opinion Hand Registering Domains Is Not Domain Investing

[DN Playbook]

Admittedly, this may be somewhat a sensationalized title. But hand registering is only a bridge or gateway to investing in domains. This article discusses why. What are your thoughts? Looking forward to them. Here is the link to the article:

Hand Registering Domains Is Not Domain Investing

 

[twiki]

It depends.

I sometimes hand reg names and trust me, I've sold lots of that. Hundreds.

The other thing to mention is that preowned domains perform better overall. But there is a business in manual regs, especially in forward-looking niches that you are 100% sure will be there. There are a couple I invest in and have a few tens of names which are being renewed as the niche grows.

 

[Amit V]

2 Handregs sold this year for a total of $9.6k. Cost less that $20. That says it all.

 

[Silentptnr]

I would say that a bad investor is a bad investor, regardless of hand registration or aftermarket.

A savvy investor will do fine with aftermarket and hand registered domains.

Here are a few of the hand registered domains that I've sold recently:

SmartSanitize.com $3300
ThePredictors.com $2400
Aphrodes.com $750
DontSpread.com $500
Identity8.com $900
AmericanCryptoCurrency.com $600
Airmail.us $1300
PapaSquad.com $300


Here are a few of the aftermarket domains I've sold recently:

Dwellit.com $3000
Ceres.us $1300
ABG.us $2500
Wrld.org $4000
Dojo.us $2600
Finds.us $700
Schedule.cc $900
AutoBid.net $400
Emotive.us $700

My point is that I personally really don't see much of a difference. My profit margins are typically better with hand registered domains.

I think there are plenty of crappy names in the aftermarket and plenty of crappy names available for hand registration. My job is to find the gems in both.

 

[johnn]

Who care what the definition is.
Posting nonsense thread to get "likes" and wasting other people time is not investing.

 

[noneisnone]

@twiki same things can apply to hand registration you can do research on a domain that was never registered before
only difference between the two is someone else saw the value in the name and that makes you feel at ease

just think for a moment what if scarcity didn't exist in the market what if we went back to 1985 would hand registration be any different from dropped domains ?

i see your point about drops being safer and i do agree but to dismiss hand reg as 'luck' or not real domain investing is just ignorant thinking (referring to op not you on this one)

 

[VadimK]

Sorry guys, but the claim that hand-reg is ''not a real investing'' is absolutely, big way, 125% stupid.
If I reg the name for $8,50, it's absolutely not an unusual thing to sell it for $700, within a year. Well, you get the same ROI buying something for $700, wish you best of luck. That's if we talk ''investing''.

Now, is it easier to register auctions/drops? Of course. Will it bring more in absolute money? If you know what you are doing - yes, obviously.

But to claim manual registration is pretty much ''not worth it'' (to rephrase the original claim) just draws a portrait of a newbie, who's never really done hand reg, because someone (another newbie, of course) told him ''there is no money in it in 2021''.

And what about trends? If tomorrow the new cryptocurrency is out or new eco technology hits the world, 90% of you Pros here will jump on your small accurate thousand-word favourite excel sheets to strike a perfect match.
Not a ''real investment'', huh?

 

[noneisnone]

only difference between hand reg and aftermarket is someone saw the value in the name before you
aftermarket or hand reg we all speculate no one knows the future

 

[oldtimer]

I agree, that's why I call myself a hobbyist and collector when it comes to domaining.

Investing in domains requires a certain degree of assurance that you are going to get a positive return on the domains that you are acquiring like when you buy a three letter .com or a single word category defining .com on the cheap and you know for sure that they are going to increase in value based on scarcity and increased demand for them, but when it comes to hand registering domains nothing is guaranteed and you may end up dropping a lot of them in a year or two.

As a Human Rights and Environmental intellectual and activist I also hand register domains in order to express my concerns for certain issues like this one that I just hand registered today:

EndingChildPoverty.com

Although I have sales landers for almost all my domains in the hopes that I can sell a few to pay for my renewals, but in general I like to be able to hang on to my domains in order to redirect their traffic to my future development projects.

I do think that I have been hand registering too many domains lately so I am going to give it a break for a little while.


