Need Input on My Business Plan

[Chet Dembeck]

I am a professional writer/editor and made some good profits writing and selling e-books when they were hot. I also have moderate knowledge of building WordPress sites, promoting books, artwork and electronics. For a while, I did well drop-shipping these type of products both as a drop shipper and as an affiliate. However, markets changed and with saturation, my margins became too thin to warrant the investment of time and money. In other words: I couldn't make a profit any longer.

Cut to the chase

I recently decided to use my site building, writing skills and combine them with a plan to flip domains, or develop those I cannot flip to full-blown e-commerce or affiliate sites, rather than working for others as a freelance copywriter.

A couple of days ago, I purchased 5 domain names that were at least 14 years old and names that could be used for a financial, investing site or instant download site selling or offering free digital downloads. Before I purchased them, I checked their appraised value at several sites and then carefully formulated what kind of site I would build using each domain.

Am I on the right track?

I plan to list the domains first on as many markets as possible and send an email to owners of similar sites offering the names, slightly less than their appraised value. If the domains do not sell within a certain amount of time, or there is no interest in them, my plan is to develop the strongest name first into a full-blown WordPress Website and then offer it for sale again for a higher price.

Does this sound like a plan that will yield success? Or, am I missing something. Would I just be spinning wheels? Your thoughts and advice would be appreciated.

Cordially,


CED

 

[Bob Hawkes]

While appraisal sites can yield useful information I would be wary of depending too much on them in your valuation process. There is some evidence that indeed domains priced just under appraisal value are more likely to sell.

Do keep in mind that the probability of a .com domain name selling in one year is about 1/100. Domain flipping is not easy, fast or sure, contrary to the tone of some articles and books!

While age can be a useful metric and bears some correlation with quality, just because a domain name is 14 years old is no guarantee that it will sell at a higher price, or at all. Yes, most high priced sales are aged. But so are many domains that are let go for $10!

The critical question is the one you allude to - Who will want this domain name and what advantage would it bring to their organization? As long as you make sure there is a good answer to that, ultimately you should be successful, although you need much patience. The process you outlined of jotting down potential users is the exact important thing.

Best wishes for success!

Bob

 

[Chet Dembeck]

While appraisal sites can yield useful information I would be wary of depending too much on them in your valuation process. There is some evidence that indeed domains priced just under appraisal value are more likely to sell.

Do keep in mind that the probability of a .com domain name selling in one year is about 1/100. Domain flipping is not easy, fast or sure, contrary to the tone of some articles and books!

While age can be a useful metric and bears some correlation with quality, just because a domain name is 14 years old is no guarantee that it will sell at a higher price, or at all. Yes, most high priced sales are aged. But so are many domains that are let go for $10.

The critical question is the one you allude to - who will want this domain name and what advantage would it bring to their organization. As long as you make sure there is a good answer to that, ultimately you should be successful, although you need much patience. The process you outlined of jotting down potential users is the exact important thing.

Best wishes for success!

Bob

Thanks, Bob. I am glad you reminded me that time and patience is important. For me that is a challenge. Plus, I am getting to understand, as you pointed out, that outbound prospecting to sell a domain is critical toward making a sale.

 

[E-Promote]

Thanks, Bob. I am glad you reminded me that time and patience is important. For me that is a challenge. Plus, I am getting to understand, as you pointed out, that outbound prospecting to sell a domain is critical toward making a sale.

Location, location, location. Meditate on it. Domains are land, location means prime location. Focus on location and pre-qualified buyers come to you, neglect to focus on it and you are forced to come to them.

 

[Chet Dembeck]

Location, location, location. Meditate on it. Domains are land, location means prime location. Focus on location and pre-qualified buyers come to you, neglect to focus on it and you are forced to come to them.

I guess the hard thing for me as a beginner is to recognize a good location when I stumble upon one.

 

[biggie]

I plan to list the domains first on as many markets as possible and send an email to owners of similar sites offering the names, slightly less than their appraised value. If the domains do not sell within a certain amount of time, or there is no interest in them, my plan is to develop the strongest name first into a full-blown WordPress Website and then offer it for sale again for a higher price.

Hi

your plan in the beginning, sounds like every other newbies plan, after they've read the hype about selling domains.

best to probably work your plan in reverse, and develop your strongest domain first
then if it earns revenue, you can build more sites and let that be your source of income

then you won't have to be sending spam emails to unsuspecting people who already have a website.

imo...

 

[E-Promote]

I guess the hard thing for me as a beginner is to recognize a good location when I stumble upon one.

...they are not stumbled upon, they are carefully researched...

