Domaining for a living?

[Ricardo M]

Hi all

I was wondering who does domaining for a living or who does it for a secondary income besides your regular job.

I do it on the side next to Real estate brokerage. Although i consider maybe to go fulltime as a domainer.

 

[Domain Monk]

domainining is my only source of income ...i run my family with it. and i buy only hand reg for now.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

It's a big advantage living in Pakistan and operate full time domaining for me since the cost of living is too low compare to U.S or Europe.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Full Time over 8 years already...

 

[bmugford]

The majority of my income comes from domaining.

I do have to say though I think it would be extremely hard starting today from scratch when you factor in the re-seller prices of average .COM at popular venues like NameJet, GoDaddy, etc. There are still opportunities, but far less than years ago.

You really need a serious budget and/or need to bring something unique to the table (skills or business model) to succeed.

Brad

 

[Addison]

I was wondering who does domaining for a living or who does it for a secondary income besides your regular job.

Domain names are my only source of income and my net profit is around $500,000/year. It goes up every year.

I'm on a buying hiatus, because I have thousands of domains and it'll be 100+ years before they all sell.

 

[Federer]

Domain investing has produced 99% of my income over the past decade.

I do not participate that much in auctions as it doesn't make business-sense overpaying/paying end user prices for average .COM brands. There are always opportunities for the eagle-eyed, patient investors - as well as for those willing that are willing to put in the effort.

Although more effort and creativity is required today than 4-5 years ago, there are more opportunities across the board if you know what you are doing.

 

[briguy]

When my domaining income exceeds my main income maybe then I will go fulltime!
Unless, I get a sweet offer on my long term portfolio, then I am retired.. but that won't happen until I put it up for sale!

 

[GeorgeQuang]

If you have money to invest ( minimum is $10k) with no dept or no kids, you can try it as a full-time job.
But if you are in dept, have wife and kids, you can not live with domains in your first domaining year. That's true.
Living in South East Asia is my advantage, because the living cost is low ( you can live well with only $200/month). If i live in Western Countries or The States, i would not be in this industry for a full-time job. Just part-time.
I knew and chatted with some guys here, who are living in Developed Countries as a full-time domainers. But almost have free-money, and they used to work in other industries to pay dept and earn money to invest before becoming full-time domainers .
Or you can work as a staff in a Domain Ventures Company to increase your skills and your knowledge about this industry.
That's your choice.

 

[Dominic Belley]

Secondary income and zero time consuming.

When I started in 2015 it was taking a lot of my time because I was actively flipping 4L.

Now I am in less liquid domains (brandable, 2-words) so it takes no time. I buy, I put on Afternic/Sedo and I wait and I wait and I wait.

 

[Addison]

The majority of my income comes from domaining.

I do have to say though I think it would be extremely hard starting today from scratch when you factor in the re-seller prices of average .COM at popular venues like NameJet, GoDaddy, etc. There are still opportunities, but far less than years ago.

You really need a serious budget and/or need to bring something unique to the table (skills or business model) to succeed.

Brad

I'm in complete agreement with you. It took me years to discover a profitable niche and then I invested heavily in it after I saw results. That's the only reason I was able to become successful with domains.

 

[xynames]

Whether doing this alone or alongside other ventures or alongside a regular full time job, to be successful must put the hours into it. That’s true of anything. Put in the time and effort.

 

[Ricardo M]

The majority of my income comes from domaining.

I do have to say though I think it would be extremely hard starting today from scratch when you factor in the re-seller prices of average .COM at popular venues like NameJet, GoDaddy, etc. There are still opportunities, but far less than years ago.

You really need a serious budget and/or need to bring something unique to the table (skills or business model) to succeed.

Brad

That's for sure. All my sales over the last 10 years came from hand regged ones...believe it or not, i only bought 1 name from here and never from anyone anywhere else. I've been pretty profitable but i never invested till the max if i had the chances. I have a small portfolio now but i'm about to pump around 50k in it to extend my portfolio and to switch to fulltime. I just came back from Dubai after living there for 4 years. The risk of domaining and the lifestyle was dangerous so i always worked on the side to have a good income during good or slow domaining times.

 

[Addison]

Will u disclose ur niche?

One word, as short as you can afford, and easy to spell domain names in any top selling TLD (sort by "Number of sales"). The lower down that list the TLD, the more popular the word must be.

 

[Kuffy]

It's a way to build a store of wealth until the curnet financial crisis blows over. I take payment for any names I sell in Bitcoin as another non-feral savings medium. I sold another name last night, but I don't seem to be selling the ones I want to clear out ( mainly pharma).

 

[biggie]

if you plan on living off domains, then better buy you some good insurance plans

cuz, soon as you or a family member gets sick, or needs dental, etc. those costs will eat thru your duckies faster than you can earn them

not to mention if you own a home, or still paying mortgage, property taxes, upkeep, etc

in chicago, cost of living is high, they charge $0.07 just for a plastic bag when you buy groceries, in addition to $0.01 cent tax per ounce on sweetened drinks, including soda.

we got new taxes on cellphones and landlines going into effect next year.
they charge for garbage and sewer, they charge for water, they charge, just to charge.


so, consider where you live, before making that leap of faith and if you have a job now that pays some health benefits, think about holding on to it, for a while.

imo....

 

[Kpett]

Secondary income ... too uncertain and volatile for full-time, especially living in the USA.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

For me it is not even a part-time income. I view it as a semi-retirement hobby that I enjoy. I like searching for gems at good prices, and being creative in how the new gTLDs can be used in domain name phrases.

I like to consider what might be the big thing in a few years in terms of science and technology, and see if any good names remain there. I put too much time into web development (http://www.namesthat.win) but enjoy that aspect of domaining as well.

So far I have slightly more than broke even financially. At this stage in life I don't want to gamble much, so I will not be buying high value domains. If I make a little bit of money, that would be great. But as long as I don't lose money I am happy.

Thanks for the question, and all who have replied. Interesting to see the diversity, and I was a bit surprised how many view it as a primary or major income source.

Happy Domaining,

Bob

 

[Fancy.domains]

Domains contributes to 75% of my income. From mostly new gTLDs...

 

[DanBingham]

At the moment for me it's a sideline business but could go full time next year

 

[Ollie3000]

I love domaining, but this is part time fun for me. Web Design full time so i'm always online and buying domains for clients, so doing this for extra income makes sense.

Once I hand reg something that sells for £XXX,XXX then i'll consider going full time

 

[EmotiveDomains]

For me, domaining is a secondary income. I don't like relying on just one source of revenue.

 

[platey]

What is a domain sale lol

 

[Jv1999]

I'm sure when you have a portfolio of 5,000 GOOD names, you can get a steady stream of sales every month or so. That's when you can domain for a living.

 

[wwwweb]

When my domaining income exceeds my main income maybe then I will go fulltime!
Unless, I get a sweet offer on my long term portfolio, then I am retired.. but that won't happen until I put it up for sale!

Godaddy seems to be on the hunt for portfolios, but looks like they pay $500 each across the tens of thousands of domains average for pretty solid keyword .com's.