It's all made up

[maven]

Full disclosure: I'm just a kid and I've found out what a domainer is less than a year ago.

That being said I went from “this is kind of stupid” to “maybe I should learn more” to “this guys are genius” to “I should get into this before is to late” to “that's an exception” to “that's another exception” to “that's actually the rule” to “this is so stupid”.

I've analyzed close to two hundred portfolios and the majority of names are not worth register. I see the word end-user a lot, but the truth is that the majority of domainers are the end-user for the majority of their names. Just because you don't know how to use it doesn't mean that you are not the end user, if you don't let it drop nobody will come after you.

Even the very pillars of this industry have hundreds, and in some cases, tens of thousands of worthless domains. You can literally register something for 10 bucks and put a 10k tag on it.

I mean, for God's sake, casualcasualties.com was registered last year and you can grab it today for just 94888 usd. You snooze, you lose.

The guy with the pigeons keeps renewing incomeproducingproperty.tv every year like clockwork, since … wait for it … 2011. That's obviously a money maker, but I'm to young to understand.

And there are thousands of examples … if the name has no logic, no meaning, no inherited value then is even better because it's a brandable. That means that you buy it for a premium and is up to you to build the value. If you can't do it, is your fault, the name had the potential to be big (and now you ruined it, buy another one). If you can brand airbnb I think is safe to say that you can brand anything. Your chances will undoubtedly increase if you buy the brand (basically a five dollar logo), not just the name, from a brand marketplace. There is one that sits on a inventory of between 4.5 and 22.5 mil. USD in artwork alone. No, is not BS … is BB.

So yeah … it's not all made up, but 99.9% is!

 

[Pierre Barnard]

Congrats on having the guts to speak your mind.

 

[1Darko]

Great opinion! But please don't forget that even trash has some value.

 

[moe]

Best read so far

 

[hxp]

You snooze, you lose.

Pretty much.

 

[Allaina]

But we are having so much fun

 

[BionicMan]

Sales is an art.

 

[HotKey]

Hi - you've picked up on some good stuff in the industry, particularly

the majority of domainers are the end-user for the majority of their names.

Most of us don't have the luxury of having a small portfolio filled with 1 word dotcoms from the early days to make profits from. Holding names of trends, niches or brandables are more common, increasing your spread thus your likelihood of a sale. But as you have noticed for the most part it is domainers not endusers keeping the investing and resale cycle alive.

And there are thousands of examples … if the name has no logic, no meaning, no inherited value then is even better because it's a brandable.

I've often believed the only excuse for consistantly registering or renewing a blatantly obvious bad name comes down to two reasons:
1) The registrant thinks it's funny, and really doesn't give a crap what others think, and can afford it.
2) Just as any other business, people that are really bad at it continue to do it because they honestly have no clue that they are really bad at it.

With brandables, it's a different monster. Here you have words that aren't even real, but they evoke a certain je ne ce quoi or connection. I think you have to pretty word savvy to be successful in this field, and we have some guys that are here on NP. Brandables have been popular for a number of years now because endusers are finding that they don't want to be tied down to a generic dictionary word defining their business. There are exceptions, such as the recent sale of Hive.com, where a dictionary word can even be a brandable because of a perfect fit to it's MO, yet still sparks excitement.

 

[Al Cohol]

Not so much made up as it is greatly exaggerated.

 

[Cdomains]

The sad truth is domain investing is a losing game for 99% of people who try it.

This is something nobody really talks about.

It is an open secret in domaining.

Identifying a good name is an art learned from much experience, usually only gained after time and constant work, thought and research in this field.

There is no shortcut.

Sadly, most domainers are part timers who will never reach this level of understanding before going bankrupt.

All of us must lose money in the beginning, to make money later on.

This is a rite of passage for most domainers, even those who are at the top of the domaining world now.

Unfortunately most will never learn, so most will lose at this game, and wisely give up.

Some will never learn and continue to lose money year after year, telling themselves a big sale is just around the corner, even though they hold a portfolio of worthless domains.

For a young person you are very, very smart to figure this out for yourself, early on, before losing a lot of money.

This is very rare for a newbie domainer.

Hats off to you my young friend!!

Most realize this after it is too late and they lose their shirt.

Considering your young age and obvious intellect, it is my prediction you will go far in this field, and avoid the mistakes most new domainers make.

Keep it up, and good luck to you @maven.

We all hope to see great things from you in the future, and welcome to NP.

Please keep us updated on your progress.

 

[frank-germany]

Full disclosure: I'm just a kid and I've found out what a domainer is less than a year ago.

Even the very pillars of this industry have hundreds, and in some cases, tens of thousands of worthless domains. You can literally register something for 10 bucks and put a 10k tag on it.

exactly right

And there are thousands of examples … if the name has no logic, no meaning, no inherited value then is even better because it's a brandable.
!

just because you don't understand it
it doesn't mean it doesn't exist

there are other languages then english
and other purposes then webpages

 

[frank-germany]

The sad truth is domain investing is a losing game for 99% of people who try it.