 

[Chet Dembeck]

Hi

your plan in the beginning, sounds like every other newbies plan, after they've read the hype about selling domains.

best to probably work your plan in reverse, and develop your strongest domain first
then if it earns revenue, you can build more sites and let that be your source of income

then you won't have to be sending spam emails to unsuspecting people who already have a website.

imo...

Thanks for the advice. It makes sense. I was thinking that this is probably the reality of the situation.

 

[Chet Dembeck]

...they are not stumbled upon, they are carefully researched...

Ok. I get that. Maybe I am out of order. But when you say location, location location, I still don't know what your mean. There are thousands of niches and millions of domains. How would you define a good location in general terms. I'm not asking for you to give me a name, just a sketch of what you mean by location as it pertains to location. The way you put it is cryptic.

 

[E-Promote]

The way you put it is cryptic.

I hear you bro, you have to read between the lines. If you are already scouring comments on domain forums that is the best skill you can master, reading between the lines. Alright so more practical. There is no substitute for hard work and research. There are "thousands of niches and millions of domains", so sort through them. Happy to talk and share, don't get me wrong, but if I were to tell you the key to success in this biz, it's show up every day and do the work.

 

[Chet Dembeck]

Fair enough. Your advice is solid.

Thanks again for taking the time. I will meditate on Location, location, location.

 

[Mister Funsky]

Hi Chet and welcome to nps! You've gotten some good advice in a couple of the posts I read. Use your copy writing skills to create pages and use the names to generate a few dollars in ads while getting things up and running

 

[Chet Dembeck]

Hi Chet and welcome to nps! You've gotten some good advice in a couple of the posts I read. Use your copy writing skills to create pages and use the names to generate a few dollars in ads while getting things up and running

Thanks. I will.

 

[Kpett]

I find balancing domain selling and website building is tough to do. Last year I had over 100 domain names while developing six of them into websites. The websites took all of my time, and even then I don't think that was enough. Four months later and ad revenue is trickling in at pennies a day, with the occasional click or two making a whopping 25 cents or so ...

I did better the year before developing "starter" sites and selling on Flippa, until they changed their rules and fees. Now I'm just letting these six sites slowly build over time, maybe years, who knows? Has given me more time to get back into just domain names. Good luck!

 

[Chet Dembeck]

I find balancing domain selling and website building is tough to do. Last year I had over 100 domain names while developing six of them into websites. The websites took all of my time, and even then I don't think that was enough. Four months later and ad revenue is trickling in at pennies a day, with the occasional click or two making a whopping 25 cents or so ...

I did better the year before developing "starter" sites and selling on Flippa, until they changed their rules and fees. Now I'm just letting these six sites slowly build over time, maybe years, who knows? Has given me more time to get back into just domain names. Good luck!

Thanks for sharing that with me. I can see the same thing happening to me. Getting a website profitable with Google's ever changing algorithms can be an impossible task.

Although I can make a pretty site, I'm beginning to doubt that is the way to go. Again, thanks for your input.

 

[dande]

I find balancing domain selling and website building is tough to do. Last year I had over 100 domain names while developing six of them into websites. The websites took all of my time, and even then I don't think that was enough. Four months later and ad revenue is trickling in at pennies a day, with the occasional click or two making a whopping 25 cents or so ...

I did better the year before developing "starter" sites and selling on Flippa, until they changed their rules and fees. Now I'm just letting these six sites slowly build over time, maybe years, who knows? Has given me more time to get back into just domain names. Good luck!

Building 1 site to become profitable is a herculean task, let alone 2. Building 6 is excess baggage that will weigh you down without mercy.

 

[Chet Dembeck]

Building 1 site to become profitable is a herculean task, let alone 2. Building 6 is excess baggage that will weigh you down without mercy.

Thanks. You make a great point. It is wishful thinking on my part.

 

[barman]

"Developing" is the pipe dream of many domainers...

Do you actually know SEO? Throwing up a few pages on a Wordpress site is cool. But who cares. If the site makes a few bucks a month, you're going to get a few hundred for it on Flippa or wherever. If you spent hours upon hours building the site out, then congrats, you might end up making minimum wage.

You know what's even cooler? Knowing what you're doing by building legitimate web properties that you can sell for 5 or 6 figures. This doesn't just happen by building out random websites on domains you couldn't sell. Let alone 6 at a time.

Listen to Episode #138. These guys invested $50K+ in content and development to sell a site for 6 figures and it took 18 months.

Domainers have a hard time grasping how much effort and time it takes to build something worthwhile.

ALSO! The moment you start developing, you're in a different business. You're in the web property business, not the domaining business. So if someone actually wants just your domain name, then 99% of the time they don't want the site that's on it. You might actually be devaluing the name by building a crappy site on top of it.

 

[Chet Dembeck]

"Developing" is the pipe dream of many domainers...