IMO

 

[VadimK]

Not true. Most of my domains were bought at reg price and sold at significant profit. But I had to invest multiple years in renewals which meant I had to be confident of their value in order to hang on to them.

With this you just proved your whole article is wrong.

What you basically saying here now - you hand-reged domains, you saw value in them, held on to them, sold and won. Great. You knew exactly what you were doing. But that was an investment.

Now read your own article title: Hand Registering Domains Is Not Domain Investing.

It has nothing to do with hand-reg vs auctions/drops, it only has to do with whether you are experienced or not in domaining, if you are a pro or a newbie.

If you know what you are doing - it doesn't matter how you get the domain - and you just literally said the same thing.
But your initial claim was that ''hand-reg is not an investment''.

Feel the difference?

 

[Silentptnr]

Friends, I get the feeling that a lot of the information is being glossed over. A sentence is read and it sets off an emotional response. The OP is not anti hand reg'ing.

The OP sounded like if two people decide to take $500 to buy domains and one hand registers names and the other buys aftermarket domains, each spend the $500 but only one is an "investor". I don't really agree with that. They are both investing in domain names, just different strategies.

 

[twiki]

In hindsight, I realize that everyone starts almost blind in this business.

That's how I started. In my first year I was obviously blind and buying crap. But then, gradually I started to see. And each day that passes I see better. Even today the process is still ongoing.

What I did different than others, perhaps, was: I knew I will be blind from the very beginning, so I planned for it from the start. I moved fast, spent money, failed fast, learned, rinse and repeat.

Made a 14K loss in the first year but I was really happy with that, because I knew I was onto something cause I only needed 1 or 2 more years to break into profit. I even celebrated the loss. It was amazing to see the potential.

 

[sbweb]

Completely disagree.

A domain becomes an investment when you see value in it

OK, don't we all register a domain because we see value in it to begin with?

sufficient enough to expend money to renew that domain for multiple years.

So you've decided that domain investing only happens when you renew for multiple years. You don't get to make the rules. Investing is investing. You're basically risking your money on an asset in hopes of making a profit. There is no time frame requirement to qualify. You know like how daytraders flip crypto or stocks for profit on a daily basis?

But it always must be with the certainty that the acquired domain(s) will lead to profit and material increase.

So you're saying it only becomes an investment if you make a profit? What about all those people who have lost money in crypto, stocks or domain sales? Are those people not investing? There is no guarantee in investing -- actually most people lose money in investing.

 

[AEProgram]

Any action you do with the intent of one day making a profit from it is investing. You could win or lose, but it's still investing.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

The article is well written, but I don't really agree with the premise.

I do agree that for investing it needs to be with a reasonable expectation of return on investment. Too many hand registrations did not go through a careful evaluation process.

But I don't see whether you are the first to register the name, picked it up after others owned it in past and let it drop, bid on it in an expired auction, or purchased it from another investor is the critical point. The key point is does the name have value and you have reasonable expectations on a profit, considered statistically over a basket of names.

Even the time frame is not necessarily the key point. Many view holding any worthy name for 10 years, or something like that, but for others the investment horizon is shorter. It is not really different from different types of stock investing, everything from day trading to lifetime holds.

So I think the amount of care in whether a domain is a reasonable investment in terms of probability of sale and price is the key point, not how the name is obtained or how long it is held.

Thanks for the article to stir all of the great discussion in this thread.

Bob

 

[AEProgram]

Intent is not investing. Investing is making a calculated risk where you have reasonable expectation of increasing your assets either through resale or development. Also that holding on to your investment over time will make it more valuable.

Intent is not investing? An apple is not a grape. Do you even know what intent means? What exactly did you innovate with your post?

Your intent might've not been to confuse people, but you did a good job at it.

For the people new to domaining reading this, he didn't say anything new. I made a point that anything you do with the intent of one day making a profit from it is investing.

For example, if you are drunk and you handreg a random name, that is unintentional and it is not investing.

If on the other hand you were reading the forums and saw someone waste peoples time with posts that contribute nothing and you decided to handreg WasteOfTimePosters.com because you feel you can build a site featuring all those posts and get traffic and make money or you feel you can resell the name, that is intentional and IS investing.

