How can a Newbie recover from this mistake

Parmeet · Feb 27, 2021

Hi,

Like most New comers in this industry, I made the same mistake of registering a set of hand-registered domain names. I have registered 40 domain names before joining NamePros and after reading NP for a month I feel that I am in some trouble. I have listed these domain names on each market mentioned on the NP. But since they are Hand Regs I doubt that my decision to buy them. Because Domaining needs a lot of patience, I can hold these domain names for 3-5 years, but I don't know if they really have the Potential.

How can I overcome this? Should I start outbounding or I should just wait? Should I liquidate them at the end of registration period or Should I renew them all? The biggest question I have is what price should I enlist them? Below are the domains I have registered. Do you see any potential in these domain names?

PryNow.com
AttemptNow.com
BegNow.com
HeapNow.com
OweNow.com
PeelNow.com
PreferNow.com
ExamineNow.com
ForgetNow.com
CriticizeNow.com
KetogenicDietMenu.com
AdmireNow.com
BurpNow.com
DetermineNow.com
DislikeNow.com
ShutNow.com
DenyNow.com
IgnoreNow.com
ImplyNow.com
MarinateNow.com
MentionNow.com
NarrowNow.com
SnoreNow.com
StarTrailPhotography.com
SwearNow.com
ChesterfieldCountyRealEstate.com
DifferNow.com
ForbidNow.com
InsistNow.com
MoanNow.com
NeglectNow.com
PortMacquarieRealEstate.com
QuadrupleNow.com
RefuseNow.com
SpecifyNow.com
WashoeCountyRealEstate.com
AssumeNow.com
IntendNow.com
OvertakeNow.com
RealestateVsStocks.com
SupposeNow.com

Bob Hawkes · Feb 28, 2021

Of the many now in your portfolio, I have an easier time seeing potential end use for ExamineNow.com than most of the others.

Possible end use might be something like online testing services (increased attention during pandemic), appraisals of documents or collectables, credential around software expertise, background check services, investigation, etc. I have not researched the name enough to say if you should keep it or not, and not looked at comparable past sales, if any, but I can see the logic in the name.

According to OpenCorporates here are 56 businesses and organizations that use or are alternatively known by a name that includes examine (although none with the word now as well). Now is used with other words a lot though, 20,000+ names on OpenCorporates include now.

I also looked at NameBio to see how many .com sales have now as a suffix. There were 489, a pretty respectable number. Here is the list organized by price. I might look at the list to find comparators, names that have sold say in the last 5 years, which have a verb + now structure and with the word of comparable suitability and common nature to examine.

As I said, I have not done the research needed for a renew decision, but if selecting one of your Now names to research more it would be this one. I hope this might help as you research others on your list.

Bob

PS Another useful check I just did was a Google search, with quotations, on "examine now". It yields quite a few results, and some of them gave me additional use possibilities I had not considered before, such as home inspection services, for example.

Bob Hawkes · Feb 27, 2021

Domain name investing is not easy, fast, or assured @Parmeet . A typical portfolio has a retail sell-through rate of about 1%, meaning that with a typical portfolio of 40 odds are there is about 1 chance in 2 that a single name would have sold at the end of one year.

The link above to popular keywords by @Future Sensors is a useful tool in assessing your domain names.

I would provide my clear opinion on the following question. No.

Parmeet said:
Should I renew them all?

It is almost never good advice to just renew all domain names. Evaluate each domain, being rigorous, and only keep names which you think have a good number of possible end users that would benefit from the name. If you feel that a better name could be acquired, then don't keep that one. I am not saying none of your domain names should be renewed. Just don't renew any without a clear analysis with a positive outcome.

You may find the following links helpful:

Free Research Tools for Domain Investing
A Selection of NamePros Resources for Those New to Domain Investing
Hand Registering Domain Names (but really most apply to auction or closeout acquisitions as well)

Welcome to NamePros and best wishes for success. This is not easy, but it can be challenging, interesting, and rewarding.

Bob

johnn · Feb 27, 2021

Register one more name
INeedToLearnNow
and consider the money you paid for these names are the money to pay for the lesson.
No one can help you but yourself.
10 people will have 12 different ideas and that would not help but confuse you more.

See you next year. Hope you will get better.

