Domain ROI Still Better than Money in Bank

[domainsusi]

Thought you all may be interested in an analysis of a hobby domain business.

I have been investing in domains on a small scale going on 5 years.

During this time I registered and/or purchased about 2,200 domains/sites consisting of com, net, org, info and us - no exotic extension. The total cost including renewals, advertising, scripts and other related fees was $22,000

Of those 2,200 domains I let 519 expire because of low performance and/or I could not sell them. It cost me $3,600 for that lot, but they still made a few bucks.

Nevertheless, to date my net profit from sales, PPC and parking is $15,000 which represents a 68% return on investment.

At the moment, I have less than 400 domains of which about 100 are good solid earners.

The better portion of the rest of these should really be developed, but I have no skills to make that happen. Parking revenue is meager to say the least. Of the 200+ domains currently parked at S***, revenue so far this month is pitiful (less than $1 total).

Bottom line - I will let the non-performers drop but continue to purchase (in my opinion) promising domain names because you can not beat the ROI.

I hope you will find this information of useful interest.

susi

 

[netzilla]

Thanks for sharing your figures. Silly question...but if you have lets say ~300 domains that need to be developed in order to receive better ROI why not partner up with a developer and make it happen?

 

[Domainate.com]

Thanks for sharing your figures. Silly question...but if you have lets say ~300 domains that need to be developed in order to receive better ROI why not partner up with a developer and make it happen?

People always say this but it's easier said than done. I'm 0 for 3 in successfully outsourcing a website development...all 3 times the developers (1 a member here, another a member of discussnames, and lastly a friend of a friend) either didn't finish the website, put out a completely crappy website, or both. I'd love to do it but have to find a trustworthy person/company that won't charge an arm or a leg.

 

[netzilla]

People always say this but it's easier said than done. I'm 0 for 3 in successfully outsourcing a website development...all 3 times the developers (1 a member here, another a member of discussnames, and lastly a friend of a friend) either didn't finish the website, put out a completely crappy website, or both. I'd love to do it but have to find a trustworthy person/company that won't charge an arm or a leg.

I am sorry you have had bad experiences NT in your search for developers. I myself as a developer just hate to see valuable domains just hosting parking pages or poor quality mini-sites when in all actuality they could be a whole lot more and make the owner a lot better profit.

On the flip side from a developers standpoint...we get burned sometimes too. I ALWAYS ask for some type of fee upfront now after being burned on numerous occasions after the customer decides to drop the project mid way through or never responds back when the coding is complete and doesn't give me a dime.

Unfortunately there are people like that out there we just need to find a sure fire way to weed them out. :tu:

 

[bricio]

nice thread domainsusi as it brings a good discussion!

before investing i read many things about stock market, investments in banks, etc
after coming across domaining i was amazed by the profit you can have selling as we say a 50% ROI in one month isn't a good one... out there 50% in a month is great

i don't have names bring me great revenue however they bring me a great profit i would have nowhere but here and until last week now domains were my only investment but since then development is the other one and i'm sure i'll benefit from it even more than from domains as i'm adding value to my products

i imagine if my money were in some bank or stocks right now... i'd be very nervous seeing the economy evertwhere going as it is nowadays

Thanks for sharing your figures. Silly question...but if you have lets say ~300 domains that need to be developed in order to receive better ROI why not partner up with a developer and make it happen?

People always say this but it's easier said than done. I'm 0 for 3 in successfully outsourcing a website development...all 3 times the developers (1 a member here, another a member of discussnames, and lastly a friend of a friend) either didn't finish the website, put out a completely crappy website, or both. I'd love to do it but have to find a trustworthy person/company that won't charge an arm or a leg.

:bingo:

i couldn't tell it better Steve

now i know development must be in your budget
if you have 300 domains and don't hae money for development keep the best 100 or 150 and sell the others to have money to development... you won't regret at all

 

[FPForum]

Excellent post susi and thanks for sharing your experience and numbers. Finding a trustworthy and experienced web developer can be expensive. Also, building 300 quality site's is not something that can be done over night. I own a large number of domains I do have intentions of developing - I just don't have the time. I find content management scripts like Xoops and Joomla to be a great way to kick one of your site's off the ground. They are quick and easy to install and easy to manage/maintain.

Another option I often go with is wordpress. Fast and easy setup, creating content is a breeze, and there are hundreds of plugins out there (plus I find wordpress to be fanatical when it comes to SEO)

These two options have helped me quickly launch a site, and although they make take time to develop..I can have 10 wordpress blogs up in 30 minutes. If I can manage to write 10 new articles per day/week then each of those site's is steadily getting new content.

 

[stone2020]

Drupal is also another quick option for putting up a website. It is an easy way to put up a news/blog/forum site. Plus tons of modules and free themes to choose from. Drupal sites also rank well in Google without alot of work.

 

[domainsusi]

Thanks for the response everyone.

No - I have NO intention of developing 300 domains.
It would not be worth the headaches, time and money. I DO have other interests that comprise the major portion of my income.

After all the hype I heard about eBay, I put up some sites with that as the main attraction. While earning a few pennies from Google, none have made a dime from eBay so far.


.

 

[cdboard]

Nevertheless, to date my net profit from sales, PPC and parking is $15,000 which represents a 68% return on investment.

how much time have you spent in those five years?

 

[soggyindo]

^ always good to keep in mind.

without knowing all your details, this might be a good development model for you

 

[-REECE-]

That's one thing I don't think many domainers (and most people who own their own businesses) take into account. I know of many full time domainers putting in a whole lot more than 40 hours/week. Heck, I've put in 40 hours straight without sleep on numerous occasions when business was good. I like domaining/developing -- I don't find it to be a job and that's why I'm happy to put in the hours I do, but I won't kid myself for a second that I couldn't be making just as much working 100 hours per week at a half decent job.

how much time have you spent in those five years?

^ always good to keep in mind.

 

[.X.]

Sales are so slow in the industry right now, I have let a lot of names drop this year, more than likely, more of my names will be dropping as well.

Parking is the only thing holding me afloat right now, development is not really an option for me, I would need a good partner, to even consider any development at this time.

My ROI has been very nice, I expect it will remain consistant. unless domain parking goes under.