My 5 Months of domaining journey

I joined NP in 2007, and I don't remember why and how. I wished I was active in 2007, read a few posts here and there, but then, that's spilled milk, water under the bridge.
Sometime in July I tried to register on NP when I got a message that this email was registered. I did a forgot password and low and behold, I got a rest password. 13 years old dormant account lol

But I was happy to get it back. It felt familiar. Well, I have been very active on other Bulletin Board for 15-16 years, and most forums I was active on have died. This was like Nostalgia. I hadn't been active in a forum in 6-7 years.

So you can say I started domaining in July/August this year. That is also when I bought a bunch of crappy domain names.

But I am not new to domain names. In fact I am not new to after markets as well. My godaddy auction account is 14-15 years old, and I have always bought my domain names from godaddy auctions.
I have also been buying SEO domains for a long time.

And everytime I start a new website, I always buy from godaddy closeouts because of the domain age. .

But all this, and even though I have bought domains from "SEDO" **gasp**, I never knew there was a profitable business right under my nose, of people buying and selling domain names for 1k to 10-20K

I mean I knew about the sex.com sale and the likes. Who doesn't? But I never knew of the premium domain marketplaces. Despite having bought from SEDO (which I only recently discovered when I checked my emails)
It may seem strange to you, but I bought a domain because I needed it for a project and apparently it was via a SEDO lending page lol


All right under my damn nose.
I had a few domain names, and I did have a lot of offers, which I always though were spammers, so I deleted most and hid behind proxy and throwaway emails.

It was in July when I got a mail from a godaddy broker itself on a name I owned, that I managed to re-open this NP account here and asked about it,

And that opened a floodgate. I started reading, looked at other domains, and I got so excited,
I have sold 6 figure websites, but man it takes a lot of effort to create and sell a 6 figure website and then you still feel bad because they are income generating assets

And here I see you all buy a domain name for 500 bucks and flip for 5k and I am like what in the name of holy Moses.

And that is when I aggressively started reading about domaining, made lists of what the popular guys were buy, got through their portfolios, what kinds of names are selling at what range, get confused AF, go through Domain sherpa and old posts, and I think I started buying and buying.

Another thing I found is that the people in this industry are very helpful and eager to help. I made some great friends, and I hope I will see some success in 2021.

But 2020 has not been bad either.

July, I hand registered a lot of names on expired domains .net
Some single word names that were junked.
Many .org and .nets because I didn't know so many good .net and .org dropped lol
Not sure what i am gonna do with them. I paticipated in a few auctions and made some BAD decisions. I bought a domain for 2000 bucks because I thought it had development potential. It does, but it was a bad domaining decision

August same thing.. more hand regs

September .. Began to see a pattern in what sells and what doesn't sell. And started participating in a lot of auctions with a strict Proxy and only buy if I win. I also bought a few liquid domains, I thought of doing quick flips but paypal fees etc cut into profits. I still have them, but since they are liquid, i won't lose money. Like I bought 3 random LLLL for 85 bucks each. I bought some LLL.net and org.. LLL.in, LLL.co and what not
Oh well..

October, Still addicted to Hand reg, I need a deaddiction, but much lesser. Started winning decent names in Auctions.

November.. Lucky Lucky Month..
I sold 4 names. One for 3000, 1000+, and 6000 all bought in October and november. Really really fast flips. All inbound. I had so far spent about 10K on my own money, but I would say I spent more than half of that on Liquid names (LLLL.com, LLL.net, LLL.org, LNL.com) which I can flip any day here on NP for a little profit.. I boguth them as safe investments lol and also to guage the auctions. I won a few auctions here on namepros where I bought on BIN and I got messages to buy the names from me for a quick profit, so I would like to think my valuations have been on the right track. I also missed a couple names on such quick BIN when I was second guessing. One name had a 500 BIN.
I thought the seller will reduce the BIN to 450 so I put the thread on watch and waited for a few hours and someone else Binned 500. Lesson learned. That was an easy 10K name there. Some gems pop up here from time to time.


Anyway, my November sales put me in the black and I feel so good.

And, I Spent all the money from my Nov sales on several news names in 200-300 range, few in 500 range.

