How much money do you spend per year?

[TWM]

Some of you have hundreds of domains. How much will it cost you to keep em registered?

Im at $870/yr.

 

[JMJ]

Mogul do sell mostly to endusers or domain resellers, as a percentage do you think.

And if you mostly sell to end users, what are you preferred ways of contacting them?

I would guess 50/50 not really sure to be honest. I use every means possible on promoting my names. Mulitple reseller sites, Mulitple forums, end-user emails, ebay every now and then and the phone if neccesary. I cut a profitable deal with the first interested buyer in most cases. Depending on whom I'm dealing with, where and how they found out about the name and several other factors will determine my selling price.

If on the forums it's priced and I may cut deals with multiple purchases.

Blind emails such as hotmail etc. get a "make me an offer" response. If they don't make one after a week I'll email back with a "fair" asking price.

Signed/traceable emails I will research the buyer and base my price on them.

On reseller sites such as sedo I'll work the price. First reply is usually way up there since theirs is usually low. If they respond back with a higher offer depnding on how much they increase their offer will determine how much I will lower my asking. IE. If the offer is $50 at first and I countered at $5000. If they countered my $5000 with $60 I'll drop my price to $4999 or something along those lines and usually ad a comment like "I'm in this business to make money not donate to charity.". These people are just playing games no need to deal with them.

If however they make a decent increase such as $250 or $500 then I know they are a buyer and I'll drop $1000 or $1500. They will usually either not respond at all or make another offer and add "this is my final offer." If they don't respond after some time I'll drop again to see if they budge. Typically the non-responsive people stay that way.

Either way this guy is a buyer so some way or another I'm going to make a profitable sale whatever that profit may be. Why? I never know if another buyer will EVER come along again. You have to take the "What if's" out of your thinking and just think profit..

 

[primacomputer]

Some of you vets need to retire, write an ebook on domain trading, and give us poor plebes a chance Sounds good dont ya think

Seriously though after reading this thread its terrific to see so many people going well and achieving success, it provides a great deal of encouragement for new players starting out.

Quick question : Whats your secret? :hehe:

My secret is buy low sell high. Coming soon. My new book “How I made enough money in the domain business to retire – The story of me writing this book and the poor schmucks who paid good money for it.”

Actually the buy low sell high advice is not bad. I bought stuff in 96-97 and sold it a few years later for a lot more. A few years after that I started buying good names. I even managed to grab some drops that I had previously sold. The last two years prices are up and I'm selling.

I realise this may not seem like much help for anyone starting off now. But it actually is. First, things go through cycles. Someone who wants to register a name and sell it for $5,000 need only wait until the market declines register some excellent drops and wait until they are in demand again. Second, we are not necessarily at the peak of the current cycle. I could see this going on for another three years easy. So if you buy a good name now, yes, you may pay several times what you would have paid two years ago. But you may also be able to sell it for a nice profit in a year or two.

But if you have to buy now and don't have a big budget pick a niche. There are always new trends. I see a lot of people here who grab a bunch of very specific names and turn them around for a nice profit. Sometimes you have to get them and unload them quick before the fad passes. Sometimes you find something that stays around.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is to watch your budget. Don't just buy names for the sake of buying one. Take your time. Select good names. And make sure you don't blow all your cash and end up letting a good name lapse only to see it go for $500 at auction.

 

[Jimmy Changa]

One of these days I'll be able to make enough at the low end (i.e. fresh regs) to afford buying decent priced drops.