It's Hard to buy good name now.

[GeorgeQuang]

Hey everyone, i'm just a rookie. I started investing in Domain late - 2017, so i just have a small portfolio ( about 400 domains). Recently, i realized that it's too hard to buy a good name now. Why ?
1> GoDaddy Expired Auctions : as you know, HugeDomains gets 40% -50% good domains, 20-30% will belong to big players ( who has big pocket - huge capital to burn), and the rest belong to us. You can see some names below with their prices.
ensureit.com $175
searchmind.com $295
deyde.com $215
ablepower.com $425
aceadvisory.com $117
innovacenter.com $120
bellecreative.com $127
crownalliance.com $127
corptex.com $273
2> Dropped List : nowaday, we can't find many high quality domain names on dropped list because of the increasing of Drop Catching systems.
- With individual domainers: they prefer to pay 59$-79$ for the name that they think it good enough than wait and reg it on Dropped List.
- With Domain Companies: they have their own Registers, so that they can catch expired names quickly. And the rest in Dropped list almost are junks.
3> Auctions : people now become crazy in bidding war. They are willing to pay more and more money for a name that has bids despite its quality. If you want to get a good one, you must pay more 30-40% than before.
Domain's price now is crazy.
So what do you think ?

 

[jideofor]

Aren't HD pushing up the price of domain names?

certainly.. i really do not like that company one bit

 

[GeorgeQuang]

Although it's getting harder compare to past in terms of buying quality domain at cheap but it's more difficult to sell a quality domain.

Before a domain of XYZ quality you used to get for $500 has gone up to $2,000. The difficult part is you are paying additional $1,500 for every domain of that quality and holding it for no fixed period (which is always the case) makes an investor more impatient as more money is involved and return isn't coming with flow.

Also one thing I have noticed for least couple of years or so that domain prices have gone up in auction houses but endusers have not started paying the prices what the domain actually deserves for. That's bonus frustration

Yes, it's true. The cost of investing in this industry is increasing day by day, but the end users won't pay for the extra fees.
And let's imagine, if you have 500 quality names , which you must pay at least $100 in Expired Auctions for each, so total cost is : $50 000 and there are no guarantees that you can sell them fast, maybe must hold them for a long time.

 

[GeorgeQuang]

What has, number of registrars that dropcatch, to do with the quality of the dropping list.
Drop list will be the same.

Quality of the drop list, that is more and more poor (regarding old gtlds and cctlds) depends
on number of registrars that send their expired names to auctions before redemption period so will never drop.
And day by day more registrars do it in order to get more profit.

Oh yes, but running their own auctions platform is too difficult ( as you can see, DynaDot's expired Auctions contains almost junks, just 5% of them are quality enough to invest).
So the registrars have another choices : sending their domains to the 3rd party like TuCows is doing : sending their expired domains to NameJet ( they sent to GD before).
But for registrars that don't have more expired name everyday, i think it's better to them to let them dropped than trying to sell them at Auctions.
And the game will back to 2000s, if ICANN can shuts down over 800 registrars as they said.

 

[Dominic Belley]

And let's imagine, if you have 500 quality names , which you must pay at least $100 in Expired Auctions for each, so total cost is : $50 000 and there are no guarantees that you can sell them fast, maybe must hold them for a long time.

That is for sure.
A smart thing a domainer should ask himself before buying a domain is " Do I need the money ? "

If the answer is YES : Buy a liquid domain. You will be able to quickly recover the money when needed.
If the answer is NO : It opens the door to buy non-liquid domain and you feel comfortable with the fact that you might not recover that money for several years.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Yes, it's true. The cost of investing in this industry is increasing day by day, but the end users won't pay for the extra fees.
And let's imagine, if you have 500 quality names , which you must pay at least $100 in Expired Auctions for each, so total cost is : $50 000 and there are no guarantees that you can sell them fast, maybe must hold them for a long time.

Also not all domains will sell in most of our lifetime. So those extra cost will always be there.
As the prices are increasing, the return on investment will go down overall. But every now and then we will be seeing sales which are very much attractive due to which many domainers jump into this game thinking they can also buy a name at $10 and sell it for 5K.

 

[mpls]

...
That's right but you need money to buy food, drinks and pay bills. Patience does not make more money in short-term
...

Yes, everybody need money now to pay bills and food now. And renewals.

Become a full time domainer you need a lot of money. It is possible you can stay 2 or more years (like me) without any sale.

You can have sales in $ XXX range (success it is a sale, but you can pay only a dinner at resturnat, how can you live?), max XXXX range (you can stay "secure" for 1 or 2 months).

At the end, newbie, please, don't left your work until you'll have money to stay 2 / 3 years secure, if you want to became a full time domainer.