I also stopped hand reg, except for submitting to Brand Marketplaces. I have been able to get 50%+ approval on my hand reg. My closeout purchases have not been that lucky lol.

December... So far the lucky streak continues
4000 + 1399 + 299 so far.. And I used some of the proceeds to buy about 60 brand bucket names. Will see how my brandable play works out

I have also managed to sell several of the hand regs for 100-199 range between august and now, because I didn't know what to do with them to I put them at 199 on marketplaces..

My next plan to to stop buying the 200-500 range names and start buying in the 1500-2000 range to improve my portfolio quality but damn, the auction are so expensive. I guess, We all need to find out our own niche.




I don't have much advantage from my decade of online business. I have been a SEO and all I do to get traffic is rank on Google, create massive social pages, etc, so domain name was never important. So I am a bit biased and in fact my experience works against domaining, but domaining has helped me immensely in my online business lol. While studying names I have found so many new niche that I can dominate.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my Ted Talk. I don't know if I shared anything useful, but hey I am still learning. I like sharing stuff, so maybe in time, I will be able to articulate better. Right now, my mind is full of stuff from information overload.

I am not good enough to give advice or anything, but I do have opinions on a lot of things, which could be right or wrong.

Just wanted to share my short Journey which I started as a way to distract me during the Pandemic.
I don't know how else I would have spent this lockdown, had it not been for the rows and rows of pending delete names, rows of names sold by Nikul, Ammudamus, DNgear, Hiren, federer, the SH sales data, portfolio of the big guys like NameBuyer, BMugford, Rizm,.. the Sherpa interviews, brandable Insider podcast, josh.co podcast and so on... I didn't even realize how the time went by.

And I didn't lose money in the process while building out a 1000 odd name portfolio
(Well it helped that , 200 are 99 cent .realty and another 500 are 99 - 1.99 cent .cos)

I am doing everything, from .in to .io to .co to brandable marketplaces, to parking (made over 200 usd in december so far on Bodis). and I am enjoying the journey.


I enrolled with DNAcademy in november to improve my picking skills. The fact that Mike Cyger teaches a data based approach to domaining is what suits my style too.

While people regret that they didn't start soon enough, I feel blessed and grateful for all the tools and information that are readily available today. Other than the fact that I might have been able to buy some cheaper names, I think this is a great time to start domaining. My only regret is that I have enjoyed the journey so much, I missed not doing it earlier.





Everything you need to learn is out there. And excellent tools. I stopped buying names I like. I only buy names that other people will like.

Eat what you like. But only buy domains that other people will like

There are so many things to learn. I have so much raw data to study, lists to prepare, and so on and so forth.
........But I have promises to keep,. And miles to go before I sleep,. And miles to go before I sleep.

Keep learning.. And here is a fantastic 2021 to everyone.

 

I only buy names that other people will like.

Domaining explained in one sentence.

 

I joined this year....hope to have a good domaining future..😉✌

 

hmmm so u waited for 50 discount on a name u knew was a 10k easy flip... that just odd.

 

I am stupid.
But I was just learning the ropes and in my defence a few times I got a couple good bargain when some seller reduced 50 bucks or so every they BUMP.. The worst thing was I was going to BIN 500 if he he didn't reduce in the next BUMP.. I was enjoying the whole bidding thing too much that i got carried away I guess

I think they buyer flipped it to Mr Premium because it is now listed with him lol
Makes me feel even worse lol

 

I would love to know the domain you saw here for $500 bin, that you wanted for $450, and was an easy $10K? That would be an interesting topic of conversation for sure.

 

It doesn't matter. And That is not the point. I was just talking about my lesson learnt, about how I lost a deal for a few bucks.

FYI, i checked today, It is listed here now:

https://mrpremium.com/io/

 

Hi

if above is the name, then it's not an easy $10K


imo.....

 

It is a list of names.

But Like I said it is not the point and I am not here to dabate what a name is worth. I should have worded it properly. I mean it was a name that was worth 10K to me to I should not have waited for him to reduce the BIN. Obviously the seller also felt it wasn't worth 10K, otherwise why would he do a NP auction right?

