I've found an investor - Just curious...

[GoQuickly]

I have always been low key on the domains that I sell, nothing ever too big, mostly end-user and small flips ranging in $300-$800 profit from hand registering and drop catching.

I've written my own scripts for the most part and put together a system that gets me by. Recently, I have sat down with my investor and we put our heads together and small talk came about, I mentioned Domaining - He had never heard of it.

He was hooked on the idea and wants to put the idea to work.

My question for you guys is whether it's small or large, what was your best scenario for ROI (Return on investment) you have ever done.

Did you get the domain from drop? From auction? Did you market it alone or sell it with a site?

Would be :tu: to hear from you guys!

 

[yandig]

My largest ROI was on the sale of a hand-registered .com, which I registered about 6 months prior to sale. I contacted about 10 end users by email in the relevant industry, and found the buyer that way.

 

[Richard Vega]

My best ROI has also been for hand registered. I have only contacted a few end sellers, but all my sales have come from the interested buyer contacting me thru the Whois info.

My best sale was actually to a start-up venture that is backed by Facebook investors. Sorry cant disclose the domain (part of the deal)

I never use drop catchers.... but I do spend lots of time going thru list of deleted names, along with lots of thinking and typing to come up with available ones.

 

[kotan]

terms of roi, hand-registered as well. 3 months after, an offer came. was willing to settle for low $$$ for a start but it was offered high $$$ and i accepted

 

[GoQuickly]

Very nice guys.

 

[interestedenough]

The best ROI I've ever got was for a domain I bought in 1999 and sold in 2004. The domains I had a good ROI were hand regged with a trend in mind. However, these domains were part of a portfolio in the same domain. The portfolio's ROI is not as good as that for the single best domain name. So, if you have an investor you are talking a portfolio, and he/she/they must understand that it's a patience game, it is also VERY cyclical. In tough times you accumulate, in good times you sell. And there is always the risk that some unfortunate technological advance might make ALL domain names irrelevant.

 

[DavidH]

All of my domain name sales in the last three years have been hand reg, closeouts or low price auctions on the buying side; with sales to end user / Sedo / Godaddy customers on the selling side.

Most of the end users I contacted myself by email but a few sales of the better names came from them contacting me.

 

[ablaye]

For me, I had registered a domain name 5 years ago, hoping to develop it some day. I was contacted by someone who made an anonymous request to purchase the domain through Network Solutions. I agreed to sell the domain and received $2000 for it.

 

[Rich]

My best return so far came from a 4 letter brandable .tv that I hand registered, sold for $2,500 after one renewal. They paid sedo BIN price...Best of luck to you

 

[Joep]

My best ROI came from a handregged domain a couple of years ago.
The name was the subtitle of a well known adult moviesite. I intented to use it for a whitelabel page for their affiliate program but didn't have enough funding to promote it.
I contacted them about 3 months after I regged it and they immediately agreed to my asking price of 2k (which keeps me wondering if they would have accepted a higher amount).

 

[-Joe-]

Out of interest, why do you want an investor? What will they actually contribute?

I'd just avoid investors where possible, personally.

 

[interestedenough]

Joe,

Here is the best analogy for why you would need an investor:

Scenario 1:
1. Imagine you bought some land in a place kind of distant to town, but you have a good chance that the suburbia is going to extend towards your recently purchased land (a portfolio of domains that you bought preventing a trend in names).
2. The taxes you have to pay yearly for that piece of land are keeping you awake at night. Registration fees for a portfolio of a decent size will cost you some good money yearly.
3. You've placed a couple cows and tried to plant some corn to generate some revenue from your land. But, this land is not that good for planting stuff, it is only good for commercial/residential development.
4. You need somebody to help you pay your taxes yearly, and in exchange you will share the profits once you sell your land.

Scenario 2:
Your land is not going to get residential/commercial development, BUT it is really fertile, the problem is that you planted Apple trees, and apple trees take 5 years to produce their first crop, you need somebody to help you pay the taxes and you will share the yields of the crops.

Scenario 3:
You find for the cheap some land that will be developed at some point, AND it already has some trees that you can harvest with a little work, and that income pays for your taxes. In this case you stay quiet and don't call investors, because they might come in and buy your neighbor's land which you already had an eye on.

Of course, there are much many more investors willing to put money in real land than in domain names. Domain names are in the minds of many doomed to disappear when some technological development renders them worthless. I am not advocating for or against domain names, because they are indeed very risky.

Out of interest, why do you want an investor? What will they actually contribute?

I'd just avoid investors where possible, personally.