discuss It has come to my attention

[Want2learn]

The consensus is stop hand registering names! I just read 99% of hand regs are worthless. Even if that is hyperbole, the broader point is most are not valuable. I have no issues with that sentiment or opinion. I probably would agree that hand regs from recent times are not all that valuable!

I wanted to start a discussion though about the topic. I am about 7g in. Not all hand regs!! That is a lot of money. If I could go back to 12/04/16 I would have bought 10 names or so from aftermarket! Fortunately I am an educator so my livelihood does not depend on this. From my perspective, I made several critical mistakes early on. I will say I registered for 2 years almost 100 domains. I probably added privacy to about 50-75 of them. That alone is probably close to an additional 1100ish dollars. Complete waste. As a newbie then and now, it does irk me that GoDaddy would allow me to register names that are clearly trademark concerns, though I had no idea that was an issue with domains . . . And then when I go to list them for sale they reject them bc of trademark concerns. GoDaddy is wrong for that.

If I posted my domains today, regardless of what you think . . .they would be 100x worse without you all here at NamePros, and that is a fact! I can't go back I can only go forward. I can learn from my mistakes. I will say this, and I mean no disrespect to the Pros that do this well and make money. No disrespect to anyone, but especially those Pros. I think that some times there is a lack of imagination and creativity here. And by here, I mean with domainers broadly. I have some terrible names. Where I probably differ with most here, is I see a lot of improvement in my names. If I mess up and hand reg 100 names and they all suck, like really suck, that is a loss of $599 with eWallhost. That isn't nothing! If I take that same $599, I can buy 1-2 nice 4L. And they are liquid, so lets say I purchased 2 4Ls for 599, I think chances are a year from then I am safely in the 500-600 range minimum. So it is either no loss or -100 . . . and in year 2 it is $12 to renew! With those hand regs worse case scenario that is realistic is they all drop and I'm out 599. That is a big hit. And if say 20 are decent now, 80 drop and renew 20 at 120, so I'm 719 in. Since Im completely speculating here I won't say 20 sold for 100 and I live happily ever after. Lets say 5 sell for 100 a piece. That almost recoups first year.

Anyways, I just wanted to say that at the least that has been my thought process. So like last night I was excited as hell to reg BikeCosts.com. I could not believe it was available. I picked up a few other bike related domains. Shocked. Today I picked up cash4smartphones.com. Im not saying I am selling all of these for XXXX or even high XXX. And maybe for you all, it isn't worth your time if you can't make XXXX or XXXXX on a domain. For me I would be disappointed for 1XX for the domains I mentioned above. I think 4-5XX is where I feel like a success on those specific names. 3xx eh. less than 3xx, still a profit, but disappointed!

Have I made sense, even if you think Im nuts?

 

[Silentptnr]

You would feel alot better if you focused primarily on the selling part. Buying is easy. If you have the money and want a name, you can buy it with a few clicks. It's the selling part that people think is easy, but it is not.

I know people that are just addicted to registering "gems", and "since it's the last one, I'll start selling..", but the selling part never comes. The drops come sooner.

If you are not just as excited about parking, advertising, emailing, making outbound calls and selling domains for profit as you are about regging stuff, you should stop adding new names.

A long time ago I stopped using new money to buy domains. If there isn't money in my business account (paypal) that is sufficient to pay for renewals and new domains, I just don't buy. If I see those funds getting low, I put more focus on selling.

It's not easy being a business of 1 person in domaining. It's a tremendous amount of work. Keeping the spreadsheets updated, adding and removing domains from marketplaces, keeping whois info updated, adjusting prices based on market changes and changing all the prices at the various marketplaces, phone calls, emails....even managing all the spam. It's serious business.

It's a great business and lots of money can be made, but make no mistake, you have to run it like a business, otherwise you're better off investing in something more passive.

Even with you being an educator with another income, I don't think anyone wants to waste thousands year after year.

Just my opinion.

 

[Kate]

I will say this, and I mean no disrespect to the Pros that do this well and make money. No disrespect to anyone, but especially those Pros. I think that some times there is a lack of imagination and creativity here. And by here, I mean with domainers broadly.

