discuss First year of domaining. My experience.

[shawshank83]

So with a year of domaining under my belt, I figured I would share my experience.

First off, It's been a rollercoaster ride and I've enjoyed every second of it.
I've learned a lot, met some really cool people, picked up some awesome domains & actually turned a profit.

I lost the most on several expired brandable .com names.
I held no reserve auctions on Flippa and sold them for $6 - $20 (obviously not clearing the reg & listing fees).
They should've hit the $100-$300 mark .. but I do not regret these sales because they allowed me to build my feedback rating and meet buyers on Flippa.

I personally developed a few expired domains into websites (with very minimal work) and sold them in the $100 - $300 range on Flippa. I enjoy building websites, so these are wins to me.

My biggest flip was an auto parts related - expired domain.
I spent a few days developing the site into an Amazon affiliate Wordpress site and let it sit for a month (to collect stats). I listed the website for sale on Flippa and after a few days I was contacted (via phone) by an enduser who wanted to buy the domain. After brief negotiation, we agreed to $1000 to end the auction and transfer the domain. I picked up another $1000 because he wanted me to stay on board and help him launch his endeavor. Registered for $11.99 >> 8-12 hours of work >> sold for $1000 .. not bad, IMO.

My biggest flop was a site that I developed into a brand (logo+domain) web shop. I spent a lot of hours working on the site and making logos.
I think I chose a bad name ( brandb.in ) to launch from and didn't get a lot of action on the auction. I should've chose an appealing .COM.
The auction ended nowhere close to the cost of the domains. I should have set a reserve.
However, after 45 days of going back and forth with buyer .. attempting to transfer domains and assets .. he became unresponsive and I'm able to back out of the deal. BUT .. some of the domains expire next month and I'm not sure what to do. It's a mess! lol

All in all .. it's been an awesome year and great experience!
I absolutely LOVE waking up to sales emails and new bids on auctions!
You win some you lose some .. but keep learning!
I'm much better at identifying value in domains, websites & brands than I was a year ago.
I'm also a much better web developer/designer now, after looking so much deeper into the hot design / UX trends to squeeze more value out of my domains.

I'm excited to see what 2017 brings!

LESS IS MORE.
HAVE A PLAN.
HAVE B@LLS.

 

[UncleBrand]

congratulations,
most people lose money on their first year, you turned a profit,
show that you are a hustler

Flippa is great to sell website ,
not that good for domain,
if you have some decent domain, develop a website,
and don't list on Flippa until you got 100+ visitors a day

don't undersell your website, if you do a great job developing unique content website, don't under-price them, people will pay a few thousands for a good website with a decent domain name

 

[WatchDogue]

Pretty good personal insights into your own names, their sale prices and the flops.

No doubt as your reflect and refine your names and sales techniques your ROI / profits will materialize and grow and flops lessen.

Nice that you can quickly build and offer for sale in-demand websites - nice way to generate cash flow.

 

[AndyM]

Congrats on the success

 

[shawshank83]

congratulations,
most people lose money on their first year, you turned a profit,
show that you are a hustler

Flippa is great to sell website ,
not that good for domain,
if you have some decent domain, develop a website,
and don't list on Flippa until you got 100+ visitors a day

don't undersell your website, if you do a great job developing unique content website, don't under-price them, people will pay a few thousands for a good website with a decent domain name

--

Thanks for the reply!
I agree 100% .. all final sell prices (domains and websites) increase exponentially when you can show stats!
I've become much more discipline about not selling too soon and providing as much data as possible with all my listings. It's tough because I'm usually ready to move on after the design phase .. but soooo worth it!

 

[shawshank83]

Pretty good personal insights into your own names, their sale prices and the flops.

No doubt as your reflect and refine your names and sales techniques your ROI / profits will materialize and grow and flops lessen.

Nice that you can quickly build and offer for sale in-demand websites - nice way to generate cash flow.

Thanks for the reply! Building sites has definitely helped me win on some "OK" domains that I would probably still be sitting on.

Congrats on the success

Thank you!

 

[EmotiveDomains]

Thanks for sharing your story. Being able to develop websites is a great skill to have as a domainer and allows you to build some additional revenue steams, meaning you're not totally dependant on sales.

 

[TDM]

Great insights.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[HKIBC]

Thanks for sharing. Some good insights and pointers there

What do you use to develop your mini-sites so fast? All Wordpress?

 

[shawshank83]

Thanks for sharing. Some good insights and pointers there

What do you use to develop your mini-sites so fast? All Wordpress?

Thanks .. and yep! Wordpress, Adobe CC and a handful of creative commons design resources allow me to quickly bring concepts to life and get them listed.

For websites, I would usually list them but not start the auction (lame effort to get a little traffic/interest).
However, people would inquire directly about the sites.
Giving me the chance to close a sale or get hired to build them a site like mine.

 

[Rando Meresmaa]

Good information. Maybe I should also build some basic wordpress sites to some of my domains.

 

[jideofor]

congrats and nice job done.

 

[shawshank83]

Good information. Maybe I should also build some basic wordpress sites to some of my domains.

Thanks for the reply!

IMO, It's all a risk. It takes time to build value.

Always keep in mind:
The more problems you solve for your potential buyer .. the more value you add to your project.

Even still, the margins increase exponentially when you provide quality traffic stats & analytics.

My plan is to nurture my sites longer and possibly partner up with SEO & traffic experts.