information Hi. Let me tell you some interesting events that happend in the old days of domaining.

[theSun]

Once upon a time, there was a guy, named Kevin Ham. He rocked the entire domaining world. He rocked my socks and maybe many domainers. (I think). He is the wizard of domaining. (I think). He had an "agreement" which allied with the Cameroon .CM TLD registry operator and redirect all unregistered domain names to Agoga (Search engine ads provider). He made billions serving CPM CPA ads with landing pages with these "unregistered" .cm domain names. e.g. Disney.cm, Amazon.cm, etc etc. Because .CM is actually a typo of .COM, therefore, too many .CM domains gets lots of lots of traffic from mistypes of .COM domains. He was flying under the radar because the domain names are not "registered", that is why no one could beat him down, because the .CM domain names are simply not registered. So. He rocks. Period.

Once upon another time, there was this group of top elites domainers (maybe actually is a small group of a few people only) called FMA. Future Media Architects. Have you heard of them? They are very sexy. Why? They are the guys that hand registered 4 digits numeric .com domain names. Do you know the price of how much a 4 digits numeric .com domain is worth? Maybe you can do a research and find it out yourself first. I will leave this as your homework. You will be shocked about how much times of profit now they can make by selling. They registered a few at a time each day. (Yes, so there were actually many 4 digits .com available. Everyone had time to register. But the majority did not take action, only FMA had the vision and guts, and a minority followers followed them and registered a few.) until the day all 4 digits .com dried up. What do you learn from this? Believe in yourself. And? If you are unsure about the future, try and take small steps at a time each day, and minimize risk.

Then there came a time where another group called Marchex Inc hand registered (again). 5 digits numerics .com domain names and built a gigantic network of country codes, zip codes, postal codes, etc of the world or USA only, and built many local websites. That news shocked the grounds of the domaining world as rarely do we see a group or a person bulk registered 50000+ domain names over night.

15 to 13 years ago, they were the most exiting days. I used to refresh domains for sale sub-forums almost every 10 seconds to see what domains are for sale. 3 letters .com were selling at $300 a pop, and 3 letters .net were selling at $65 a pop. Amazing how much they are now worth isn't it? And now I refresh NamePros forums looking to buy names of my interest. I feel those days are back. I am happy.

That's about all I can think of for now. Maybe I will add more later when I remember. Thank you for reading. I hope you have an amusing read. Enjoy a cup of coffee, and good bye for now.

 

[WilsonM]

Thanks for this. Always good to know about an industry's history especially when you are new.

 

[deez007]

Love IT! Awesome post mate... really entertaining read....

Thanks for sharing

 

[bluebox]

Once upon a time (a few months ago actually) we had people buying LLLL.com, LLLL.net, 6N.com, etc at a peak - 'cause, you know, Chinese Investors are crazy and have unlimited budget so prices will rise indefinitely.
Now they all are sick to their stomach because they either sell at loss or wait god know how long just to break even.

"If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians."
Warren Buffett

 

[MR Harrist]

the next thing would be Dot US. because I spend $50 to get 54 domain! a few one keywords and 3lnn, etc. but if not, well who cares, its only $50 right . lets see what happen next !

 

[domeen]

Long time no update. How are you doing?

Imma tella you anotha story.

Once upon aother time, there was this "leet" dude, named Yakov. I think he is russian. He is leet. Many people forgot about him already. But I remember him. Sometimes. His full name is Yakov Yukhananov. Why is he leet? 13 years ago, he already has 2 two letters .com, and 35 three letters .com. A year later, he has 95+ three letters .com. We do not see big bosses with big portfolios like this everyday. That is why I remember him.

Why Yakov? Because legend always lives. And if everyone tella you a story that has already been told, then why I tella you la? I tella you a story that you have not been heard or read, from the old days of domaining. I write in my own style way.

I also remember he backordered at godaddy and snatched many godly names one day, when the .US registry released state names to the general public. He backordered like tens of the states names, and snatched them ALL for $9 a piece for backordering price at godaddy. Because nobody would expect them to be released suddenly. Names I recall like miami.us, etc.

I was stunned.

I was stunned at how much he got such ridiculously premium names at such low price. I like it. I became a fan of him. I don't know if he is still into domaining. But, maybe, he has already earned enough and now fishing everyday in the Caribbean sea, enjoying a Cohiba in hand.

Everyday vacation. Happy for him.

Oh, you want to see his old collection?

Here they are:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/constantly-buying-domains.9879/

https://www.namepros.com/threads/ill-make-you-rich.37257/

Peace.

I remember him, one point he had at least 10 two letter . Com-s, that he was selling10k each