There is little room for creativity really. The best names were registered long ago, it's not like you can find gems using your brains like you could in 1996. Thinking outside the box is good, but that alone doesn't sell domains that nobody wants. There can be creativity when making up brandable names but obviously the really short and pronounceable ones, those that can make strong brands, are long gone.
Also, domainers do not dictate the trends or consumer taste. They can only buy the kinds of names that other people want. So much for creativity. It's something that domainers learn the hard way.

Anyways, I just wanted to say that at the least that has been my thought process. So like last night I was excited as hell to reg BikeCosts.com. I could not believe it was available.

Really ? Maybe there is a reason. It doesn't even have history, makes you wonder. If it's never been registered before, it's not a good sign usually.

I picked up a few other bike related domains. Shocked. Today I picked up cash4smartphones.com. Im not saying I am selling all of these for XXXX or even high XXX. And maybe for you all, it isn't worth your time if you can't make XXXX or XXXXX on a domain. For me I would be disappointed for 1XX for the domains I mentioned above. I think 4-5XX is where I feel like a success on those specific names. 3xx eh. less than 3xx, still a profit, but disappointed!

Just recouping your fees would be good for a start.

Have I made sense, even if you think Im nuts?

Maybe you're still addicted ? I think there is too much emotional involvement in your posts
But you are not going to develop all these names into websites or businesses, you want to sell them. So you cannot afford to fall in love with your domains.

I hardly handreg anymore personally, and it's usually because I have an idea. I prefer to buy at expired auctions, just a few domains at a time. Quality > quantity. The renewal fees quickly pile up and while making sales is encouraging, you can still be in the red in spite of making sales.

 

[Kate]

Simply put, it is very hard to sell handregs for meaningful amounts of money. There are exceptions but the names that command big prices usually were registered long ago.
The problem is that you can't tell newcomers to buy names on the aftermarket right away. If they don't know what to buy, they will end up wasting more money on bad names. But if they focus on handregs they are most likely chasing a dream that won't come. The key is education.

There is no need to reinvent the wheel really. Analyze reported sales, look at what kinds of domains are in demand. Then figure out how to get those names. If you're buying domains without studying the market, it's not going to pan out well. It's just blind speculation.

 

[1Darko]

There is nothing wrong if you handreg names. It is simply not true that all the best domains are already regged! Our society and technology is evolving and tomorrow we will see things which we yesterday couldn't imagine. Therefor if you reg domains with some vision it is just fine. You will have to be prepared to hold the domains probably for several years to achieve a good sale!

The other thing is that sometimes also endusers don't have the imagination for a domain they neek. A good domainer can suggest a superb solution for the enduser. The only catch is that you will first need to fing the enduser or the enuser has to find you. And this is a separate topic how to market and sell domains.

@Want2learn In my opinion you are doing great because you are actively trying to improve yourself. This is a kind of success warranty - improving things until you're the best!

 

[Silentptnr]

Funny thing is, I am very, very shrewd about spending on other things...not sure why I don't think twice about buying crappy domains sometimes.

 

[Federer]

I have personally hand registered 3800 .COM domain names (at low promo prices) since Jan '17-Feb '17 and have already sold $23K worth in 4-5 months.
You need to pick the right types of domains (HugeDomains/Mike Mann/BuyDomains have done this on a massive scale - especially HD). The key is > the ones that do sell need to cover the many that do not (in the course of any given year). The sales (1-1.5% if you know what you are doing) need to cover renewals and provide you with reasonable profits.
You also need patience, determination and a fast eagle-eye when going over lists of hundreds of thousands of names.

 

[maxtorz]

"The consensus is stop hand registering names! I just read 99% of hand regs are worthless."


L/I/M/E/R/I/X .com hand reg 6 days ago....got an offer 48hrs latter
cnc-s/e/r/v/i/c/e/s.com hand reg 11 days ago...got 2 inquiries since
my list goes ON and ON


Lol, I am glad that's the consensus!
More names availability for me to hand register!
Yep, hand registering names is a waste if You don't know what to BUY.

