Domains: selling, setting up revenue streams, promoting, etc.

[slugraduate]

Part rant, part question.... So, I am in a quadry about where to go from here with my domains. I've purchased my first domains back in 2000 and amassed about a hundred or so. Since that time, i've pared down via drops, trades and some sales. I did pretty well on one sale in particular and have earned more than I've spent over the last 16 years.

This hasn't been a devoted effort of my time, but more of a let's see what happens approach, and, haven't really been all that active for the last several years. Most of the domains are parked, but don't have much type in traffic and I don't spend time optimizing them. That being said, I've been looking to sell the bulk of my domains and move on. However, it seems to me that it has become increasingly difficult to sell, let alone get exposure without putting out a lot of money in listing fees, or investing a lot of time.

Prime example, I tried to sell what I consider to be a couple of solid .com domains on a popular site that offers $9 listings. Well of course you get 40 onlookers and 2 bidders for less than the listing fee. You could throw in $100 towards "promoting" the name, but I've read that isn't an efficient use of resources. As for the other big sites, it seems that unless you have a super premium domain, you are lost in the weeds. I looked at ebay as a quick route, but i'm not paying $100 for a reserve auction.

Finally, to my point. I have been considering throwing together some CMS sites on the domains and trying to set up some kind of drop ship service or other revenue stream. I have three young kids, so I don't have 40 hours a week. I don't expect $20k a month, but a few hundred would be nice. I just don't know where to begin, especially with the drop ship stuff. I can set up Joomla sites, so that's not an issue. Any advice or resources on how to tackle this effort would be greatly appreciated. The sites I could use are as follows:

CompanyWebsites.com - website templates?
LoftRentals.com - loft apartment info or loft bedding?
MandarinClasses.com - language courses?
TravelRegistries.com - honeymoon registries and listings?
Infantrooms.com - baby bedding and decor?
Temperates.com - Clothing?
CartoonWebsites.com - who knows what approach here.
BabyandBride.com - gifts?

Thank you.

 

[catchmesleeping]

It's a question of what sort of business model you want to be in. There are domainers that also do development - but being a domainer is completely different from being a domainer.

As a domainer, you have to have reasonable expectations about your inventory and it's potential. If your names are good, you might sell 1% a year at a good price. If you want to sell more, then you'll need to accept wholesale pricing, and you'll deplete your inventory much faster.

Honestly, from looking at your names, I would say you have potential to be a good domainer, but you'll need to take what you earn in sales, and invest it back into more names. You could definitely earn a reliable "few hundred a month" from domaining, but you'll need to beef up your portfolio more.

On the other hand, if you're looking for advice on how to develop sites and earn an income, you're probably on the wrong forum :D It's a very different skill set from investing in domain names. You'll really need to become an expert in one of the topic areas related to your domain name, and start writing good articles, being active on social media, buying ads, sourcing inventory, etc.

 

[Kuffy]

I'm starting to do this.
Joomla and Drupal are a bit of an overkill, unless you are going to update a political site daily.
WordPress is popular, but again you have to update regularly, and there are some vulnerabilities.
My site DiamondT.xyz is a feeder site based on a template by http://www.os-templates.com/
JazzPics.com uses a photographers CMS - http://piwigo.org/ - you need to spend some time taking photos if you want to use this.
I've been experimenting with the free CMS that can be installed using Softaculous, and I think this is great xyz1.com is based on an auction CMS installed by Softaculous. If you are putting mini-sites on your names, make sure your hosting gives you loads of add-on capability ( reseller hosting might be best for this ).

Yesterday, I was accepted by Google to use Adsense, so it will be interesting to see how I get on with this. I've tried a variety of parking services, and wouldn't suggest using any of them.