Google removed keywords in domains as consideration.

Hi

before Google,
Yahoo was king of search engines.
that's when pay per click was really booming and everyone was using their Overture keyword tool.

don't be fooled by what google says, as real "emds" still have value.

imo...

 

[VURG]

When I started around 2005, it was very easy buying LLLL.com domains at reg fee and selling them for around $50 within a few months. The internet was expanding a lot faster than it is today. Nobody used Facebook. There was a lot of vibrancy on Namepros as lots of people were flipping money quickly and they didn't need to be as strategic as they do now. I have great memories of those times.

 

[zlm]

I started around 1999
Mostly buying my country domains which I still own
In 2002/2003 i started collecting LLL.com as it was hobby for me to collect domains and never sell them still until today

I sold few around 2009 and still have few great names
I took break until this year I came back to domaining again