 

[DN Playbook]

Thing is, ALL domains are or were hand registered, so you never know! (Hence the lottery part)
The article is not written especially for noobs but from my POV, Beginners just don't know all the subtilities of the market to be able to successfully hand reg.

Just my 2 cents though, feel free to disagree :P Debates are healthy!

I'm trying really hard to find something to disagree with you on. Indeed, all domains began with a hand registration. If you are willing to renew a domain for multiple years you step into the realm of investment. This is because you see clear value in the domain and see that the domain can increase your material interests either through sale or development. Most hand regs are dropped after the first or second year.

 

[noneisnone]

@bmugford his article was dismissing hand registration as not real investments not the quality of a name also he never specified the extension how many hand registered .co domains sold for x,xxx ? many to say the least

there is no doubt that an aftermarket name will beat a hand reg most of the time in quality but both are investments i personally rather go the aftermarket route but i don't like the dismissing aspect of op article from personal experience 60% of the domains i sold were hand reg go figure

 

[johnn]

What do we get out of this discussion: nothing.

 

[Silentptnr]

I almost always overpay when I compete in expiring auctions. Then the names I do win sit in my portfolio alongside my hand regges.

 

[rohitgoyal]

Sold approx 1250 hand registered domains till date...

I rest my case...

 

[FolioTeam]

I think investing, in this space and in other fields for that matter, means different things to different people. There's no one-size-fits all definition here. That's why we have different types of investments based on time and risk. Trying to pigeon hole investing and investments into one meaning goes against reality.

For me, investing (after you take away all the fanfare and noise) is all about the bottom line which is profit. It's about getting more than what you put in.

It doesn't matter if that profit comes a day after or 10 years down the line. As long as you are moving forward with more wins than loses, that's all that really matters. This is irrespective of whether you are investing in hand regs or aftermarket domains.

 

[jhm]

My answer: Depends

If you have the foresight of a trend (NFT, easiest example), then buying up the hand reg "NFT Market" would be considered an investment (it is still the action or process of investing money for profit, that you believe to be prudent ...hopefully)

I give an exception to trends. They pop up, they get registered ...a handful do well

 

[noneisnone]

@twiki great point that i agree with you on but i would like to add even if it is off-topic why is luck never mentioned when it comes down to domaining ? you mentioned art and science do you really not see luck having a huge role in a domain selling ? with the market being over saturated with domains

 

[noneisnone]

@twiki i don't nearly have enough experience to go against yours but i would have to disagree no matter how much work you put into a name from research stand point you might never be able to make a profit on it i do believe luck plays a role into this we might argue the size of the role but it has one for sure

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

I don't believe hand registering is profitable or sustainable for majority of domainers (especially those entering this industry now) for several reasons:

1. Nearly every 2 word combination of .com has been generated and analyzed by now.

That means any Dictionary + Dictionary .com has been analyzed for searches, extensions, practical use, etc. And if it was available it was registered. If it was registered and dropped then chances are it's not good.

2. The Good drops go to auction and get bought.

If a domain is even remotely good then it will get purchased in the aftermarket. Even below average domains will get snatched at the aftermarket, so if it goes all the way back to available then it's probably not good.

3. The good dictionary + gTLD are usually premium on the registrar.

You can bet your butt that Car.Whatever or Insurance.Whatever was pre-decided to be a registry premium before it even became available. Most newbs are registering 2 word gTLD that have no chance of selling.

4. Most 3 word+ domains that are available are not good or will not sell for more than low $xxxx if you are LUCKY.

It all comes back down to domains with most extensions registered are the most sought after, and these have long been registered. Sure you can get lucky and find an emerging market and sit on your hand reg for 10 years and get lucky to sell for $20,000 but this is a PIPE DREAM.

I am trying to help newcomers to not make the same mistakes than many of us make. That is, hand registering hundreds of junk domains and spending more on renewals than you get in sales.

It's about liquidity, value and practical use. I can assure that I have generated and scanned many millions of domain combinations with all the top keywords so you may think that your WhateverWhatever.Whatever is good but many of us already discarded it because it's junk.

I know a few domain investors who're heavily relying on hand registering .com domains and are pretty successful at what they do. One of them is @twiki

But one thing is for sure that one cannot make regular 4 and/or 5 figure sales on consistent basis with hand registration model.