Do you actually know SEO? Throwing up a few pages on a Wordpress site is cool. But who cares. If the site makes a few bucks a month, you're going to get a few hundred for it on Flippa or wherever. If you spent hours upon hours building the site out, then congrats, you might end up making minimum wage.

You know what's even cooler? Knowing what you're doing by building legitimate web properties that you can sell for 5 or 6 figures. This doesn't just happen by building out random websites on domains you couldn't sell. Let alone 6 at a time.

These guys invested $50K+ in content and development to sell a site for 6 figures and it took 18 months.

Domainers have a hard time grasping how much effort and time it takes to build something worthwhile.

ALSO! The moment you start developing, you're in a different business. You're in the web property business, not the domaining business. So if someone actually wants just your domain name, then 99% of the time they don't want the site that's on it. You might actually be devaluing the name by building a crappy site on top of it.

I'll listen to it. Appreciate the info. All the points you make reinforce my own logic, once I stop looking for shortcuts.

 

[Furquan]

Hi

your plan in the beginning, sounds like every other newbies plan, after they've read the hype about selling domains.

best to probably work your plan in reverse, and develop your strongest domain first
then if it earns revenue, you can build more sites and let that be your source of income

then you won't have to be sending spam emails to unsuspecting people who already have a website.

imo...

I wish someone would have told me this on first day of domaining.

 

[biggie]

"Developing" is the pipe dream of many domainers...

Do you actually know SEO? Throwing up a few pages on a Wordpress site is cool. But who cares. If the site makes a few bucks a month, you're going to get a few hundred for it on Flippa or wherever. If you spent hours upon hours building the site out, then congrats, you might end up making minimum wage.

You know what's even cooler? Knowing what you're doing by building legitimate web properties that you can sell for 5 or 6 figures. This doesn't just happen by building out random websites on domains you couldn't sell. Let alone 6 at a time.

Listen to Episode #138. These guys invested $50K+ in content and development to sell a site for 6 figures and it took 18 months.

Domainers have a hard time grasping how much effort and time it takes to build something worthwhile.

ALSO! The moment you start developing, you're in a different business. You're in the web property business, not the domaining business. So if someone actually wants just your domain name, then 99% of the time they don't want the site that's on it. You might actually be devaluing the name by building a crappy site on top of it.

Hi

domaining is also a pipe dream for many aspiring to be domainers

and knowing seo is not a requirement or a prerequisite to developing a website, if you already have dev skills.

even if one makes a few bucks a month from the site, that's a return on what you "sowed", that's coming in monthly.
to view another way ...
how many domainers are getting passive income monthly from their domain names?


and if one decides to sell it, flippo ain't the only place to offer it.

additionally, one doesn't have to sell for 5 or 6 figures, as 4 figures may be satisfactory, depending on the work put in or one may not to sell at all.... if the website is producing increasing revenue.

and... it's not a requirement to spend 5 figures on a website, to sell for a profit

and, in contrast, once you start developing, that doesn't put you out of the domain business
as I have put some pages online and still remain active in the game.

and.. again in contrast, if somebody wants just the name and not the site, when the price is the same as a package, then "they" would be foolish not to consider taking it

cuz, if somebody is interested in the domain name, even a crappy lander, a ppc page or no lander at all, none of that will deter, an interested or determined buyer.

imo...

 

[Chet Dembeck]

Hi

domaining is also a pipe dream for many aspiring to be domainers

and knowing seo is not a requirement or a prerequisite to developing a website, if you already have dev skills.

even if one makes a few bucks a month from the site, that's a return on what you "sowed", that's coming in monthly.
to view another way ...
how many domainers are getting passive income monthly from their domain names?


and if one decides to sell it, flippo ain't the only place to offer it.

additionally, one doesn't have to sell for 5 or 6 figures, as 4 figures may be satisfactory, depending on the work put in or one may not to sell at all.... if the website is producing increasing revenue.

and... it's not a requirement to spend 5 figures on a website, to sell for a profit

and, in contrast, once you start developing, that doesn't put you out of the domain business
as I have put some pages online and still remain active in the game.

and.. again in contrast, if somebody wants just the name and not the site, when the price is the same as a package, then "they" would be foolish not to consider taking it

cuz, if somebody is interested in the domain name, even a crappy lander, a ppc page or no lander at all, none of that will deter, an interested or determined buyer.

imo...

Glad you stepped in. Tbe way you described it was my original plan, but others here disagree and think flipping is just flipping, not developing.

I was leaning in your direction of a business plan. Since you are experience and have had some success, it carries weight.

Thanks.

 

[E-Promote]

I love this forum

 

[zoto_solutions]

they are carefully studied