discuss Starting Over...

[DanBingham]

Have you ever thought about selling your entire domain portfolio in order to start over?
Perhaps you were one of these people, and if so, was it a decison worth taking?
Or, was it the worst mistake of your domaining career?

 

[Recons.Com]

I constantly improve the quality of my portfolio while growing it.

I don't renew some based on new knowledge and experience I gained. I have also learned to trust my gut feeling when I might be getting the feedback that the name is not worthy.

Basically, there are names that I know now that probably won't sell and they don't. Then there are ones that are good in my opinion but were rejected by brandable marketplaces and they do sell at a very good rate with no logos, landing pages etc. For example, mart/smart was rejected by BB, BR and BP, but I kept renewing it for couple of years before it sold via afternic for $1899. The name just made sense to me and I liked the rhyming/repeating aspect of it. Chef/ix was another universal reject that sold for $2.5K.

 

[Eric Lyon]

Many times... We all make mistakes and collect things we shouldn't have. A purge every once in a while to start-over fresh and use what you learned from your last mistakes to build a stronger domain portfolio or network of thriving business developments is a good thing.

 

[Recons.Com]

I think this is always really weird to see. I mean, you reg a domain today and it takes 12-24 months to sell. Its like planting a seed and knowing you have to wait and have no control over it so you just have to sort of "forget' about it until it "matures".

Makes you wonder how many expires/drops would have made people real money if they held them a bit longer.

but it is strange to expect offers on all names within 2 years, when you know that even quality names sell at 0.5% to 2% ratio a year and often have no previous offers.

That should not be a criteria for holding names. Instead you should have subcategories of names that you look at as a group based on length, keywords, structure, suffix or any other similarities. For example, "I have held 50 names with *** ending for 5 years and none sold, so maybe I should reduce those or get rid of altogether".

 

[NYJimbo]

Dumping 10-20%, yeah. All of them ? No.

I think if you wanted to dump all, then you realized you bought them for the wrong reasons or have no faith in your domaining skills. In which case, dont buy any new ones until you figure out what was wrong with your old portfolio or what your reasoning was for buying in the first place.

The best thing to do is let the "losers" drop off naturally and buy new ones as you go along. No reason to just dump all.

 

[bmugford]

I think most people would consider selling their entire portfolio for the right price. Almost everything has a price...

In the meantime if you are getting offers, making sales, and profitable there is no real reason to start over. Over time you acquire better domains and weed out the garbage.

Brad

 

[JB Lions]

Never thought of that.

Just buy good domains from here on out.

Go thru your portfolio and decide which are the good ones. Try to sell the rest before expiration date, it you don't, let them expire. Slowly weed the bad ones out over time.

 

[imadoer]

When I 1st started I must have changed my portfolio about 4 or 5 times. Now I sell down Names that I wanna get rid of and I replace them with new names. Like today I sold two domains cheap so I could take all the money from both names and buy one better one. I call it doubling down.

I have a lot that I will hold long term until the right offer comes along. I couldn't see myself selling my entire portfolio to startover unless I was to invest all the money into 1 one word.com I reccomend figuring out what has value and holding on to that until to you get better names.

 

[DeliDomains]

It is easier to trim and weed out a grown tree than to chop it down and wait for a newly planted one to bear fruit.

You should restart your Brain to think differently from now on how you invest.

 

[alcy]

the sad reality for many of us domainers is that those who reach such a point of getting rid of all and "Starting over" is that this very portofolio they are now considering to sell is probably not really sellable.. and quite worthless.

I am not refering to anyone in paritcular here.. including me.. just making a general statement about this matter.

I'd also take seriously what NYjimbo just said about not immediately restarting the portofolio after getting rid of the old one.. until we figure out what was wrong with the previous one... maybe rethink our strategies and just keep learning some more about domaining.

jmo
cheers

 

[BaileyUK]

It has crossed my mind but, certainly not to start over again. After nearly 20 years playing with domains (fairly successfully) I'd be more inclined to find a new interest or a more healthy hobby. I think if you've been around domains for quite a long time and your getting older, there comes a point where you think Do I really want to be dealing in domains for the next ten years.

I had thought about getting into development, I have the basic skill-set, but then that also commits me to the keyboard, so talked my self out of that one. I'm just going to make a better effort to unload to the end user market.

I certainly don't purchase any new domains these days and 90% my success is outbound.

 

[likeslikes]

I've done a complete restart before and it was a great decision. However, I took a lot more time focusing on better names and learning the ropes the second time around.

However, I have thought a lot about selling off large chunks of my portfolio and focusing on specific higher quality names in a certain price range as of late, but right now I'm profitable doing it the way I have been which makes it tough. I just can't help but wonder if there's more profit by tweaking things and trying something different here. In the end there's many ways to make money in this industry - it's just a matter of figuring out what works best for you and what you're comfortable with IMO.