So there. It is perfectly OK if people think it wasn't worth much lesser. That was not the point. I was just telling about the lessons that I learnt

 

Looks like you might have been in on this name also:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/sold.1219974/page-2

 

Nice progress man, keep the good job and wish you more success for 2021.

Do not refer to your own preferences, but to thoses of your potential buyers ... btw I also missed a deal for a domain name that I thought it will makes >10k, for only 25$ (Listed for X50, negociated for X25$ but meanwhile he recieved a quick BIN), this are things that happens in this industry.

 

Nice progress and thanks for sharing. Its an incredible journey of 7 to 8 months. The lessons learned are going to help your path to achieve great portfolio.

Wishing you a great 2021. Hope next year this time you will score many 5 digits and couple of 6 digit sales

 

Very awesome story. Thanks for sharing!

 

• I hope all goes well in 2021
  
  
  

 

Thanks for sharing your experience. Nice going through
Best wishes!

 

Hi

yeah, i was

didn't know seller was going to keep dropping bin like that!

was trying to help them get some value in return, as my bids were $50 increases, while er'body else was nickle and dime'n

prolly should have started auction min. higher

imo...

 

"Eat what you like. But only buy domains that other people will like"


Great progress

Thanks to share your experience

 

I will add one more thing.

None of the domains that I sold for XXXX were domains that I bought based on instincts.
All the domains were bought based on available data (Linkedin, Open Corporates, Dotdb, Trademark search, similar domains in the marketplace, etc) and some sense on whether those name could befit a multi million dollar company or at least a profitable small/medium business.
I am yet to develop the instinct to eyeball a list of names on closeouts or pending delete stream and instinctively know what a good buy would be.

One more thing. It is easy to spot a good name, but if it is easy, rest assured, a hundred other eyes have spotted it, and it will definitely go into a heated Auction.

I need to develop the instinct a domain that is good enough to sell for 2-5K and yet I am the only one backordering it, even at full BO price. I salute those of you who can backorder good names on a discount BO,
But I know I will be there soon

 

Hi

i edited the quote above slightly, so what you meant to say, would be said

still, you may have some of those instincts, but "hold time" may cause you to hesitate in ordering

for instance:
if, you got flipper mentality, then you're trying to catch something to resell quickly
if, you got "wait for right offer" mentality, then "hold time" is removed from equation.

therefore, those who are willing to wait, will be more likely to pick domains @ BO costs, that can sell in $2K > $5K range or higher... 5 to 15 years later.
than those who are looking for domains they can resell before it's time to renew them.

just saying.....

imo....

 

Thanks Biggie. I thought i was typing I need to develop the instinct "to spot" a domain but my finger skipped the spot

Thanks for pointing out.
And I agree with you about the hold time, but personally, I still don't have the instinct to spot a cheap name for long hold, leave alone one that I can flip fast.

 

Thanks for sharing your journey. We learned something new everyday. With the way you are progressing, I expect you to make some 4 figures sooner .Don't doubt yourself and go with your guts.This business takes guts and some skills to value your good buys. We learn from sales mistakes or underpriced assets but we get better with time.

Wishing you more sales and to the rest of us who put in the work smartly 👍.

 

Very good progress. Congratulations!!

Btw:
"I thought the seller will reduce the BIN to 450 so I put the thread on watch and waited for a few hours and someone else Binned 500. Lesson learned. That was an easy 10K name there. Some gems pop up here from time to time."

If you find a domain that is easy 10k, that $50 is absolutely nothing and should not even be considered. should've just snatched it at $500, but I guess you already know that

 

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

You the best, man! You really did it.

BTW: Sharing Journey is the great way to give back to the community.

 

That is the lesson learnt and exactly why I shared the incident. It was stupid of me. Such names are going to over 1000 on expired auctions everyday.

Thanks Bro

Thanks Man. I sure hope to

 

In the last 3 months, I have sold domains on Afternic, SEDO, DAN, SAV, even Dynadot, and I just made a sale on Squadhelp also a few days back.

It would be noice to make a sale on Brandbucket before year end

I have listed my names on Uniregistry also.