new gtlds Even experts are investing in new gTLDs

[Arpit131]

Konstantinos Zournas of OnlineDomain shares his investment in new gTLDs that amounts to approximately $50,000.
He shares on his blog, that he has bought 565 new gTLDs so far, for a total of $50,000 which averages to about $88 per domain name.
He has sold two new gTLDs : 360.agency for $2,500 and city.tips for 8,500 Euros.

Check out what the experts like him are buying and selling.
The article may be found here.

As per my personal experience, I happened to speak to some people who recently started in Domaining, got lured by the new gTLDs and their highest flips are among the new gTLDs that they have sold for over $2,000.
I see some bright light here, for them. Perhaps they would do even better when they switch to .COMs! Good Luck to them.

How many flips have you made in new gTLDs?
Any experience that you would like to share with the community?

 

[Fancy.domains]

Wow 900k registrations!! Its a great number.

Sure, but about 350,000 of those were given away to Network Solutions customers for free, without they even ordering them. Another 200,000 were almost free at Asian registries.

But apart from this, I admit that the number is high and I kind of fancy Daniel's guerilla marketing strategies.

 

[frostify]

I won't post em here but I'm happy with some of my really early .xyz domain reg's ^.^ got some huge single keyword .xyz's

 

[Asfas1000]

Acquisition costs were $50 K
Any idea about renewal costs ?

 

[billp3]

Putting money into new gTLD's is pure speculation (not investing) at this point.

 

[mhdoc]

"This kind of advice doesn't apply well to domaining, because domain names are illiquid assets vs the financial instruments that can be traded, bought, sold, redeemed more or less efficiently."

I guess I wasn't clear enough that the kind of things he put in his "Roll the dice" bucket were a LONG way from liquid You can make a killing buying the tails of real estate contracts and holding them in a self directed IRA. When/if the note gets paid off early the payoff is all tax sheltered. Kind of hard to pay the rent with one though.

 

[biggie]

more hype, without his-story

 

[Fliper]

When I see new gtld renewal prices then the only reason that comes to mind is that the prices are set high to eliminate domainers profit or even eliminate domainers. So, I will never invest in them.

 

[vivaldi]

People should have been buying new TLDs like crazy if it's such a brilliant idea...

Because it is the mass of people that make great investments? No, they don't.

 

[vivaldi]

I get a good ROI after one year of buying .coms. And for you to actually post that, you have it in your head these are going to turn out like .com. Hold them, they're not worth much now and then sometime in the future they'll be worth something. We'll see how well that strategy works out.

50k then about 20K renewals - 70K, sold 12K. That's a lot of ground to make up just to break even. Thought it was a good blog post and probably indicative of the way things are going for most who bought hundreds/thousands of these. Probably losing money. And then will probably lose more waiting for that 5 years thinking somehow all the past arguments against these are somehow wrong.

Or, you could simply buy good .coms on the Aftermarket just like all the "high profiles" you're talking about do. You have a much better chance investing into a known extension with a proven history than one most will never hear of and where there is just way too much supply.

As far as high profile, if you're meaning the person who wrote the blog post:

February-March 2014 (2 months): 335 domains
April-May 2014 (2 months): 139 domains
June-September 2014 (4 months): 60 domains
October 2014 - April 2015 (7 months): 31 domains

Averaged out per month:
167.5 domains a month
69.5 domains a month
15 domains a month
4.4 domains a month

Notice how that's trending down? Big time. Going from 167 new domains a month to 4, looks like a loss of enthusiasm to me.

Thanks for saying what I have in my head... Geez. They are not the new .com.
I take it you know only one thing, flipping .com's. That's great but a serious investor spread the risks in ones portfolio. It's great to buy good .com's if you know what you are doing but at the same time it's not wise to put all your assets into the same basket.

Those who don't speculate in the new g's fail to understand that it is much harder to get good names now than at the start. The competition are harder and the registries are smarter.

