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!

 

[accuname]

That

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

Have you at any point tested these combinations?

1. Own landers with BIN + make offer at afternic?

2. Own landers with make offer + BIN at afternic?

I know with a BIN at afternic they add you to more partners - do you think this additional exposure matters alot?

 

[twiki]

That


Have you at any point tested these combinations?

1. Own landers with BIN + make offer at afternic?

2. Own landers with make offer + BIN at afternic?

I know with a BIN at afternic they add you to more partners - do you think this additional exposure matters alot?

Yes I tried everything.

BIN at Afternic works best. And that exposure matters indeed.

Edit: Own landers seem to actually make things worse. It's the trust lacking - that GoDaddy name and their US phone number. I also know that over 90% of my buyers are from US.

 

[skshogun]

Hi Twiki. I think once you mentioned you are based in Europe (EU?). If not, please disregard my question. I would like to ask something related to invoicing.

It seems the majority of your sales are coming from Afternic. How does invoicing (for accounting and tax reasons) work when selling through them? Do you issue an invoice with GoDaddy.com, LLC (U.S. entity) as a buyer?

Because if we are doing the transaction with any kind of GoDaddy entity in the EU it would change a lot of things regarding the VAT, necessary registration etc.

 

[davidc1]

Yes I tried everything.

BIN at Afternic works best. And that exposure matters indeed.

Edit: Own landers seem to actually make things worse. It's the trust lacking - that GoDaddy name and their US phone number. I also know that over 90% of my buyers are from US.

how did you tried afternic vs dan for landers ?

 

[twiki]

how did you tried afternic vs dan for landers ?

I have my own nameservers and redirect server, I can play with A/B tests anytime using any kind of lander, including one custom which is internal. For all domains at once or using any custom rules I need

 

[twiki]

Another thing, is there any certain type or tld you think work better for afternic lander? or any random domain or extension will use the afternic 5-6 lander equally?

TLD's do not matter in this. Any tld will work just fine, if you know how DNS functions.

What matters is the quality of domain - obviously.

There are differences for email though, as certain tlds are not recognized by all mailservers. But there is no issue with landers.

 

[twiki]

Hi Twiki. I think once you mentioned you are based in Europe (EU?). If not, please disregard my question. I would like to ask something related to invoicing.

It seems the majority of your sales are coming from Afternic. How does invoicing (for accounting and tax reasons) work when selling through them? Do you issue an invoice with GoDaddy.com, LLC (U.S. entity) as a buyer?

Because if we are doing the transaction with any kind of GoDaddy entity in the EU it would change a lot of things regarding the VAT, necessary registration etc.

All our documentation, sales, communication regarding sales comes from GoDaddy.com, the US entity.

Furthermore when you are registered with them you need to have submitted the W8-BEN form as all EU entities need to disclose to the US for taxation purposes.

There is no transaction with an EU based entity although I know GD has a subsidiary in UK for example, where my account manager works for example (due to timezone being much closer to ours). If there was, that would be a problem and I think Afternic management is smart to understand it would be a problem.

But don't ask me. That's just what I do, it's not necessarily what you should do. Ask your accountant and your lawyer and decide based on their advice. I just explained what I do here, but this is not reliable professional advice.

I pay others (professionals in my country) so I don't have to have the hassle and headaches, and so should you and everyone else.

 

[davidc1]

I have my own nameservers and redirect server, I can play with A/B tests anytime using any kind of lander, including one custom which is internal. For all domains at once or using any custom rules I need

Ok that's fine.
So what's your result in term of number of sales afternic vs dan.
As it's not possible to know if an afternic sale comes from landers or partners did you checked the part of your afternic sales before this lander test ?

 

[twiki]

Ok that's fine.
So what's your result in term of number of sales afternic vs dan.
As it's not possible to know if an afternic sale comes from landers or partners did you checked the part of your afternic sales before this lander test ?

Well since I've already mentioned that Dan does almost NO SALES for me, I guess that is pretty clear.

Sales come from network when they mentioned sold through the partner network. Otherwise it might be lander based - at times. But I don't measure that so I don't know exactly.

I kept certain domains running through the two platforms, dan vs afternic and dan hasn't sold stuff for me.

Also at times i kept for a few months all landers pointing at one of the platforms and there were clear differences, significant increase when using NS5/NS6.

However again some other domainer might experience very different results as domains are different, pricing is different etc. So please test dont' just blind mimic what I do. Test and draw your own conclusions.

Edit: Afternic NS3/NS4 also does not work for me. But I had decent results with the basic Afternic make offer lander which you can access through a custom redirect (I have the ability) .

