advice Holding on to Domain Names

[Donte Burks]

I have a question that you seasoned traders can maybe answer for me. As I am researching and considering jumping into this arena, I have noticed the term "portfolio" used. I understand what it means in this practice, however I am curious to learn, how long, on average, does the general practitioner, keep any specific domain name before dumping or allowing expiration if that is even a thing to do.

In other words, if you buy a domain, and didn't manage to sell it in a year's time, do you renew? or do you allow it to expire? I mean I would think that if you did all the reasonable marketing and get it in front of as many potential buyers and you could and still didn't manage to sell it in a year, than it would be so valuable to you and would become more a liability to you financially.

Thoughts???

 

[karmaco]

Even great names can take many years to sell. That’s why there are so many 20 plus year old domains. Being able to sell in the first year you own it is: a good name, luck or a low price. This is a very long game.

As far as your question, large amounts of names are dropping and snapped up every day at expired auctions, back orders and hand registration of dropped names. Each person here probably makes those decisions year to year based on interest, value of domain and other factors including financial.

Unless you intend to be a fast flipper (buy low sell low) you can expect to hold names for years. It takes money to make money just like any other business.

 

[J Lester]

Within your portfolio, you will have domains that are worth holding for a short or longer term period. A prudent domainer will always review his/her portfolio on an annual basis to determine which domains to hold and which ones may need to be allowed to expire. Some very valuable domains can be held for years prior to be sold because of their worth. Other domains may grow in value over time based on their genre/category. Critically important is the domain value and how long you can or want to hold on certain domains to obtain a competitive price based upon realistic values. It takes time and you must use the proper tools to know and evaluate your portfolio on a regular basis.

 

[Ategy]

Be careful to differentiate answers between PASSIVE DOMAINERS (inbound and buy it now only) and ACTIVE DOMAINERS (also does outbound).

I'll give my answer as a passive domainer (I haven't done any outbound sales .. YET .. soon to change I hope .. lol):


Basically it's understood that a very good portfolio sells on average 2% of it's domains a year (at retail prices .. if you liquidate your portfolio at wholesale prices that percentage will obviously go up). Which effectively means it takes an average of 50 years to sell a good domain at retail. So I think it's a very bad idea to drop a domain just because it didn't sell after a year.

That being said .. as you get better as a domainer year and year and recognise the difference between a cool domain vs a domain that actually has a chance to sell, you should use the expiration date as an ideal time to judge whether the domain itself is good enough to hold or to drop.

For most domainers, particularly when they start, after the first year they let a lot of domains drop (expire), then each year in theory if they survive as a domainer and improve their knowledge, they get better domains and as such the percentage of domains they let expire each year goes down.

I'm finishing my 3rd year, and I'm letting very few domains drop these days, although it helps that I'm doing well (in domaining .. lol) and making a profit, so that gives me confidence in my ability to acquire good domains at good prices.

At the end of the day while I'm still a relative newish domainer, I have no set rules on whether or not to drop a domain from my portfolio other than the quality of the domain itself.

 

[namekahuna]

If it's a good domain you believe in then you shouldn't let it expire but let other ones expire as the cost starts adding up once you start accumulating lots of names.

 

[ddzc]

I prune yearly and go with my gut on many of my decisions. I have particular domains which I'm stuck on and will never allow them to expire. Others, I question why I even bought them, and let them expire.

One of my early investing mistakes were to load up on multiple $2-300 purchases, when instead, I should have invested 1-1.5K on a solid name which has a much better chance at selling than the 4-5, in addition, less overhead.

 

[lock]

I have domains decades old still not going to drop and plenty I have so it boils down to individual merit.

 

[lock]

I will add there is holding and there is parking without parking you're not only holding your hiding.

 

[outofoz32]

I will add there is holding and there is parking without parking you're not only holding your hiding.

Agreed. Not all parking is beneficial to everyone.

 

[sellnow]

I would like hold on some domain ,maximum for 3 years,no more, because I am not investor, I only seller ,sometime as a broker.I usually build website or build some relevant traffic based niche .

I offer visitor with valuable ads placement or paid review service, and set minimum price to renew that domain. IMO , domain isn't assets , but its like play a lottery, buy $ 10 then get $ 25.000 or more

 

[Bob Hawkes]

however I am curious to learn, how long, on average, does the general practitioner, keep any specific domain name before dumping or allowing expiration if that is even a thing to do.

@Ategy.com has already provided a very complete answer, but I will add my personal perspective (as mainly a passive investor by his terms).

For me I try to evaluate roughly the probability of a sale in any one year and also a likely net proceeds from a sale, on a domain by domain basis. For argument let's say I have a domain and I think my probability of a sale is 4% and the likely net is $400. The break even is $16 per year ($400 divided by 25 the likely number of years would need to hold on average), so if renewal is more than that it does not make sense to hold. To me however, if the first year is discounted to $5 per year, it makes sense to try it for one year only. So I hold a subset long term, and try a large number for one year only.

However, if the probability of sale was estimated to be only 1% for the domain name, then it would only make sense to hold if the yearly cost was $4 or less so even one year does not make sense. Of course the hard part is getting those estimates of probability of sale and net return .

Bob

PS I am assuming no development and monetization. Of course if you do that the numbers change, and if you make even $10 per year per domain, many domains are worth holding.