 

[JB Lions]

I take it you know only one thing, flipping .com's. That's great but a serious investor spread the risks in ones portfolio. It's great to buy good .com's if you know what you are doing but at the same time it's not wise to put all your assets into the same basket.

If that basket is a .com basket, it makes perfect sense since it's #1, there is no wondering or debate on that. You can have a diversified portfolio by investing in good keywords/domains in many different categories in that .com basket.

That $50,000 spent on new gtlds, would have been better spent on good .coms in the Aftermarket. Short term, long term, any term, it's a better investment.

 

[JB Lions]

Of course you can and probably should but it's still not wise to only invest in the same product. No serious investor do that regardless of industry and how good things are working out for the moment.

For the moment? So something is going to happen where .com isn't #1? And it's not the same product. Product.com is different than brand.com different than geo.com etc. Anything can go with it, it doesn't get more diversified than that. I have .coms in many different categories.

I'm talking about investing in good keywords in a "sure thing" type of extension vs. investing in good keywords in maybe or probably not extensions. There is no debate if .com is going to make it, in development, in that people will know it. There is with these new extensions.

 

[vivaldi]

No, the mass of people don't invest in domain names, they just use them.
This is where the problem is.
It's always easier to sell domain names in extensions that are popular with the masses. Domaining 101.
If people balk at using new extensions, buying them for regfee, what is the likelihood that they will want to buy one on the aftermarket.
The odds are stacked against you as an investor.

It's been a year since the new extensions were released. Where are they know ? Where are all those prominent end users ? The advertising campaigns ?
I know, I know. Give it some more time. But do not expect major changes in five years.

I have lots of respect for Konstantinos but I am a tad surprised that he spent so much money on new extensions. He must have a healthy budget for mainstream extensions

Who ever said it was the easy way? The easy way is ccTLD's and .com. The mass moves slowly, now is not an exception.

 

[RogueWriter]

Same thread different titles, just about.

 

[biggie]

So someone has to own a blog to become a gtld / domain expert?

Not sure if you read his blog or not but he seems very much expert to me.

if you don't know much or are trying to learn, then anybody can be an expert....who knows more than you.

what you seek is expertise, from the experienced and after you examined the explanations and examples of execution..... only then have you exposed your mind where you can begin to explore for yourself.

puff, puff, pass

 

[JB Lions]

.com is the product. You never know, no one can be 100% certain. One indivudial don't decide the market. Domain names will stop to exist one day too, it's not like domain names are needed for basic survival. I take it you have no experience in investment other than in .com because if you did you would understand that things can and will change regardless of you emotions. Something that needs to be calculated for.

Exactly there is a debate if new g's are going anywhere hence the big risk and also the big upside. Good investors spread their risks over various assets. The investors who don't might learn it the hard way or just have luck surviving the years needed.

I don't think you're quite grasping this. You never know? You don't know that .com is #1? One individual? What are you even talking about? Try millions.

You take it I have no experience in investment when every year I spend x and then make multiple x in return? You asked me about investment other than .com. Yes. Not for the last 2 years, only .com. When I first started out .us and .me, random other ones, but I made money with all of them. But, I knew these new extensions would compete with these, not .com.

You keep talking about good investors but I don't think you know what that means.

So if somebody doesn't invest in new gtlds they're not good investors? Under Vivaldi's book of Domain Investing, is there a certain number or percentage one must invest in? Do I need to invest in every new gtld? 10% of them? Or is there some magic number like 20 of them? Should I go to your site and invest of some you posted about? I was checking your .club post:

addressbars.club
email-bankruptcy.club

Are you serious? There are people around that gather and form clubs to talk about address bars and email-bankruptcy, a term I had to Google?

I don't put money into what I consider second rate. I know none of these have a chance of touching what I invest in. I invest in the best. The only thing I need to do is get good keywords on one side of that dot. With most of these, you need both sides. You don't get this based on the .club examples I just posted. Those make no sense. Can you make money with some of these new ones? Or course, some people. Those who focus on great keywords that make sense, in the right order, have a better chance.