Few know this lander though. Here is how it looks: https://www.afternic.com/domain/reclever.com (again you need a redirect to make it work).

But NS5/NS6 outperforms this one due to the GoDaddy branding, I think. However if you rely on make offer you probably should try this one, although a bit more tricky as you will need to setup URL redirects at your registrar and that's cumbersome unless you have custom tech like I do.

 

[davidc1]

Well since I've already mentioned that Dan does almost NO SALES for me, I guess that is pretty clear.

Sales come from network when they mentioned sold through the partner network. Otherwise it might be lander based - at times. But I don't measure that so I don't know exactly.

I kept certain domains running through the two platforms, dan vs afternic and dan hasn't sold stuff for me.

Also at times i kept for a few months all landers pointing at one of the platforms and there were clear differences, significant increase when using NS5/NS6.

However again some other domainer might experience very different results as domains are different, pricing is different etc. So please test dont' just blind mimic what I do. Test and draw your own conclusions.

ok, thanks for your answer, I'll make a split test on my domains, will have results within a few weeks...

 

[twiki]

ok, thanks for your answer, I'll make a split test on my domains, will have results within a few weeks...

See the later edit above as well.

 

[sridomain]

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!

Appreciate your time and AMA.

What is your advice to someone like me I do own .com, .io, .xyz names in my portfolio but I didn't sold a domain in last 10 months? Even though I listed domains at dan, sedo, afternic.
I'm not getting any views on afternic. Not getting any query on sedo.


Thanks

 

[twiki]

Appreciate your time and AMA.

What is your advice to someone like me I do own .com, .io, .xyz names in my portfolio but I didn't sold a domain in last 10 months? Even though I listed domains at dan, sedo, afternic.
I'm not getting any views on afternic. Not getting any query on sedo.


Thanks

Learn more on NP.

Get better names. Probably you need to drop the current ones. I still drop a lot of mine each year and get better ones.

Ask for appraisals in the appraisals section .

 

[sridomain]

Learn more on NP.

Get better names. Probably you need to drop the current ones. I still drop a lot of mine each year and get better ones.

Ask for appraisals in the appraisals section .

Thanks for that.

Have great week.

 

[phaethon]

Twiki, could you estimate how x domains you sell per xx or xxx domains you buy. I know it sounds pretty simple calculation haha.

 

[twiki]

Twiki, could you estimate how x domains you sell per xx or xxx domains you buy. I know it sounds pretty simple calculation haha.

What do you mean? I don't understand this.

 

[phaethon]

STR.. for example, you buy 100 domains, you sell 2, you drop 98.

Could you also tell us how has your STR evolved over the years?

 

[twiki]

STR is the most useless parameter when you're looking at anything else but your own portfolio.

I'm going to tell you, with notes as to why it is so irrelevant. It depends on too many things.

I used to have STR of 6-8% in the past, but I was barely making anything in profit / ROI. Most of my sales where xxx range (until quite recently I must say). I've been a volume/discount domainer for long, and that had it's own advantages such as learning a lot of niches and domain types. But it's past now.

Today, I probably have around 1.5% STR (varies). But I am at 100% ROI and expecting to go quite higher in the next 12 months. This is because I only sell full retail right now and things are different, also portfolio has changed and improved.

( Edit: By 100% ROI I mean costs vs. profit. If I spend say 100k in domains per year in renewals, buys, yearly cost overall, then I also currently have more than $200k in sales with at least an $100k profit. Forward stats show that I can double or triple that though within a year's time unless something major happens in this market. )

@phaethon

Already discussed in the current thread. See this quote.

 

[phaethon]

@phaethon

Already discussed in the current thread. See this quote.

Thanks, Twiki. What do you have to say to those that believe quantity is as important as quality in domaining? Is it achievable to have both nowadays?
As far as I understood you have been mostly a 'quantity" domainer, because you have dropped most of your domains?

 

[twiki]

Thanks, Twiki. What do you have to say to those that believe quantity is as important as quality in domaining? Is it achievable to have both nowadays?
As far as I understood you have been mostly a 'quantity" domainer, because you have dropped most of your domains?

I think I've been quite clear so far.

The more great quality domains you have, the better your income.

 

[VadimK]

Twiki, what country are you from? (and country where you live, if different). Thanks!!

 

[Haroon Basha]

If you want to buy a domain TODAY for $100, what .com name, at least a keyword, you will choose?

 

[LUP]

Why should you create this thread?

 

[twiki]

Why should you create this thread?

For those who asked me many questions already.

There's a reason they ask.

 

[twiki]

If you want to buy a domain TODAY for $100, what .com name, at least a keyword, you will choose?

I'm going to answer all those questions that make sense to me.