Mistakes you made as a newbie

[Joseph David]

As a newbie in the domaining world. What mistakes have you made in regards to name registration or closing a deal or any other mistake you made generally. Let others learn from you.

The experts can also share some info, it will be appreciated.


- As for me I registered some crappy names. I hate seeing them in my portfolio.

 

[Joseph David]

I don't get you tho.

But am sure the prices for the three-words domains are way beyond my budget.

Am sticking to ED for now

 

[Joseph David]

Registering 50 bad names in one day

Wow. So how did you go about It.

Did any results into a sale?

 

[Joseph David]

My biggest beginner's error was thinking that names I found to be funny or clever would have market value. This was not ever the case.

But do you think there can be an expection?
Maybe an iota of luck in getting those clever names marketable and valuable

 

[xbank]

Don't settle for bad names, i.e. carssale.com. People buy these because they are lazy, don't have a good understanding of english or are overly enthusiastic.

Don't register names by hand unless you have a solid buyer in mind before hand. Before you know it, you've spent $100 on a yearly liability.

Use discipline, save the $40 a month you'd spend on lousy hand registrations and buy a decent .com.

what if finding a name takes 2 hours .. hunting and then finding a good name, will that be okay?

 

[Joseph David]

loosing more than 17k USD on registering names and not putting them on marketplace

What were you thinking for not listing them on marketplace?

 

[Joseph David]

Back in 1999/2000 all the decent .coms were long gone. So my logic at the time was that .Net must be in demand before long, probably registered about 300 of them over a year or two. But that wasn't the biggest mistake - That was holding on to them for about ten years. Lesson learnt Don't settle for second best in anything because buyers certainly wont

Second biggest mistake, was letting my portfolio get to large.and too diverse. At its peak it was around 2000 domains in 2007. Never really got to concentrate on selling domains until I had reduced the portfolio to around 600. Lesson learnt Keep control and manage your expenditure ahead of time. Concentrate on what brings in the money

Have to add whats kept me in the game (over 20 years) and in profit. Recognizing that good Brandables and Product names were ready to be the next best sellers while everybody was chasing generic domains. I just had to know what was coming on to the market - so put all my efforts into understanding new technologies. There was plenty coming to market as computing power was ramping-up and miniaturizing. Lesson learnt, we all have our skills and fortes you just have to discover where they lay .

I have read your post over and over again, I must say am learning from this.

I have a question tho : many says domaining is a game of numbers, the higher your domain portfolio, the higher the chances of making a sale. How true?



Thanks man for sharing.

 

[Joseph David]

Well I made some sales on namejet auction in my first year of domaining, then decided to re-invest into brandables names.. I was dealing on geo domains.. I registered about 20names without the basic knowledge of brandables.. thank God I use netsol 1$ for those registration... Drop all those names and now research about brandable names... but unfortunately no much capital now to boost my portfolio.... Making use of squadhelp suggestions option presently to raise enough capital to buy names from majorly GD closeout. This is my mistake..

Wow. Why do you contact some pros here that are looking for people to do outbound for them. When you make a sale you get a commission. That will be faster in recouping some funds than sugguesting names for SH. SH can be frustrating.
You can then reinvest I I knowledge you now have.

 

[Joseph David]

Be wary of that thought. Domainers holding Decent domains do not need people to do outbound for them

Well, am not sure you are all correcton on this one.

Some Domainers have a large portfolio on this forum but have limited time for outbound( Geo domains mainly) and are looking to set up a team for outbounding. Am currently working with one. I make a sale and I get commission. That's where my capital is coming from while I also learn from his feet.

 

[BaileyUK]

Well, am not sure you are all correcton on this one.
Some Domainers have a large portfolio on this forum but have limited time for outbound( Geo domains mainly) and are looking to set up a team for outbounding. Am currently working with one. I make a sale and I get commission. That's where my capital is coming from while I also learn from his feet.

I am not saying it is not possible - I said be Wary. There are some good domainers (with great history) that I would be very happy to do outbound for - they are very few and far between though.

Congratulations if you've paired-up with a good teacher. You certainly sound like a savvy person. Once you get to read the tons of threads asking for help selling mediocre domains, you'll learn more about the many that just don't have good portfolios to outbound, No matter how good the seller is

 

[Joseph David]

Just do a google search for affiliate programs in the niche, you might be surprised how many there are.

A relatively decent unpublished website that a potential end user can see how the domain and a website on it could benefit him/her/them can increase the money the buyer is willing to put on the table between 2 and 10 times what they would willingly pay for just a domain name.

As for how much I make, well that is between me, my wife, the bank manager - and unfortunately the taxman.

 

[TheBaldOne]

……. I especially like it when someone says, "you can't do that" or "you don't know what you're talking about" That's all the motivation I need

Thanks for the thread!

