How do you get over "missing the gold rush"

[Jasonn]

Lets face it. To get good domains, i mean really good ones you have to pay out the ass these days. I started buying domains in 1998 and the ones I have from back then are worthless. I had no idea of generics. It kills me almost every day to think that if I just would of realized the potential behind generics instead of trying to find unique names to brand I would be a millionaire right now.

I suppose the easy way to get past it would be to get that one awesome deal that would sell for xxx,xxx but its so hard to compete against the huge money these already rich domainers offer people. Its a constant uphill battle and it drives me nuts that I missed out on something that will probably never happen again in the history of the internet. Those lucky bastards who just happen to reg 40-50 good names back in 95 sealed their financial fate for life in one afternoon. Perhaps if i was a few years older, or perhaps if I lived in a more urban area rather than a rural one..who knows. Anyways, this is just a rant. It bothers me quite often.

 

[Keith]

Lets face it. To get good domains, i mean really good ones you have to pay out the ass these days. I started buying domains in 1998 and the ones I have from back then are worthless. I had no idea of generics. It kills me almost every day to think that if I just would of realized the potential behind generics instead of trying to find unique names to brand I would be a millionaire right now.

I suppose the easy way to get past it would be to get that one awesome deal that would sell for xxx,xxx but its so hard to compete against the huge money these already rich domainers offer people. Its a constant uphill battle and it drives me nuts that I missed out on something that will probably never happen again in the history of the internet. Those lucky bastards who just happen to reg 40-50 good names back in 95 sealed their financial fate for life in one afternoon. Perhaps if i was a few years older, or perhaps if I lived in a more urban area rather than a rural one..who knows. Anyways, this is just a rant. It bothers me quite often.

Missed oppurtunities suck, no doubt about it. However, do not assume that you will never get another chance to score in the domain game. I am one who believes .com could be knocked down off it's thrown at some point in our lifetime. The trick is to find out which ext will be the one to de-throne the king

 

[accent]

Ever hear of LLLL.coms?

That reg-fee boat left the dock November 2 of last year, and some of the folks aboard may well find the journey takes them to millionaire land.

LLL.mobis went for reg fee for a couple weeks in October, 2006. They have done nicely since, and may be about to move upward again.

The generic .com boat left the dock a long time ago, but there are other boats that leave periodically. The trick is to recognise the best ones. The NNNNN.com boat is leaving as we speak - I have no idea where it is going so I am not aboard. There are more boats after that. That generic .com boat looks so mighty, in part, because it has had longer to sail. As long as the internet keeps growing there will be opportunities.

I bought a handful of domains this week that I have stellar hopes for --- just working a couple angles that others have been neglecting. You can be lucky or you can be smart. Luck will have to take care of itself, but smart just takes research and thought.

 

[geb9696]

Lets face it. To get good domains, i mean really good ones you have to pay out the ass these days. I started buying domains in 1998 and the ones I have from back then are worthless. I had no idea of generics. It kills me almost every day to think that if I just would of realized the potential behind generics instead of trying to find unique names to brand I would be a millionaire right now.

I suppose the easy way to get past it would be to get that one awesome deal that would sell for xxx,xxx but its so hard to compete against the huge money these already rich domainers offer people. Its a constant uphill battle and it drives me nuts that I missed out on something that will probably never happen again in the history of the Internet. Those lucky bastards who just happen to reg 40-50 good names back in 95 sealed their financial fate for life in one afternoon. Perhaps if i was a few years older, or perhaps if I lived in a more urban area rather than a rural one..who knows. Anyways, this is just a rant. It bothers me quite often.

I have to disagree that there is not opportunity on the Internet to make money and the there are no more gold rush opportunities. The past year has presented the average domainer tons of opportunity to get rich. Those who saw the opportunity have profited nicely from it. Given the buyouts in L-L-L.coms, LLLL.coms, and LLL.in they were all available over the past year for reg fee and now sell at at least double reg fee. The was and still is money to be made. You may not be able to register a name and park it and the sit back and pay your mortgage with the parking revenue bit it is definitely possible to make money.

