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discuss Is it possible to be a profitable domainer with a very small portfolio?

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I’ve dabbled around with domains for about a decade, on and off. I treat it as a hobby and, like many here, have a professional life outside of the domain industry. As such, I can be very relaxed about my frequency of sales and even my profit margins – I simply treat it as a modest, second income.

As a result, my “portfolio” of domains is tiny by most domainer’s standards. I rarely have more than 15 domains, peaking at about 20 from time to time. At the moment I think I have 9.

However, the domains I do have tend to be of a relatively high quality (previous sale history, aged, common, positive one worders or 4L brandables, limited to only the most popular extensions).

But is this a viable model if domaining was any more than a hobby? If I wanted to derive a more meaningful income from domains, is the only option a large portfolio with a wider array of names, working on the seemingly standard basis of only selling a tiny percentage every year (reg and veg 🤣)? Or do some of you make a living from domains with a very tight portfolio focused on promoting and selling a few domains at a time?
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Generally speaking, domaining is number game. The more domains you have, the higher the probability of have a sale. On the average.
 
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I find its better to have a smaller portfolio of quality names, rather than loads of average names. The profits are higher too with smaller portfolios because you spend less yearly on renewals.

People think the more names I have, the more I will sell. It doesn't work like that, unless of course you have deep enough pockets to buy 100's of quality names which 99% of people here dont.
 
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It's possible but you have to own consider able number of quality name which constantly receive offer and you also need to sit on names for longer than usual domainer.
 
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I find its better to have a smaller portfolio of quality names, rather than loads of average names.

People think the more names I have, the more I will sell. It doesn't work like that, unless of course you have deep enough pockets to buy 100's of quality names which 99% of people here dont.
It does work like that. Law of probability. The law of large numbers.

I don't have large portfolio, so I can only base my judgment on what I've read, heard and seen. And the verdict is that most successful domainers have large portfolio. By large I mean from 1000 domains upward.
I will believe you if you can show me at least one successful domainer with tiny portfolio - regardless of the quality of the domains.
 
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In terms of the title, I would answer that it is certainly possible to be profitable with a very small portfolio, especially one with sound acquisition choices. The idea of profit as in making more than your costs does not scale with portfolio size to me, and there are advantages staying small in terms of lower annual costs and knowing your portfolio really well.

Now I notice that your post also mentions that domaining has been a hobby for years, but now you are now wanting it to be more than a hobby and generate income. You could still stay very small, but if you are depending on it to generate regular income, the long holding times of most domain names, may make the income too irregular if your portfolio is very small. I think that is why most who depend on it for income do have usually thousands of names.

That said, some highly successful domain investors don't have many I think. If I recall correctly, I think Michael Cyger indicated in one of his presentations at NamesCon that he has about 40 names and he has had a number of significant sales. So to me it depends on how much income and how regular you need. If you sell on payment plans, the income could be regular even if the sales are only every now and then.

Best wishes whatever you decide @whenpillarsfall . It is a very good question.

Bob
 
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For example?
I gave one in the next line after the one you quoted :xf.smile:. Anyway, you are probably right that I should not have speculated on that. Thanks.

I suspect there are not many with less than 50, but many at less than 500 I would guess. But it depends on what you mean by highly successful. I define that as a profit, not an absolute amount. Others might view it as an amount per year. But as you suggest, I am not really sure.

Bob
 
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A lot is going to depend on what kind of seller you are. From my experience when holding 2000 domains all my sales were passive. I really didn't have the time to outbound. so virtually all sales came from inbound (No domain privacy back then) or from Sedo. Now I'm at just 130 domains, I actually enjoy selective and targeted outbound.

A small portfolio does allow (almost requires) you to put in that extra work to keep sales turning over. I'm sorry but I personally can't even think of less than 50 domains as a workable amount even for outbound. Just as a comparison I once collected good second hand gold watches but even at 10 or 12 watches I didn't consider myself a collector, just a side-interest. And to be honest that is where you are with domains. You'd need to hold 10 to 20 really good top notch domains to consider yourself in this business in a serious way, 200+ for above average domains. And at least 1000+ for a mixed bag of holdings to be hitting that 5 to 10 or so sales (passive) each year you probably require to cover your costs, Any additional sales being a bonus.

