NamesCon2019 Recap

I will be publishing a series of articles based on sessions I attended and interviews I did during NamesCon2019 so I decided to create a thread for them I also encourage others to share their reflections from the conference in this thread.

In the first article I asked myself what did I learn that I can see an actionable item that I can act on in my domain investing this year. While the list could have been very long in the end I chose 9 items.

1. Make and keep extensive notes about each domain name you acquire, including your anticipated sales price. Review these documents periodically. (This came from Domain Investing 101/201 by @Michael Cyger - oodles of takeaways from these sessions, hard to choose just one).
2. Human to human is the most important type of interaction. Think about your personal brand and how you can strengthen personal interactions. (One of numerous topics in Haseeb Tariq session)
3. I plan to do a better job of logging all data for each domain name that I have for sale, including dates the name was placed on different marketplaces, where parked, price changes, queries, traffic, etc.(The head of Radix Bhavin Turakhia gave a superb presentation on how they use data and the importance of being quantitative and evidence based. I extrapolated to form this takeaway.)
4. Starting with the domains I consider my most popular and valuable, I plan to implement catch-all email. (Unlike some of the others, this is one I have never done before. The idea came from the Expert Round Table hosted by Braden Pollock).
5. I already use appraisals fairly extensively, but based on the GoDaddy / Afternic presentation I plan to present the data as part of a prospectus for each domain name. (Based on Paul Nick's Trends keynote).
6. In due time I plan to develop a multiple year model for my domain investing along the lines of the one Paul Nicks presented at NamesCon. (Based on Paul Nick's Trends keynote. See the full article for the parameters of the model he presented, but essentially breakeven came after 3 years and full income generation after 6 years of domain investing)
7. I want to think more deeply on how I can plant that first seed for an organization that might be interested in one of my domain names, and what my personal brand is and how I can communicate that better. (This came from @Kate Buckley keynote on story telling)
8. I don’t think it is reasonable to do this for all of my domain names , but for a minority I plan to more fully research how they might be used by end users, and try to express that message through a short story that I hope to get in front of prospective end users. (This came from @Kate Buckley keynote on story telling)
9. I plan to develop documents for domain names in a certain niche that will help end users see how others have employed domain names to move their organizations forward. (Indirectly related to the session where the end users who paid $500,000 for Home.loans and Vacation.rentals described their experiences).

This is just the summary. You can see the full description, with photos from the conference, in the post over at NameTalent. I've been a little under the weather since returning, so please be kind with respect to any clumsy wording or typos. I will be giving it a more careful additional check, but did not want to wait further getting the first article out.

Many more posts to come! !

Link to full article at NameTalent.com.

Thanks for reading.

Bob

 

Can you electronically attach to the GoDaddy estimated value for each domain? To save you having to do it manually and record the value and post it into your sales page? Also your value would also be updated automatically. If yes can you give me an example URL for a domain? Can the same be done with Estibot? I'd like a sample URL for that too. Thank you.

 

With GoValue you can have a link for any one appraisal (I show one for one of my domains PB (coach) below as example. Is that what you mean @stub or did you mean a way to actually get the value to embed and update in a text document? I don't know how to do that.

https://godaddy.com/domain-value-appraisal/appraisal/?checkAvail=1&tmskey=&domainToCheck=PB.coach

As can be seen from text of link it is only the ending that needs to be altered for the domain name. When I do the prospectus page for each domain I am planning to link to GV so user can check all the information they give. The potential downside is that you have sent the prospective purchaser to GD where they may decide to buy something else, of course.

To my knowledge it is not possible to do it with Estibot unless you have a subscription plan of the type that e.g. NameJet do. One can of course link to the Estibot search page so users can check it themselves. It will count as one of two free daily Estibot checks for that person.

It has been my experience that Estibot values only slightly change over time while GoValue at least in alternative extensions go up and down.

