It can't be that easy, can it?

[800ml]

inspired by the above Thread "Report Domains Sales here"

it seems that if one averages all the reported sales the mean sale value can be well over the $500 mark, let's just say it IS $500 for simplification of the calculation.

if a domain was bought at $8 and sold at $500 that is a profit of 62 times the original investment
so for 40K investment I can buy 2500 domains, and at average sale of $500, I am on my way to a millionaires club with $2.5 M, is it really that easy?

Being a newbie to Domain Trading I have a burning question, what is a reasonable amount of domains one can expect to sell per annum.
with 2500 spread over 2 years, would lead to just over 6/day, is this achievable? what is your average liquidity rate? and what is the largest number of domains you sold in a week?

thanks in advance for sharing any information

 

[Devil_Dog]

Good luck selling 6 names a day at $500 a pop.

If I had 40k as an initial investment, I definitely wouldn't be spending it on 2500 hand-regged names, not in this day and age. Unless I found a niche that was untapped and I had utter confidence in.

I'd use that 40k and buy some 5-8 LLL/LLLL.coms and sit on them for awhile.

 

[TheBulldog]

That person that sold it is probably holding a few thousand names. And they buy more everyday and sell more every day.

So let's say that I pick up a name for $8. I may sell it right away, but I may also be sucking it for a couple years until that name becomes valuable. I have done both quick pops and 2-3 year holds.

I can tell you the quick sells are great, its the long holds that frustrate you. Your name comes up for renewal and you hesitate on whether to pull the trigger again. Probably 75% of the time domainers pull that trigger because they can't bear the thought of someone picking it up on a dead name sale and flipping it right away.

The sad thing is that domainers probably also keep %50 of their portfolio that will never be worth anything.


/showbiz goes off to renew 10 useless names.

 

[uber]

no - it isn't that easy

I think if you take the time to read through these forums you may glean that for yourself....

mods: shouldn't this be in the domain newbies section?

 

[AussieDomainer]

Definitely not that easy. I own close to 1,000 names and if I sold 6 reg fee names for $500 each per month, let alone day I'd be laughing. Since I've started a couple of years ago I've only sold one reg fee name for $500 and a few other $200+ reg fee sales. It is an extreme game of patience I have found (as well as making sure you're well educated and are making a great choice in names to register/buy).

 

[cache]

market is efficient. If it were that easy, more people would jump on it and make it
harder and harder.

 

[Kate]

Who said domaining is easy ?
It is not a get rich quick scheme and it requires patience.

There are over 60 million domains registered under .com alone and even though most sales are not reported, it's safe to assume that only a very tiny fraction of registered domains get sold here and there.

Only the best domains like generics or LL/LLL names can usually be flipped easily for a quick profit. That means liquidity of most other domains is limited.
Even if your domains are decent it can take time to find the right buyer willing to pay the price, unless you are proactive and reach out to end users.
It's not easy to make a living from domain sales unless you are brokering someone else's names - provided they are good.
Don't underestimate other sources of revenue like parking and developing

 

[-REECE-]

Who said domaining is easy ?
It is not a get rich quick scheme and it requires patience.

There are over 60 million domains registered under .com alone and even though most sales are not reported, it's safe to assume that only a very tiny fraction of registered domains get sold here and there.

Only the best domains like generics or LL/LLL names can usually be flipped easily for a quick profit. That means liquidity of most other domains is limited.
Even if your domains are decent it can take time to find the right buyer willing to pay the price, unless you are proactive and reach out to end users.
It's not easy to make a living from domain sales unless you are brokering someone else's names - provided they are good.
Don't underestimate other sources of revenue like parking and developing

Well Said. I own over 600 domains myself -- never have sold a single one. Not because my names are that bad -- just that I have no interest in selling them really. If you can make enough off your develped names or parked ones to pay the reg fees (preferably with some additional compensation), you're laughing Now you have no risk whatsoever, so it really doesn't matter how long the names take to sell.

I've found it much easier to get names for XXX and get offers on them in the XXXX range than to hand reg names and get offers even in the mid-XX+ range.

Keep in mind as well that most low sales numbers aren't reported. Some domainer sites like DN Journal don't track sales that low and even when such sites, like say NameBio do, there just isn't that much incentive to report selling a name for $10, $20, etc.

 

[ama86]

no its not easy at all.

Unless you sell it for $5, then everyone will surely buy.
If you sell them for $10 each, you might have quite a few of buyers.
If you sell for $50, its gonna be a little hard to get a domainer to pay that.
and if you wanna sell it for $500 (end user price) , then it requires tons and tons of patience. Sometimes even months or years.

 

[Gene]

Remember, What you see is not a true 'average'. You must also include in your average ALL the domains that are not sold (or sold for very little), which are not reported on the thread.