Obviously this is just from my own experiences. The nice thing about holding around a 100 there's no pressure. My sales tend to more relaxed and often more fruitful and of course easier to hold-out on price
 
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@BaileyUK with 130 domains are you making living out of domaining and you're in to full time domaining?
 
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A lot of great sense in @BaileyUK response in my opinion. I found this insight resonated in particular.
Now I'm at just 130 domains, I actually enjoy selective and targeted outbound.

I think in this an other ways if you really know your portfolio, it makes a difference in how you can and will interact with it. To me his idea that with a number of the order of a few hundred allows you to do that makes perfect sense.

I am not disputing that larger portfolios are necessary for most investors depending on domains for a large part of their salary, but it seems to me that the majority of NamePros members fall somewhere in the side-gig category.

Thanks for well-written contribution.

Bob
 
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I love this topic. Keep the responses coming.

A question on my mind: for newbies, what number of domains can one say is a good enough to maintain a lean portfolio but still have some sales?
 
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@BaileyUK with 130 domains are you making living out of domaining and you're in to full time domaining?

No not at-all these days. I've been well Stripped (mostly sold, some dropped) of all my best domains over the years. I started in domains in 1999 , actually had been thinking about it for years before then but, the cost was a fixed $70 for a .com registration back in 1996/7 (a hell of a lot of money) .I peaked at around 2100 domains in 2007. Obviously with hindsight I wish I had taken the plunge earlier and got my hands on some category killers.

My experience has taught me just how 'Scaleable' The whole domain thing can become. By that all the key elements of domaining become exponential. Everything can get a bit out of hand. For me the income isn't there any more but neither are the pressures and above all I have free time back in my life. When your managing a large portfolio, trust me it follows you everywhere - Vacations the whole lot, and of course your next domaining moves are in your head from daybreak till bed, and even in your dreams

Time and management, costs, offers and sales, Yes it did become a full-time job and income to an extent that my wife had recently died (2007)This left me financially secure but with No direction (My Sue had handled all the paperwork)

I knew around 2013/14 I had to take things back to a hobby stage. It just takes a lot of time to scale things UP. And from my experience it takes equally as long to scale things Down. I don't particulary regreat anything I done with Domains - Apart that is from some of my own domain sales that are now at the top- of-the-tree as far as websites go . Can I go back and reprice them Please :xf.rolleyes:.

The income element becomes quite fragmented as well, some years I was well-up. and I do mean big numbers but, other years especially when I sat back dropped to just managing renewal costs and some years not even that
 
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PS to above - had a couple of really good domains stolen out of my Netsol account in the early 2000's But, that's another story. Yep they were finding their way to China even back then, never did get them back. Netsol didn't give a damn.

Silly me paid their $70 fees thinking they would be more secure. It does cross my mind from time-to-time to expose the domains , but I'm not so sure.
 
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It all depends on your focus. If you do your research well to pick only quality domains in high demand probability, then it won't matter if your portfolio is small or large.
 
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I'm thinking ones ability to acquire the domains cheaply(auctions, coupon tricks etc) also plays a part

Research as Oskaaay said and in my opinion creativity and individuality in choosing original names helps
 
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dont focus on how to grow up your list focus on quality of name you can do some research on name take google your friend and search for everything if you got 1 domain high quality this can bring very good money for you if you want to buy If you want to buy some names and sell them quickly and quickly here, as happens in the auctions section, this is also good if you have been free for some time or you see that this idea is a little tiring, then you need to focus on the names of high quality and this does not come easily in the beginning
 
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I’ve dabbled around with domains for about a decade, on and off. I treat it as a hobby and, like many here, have a professional life outside of the domain industry. As such, I can be very relaxed about my frequency of sales and even my profit margins – I simply treat it as a modest, second income.

As a result, my “portfolio” of domains is tiny by most domainer’s standards. I rarely have more than 15 domains, peaking at about 20 from time to time. At the moment I think I have 9.

However, the domains I do have tend to be of a relatively high quality (previous sale history, aged, common, positive one worders or 4L brandables, limited to only the most popular extensions).

But is this a viable model if domaining was any more than a hobby? If I wanted to derive a more meaningful income from domains, is the only option a large portfolio with a wider array of names, working on the seemingly standard basis of only selling a tiny percentage every year (reg and veg 🤣)? Or do some of you make a living from domains with a very tight portfolio focused on promoting and selling a few domains at a time?
If you see an economic downturn, and wholesale values fall, and you get a sales slow down, you will essentially be stuck, or forced to sell some of your gems for a large loss. Otherwise buy a few domains that don't turn over, and your stuck also. You have to tread on tier 1 quality highly liquid domains, brandables, and two keyword.com's will not get you across the finish line with a small portfolio.