Future Sensors · Feb 27, 2021

Here's a Top 5000 with the most common domain prefix/suffixes.

https://gist.github.com/erikig/826f49442929e9ecfab6d7c481870700

Adding 'now' is not always bad, but you have to create better combinations.

Samer · Feb 27, 2021

Not the worst hand reg’s seen in my life;

Majority are two words

Submit them to highly selective Brandables marketplace for
“True test”

Thank you for sticking to .COM !!
No hyphen, numbers, or Special characters.
Better than you give yourself, credit for.

Mister Funsky · Feb 28, 2021

Parmeet said:
Should I renew them all?

Not sure if anyone above said this yet, but the answer is 'no'. There could be a couple that might be worth hanging on to...the rest you should liquidate or drop.

Don't feel bad, I doubt there is one person here that has not made the same regging error (I've have hand regged MANY bad names over the years) but the key is learning from the experience.

Stop spending money and spend time reading and learning...successful domain investing takes time.

Bravo Mod Team · Feb 28, 2021

Parmeet said:
ExamineNow.com

With the growth of telehealth, this one stands out.

It’s not too uncommon for startups to choose a single word for their app name and then add a filler word to the front or end of it, such as TheExample.com, MyExample.com, ExampleApp.com, etc.

As far as those are concerned, a “Now” suffix isn’t bad. But typically those startups are looking for inexpensive domains they can buy at registration cost or for a few hundred dollars.

With a larger portfolio, many of these domains might make sense to keep when playing the numbers, and that’s why you’ll even see worse (less likely to sell soon) domains in larger portfolios. However, when starting out with a smaller portfolio, they don’t make as much sense and most beginners can’t justify their carrying cost when the chance of selling one soon is so low.

Fortunately, you’re in the right place to learn and with enough perseverance, you will have an opportunity to succeed.

VadimK · Feb 28, 2021

Bob already mentioned it (with ExamineNow.com), but just to add and generalize - you should always think of the potential business that would want to use certain name. If you can't answer the question -''who'd buy it?'' - don't buy such name. Don't look at how fluid it sounds, it should have an appeal for a certain business.
And never buy ''negatives'' - DislikeNow, ShutNow, DenyNow...
Good luck!

TauseefKhan · Feb 27, 2021

I like when someone bulk registers on a single theme. (here is now which actually is not a strong prefix or suffix) as it increases the chances of sales. But, the keyword has to be strong.

Another thing is stick to names that businesses may value. One of the most common type of business names I have came across consists of two words. The first is a positive word like best, perfect, strong, etc. And, the second word is the industry or service the business caters to like finance, manufacturing, real-estate, tech, etc. Like StrongFinance, PerfectBuilders, etc.

Well, there is lot to learn and analyze as rightly said by @Bob Hawkes

Mike Goodman · Mar 5, 2021

@Parmeet The first thing you should do is to overprice all of those domain names. You can go back and set more realistic prices once you have done the work to set more accurate prices. Do not give them away then discover the mistake. If somebody buys at a high price they at least value their purchase higher than you do. Nobody loses.

What is domain age about? Put yourself in the shoes of a business owner uneducated in the domaining angles of domain names. My interest as that business owner would be "How will this domain name profit my business as against that domain name or the one I already have?" and I would be very likely, in fact I am 100% certain I would, overlook a 26 year old name if a recently hand reg'd was a better fit for my business strategy and I'd be prepared to pay far more for the recent hand reg than for the aged.

The arguments are about page rank, backlinks and SEO history, which can count as deciders between two close candidates but have no business value on their own.

Not to put too fine a point on it, a huge number of domainers emphasise stuff that is utterly irrelevant to the buyers we are looking for and end up in a cycle of selling wholesale to other domainers simply through not even trying to understand the end user's perspective. That is what used to be called flogging a dead horse. Lots of effort for little reward.

It is also true of speculators in a variety of financial instruments, market traders in real goods and more. There is a deeply held belief in each sector, including domaining, that "this is different to other markets". It is not. It is just another sector of the wider market and in general the same principles apply. There are differences in each sector but they are minimal, not even recognisable unless the people making the distinction have a deep knowledge not only of their own market but one or two others to find the comparisons and contrasts with them.

