sales First Year Domaining Results

[SBS66]

I thought I would share my results for 2016, which is the year I actually applied myself to domaining. It may help other newbies like myself or just bore the old timers with yet another annual newbie post.

This is the first year that I actually applied myself to domaining, even though I had registered the name for esquire domain back in 2013. What made the difference for me, I think, is actually scouring the forum for “actionable” content. By this I mean posts that people would share with things that we can do, as opposed to just opinions about what will work, what will not work, etc., what is spam, blah, blah. That cliché about having a plan and working the plan has always worked for me.

So, in 2016, I sold 21 domains for gross sales of $7895, and domain net profit of $7335.11, which is what I had left over after escrow fees/PPal fess/domain cost. The business itself left a total profit of $4000.97, after taking into account the monthly cost of, for example, membership in this forum, phone number, hosting, GD Domain Club membership, marketing experiments, course purchases (Infosec’s course/conference, DNAcademy), EFTY marketplace, etc. My original goal in April 2016 was to make $5,000 in all of 2016; I didn’t know how that was going to happen but that is what my goal was. So, for me, 2016 has been a domaining success.

Of the 21 domains sold, 2 (SiteKart.com and LearnAppBuilding) were experiments on Flippa and here. The net profit combined was $30.00. Lesson: forget Flippa and NPs is a great place to buy.

The remaining 19 consisted of 14 legal domains and 5 other domains.

I am not ready to venture into buying domains that will cost more than $75 as I don’t think I have the acumen to value properly yet; about $95% of the purchases have been for under $9, and 4% under $20.

Inbound vs. Outbound: 1 domain has been sold via inbound, the rest have all been outbounds. I have gotten other inbound offers but they have been for $10-100, and for names that I suspect are worth more (not law related names), so they have not resulted in sales. For those names, I am trying to be patient and committed to holding them for at least 5 years, we shall see…

I wish everyone on the forum a healthful, happy and successful 2017. Thanks to everyone who posts their sales, what works/doesn’t work for them.

 

[NetworkPearl]

Hi,

Good to know. I have also completed my first year in domaining and have made a profit of around $25,000 so far.

And good luck to everyone else.

 

[Doron Vermaat]

I have made Doron of DNGeek.com as my Guru & he doesn't know about it
I mean just follow that guy. He is awesome and realistic in his comments.

I know now lol! Thanks a lot for the kind words but honestly there are no gurus in our business but what we do have is a lot of great people that are willing to share and learn together.

 

[Ayodeji]

I guess that was a good 1st year any new domaineer will be happy with.

Kudos and bigger success in 2017

 

[SBS66]

Good going SB! That's a better year than the vast majority of domainers will have had I bet. Good on you for sharing your numbers. It would be interesting to see who is up and who is down etc. One of my major floors is that I don't know if I'm up or down as I don't keep any records of outgoings etc as I'm just a hobbyist but I intend to change that in 2017.

Thank you! I think I'm bit obsessive about tracking...I may have inherited from my Dad who used to be an accountant, lol!

But I like to tweak things a lot; and for that I have to know what is working or sort of working...hence the tracking.

 

[Serengeti]

@SBS66 & @Insha010 Congrats for the results of the countless hours deep in the nights.... day in day out... rinse & repeat... add a little lemon grass ... ginger on the sauce.. adjust the fire... and May the Blessings be with you. Keep it up..guys.

 

[D Haynes]

Good going SB! That's a better year than the vast majority of domainers will have had I bet. Good on you for sharing your numbers. It would be interesting to see who is up and who is down etc. One of my major floors is that I don't know if I'm up or down as I don't keep any records of outgoings etc as I'm just a hobbyist but I intend to change that in 2017.

 

[bonin]

Very, very well mate, well done, the domain community need posts like this.

 

[Hemanttilotia]

Hi
Great community and awesome people here. I am loving this.
Okay, I started a bit late.
Precisely on 20-October-2016, so just a couple of months into it.
I started off with $15K something and have recovered that amount by some big sales.
Sold 7 domains overall and still have some 140+ domains left.
It's very tricky. I try not to get swayed at GD auctions but still do.
Today bought another one for $440 which is a habit I must get rid of.
NP is a great place.
I have made Doron of DNGeek.com as my Guru & he doesn't know about it
I mean just follow that guy. He is awesome and realistic in his comments. I hope this year bring a lot of good luck, end user sales to us all. Cheers !!

 

[Doron Vermaat]

Well done on your first year and for giving back by sharing your journey with everyone!

 

[SBS66]

...
Your mention of outbound selling made me wonder, do you refer to "outbound" as advertising your sales platform and listings through paid channels and then consolidate those as outbound leads, or, do you contact endusers through whois and whatnot?

The former seems sustainable even with thousands of names in your portfolio, but I always question the latter unless you fancy hiring a team of outbound marketeers to direct contact for you.

I mean outbound emails. I do them all myself for now. I am just starting so it doesn't seem to me that this will scale well unless I discover/develop a way to do that. But, for me, thinking about mass outbound marketing at this point is premature--it's a lot like wanting to be a marathon running when I've just started jogging.

Thank you.

 

[stewmath]

Id be very proud of any profit in my first year. Well done

 

[DomainVP]

I am not ready to venture into buying domains that will cost more than $75 as I don’t think I have the acumen to value properly yet; about $95% of the purchases have been for under $9, and 4% under $20.