And this rule is valid also for LL coms owner, high value domains are hard to sell, you can stay 2 / 3 / 4 / ... years before sell an LL com.

While you're waiting how can you live? With a job.

A job.

 

[GeorgeQuang]

Yes, everybody need money now to pay bills and food now. And renewals.

Become a full time domainer you need a lot of money. It is possible you can stay 2 or more years (like me) without any sale.

You can have sales in $ XXX range (success it is a sale, but you can pay only a dinner at resturnat, how can you live?), max XXXX range (you can stay "secure" for 1 or 2 months).

At the end, newbie, please, don't left your work until you'll have money to stay 2 / 3 years secure, if you want to became a full time domainer.

And this rule is valid also for LL coms owner, high value domains are hard to sell, you can stay 2 / 3 / 4 / ... years before sell an LL com.

While you're waiting how can you live? With a job.

A job.

It's true, buddy.
For newbies, Domaining should be a Investing Tools like bonds, stocks, gold, Bitcoin.etc. than a job. Because it takes lot of time to learn, try and fail to get experience. But the most important factor is it costs lot of money. The fairy tale about buying $9 domain on Dropped List and flipping for XX XXX is in the past.

 

[mpls]

It's true, buddy.
For newbies, Domaining should be a Investing Tools like bonds, stocks, gold, Bitcoin.etc. than a job. Because it takes lot of time to learn, try and fail to get experience. But the most important factor is it costs lot of money. The fairy tale about buying $9 domain on Dropped List and flipping for XX XXX is in the past.

Yes, this is the truth.

I'm an enterpreneur, a software engineer, a consultant and, AT THE END I'm a domainer.

Domains could be an hobby (or an investment) until you make sales in 6 figures, (5 figures min.).

When you'll have $ XXX,XXX you can start to thing to quit your job and spend all your time in domain industry.

Until that moment you've to find alternative ways to live.



P.S. These statements are valid if you live in a country where you need at least 2k / 3k every SINGLE month to live, if you live in a country where salaries are $ 300 a month you can live with domaining.
In my country with $ 300 a month you pay a parking for your car, or a dinner at resturant.

 

[GeorgeQuang]

Yes, this is the truth.

I'm an enterpreneur, a software engineer, a consultant and, AT THE END I'm a domainer.

Domains could be an hobby (or an investment) until you make sales in 6 figures, (5 figures min.).

When you'll have $ XXX,XXX you can start to thing to quit your job and spend all your time in domain industry.

Until that moment you've to find alternative ways to live.



P.S. These statements are valid if you live in a country where you need at least 2k / 3k every SINGLE month to live, if you live in a country where salaries are $ 300 a month you can live with domaining.
In my country with $ 300 a month you pay a parking for your car, or a dinner at resturant.

In my country , with $300 you can live well and pay bills It's an advantage, but also have problems with English abilities, Gov policies .etc.
But the most terrible thing is : i work from 8:PM to 5:AM oh dear @@ and i sleep when people start their workday

 

[Arca]

Reseller competition and prices for names at NJ/GD/drop are constantly increasing. That trend is probably not going to reverse anytime soon.

In 2018, we'll miss how cheap names were in 2017.

A lot of people who are struggling with fierce competition at venues like GD, NJ and dropcatch are probably going to be priced out of the reseller market after some time, or only be able to replenish their inventory with very limited quantities of quality names due to high costs.

Large portfolio holders and corporates are going to dominate even more than they're doing now, while part time/hobby domainers are going to find it increasingly difficult to make money. Right now, working hard, moving as many names as possible and taking the opportunity to take money of the table whenever an end-user materializes, and reinvesting in more and better names, in order to be able to keep up with prices in the reseller market is imperative for future success in domain investing. Competition is fierce, but there are still lots of opportunities for buying good names at decent prices if you work for it consistently. Domainers who do not manage to keep up with these developments are largely going to get left behind, as reseller prices are only going to increase further in the coming years.

 

[toughdomains]

still many good names out there however I do feel you need to spend for them...buy 5 great names for 1500 rather than 50 hand regs....the problem is our definition of great

 

[.X.]

@GeorgeQuang

It sounds like you are seeking income right now, You need to audit your complete situation if domaining is going to be your soul source of income, IMO.

I would consider complete development with about four names, open up some of your income sources, Use multiple streams of potential income options on your websites, Adsense+Chikita, Amazon, Ebay - EPN, Shareasale network, and the list goes on,

No need to depend on Google search traffic, I wouldn't, but if you do use an advertising network like adwords, or PPC advertising, Use alternate keywords and keep your weekly budget at a bare minimum.

Best Of Luck to ya George!

 

[GeorgeQuang]

still many good names out there however I do feel you need to spend for them...buy 5 great names for 1500 rather than 50 hand regs....the problem is our definition of great

@GeorgeQuang

It sounds like you are seeking income right now, You need to audit your complete situation if domaining is going to be your soul source of income, IMO.

