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I am still new to be preaching or giving lessons on domain investment, so this is just a short post sharing my journey in the hopes of motivating some of you. Nothing more Nothing Less.
Here is my first thread where I documented my first five months of domaining and shared how I started my journey and why I have a 15 years old account.
I had my first sale ever in November 2020 and had a 5 figure month in December 2020. I thought I had arrived.
Alas, it was just a lucky break, a much needed lucky break though.
For without that I might not have been able to continue having fun doing what I do everyday since then.
Which is also why I never updated that thread. I was afraid I would jinx my sales streak lol.
(After december, the next 4 months were excruciating. I had minor sales, but nowhere close)
I know I have been lucky, but I am beginning to think I might have done some things right.
Since November 2020 when I made my first sale on DAN for a princely sum of $2988, I had a total sales of a little over $133000 till the end of 2021..
I crossed 100K in sales in November 2021 (1 Full year since first sale). It is a good milestone and It means a lot to me.
How much did I invest? My initial investment was around 10K as I posted in my first thread. I wasted most of it though, and
it was my Nov/Dec 2020 sales that gave me the needed impetus and the funds. Also I quickly finished the 15K of Nov-Dec sales in buying new names. And I had very little sales to show for it in Jan/Feb/Mar 2021 and i was depressed a/f seeing all the sales being reported.
During that time I invested another 5 K of my money, so My total out of pocket investments was ~ $15000.
And then it rained in May 2021, and never stopped since.
I reinvested all my proceeds back into business. Luckily I don't have to take out any money from the business, and there is more inventory than I can buy every day. I have taken out the initial 15K investment because I wanted to make sure I didn't spend more than I make.
This business is fun. The buying side is the most fun. I love the game theory aspect of auctions. I love going through lists, and then the occasional email from Afternic is like having an orgasm. Nothing like it. I love every aspect of this business.
Also I have no special skills. As I keep saying, it is the grind. The problem with this business is that it cannot be delegated nor automated fully. You have to do most of the things on your own. And the more you do it, the luckier you get over time. Over and over again.
I don't make blind assumptions, I don't have wild theories. I simply follow the money.
I don't buy names that I like. I buy names that somebody wanting to a start an online business might like.
People say it takes time to develop the eye. Some people take longer than others. My not so wild theory is that it is not the time but the total number of names you have gone through. In my old post, I posted a copy of my notepad where I listed down all the names of popular investors, not to copy their style, or find a pattern but to be able to develop an eye and know when I see a name in the pending drop list that this is a name Ammar Kubba will Bid, or Braden will Bid or Josh will Bid.
I had copied every name that some popular sellers have posted. I check all the names sold by DN gear, by Hypernames, and by a few more SH sellers and so on... And like everyone else I still overpay in auctions
but luckily I am not in the red.
My only advice is to never stop buying. Even if you don't have money, do ghost trades. Check out godaddy auctions everyday.
Make your own list of regular names.. (not the popular names that gets bid upto 5-10K.. they are easy to spot. But they are way too overpriced for a new domainer) The skill that you need is to figure out good names that are available for under 50 bucks.
Write down names that gets bid in the last minute from that list.
Write down names that goes to close out and see if they get snagged at 50, 40, 30
"The money is in the list". Build your list.
The more you see, the better your eyes will become, I mean in picking names. Your Eye health won't be so good
(I had a bad episode of vertigo early in 2021 which is better now)
But this business is all about picking gems from the dumpster.
Dumpsters Divers Unite
This post is just to motivate you all, and that it is not too late.
Like I said, I have nothing much to offer at this point. I am still learning. I am yet to figure out how to make money off those overpriced names on Dropcatch and GDD Auctions. I don't even have a good keyword list. I mean I do, as you all should, but I still discover new KWs everyday and I keep adding to it. But I guess the fun is in the learning, in the journey, and the friends we make along the way.
This is a very small industry.
I will repeat this again. I sometimes wish I knew this business sooner, but then again, I don't know if there were so many tools at our disposal 15 years back.
Few Point I want to add:
1) I use DAN Landers but about 50% of my sales come from Afternic marketplace and fast transfer. I had some sales from SEDO too so it is well worth going through the verification hassle.
2) Most of my names on SH and BB are from late 2020 and early 2021 when my name picking skills were very n00bish. But I did manage to make 4 sales out of 100 names from SH (no sales on BB though), so SH still seem to work and one of my 2022 goal is also to buy some SH specific names, and add some better quality names.
3) I knew about the Meta trend early enough ( I bought few Meta Names early 2021 when there were many names available for hand reg) and managed to sell 2 names. Next time I will spend a few Gs if I come across new trending topics early. I didn't go all not because I didn't want to go all in, but because I had limited resources (time mostly) and most of my domaining time was spent on drop lists and closeouts and I didn't give KW handreg too much thought. Also I was too new to keep a KW list back then for suffix-prefix building. I didn't know about lean domain search either.