That's a smart play. Take your time, and congrats on your first year success.

 

[NameAgency]

Good job! and great idea to keep track accurately.

 

[BostonDomainer]

Good job on your first year. You're doing it right. You're focused on a niche with good sales records, driven, you're tracking expenditures etc.... that's good stuff for your first year. You're treating it like a business form the start. Many should take some notes form you.

 

[mpls]

Amazing results guys @SBS66 @Insha010 (25k of profit is unbelivable) !!
My first year is also closed, but I've lost 10k this year in domaining, I've not luck with any markets, 0 sales on sedo, 0 sales on afternic/godaddy auctions, 0 inquiries, only 1 ridicolous offers via sedo in march.
I've sold only 1 domain with a good ROI.
Also lost 50/60k in web development, built 20 websites without earn a penny from them (for real! $ 0).
Parking revenue for (all) 2016 is $ 2.
I hope 2017 will be better. I really need money now, in order to finance/start other projects.
Good luck to all for an amazing 2017!!!

 

[spooksy]

I thought I would share my results for 2016, which is the year I actually applied myself to domaining. It may help other newbies like myself or just bore the old timers with yet another annual newbie post.

This is the first year that I actually applied myself to domaining, even though I had registered the name for esquire domain back in 2013. What made the difference for me, I think, is actually scouring the forum for “actionable” content. By this I mean posts that people would share with things that we can do, as opposed to just opinions about what will work, what will not work, etc., what is spam, blah, blah. That cliché about having a plan and working the plan has always worked for me.

So, in 2016, I sold 21 domains for gross sales of $7895, and domain net profit of $7335.11, which is what I had left over after escrow fees/PPal fess/domain cost. The business itself left a total profit of $4000.97, after taking into account the monthly cost of, for example, membership in this forum, phone number, hosting, GD Domain Club membership, marketing experiments, course purchases (Infosec’s course/conference, DNAcademy), EFTY marketplace, etc. My original goal in April 2016 was to make $5,000 in all of 2016; I didn’t know how that was going to happen but that is what my goal was. So, for me, 2016 has been a domaining success.

Of the 21 domains sold, 2 (SiteKart.com and LearnAppBuilding) were experiments on Flippa and here. The net profit combined was $30.00. Lesson: forget Flippa and NPs is a great place to buy.

The remaining 19 consisted of 14 legal domains and 5 other domains.

I am not ready to venture into buying domains that will cost more than $75 as I don’t think I have the acumen to value properly yet; about $95% of the purchases have been for under $9, and 4% under $20.

Inbound vs. Outbound: 1 domain has been sold via inbound, the rest have all been outbounds. I have gotten other inbound offers but they have been for $10-100, and for names that I suspect are worth more (not law related names), so they have not resulted in sales. For those names, I am trying to be patient and committed to holding them for at least 5 years, we shall see…

I wish everyone on the forum a healthful, happy and successful 2017. Thanks to everyone who posts their sales, what works/doesn’t work for them.

Good results for a first year!
I'm sure you can look forward to 2017 being even better, now that you're in the saddle.

Your mention of outbound selling made me wonder, do you refer to "outbound" as advertising your sales platform and listings through paid channels and then consolidate those as outbound leads, or, do you contact endusers through whois and whatnot?

The former seems sustainable even with thousands of names in your portfolio, but I always question the latter unless you fancy hiring a team of outbound marketeers to direct contact for you.

 

[deez007]

Well done @SBS66

Nice work for the first year indeed.... also excellent ROI.

All the best for the year ahead mate, maybe 2017 be everything you could have possibly hoped for and MORE!!!

 

[SBS66]

Well done @SBS66

Nice work for the first year indeed.... also excellent ROI.

All the best for the year ahead mate, maybe 2017 be everything you could have possibly hoped for and MORE!!!

Thank you!

 

[Cdomains]

Keep it up!!

Great first year.

I wish you continued success in 2017.

An inspiration to all of us here at NP!!

 

[matt_2004]

Nice post, good story and impressive numbers!

 

[hxp]

Congrats! Great work.

You told us about your 2 small sales, care to expand on the bigger ones?

 

[SBS66]

Congrats! Great work.

You told us about your 2 small sales, care to expand on the bigger ones?

Sure. On the legal domains, I sold a KeywordKeywordAttorney.com for $2100 (posted that in Sept on the sales thread). I consider that an outlier although I am working on a similar sale. On the low end, the other outlier was a $100 sale. Of the remaining legal name sales, the average legal domain sales price was $278.08. So, there's really only been one "big" one for me, which I hope is the first of many.

 

[SBS66]

Wow! Congrats on your first year. Those numbers are amazing.
Generating that kind of ROI on domains you bought for under $10 is simply remarkable.

Good luck in 2017.

Thank you..same to you. My very small "portfolio" needs to be trimmed, so my next idea for the first 3 months of 2017 is to liquidate some names to end-users, which I already tried once and was a success, netting 8 times the cost (reg+/ppal fee) on the name.

Best in 2017 to you as well.

 

[garptrader]

Congrats on a phenomenal "first year" - review what is working for you and what is not and have the discipline to make the necessary changes.