Investing in domains, the lazy way?

[dsiomtw]

So I have some money I want to "invest" in domains, but I don't have tons of time to devote to it right now since I'm still tied up with a few other things. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to work - but I'm looking for the "lazy way" to invest in some names for the long term ...

It seems like my best bet is to go for quality rather than quantity, and build a small portfolio as opposed to a big one. I'll pay more per name, but I assume it will be less work - less time scanning lists and researching possible names, less time negotiating with potential sellers, etc. etc.

It seems logical that 3 letter names and popular generic word/phrase .coms will just keep increasing in value over time. I'm of the opinion that there's a lot of opportunity with .us too. I'm tempted to just buy a handful of these types of names, go back to focusing on my other projects and forget about them for awhile.

With this method I probably wouldn't even be spending much time scanning lists, messing with drop catching, etc. I can easily put together a list of "good" names and just start contacting the owners and making offers.

Surely there are enough people out there with "premium" names that want or need to sell for one reason or another. I'd probably shoot for maybe 10-25 premium names as opposed to 100s or 1000s of lesser names.

Assuming you believe premium .coms will continue to increase in value over time, this seems like a no-brainer. I know a lot of people out there are flipping $50 and $100 names - I guess I'd just love to hear from some people that are doing things on a "bigger" level.

Is it pretty much the same game, just with bigger numbers, or are there different strategies, etc. that come into play when you are talking about high x,xxxx and xx,xxxx names vs. xx and xxx names?

If you had xxx,xxx to invest, what would YOU do with it?

 

[cache]

if I don't have much time, I would buy stocks of those companies that either in the domain business or supporting the domain industry, or just buy google or yahoo even though they are not directly in the domain buying/selling business.

 

[XDuncan]

Right now the best buy is Versign (VRSN) at just a little over $20/share

 

[fonzie_007]

So I have some money I want to "invest" in domains, but I don't have tons of time to devote to it right now since I'm still tied up with a few other things. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to work - but I'm looking for the "lazy way" to invest in some names for the long term ...

It seems like my best bet is to go for quality rather than quantity, and build a small portfolio as opposed to a big one. I'll pay more per name, but I assume it will be less work - less time scanning lists and researching possible names, less time negotiating with potential sellers, etc. etc.

It seems logical that 3 letter names and popular generic word/phrase .coms will just keep increasing in value over time. I'm of the opinion that there's a lot of opportunity with .us too. I'm tempted to just buy a handful of these types of names, go back to focusing on my other projects and forget about them for awhile.


With this method I probably wouldn't even be spending much time scanning lists, messing with drop catching, etc. I can easily put together a list of "good" names and just start contacting the owners and making offers.

Surely there are enough people out there with "premium" names that want or need to sell for one reason or another. I'd probably shoot for maybe 10-25 premium names as opposed to 100s or 1000s of lesser names.

Assuming you believe premium .coms will continue to increase in value over time, this seems like a no-brainer. I know a lot of people out there are flipping $50 and $100 names - I guess I'd just love to hear from some people that are doing things on a "bigger" level.

Is it pretty much the same game, just with bigger numbers, or are there different strategies, etc. that come into play when you are talking about high x,xxxx and xx,xxxx names vs. xx and xxx names?

If you had xxx,xxx to invest, what would YOU do with it?

If you have that kind of dough, I would suggest you get on Sedo and Afternic and start offering decent money for what you think to be better domain names. I am of the belief you should diversify and not just focus on one particular extension.

Are you looking to just sit on domains for a while or are you hoping for a faster turnover? From what you have written, it sounds like the former. There are people out there sitting on xx,xxx domain names who are willing to sell them for high xxx to low x,xxx. Just be patient and keep offering.

I would also suggest you grab some decent domains and invest in developing them. Most domainers do not either have the time or the money to develop domains. Thus, you will have an edge if you can develop your domains.

I only have been seriously into domaining for about the last year a half. I currently have ~160 domains. The more the merrier...

If you have more specific questions, feel free to PM me.

 

[DropLister]

xxx,xxx ay?

Buy as many ll.com/net/org nn.com/net/org that $100k allows, and 2 revenue domains for 50k each sit back and enjoy

 

[edder]

So I have some money I want to "invest" in domains, but I don't have tons of time to devote to it right now since I'm still tied up with a few other things. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to work - but I'm looking for the "lazy way" to invest in some names for the long term ...