I was around during the .vc promo too but then too I didn't have a ready list and could only manage to snag 3 names. I sold 1.
I wish I had access to my current Google Sheets then
I think it is a worthwhile endeavor to punt on trending niche if you have time and money. SO next trend, I will dropping a few Gs.
PS: I already sold a DAO name for high 4 figs
4)
Try to master Expireddomains.net
I started a thread on ED tips a whole ago where nobody else contributed but you can check it out.
You need to figure out the ED filters before anything else. I depend on it. If ED were down, I would be clueless.
Their Bulk domain checker is the Bomb. I even use it to reprice domains, check for renewals and what not.
Duck, they even have a Camel Case tool.
Marco is a Genius.
5)
Auction discipline:
Set a proxy and walk away.
Sniping is a good way to find undervalued domains and I have sniped great names, but promise yourself that you will never snipe a name that you hadn't bookmarked earlier.
Many times I walk into an active auction and fomo into it.
Before you register a name or place a bid, walk away and think if it is the best opportunity or best name to spend your next dollars on
OK Point 5 is just a note to myself
I whisper it to myself to sleep.
But man, without Bid wars, will domain investing even be fun, I kid I kid. But I am still working on my discipline.
6)
Hmmm, I guess that is it.
Being that I reinvested everything ( I had a bumper December sale and I had a hard time trying to finish up all the balance before year end), I am hoping 2022 will be great. But Jan is slow.. I don't even want to push publish being that I jinxed myself last year.
Well. NP saves posts drafts automatically so I didn't up publishing
Will publish later.
Written on Jan 12 2021
PS- Mar 9th Update:
I thought I will made some edits, but Jan Feb has been Slow, March even slower. Decided to publish today so even if I have a Bad March due to the global turmoil, I could blame this Post for the Jinx again
Jan I had 21K in sales
Feb only 16K. March seem even slower, sigh..
Only Update is that most of my sales in 2021 have been on DAN. Afternic went all quite not sure why. SEDO has been slow and steady as usual. I got many many Make offer sales on my BIN+MO lander. I have always used BIN+MO and still had many BIN sales. but this year so far, looks like everybody is having budget constraints. Not sure. But buying never stops..
Ok Publishing before I change my Mind
Here is my first thread where I documented my first five months of domaining and shared how I started my journey and why I have a 15 years old account.
I had my first sale ever in November 2020 and had a 5 figure month in December 2020. I thought I had arrived.
Alas, it was just a lucky break, a much needed lucky break though.
For without that I might not have been able to continue having fun doing what I do everyday since then.
Which is also why I never updated that thread. I was afraid I would jinx my sales streak lol.
(After december, the next 4 months were excruciating. I had minor sales, but nowhere close)
I know I have been lucky, but I am beginning to think I might have done some things right.
Since November 2020 when I made my first sale on DAN for a princely sum of $2988, I had a total sales of a little over $133000 till the end of 2021..
I crossed 100K in sales in November 2021 (1 Full year since first sale). It is a good milestone and It means a lot to me.
How much did I invest? My initial investment was around 10K as I posted in my first thread. I wasted most of it though, and
it was my Nov/Dec 2020 sales that gave me the needed impetus and the funds. Also I quickly finished the 15K of Nov-Dec sales in buying new names. And I had very little sales to show for it in Jan/Feb/Mar 2021 and i was depressed a/f seeing all the sales being reported.
During that time I invested another 5 K of my money, so My total out of pocket investments was ~ $15000.
And then it rained in May 2021, and never stopped since.
I reinvested all my proceeds back into business. Luckily I don't have to take out any money from the business, and there is more inventory than I can buy every day. I have taken out the initial 15K investment because I wanted to make sure I didn't spend more than I make.
This business is fun. The buying side is the most fun. I love the game theory aspect of auctions. I love going through lists, and then the occasional email from Afternic is like having an orgasm. Nothing like it. I love every aspect of this business.
Also I have no special skills. As I keep saying, it is the grind. The problem with this business is that it cannot be delegated nor automated fully. You have to do most of the things on your own. And the more you do it, the luckier you get over time. Over and over again.
I don't make blind assumptions, I don't have wild theories. I simply follow the money.
I don't buy names that I like. I buy names that somebody wanting to a start an online business might like.
People say it takes time to develop the eye. Some people take longer than others. My not so wild theory is that it is not the time but the total number of names you have gone through. In my old post, I posted a copy of my notepad where I listed down all the names of popular investors, not to copy their style, or find a pattern but to be able to develop an eye and know when I see a name in the pending drop list that this is a name Ammar Kubba will Bid, or Braden will Bid or Josh will Bid.