 

[karmaco]

Every name was hand regged at some point so the hand regging should not be a total stigma. Its the caliber of the name that matters. The problem is most of the good names are taken. And if you admit you took some bad ones (who hasn't) in your zeal with diving in I would concentrate on clearing those out if you can and only buy high caliber aged names from here on out. My problem is I hand regged many names as well while I don't think they are bad names I happen to like some of them ALOT it takes time to make sales. You seem very motivated throughout to just get the duds or mediocre off your plate and you seem to be doing well with that.

I have not invested as much as you and I did register some names I intend to use later. I did however hand register some very niche brandables and actual first names some of which have personal meaning to me. Others would call those duds as well but I like them and there is a trend for people wanting real names especially female names for that next super starlet or car or startup . I like shorter names too but am buying two word ones now. It's a matter of patience in this business. I don't have much patience either so I get it you are in a hurry. I say slow down and concentrate at what you want to sell now and only buy very wisely great caliber aged domains after investigating its entire life history.

I too have a name with a trademark potential issue that GoDaddy sold me. It happens all the time. I see a great name right now in the expiring auctions that is trademarked. Before you bid or buy check everything.

Take all advice including mine with a grain of salt. Some people may lie to you about the name's potential to get it from you cheaply. You have to exhaust all other avenues and do your research and decide what you think you are willing to part with it for.

I hand regged 16 more names on the Name Silo sale so even though I too said no more hand regging I did it. The good part about a hand reg is it is CLEAN which is a good thing. Also there is monetazation possible if you want to go that route. I prefer to keep my names clean and on landing pages at this point and no its not my only source of income thank God

 

[Internet.Domains]

If you are going to hand register it seems that the "future technology" niche is best. Over the last several years there has been many sales of hand registered domains in the niches of VR, AR, AI, drones, crypto currency, etc...Particularly for me the drone niche has been great. I hand registered multiple domains in 2014 and sold some of them from 2015-2017 for the low XXXX's....Drone domains may have flat lined from the peak, although AI has yet to peak. (My opinion only and in no way is this investment advice).

 

[Marshall]

Me:
I will not hand reg...
I will not hand reg...
I will not hand reg...
I will not hand reg...

Notification:
"Here Comes the .COM SALE you've been waiting for! "


Me :
"GOTTA REG. EM ALL!!!!"



( That's me when I heard .coms are available for around $3.5)

Btw, Just lightening up the mood a bit.
Keep up the good work @Want2learn

 

[hawkeye]

You're missing out - also 'unbelievably' TruckCosts, RVcosts, LawnmowerCosts, and 'many' more are still available for hand reg too. Better get your ewallet out and grab as many of those as you can, before someone else throws their money away and gets them first.

 

[Silentptnr]

It's okay to invest in penny stocks or Bershire at 249k a share, just know what you're doing and know what your end game is.

I like your openness and I sure hope you are domaining for years to come.

Everyone here is routing for you man!

 

[Kuffy]

I'm coming to the conclusion that no two domainers have the same perspective. So here are some of my ideas.

The £1 shop makes a lot of money selling lots of rubbish at a £1 a time. Waitrose makes lots of money selling chops at £11 per time. Neither shop could sell the products of the other shop. Create your market and specialise in it.

There is a lot of creativity in domaining, but people seem to think it is just in the creation of blendwords. The potential use of a name is more important imho. For example, my name hotdriver.com can be used for a motoring site, or for golfing. There are also some more obscure uses. Google is your friend to help expand your creativity.

You've got to speculate to lose money. Buying a name for $600 from a domain site in the hope of selling it for $6,000, and ending up selling it for $200 is not the way to make money. The guy who made the money is the guy who paid $20 for it, and sold it to you for $600.

Don't try to be clever with english if english is not your first language Watch out for the misuse of plurals, and two word keyphrases where the words are in the wrong order.

If there wasn't any money in handregs, people wouldn't be saying that the guys who bought names for $1 are the smart ones. The difference between $1 and $8.50 is not significant when you are talking about retail prices.

 

[karmaco]

Just for a littler perspective, I will point out that I see people fighting over a 2 year old hand reg that is expiring on GoDaddy this week. I too think it is a good name but I know my budget and stick to it. Dropping names that are horrible get bought just because of the age. I even laugh looking through the lists that somebody kept that name alive for ten plus years. There are some awful names that are aged. Every name on GoDaddy I look at critically now to see why is the person letting it go. Look for the flaws.

