discuss Is domaining worth it?

[saiif2014]

hi
is domainig business worth it ? i mean the poeple who domaing for more than 5 years did you se great results ? and if you invested this 5 or 10 years in other business like website building or any other business i think you will get 10 times more than you get by domaining , am i right ? the money you got from this years of domaining it was worth all this time or not ?

 

[ctmixing]

This is a joke?

You buy 100 domains at $10 each and sell 1 domain for $1000. We are assuming for the sake of argument, you sold it for more but you netted $1000 after deduction of commissions and other transaction costs. Your profit is 0% break-even. $1000 invested and $1000 income. There is no way you can just say to ignore the other 99 domains which you drop after one year. Again for the sake of argument, you don't renew any of those wonderful domains you registered. To make the calculation simple.

There is no way you can separate these domains in reality. You cannot say you had 9900% profit on one domain. When you bought 100. You lost $990 at a negative profit percentage which cannot even be computed on those 99 domains over the year. To end up with 0% break-even. What do you think your profit percentage is after one year?

You are living in cloud cuckoo land.

The next year. You renew those 99 wonderful domains @ $10 each, and you sell none. Or one for $200. What is you profit margin in year 2. What is your profit margin over the 2 years? In both cases you lost a lot of money.

From a realestate perspective.... take it house by house and not neighborhood by neighborhood

 

[Name Trader]

From a realestate perspective.... take it house by house and not neighborhood by neighborhood

OK you go on believing you made 9900% profit on one domain, and the remainder of your 99 hand-regged domains are stock which you will sell in the future, for 9900% profits also. This part of domaining is not analogous to real estate. You buy a house only once. But you pay yearly for your domain renewals. 100% of your original investment every year.

On your accounting, I'm a multi-millionaire on paper, many times over. Heck I don't need to ever sell another domain to be rich. I can count all my worthless stock of domains at $5k each, because I've sold one domain at that price. I think I go try mortgage them with the bank

There's nothing more to say here.

 

[SBS66]

"red" gotta stop reading

 

[inforg]

The only calculations that matter are

A. What did I spend this year
B. What did I net from sales, parking, etc after commissions this year.

If B is greater than A, then you made a profit. Now you can divide that profit by the number of hours you put in to see if it is worthwhile to continue.

If you must calculate an ROI, it would be total net profit divided by total expense.

ROI =(B-A)/A

It is important to have some idea of your numbers to see if you are pricing at a point that creates a profit based on the percentage of domains sold each year. If you aren't making money. you could be selling too low, pricing too high, or you have a quality issue with your portfolio.

If you buy domains like lottery tickets, your odds of making money are about the same.

 

[Skyvisum]

The only calculations that matter are

A. What did I spend this year
B. What did I net from sales, parking, etc after commissions this year.

If B is greater than A, then you made a profit. Now you can divide that profit by the number of hours you put in to see if it is worthwhile to continue.

If you must calculate an ROI, it would be total net profit divided by total expense.

ROI =(B-A)/A

It is important to have some idea of your numbers to see if you are pricing at a point that creates a profit based on the percentage of domains sold each year. If you aren't making money. you could be selling too low, pricing too high, or you have a quality issue with your portfolio.

If you buy domains like lottery tickets, your odds of making money are about the same.

A lot of these is happening in namepros.:D

 

[Asfas1000]

The only calculations that matter are

A. What did I spend this year
B. What did I net from sales, parking, etc after commissions this year.

Small correction to your calculations : you have to take into account your inventory too. For instance, you may be in the red for the year because you bought an expensive LLL.com , which has not sold yet, but will likely retain its value.

 

[Name Trader]

Small correction to your calculations : you have to take into account your inventory too. For instance, you may be in the red for the year because you bought an expensive LLL.com , which has not sold yet, but will likely retain its value.

I would go further and to say any liquid domain could be considered as stock. Just because you bought something in the last month of the year, doesn't make it 100% loss. But for tax purposes, you might want to write it as an expense. Accounting for domains on a cash-flow basis, expenses the domain at the earliest possible moment. Of course, you need revenue to cover the purchase. I think cash-flow accounting is the most cautious method of accounting for domains though. We are getting into esoterics here. But in principal for calculating ROI, I think you need to be cautious when deferring unsold domains as stock. You can distort your ROI, as is the case of @ctmixing.

