Dynadot

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

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twiki

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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.
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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!
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
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In my experience Sedo mls-premium, is a mess. Why: you can't add or remove domains easily, things may remain in pending state and you will never know what will hapen next. Your price may not be shown everywhere on their network. I mean tested on a few domains only, but all possible bad scenarios happened already, and I had to work hard to reset everywthing, maybe including removing domains from my account, or transfering domains to another registrar.
It may not be Sedo's fault, and it may be purely registrar's fault.
But anyway it is a bad system. And because of this I don't try Afternic's system either. For example, a domain drops, someone registers it, and the old price is shown to the public. Who knows, maybe your domains can be stolen this way as well, how can we know, if both the marketplace and registrar are evil/or/incompetent.
Fixed price without mls?: prices are extremely difficult to remove (unless you manage domains offline and upload csv everyday).
Why insist on stupidity/or/evil.
 
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Retail sales, 4-fig? Thanks
The 07.01 is a June end sale, so 2 in June.

Screenshot 2022-07-11 at 4.48.55 PM.png
 
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yes correct..so same as twiki here basically making his ego mighty threads and talking about pedestals while really peddling nonsense for amateurs like u to clap at
you are starting to lose my respect
 
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. Unlike some around here who think I'm ego fed and so content of what I've achieved.


just:
so what

all the best to you
 
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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.


Afternic is the seller - you sell to afternic
no VAT included
 
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you are starting to lose my respect

well if I lose yours then u lose mine.. what did u think that we have to like all the Same people... give me a break... u either give advice here or u talk 5mins about how people put u on pedestal and how they should not do it... i mean who the hell cares if someone emails u to put u on pedestal.. ..then brag about his sales and how not slow down for him... anyway to me this dude is on ego trip.. but like I said we all welcome to develop any opinion about people.. people have one of me too.. its life.
 
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I personally don’t care whether this is an ego trip or not. The important is that he is sharing useful info, that most members in here do not.
 
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isn't he also the dude who once wrote that if u now have slow down in salss then it's not economy but u being bad domainer not experienced enuf...seriously... i mean who says that to others... oh right..ego trippers. anyway I wasted enuf time here.. u can all go worship pedestals now u unworthy not good enuf domainers.
 
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just:
so what

all the best to you
Hi Frank

the question is, why do you care about such comments?

I don't. Especially from those very few who successfully made it into my ignore list. Wishing them a safe journey there, and I mean it.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Especially on the internet, where everything is up to debate. Including negative ones for whatever the reason. The ones to judge things are the others - and they always do. Always. Even though we should refrain from judging anyone. But we do have the right to set our boundaries, and that's what I do.

I'm here only to provide answers and share my experience, as much or as little as I have.

There's no expected return from it, so I don't care. Who expects a return, is a fool. But you know, in life there's always the word, what goes around comes around. And I know you also know this well, you have enough life experience for it.

I do care about making an positive impact though; and nothing else. That reward is always in, no matter of what one thinks, or more think.

I got so much from NP. We all should give back. At least that's my belief.

If all we have are negative thoughts, envy and / or vile comments... what'd be the point of even trying to communicate. What is the value in that.

Also what is the point of living in such a toxic pool of emotions... Can't even fathom the nightmare. Wishing everyone in that situation the luck of healing, and getting out of it someday. Although it's not just luck that is needed.
 
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Back to the topic.
The mod just told me to say so.
 
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Hi twiki, can you talk about the process of closing your SH account?

Did you remove your names abruptly or did you give them notice in order to keep the account in good standing? If the later, how much notice did they require?

I'm also curious as to why you closed your SH account. I assume its because they don't sell enough names to justify the 30% commission, but I'd love to hear more.

It seems that they have too low of standards for acceptance and thus their marketplace is now full of junk names. I like the concept though, and I wish it worked better.

I'm also planning to close my SquadHelp account, but I do like buying domains via their wholesale marketplace so its worth a very small amount to me to keep the account in good standing. But I'm not prepared to jump through a lot of hoops to keep it, so I wondered what your experience leaving the platform has been like.

Thank you for doing this AMA. You've been very generous with your time both to myself and others, and I deeply appreciate it.

(PS: doesn't it seem weird to you that a brandable domain marketplace is using such a crappy domain as SquadHelp.com?)
 
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Hi twiki, can you talk about the process of closing your SH account?

Did you remove your names abruptly or did you give them notice in order to keep the account in good standing? If the later, how much notice did they require?
Hi, sorry I just noticed your comment now.

You can remove your domains, they asked for 7 days notice which is quite okay. Better discuss with them though.

I'm also curious as to why you closed your SH account. I assume its because they don't sell enough names to justify the 30% commission, but I'd love to hear more.

