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Hi there, NamePros!
I’ve wanted to create an account here for a long time - I’ve been reading the forum for quite a while.
About me:
My name is Kațer Leonid-Costin, and I’ve been freelancing for almost 20 years - doing domaining, SEO, eCommerce, daily stock trading, and many other cool things.
I got into domaining around 2009, while researching expired domains.
But what really got me passionate about the niche was working with Eric Borgos back in 2010 - I wrote a lot of articles for him (yes, long before the AI-written era!).
That experience made me genuinely curious about the domaining world.
Soon after, around 2010, I started buying domain names and building my own sites.
I built a couponing niche website network and earned money through AdSense, Media.net, Chitika, Infolinks, and others.
At one point, around 2013, I owned about 150 domain names.
I sold my first domain name for $300 - by mistake.
I never actually planned to sell domains. Back in 2011, most people were using expired domains to get traffic from Google or Yahoo. Even brand-new domains could get some traffic then, but expired ones with backlinks performed much better, which meant more ad revenue.
So I started buying expired domains at auction and ended up with UserDriven.org.
I still remember that day - I planned to use it for my couponing project, post some articles, and make some ad revenue.
A few days later, a programmer reached out asking if the domain was for sale.
I had paid about $27 plus renewal for it, so I decided to ask for $300.
He sent $150 upfront, I transferred the domain, and a week later I received the rest. That was my first-ever sale, and it felt great.
Long story short, by 2015, I had also started doing eCommerce and Facebook ads.
I ended up selling around 60,000 romance books in Romania.
Fast forward to January 1st, 2025, after 18 years of freelancing, domaining, SEO, eCommerce, and more, I decided it was time to get a regular job.
I thought, “This will be easy, ’ll get hired in no time.”
Well, 5,000 CVs, 25+ interviews, and 2.5 months later, I finally landed a job at NameSilo as a Customer Support Agent, on my birthday (in march).
Since I already knew domaining, I felt this role would help me grow, and it did.
In parallel, while working my support job, I started posting on LinkedIn for fun, sharing stories and exclusives from the domaining world (like domain sales, patterns, and behind-the-scenes insights).
In just four months, I reached 1 million organic views and over 1,000 followers who connected because they enjoyed my posts.
After six months at NameSilo, I was promoted to Community Growth Manager, a role I earned because of my passion for writing about domaining in my spare time.
Now, I actually get paid to do what I love, writing about domain stories, market trends, and industry insights.
Don’t worry, I’m not here to promote NameSilo.
I’m here to share valuable domaining advice and insider knowledge that only someone working at a large registrar would typically know.
Sorry for the long story, I genuinely love writing.
As a fun fact, my wife and I once worked together on a romance book project, and part of my job was to convince people to read!
So, how are you all doing?
I’ve wanted to create an account here for a long time - I’ve been reading the forum for quite a while.
About me:
My name is Kațer Leonid-Costin, and I’ve been freelancing for almost 20 years - doing domaining, SEO, eCommerce, daily stock trading, and many other cool things.
I got into domaining around 2009, while researching expired domains.
But what really got me passionate about the niche was working with Eric Borgos back in 2010 - I wrote a lot of articles for him (yes, long before the AI-written era!).
That experience made me genuinely curious about the domaining world.
Soon after, around 2010, I started buying domain names and building my own sites.
I built a couponing niche website network and earned money through AdSense, Media.net, Chitika, Infolinks, and others.
At one point, around 2013, I owned about 150 domain names.
I sold my first domain name for $300 - by mistake.
I never actually planned to sell domains. Back in 2011, most people were using expired domains to get traffic from Google or Yahoo. Even brand-new domains could get some traffic then, but expired ones with backlinks performed much better, which meant more ad revenue.
So I started buying expired domains at auction and ended up with UserDriven.org.
I still remember that day - I planned to use it for my couponing project, post some articles, and make some ad revenue.
A few days later, a programmer reached out asking if the domain was for sale.
I had paid about $27 plus renewal for it, so I decided to ask for $300.
He sent $150 upfront, I transferred the domain, and a week later I received the rest. That was my first-ever sale, and it felt great.
Long story short, by 2015, I had also started doing eCommerce and Facebook ads.
I ended up selling around 60,000 romance books in Romania.
Fast forward to January 1st, 2025, after 18 years of freelancing, domaining, SEO, eCommerce, and more, I decided it was time to get a regular job.
I thought, “This will be easy, ’ll get hired in no time.”
Well, 5,000 CVs, 25+ interviews, and 2.5 months later, I finally landed a job at NameSilo as a Customer Support Agent, on my birthday (in march).
Since I already knew domaining, I felt this role would help me grow, and it did.
In parallel, while working my support job, I started posting on LinkedIn for fun, sharing stories and exclusives from the domaining world (like domain sales, patterns, and behind-the-scenes insights).
In just four months, I reached 1 million organic views and over 1,000 followers who connected because they enjoyed my posts.
After six months at NameSilo, I was promoted to Community Growth Manager, a role I earned because of my passion for writing about domaining in my spare time.
Now, I actually get paid to do what I love, writing about domain stories, market trends, and industry insights.
Don’t worry, I’m not here to promote NameSilo.
I’m here to share valuable domaining advice and insider knowledge that only someone working at a large registrar would typically know.
Sorry for the long story, I genuinely love writing.
As a fun fact, my wife and I once worked together on a romance book project, and part of my job was to convince people to read!
So, how are you all doing?