First principles of pricing: who is likely to buy this domain? How profitable is the business sector they are in? How competitive is it? Are there other sectors which this name fits and could I get a higher price there? Does it fit the main value criteria such as short, easy to pronounce, pass the radio test, easy to spell etc? Does it have that extra value factor of hard to forget? How can I make them aware that I have the perfect name for their business case? What is the business case and why is it stronger than others?

For a fist stage introduction, see the issue of DNJournal in which Ron Jackson interviews Mike Mann. IIRC, at the end of it MM talks to his own audience in a training session about pricing, but only touches on the first principles. It's a great introduction but you have to then do your own research and make your own decisions in setting each price.

I think it was this one, but I haven't checked properly: https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2021/dailyposts/20210113.htm

novasyd · Mar 6, 2021

Duck_Duck_Domain said:
Yes, the chance of learning the tricks of the trade.

But some time spending time, energy and money someone may get discouraged if does not get the desired result...of course it all depend on the nature of the person and lots of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’

Actually majority of experience persons opinion matters in my view...as the forum and discussion is for that only, and you get the ready made experience from smart and seniors...with logical solutions.

Pardon me if you don't like my views...

Good Day!

On this forum, you can find some smart experiences such as apprising a 4L for a reg fee and a few months later invest 2K buying a 4L. (same guy)
Also, you can find pros that said that poker.io costs a reg fee and nobody will gonna use .io in future
(all these posts are back in years)

Build your own experience. Trust yourself.

A mistake is to forget auto-renew options on domains that you gonna drop and being charged. :D

Parmeet · Feb 27, 2021

@Bob Hawkes @Samer Thanks for the response. I keep reading your answers here. You both are always ready to help Newbies like me.

CraigD · Feb 28, 2021

PortMacquarieRealEstate//com

Are you in Australia?

theinvestor · Feb 28, 2021

Next year take $400 and buy one domain. Take your time, do your research and then buy.

It’s better to buy one domain then register 40.

Best of luck moving forward.

lock · Mar 5, 2021

Mike Goodman · Mar 5, 2021

Reappraise those prices!!! NOW! I had a quick flick through some of the ones in your list that appeared more promising to me. I can't say I liked any, but they are not in sectors I am interested in. The values I came up with ranged widely from very low to mid-$20k to $30k range. I looked at half a dozen or so in total.

So don't just mindlessly join the herd of "let's underprice for a quick sale" because those looking for value, rather than cheap, will skip straight over them. Also, read some oft the threads here on NP. Cheap often means scam so buyers don't trust them. And you will need that money for reinvestment.

domainflipper1000 said:
Well if it's a matter of "recovering" money, you have to advertise more.

And what better advertising can there be than directly contacting suitable purchasing decision makers in companies the domain name is suitable for?

@Parmeet it appears to me you've done some significant thinking prior to purchasing these domains and as a result you have some excellent candidates for starting your domaining life. In your shoes I'd ignore all of the negative comments in this thread and pat myself on the back for showing some good marketing sense. OK, there may be a few pieces of dross in with your selections but it's a cheap price to pay for great learning materials very early on.

Marketing as a management discipline is a catch-all title, encompassing planning, strategy, advertising, sales, public relations and more. The keystone is strategy and you've got yourself off to a good start. There are many business sectors, sub-sectors and niches and you have clearly picked out one or two likely to prove profitable for you not just with these names, but in the future as you build up your contact bases of buyers within them.

The trick is to stay in touch with them if you possibly can. Direct selling, called "outbounding" on here (is that an American term, or is it more modern and I'm just out of touch?), puts you in touch with people so you can get to know at least some of them. The passive sites, mostly, keep you separated from them and the Afternics, DANs, Sedos et al of this world get the marketing benefits of your contacts instead of you. The only one I'm aware of which is transparent in this respect is Epik.

For outbounding, by the way, set up a deal with an escrow company. Pointless paying commissions to a platform when you've done everything, from finding the prospect to selling the name. You have choices here, such as Escrow.com but DAN and Epik also offer escrow services and there are others. Talk to whichever you wish to go with and ensure you only pay for the escrow, not sales or other commissions.