 

[RogueWriter]

Domaining is hard. Trying to acquire a domain that when parked actually pays for itself is a recipe I have a hard time figuring out. Figuring out how much a buyer will spring for, after they send you a low ball figure is also tough. Are they willing to go up to 1,500, or are they a domainer as well, looking to go for 400 or less?

If this was my only income, I would go insane. Fortunately, I develop a lot of my domains into affiliate sites, which generates income.

 

[Malaysia]

Lotsa research and effort have to be put in..Domaining is about luck as well when u meet end users who offers high price to buy your domain.. When u hold a lot of domains the chances are higher or meeting an enduser but ive seen some ppl who have more domains than i have yet never met any enduser..so its about the name u registered and also a bit of luck..Many Domainers made it n many who doesnt.. Money just dun fall from the sky if u never work hard and think its just a gold mine ..

 

[-REECE-]

I definitely wouldn't underestimate the "gut feeling" factor as well. Having a good sense of who your potential enduser (or seller) is can help you make better decisions about how you proceed (or don't proceed) about the purchase or sale of a name.

How many of you have "just had to have" a certain name? I know I have... And I know on a few occassions I would have paid thousands more than I got the names for. Definitely want to recognize an enduser when you see them. Could be costly otherwise.

 

[acc]

... is it really that easy? .... Being a newbie to Domain Trading I have a burning question, what is a reasonable amount of domains one can expect to sell per annum. With 2500 spread over 2 years, would lead to just over 6/day, is this achievable?

No it is not that easy. The stories that make the "news" are the exceptions. It takes work and learning and patience. Getting cash flow from a number of sources while holding names for sale including parking names for income (as sdsinc mentioned) and developing out some names into mini sites or full blown sites is important to help cover yearly renewal fees for names that don't sell immediately.

I think the often-reported average turnover rate from a decent sized portfolio of domain names is approximately between 1% and 2% per year. That's 25-50 name sales out of your theoretical 2500 name portfolio. With renewal costs in the $20K range, those names would have to sell between $500 and $1000 apiece to break even. That's where the parking income helps out tremendously. Mass fire sales and package deals can increase the turnover but the profit margins would be much much lower.

Soak up as much as you can from these forums. Many, many years of experience, good and bad and in between, represented here.

Best of luck.

 

[Spade]

Well, this thread got jumped on like a swarm of wasps. But I think they have answered it well. I have only a few things to ad.

Conisder BuyDomains.com - they have a portfolio I believe of about 800,000 domain names. They claim to sell about 100 per day at an average price of $3,000 dollars. Now, BuyDomains has everything from what I consider terrible domain names to higher quality ones. They are a force on the aftermarket (at places like Snap).

I think they are the behemoth a few domainers aspire to be (such as myself). But, it took a substancial investment, smart moves, and at the least, decent caliber domain names.

As pointed out - fresh registrations are unlikely to yield big sales, unless its in future technologies. Focus on the drop market or finding a steal on the aftermarket. Is it possible to make good money? Absolutely. But it takes patience and understanding.

Most domainers think the understand the market, even the experienced ones. But you need to be AHEAD of the market to make a killing. I can assure you, that it takes months of study to really begin to understand this market and what makes a domain valueable.

 

[randomo]

Remember, What you see is not a true 'average'. You must also include in your average ALL the domains that are not sold (or sold for very little), which are not reported on the thread.

Excellent point. In that thread, I reported both of my $x,xxx sales, but I did not report the 300+ $x sales I've made this year, which would drag the average down a bit ....

 

[800ml]

Thanks everyone for your input,

so i guess, i should calm down and forget about laughing 6 times a day until maybe many many more days go by, its just that it looked so easy at first, it's probably a phase that everyone goes through initially.

on another note,

CHECK THIS out, .com domains for under $2

at Domeny.pl

is this too good to be true?

im gonna try them tomorrow, if you need help with translation from Polish, let me know.

 

[mntor]

I definitely wouldn't underestimate the "gut feeling" factor as well. Having a good sense of who your potential enduser (or seller) is can help you make better decisions about how you proceed (or don't proceed) about the purchase or sale of a name.

How many of you have "just had to have" a certain name? I know I have... And I know on a few occassions I would have paid thousands more than I got the names for. Definitely want to recognize an enduser when you see them. Could be costly otherwise.

I agree. The "gut feeling" factor has helped me quite a few times.

 

[America First]

To answer your question "is it this easy"The way I see it is If you have another income and you treat this like a hobby it`s real easy, buy good properties from broker sites (sedo/afternic, ect..) with future potential and sit and wait. Not that hard, if it`s a good name someone one day will want it, its just like land.

If your making it your business it`s not easy, you have to work at it like a real job, nothing is easy in life and like you read, or "everyone would be doing it".