I would consider complete development with about four names, open up some of your income sources, Use multiple streams of potential income options on your websites, Adsense+Chikita, Amazon, Ebay - EPN, Shareasale network, and the list goes on,

No need to depend on Google search traffic, I wouldn't, but if you do use an advertising network like adwords, or PPC advertising, Use alternate keywords and keep your weekly budget at a bare minimum.

Best Of Luck to ya George!

Thanks so much for your comments.
Yes, as i told before, it's hard to find a good name for a rookie who has tiny limited capital like me ( and many fellows here).
If you have 30k 40k 50k, you still buy good names and flip them quickly.
But if you don't have more money, it's a huge problem.
The quality of Dropped Domains is poorest now.
The prices of Drop Catching platforms are increasing.
The prices to win in Auctions are higher than it used to be.
And all these problems create barriers for newcomer ( in the other hand, it's good for old players, right? )
I'm trying to catch as many quality domains in my range capital as possible
Thanks all for following this thread

 

[Kuffy]

I'm trying to catch as many quality domains in my range capital as possible

You need to be careful with this. Everybody has a different perception of "quality", and it is the end user's perception that matters. I'm often surprised by some of the names posted in some of the threads here, and I suspect some people are surprised by the names I choose.

 

[jamaltq]

Hey everyone, i'm just a rookie. I started investing in Domain late - 2017, so i just have a small portfolio ( about 400 domains). Recently, i realized that it's too hard to buy a good name now. Why ?
1> GoDaddy Expired Auctions : as you know, HugeDomains gets 40% -50% good domains, 20-30% will belong to big players ( who has big pocket - huge capital to burn), and the rest belong to us. You can see some names below with their prices.
ensureit.com $175
searchmind.com $295
deyde.com $215
ablepower.com $425
aceadvisory.com $117
innovacenter.com $120
bellecreative.com $127
crownalliance.com $127
corptex.com $273
2> Dropped List : nowaday, we can't find many high quality domain names on dropped list because of the increasing of Drop Catching systems.
- With individual domainers: they prefer to pay 59$-79$ for the name that they think it good enough than wait and reg it on Dropped List.
- With Domain Companies: they have their own Registers, so that they can catch expired names quickly. And the rest in Dropped list almost are junks.
3> Auctions : people now become crazy in bidding war. They are willing to pay more and more money for a name that has bids despite its quality. If you want to get a good one, you must pay more 30-40% than before.
Domain's price now is crazy.
So what do you think ?

It is not hard to buy good name, it is to understand what is the good name.

 

[baseballworld]

Its not hard if you know what your looking for. I have no issues finding names ever.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

It is not hard to buy good name, it is to understand what is the good name.

I think what OP is trying to say is people with limited capital like him and most of the other domainers, it's difficult to buy good number of domains along with quality and as the time passing by, more funds are required as compare to past.

On the other hand, I agree with you too of buying good name is not hard but when you have $$$ to spend

 

[Sinh]

There are so many newbies who are buying like crazy, they just want to acquire the domains and they don't know how hard to resell what they have bought with high prices like that.

 

[Kate]

I am reviewing this thread again

Hey everyone, i'm just a rookie. I started investing in Domain late - 2017, so i just have a small portfolio ( about 400 domains).

400 domains is indeed a 'small' portfolio for a domainer, but it could be smaller than that. Renewals are expensive, considering that maybe 1% of the inventory will sell per year.

And you say you started in 2017, I assume March from your registration date. So in less than 6 months time you have already accumulated a lot of domains. I haven't seen them but I am not sure they are good enough. When you're starting out, you try to make up for being late and you end up sniping everything that moves and in no time you have a bloated portfolio
My suggestion would be to trim the portfolio by renewal time, perhaps keep a dozen domains only. If you pay only $100 or $200 in renewal fees per year, then you have more disposable income to buy better domains.
Many domainers are paying more in renewal fees, than they make in domain sales. You don't want to be in that situation.

Quality > quantity.
I think the big problem often is not find the good names, but boils down to management of available funds.

 

[Elad n]

Only one advice from me.
Many trends are going up and down like the waves..

Try to look at A when everyone is focusing on B
Its harder now for everyone but you can still find great catches.

E

 

[boker]

I am reviewing this thread again


400 domains is indeed a 'small' portfolio for a domainer, but it could be smaller than that. Renewals are expensive, considering that maybe 1% of the inventory will sell per year.