There was a mix of factors. The main issue being, it did not provide sales. Got the impression (and math confirms) that the sale ratio was actually lower than pointing my landers at Afternic over a similar domain pool. The couple domains I've sold did not convince me. Also the process of listing there is so complicated and time-consuming.

Furthermore, the commission definitely kills it. Overall I took a loss over SH. Plus the fact that I cannot really control the pricing. I disagree with most of their prices. (both high and low) But everyone knows their own stuff.

Thank you for doing this AMA. You've been very generous with your time both to myself and others, and I deeply appreciate it.

(PS: doesn't it seem weird to you that a brandable domain marketplace is using such a crappy domain as SquadHelp.com?)
Glad to be of help.

About the SH name: They could have rebranded of course. Original name might have been a reverse of the HelpSquad and whoever got it either didn't have much of a clue, OR didn't care, or didn't want to spend on a name, or... one can just assume.

But they did not rebrand, although not such a big thing. But don't ask me why they didn't, I have no idea.

The platform in itself is not bad, I like where they took it and the amount of development behind it. But it just didn't work out for me. Maybe it does for others.
 
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Twiki, which would you say is the ideal portfolio size that combines quantity and quality and could provide a reasonable annual income from domaining? I don't know if there is an answer to this question but if you could make an estimate.. Thanks and hope things will get better :)
 
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Twiki, which would you say is the ideal portfolio size that combines quantity and quality and could provide a reasonable annual income from domaining? I don't know if there is an answer to this question but if you could make an estimate.. Thanks and hope things will get better :)
No there is no such thing.

Can be 10 domains or 100,000 ....

It all depends
 
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this is a good thread. as for the .xyz extension i think it's unstoppable until we finish the alphabet or until someone got their own extension, to each it's own.
just stay away from monkeypox.xyz and covid.xyz i can say, reg them if still available.
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.
 
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In my experience Sedo mls-premium, is a mess. Why: you can't add or remove domains easily, things may remain in pending state and you will never know what will hapen next. Your price may not be shown everywhere on their network. I mean tested on a few domains only, but all possible bad scenarios happened already, and I had to work hard to reset everywthing, maybe including removing domains from my account, or transfering domains to another registrar.
It may not be Sedo's fault, and it may be purely registrar's fault.
But anyway it is a bad system. And because of this I don't try Afternic's system either. For example, a domain drops, someone registers it, and the old price is shown to the public. Who knows, maybe your domains can be stolen this way as well, how can we know, if both the marketplace and registrar are evil/or/incompetent.
Fixed price without mls?: prices are extremely difficult to remove (unless you manage domains offline and upload csv everyday).
Why insist on stupidity/or/evil.

Afternic is not like that.

The moment a domain enters expiration it goes into review and no longer for sale on Afternic. That is basically instant on Afternic, never saw a domain that just expired and is still listed.

Furthermore if a domain changes hands its whois changes and Afternic will instantly either remove it or put in review. Also when relisted by someone else it will show as "listed by another seller" so yo have to ask for a manual review which takes a bit but makes sure there's indeed a new owner (my account manager does this fast for me though).
 
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Domain may not expire and whois may not change; if domain is grabbed (sold or kept) by registrar (whois hidden). Also change of registrar may not mean domain was lost, so there is no reason to remove them in this case.
 
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Domain may not expire and whois may not change; if domain is grabbed (sold or kept) by registrar (whois hidden). Also change of registrar may not mean domain was lost, so there is no reason to remove them in this case.
I've never had such situation like you describe - domain is grabbed (sold or kept) by registrar (whois hidden).

This is not a sufficient case not to use Afternic Fast Transfer due to this rather special and totally infrequent situation. Unless you have top of the line names, well in that case all precautions are needed.

Otherwise if not, your view of this is rather extreme. I've probably rolled 100k names so far, still own 7.5k names, well, never had this with any of the registrars I worked with.

Also if my registrar would do that, I'd change it instantly.

Edit: But of course everyone is free to decide for themselves as to what suits them or not. I personally don't use SedoMLS as I definitely don't like it.
 
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I like fast transfer (idea), but I don't trust it (because of sedo experience).
 
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@twiki

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

Brad
 
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The moment a domain enters expiration it goes into review and no longer for sale on Afternic. That is basically instant on Afternic, never saw a domain that just expired and is still listed.

This doesn't match my experience. About 1/10 domains that I drop reg are already listed on Afternic and I have to email them a screenshot to have the listing removed. I've actually got a list of 40 domains I need to email about right now. The WHOIS dates have been reset and all that.

I've also got a script I can show you privately that lists domains currently in GoDaddy closeout auctions that are also actively listed on Afternic. On any given day there's at least 30 in the list. Those are still in the redemption period, however.
 
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