discuss Not a full time domainer. Do I have a wrong mindset?

[Arpit131]

Full-time domaining has never been an option for me. I have always treated domaining as a side business which can give extra $$,$$$ a year and that would be it. I never thought of exclusively expanding and making a living out of the domaining business while I do read a lot and know things that work the majority of the time in this business.

However. when it comes to pursuing it full time, I keep myself away from the thought and take to only working on it in my part-time.

By not executing properly, what I know surely works because I always keep thinking of the opportunity cost of not pursuing the things that I currently am, do I have the wrong mindset?

Like I do not go for outbound sales even though I believe I have been good at it.
What are your thoughts? Should I try to automate the outbound business by employing people who could do it for me?
How do you manage between your full-time work and domaining? Do you have a similar conflict when you see good sales flowing in?

 

[Ategy]

I think a lot of us are in the same boat.

I've had all sorts of craziness in my life the last couple of years mainly out of my control that's led to a lot of stress on my end (flooding, insurance/neighbour conflicts, knee issues, death of former side-business associate, etc). But if there was one thing that was good for me in 2019 it was domains. I made several decent sales despite not being very organized nor doing any outbound.

Just before I started putting a few of my domains up with landers about 1-2 months ago, I only had about 30% of my portfolio listed at Afternic (of those about 2/3 were priced), and about 10% of my domains had "make offer" at Sedo. That's it .. not listed anywhere else. So the fact I made a nice little profit is effectively a miracle .. or more likely that I've been successful at getting the right domains at the right prices!

I still have a lot on my plate, but I'd like to be more involved with domains. Particularly since my "real world" job has nothing to do with tech, and is actually becoming increasingly an issue with my knees because of the very specific work that I do (I don't have issues standing or walking, it's quite specific to my job).

So if there's one thing 2019 has tried to tell me is to get my act straightened up when it comes to my domains. But looking forward I realise that I probably have to trim my portfolio by 1000-1500 domains if I want to really manage it effectively with the rest of my life being status quo. However .. if I choose to do domaining full-time then I'd probably need to bulk up my portfolio a bit more.

So let me know if:
Anyone is looking to acquire 1000 domains at fair wholesale prices (NOT firesale)
*OR*
If someone is looking to sell 500+ solid domains at firesale prices (lol .. I know I'm not being fair)

But since I probably won't have enough time to get organised for either option I suppose 2020 will be similar to 2019 .. just move ahead with what I've got and try to slowly get more and more organised. The good news is that in Dec 2019 I was a lot more organised than I was in Jan 2019. So there is hope yet.


As for making the shift to outbound .. it's not just about being good at it or not .. it's about having the time for it. Because once you have even more than a handful of communications going, it does take time and effort to stay on top of things.

As for outsourcing .. I've never done that for anything domain/website related before .. so I've very reluctant to trust anyone other than myself to outbound my domains. That being said .. not getting help to leverage your time is probably the best way to restrict your long term growth.


Good luck with whatever you decide to do .. looking forward to see how others have made their transitions to full time.

 

[twiki]

Full-time domaining has never been an option for me. I have always treated domaining as a side business which can give extra $$,$$$ a year and that would be it. I never thought of exclusively expanding and making a living out of the domaining business while I do read a lot and know things that work the majority of the time in this business.

However. when it comes to pursuing it full time, I keep myself away from the thought and take to only working on it in my part-time.

By not executing properly, what I know surely works because I always keep thinking of the opportunity cost of not pursuing the things that I currently am, do I have the wrong mindset?

Like I do not go for outbound sales even though I believe I have been good at it.
What are your thoughts? Should I try to automate the outbound business by employing people who could do it for me?
How do you manage between your full-time work and domaining? Do you have a similar conflict when you see good sales flowing in?

You do how you feel. And how bests suits your skills, time, situation and interests.

I do it in the opposite way, but there's nothing wrong with your model.

 

[equity78]

I think as a side business is fine, unless you have the capital and know how to be out there everyday buying and selling full time is difficult.

 

[twiki]

I think as a side business is fine, unless you have the capital and know how to be out there everyday buying and selling full time is difficult.

It takes a lot of effort and significant capital to get it to a full time constant earning level, say over 100K NET profit per annum (after expenses, losses, commissions, banking fees and taxes etc).

Unless you have high-value old domains you registered 10-20 years ago, accordingly with my calculations you probably need in the range of $100-200K in capital to get to that level. PLUS a verified, scalable method (which is even more difficult than raising capital). I've been doing this for a while, and the deeper you're in the more apparent the math is. Fortunately I don't have any doubts about it; otherwise it would have been a very risky endeavor indeed.

 

[Matt Morgan]

Like I do not go for outbound sales even though I believe I have been good at it.
What are your thoughts? Should I try to automate the outbound business by employing people who could do it for me?
How do you manage between your full-time work and domaining? Do you have a similar conflict when you see good sales flowing in?

You could hire a somebody who has had previous experience of outbound and offer then 20% commission of the sale.

A domain broker might be another option but whether they decide to do this for you will depend on your domains. Some brokers only do outbound for premium names.

to manage both I would take a specific amount of time a day (like 1-2 hours) and concentrate on domaining, and more over the weekends, so this 1-2 hours would be 'domaining only'

Good luck

 

[Raimond]

Full-time domaining has never been an option for me. I have always treated domaining as a side business which can give extra $$,$$$ a year and that would be it. I never thought of exclusively expanding and making a living out of the domaining business while I do read a lot and know things that work the majority of the time in this business.