It's a very simple way I do things. I diversify in the best. You can diversify in second rate, maybes. You can have some .coms in there, I get that. But I go back to that $50,000. You can spend that all on new gtlds, I could spend all that on Aftermarket .coms. I will have a better portfolio from that, I will sell more domains and make more money. There's always going to be a market for good .coms.

 

[vivaldi]

I don't think you're quite grasping this. You never know? You don't know that .com is #1? One individual? What are you even talking about? Try millions.

You take it I have no experience in investment when every year I spend x and then make multiple x in return? You asked me about investment other than .com. Yes. Not for the last 2 years, only .com. When I first started out .us and .me, random other ones, but I made money with all of them. But, I knew these new extensions would compete with these, not .com.

You keep talking about good investors but I don't think you know what that means.

So if somebody doesn't invest in new gtlds they're not good investors? Under Vivaldi's book of Domain Investing, is there a certain number or percentage one must invest in? Do I need to invest in every new gtld? 10% of them? Or is there some magic number like 20 of them? Should I go to your site and invest of some you posted about? I was checking your .club post:

addressbars.club
email-bankruptcy.club

Are you serious? There are people around that gather and form clubs to talk about address bars and email-bankruptcy, a term I had to Google?

I don't put money into what I consider second rate. I know none of these have a chance of touching what I invest in. I invest in the best. The only thing I need to do is get good keywords on one side of that dot. With most of these, you need both sides. You don't get this based on the .club examples I just posted. Those make no sense. Can you make money with some of these new ones? Or course, some people. Those who focus on great keywords that make sense, in the right order, have a better chance.

It's a very simple way I do things. I diversify in the best. You can diversify in second rate, maybes. You can have some .coms in there, I get that. But I go back to that $50,000. You can spend that all on new gtlds, I could spend all that on Aftermarket .coms. I will have a better portfolio from that, I will sell more domains and make more money. There's always going to be a market for good .coms.

I'm talking about spreading ones risks however you fail to understand that. No one needs to speculate in new gTLD's for what I care. Real estate, vintage candy, old whiskey. Putting every thing into the same basket is dangerous and stupid. New gTLD's happens to be one of my high risk investments at the moment. In 2008 I bought stocks for all my money and that was stupid even if it made me lots of money.

Shared bulk searches from different word lists, do you think I cleaned them all from the poor words? Obviously not. Took the ones I wanted and shared what's left without apprasing and sorting them for others. Made me some money and some people happy until the moderator closed the thread.

Can I make money with the new ones, yeah of course. Can I lose money, yep it is a high risk investment.

I do buy a lot of .com's and ccTLD's, much more than new gTLD's. And I think that good domain names in general are undervalued.

To be fair it's not always be a good market .com's. Domain names is not an eternal thing. Maybe they will stick around during our lifetime, maybe not. No one knows hence this is why I spread the risks over various assets.

 

[JB Lions]

I'm talking about spreading ones risks however you fail to understand that. No one needs to speculate in new gTLD's for what I care. Real estate, vintage candy, old whiskey. Putting every thing into the same basket is dangerous and stupid.

We're talking about domains, not that other stuff. I'm talking about .com. You keep using words like risk, dangerous and stupid but I'm still waiting for you to tell me how .com (basket) is any of those. Be specific. And I just told you many times now that my .coms are spread out with many different categories. You just said new gtlds are a high risk investment. They are, because they're up for debate. .com isn't. There is no discussion if it's going to make it or not. Or if there will be development etc. In talking about risk, tell me a safer extension to invest in than .com. Investing in the safest, most well known, one with the highest sales. vs. high risk, unknown extensions.