Bob

 

I perhaps should have explicitly made clear that this list was based on (some) of the sessions I attended. The highlight of the conference for me, however, was meeting people. No matter how well you feel you know someone online only, there is no substitute for chatting directly with them. I also met a number who I did not know, even online, before. Even though the length of the conference was the right length, I think, there was still not enough time to meet everyone I hoped to.

Does anyone else have trouble with the link in the email to review the conference that NamesCon sent out a couple of days ago. I tried it last night and it said it was no longer active, which seems really short.

Bob

 

Thank you Bob for sharing so much valueable information and let people like me who didn't have time to attend namescon 2019 get an efficient recap. - Helen

 

OK various things have intervened, but I am finally ready with a new pos in this thread. This one deals with BrandBucket as a way to sell your brandable names. The company was well represented at the NamesCon conference, and they provided some statistics that I think will be of interest to all domain investors in that niche.

First here are some interesting numbers they provided:

• Since 2014 there have been 4538 names sold on BrandBucket with an average price of $3000. So a bit over $12 million in sales volume.
• If we look at just the most recent year (2018 full year) 141 sellers sold one name while 119 sold more than one name that year. Their top 10 sellers sold an average of 50 names in the year!
• I think we often associate BrandBucket prices as always in the mid $$$$ range, but that is not really true. In 2018 9 of their domains sold for more than $100,000.

They also provided quotes on their experience from a few of their top sellers.

So that is the direct information that they provided (along with some sample names). I decided to try to use these numbers and other data to see if listing domain names there is, on average, profitable. So what did I find? The annual sell through rate for domain names accepted on their platform is about 1.8% (averaged over the past 5 years). You will have to read the full post at NameTalent to find out more!

Bob

ps Disclosure I have never submitted a name to BrandBucket for consideration, neither I nor NameTalent have any association with them, so I have no conflict of interest in this report. I am not, however, in any sense an expert in brandable names, so this is a beginner or outsider view of the profitability of using their service.

 

Hey Bob, thanks for the write up. Just wondering what inventory numbers you used to get to the 1.8% sell thru rate. I ask because it's very hard to determine a sell thru rate when the inventory number is constantly changing.

For example, did you know that 5 years ago, in 2013, BrandBucket only had 1,500 domains listed on its site?

See this 2013 DN journal article.

 

I used the current number stated on page 1 of their website. As they have been growing, if you are implying that the number value is probably less, and therefore the sell through rate probably higher, that is correct. Had they given the 2018 single year sales figures, rather than the total over 5 years, I would have used consistent data.

But even with that number, my analysis clearly shows a net profitable result on average when compared to holding costs.

Thanks for the observation and link, and your superb writing on this topic.

Bob

 

Thank you, Bob. The standard wisdom seems to be that the average sell-through rate for all domains is 1% to 2% per year. I've always wondered what that statistic is based on, and this provides some hard data - at least for BrandBucket.

 

I just thought I would let people know that I have made some relatively minor changes to the BrandBucket article using information from BrandBucket. Here are the main changes:

• I was not able to get the average number of domains available over the past 5 years, but BB gave me numbers from a few years ago and the precise current number, and I averaged to get an estimate. The sell through rate is now up slightly to 2.3%. I suspect the real rate is slightly higher.
• The $3000 was a gross price that included the logo fee as well as commission, etc. so the net proceeds is now down about $200 (but see also next point).
• The $3000 is calculated by excluding all sales over $10,000. They do this to give a figure representative of what most domainers will sell for. But it means the real average would be a bit more than the $3000 I assumed.
• They clarified that the $12 million total was the amount paid to domainers over the 5 years, not the sales volume to end users. I have clarified this.

The net results are only slightly different. The numbers suggest that those who can have an average or better result with BrandBucket definitely should see positive returns (unless they pay much more than I assumed acquiring the names).

The full modified report is at the link below.

Bob

https://nametalent.com/2019/02/brandbucket-a-look-at-the-numbers/

 

good sleuthing, Bob!