It cost's a lot of money to build a decent portfolio these days, especially with Huge Domains pushing up, and forcing all the bids, and snapping quality closeouts.
 
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There is a very insightful, intelligent article relating to this topic published here:

https://namebio.com/blog/dont-shoot-for-the-moon/

Read between the lines and decide for yourself if holding large portfolio is good or bad for you. When, why and how.
A must read, IMO.
 
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PS to above - had a couple of really good domains stolen out of my Netsol account in the early 2000's But, that's another story. Yep they were finding their way to China even back then, never did get them back. Netsol didn't give a damn.

Silly me paid their $70 fees thinking they would be more secure. It does cross my mind from time-to-time to expose the domains , but I'm not so sure.

For my educational benefit, I'd appreciate an explanation on how exactly this happened. I've heard nightmarish stories about valuable domains being 'snatched', but have little knowledge about the crafty execution tactics employed by said culprits.
 
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I’ve dabbled around with domains for about a decade, on and off. I treat it as a hobby and, like many here, have a professional life outside of the domain industry. As such, I can be very relaxed about my frequency of sales and even my profit margins – I simply treat it as a modest, second income.

As a result, my “portfolio” of domains is tiny by most domainer’s standards. I rarely have more than 15 domains, peaking at about 20 from time to time. At the moment I think I have 9.

However, the domains I do have tend to be of a relatively high quality (previous sale history, aged, common, positive one worders or 4L brandables, limited to only the most popular extensions).

But is this a viable model if domaining was any more than a hobby? If I wanted to derive a more meaningful income from domains, is the only option a large portfolio with a wider array of names, working on the seemingly standard basis of only selling a tiny percentage every year (reg and veg 🤣)? Or do some of you make a living from domains with a very tight portfolio focused on promoting and selling a few domains at a time?
Domaining is not like a number game. Although, the more domains you have, the more probability of sell. But if you have a smaller portfolio with quality domains, you can sell those out quickly. Also, as you spend less yearly renewals with a smaller portfolio, the profit will be higher as well.
 
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I’ve dabbled around with domains for about a decade, on and off. I treat it as a hobby and, like many here, have a professional life outside of the domain industry. As such, I can be very relaxed about my frequency of sales and even my profit margins – I simply treat it as a modest, second income.

As a result, my “portfolio” of domains is tiny by most domainer’s standards. I rarely have more than 15 domains, peaking at about 20 from time to time. At the moment I think I have 9.

However, the domains I do have tend to be of a relatively high quality (previous sale history, aged, common, positive one worders or 4L brandables, limited to only the most popular extensions).

But is this a viable model if domaining was any more than a hobby? If I wanted to derive a more meaningful income from domains, is the only option a large portfolio with a wider array of names, working on the seemingly standard basis of only selling a tiny percentage every year (reg and veg 🤣)? Or do some of you make a living from domains with a very tight portfolio focused on promoting and selling a few domains at a time?
You may have 20 domains Only in your portfolio and still be profitable, YES.

Think about it - Even the $20 million buyer of domain name, seeks Only One Domain name that suits his/her purpose. The Right Buyer at the Right Time is what you got to wait for.

Hope this helps :)
 
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PS to above - had a couple of really good domains stolen out of my Netsol account in the early 2000's But, that's another story. Yep they were finding their way to China even back then, never did get them back. Netsol didn't give a damn.

Silly me paid their $70 fees thinking they would be more secure. It does cross my mind from time-to-time to expose the domains , but I'm not so sure.
Thanks for sharing, made me realize the monopoly power the earlier registrars had back then. Now I'm used to 7-8 per handreg that once cost ten times 20 years ago.
 
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Simple : If you have 1 of high quality domain name it can have value as Diamond , Gold , Silver.

What kind of value you have in your portfolio 1,2,3 ?

1. Diamond Per (1 KG) = +$13,000,000
2. Gold Per (1 KG) = $48,988
2. Silver Per (1 KG) = $577

Happy New Year
 
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"Is it possible to be a profitable domainer with a very small portfolio?"

Nice post,

define
profitable?

your definition of the word profitable will be different to another persons definition of profitable.
 
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