 

[netklick]

Lets face it. To get good domains, i mean really good ones you have to pay out the ass these days. I started buying domains in 1998 and the ones I have from back then are worthless. I had no idea of generics. It kills me almost every day to think that if I just would of realized the potential behind generics instead of trying to find unique names to brand I would be a millionaire right now.

I suppose the easy way to get past it would be to get that one awesome deal that would sell for xxx,xxx but its so hard to compete against the huge money these already rich domainers offer people. Its a constant uphill battle and it drives me nuts that I missed out on something that will probably never happen again in the history of the internet. Those lucky bastards who just happen to reg 40-50 good names back in 95 sealed their financial fate for life in one afternoon. Perhaps if i was a few years older, or perhaps if I lived in a more urban area rather than a rural one..who knows. Anyways, this is just a rant. It bothers me quite often.

Jasonn, I've had domain names when they were $70/year and I think it was around the same period when you registered domain names. However, not one good name!!! Why?, because I was just a teenager with no vision for the future, no knowledge of investments for the future and importantly no patience.

I think back sometimes, but I know I would not have kept any names if I had registered few good generics or LLL or whatever back then because I was just eager to make a quick buck and move on. Those who made the most money are those who bought them and kept them as an investment.

There are many opportunities out there, there will be more emerging as we speak. Don't feel like you missed the boat, get on a new boat of your own. Look at the LLLL dot com market, it is FANTASTIC! Still room to grow and it will grow. There is a total of 460K LLLL dot coms but there are millions and million of websites, the demand will only go up and up!

So get off the "I missed the million dollar boat story" and get on the "I am an investor and domains are in my portfolio boat". You will do well. Just learn the market because it is growing and not shrinking.

 

[onewordonly]

Yes I agree there are many opportunities that we can take hold of now, we are still a lucky few out of the general population that are experienced to know the value of domain trading. I missed the boat in 96/97 when I was also so close as we had Internet business's but I'm glad that I still got another chance now to be in when the industry is still very young. As mentioned there are new goldmines around right now, I would suggest looking at some of the threads here about NNNNN & LLLLL etc, even buying LLLL.com from auctions ect could still be very lucrative investment.

 

[-REECE-]

I was in pretty much the same boat as you... Started at a real young age and really had no clue what I was doing... It isn't that much harder to have success domaining today than it was 10 years ago... Had I played my cards right, I could have made a million over the last 18 months alone, but I didn't...

LLL.mobi @ $30 (post-landrush in October 2006) was worth around $250 since March 07. Assuming you bulk sold them at say $200 per, you'd have almost a 600% ROI. Had you taken that money and immediately invested it in the best LLLL.coms available at the time (triple premiums), you'd have a further 1000% or so ROI up till February 2008.

As in you could have turned 20k into about $120,000 between October 2006 and March 2007 (with LLL.mobis) and then turned that $120,000 into about $1,200,000 (with LLLL.coms).

I hit the nail on the head with LLLL.coms and ended up making about a 600% ROI on them before I sold but still can't forgive myself for what I felt was a no-brainer on the LLL.mobis...

We all make mistakes but the biggest mistake of all would be thinking there still aren't big opportunities out there.

Jasonn, I've had domain names when they were $70/year and I think it was around the same period when you registered domain names. However, not one good name!!! Why?, because I was just a teenager with no vision for the future, no knowledge of investments for the future and importantly no patience.

I think back sometimes, but I know I would not have kept any names if I had registered few good generics or LLL or whatever back then because I was just eager to make a quick buck and move on. Those who made the most money are those who bought them and kept them as an investment.

There are many opportunities out there, there will be more emerging as we speak. Don't feel like you missed the boat, get on a new boat of your own. Look at the LLLL dot com market, it is FANTASTIC! Still room to grow and it will grow. There is a total of 460K LLLL dot coms but there are millions and million of websites, the demand will only go up and up!

