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

 

[boker]

I think people are missing the point of this thread.

Nearly every professional domain investor, including Domain sherpas like Andrew Rosner, Michael Cyger and Rick Shwartz will advise against newbies hand-registering domains.

It's not to say you can't make money with hand registered domains, it's that 99% of new domain investors will LOSE MONEY by hand registering domains. If you don't understand this concept then chances are you are a newb and shouldn't be hand registering domains.

So, do you think that a newbie who can't make money from a 7-8$ investment, he will do a lot better buying domains in auctions at 500$-1k, biding against Andrew Rosner, Michael Cyger and Rick Shwartz? Does it sound logical?

 

[bmugford]

So, do you think that a newbie who can't make money from a 7-8$ investment, he will do a lot better buying domains in auctions at 500$-1k, biding against Andrew Rosner, Michael Cyger and Rick Shwartz? Does it sound logical?

You are going to lose money either way if you don't know what you are doing.

Brad

 

[bmugford]

On the other hand, my biggest mistake would be constantly renewing the handregs, that totally wiped my account.

It's easier to sell a $7 hand reg for $50-$100-$1000, than to sell a $500-$1000 one, for which you have obviously overspent, because you can't win a bid with a pro.

Yep, that is a major issue. It is very easy to get loaded down with renewal fees on marginal domains.
The more valuable the domain, the lower % of value a renewal is.

It is a lot harder to justify renewing a domain that might sell for $50 - $100 vs one that might sell for $2,500 - $5,000, especially when you factor in a standard 1% - 2% sell-through rate.

You would need a much higher sell-through rate to justify renewing domains that might sell for low $XXX or less.

Brad

 

[Brandster]

NameFu nailed it! Thanks!

 

[HotKey]

Just because a domain is listed on aftermarket doesn't mean squat in terms of value..nor do bids. Bids can be as misleading as the amount of hand-regging being done in high hopes. They are both fomo, without being well-informed or in moderation.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

The amounts I'm talking about are for my entire portfolio, I renew only under 20% of my domains and everything else up to 5k is for acquisitions, including $1-$2 .com's From my understanding, the 25k is the amount spent only for domains sold. Can you share gross spendings for all your renewals and acquisitions and a gross revenue per year?

Your model is pretty different than mine and I rarely drop domains.

Yes, 25K is the amount spent only for those domains sold. As of now, I don't have the answer for your question.

 

[jideofor]

WAS there any domain name that was not registered at any time? all domains were hand registered... so what are you saying again?

 

[boker]

Additionally, if you register domains for .99c and hope to sell low to high XX or XXX, this is not investing. This is arbitrage. It is fine if you can profit from it.

'Arbitrage is the simultaneous purchase and sale of the same asset in different markets in order to profit from tiny differences in the asset's listed price' Far away from the true meaning. At the end of the day, you can call it whatever you want, the final result will be the same for me.

 

[twiki]

Additionally, if you register domains for .99c and hope to sell low to high XX or XXX, this is not investing. This is arbitrage. It is fine if you can profit from it.

Not arbitrage perhaps, but definitely flipping.

 

[xbank]

all of the names I am doing have a history of old registration and I see companies who can update their names let's say:

Finraz -

I have sold Fincra for 2990 usd

Nuvso = nuvo and NUV is a good solid keyword so this 5 letter is good for it

Raceva = it's a company and check the logos online as some company using it and also race keyword is a good with last 2 letter suffix which pronounce not very bad.

Puren = see this keyword is used and have sold many names and also check namedroppers also of companies using purenxxxx in their domain names means this keywords doing well too.

 

[lock]

I hand registered names yesterday that i found exact matchs for an industry i am knowledged in shame it doesn't work.

 

[lock]

Now days hand register is not a good advice.. because i'm watching many hand register domains that i bought in 2017 or 2018 or even 2019 now going to dropcatch auctions.
Hand register model work if you buy in bulk atleast must above 1000+ domains.

Perhaps better advice is to buy names and convert traffic till dead.The best names are parked or hosted so must be the most desirable or will be parked forever. Never know when stumble across a winner. If two companies merged eg Sony Samsung even two surnames and some how you own those surnames eg had samsony. Winner. New technology is named after a person but they don't own domain you do etc lots of reasons keep searching own keywords for leads..

 

[lock]

I would think it is difficult for a newbie to nail a good hand reg as there are stats to help people shop for expired domains but don't just believe them check them as a site with links also should come from more than one site and should have many credible points not just one. I have to still sell a collection for any bragging rights but anyone can could come up with a good idea still i feel.

 

[Cocoonbay]

Using the term investing when it comes to domains that have little to no hope of profiting above reg price is dignifying a practice that will break your bank. Yes, you can certainly have domains in your portfolio that can legitimately be investments. Let me reiterate that I am not against hand regs. Just hand regs of domains that are not worth the price of a registration or worth renewing. And I understand that that is somewhat subjective. But just as with other investments, you need to register domains based on reliable information and understanding of the buyer pool.

Your own logic is working against you.

Your metric for what is considered investment appears to be the certainty of profitability.

If a person can hand-reg "domains that have little to no hope of profiting above reg price" and a person can also purchase domains that have little hope of profiting above purchase price, surely the issue cannot be that either approach is inherently unprofitable, but that the quality of the domains purchased in either case.