I had copied every name that some popular sellers have posted. I check all the names sold by DN gear, by Hypernames, and by a few more SH sellers and so on... And like everyone else I still overpay in auctions
but luckily I am not in the red.My only advice is to never stop buying. Even if you don't have money, do ghost trades. Check out godaddy auctions everyday.
Make your own list of regular names.. (not the popular names that gets bid upto 5-10K.. they are easy to spot. But they are way too overpriced for a new domainer) The skill that you need is to figure out good names that are available for under 50 bucks.
Write down names that gets bid in the last minute from that list.
Write down names that goes to close out and see if they get snagged at 50, 40, 30
"The money is in the list". Build your list.
The more you see, the better your eyes will become, I mean in picking names. Your Eye health won't be so good
(I had a bad episode of vertigo early in 2021 which is better now)But this business is all about picking gems from the dumpster.
Dumpsters Divers Unite
This post is just to motivate you all, and that it is not too late.
Like I said, I have nothing much to offer at this point. I am still learning. I am yet to figure out how to make money off those overpriced names on Dropcatch and GDD Auctions. I don't even have a good keyword list. I mean I do, as you all should, but I still discover new KWs everyday and I keep adding to it. But I guess the fun is in the learning, in the journey, and the friends we make along the way.
This is a very small industry.
I will repeat this again. I sometimes wish I knew this business sooner, but then again, I don't know if there were so many tools at our disposal 15 years back.
Few Point I want to add:
1) I use DAN Landers but about 50% of my sales come from Afternic marketplace and fast transfer. I had some sales from SEDO too so it is well worth going through the verification hassle.
2) Most of my names on SH and BB are from late 2020 and early 2021 when my name picking skills were very n00bish. But I did manage to make 4 sales out of 100 names from SH (no sales on BB though), so SH still seem to work and one of my 2022 goal is also to buy some SH specific names, and add some better quality names.
3) I knew about the Meta trend early enough ( I bought few Meta Names early 2021 when there were many names available for hand reg) and managed to sell 2 names. Next time I will spend a few Gs if I come across new trending topics early. I didn't go all not because I didn't want to go all in, but because I had limited resources (time mostly) and most of my domaining time was spent on drop lists and closeouts and I didn't give KW handreg too much thought. Also I was too new to keep a KW list back then for suffix-prefix building. I didn't know about lean domain search either.
I was around during the .vc promo too but then too I didn't have a ready list and could only manage to snag 3 names. I sold 1.
I wish I had access to my current Google Sheets then
I think it is a worthwhile endeavor to punt on trending niche if you have time and money. SO next trend, I will dropping a few Gs.
PS: I already sold a DAO name for high 4 figs
4)
Try to master Expireddomains.net
I started a thread on ED tips a whole ago where nobody else contributed but you can check it out.
You need to figure out the ED filters before anything else. I depend on it. If ED were down, I would be clueless.
Their Bulk domain checker is the Bomb. I even use it to reprice domains, check for renewals and what not.
Duck, they even have a Camel Case tool.
Marco is a Genius.
5)
Auction discipline:
Set a proxy and walk away.
Sniping is a good way to find undervalued domains and I have sniped great names, but promise yourself that you will never snipe a name that you hadn't bookmarked earlier.
Many times I walk into an active auction and fomo into it.
Before you register a name or place a bid, walk away and think if it is the best opportunity or best name to spend your next dollars on
OK Point 5 is just a note to myself
I whisper it to myself to sleep.
But man, without Bid wars, will domain investing even be fun, I kid I kid. But I am still working on my discipline.
6)
Hmmm, I guess that is it.
Being that I reinvested everything ( I had a bumper December sale and I had a hard time trying to finish up all the balance before year end), I am hoping 2022 will be great. But Jan is slow.. I don't even want to push publish being that I jinxed myself last year.
Well. NP saves posts drafts automatically so I didn't up publishing
Will publish later.
Written on Jan 12 2021
PS- Mar 9th Update:
I thought I will made some edits, but Jan Feb has been Slow, March even slower. Decided to publish today so even if I have a Bad March due to the global turmoil, I could blame this Post for the Jinx again
Jan I had 21K in sales
Feb only 16K. March seem even slower, sigh..
Only Update is that most of my sales in 2021 have been on DAN. Afternic went all quite not sure why. SEDO has been slow and steady as usual. I got many many Make offer sales on my BIN+MO lander. I have always used BIN+MO and still had many BIN sales. but this year so far, looks like everybody is having budget constraints. Not sure. But buying never stops..
Ok Publishing before I change my Mind
