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debate Let's be real, most successful domainers are people who registered domains 15-30 years ago

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Siggy2500

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This is what nobody talks about.

Decades ago, lets say roughly 25 years ago, when the internet was in its golden age, domains were in abundance and many good names were available, the average person could usually register the domain he needed without it being taken.

Domaining is not futureproof, not sustainable, it's more of an early-internet thing, even now the internet is still very young if you think about it, BUT, as the internet gets older and more people are using it, computers are advancing, the demand increases and all the half-decent domains get sucked up, even with the new TLDs. The new TLDs are overpriced, and nothing will ever compare to when the internet was fairly new, when good domains were available & free and without having to pay thousands of dollars or even millions for them.

Now, today, more than 20 years after the dot-com bubble, realistically, no domains are available for registering, only the pickers are left and if you want to get a good domain in your collection, you have to buy it at a premium and pray someone is going to buy it, and I don't think people really profit much from that at all, because it's likely that the would-be buyer is another domainer or as the nerds call it, "domain investor" like you, and I guess if the domainer or would-be buyer is smart he wouldnt buy the domain at any higher price than you did yourself because then he would have to resell it even higher if he's trying to make a profit just like you did. Then the price continues to become so high that there isn't much room left to profit off the domain within the domaining industry, then again there are chances it gets purchased by a business or individual interested in it, and then that domain goes out of public circulation and gets used as a website, with only the trash pickers left within the domaining industry.

Nobody wants domains ending in, for example: .xyz and other ugly similarities, even if you get a good domain with such ugly endings it's still realistically worthless, be real. The only TLDs in which "good" domains are worth anything are .COM, .NET and .AI, etc and that only being said if your website has traffic, it's true if you are a logical person and not a trash hoarder. The only domains which have value are high traffic domains, and if you have an ugly TLD domain, for example .xyz with high traffic, good for you, your domain has physical people entering it, then I can make an exception and consider it "valuable".

And finally, domains are not property which means you do not own them, you only have the right to use them and that is only so if you pay the yearly fee. Domains aren't property, therefore they have no book value, no officially recognized value because as I said, it's not property. It's only speculation and it's up to the so called "domain investors" what the market value for it is.

Different can be said about high traffic domains, as I said above, they have physical backing behind them in the form of customers (humans), which are important for generating revenue for a website. The only way you can make a domain "valuable" nowadays is by developing it into a website with traffic.


Alright, that is enough. Now I will be stormed with shit, feel free to thumbs down this post and mass-report me, moderate me or or whatever. I don't care! Just stay mad. Stay edgy! 🤡


And feel free to correct any mistake I made in this post, I might take it as advice, it depends. 🐒🐒🐒
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Domaining currentlt has a half-life of 10-20 years at the moment, it will be dying from now on regardless of what I've said.
It's dead/dying for you. Since you failed at this, you're really not in any position to make any predictions. You're saying the same things other failed domainers said 10 years ago, when this forum first started etc. Your post is nothing new, not very original.
 
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The OP showed his industry knowledge, or lack there of, by stating the following -

“The only TLDs in which "good" domains are worth anything are .COM, .NET and .AI”
Hi

i was going to say he forgot to mention .org

and i also think .ai will fade once all the best one-two word combo's are gone.
cuz who's gonna reg 3-4 word names in .ai, like we do with .com?

imo...
 
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So I take it that business has been slow and the constant .xyz sales reports irritate the hell out of you?
 
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look at the recent sales, many 5-6 figure sales are names that didn't make sense 3 years ago and certainly not 20 years ago. You make money by selling names, not by holding. There are always new trends and opportunity. Its like the stock market and real estate. If you do not enjoy domaining and have money to lose, this is not the industry for you.
 
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If anyone writing on these forums was successful, he wouldn't be writing on these forums.

There's quite a number of very active members who also happen to be very successful in domaining so... I beg to differ.
 
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Well
I think you need to understand domaining before coming here and spilling opinions about domains future , don’t you think ?
Or at least have some experience

I’ve started domaining about 8 months ago , and i’m not spilling opinions about how difficult it is to be successful being late in it , or giving my opinion on the future of this industry without living it for enough time.

