Submit Your Domainer Mistakes

[James Iles]

I'm going to write a blog post about the Top 10 mistakes a domain investor can make; if anyone wants to contribute then please make your suggestions below!

They can be anything related to domain names. I'll use the best ones in the article - crediting you, of course.

 

[Crottle]

Never tried to contact end-user that is my mistake

 

[Fancy.domains]

Hello,

Registering 400 mediocre (or even crappy) new gTLDs...

I still believe in great keyword + ngTLD combinations (example: car.loans, weed.store, chicago.apartments), but great and mediocre are two very different things.

I will obviously not renew these, but still I have 400 other ones that I am happy with.

 

[Debt.tv]

Back in the early days of my domaining career, I thought it was important to pay godaddy for an appraisal....250 some odd dollars later...I figured out I was an idiot!

 

[AndyM]

* Not finding namepros sooner
* Believing freevaluator.com (cost me $xxx's)
* Registering expired domains that are fail listed by google
* Spending 3 years at college studying electrical engineering when I should have done website development
* Not watching enough interviews/reviews on domainsherpa.com
* Not reviewing weekly sales from DNJournal.com to study what's hot

 

[ComboNames]

Made a no reserve auction on flippa for a domain that I have bought for 100$ , sold it for 2$

 

[Tia Wood]

* Buying .im domains
* Buying domains because they "Sound good".

Someone here needs to post something about investing in .tel names. I personally didn't buy any but I know some of you did. :D

 

[James Iles]

This article I'm writing may be more than a "Top 10" of domainer mistakes :D

The whole point of the article will be to show that we all make mistakes, but learning from others can reduce the risk of making some mistakes!

Here's one of my own: Buying a bulk portfolio of domains.

One of my first purchases was a lot of 64 domain names from eBay - all terrible names. None sold and I renewed all 64 for a year

 

[ProDomanico]

This reminds me of every interview on job interview...

My mistake, I'm a perfectionist.

But seriously... being a perfectionist can be quite detrimental. After quickly adopting 'what works' I tried to perfect the process, constantly adding on new ways to do things, and it completely changed my original process into something that wasn't working. I had to go back and strip down what I was doing, going back to basics - which is working very well at the moment.

Can you give an example for me to learn from your mistakes.
1. Constantly adding new way of doing? -- This one would change me ..... whats the new way you had added with an example please

 

[ProDomanico]

Sounds like you made the mistake of domaining in the first place

I would say he learned it right in the first place and it all depends on how fast you learn and change...before you run out of CASH

 

[ProDomanico]

My Biggest mistakes:
Hand regging worthless names with no resale value and which makes less sense to business--- IO which are worthless and costly
Running after domain names before someone else regg's it -- Really speaking no one does, because good ones are already GONE -- He he he

Not knowing about 0.99$ godaddy coupons

 

[ProDomanico]

Back in the early days of my domaining career, I thought it was important to pay godaddy for an appraisal....250 some odd dollars later...I figured out I was an idiot!

Hope I wasn't as a new domainer Appraisal is almost crap..for new domain names.. unless it is a developed website

 

[DomainVP]

Can you give an example for me to learn from your mistakes.
1. Constantly adding new way of doing? -- This one would change me ..... whats the new way you had added with an example please

Well for example... I was successful with a specific sales pitch that was converting domain sales well. Then I repeatedly made little changes here and there which left me with a very different script than what was working. So I went back to what I was originally doing, and am now converting with the same success as I was before.

It was a little bit of A-B testing, but I had a good thing going and my search of perfecting the pitch left me with something that wasn't working well.

The script I currently use is here:
http://domainvp.com/blog/how-to-sell-your-domain-name/

 

[ProDomanico]

it's a real price... I sold RXUH.com for $31 LOL

Liked the way you presented .. your entire research on the 'RX'. Beautiful.
But didn't like selling it .. for $31
I was tracking the registered domains and lost the address of this tool.. can anyone help on that ? What is the URL of this online tool?

 

[DomainAde]

1) registering/buying/catching .com/.net/.org/.info/.tv/ names in nova days...
2) buying domains on snapnames, namejet, TDNAM, Sedo, etc
3) catching domains on DropCatch.com
3) parking domains.

what's wrong with 2,3&3 please

 

[Daren]

not upgrading my namepros account the day i started with domains.

 

[deflee79]

Well for example... I was successful with a specific sales pitch that was converting domain sales well. Then I repeatedly made little changes here and there which left me with a very different script than what was working. So I went back to what I was originally doing, and am now converting with the same success as I was before.

It was a little bit of A-B testing, but I had a good thing going and my search of perfecting the pitch left me with something that wasn't working well.

The script I currently use is here:
http://domainvp.com/blog/how-to-sell-your-domain-name/

Great read! I've never used Bing for leads so i will definitely be giving that a try!

 

[Ms Domainer]

* Not finding namepros sooner
* Believing freevaluator.com (cost me $xxx's)
* Registering expired domains that are fail listed by google
* Spending 3 years at college studying electrical engineering when I should have done website development
* Not watching enough interviews/reviews on domainsherpa.com
* Not reviewing weekly sales from DNJournal.com to study what's hot

Your college education is never wasted.



So I wouldn't consider that a mistake.

 

[elevator]

been addicted to domaining,
dabbled into domaining without proper learning,
dropped my domains too early,
failed to join DNF as at when due,
failed to join namepros ealier,
not buying from drop market,
not marketing my domains appropriately.

 

[capiche]

Starting out in 2004-2005... Reading everything I could before I bought domains... Spending about $800 registering about 80-90 domains I thought would sell... Actually selling about 20 of them for a total of about $30k.. And not re-investing a dime of that money back into domains.. Instead, spending on things myself or my family "needed".. Appliances, tv's, tires, vacations.. Lolol. Ouch.

 

[frostify]

1. Being disappointed when you first start domaining
2. Registering never before reg'd domains (in most cases)
3. Obscure "brandables"
4. Buying every upgrade on Flippa for a name worth like $50
5. Expecting the best case scenario every time
6. Getting "emotionally attached" to a domain
7. Hyphens
8. Anything that isn't .COM
9. A million .newTLD's (also see: #8)
10. typos