Hi, I'm Twiki answering your questions today here on NP. AMA

[twiki]

I've just received a bunch of questions from another NP member via DM.

I thought it's more appropriate to reply to them in an AMA post as others NP members might have other questions. Never did an AMA before, here or anywhere else. Anyway, ask me anything below.

Before anything else, please note: I am really not a fan of the spotlight. So please don't put me on a pedestal - like a few folks wanted before. I really don't like / want / need all that. Just got a bit of more performance lately but it's nothing that uncommon I'd say. I'm just yet another domainer here on NP where I have learned a lot. There are many others here much better than me.

OK so here are the questions I've received, and the answers:

- Q: How long have you been in the industry?
- A: This is rather difficult to answer. I'd prefer to say 3 years, because these are the years during which I finally got performance. Which has been visible just as it went here on NP in the sales thread.

But I've been buying and selling domains on a constant basis since 2018. And I also had a few tens of short domains like 15 years ago or so. Unfortunately I let them expire an got out of domaining for a decade, would have been worth some decent money today. But I think it's never too late if you're willing to do the work.

- Q: What is portfolio right now?
- A: I guess you're asking about the size. I have 7400 domains right now, down from 25.000 historical max. I'm reducing the portfolio however and hope to go beyond 4000 so it becomes much more manageable.

- Q: How much would you say you have acquired in drop registered or closeout vs auction at GoDaddy/Dynadot etc?
- A: Again if you're asking about counts: I don't have a statistic, but probably 75% of my domains are drop regs, 15% are hand regs, and most of the remaining are closeouts. Auction buys, less than 1%. However I intend to develop that next but it is more time consuming for me to watch the auctions.

- Q: How much do you spend on average acquiring domains?
- A: If you ask about time, it varies. Sometimes a full day, other times I don't even work on domains. On average at least 2 hours per day. If you're asking about $, most domains are at reg cost OR closeouts which range between 5 and 50$ + reg fee. Auctions I only have bought domains worth $300 or less.

- Q: Looks like you are mostly focused on the dot com? Is that correct?
- A: Yes. I have a much better hand at .COMs. Like 99% of my domains are .COM.

- Q: Do you hand register domains also?
- A: Sure, but not every day. Sometimes I get an idea and will register some based on it. I've sold for example quite a few meta domains which are all handregs. I haven't sold any NFT domain so far. It depends. I tend to not go too deep in hand regs.

Please note that drops are also a form of handregs. Well drops I do daily, and sometimes several depending on the quality available that day.
------

I'm going to add a bit of more insight here as to how I get results:

What I do is simple, I'm working hard each day (really) and got a bit of luck as well. That's all, nothing out of the ordinary. I also try to help others when I can, here on NP and elsewhere (with some limits, of course). I am also a full stack developer and I build my own tools for domaining, that helps as well.

If anyone here on NP has another question to ask, please ask below. If there are none more, that's also cool with me.

Thanks!

 

[twiki]

This AMA has been running long enough, so it's about time to close. And in the end, I take this opportunity to send a message to those following my account:

I'm going to cut down on posting, to the max extend possible from now on.

I like to help, but I dislike being in the spotlight (using this term in lack of a better word), with its negative consequences. Time to let the light fade. It's something I've been thinking about for some time already.

I'm getting a lot of abuse lately, both public and via DM.

Including in this very thread for example; by users who find no other satisfactory thing than to bash other users who have never done anything wrong to them . I find such attitude despicable. Anyway.

Like they say, no good deed is left unpunished. Anyway, still I'm glad to be a member of NP.

Thanks to everyone who has asked questions in this thread!

(now closed.)

 

[blogspotter]

Sorry to hear about your loss brother.

Thanks for the AMA

 

[twiki]

Twiki, with regards to your suggestion for xxxx pricing during this period, I would say that one domainer's selling trends can't express the whole. There are thousands of domainers and I'm sure a lot of them still sell at xxx range.
We could draw some conclusions if we had the selling trends of 100 domainers, let's say, over months.