I always wonder who came up with this myth?
How in the world could you possibly prove that number???

99% of my sales have never been reported anywhere
so how come you know that for sure?

 

[carob]

It's gambling. The house always wins.

Professional gamblers can win, others just lose money and enjoy it or else hope for a big jackpot.

 

[Cdomains]

I always wonder who came up with this myth?
How in the world could you possibly prove that number???

It was just my way of saying "most"

Maybe I should have said "most" instead of putting a number on it.

Thanks for pointing that out.

 

[UmerK]

Great post, as a fellow newbie i share more or less same thoughts as you but there's money to be made in this industry and there's huge potential for us to do that, it will take time for sure but i can see it being worth it. As newbies best we can do is, be realistic, don't put all eggs in one basket and choose people to look up to carefully. Best of luck and cheers for a great post!

 

[D Haynes]

The harsh truth with domaining is that if your not making a profit you don't know what your doing. I honestly believe that anyone could make a profit from this industry. Not a living but a profit. Too many jump in head first without learning first and too many waste thousands on rubbish then get bitter. Like anything else in life, what you get out depends on what your willing to put in.

 

[MapleDots]

Pick a specialty and stay to it.... that is my advice.

Your post has a few good points but you are overlooking one basic fact.

You see what does not sell but you do not see what does. Some domainers are happy with 5k sales and they add up fairly fast. The small sales are the bread and butter for most domainers. Those sales go unreported and fall under the radar. I can make one sale for 5k and support 500 domains on that profit. So from the 500 annually any other sale is profit.

I do agree, the choice of some people is questionable but a few hits and you are in a profit scenario. Of course it helps to be focused on a single target.... I am known as the Maple Man in Canada, if you want the national symbol in your domain name you come to me. That is called building a brand.

So yes, you are completely correct.... however, you only see the domainers that don't know their craft. Look at huge domains.... thousands of soso domains at around 2k each but they are hugely profitable.

That said.... I enjoyed reading your post, I'm glad you saw the light before spending serious cash.

 

[DomainVP]

A must read for all newbies!

If you are not making a profit then get out while you can before you lose your shirt!

Not everyone can cook in the kitchen

 

[SuperDudePro]

I think that there is truth in all of what you said.

A couple of points to add. The reason that there are so many willing to let noobies make stupid mistakes, and profit on them, is because people like profits more than people. There are, of course, lots of domainers who will warn you in advance, but not enough people call out the shill bidders, intentional deceivers, and the beyond redemption delusionals. Somehow it's considered more rude to call someone on bullshit than to actually be the bullshit. BUT, as someone pointed out in a recent post Discernment is the key. If you have it, all of the noise is comical, if you don't then it is a path to the poorhouse.

Second, in spite of the noise about you not understanding brandables well enough, you have as good a grasp of the reality as most here. All of the double letter misspellings and other crap that are led along in order to create huge databases of worthless names. Yes, there are great brandables. BB did a huge disservice to their business model when they started letting in almost every crap domain in existence. Now they've cut back, but it's going to take a long time for all of those domainers to recognize that their names could sit on BB for a century and no one will want the stupid name. Again, I know that there are brandables that sell. That isn't the point. The real point is that the OP is correct in pointing out the absurdity of the crap art from BB being 'worth' $$millions collectively, just sitting there.

I think that you are actually ready for the next phase if you choose to stick with it. You've seen behind the veil, which not too many people ever do in this industry. Either way, thanks for the post, it's nice to see a well-written wake up call.

 

[comati]

the majority of domainers are the end-user for the majority of their names.

unfortunately, that's true

The guy with the pigeons

lol, good one

you buy the brand (basically a five dollar logo)

again truer words have never been spoken

There is one that sits on a inventory of between 4.5 and 22.5 mil. USD in artwork alone.

where did you found that info?

Great opinion! But please don't forget that even trash has some value.

old saying "some people trash is other people treasure"

Most of us don't have the luxury of having a small portfolio filled with 1 word dotcoms from the early days to make profits from.

i for one wish that I had fewer and better names ... actually i'm working on it as we speak

there are other languages then english

can I interest you in something like FinanzielleIntelligenz.com or SmarteImplantate.com or maybe, Spielautomaten-spielen.com (coz the hyphen is not a deal breaker for DE)? :p

So yes, you are completely correct.... however, you only see the domainers that don't know their craft. Look at huge domains.... thousands of soso domains at around 2k each but they are hugely profitable.

they get a lot of expired names, just visited some of the recent ones and you are spot on 1995 usd a piece.
i've noticed that they say pool.com was sold recently for 5K and my heart skipped a beat ... i guess it's a typo and they are referring to pool.com.au sale