Us mature young ones have got experience whereby we know that when someone says something cannot be done actually means they don't have the gumption or determination to try.

 

[Joseph David]

Thanks Bill...i agree, and as a business guy all my life most every domain I register has a business plan/vision behind it. The idea of buying a domain and holding it for years hoping and praying someone will find it and pay big bucks frankly nauseates me This is why I've partnered with technical talents to compliment my marketing expertise. For those of you who have technical talent and little or no marketing skills, I'd highly recommend you partner with someone who can help you sell your domains even if you have to pay them a 50% commission. After all 50% of something is far greater than 100% of nothing

How easy I it to find these technical talents?

 

[ThatNameGuy]

How easy I it to find these technical talents?

I can't say that it's easy, but it's doable. I had met several talented people from around the world who indicated they might work with me, but they just didn't have staying power. I even had two major registrars I was close to partnering with, but that never came to fruition. Finally I met someone in South Africa and we really clicked. We're working on several joint projects and he's currently developing my/our website marketplace. Then I met a second technical talent locally...I live in Virginia Beach. He owns a successful local company Epic-Made that specializes in animation, illustration and design.

At least for me the process was sort of like dating until I found these individuals. My suggestion to you is, if you believe you have a good domain portfolio and some decent marketing skills, keep searching for someone to compliment your talent.

Finally, realize you can always pay someone to do your technical work, but in my case I'd have no idea what I was paying for regardless of whether I could afford it.

My last suggestion is to become as transparent as possible, and be active. If you're any good at what you do, you'll find a date

 

[iKhalyfah]

Registering 50 bad names in one day

U had the guts

 

[iKhalyfah]

The rest is history.

Could you share this history in a separate thread? Maybe?

 

[lock]

For many, knowing what makes a decent .com is where the issue is!

I really couldn't agree more for a strategy let all the rubbish expire and go for what actually moves.

 

[manpreet]

Yes, there should always be room for movement.

BUT......

….. When a potential buyer asks the price and you give it you should never move if the potential buyer has not given a counter offer number. To move your price by just one penny or one cent without a counter offer having been made is ridiculous, we the 'owners' of the domains are not the supplicants in the negotiation process, but we become the supplicants if we allow the potential buyer to dictate where the negotiations will start by not giving a counter offer. If you just continually allow your price to drop then you might as well be running a 'Dutch Auction'.

Yes and for me, particularly for Dan offers, I always want the buyer to make a counter offer. That lets me believe that atleast he/she is a serious buyer.

 

[dombastic]

three-word .coms

they’re available and everywhere.

I was always tempted hand reg, and buying.

Why not? Not all of them are worthless.

 

[JMbusiness]

Why not? Not all of them are worthless.

Are you interested in three-word .coms?

 

[FolioTeam]

This is one of the mistakes I wish I had made sooner. I didn't know about Godaddy's 5 day grace period. Now, I'm not afraid to buy 100 domains in one day. I can get my money back within 4 days for the ones that turn out to be absolutely crappy.

Oh, I had them registered at Moniker. Had no idea what a Grace Period meant. Come to think of it, had no idea how I came to know of Moniker then. Also had no idea about Namepros whatsoever

 

[BrandAptly.com]

Not true. Those that talk about it being 'Purely' a numbers game are usually those that already have got caught up in over bloated portfolios or think they have made no sales because they don't have enough.

The basics are, you can have thousands of rubbish domains, where does that lead to a sale ??. You have to understand that the market you are selling into is 99% professional as either a business or a successful domainer. Having a basket of a thousand rotten apples does not make you an apple salesman. But having a small tray of ripe apples will.

You build on what is successful and that's Never bulk. Indeed You have to build your skills on buy-and-try but that doesn't require thousands of buys. Far too many here get over committed on a bad buying policy, then find themselves in too deep to acknowledge or even look for a way out. They tend to be the most vocal on here NP about everything they 'Think' they got right without wanting to face everything they've got wrong.

You'll soon spot them - They only know how to sing off one hymn sheet

Very interesting perspective. I'd like to read your thoughts on the business model of hugedomains.com that has over 300k domains in their inventory.

 

[dombastic]

Are you interested in three-word .coms?

I don't count words or letters.

I know where to find them.

 

[JMbusiness]

I don't count words or letters.

I know where to find them.

What do you mean by that? I was asking since I have a few such domains for sale. If interested, DM.

 

[BaileyUK]

You aren't getting away that easy. Pray, do tell and educate us at the same time.

How comes I didn't spot that .

Come-on Bob I had to think long and hard how to explain the difference between the Big "successful" domainers and us small guys - be nice to delve into your experiences

 

[jim h]

Registered a lot of meaningless self created words.