You are correct. Also it depends on value of the domains. If the value is xxx range, it would be a big error to price 4-fig.

Indeed, I'm sharing my journey but it doesn't mean it's everyone else's journey. Each domainer and portfolio is/are different.

 

[twiki]

Nice initiative Twiki, your insights are always inspiring!

I have a question. What's the highest price you've ever gotten for a freshly regged domain that's only taken in 1 extension (dot com)? Also, do you have a maximum price tag (not to be exceeded) for this type of domains?

Thank you!

Forgot to mention, none of these exceeds $10k and most are under $3k.

But I do have a few in the high 4-fig range. Haven't sold them but will see. Also SH agreed on the price while they were at them (got a second opinion).

For 5-fig, you probably need something better than a fresh reg with no other TLDs registered, but I'd say it is not impossible, just very unlikely. (Edit: I wouldn't put much hope in that.)

Edit: Also thanks for the kind words ! Glad to help with what I can.

 

[twiki]

I see Alcy The Troll crawled out from under the bridge to harass the townsfolk. Thats why I keep him on ignore.

Same here. Thumbs up.

 

[AEProgram]

No, I have accounted for that. Although you are right, quality increased over time.

But even so, I have tested various other landers (including my own) and monitored the results. There's definitely a difference.

However I'm pretty sure this might differ from one domainer to another a lot. For example Dan never worked for me and it's still puzzling as to why.

Edit: The most important factor in sales, by me it's trust.

The GoDaddy name there and phone number on NS5/NS6 beats everything else.

The 4.7 Trust Pilot on Dan pages can be a BIG turnoff for a lot of people. Even though a 4.7 score on Trust Pilot is good, for most people they are already hesitant to buying a name at a premium price, show them a 4.7 rating and they are gone.

Recently someone posted a terrible review of Dan, probably someone with a lack of understanding how DNS works. Regardless, imagine you are thinking about giving your card number to them today and you go to Trust Pilot and the first review as of now is a 1 star of someone claiming bad things.

At least give domainers an option if we want that trust pilot on our landers. Give us an option to display our own phone numbers in big on the page.

 

[twiki]

Just a sales update:

Haven't sold a single domain in 2 weeks, which is definitely odd. But it's summer, people are so in vacation right now. So I'm kinda in sort of a vacation myself too.

This has happened before, like a couple times, just not recently.

Fortunately I have extra domains to cash for June, so monies are still moving in. Waiting for better days.

 

[bmugford]

@twiki

I like this idea. I might do one of these.

Brad

 

[twiki]

Great, thanks, Twiki. As you mentioned it, could you also write a few things about xyz domains? Any predictions?

I'm not an expert in xyz. If someone could make a good prediction, that'd be DNGear here on NP (Swetha).

However what I can stay is that while .co now appears to have been a fluke mostly, xyz is here to stay.

 

[twiki]

Can you buy my domains?

No.

But if you stick around here and learn, one day you might be able to sell your own domains properly.

Edit: If you have something to sell, there is a sales section on NP, see the links at the top.

 

[twiki]

Do you still buy domains which are $50 or less and able to sell them for above $500?

Most of my domains I have are paid reg fee, that's like $9. And my lowest price at this time is $1488 but most are above that.

So yes.

 

[twiki]

Thanks a lot for doing this AMA, and for all of the great contributions you make to NamePros. Every time I see you have written something in detail, I know I will benefit from reading it. Thank you.

I guess I only have two (related) questions. I follow what you say about shifting interest in the TLDs you handle and in the quality-level of domains. I was interested in your comment about passing up some good names, if they don't fit the sectors you find interesting. Could you please comment on:

1. About how many different sectors/niches do you currently concentrate on?
2. Do you regularly review and drop some sectors and add new ones, or do you stay pretty consistent on sectors over a period of years?

Thank you again, and I am very sorry to hear about the loss of the mother of your daughter due to COVID. It must be hard with that and with your daughter in a different country now. I am glad you discuss names with her sometimes, even if you don't agree. I think many family members don't share our interest in names, and it is nice when family members do show an interest.