 

[offthehandle]

Trends and markets come and go. I have seen hundreds of VRthis and VRthat drop. Same with dronethis and dronethat dropping. Bikethis and Bikethat perhaps is not a trend as it is a mature industry. Focus on what BikeCost would be used for. I am sortof neutral in it as being viable. Think in the customers shoes. Is this a retail online price comparison site? If so, how many others already exist? Google and find out. If super competitive, why would someone want a website compete. I dropped a Gluten oriented name simply because this trend was highly overloaded with too many companies already, and lost my money by choice. Bikecost, is it a wholesale only, or used secondary market appraisal? .. all perhaps are possibilities. Then target companies to buy them. Once that you've exhausted all opportunities, list it for wholesale market, assess how much more time you want to invest. Its an interative process. I have spent my entire career speculating in physical equipment property sales. I sold stuff for megabucks at 100x markup and on the opposite end after a few years of dust collecting threw as much in the dumpster after getting tired of not finding a customer for it and making more shelf space in the warehouse. Things I thought were great, had nobody else agreeing. Things I bought In a large lot, like once I bought these medium format camera film holders. To me they were almost junk. Listed them on ebay, and sold 50 of them for $200-300 apiece, it was dumb luck as the equipment I wanted in the lot paid for the lot, this stuff was gravy.

I never fell in love with anything, its all about movement. I have watched my peers collect tons of things and never sell much as the price was too high and they would not wholesale it, others they would. Buying and selling have to both occur, and factor your time in. Selling a domain for a $5 profit, would be better to be dropped.

 

[garptrader]

What attracts many to domaining is the perception that one can easily make huge returns compared to other investments. Yes, handregs do occasionally sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars, but most handregs do not work out very well. If you handreg 500 domains at $10 each and sell one for $300 net of commissions, you cannot get too excited - especially when next year's renewals approach. Do you spend another $5k to renew those 499 domains or drop them all to contain your losses? That is when you realize that handregs and new TLDs and Chinese domains are not so cheap after all. If you continue to renew low-quality domains for several years, that money could have been better utilized to obtain a small number of quality domains which do not cost much to renew and wait for the right buyer.

Learn to be picky about your domain investments and quickly identify your mistakes. Renewing bad domains will quickly end your domaining career as you can only lose so much capital before there is nothing left to pay renewals.

 

[maksimfa]

Also, I would say the most important part.... don't be lazy and do what 99% of the other domainers will NEVER do.

Pick up the phone and sell the domain to potential end users.

Unless you have money growing on trees, you cannot afford to wait for users to come to you.

 

[frank-germany]

I can buy 1-2 nice 4L. And they are liquid, so lets say I purchased 2 4Ls for 599, I think chances are a year from then I am safely in the 500-600 range minimum. So it is either no loss or -100 . . . and in year 2 it is $12 to renew! With those hand regs worse case scenario that is realistic is they all drop and I'm out 599. That is a big hit. And if say 20 are decent now, 80 drop and renew 20 at 120, so I'm 719 in. Since Im completely speculating here I won't say 20 sold for 100 and I live happily ever after. Lets say 5 sell for 100 a piece. That almost recoups first year.

if you get good 4l.com they may sell for $x.xxx USD
if you wait long enough, which you should do

your handregs each could make $488 to $4.888 USD each
just you have to add that price tag
and wait long enough

and yes they should be .com
and usefull for somebody

 

[frank-germany]

it's not like you can find gems using your brains like you could in 1996.

I highly doubt that

its same as in 1996

in 1996 nobody knew
what would be valuable in 2017

so they took a heavy risk

now today your risk is actually lower
as you do know domains are selling
they didn't know that for sure in 1996

and even in 1996
you needed a lot of phantasy
to imagine what would become valuable eventually


use your brain
and take some risks

 

[boker]

What attracts many to domaining is the perception that one can easily make huge returns compared to other investments. Yes, handregs do occasionally sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars, but most handregs do not work out very well. If you handreg 500 domains at $10 each and sell one for $300 net of commissions, you cannot get too excited - especially when next year's renewals approach. Do you spend another $5k to renew those 499 domains or drop them all to contain your losses? That is when you realize that handregs and new TLDs and Chinese domains are not so cheap after all. If you continue to renew low-quality domains for several years, that money could have been better utilized to obtain a small number of quality domains which do not cost much to renew and wait for the right buyer.