And you say you started in 2017, I assume March from your registration date. So in less than 6 months time you have already accumulated a lot of domains. I haven't seen them but I am not sure they are good enough. When you're starting out, you try to make up for being late and you end up sniping everything that moves and in no time you have a bloated portfolio
My suggestion would be to trim the portfolio by renewal time, perhaps keep a dozen domains only. If you pay only $100 or $200 in renewal fees per year, then you have more disposable income to buy better domains.
Many domainers are paying more in renewal fees, than they make in domain sales. You don't want to be in that situation.

Quality > quantity.
I think the big problem often is not find the good names, but boils down to management of available funds.

You are right saying that when' you're starting out, you try to make up for being late and you end up sniping everything that moves and in no time you have a bloated portfolio' and that the average sale through rate is 1-2%. Let's assume he will have only a dozen names, how many years he will need to make a profit out of them? Probably 5-10 years, considering the average sale through rate. And considering that the average sale is around low to mid xxxx, so he will invest around 1-2k for acquisition and renewals for 5 years and he could make 2-4k on average, after 5 years. Doesn't sound like the best investment. Also, considering a low volume, he will not learn to mush in that time. I think a better way for him could be to flip closeout and hand reg's for 100-200$, like this he can have liquidity, can make a little profit from the beginning and can learn a lot through volumes.

 

[Kpett]

Yeah, I probably registered too many names when I started, and not all of them were great. But from what I've read, my story isn't too unlike most everybody else when getting started. I don't even want to think about how many hours I spent reading and learning - if I do the math on an hourly basis, I could have easily made more $ doing just about anything else. So I'm more careful now about what I buy or register - there will always be good names - its knowing which ones will make a profit in the future that's the trick.

 

[GeorgeQuang]

400 domains is indeed a 'small' portfolio for a domainer, but it could be smaller than that. Renewals are expensive, considering that maybe 1% of the inventory will sell per year.

And you say you started in 2017, I assume March from your registration date. So in less than 6 months time you have already accumulated a lot of domains. I haven't seen them but I am not sure they are good enough. When you're starting out, you try to make up for being late and you end up sniping everything that moves and in no time you have a bloated portfolio
My suggestion would be to trim the portfolio by renewal time, perhaps keep a dozen domains only. If you pay only $100 or $200 in renewal fees per year, then you have more disposable income to buy better domains.
Many domainers are paying more in renewal fees, than they make in domain sales. You don't want to be in that situation.

Quality > quantity.
I think the big problem often is not find the good names, but boils down to management of available funds.

Thanks for your advice.
I just think that i'm focusing on my main target this year : try to catch as many good domains as i can.
"Good domain" in my opinion is the domain can reaches at least 1 of 3 conditions i had mentioned in the comment before.
I don't know what i'm doing know is right or wrong, but i must try and analyze the result, then fix or change it in the next year
Below are some of my domains that get at least $500 offers, but i refused, because i thought they valued more. And i didn't pay over $35 for them . And some you can say " Oh they are junks", but junks to you, gems to me . There is not the right answer in this industry. The only thing is right that your domains will be sold or not. If yes, ya you are doing right. If no, you're wrong and you must change your tactics immediately
I'm not good enough to ensure that i will success in this industry, so i need all you - the hard-core domainers and all your advices to keep me in the right way
VistaHR.com
SSholidays.com
HelloFix.com
PattayaCondo.com
BisonStudio.com
VertPro.com
RPenergy.com
RosesBeauty.com
Rtailor.com
AppleLearning.com
SardiniaWine.com
VirtualEnter.com
PPtraining.com
GrupEX.com
GetTaco.com
Synolex.com

 

[GeorgeQuang]

You are right saying that when' you're starting out, you try to make up for being late and you end up sniping everything that moves and in no time you have a bloated portfolio' and that the average sale through rate is 1-2%. Let's assume he will have only a dozen names, how many years he will need to make a profit out of them? Probably 5-10 years, considering the average sale through rate. And considering that the average sale is around low to mid xxxx, so he will invest around 1-2k for acquisition and renewals for 5 years and he could make 2-4k on average, after 5 years. Doesn't sound like the best investment. Also, considering a low volume, he will not learn to mush in that time. I think a better way for him could be to flip closeout and hand reg's for 100-200$, like this he can have liquidity, can make a little profit from the beginning and can learn a lot through volumes.

Yes, i agree.
I can't image that buying 50-100 "$100-$200" domains and list them to aftermarket, then wait or contact endusers, then if i can earn some, re-invest them. It's too slow, i think so.
Managing a huge portfolio, and try to catching domains from all sources i can is the best way to learn now. So that i can learn more things about this industry and can find the best strategy with each sources ( Dropped List, Expired Auctions, Aftermarket....)
Maybe i will be wrong, time will answer it

 

[GeorgeQuang]

There are so many newbies who are buying like crazy, they just want to acquire the domains and they don't know how hard to resell what they have bought with high prices like that.

Not me. I don't have more money to burn like this hehe