Ryan Ewen - AMA

[RyanEwen]

Hey Everyone,

Finally joined NP.

If you have any questions about DNWE or Domain Manage feel free to shoot them below and i will try to answer them for you.

(I am the owner of DNWE, Domain Manage, Brandable UK & Flip UK)

 

[RyanEwen]

What are the most important things that must be done (e.g., built) to change that?

What do you think of Andrew's efforts with RallyRd, and how important is that initiative toward this goal?

Thanks.

What Andrew and RallyRd are doing is great. Raising awareness of domain names to wider consumers can only be a good thing.

RallyRd have a lot of diverse products so it is great to associate domain names alongside these other rare assets.

Andrews work outside domains like his podcast with Tim Ferris is amazing for general awareness.

I also think Alan Hack and Chris Zuicker do some amazing video content to help domainers and end users get to grips with the rareness of domain names.

Sherpa is great and connects the domain world which is amazing.

New Gtld's are also going to be exciting because people have real business use cases and the next round will bring in serious players who understand marketing is paramount and there is not much competition in the 'real world advertising sector'. Dot Bank and Dot Top are crushing it.

Dot bank for example is a superior technological application than dot com.

In terms of platforms keep an eye on Sudos, Saw and DomainsOutbound - all are doing something special.

EFTY and Atom will continue to evolve and step into where Dan.com was

 

[RyanEwen]

Hi @RyanEwen. Welcome to NP! Someone must hate you; I ask a lot of questions, and it was suggested you might have some answers. You poor thing!

I get that automated valuations aren’t to be relied on; but, as a newbie, I use them as guardrails. I usually compare six different ones when determining selling price, giving more weight to some services over others.

One of the highest of these six (NW, a paid service) estimates my 400+ domain portfolio’s value at over $2 million, while the most conservative service estimates its retail value at well over $100k (Esti).

For context, I started domaining to share a message [of hope], but I have to at least earn enough to pay renewals. Even just a tenth of that lower value ($10k) within the next six months would allow me to keep playing this game.

What do you suggest? I have a day job and so creating over 400 websites with original content in hopes of qualifying for a Google Adsense account isn’t ideal. Many of my domains (2-3 words) contain keywords, and so one would think cashparking should be viable, no? Thanks for your time.

Its all good - the more people that ask questions the better the collective knowledge grows.

Valuation tools are great for insight - i wouldn't necessarily hold them as gospel.

With experience comes knowledge and as a very basic starting point you can 3x Godaddy Valuation which is safe. This is end user pricing.

Take 1% of this value and that is wholesale value.

Remember everyone loves to see that they have a domain worth $10m but you also have to be realistic and use other datapoints to back things up like:

DOB
DOTDB
GDV
AHREF
Traffic Data / PPC costs

These data points help you understand if your domain has greater value based on SEO metrics or traffic potential versus its pure word/letter value

 

[RyanEwen]

Hi @RyanEwen. Welcome to NP! Someone must hate you; I ask a lot of questions, and it was suggested you might have some answers. You poor thing!

I get that automated valuations aren’t to be relied on; but, as a newbie, I use them as guardrails. I usually compare six different ones when determining selling price, giving more weight to some services over others.

One of the highest of these six (NW, a paid service) estimates my 400+ domain portfolio’s value at over $2 million, while the most conservative service estimates its retail value at well over $100k (Esti).

For context, I started domaining to share a message [of hope], but I have to at least earn enough to pay renewals. Even just a tenth of that lower value ($10k) within the next six months would allow me to keep playing this game.

What do you suggest? I have a day job and so creating over 400 websites with original content in hopes of qualifying for a Google Adsense account isn’t ideal. Many of my domains (2-3 words) contain keywords, and so one would think cashparking should be viable, no? Thanks for your time.

In terms of creating sites - it is very difficult now a days to get enough traffic to be able to qualify for google adsense.

Building sites potentially devalues a domain as whoever buys it has to unpick the seo if they have a different vision. Sometimes a blank canavas is preferred as a starting point.

Domain Parking is difficult to make revenue but i would always recommend placing all your domains with a parking provider to get basic traffic numbers and an idea of its value for 1 month. Occasionally for strange reasons parking goes nuts due to some random ticktoker promoting a phrase which catches on and people default to the domain.

 

[equity78]

I am not a Dan.com customer yet. Listened to June 2024 on www.domainnamewire.com podcast # 486 at 22:00 minutes onward, where Paul Nicks from Godaddy inferred that they are going to "single focus" on GoDaddy and Afternic. Any thoughts about where is dan.com services going to stand?

They are going to shutdown DAN at some point.

 

[anwarumair]

What are the top five aspects or data points you look at when evaluating the quality of a domain name?

 

[Rajiscripts]

Greetings and Welcome home.

If you were to advise a new domain enthusiast who is lookin to building a a future in domain business, what would that be?

 

[RyanEwen]

What are the top five aspects or data points you look at when evaluating the quality of a domain name?

Great question.