However. when it comes to pursuing it full time, I keep myself away from the thought and take to only working on it in my part-time.

By not executing properly, what I know surely works because I always keep thinking of the opportunity cost of not pursuing the things that I currently am, do I have the wrong mindset?

Like I do not go for outbound sales even though I believe I have been good at it.
What are your thoughts? Should I try to automate the outbound business by employing people who could do it for me?
How do you manage between your full-time work and domaining? Do you have a similar conflict when you see good sales flowing in?

Arpit, I think you know you can be much more successful doing outbound, but at the same time doing outbound is not the most interesting thing to do in (your) life (at least outbound manual repetitive part), and you also know it very well.
So, it's the real challenge for you what to do. You know you can do it, but the question is, would you enjoy enough during that ride?

Regarding option of automating the outbound business by employing people, if you really have a winning outbound model/process in place, as well as a little backup capital, why not?

 

[Raimond]

As for outsourcing .. I've never done that for anything domain/website related before .. so I've very reluctant to trust anyone other than myself to outbound my domains. That being said .. not getting help to leverage your time is probably the best way to restrict your long term growth.

Ategy, it seems you've decided to restrict your long term growth by not getting help to leverage your time?

 

[bojan1]

Arpit, I think you know you can be much more successful doing outbound, but at the same time doing outbound is not the most interesting thing to do in (your) life (at least outbound manual repetitive part), and you also know it very well.
So, it's the real challenge for you what to do. You know you can do it, but the question is, would you enjoy enough during that ride?

Regarding option of automating the outbound business by employing people, if you really have a winning outbound model/process in place, as well as a little backup capital, why not?

For everyone who has successful outbound strategy in place the next logic step would be to hire people help him expand his business, or at least to try so... in my opinion.

I know that it is not easy to educate people about this process, or it wouldn't be easy to expect uneducated people have the same results the successful domainer achieved by himself, but it is worth a try definitely and a next logic step.

 

[bojan1]

Ategy, it seems you've decided to restrict your long term growth by not getting help to leverage your time?

As I understood well @Ategy thinks that hiring more people to do what he is doing successfully is not a good option?

 

[Pay.My.id]

I am not a full time domainer,but I am full time learner on domaining

 

[Raimond]

For everyone who has successful outbound strategy in place the next logic step would be to hire people help him expand his business, or at least to try so... in my opinion.

I know that it is not easy to educate people about this process, or it wouldn't be easy to expect uneducated people have the same results the successful domainer achieved by himself, but it is worth a try definitely and a next logic step.

Yes @bojan1, I agree with you. But I think to expand the business and to educate people properly about the business processes, you have to be skilled, patient and knowledgable in working with people. It is not for everyone (I mean, initially you must have some "natural" or learned tendencies towards such activity), and also it takes some time to do it.

And of course, first you must have a winning and profitable business model in place, or at least partially successful, because with help of the team you can test and optimise things much faster than when you are by your own.

 

[bojan1]

Yes @bojan1, I agree with you. But I think to expand the business and to educate people properly about the business processes, you have to be skilled, patient and knowledgable in working with people. It is not for everyone (I mean, initially you must have some "natural" or learned tendencies towards such activity), and also it takes some time to do it.

And of course, first you must have a winning and profitable business model in place, or at least partially successful, because with help of the team you can test and optimise things much faster than when you are by your own.

Agree, and I am pretty much sure that we have domainers here on this forum who have that business model so I would like to here their thoughts if possible.... how did they made that next step.

 

[Raimond]

I am not a full time domainer,but I am full time learner on domaining

This is a proper and positive mental attitude!

 

[Raimond]

Agree, and I am pretty much sure that we have domainers here on this forum who have that business model so I would like to here their thoughts if possible.... how did they made that next step.

I think Rohit Goyal is a great example of that, and he is giving a lot of advices, insights, stats, etc...!

 

[Arpit131]

I think a lot of us are in the same boat.



Just before I started putting a few of my domains up with landers about 1-2 months ago, I only had about 30% of my portfolio listed at Afternic (of those about 2/3 were priced), and about 10% of my domains had "make offer" at Sedo. That's it .. not listed anywhere else. So the fact I made a nice little profit is effectively a miracle .. or more likely that I've been successful at getting the right domains at the right prices!

Good luck with whatever you decide to do .. looking forward to see how others have made their transitions to full time.

That's a lot of money or sale left on the table. I think you need to take a day and post all your domains on multiple platforms for sale, sit back and then enjoy a beer

You could hire a somebody who has had previous experience of outbound and offer then 20% commission of the sale.

A domain broker might be another option but whether they decide to do this for you will depend on your domains. Some brokers only do outbound for premium names.

to manage both I would take a specific amount of time a day (like 1-2 hours) and concentrate on domaining, and more over the weekends, so this 1-2 hours would be 'domaining only'

Good luck

Brokers don't sell average names! They are pretty much involved in sales that can yield higher value!

Arpit, I think you know you can be much more successful doing outbound, but at the same time doing outbound is not the most interesting thing to do in (your) life (at least outbound manual repetitive part), and you also know it very well.
So, it's the real challenge for you what to do. You know you can do it, but the question is, would you enjoy enough during that ride?

Regarding option of automating the outbound business by employing people, if you really have a winning outbound model/process in place, as well as a little backup capital, why not?

Let me think over this! It is going to take a lot of effort initially. But who knows, it could actually work really well.