Thanks again for everything you contribute, @twiki

-Bob

Hi Bob,

Same here, thanks a lot for your contribution instead. Much helpful.

1) Just 2 niches, finance and tech (startup/SaaS mostly). About nothing else, with the rare exception of certain very good combinations on any other niche's domain hat I have to take. But these are few. I don't even buy crypto names in general. So apart from these two niches, everything else is mostly an exception.

There are countless other niches where good money can be made. I've made my first money with brick and mortar domains, org domains etc. I have to pass on all these. I don't have an unlimited budget, not an unlimited time to manage them.

I'm probably ditching at least 10 or sometimes 20 such other names per day.

2) It depends. If there's a strong trend, I might jump in the wagon. I've made good money with meta domains. I've made no money with NFT domains, these were a flop for me. But they are still in the tech area so these are mostly sub-niches.

I count crypto as a separate niche although it is definitely fintech after all. But the names and buy behavior are wildly different in crypto if you ask me.

 

[twiki]

Hello. twiki
Thank you for sharing.

I have a few questions, it would be great if you could answer them

1. you have 7400 domains, which is a huge portfolio, how much does it cost?


2. how do you manage these 7400 domains and when they expire or need to be renewed, how do you avoid them not being renewed in time?


3. How do you price these 7400 domains and how do you manage these 7400 domains?
What markets do you list in, and how many do you sell on average per week?

1. The average domain cost is around $9, now you can do the math. Add a few thousands for the rare purchases and other related costs such as tool subscriptions etc. it's somewhere right below $100k anyway.

2) I use Excel with a bit of extra code to automate things.

3) All this has been mentioned a lot of times here on NP, and also there's lot to say. Please read my posts and you'll find out.

 

[davidc1]

Probably wholesale /other domainer sales?

I dont know what is wholesale, i only sell at correct price lol

 

[phaethon]

A few questions,Twiki
which was your highest sale ever? could you reveal the name? Would you say that now that you have dropped thousands of names, your STR changed? Also how long do you hold your names on average?

 

[twiki]

For everyone who has been reading so far:

I've decided to reopen this thread, in continued form.

I'm often getting all sort of questions via DM. But as many of you know already, I prefer to share thing publicly, as more people can learn in that way.

Feel free to ask me anything here as I will keep this open for long.

Thanks!

 

[twiki]

Can we see your entire domains list in your portfolio ?

Nah, I won't post that.

But you can definitely see what I sell as I post often in the sales thread.

Have had zero sales in the last two weeks though, which is unusual but not the end of the world. Fluctuations.

 

[twiki]

Do you use any tools to find the expiring domains or dropping domains , beside
Expireddomains,net ,

Do you see the dropping list and then decide what to buy/reg
Or , you have the need or idea about type domains you need then search for them in dropping list

No, I only use my own private tools.

Besides, most of them are getting open to public via the Dotible.com platform I'm currently working on.

( Edit: Only 1% of stuff is visible now, there are a ton of tools to be published. Most will also have a free version as well, depending on needs and usage. )

 

[OmarVG]

 

[Venkatesh Jadhav]

I've just received a bunch of questions from another NP member via DM.

I thought it's more appropriate to reply to them in an AMA post as others NP members might have other questions. Never did an AMA before, here or anywhere else. Anyway, ask me anything below.

Before anything else, please note: I am really not a fan of the spotlight. So please don't put me on a pedestal - like a few folks wanted before. I really don't like / want / need all that. Just got a bit of more performance lately but it's nothing that uncommon I'd say. I'm just yet another domainer here on NP where I have learned a lot. There are many others here much better than me.

OK so here are the questions I've received, and the answers:

- Q: How long have you been in the industry?
- A: This is rather difficult to answer. I'd prefer to say 3 years, because these are the years during which I finally got performance. Which has been visible just as it went here on NP in the sales thread.

But I've been buying and selling domains on a constant basis since 2018. And I also had a few tens of short domains like 15 years ago or so. Unfortunately I let them expire an got out of domaining for a decade, would have been worth some decent money today. But I think it's never too late if you're willing to do the work.