On the question of developing sites, the idea is to build an income slowly by occasionally taking one name from the ones you have which you consider to be undervalued by the market and develop it. An income of $10 per month (round figures) pays for 12 renewals per year and offsets some of your domaining costs. If you have 10+ sites after, say, three or four years you are supporting a reasonable number of renewals for very little effort. And $10 per site is a very low estimate. It can be hundreds per month on some sites.

You also multiply the market saleability and price of each of those names so if you then decide to sell you will make a lot more money on each one.

Hoping that helps. Good luck and a fair wind to you. Let us know how you get on and do ask if anything isn't clear.

bmugford · Mar 6, 2021

Honestly, this is not a terrible list of domains for hand regs. You are at least on the right track with mainly (2) word .COM.

I could see a domain like ExamineNow.com selling to an end user eventually. Some of the real estate ones you might be able to sell to end users directly for $XXX range.

I would say at least 98% of first registrations are far worse.

Brad

Parmeet · Feb 27, 2021

Future Sensors said:
Here's a Top 5000 with the most common domain prefix/suffixes.

Thanks a lot! That is a really helpful list

SuperBrander · Feb 27, 2021

The chance of one of these 'Now' domains to sell is 1 in a billion, IMO. None of them makes sense for a business to use. Consider this the price of education. Drop them all, learn more and buy better domains. The few that aren't using the word 'Now'... are slightly better.

Parmeet · Feb 28, 2021

CraigD said:
PortMacquarieRealEstate//com

Are you in Australia?

No, I was thinking to invest in real estate niche specific domains, and this one was one of the top searched globally, so I hand registered it.

alcy · Feb 28, 2021

nobody gets it on first try
...even neo...

domaining takes 1000s hours research and work
..then u make profit.

Corey · Feb 28, 2021

How can a Newbie recover from this mistake?

Learn from your mistakes

Cheers
Corey

handpicked · Feb 28, 2021

If you know packaging and selling business, MarinateNow.com can be TM'ed and used for selling ready marinate spice mix (quick masala mix formula) - people will not forget this name, even in the midst of husband & wife fight ...

just a thought.

Mike Goodman · Mar 4, 2021

The first question is how long ago did you register them? If it was within, say, the past three or four months you have plenty of time to work out how to get a better idea of each one's value to an end user and form a plan of action for those worth keeping and those you should dump at renewal time (but only do so if you can't get something back on them beforehand).

It is far easier to learn when you have some actual materials to learn with. The advice to learn for a year or two before buying when you've already bought seems somewhat posthumous to me. Surely the advice should be "if you haven't bought yet don't, and if you have use those purchases as learning materials to great effect".

If renewal time is much closer there's less time to take stock. Still not a disaster so long as you can pick up, very quickly, how to value a domain name.

It's good to hear that you are not against direct selling (outbounding). One or two in your list may be worth the effort if you know how to target relevant individuals within prospective purchasing businesses.

One other question is whether you can develop web sites? You could greatly enhance the values of a small number of those names by building sites and either selling them on as sites instead of as domain names, or generate advertising or sponsorship income and thus a long term income from them.

So please let us know the answers, especially when you bought them all, and we may be able to offer you a few more options.

SuperBrander · Mar 5, 2021

Regarding Examine Now- this specific name at least makes a little more sense than others in the OP's post. However, buying it is still a bad investment because the word 'Examine', which should be the main word in the combo since 'Now' is a filler word, is weak. According to Namebio, there were 4 reported sales ever that start with 'Examine'. One is the sale of examine.com, so that one can be ignored. Here are the other three:

examinership.com 9,182 USD 2017-04-04 Hitnamer
examinedlifejournal.com 580 USD 2013-04-23 NameJet
examines.com 722 USD 2012-02-20 NameJet

There hasn't been a single reported sale of a two word combo that starts with 'Examine'. So why encourage the OP to keep it by trying to think of possible uses? Possible uses are easy to come up with. But the chances a company will come along and be fixated on this name enough to want to pay even a few hundred bucks for it is almost non-existent. Crazy sales happen, but why invest based on hopes and prayers? Our job as domainers who want to make money is to choose domains that not only sound like they could be used by businesses, but also have a decent probability, preferably a high one, of actually selling to an end user. If people are into betting on extreme long shots and once in a blue moon making a random sale, then good luck and it's their money to lose. But if they actually want to make money out of domaining on a consistent basis, then they should make smart investment decisions.

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