debate Isn't it hard enough to sell .com?

[Wannabean]

I've been a member of this forum for a few years now and know a little but nowhere near as much some others. The sample size is small and I speak with relatively little experience.

Had a portfolio of new g's and com (around 400ish) but now only hold a few names (<50) and nearly all .com.

During this time, I've probably received less than 40 end user enquiries on my names and I'd say around 5-7 of those were genuine end users.

Of that number, maybe only 2-3 had the kind of funds that might result in a $XX,XXX+ sale and for whatever reason it never quite materialised.

I only ever received 1 inquiry for a new gtld domain, despite them representing around 30% of my portfolio and the buyer vanished after I asked $3k for a nice .property domain that cost me $150 ish to register and same for renewal.

Sold 3 .com names to end users in the same period for between $1-$2k a piece but one of those was outbound.

Sold many more .com names to other domainers for handsome profits in the same period. In truth, I'd say around 90% of the money I've made was through selling .com to other domainers. The fact that they are happy to pay sometimes 100x what I bought the name for, tells me I can pick a name and if I had strong hands, would probably make a good deal more holding them and waiting for an end user. I couldn't wait and took the money. 100% of my sales to domainers, where I've made a profit, have been .com domains. I've never resold a ngtld to a reseller for a profit. I've let really good ngtld names drop because nobody would pay me for them but I know that many have since been picked up by domainers that'd rather pay godaddy or whomever instead.

I don't buy new g's anymore because I know end users won't come along as often as they will for my .com names and if I need to get rid of them, there isn't a reseller market. I still hold one or two that have low renewals and I'm comfortable with the risk as long as they are top quality and represent <5% of my total portfolio. 5% is probably too high really but I factor in the potential upside of adoption in the next 30 years leading to the price of a premium newg being roughly equivalent of the .com counterpart today. Wishful perhaps but I'm happy enough with it for now.

From a relatively small sample size, I've estimated that the chance of a good .com domain selling (inbound) to an end user for a top price is probably only around 1% but maybe as low as 0.5% per year.

In my experience, the chance of a ngtld sale, at a price that would represent a markup of 20-30 times the price of registration, is around 0.02% or less per year. I'm basing this upon the number of enquiries received vs my .com names and then tried to factor in the percentage of those offers that would be serious, then narrowed it once more through differences between buyer and seller's valuation, ultimately resulting in one or the other walking. I haven't got the numbers to draw firm conclusions so it's a best guess.

I want all my names to do well and if I sell one, don't really care what the extension is. I am a little perturbed though, that by far my worst performing names over the years have been ngtld's, which also happen to be the most expensive.

I wondered what other medium term holding, mixed portfolio domainer's experiences have been so far?

 

[Brands.International]

I can not comment on .com sales as I do not own any .com names in my portfolio.

I will comment only in new gTLDs. It is absolutely mandatory to pick only A) really great names B) with very low renewals C) drop whatever is not performing in terms of offers and traffic (one can see that clearly after 1 year)

Anone who is not doing A together with B and C, will experience pretty hard times. It is really complex to tell what makes some names good and some not, and I see many domainers on this forum to register absolute nonsense.

There is also another thing: even when you have good names, the formation of aftermarket can take few years after extension is out. Therefore, I feel some very early adopters (2014/spring 2015) got little sceptical, because they were basically caught in the situation when they registered great names, but there was not an aftermarket formed yet. This is very much improving as time pass, 2018 is much better then 2014 from this perpective. So it is paradox that people who started litle little later (1-2 years) got basically to better position, as there were still lot of nice domains to register, but also some aftermarket started to form.

Another important thing is to focus on end users - you can sell 100 domains to domainers for wholesale prices, or focus on 2-3 good sales to end users, which will bring you the same amount of money. The second is much less work.

And lastly, bulk transfers. If you choose correct extensions and you know what various registrars are offering, your average price for new gTLDs can be LOWER then for .com. Some transfer and renewal promotions I personally used were insanely low - again, one needs to be well informed. I am checking domain portfolios of other people regularly, and I really wonder why they pay USD 40 for a name for which they would need to pay only USD 7 should they utilize correct transfer or renewal promotion. I have my domain names in 8-9 different registrars and there is 1 main reason for it - price

 

[Wannabean]

even when you have good names, the formation of aftermarket can take few years after extension is out.

The aftermarket for the names I registered in 2015 still hasn't formed yet.

Interested in what domainers whom hold .com and ngtld's have experienced, as we don't hear enough from them and too much from those that exclusively have one or the other.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Thank you for the post, @Wannabean! While I hold a mix of ngTLD, country code and coms (hold 12 .ca domain names, 5 .com, 6 .co, 6 other country code and just over 200 ngTLDs), my sample size is so small and while have held some domains for many years, only actively selling about one year so my experience is at best anecdotal. So far none of my sales would be what @lolwarrior regards as 'substantial' in his recent excellent post re ngTLD investing. I do have 22 sales at low to very low prices. Of these 21 were ngTLDs and 1 was a .co.

My feeling is that it is hard to sell ngTLDs and that you must either sell at bargain prices promoting them to individuals, one person companies, NGO organizations, etc., or have truly premium ngTLDs where there is a perfect match between the first (usually single) word and the extension, AND you must make connections with forward looking business leaders and branding companies that might consider a ngTLD, either as main or a supplemental website.

All that being said, I would agree that it is harder to sell ngTLDs. Elliot Silver made this point in his post at the following link back in February, arguing that it is silly to invest in ngTLDs when they are harder to sell.
https://domaininvesting.com/silly-buy-something-much-harder-sell/

I have continued to invest in ngTLDs and I briefly outline why that might be an appropriate choice in my blog response to Elliot's post. One of my points is that just as diversification makes sense in traditional investing, diversification should be sought in a domain portfolio and it is hard to predict future trends. Also, the ngTLDs allow me to invest in names closely tied to niches I have expertise in. My post is available here:
https://agreatnameforyou.blogspot.com/2018/02/is-it-silly-to-invest-in-new-gtlds.html

I do feel (arguably) the resale situation for ngTLDs, and their acceptance by business leaders, is slowly improving. My monthly posts on ngTLD sales posted on Namepros seem encouraging, as are the major sales of the past half year or so including Vacatiion.rentals, Home.loans and The.club among others. I answered a query re why an end user might want a ngTLD at the following link - use the points if they allow you to promote ngTLDs!
https://agreatnameforyou.blogspot.com/2018/03/why-would-anyone-want-new-extension.html

For many extensions the economics of holding domain names beyond a year is challenging with renewal fees (there are a number that have renewal fees comparable to .com, though, and some of these like .club and .space I like a lot). I think many domain investors, like you, have reduced ngTLD holdings and held onto com.

I see value in both approaches, and am glad that some invest in ngTLDs, and some do not. Ultimately it is quality of the domain name that is paramount, along with making connections to the right possible end users for the products you hold.

Best wishes for future success, everyone!

 

[Wannabean]

I think you can make anything work if your outbound is good but that's not a skill of mine and I don't have the time to develop it.

Passively I think .com wins, at least my experience says it does but if your a good sales person I could see some members here doing better with NewG's.

There are some experienced outbounders here, any of them willing to share what they're shifting most of?

 

[Branko Jovanovic]

Good advice lolwarrior, the first year you hold a domain name it will show how valuable it is just by the offers and traffic it gets.

 

[Brands.International]

Good advice lolwarrior, the first year you hold a domain name it will show how valuable it is just by the offers and traffic it gets.

Thanks, it is very important for me - if the name does not perform, no need to send another money into it ... drop such name as hot potato