- Q: What is portfolio right now?
- A: I guess you're asking about the size. I have 7400 domains right now, down from 25.000 historical max. I'm reducing the portfolio however and hope to go beyond 4000 so it becomes much more manageable.

- Q: How much would you say you have acquired in drop registered or closeout vs auction at GoDaddy/Dynadot etc?
- A: Again if you're asking about counts: I don't have a statistic, but probably 75% of my domains are drop regs, 15% are hand regs, and most of the remaining are closeouts. Auction buys, less than 1%. However I intend to develop that next but it is more time consuming for me to watch the auctions.

- Q: How much do you spend on average acquiring domains?
- A: If you ask about time, it varies. Sometimes a full day, other times I don't even work on domains. On average at least 2 hours per day. If you're asking about $, most domains are at reg cost OR closeouts which range between 5 and 50$ + reg fee. Auctions I only have bought domains worth $300 or less.

- Q: Looks like you are mostly focused on the dot com? Is that correct?
- A: Yes. I have a much better hand at .COMs. Like 99% of my domains are .COM.

- Q: Do you hand register domains also?
- A: Sure, but not every day. Sometimes I get an idea and will register some based on it. I've sold for example quite a few meta domains which are all handregs. I haven't sold any NFT domain so far. It depends. I tend to not go too deep in hand regs.

Please note that drops are also a form of handregs. Well drops I do daily, and sometimes several depending on the quality available that day.
------

I'm going to add a bit of more insight here as to how I get results:

What I do is simple, I'm working hard each day (really) and got a bit of luck as well. That's all, nothing out of the ordinary. I also try to help others when I can, here on NP and elsewhere (with some limits, of course). I am also a full stack developer and I build my own tools for domaining, that helps as well.

If anyone here on NP has another question to ask, please ask below. If there are none more, that's also cool with me.

Thanks!

Thanks for sharing your journey !! I feel more optimistic !!!

 

[phaethon]

Interesting thread. Could you get into detail about that big change, 25000 to 7400 and even less domains soon? Did you believe that domaininig is mostly a numbers game? What was your mindset to have such a big portfolio especially today that quality domains are so hard to find? Could you also share some weird sales if any? The sales you are sharing here are decent domains.

 

[twiki]

May I also add:

While these things (my methods and names etc) might be inspiration for other domainers here, the truth is that each domainer's method(s) might be different and other people's methods might work or not for you. Each of us is quite different around here in style, methods, skills.

Just be sure to pick what fits you.

And always test, measure, adjust things.

 

[Welliton]

thank you very much @twiki for making the questions public, that helps us a lot to us newbies

 

[twiki]

Nice initiative Twiki, your insights are always inspiring!

I have a question. What's the highest price you've ever gotten for a freshly regged domain that's only taken in 1 extension (dot com)? Also, do you have a maximum price tag (not to be exceeded) for this type of domains?

Thank you!

Got a few sold at 3k, the latest was a meta reg which I think I have reported here on NP.

No, I don't have a price limit for these but have to be realistic for the domain.

 

[twiki]

Where do you park?
Do buyers contact you directly or through an agent?
Do you do outbound, if so automated?, does it work?

Good questions.

- Where do you park? > All my domains point at Afternic NS5/NS6. I don't park for parking revenue, just for sales.

- Do buyers contact you directly or through an agent? > None. I get 99% my sales via BIN at Afternic. Almost no offers (Edit: If the listing has no BIN, I always receive a price request and then I have to set a BIN anyway, which makes the whole make offer thing useless at Afternic).

In the very rare occasions when there is an agent involved when there is a sale through the agent, but only 1 out of 5 of these materialize. In most cases there's either lowball or the client goes unresponsive shortly.

Please note that I use fixed price (my min = BIN) but still a few potential buyers might call to negotiate, but rarely.

- Do you do outbound, if so automated?, does it work? > No. I've decided early in that outbound is not for me. Too time consuming / little effect. I focus on quality of the names today and that's it.