And to be clear , I sold 5 domains in 8 months ( 3 in four fig range)
 
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Just register good newgTLD for regular price, wait for 10 years, and you will be successful, maybe.
But you may also be broke after those 10 years of waiting.
 
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You're absolutely correct that it was a lot easier to make money through domain investing back in the 90's and early 2000's when this was all brand new, not to mention it was cake to drown in unheard of levels of parking revenue during the 2000's.

But that doesn't mean you can't still make money investing in domains, it's just exponentially more difficult and far more capital intensive. You also have to work harder, smarter and longer than your predecessors, and almost certainly will make a lower ROI. But that's true of a lot of things today, in a globalized marketplace with a mushrooming world population.

But hey, if it was easy, everyone would do it.

This is what nobody talks about.

Decades ago, lets say roughly 25 years ago, when the internet was in its golden age, domains were in abundance and many good names were available, the average person could usually register the domain he needed without it being taken.

Domaining is not futureproof, not sustainable, it's more of an early-internet thing, even now the internet is still very young if you think about it, BUT, as the internet gets older and more people are using it, computers are advancing, the demand increases and all the half-decent domains get sucked up, even with the new TLDs. The new TLDs are overpriced, and nothing will ever compare to when the internet was fairly new, when good domains were available & free and without having to pay thousands of dollars or even millions for them.

Now, today, more than 20 years after the dot-com bubble, realistically, no domains are available for registering, only the pickers are left and if you want to get a good domain in your collection, you have to buy it at a premium and pray someone is going to buy it, and I don't think people really profit much from that at all, because it's likely that the would-be buyer is another domainer or as the nerds call it, "domain investor" like you, and I guess if the domainer or would-be buyer is smart he wouldnt buy the domain at any higher price than you did yourself because then he would have to resell it even higher if he's trying to make a profit just like you did. Then the price continues to become so high that there isn't much room left to profit off the domain within the domaining industry, then again there are chances it gets purchased by a business or individual interested in it, and then that domain goes out of public circulation and gets used as a website, with only the trash pickers left within the domaining industry.

Nobody wants domains ending in, for example: .xyz and other ugly similarities, even if you get a good domain with such ugly endings it's still realistically worthless, be real. The only TLDs in which "good" domains are worth anything are .COM, .NET and .AI, etc and that only being said if your website has traffic, it's true if you are a logical person and not a trash hoarder. The only domains which have value are high traffic domains, and if you have an ugly TLD domain, for example .xyz with high traffic, good for you, your domain has physical people entering it, then I can make an exception and consider it "valuable".

And finally, domains are not property which means you do not own them, you only have the right to use them and that is only so if you pay the yearly fee. Domains aren't property, therefore they have no book value, no officially recognized value because as I said, it's not property. It's only speculation and it's up to the so called "domain investors" what the market value for it is.

Different can be said about high traffic domains, as I said above, they have physical backing behind them in the form of customers (humans), which are important for generating revenue for a website. The only way you can make a domain "valuable" nowadays is by developing it into a website with traffic.


Alright, that is enough. Now I will be stormed with shit, feel free to thumbs down this post and mass-report me, moderate me or or whatever. I don't care! Just stay mad. Stay edgy! 🤡


And feel free to correct any mistake I made in this post, I might take it as advice, it depends. 🐒🐒🐒
Addition: I don't think domaining has much time left before it falls out of relevance, I say there is a decade left, or two at most. The classics of the 2000s are gone, only premium domains will be worth it and the times where people register hundreds of mediocre domains and sell them will not be profitable anymore.

The ''market'' is being bombarded with new TLDs so it's diluting more and more.

Domaining isn't an industry, lets be real. Call yourself investors.
 
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The OP showed his industry knowledge, or lack there of, by stating the following -

“The only TLDs in which "good" domains are worth anything are .COM, .NET and .AI”

First of all, .net is terrible and I’d never buy one. Second of all, .ai will fade. Just wait and you’ll see.
 
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You guys are misunderstanding what I mean by "worth", valuable and "value"

I defined what I think "value" is somewhere in my post, you guys just don't get the entire image.

Domains can only be considered "worth" anything if they have traffic, which brings customers to a potential business.