It seems like my best bet is to go for quality rather than quantity, and build a small portfolio as opposed to a big one. I'll pay more per name, but I assume it will be less work - less time scanning lists and researching possible names, less time negotiating with potential sellers, etc. etc.

It seems logical that 3 letter names and popular generic word/phrase .coms will just keep increasing in value over time. I'm of the opinion that there's a lot of opportunity with .us too. I'm tempted to just buy a handful of these types of names, go back to focusing on my other projects and forget about them for awhile.

With this method I probably wouldn't even be spending much time scanning lists, messing with drop catching, etc. I can easily put together a list of "good" names and just start contacting the owners and making offers.

Surely there are enough people out there with "premium" names that want or need to sell for one reason or another. I'd probably shoot for maybe 10-25 premium names as opposed to 100s or 1000s of lesser names.

Assuming you believe premium .coms will continue to increase in value over time, this seems like a no-brainer. I know a lot of people out there are flipping $50 and $100 names - I guess I'd just love to hear from some people that are doing things on a "bigger" level.

Is it pretty much the same game, just with bigger numbers, or are there different strategies, etc. that come into play when you are talking about high x,xxxx and xx,xxxx names vs. xx and xxx names?

If you had xxx,xxx to invest, what would YOU do with it?

Invest in generic .coms that receive pure type-in traffic and revenue per month. No trash domains. I'm talking about bottle.com, speaker.com, etc. You don't have to do anything but park the domains and watch as revenue comes streaming in and the value of your domains appreciate 3-4x in the next few years.

 

[tzmartin]

If I were in your position as a passive investor, I would develop a double prong strategy consisting of 1) a highly effective drop catch system and 2) auction purchases (AfterNic, etc.) as suggested by Fonzie above.

The "system" that I mentioned is one that produces a summary of the most valuable deleted domains, determined by analyzing certain variables (such as popularity, backlinks, PR, etc.). I would receive the report daily and place my bids accordingly.

As an active investor, I would develop all my domains with the intent of building traffic while looking new domains to build my portfolio.

...Hey, that sounds like what I'm doing now!

 

[dsiomtw]

Are you looking to just sit on domains for a while or are you hoping for a faster turnover? From what you have written, it sounds like the former.

Definitely sit on them for awhile. I would probably just park them, or maybe develop a few of the better ones. Cashflow is always nice but I would be most interested in just hanging on to them for awhile and see what happens in a few years.

The "system" that I mentioned is one that produces a summary of the most valuable deleted domains, determined by analyzing certain variables (such as popularity, backlinks, PR, etc.). I would receive the report daily and place my bids accordingly.

As far as a drop catching system, doesn't any decent name that drops go to auction and you end up paying "fair market value" anyway? Meaning if I only want to buy 10-25 premium domains I could probably skip the whole drop catching thing and just focus on making offers at Sedo and Afternic, etc.?

I mean, if a name is worth xx,xxx and it drops, tons of people will have backorders for it and it will go to auction and the winner will most likely end up paying xx,xxx for it - right??

It seems like drop catching is more useful with inexpensive names i.e. you can grab a name for $20 or $60 etc and maybe sell it a month later for $100 or $200 etc. but I don't see the same thing happening with the higher end names...

 

[gmac17]

drop catching is tough.

I'd buy a few quality generic domains for $10-20k each, develop them - even if it is just info informational sites with adsense. Wait a few years and flip for 2x +

 

[tzmartin]

...you end up paying "fair market value" anyway

I agree. The big names are usually sold at fair market value and higher. Just look at A1.com, or even actionsports.com, which sold for $50k a few days ago. For the most part, finding undervalued high profile domains via drop catching is not going to happen. However, I think the value with drop catching is finding small domains that have built in traffic.

 

[fonzie_007]

I would suggest you hop on Great Domains and check out some of the domains. You can see what the asking prices are for those high-end domains. Then, scope out similar domain names through people's WHOIS contact info. You can then offer these people about 1/5 -1/3 of what their asking prices would be if they were listed on GD. You may find that some of these people will bite on your offer.

 

[wow!]

I would suggest you to buy my portfolio...
This is the laziest way to get into this biz...

 

[DatabaseForSale]

If you had xxx,xxx to invest, what would YOU do with it?

i will buy more domains for $9.99 from my hidden list and then wait as it will give over 800 times return in a year.