 

[Bannen]

I do get that feeling, but it's not due to having crappy domains; it's due to always being excited about the next purchases. I get one domain that I'm excited bidding for and happy to win; and then a day later I want to sell it and use that cash for more purchases. Sometimes I get that feeling to consider letting go a large amount of domains, just for the fun of filling up that space with a whole bunch more.

Even though I'm happy holding on to most of my purchases, I still like that feeling of the next 'fresh' domain...

Probably the definition of insanity

 

[DomainVP]

Have you ever thought about selling your entire domain portfolio in order to start over?

Nope. Over the years I have weeded out hundreds of domains (539) over the years, the portfolio I have now I will be sticking with until sale or death. I very rarely let a domain go, and I certantly wouldnt drop one of value.

That's just me.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

This is one of the best discussions I have seen lately! I think that both sides can logically be argued, and lost of insights - thanks to all! I am somewhat torn on this one...

I strongly agree with those who say IF you do start over, make sure to think carefully about what you want in your portfolio and try not to repeat mistakes you came to regret.

I think that my view is that while I would probably only sell my entire portfolio if I decided to move to to something else, either different forms of investing or a different hobby or business, depending on your level of involvement, I might well sell a major portion of my portfolio to either narrow focus or have funds to move into new niches.

I think it you never even consider selling a big chunk, it MIGHT mean you are not looking critically enough at your portfolio, or not open to new trends and new opportunities. That being said, I think failure in this business is often associated with moving from one trend to another, and just as conventional investors who trade too often are shown statistically to do worse, same might be true in domains.

 

[Kate]

Have you ever thought about selling your entire domain portfolio in order to start over?

Most 'portfolios' (or domain collections ) would not sell as a package. Single names maybe (provided there are at least a few good ones). And who's going to buy them ? Godaddy ? Buydomains ? And for how much ?

So for most domainers this is not even an option.
But most domainers could drop everything and start over (or quit for all). Somebody has to say it lol.

 

[Recons.Com]

I just drop domains without any offers after year or two.

Most of my sales for 2018 are more than 2 year old holds without offers.

 

[sircc]

Selling your portfolio is a little like admitting defeat. If in your eyes, it's not worth holding on to, then why would someone else want them?

When you get to that stage, you might as well move on. Anyone selling a complete portfolio is going to take a loss.

Crap domains will never appreciate with time. I know, I have some of my own .

 

[Recons.Com]

Of course, there is a price at which you sell the portfolio (with the exception of names you have planned for a project/company).

Godaddy values my portfolio at around $2.5MM, at the prices I normally sell them, the end user price worth is $3MM to $4MM. I would probably consider selling it wholesale at around $400K.

 

[eurorealtor]

I just drop domains without any offers after year or two.

 

[WatchDogue]

We have owned a domain portfolio since the 90s' and have never thought about selling 'em all and starting over again.

Over all the years we have dropped some names with sheer delight, dropped some names with mixed emotions, sold some names with apprehensions, sold some names with joyous jubilation, and used a number of names for personal sites and projects but, have never tried to or considered selling 'em all and re-booting.

Have taken on some niche names for pure speculation and have taken a few new domain pathways over the years but have essentially followed the domain path we started on.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Berkens sold almost whole portfolio to GoDaddy... not to start over but to finish the active domain career...

 

[xynames]

Selling in bulk for anything Quality is usually a mistake. Done it before when I wasn't actively managing my own portfolio and had a manager handling most of it, collected high five figures for a set of domains and found out the domains were sold pretty quickly afterwards individually for a combined high six figures - for 10X more. If a buyer thinks that a bulk portfolio is worth buying for something substantial it is probably worth a lot more.

Now, the stuff I see being posted on here for "fire sales," the domains where almost no one will even touch them for even free, are a different matter. But if a portfolio is worth selling at all, it is worth waiting to sell at fair market prices.

 

[BaileyUK]

I think for many of us that started early pre-1999, have to accept the best of our portfolio has already moved on, (mostly sales) to think we can replace on a daily like-for-like basis is long gone. I personally couldn't imagine starting from scratch. There are far too many savvy operators out there these days, and have been since around 2010 onward.

If I was back-in I'd be tracking *distressed sellers rather than the drop markets. It would be very time consuming but I think there would be some great negotiated bargains to be had.

I'm using the word *distressed, purely as an operative term, those trying to keep up with renewals but with the occasional 'Blinding ' (or just worthwhile) domain in their portfolio or those just seeking sales more urgently than most. There are methods and matrix.

Domaining has always been a dog-eat-dog world, so nothing new, It just has the luxury of being at a keyboard distance, so nothing personal either

 

[Daniel Owens]

Well, if it's 100 domains and you get a 1 million dollar offer it could be considered that selling could help you invest in more domains. I'm pretty sure many people would and do sell there portfolio of 100 domains for 1 mil.