Most valuable names, domains that can be considered "worth" anything, that is domains with traffic, are within those 3 TLDs, or at least .com Lets cross out .ai and .net that's absolutely not true. I made a mistake in my post, my bad.

I only invest in .com .net and some .org. I am still stuck on the old TLDs. I have sold more .net than any other TLD for some reason.
 
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"It's not a first post type of post. It's a post of somebody who is frustrated with lack of sales."

Why are you saying I should be like the rest of the sheep herd and be afraid to say what I genuinely think, just because my account is new?

This forum isn't necessarily experts-only as you guys are making it look like. I always see the same heads popping up to the right hand of my screen in Blog favorites, it's funny lol fr.

My post does not have anything to do with me and my experience with domains, it's just someones debate, quit going off-topic.

And my post is closing in on 1k views, that's higher than the average one.
You dodged all the questions I asked. And you are like the rest of the sheep, I just went over that yesterday. Those are all real headlines I posted about death/dying of domaining threads here. This thread I will just add to the list when somebody else starts one of these threads again this year, next year.......

Again, and this is just a sample. There are many more of these types of threads. So no, you're not breaking new ground with this thread:

DNS dying? - this one was almost 19 years ago

The death of domaining?

Domain industry is dying slowly?

The domain gravy train has passed

Is domaining becoming a "Nigerian" Scam?

Is Domaining basically one giant pyramid scheme?

Googlenet to kill Domaining?!

Buying/Selling - Is it Time to Quit Domaining?

How long can you hold on?
 
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you are probably right...but people still can earn money via buy-sell if u dont own those name 25 years before...and reg/create new words for new tech/trends.

btw, every generation have their own opportunity...should I become 10 years older to catch 1990~2000 golden time? no..I want been 20 years younger..
 
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when i start, 20 years ago i think what all good names is registered and time is over for this buisness
 
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The OP is right on some points.
I can speak of myself, already 4 years of domaining, sold only 2 domains almost 2K USD compared to more than 60K USD already invested, received offers in all this years, the biggest one was 20K USD and now I regret about it, maybe I should have accepted it and other low ball offers, I feel disappointed so if I lose all my money by renewing them, then suicide, then you will know who is guilty, NP's, it's members, registrars and the end users.
Many reported sales are fake, the aka sold domains by Godaddy remain parked, some domains are worse than my today hand regs, the report sold domains thread if you search, some domains are even not registered.
There are many black holes in this industry, also this is a gambling and you have to be a professional squatter to be lucky.
Also traffic on my domains on Dan have dropped drastically, which is suspicious, maybe Godaddy is angry on me and is hiding my domains, if that is the case I will move to other marketplaces.

In short domaining should be a side hustle, not a full time endeavour, because money will be poured like water, without huge return, starting today or 5 years ago is like playing a Russian roulette game.

Agree or not but this is how I see things from my own perspective. IMO

P.s. I have more than 1800 of domains, imagine my sleepless nights. :ROFL:
 
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I honestly find threads like this comical, especially since you start out saying:
This is what nobody talks about.

In hindsight, yes - it was a great investment to snatch up those early .coms. The real problem comes in the technical capabilities of most individuals, speculative futures, and the fact that the variety of registrars was limited, and commonly involved paperwork. This is also not to mention the fact that the massive monopoly Network Solutions itself had before major ICANN accreditations, which resulted in higher fees - which limited your average person's ability to diversify their portfolio.

To bring a modern approach to your puzzle, why aren't you (perhaps not you specifically) investing in Web3-related domains or TLDs? Why aren't you taking a piece of the NFT cake? Why aren't you a major market player in the decentralized virtual real estate space?
 
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Whenever I see that sales-pitch. Domain previously registered for ten or twenty years. I automatically think "Well that was a load of Cr*p then" OR "So well past its Sale-by date."

It's never a sales point for a reregistered domain.

A Good Domainer today, should see themselves as a modern day Tool-Maker. Designing a domain that opens up a facility to access a service/product/concept in a more precise, succinct way and fashion
 
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Yeah but it's like... You have android (.com), apple (.net/.org)... Maybe the other way around...

Good luck challenging them with whateverbrand (.whatever).

I share the sentiment though.

Ok so then explain this.

