poll Did you make money domaining in 2019?

[equity78]

After renewals, paid tools and any other domaining related expenses, did you make money in 2019?

 

[rohitgoyal]

Yes approx $180k in revenue and $90k in profit...

 

[DnFolk]

So you made 5k and 4k per month consistently? If this is true, tell me what your secret is. Did you make that money from parking revenue?

Not from parking but from domain sales, gross much higher, though its average per month, so some months i made more than 5k some less than 5k but overall average should be around 5k. not counting my recent 30K sale. august was my best month. 13k+ net november worst 2.5k net. net income not only depends on sales but also my expenses of renewals, transfers, purchases or new acquisations, in the last quarter i have maximum renewals.

There is no one secret but here i will mention some of the points i follow -

try every possible niche like geo, brandables, liquid or others so that you don't be dependent on any single niche.
though most of the names i have are .com but i don't shy away from trying net org or .co or .in and more

keep yourself updated with namebio or namepros reported domain sales thread and other possible sources to know whats selling.
Keep up with latest tech and startups, who and whch niche is getting most funding, whats trending etc.
make good use of dropcatch discount backorder.
when there is any promo offer for handreg try to bulk register during that period.
GD closeouts one of better source to get quality for nominal price. though lots of competition now and its getting difficult but still if you focus you can get good names.
if you check aftermarket also its tough to get any name for fair price but if you keep trying then there also you get chance few times to get a good deal.
try to check around your network or social media that whether you are getting any good deals to buy domains.
rarely but you will even find names at dan, sedo etc that can be worth buying.

for selling - afternic premium listing has been the biggest source for me. So i make sure to avoid registers that are not eligible for that. parking at dan and now epik work fine for me. and Previously i have used efty which was good as well.

 

[imadoer]

Profits =$0.27

 

[TheFifty9Sound]

I’ve been away from the hobby for ~2 years-ish, not really keeping up with the latest trends and industry changes (DAN wasn’t a thing, neither was Epik IIRC, no-one sold anything on Afternic).

I’ve had a small portfolio of around 100 names set to auto renew, and I still like 85%-90% of them just as much as I did when I left. Mostly future trend stuff that has evolved in the right direction. There are also a few names I let drop by mistake, due to lack of attention on my behalf, that I probably shouldn’t have .

I’ve had around a dozen enquires over the year that I’ve either turned down or didn’t pan out.

So no, I didn’t make money. But it’s been super interesting to look back with clear separation at the decisions I made over 24 months ago, and I don’t feel like I really lost money either, because I think I’d still hand register or buy these names off the market today.

 

[viralk]

2019 was bullish for me.
Great sales in the Q1,Q2 and Q3.
Q4 was a bit on the lowerside, eventhough sold 2 $xxxx hand registered domains in Q4,Tried new niches which worked for me well.

2019 was good and I hope 2020 will be great for all domain community.

 

[Ariff BD]

I started domaining this year. had sold around 10 in xx price but i must say, i am definitely not heartbroken.... almost 90% recovered from sale but i have some domain i will renew for 5-10 years for a jackpot sale.

all handregister no buy.

arif arafat rusho

 

[Furquan]

Yeah,

In Domaining there is always money. You just need to know how to make.

 

[YairDD]

Yea, this is my first full year in domaining, made a couple thousand. and still have around 80 valuable domains

 

[barman]

I've been acquiring, acquiring, acquiring... so I am in the red. If you count my time, let's say, $150 per billable hour, and I'm deep in the red. I do have some good domains though that will sell, eventually :B

 

[Bob Hawkes]

If you count my time, let's say, $150 per billable hour, and I'm deep in the red.

I am in the red even if I billed $10 per billable hour. Your hourly rates are much higher than mine!

I do have some good domains though that will sell, eventually

That is an excellent point. Really to know if anyone is positive or negative one needs some way to indicate the change in portfolio inventory worth. For taxes I need to count inventory, and just do it at my costs. The question re positive or not depends critically on how the worth of the portfolio, or at least changes in that, are costed.

Bob

 

[Sutruk]

Yes, but I hope that next year will be better

 

[Sutruk]

I found that phone calls of prospects
are the main advantage of using your
own landing page.

I love talking to leads.

I think this can be one of the points. Talking to the buyer can clarify a lot of things in just one call, and mainly prevent to lose that buyer due to a lack of dialogue.

 

[AboGamil]

yes i did but not much

 

[mani0307]

My 2019 was good.
Total sale this year $10.5k
And total net profit $8k
Total 500 domains
First and last quater was very good.

 

[bmugford]

I've been acquiring, acquiring, acquiring... so I am in the red. If you count my time, let's say, $150 per billable hour, and I'm deep in the red. I do have some good domains though that will sell, eventually :B

You make more money on the buy IMO.

I have made steady sales for more than a decade, but recently I have had much larger profits on paper as there are fewer reinvestment opportunities.

Brad

 

[Kpett]

Looks like I'm up about $4800 for the year:
Purchase/Registrations: -$965
Renewals: -$530
Sales: +$8,310
Commissions/Expenses: -$2,000

 

[barybadrinath]

after renewals and buying , i made around 24k usd in 2019 including as brokerage + sales.

 

[Nikhil Jain]

Yes. I certainly did make money. Got into full-time domaining around August 2018.

Total approx dollar volume of sold domains in 2019 = $35,000+

Very much in the green after deducting the commissions and covering my renewals upto end of March 2020, and any other business expenses.

Eagerly looking forward to scale it up in 2020.

 

[Doron Vermaat]

Total revenue for me this year is just over $82,450. About half of that was invested back in my portfolio and on renewals. It's been my most profitable year as a domain name investor since I started 7 years ago. Wishing everyone a profitable 2020.

 

[JudgeMind]

2019 was another fantastic year. cheers