 

[Sam1234]

I have a question that you seasoned traders can maybe answer for me. As I am researching and considering jumping into this arena, I have noticed the term "portfolio" used. I understand what it means in this practice, however I am curious to learn, how long, on average, does the general practitioner, keep any specific domain name before dumping or allowing expiration if that is even a thing to do.

In other words, if you buy a domain, and didn't manage to sell it in a year's time, do you renew? or do you allow it to expire? I mean I would think that if you did all the reasonable marketing and get it in front of as many potential buyers and you could and still didn't manage to sell it in a year, than it would be so valuable to you and would become more a liability to you financially.

Thoughts???

The market is largely driven by the people hoarding the names, so when the economy is good domain prices are high, and vice versa. If you have a genuinely good name, it will tend to go up over time (barring some long-running global economic crisis), and it will grow in value as you hang on to it. The money someone puts in to renew it is always a good investment if the domain has real value, but new opportunities come along all the time and sometimes you have to let one domain go to buy or renew another. If you had infinite money, you could not go wrong by buying up all the valuable domains you see (assuming you have an eye for picking them) and renewing them endlessly. Just remember that you can have a million dollars in domains and it will mean nothing if you lose your job, have no savings, and suddenly have to stop renewing the domains.

 

[biggie]

I have noticed the term "portfolio" used.

Hi

yeah, you might see the term used, but when or if you get a chance to see some of these "portfolios", many are just lists of ty names.

seriously though, if you got a list of names that haven't sold or received any s anignificant offers or none earn any ppc revenue..... then what would you call it?

as for holding names

like others have said, many of us have held domains for over a decade, before selling.

sometimes, you have a let a domain mature or let the times catch up to it.
then again, sometimes you let some drop and prolly if they are decent, huge domains or some other domainer will catch it.




imo...

 

[Mister Funsky]

if you buy a domain, and didn't manage to sell it in a year's time, do you renew? or do you allow it to expire?

To my mind, if the sale of a name within a year of the acquisition is the goal, that is more of a 'flipper' or 'day trader' type of move (unless it is a 3L or 4L that you get cheap and buyers are lined up to get it).

If the goal is to find a retail buyer regardless of the time it may take to sell (because the name is that good) the term 'domain investor' is more applicable.

I am sitting on names that are up to 21 years old (I call the oldest one grandpa) as well as one that is just a few hours old (an awesome hand reg). Both names are superior and will not move out of my hands unless they bring at least 70% of retail value.

As a side note I let a name drop just over a year ago...it got snagged by a dropcatch and it just sold for about 5500...if only I had sprung for that extra ten bucks to renew!

 

[Donte Burks]

I think it's no secret that I jumped into this with no real knowledge of the arena, and with the wrong expectations. No longer am I interested in this thing. At least, not at this time. because I'm not prepared to hold on to these names any more than a year. So I'm going to be dumping them very cheaply. So keep an eye out. I will post them very soon. Feel free to share this thread post.

 

[.X.]

I have 4 letter, letter-number-letter or LNL, NLL and ect .com domains that I have been renewing for 10 years now, more because I like them personally as opposed to what they might be worth some day.

Everyone is different as to what their priorities are within the domain name industry. There isn’t a wrong or right in my opinion.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

As a side note I let a name drop just over a year ago...it got snagged by a dropcatch and it just sold for about 5500...if only I had sprung for that extra ten bucks to renew!

That must be both sad and also though proud that you saw the strength to acquire it initially. It must feel a little frustrating though!

I really liked your distinction between day trader type domain investing (hold for a year) vs long term holding.

Thanks for interesting post, and hope you get $5500 for one that you kept soon!

Bob

 

[MTB]

I have a question that you seasoned traders can maybe answer for me. As I am researching and considering jumping into this arena, I have noticed the term "portfolio" used.

To me, portfolio means anything I've registered for 2-10 years. I have about 130 domains (98% .com), and about 50 are registered for 2-5 years, three are registered for 10 years. The rest registered for 1 year and could sell $100-$250+ but I won't renew them when they expire if they don't sell first

 

[Name Trader]

I try to drop between 15% and 20% of my domains each year, just to eliminate the dross acquired. I do this on a monthly basis based on the expiring domains that month.

 

[Brands.International]

I have a question that you seasoned traders can maybe answer for me. As I am researching and considering jumping into this arena, I have noticed the term "portfolio" used. I understand what it means in this practice, however I am curious to learn, how long, on average, does the general practitioner, keep any specific domain name before dumping or allowing expiration if that is even a thing to do.

In other words, if you buy a domain, and didn't manage to sell it in a year's time, do you renew? or do you allow it to expire? I mean I would think that if you did all the reasonable marketing and get it in front of as many potential buyers and you could and still didn't manage to sell it in a year, than it would be so valuable to you and would become more a liability to you financially.

Thoughts???

Even some good names can take 20 years to sell, particularly if you want a full price for them (full - maximum what is possible to achieve, realistically).

So if you invest, you simply keep your good names and pray for a buyer to come

You can flip domains as well: in this mode, you need to sell, sell, sell, as you are using your domain income to pay your bills (in many cases your immediate bills) - this is valid mode to be as well, but usually many hundreds times less profitable comparing to mode where you can really wait for well paying end user (as flippers (those who flip) are usually selling to other domain investors for low prices).