Anyone who bought those epic .com domain names where thinking the same as most of us are doing now, however even on a much lower level.

The person who purchased a lot of, ai names, had to wait how long?

We know Apple is on their .com but they could open their store on a.net where it's the only way to gain apps.

I get what you are saying but I mean what about marketing?

So now everyone is going to say oh my god, The AI king got all these epic names.

What's next?

Not to be rude but pretty sure a single web3 on a XYZ can cover the net worth of 95% on this forum, and if I would venture into web3 I would also venture into domain extensions that just feel a bit more modern and not so insanely boring.
 
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People who invest in things early and usually more successful than those who invest later, yes.
 
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That's my point. The same thing applies to Bitcoins and some other crypto. The same story happened to Apple investors, who bought shares instead of buying computers.
Sure, but early investors also take the biggest risks, and no one talks about bad investments. I mean imagine if you invested in Betamax.

Even domainers that invested in .net, and .org (or .biz, and .info), or bad conventions like hyphenated domains or long EMD:s may never see a return on their investments.

It's easy to look at the winners and say "you should've done what they did," forgetting that part of their success was due to luck.

Today's market is a lot safer, but that's also why you have speculators, which in turn means it's more strategic and more difficult to make money.
 
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So I take it that business has been slow and the constant .xyz sales reports irritate the hell out of you?

People's opinions for the most part are based on their own experiences. So, it's obvious domaining isn't going good for you. These types of threads are always popping up, year after year. I actually had my best year ever, last year. I expect this year to be even better**

Domains aren't going anywhere because the internet isn't going anywhere. There are apps, social media etc but domains/sites you have more control over.

**Of course it's easier if you started earlier but even the "Domain King" just went a year and a half without a sale before getting 2 big ones. Mainly because he prices for home runs while other domainers price for home runs but also, singles, doubles and triples.

While you might not buy something today at a reasonable price and sell for millions, you don't need to, to make a business out of this. You can find domains under $100, under a few hundred and sell them for thousands all day long.

There are people that have started in the last few years/recently that are making a living from this. What's the difference between them and other people into domains? It's like any other business out there, it's not for everybody, not everybody is going to be successful at it. Not everybody is supposed to be. If it's not for you and based on your post, that seems to be the case. Maybe, something else is.

Your post really isn't about domaining as a whole, it's more about your experience with it. It seems people are always trying take their personal experience with domaining and act like it's a reflection on all of domaining.
Domaining currently has a half-life of 10-20 years at the moment I am pretty sure, it will be dying from now on regardless of what I've said.
 
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It's dead/dying for you. Since you failed at this, you're really not in any position to make any predictions.
What makes you think I have failed?
Of what genes do you think you are to be saying that other people have failed solely by assumption, through a computer screen

I stated my opinions and instead of looking at my opinions you go and talk about how you think of me

Priorities first

🤓
 
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You can be successful at anytime when you are buying the right name for the right market.
 
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"My post does not have anything to do with me and my experience with domains, it's just someones debate, quit going off-topic."
Another dodge. Of course it does. If somebody is failing at domaining, they're going to have a negative view. People that are making money, do this for a living, love domaining etc, are going to have a positive view.
 
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That's delusional, when you are in an industry you must try to forecast and account for the occasional recessions, large-scale or small-scale, that happen in every industry, big and small, to minimize the losses and uphold the profit.
You're just repeating the same stuff I read every single year. Take the thread titles I mentioned, do an NP search on them, read. It's basically copy and paste stuff. In your head, you think you're breaking new ground with some deep insight.

You mention forecasting again, yet for some reason can't answer basic questions. Hit these off with your next post:

How long have you been domaining?

How many domains do you own?

How many have you sold?

What is the breakdown of your extensions you own?

How long have you been on/reading NP?

These are simple questions, don't require a book response. Few minutes maybe.

As far as "And my post is closing in on 1k views, that's higher than the average one."

Nobody cares but maybe you.
 
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I answered your questions, but maybe not in a way that suits you.

Too bad!
You literally didn't answer any of them.

How long have you been domaining?

How many domains do you own?

How many have you sold?

What is the breakdown of your extensions you own?

How long have you been on/reading NP?

If you did, we could probably figure out where the problem is.
 
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