Learn to be picky about your domain investments and quickly identify your mistakes. Renewing bad domains will quickly end your domaining career as you can only lose so much capital before there is nothing left to pay renewals.

I think that who is doing mainly handregs in 2017 will not pay an average of 10$ per name. My average for handregs in the last year was around 3.5$, so 500 handregs will be roughly 2000$. If you try to diversify your portofolio with geo, brandables, emd's and even some ngtld's, will be hard not to make some revenue to recover at least your investment. I think that if you are new you should price everything in the 100$-500$ range(with the risk to leave some money on the table), list them on most marketplaces and even do some outbound, you can go wrong, if you spend first a few good weeks to learn how things are in domaining world.

 

[smartwebby]

Just like all people are not the same all domainers are not the same. With experience you learn how to pick the Hand Regs too.

My advice would be to not fret too much about all the initial domains you registered (and will drop unless you are developing any with real potential)... think of their cost as your 'tuition fees' in learning domaining the hands on way.

Clear your portfolio and thinking, then apply the lessons learned through all of it. Like someone said you need to know how to sell and not just buy domains.

 

[bludex]

I don't hand reg, I brain reg.

 

[shorterwinters]

I have seen lots of your names and I can say I am not a fan of lots of them.
Don't take that wrong as I really like reading your posts and threads. Lots come from them to think about.
I don't care for the bikecosts but that is me and I could have as much garbage as you think you have. Seems to me that a website for "bikecosts" would be pretty elaborate and take a lot of time to build right but I don't know. I can see potential and a lot of work at the same time.

I am newer than you tho about 7-8 years ago I got my first bug and registered a bunch of names. 50 or so, give or take a dozen.
I ended up not doing squat with them and let all but 5-6 expire. Earlier this year I decided to check on a few of them. Some were registered and people were out there making money with them somehow.
WOW!
I only checked a few but sure enough there they were tho some appeared to be in never ever land. I also had some tied to the 16 election. I blew that.
Anyways, after seeing that the bug bit again.
Here I am.
I have hand registered everything I have.
Some to just try and sell. More to develop websites and make some income that way. Some brand names, this, that, etc.

I was lucky enough to get one sale that recovered all I have into it so far (similar amount as you) and some left over. Did not have it promoted or anything. Email came out of the blue with an offer.
WOW! What a rush.
What it did was give me a little pat on the back to let me know I was on the right trail somehow and I was right, I can do this. I like to think I know it's not that easy and I really need to sit and start some development on some sites.
I know I have registered a bunch of garbage as well. Some will expire. At least one has a potential trademark issue. I also started hand registering before I really started studying very much and before I ran across this place. I don't entirely agree about "do not hand register anything" but I do agree it is sound advice for the most part.

Funny thing is, I am very, very shrewd about spending on other things...not sure why I don't think twice about buying crappy domains sometimes.

Isn't it funny how that works?
I now let everything (almost always) sit in the cart overnite before I pull the trigger. Amazing how much comes out of the cart.

The alphabet and language are rich and interesting and really full of possibilities. Yeah, lots (most??) of the good stuff is gone in .com (I am 95%+ .com). There is still opportunity. It is fun and interesting and addicting and makes you think. I like all that.

I am slowing way, way, way down till I sell another name or get some of my websites up and running.
Some of my money that is left over from my sale I am going to try and buy a name or two that someone else thought of and try and make some money off of it that way. Flip it so to say. Haven't even started looking yet. I can't imagine quite yet spending xxx on a name to try and make xxxx or xxxxx off of. I will probably start peaking around a little more soon.

Even if you buy it for reg fee/privacy and sell it for 40 that really ain't anything to sneeze at.
Some won't get that, some will, some will get more. Hopefully get enough of the later two to offset the first one and make some money.
Have fun and good luck. I am rooting for you as well.

 

[Kuffy]

If you have a 10k ~ 20K budget, hand registering names probably isn't the best path to follow. Not all names go up in value but premium names are always more liquid.

Always remember that water flows downhill.