1) Age and number of registered extensions - this is great as more value is placed with age (10 years versus 2 weeks). Number of registered extensions indicates how popular the term is and if you own the com then all other extensions are upgrade opportunities

2) Any SEO metrics - sometimes when age is low this indicates the domain is either freshly registered or it has dropped. If it has dropped then it may have considerable value due to backlinks

3) Potential Traffic value - how many times do people type the SLD (the string on the left of the dot) into google each month and how much are advertisers prepared to pay for this term. While having an exact match domain name is not as powerful as in the past it is still the best opportunity to rank #1 for the term and unlock this traffic source

4) Valuation metrics. Some people get a bit hung up on this one but basically if you use Godaddy valuation or Esitbot then you can draw some conclusions as to value. The safe easy way is to 3x Godaddy valuation as they do a lot of the heavy lifting. Remember that a domain may have greater value in terms of SEO & Traffic potential.

5) Good old fashioned Google - how many sites are ranking for the term & while subjective what is the quality of the sites ranking - are they using a custom built, well designed CMS, with fresh content and a vibrant and diverse team. When you couple this with Linkedin & Crunchbase you can get a really good idea of who you will potentially sell to. This would be a multiplier effect on values 1 to 4.

 

[RyanEwen]

Greetings and Welcome home.

If you were to advise a new domain enthusiast who is lookin to building a a future in domain business, what would that be?

Thank you.

My 3 biggest tips are:

1) Get Educated

Do the Domain Academy Course - it will give you a broad understanding of domain names, how to value them and what to look for. Also look at NameBio for previous sales histories and get familiar with what sells and how much for. Keep an eye out on here for Bobs content and also Leanne (crunch id).

2) Get Connected

Network, participate in forums, events, watch podcasts and get to know people. The saying is true - your network is your networth

3) Get Focussed

Many people do many things but if you stick with domaining and dedicated time to learning, growing & focussing you can have an amazing life. As with all businesses you need passion and persistence.

--
Overall the domain business is not about domains. It is about money. Whenever you buy a domain you are locking up money for as long as it takes to sell the domain name. Choose wisely, knowledge is power and cash is king.

The only downside when you get started is being frozen out by ovepaying for domains which freezes you out until you free up cashflow.

 

[Molly]

Domain Parking is difficult to make revenue but i would always recommend placing all your domains with a parking provider to get basic traffic numbers and an idea of its value for 1 month.

Thanks for your feedback, @RyanEwen. Regarding cashparking — do you have a preferred provider?

 

[RyanEwen]

Thanks for your feedback, @RyanEwen. Regarding cashparking — do you have a preferred provider?

There are a few providers - some well known some less known.

Cashparking from godaddy works because you can sell your domains on GD, DAN or AF and only pay 15% commission

Bodis is good
Above is good and aggregates across networks
ParkingCrew is another
GiantPanda - not many people know about but they can monetise gambling & adult

New entrants include DomainUI - this is an interesting concept where they build affiliate stores on domains and rev share

We have a parking product but it is still in beta mode

Parking hasnt changed much in the last 15 years but whoever cracks the new version will make $$$

 

[Molly]

Sorry, @RyanEwen; I warned you about my questions. This one should be easy, though.

I’m considering signing up for an account on DNWE, and am being asked for my name, and for a username. Question — will either of these be public or visible to other investors, such as buyers or sellers? It warns me that my username can’t be changed later. Thanks.

 

[MariaEl]

New entrants include DomainUI - this is an interesting concept where they build affiliate stores on domains and rev share

Several months ago, I asked here on the forums whether anyone happened to have had experience with their service but had no feedback at the time. Would you recommend it as serious and safe to use?

 

[RyanEwen]

Sorry, @RyanEwen; I warned you about my questions. This one should be easy, though.

I’m considering signing up for an account on DNWE, and am being asked for my name, and for a username. Question — will either of these be public or visible to other investors, as buyers or sellers? It warns me that username can’t be changed later. Thanks.

- no worries

No both are not visible to other investors, buyers or sellers - more for admins to be able to communicate with people.

 

[RyanEwen]

Several months ago, I asked here on the forums whether anyone happened to have had experience with their service but had no feedback at the time. Would you recommend it as serious and safe to use?

Yes i know Paul the founder - he is a good guy and well know in the UK space so i would vouch that it is safe.

It is early days for the project but results are encouraging.

 

[monotheist]

Welcome. Why are you not wearing mask properly in the picture?

 

[RyanEwen]

Welcome. Why are you not wearing mask properly in the picture?

I had to take the mask off to get facial recognition on my phone so i could take the picture

 

[dncafe]

With so many marketplaces and landing page services out there, I think the main thing sellers want is the most exposure for their names. How will DNWE get more potential buyers viewing their names compared to other platforms?

 

[RyanEwen]

With so many marketplaces and landing page services out there, I think the main thing sellers want is the most exposure for their names. How will DNWE get more potential buyers viewing their names compared to other platforms?

DNWE is a private marketplace with 3,500 domain investors who buy & sell in private.

Unlike other marketplaces & landing pages you don't need to change nameservers meaning you can leave domains where they are with end user prices and use DNWE to sell in private quickly.

It is an investor/wholesale market so lots of great buy & sell opportunities.

Also coming soon is the ability to auction domains on DNWE

 

[Palinco]

Hi, I see you have Flip.uk
You can buy my Flipzi.com
What you think?

 

[RyanEwen]

Hi, I see you have Flip.uk
You can buy my Flipzi.com
What you think?

Flip is for our UK market.

We have flipjet.com for our global auction platform which launches later this year!

We will have a premium marketplace and auction companion for every ccTLD