Even if you make the case, validly, that buying from the aftermarket is likely to result in more quality names, it's also a fact that domains in the aftermarket are typically significantly more expensive than hand-registered ones. That means while a person might sell more from a portfolio of aftermarket domains over time, the profit margins will likely be lower on each sale, compared to a person doing $10 registrations, and making high margins on a lower proportion of sales, especially given that, as others have established, it's possible to get to a high degree of accuracy when selecting hand-reg domains.

 

[Atone]

I forgot to mention just waiting for payment from BB for a misspelt hand reg double no no in some circles I will post in completed sales when finalised.

 

[F.E.]

To be completely honest, I haven't read your whole article (read two paragraphs) and only title (it's like those clickbaits from bbc and others) that drove me here, and would like to argue against "hand registering is not investing" title.

Here's a definition of investing, by Investopedia:
"Investing is the act of allocating resources, usually money, with the expectation of generating an income or profit."

Which clearly states "with the expectation of generating an income or profit". So if you believe that you're investor because spending more money than majority of new domainers, you're wrong.

For example, I just hand registered over 10k in various ngTLDs - .tech being major with 2k hand regs, and spent over $92k in total.

I have already covered my .tech registrations by selling 3 .tech domains, and already in process of negotiating 2 more. All inbound.

Now, a whole point of this title feels like devaluing low budget domainers, why? Because you've been lucky enough to move from that point? Nah.

Hand registering one single .com is still investment, same as buying one valuable .com. It's just different type of risk-taking.

p.s. investing is speculation, gambling and so on. Who can guarantee you that your domain will still worth the same as you paid for 2 years ago? This is nice debate to run, but probably a wrong title and whole POV from OP's side.

 

[AEProgram]

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I will get myself checked out. But understand that one sign that you can't win an argument is when you start attacking the messenger. Also, I am not trying to win an argument. I don't care whether you agree with me or not. Why are you even making this personal? What's the point? That baffles me.

How can I win an argument with someone that agrees with what I wrote but claims that what they wrote is something different? Where is the argument?

It's like if after I toss a coin and it landed on either heads or tails I said that it landed on heads and you say you don't agree, you believe it didn't land on tails. When I point out we agree you claim it's not the same thing.

Anyone getting a domain, even if they got it for free using a coupon, if their goal is to make money from it, they made an investment.

When someone signed up to robinhood back in the day and they got a free stock just for signing up, they made an investment. Their time to download and register, is that investment.

 

[HexPixel_com]

Saw yesterday kfzplus.de, available on sedo (kfz = car in german). It looks like a decent german domain, then I saw all the other names.

There are over 2000 available domains related to the kfz keyword with the .de tld. These domains can only be used in the german market, with german customers.

kfzversicherungtarif-rechner.de has a 7500€ BIN, useless nonsense with birth year in 2013.

So why would somebody hand register all these domains?

Buy 100 to sell 1 is an explanation and you won't see, which of the 100 actually got sold.

So just judging by the 99 unsold items, it looks more like gambling, then real investment.

 

[M Usman]

Not at all

 

[twiki]

We all know that you have a proven track record when it comes to making consistent sales, but in a way you are the exception since domain sales seems to be very sporadic and inconsistent for the majority of domainers.

IMO

Hmm I never saw it like that. But on better thought, you are probably right.

 

[enterscope]

@enterscope actually real estate development is more profitable @redemo your line of work broski

Too bad 99% of so-called domain investors are NOT developing anything. Then you might have a point.

 

[twiki]

Too bad 99% of so-called domain investors are NOT developing anything. Then you might have a point.

Developing domains is a different business, and requires a very different skillset. It is what I did for many years. In fact part my capital originated from developed domains and ad income.

Today I stopped developing names but who knows, maybe I'll start again.

 

[VadimK]

That's great. If you sell a domain for profit within a year or two then you got a winning ticket. Who knows how much that same domain can attract in 5 to 10 years. Maybe nothing. So you got a steal.

This one is hilarious, actually. What it has to do with ''winning ticket'' and ''got a steal''? I buy domains based on many different factors, that I found worthy and efficient for acquiring good names. And it doesn't matter how I buy them, it's normally via different ways - auctions, drops, hand-reg, from other domainers.
But your whole idea seems to me is that - ''oh, you sold a hand-reg domain? Lucky you!'' Although literally a post ago you claimed yourself that you in a cold-blood calculated your regs, bought, held them, sold and gained. What - other ''winning tickets''? We were both lucky in lotteries then, I guess...

 

[Clover]

You are half right. The title was to get attention. To start a dialogue. That's what titles are for.

But hand reg'ed domains available today are not as good as domains available over 10 years ago. But you can still find some good ones if you are alert and vigilant.

Yes, I wasn't really pushing a "debate" as a bad thing, it's just a type of thread prefix here.

I agree with the 10 years ago thing as well, along with the idea that investing is really only investing if you really believe the return will be greater and have data to back that assumption, otherwise yes it is a gamble. I think most handregs are indeed a gamble, but there are many that are not as well.

Good thread non the less.

 

[Hankish]

so the article admits that HR "can be" over a period of time. HandRegi is no less/more speculation than most aftermarket domains. But generally be ready to add years or drop prices. Brandables, 5L, and new keywords are a plenty. Any one turning their nose up is just plain dumb. I think many need to revisit the basics of "Longterm vs Swing vs Momentum" investing.

and selling a HR for $80+ is 1,000% roi (fyi)