tips Five mistakes newbies should avoid

[infosec3]

I started domaining in August, 2009. As many others, I started investing in worthless names that I believed had some value. During the first few months, I spent a few hundred dollars and could not make any money out of the first 50 names I bought.

Since I saw that many others were in fact making money, I soon realized I was doing it wrong. So, I stopped buying and started to read this and other forums, as well as advice from domain bloggers.

It was then when I understood that the best skill you can have as a domain investor is to know what is valuable and what is not. About four months into domaining, I sold my first name for $500 and then another one for $1,900, then mid $x,xxx and sales kept coming. Starting in 2010, it has all been a very profitable venture.

Then I discovered that, in addition to acquiring real valuable names, I could keep flipping geo names while I also waited for good four-figure sales (which come once in a while). Hence, the mistakes I now understand I made at the beginning and that I encourage newbies to avoid.

1. Do not start registering or buying names without fully understanding their value or who could buy them.

2. Avoid the habit of asking for appraisals and then stubbornly cling to the idea that your domains have value when all other domineers are telling you they clearly aren't.

3. Don't think that just because you see names selling for $XX,XXX you should ask that amount for all your names.

4. If you have not made your first sale, don't assume this doesn't work, rather think, "What am I doing wrong?"

5. If you have names that have not received any offers, don't make any parking profit and other domain investors tell you have no value, do not hold on to them paying renewal fee over and over.

 

[theSun]

6. Investing in new TLD extensions. e.g. .info? LLL .info rised to $200 a pop? Now what happens? I think .info is the biggest scam ever.

 

[Name Trader]

@infosec3 - Wouldn't buying (presumably american) geos be stepping into the same minefield you stepped into when you started domaining? You could hand-register a whole lot of domains which had no value. So how did you achieve your success, buying and selling geos? What were your mean/high sales figures for the individual geos you sold? Do you think the same opportunities are still there today? Because there seems to be an infinite number of possibilities to add a city/state prefix/suffix to. How do you evaluate what is profitable and will sell, and what is not profitable and won't sell? And finally, how do you go about selling them?

 

[infosec3]

@stub
Great questions. You are right that the possibilities are endless in terms of combination of city/keywords, etc. and so are the profits. Registering geo names (US) has turned very profitable for me. Almost every single geo I register costs $1.17 to $4.00, using coupons and the average sale is $300-$700 per name.

It is true that, in the process, you register a few that might never sale, but the formula has worked for me. The formula is something like this:

10 hand-registered names = $40 or less
3 sales = $900-$1500

As stated, I do not rely only on geo names, but make sure they are just stepping stones to have constant liquidity.

 

[Name Trader]

@infosec3 - Do/Did you specialize in any particular domains, like lawyer or gardener or whatever? And how do/did you go about selling them.

I understand the maths. So you handreg say 10 domains, and then go all out selling them (how?) for a year. Any you didn't manage to sell you dropped (or renewed?). Rinse and repeat? Or did you hand-reg 10 domains a month, rinse and repeat after 1 year?

 

[infosec3]

@stub
Any name not sold and for which I have not received any offer, I drop. So, the testing period on whether the name is good enough or not is a year. I would not like to fully reveal my process here, but I will give you this example, based on facts:

I hand-registered and sold a City+GoldBuyers.com name and it sold the same week I bought it. Then I went and checked what other City+GoldBuyers.com were available, and registered a few more, and sold about five of them.

Then the same with other keywords. So, to specifically answer your question, I do not specialize in a niche or theme, but in any City+PopularKeyword .COM

 

[Name Trader]

@infosec3 - I understand that. But how do you sell them? Wait for somebody to come along and buy it, or do you actively email potential end-users? And if the latter, how do you find these potential end-users?

 

[infosec3]

@stub
I would be happy to answer via PM. Thanks

 

[Name Trader]

OK. Waiting your PM

 

[anhnguyenict]

@infosec3

Could you share the way you sell them to end user for me ?

Waiting or contact end user ?

 

[gilescoley]

Biggest mistakes:

- Buying names and parking them for years, paying renewal fees and waiting for a buyer to come along

- When you register a name, have some end-users already listed and researched before you register it, don't just register a name because it sounds good or because you think it will be worth a fortune in years to come....99.9% of the time, the name is worthless, thats why it was available

- Hand-reg names wont sell themselves (if at all) You have to actively email potential buyers and see if they are interested, make sure your email is convincing but short with only the facts, don't ramble on about how good the name is, keep it short and sweet

- Don't be greedy with your price, you aren't just going to flip hand-reg names for x,xxx or xx,xxx!!! Try and sell it for $500 and see where the negotiations go, you probably only spent $1.99 at GD (with a coupon) so the profit/ROI is higher than most companies

Good luck in 2015 everyone.............

 

[sofiapartner]

Well - most experienced domainers here are telling their secrets for free.

 

[pelez]

thanks for the sharing, i have some domain and have sent to end user but with no reply, try to post and sedo and no luck too

 

[Nattydomain]

Some good info....But even as newbies dont reg shit geo domains just because it has a city and a keyword. Fresnodogwalkers.com may sound good but if there is no dog walkers in fresno then it may sit for a long time (I did not even check to see if there are any it is just an example)

Otherwise some good info here.

 

[hookbox]

In the beginning the most important thing is to make some sales. Raymond (TLDinvestors.com) said it best,

“I want to get in and get out, sure I may miss out on an outlier sale that is substantial, but I would rather just keep hitting singles.”

The key in the beginning is to make some lower priced sales to keep you motivated. If you can get a sale for a few hundred bucks not only are making some money but you are proving to yourself that you know how to pick a name that can sell.

 

[JanuaryBabe]

I registered some domain name based on Geo + Career before but nobody contact me to purchase it. I think one of the reason is I never try to contact them.