 

[papeter]

I don't think it's worth it. It's a pain in the arse type of business. I have been doin it for 10 years now. I have sold quite a few through SEDO and few others, but quite frankly I hate dealing with buyers who try and beat you down and then they pull out and mess you about. I have had some really good transactions over the years, but on the whole, it's a crap business. I'm gradually converting all my names into money websites and anyone who wants to buy my name will have to pay for the site as well at least 10/20 times more!
But then, why should I sell if the ROI is giving me a decent return on my money, Banks aren't! Stocks and shares are risky, but at least I now have more control over my monthly income stream. Plus all my renewals are are being paid for. To hell with DOMAINING. It was good before all these new silly extensions. COM NET ORG Rule.

 

[ctmixing]

I don't think it's worth it. It's a pain in the arse type of business. I have been doin it for 10 years now. I have sold quite a few through SEDO and few others, but quite frankly I hate dealing with buyers who try and beat you down and then they pull out and mess you about. I have had some really good transactions over the years, but on the whole, it's a crap business. I'm gradually converting all my names into money websites and anyone who wants to buy my name will have to pay for the site as well at least 10/20 times more!
But then, why should I sell if the ROI is giving me a decent return on my money, Banks aren't! Stocks and shares are risky, but at least I now have more control over my monthly income stream. Plus all my renewals are are being paid for. To hell with DOMAINING. It was good before all these new silly extensions. COM NET ORG Rule.

Nice perspective. I just started using sedo. Do you have any good tips on how to secure fast and godd transctions using sedo?

 

[ctmixing]

Whats the market like on sedo? Is it 60% domain investors and 40% end-users? What is it?

 

[DN Playbook]

Domaining is definitely worth it. But you need good old business skills, hustle, and have the right mentality.

If you are in it for a quick buck, you will more than likely lose money. If you do make a quick buck, it likely will not last for long. You need to have a business plan with a long-term strategy.

With each sale, you need to be building a contact list. So even if you make $4/hr when divided the hours you spent on a sale, it increases greatly if you keep the contact. A large contact list is priceless.

You need to think beyond end-user/reseller mindset. End-users are great but there are many in-between parties such as Web developers, SEO companies, media buyers, etc. Reach out to them.

Networking with other domainers is great too but you need to reach out to startups and other businesses related to your domains. I am talking about trade-shows and other personal contact opportunities. Also many successful domainers make money selling other domainer's premium domains, so we need to work together.

When you do network, you need to have a professional website and business cards in order to be taken seriously. Sedo/Afternic/etc. is like using Facebook as your primary business address. Build your own memorable brand instead (that is your specialty by selling domains, isn't it?).

Finally, it comes down to the quality of your domains. You need to be confident and know you have high quality, realistic domains. Otherwise nothing of the above will work.

Looking forward to your feedback.

 

[golan]

I have been for 10 years in ecomm, SEO etc, but the "pure domaining" is quite a new business for me. I like it very very much, it's really a lot of joy for me, but i treat it as a hobby. Indeed, if i was guaranteed to sell for $4x every month, i would drop my SEO domaining and many other time consuming things without batting an eyelid. But i'm well aware that no one will give me such a guarantee, so i look realistically at all this.

Of course, developing sites is much more sure and secure business. You earn on Adsense or affiliating, and if the revenue is steady you can always flip the site for 20X or even 30X of monthly income. But that's all very and very time consuming, and also money consuming. Of course, finding a great name and selling it to an end user for high thousands with no time and work seems very easy and tempting then. But, come one. Should be realistic.

 

[sheng_hu]

Yes it worths it. But you need a lot of dedication and smartness to beat the market. IMO

 

[GetBigDomains]

I've now stopped messing about, experimenting and wasting my time.
Got lucky yesterday and the rest can go in the bin. If you have one that's
highly relevant to you, your knowledge, you can build on until the sale date
make money from until sometime in the future.. That's the one to pick.
I actually missed a nice little domain on NP going cheap as I wasn't paying my
full attention and again in an expiring auction I missed 198b.com I don't know it was okay
for entry level I guess. But I am delighted with and really I hope to go all guns in
Business plan, mentor, applying for finance and what ever it takes. I've done 3 lots
of business training and still don't always apply but this wasn't impulsive it was a calm
purchase, no frenzy, no hyper adhd it was just a cool and sweet deal. Something to
mull over, to savour and find highly agreeable. Well that's what I think the difference is.