You simply have to look at sales - http://www.dnjournal.com/ytd-sales-charts.htm

Of all the extensions we have available today, 93 out of the top 100 are .com

As far as domains and our lifetime and I've seen people bring this up before. They're not going anywhere. Websites aren't going anywhere and they're always going to need an address (domain). Phone numbers, we still use them. You live somewhere, house, apt etc. you need an address.

 

[vivaldi]

We're talking about domains. I'm talking about .com. How is that a risky extension? It's not at all, you can't give me a reason why it is. And I just told you many times now that my .coms are spread out with many different categories. You just said new gtlds are a high risk investment. They are, because they're up for debate. .com isn't. There is no discussion if it's going to make it or not. Or if there will be development etc.

It's risky to be exclusive to anything, in your case by having only .com's makes your basket vulnerable even if you have names spread into different categories which anyone should have. Note that I'm NOT saying this will happen but if the new gTLD's became the norm in a few years you would lose a lot of money.

No one knows how this .whatever adventure will end.

 

[JB Lions]

It's risky to be exclusive to anything, in your case by having only .com's makes your basket vulnerable even if you have names spread into different categories which anyone should have. Note that I'm NOT saying this will happen but if the new gTLD's became the norm in a few years you would lose a lot of money.

No one knows how this .whatever adventure will end.

That post is straight insanity. To think that a good .com basket is vulnerable to some second rate extensions is laughable. They're not anywhere on that same level where they can compete. You have to pretend the market doesn't exist to believe that. I just posted a link to sales, let's pretend that doesn't exist. I know, I know, let's wait 5 or 10 years right. Because somehow niche extensions will turn into general ones? Or the general ones like click, link or xyz, will be more in demand?

To your post below. Yes, I'm doomed because I invest in extensions that actually sell, haha. The blog writer will make it thru with his other investments, like the .coms he has and some other ones. Not the new gtlds he's losing money on. I'll be fine with mine, because I don't invest in crap, niche extensions that have little to no demand. There's nothing emotional about it, we have reality, numbers to look at.

 

[vivaldi]

That post is straight insanity. You're just not getting it and haven't shown any signs that you will.

Your stubbornness and emotional bond to your investments could be your fall. The blog writer will make it through any possible scenario (except domain names stopped being used) you won't.

 

[forge]

null

 

[Kate]

My personal experience over the last six months - have sold more domains which were not .COM than I sold which were .COM - even though I hold more .COM domains than non-.COM. I do not own any new TLD domains but perhaps one can say there is some willingness to acquire domains which are not .COMs if the price is right.

What do you mean by non-.com ? You sold .net ? .org ? ccTLDs ?

I know for a fact there is a market for non-.com domains, especially ccTLDs.
That doesn't mean new extensions will be appealing alternatives too.

 

[Kate]

Doesn't it all come down to sales strategy?

No, it's the inventory that counts. Sales strategy does not make crap domains sell better.

There are people with great .coms who are not selling jack.

Perhaps because they are pricing their domains unrealistically... and if they can't even sell .com they should definitely refrain from buying new extensions for resale.

But in general, at the end of the day it's about your sales strategy right? I see shitty .coms selling regularly on DNJournal.com for thousands and on Flippa.com, because people believe that just because it's a single word.com it's worth thousands, even if it's something stupid like "spud.com".

What kind of shitty .coms have you seen lately, selling for thousands ?
Okay, some bad names happen to sell, and many domain sales are one of a kind. But the likelihood of making a sale in exotic extension will always be low, even when the keyword is strong.

 

[lembing]

How

A good gTLD is worth the investment...
A bad gTLD is not...

It's interesting how much this topic stirs the nest.

There will never be a gTLD worth more than .COM unless it benefits SERP, like domain hacks do.

How about .xyz , is good to invest or is it gambling?

 

[Fancy.domains]

How

How about .xyz , is good to invest or is it gambling?

.XYZ is currently (almost) not selling at the aftermarket. Personally, I sold a few ones six month ago, but after that no inquiries. However, I am not the one to predict the future.