So get off the "I missed the million dollar boat story" and get on the "I am an investor and domains are in my portfolio boat". You will do well. Just learn the market because it is growing and not shrinking.

 

[Devil_Dog]

I find it better to look forward and not to look back and think "Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda".

 

[Pred]

you have to be prepared to not just do domaining.
the real pot of gold if you like is in development.
most domainers are too lazy or not willing to put ideas into practice to achieve it.

i'll use the extreme example of youtube only regged and started in feb '05
http://whois.domaintools.com/youtube.com

i believe it was late '06 it was sold

look at them all, myspace, facebook etc
the billions they have sold for

look at the recent sales, a memebr here and at dnf sold bored.com for $4.5 million. hotornot.,com sold for $20 million today

look at offering something new and exciting, then look to monetize

if you want a great name bargains are there

i was the same , didnt reg anything of worth 99/200, pure rubbish

we have the knowledge now, knowledge is power. dont always sell out for the quick profit, a mistake many make

LLL.mobis were and still are a good investment. i nailed only maybe 6 or 7 as were $60 to reg and decided a generic word, or animal for example is far better than a LLL. i would translate that in any extension

buying and selling is fun, but develop some, make that the main interest, buy and sell names and try and trade up is my best advice.
i too like you almost daily think back to early nineties and think why? why didnt i. it bugs me too

 

[ssamriga]

yeah, there are still possibilities.
of course now i also regret that I wasn't confident enough about LLLL.coms in August 2007 when I regged a few, I could have regged 2000 for only 14k, all these could now be easily sold for at least 50 each (many tripple premiums were available then can as well count 80 each), so it would make my 14k now into 100-160k in 6months! I could buy a Porsche
Though I try not to mourn about it and hope that some great opportunities are still ahead

 

[italiandragon]

I find it better to look forward and not to look back and think "Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda".

I think many many people will sing that in the future.....the more we go ahead the bigger it gets.

 

[Kate]

The goldrush of the 1990s is over indeed but there are still plenty of opportunities left.
For sure domaining is cut-throat business today when compared to the early days.
But I'm sure that 10 years on we will look at now like a golden era as business will have become even tougher by then
It's never too late. And what is even worrying - but at the same good for us - is the fact that many companies still don't get the importance of good domain names. Even the advertising industry has a mindset stuck in the 20th century. Domains will continue to increase in value enough to make us smile.
But I also see threats looming around. We definitely need to stay on top of things and adjust as necessary

 

[Pred]

you're right Kate :sold:

 

[rkbdomain]

Generics

I think generic domains are the best bet, numerics (NNNNN's are being bought out as I write this), short letter combinations (LLL, LLLL), and single words (names, cities, diseases, you name it). These are scarce real estate and will only continue to rise in value as internet use grows around the world. I am also a firm believer in .com, who knows what will happen with .mobi, .tv, .eu, .info, etc., but a .com will always be a .com.

 

[gingeman]

Couldn't agree more with what's being said, I only wish I had regged more LLLL.com's last year- just clearing some old spreadsheets from scans I ran when there were thousands left at reg fee- ah well, focus your mind on the future and not on the past!

 

[SlickWorld]

My only regret is I didn't grab my name or last name domain at the time. Now its parked in some large companies portfolio and he wants 10k for it. *sigh*

 

[Jasonn]

Lots of good posts, and I agree its best to look towards the future and what can be done now instead of past regrets. I just can't believe how foolish I was in the old days. Many of you speak about LLLL.com or LLL.mobi, and while they are a cash cow for reselling now, unless you own real quality actual words no one is gonna pay xxx,xxx for them. I guess the trend for those is to sell in bulk.

Excellent point from arnie about development. That used to be all I did but unforunately the odds of creating a youtube or myspace are very slim. I'm not sure about myspace but the youtube guys had a lot of money to get started and most don't have that. Thats the big set back for most people. I could buy my way to the top if i had the money but I just don't. Most big sales these days come from a)old regs from mid 90's or b) ones that were previously bought for amounts out of my price range and sold for even larger amounts. Sometimes its hard to stay positive in a industry full of people with so much more money to do business than I have. I think I'm gonna avoid looking at the dnjournal in the future, lol.

 

[-REECE-]

It's not all that different in the real world when you think about it...

What are the odds that you set up a little pizza shop and a few years later are the next Pizza Hut, Boston Pizza, etc? About zero. The odds of anyone making 100M+ domaining today (without dev) are "about zero" as well, unless you start with a heck of alot of cash, or take alot of very large, likely uncalculated risks.

But some of us might be perfectly happy with a "little pizza shop", being our own boss, making just enough to not worry about not having the money to pay the bills on time,...

I've made over 60k from a 12k investment in LLLL.coms back in August-October and while some of the big guys might think that's McDonald's money and sell a single name for that kind of a profit, you won't hear me complaining

Lots of good posts, and I agree its best to look towards the future and what can be done now instead of past regrets. I just can't believe how foolish I was in the old days. Many of you speak about LLLL.com or LLL.mobi, and while they are a cash cow for reselling now, unless you own real quality actual words no one is gonna pay xxx,xxx for them. I guess the trend for those is to sell in bulk.

Excellent point from arnie about development. That used to be all I did but unforunately the odds of creating a youtube or myspace are very slim. I'm not sure about myspace but the youtube guys had a lot of money to get started and most don't have that. Thats the big set back for most people. I could buy my way to the top if i had the money but I just don't. Most big sales these days come from a)old regs from mid 90's or b) ones that were previously bought for amounts out of my price range and sold for even larger amounts. Sometimes its hard to stay positive in a industry full of people with so much more money to do business than I have. I think I'm gonna avoid looking at the dnjournal in the future, lol.

 

[harkster]

My only regret is I didn't grab my name or last name domain at the time. Now its parked in some large companies portfolio and he wants 10k for it. *sigh*

Along about 199x I had a choice to make.

I could register my surname or a very nice name related to something I collect. I chose to reg my surname cause I could have fun with and would be an 'ego stroke' for email address. It went through several personal site lives where 1 was like a blog thing before blogs existed. Now is just for email and testing stuff. Today Estibot says it is worth $60.00.

The other one was bought but never really developed. I made a few attempts to acquire it about 6 or 7 years ago but could never contact the owner. Even tried a Sedo make offer. It is now a parking page. Today Estibot says $160,000.00 and I am quite sure that if had been developed would be worth much more.

I still wish I had bought it because today it would be a developed site, my pride and joy and not for sale at ANY price; just producing a nice little income stream. Would be a portal linking a network of Web sites dealing with a class of art; both vintage and contemporary.

What is that old 'hind site' saying? If you ain't made mistakes you ain't working hard enough. Most highly successful people have many mistakes/failures in their background.

It's not all that different in the real world when you think about it...

I've made over 60k from a 12k investment in LLLL.coms back in August-October and while some of the big guys might think that's McDonald's money and sell a single name for that kind of a profit, you won't hear me complaining

:tu: great attitude.

 

[hugegrowth]

The opportunities now for fresh regging are in two and three word .com's, country code extensions, and even IDN domains. I regged some IDN this week that get daily traffic.

Or, focus your energy on building one or two good websites, I find a site to do with your own town, or local real estate is easy to do because most people know a lot about where they live. Perhaps a city guide. Or some other subject you know a lot about. You don't need thousands or hundreds of domains. One domain and a good website can make you a living. Heck, teenagers have even done it (whateverlife.com)

Or, scrape together the x,xxx or xx,xxx to buy a good .com domain for investment purposes. The 5k and 10k domains of today will likely keep appreciating.

It's not over yet, the internet is still young. In three years people will be saying they wish they could go back to 2008 and do this and that.