The $2.74 Conspiracy?

[redemo]

Message to the average domainer. Stop obsessing about selling and start obsessing about developing. You only need to earn $2.74 each day to profit $1000 in a year from your domain names. So if you have 10 domain names it would be $10000 profit each year. Stop listening to all the hype about selling because it will most likely NEVER happen for you, and you will only realise this once you've lost all your money. Take heed NOW. Register, develop and monetise. Listen clearly, most domainers will FAIL. Nobody wants you to know this because they want to sell you their domains. This message will either be moved, deleted or down-voted or a combination of all three because the sellers can't profit from you. You can free yourselves by investing your time to learn how to develop your domain names into profitable revenue streams and sell later if you so desire. STOP LOSING MONEY, Stop buying worthless domain names. Stop dreaming and start WINNING.

 

[inforg]

I've been mostly doing domain sales, but I have played around with minisite development off and on for the last 20 years.

It didn't work well many years ago and it has only gotten tougher. The Google algorithm alone will stomp you, but beyond that here are some issues with development:

1. Gone are the days when a decent tool could be purchased inexpensively to use on unlimited domains - everything has gone Saas now, with charges per domain or monthly/yearly subscriptions. Profit is too thin to justify most of this stuff.

2. Free = garbage. You aren't going to get anything useful for free. If it had that kind of value they would be charging for it.

3. Payouts from Adsense, Amazon, eBay, cj and Shareasale have never been great, but seem to be at all-time lows. Also factor in affiliate programs that go out of business or drop commissions down to near zero or private affiliate programs that just stop paying you.

4. Time, time, time - to have a decent shot at developing for profit you have to create a lot of quality content. That takes either time or money. I get it, if you are in a place or situation where all you have is time, you can make a tiny bit of money and your time has little value. For many of us, it doesn't make sense to spend 60-100 hours to earn 100-200 dollars.

5. Even the good tools quit working at some point. I probably have 5k worth of stuff I bought that just doesn't work now either because they never updated it, it had vulnerabilities, or the program it was tied to banned it. Or they went saas and don't support the legacy stuff anymore.

I had decent return in the past doing niche Amazon stores, but alas the vendor for that went saas and doesn't support the legacy version that I could upload to my own server on unlimited sites. I'm giving it a go with about 5 sites with them, but I am doubtful I can earn enough to cover the monthly cost and turn a profit. We will see.

All that being said, I still think there are some opportunities for developing.

1. Local lead generation - roofing, hvac, solar, whole house generators, etc. Your effort isn't going to be so much on the developing side as it is on your ad spend and creatives to generate those leads and negotiating with those buying the leads.

2. E-commerce - no drop shipping affiliate stuff, actually find some niche products, get an overseas supplier to make some branded product for you and then spend some money on ads.

3. Come up with a unique product or service and go all in on developing and advertising it. Odds are you will blow your money, but you have a shot at creating something big.

I still plan on spending most of my money on buying and selling domains since after 20 years I know how to do that and I turn a profit every year with little time invested.

I will continue looking for that easy money development route when I have free time, but I really don't expect to find it. I have some unique ideas and product ideas that I am working on that I think can generate some value, but those will take a big time and money investment to launch.

I wish you luck no matter what your domain fetishes happen to be. As an old guy, let me tell you “there isn't an easy button in real life”

 

[enterscope]

Most domainers fail because they don't put in the effort to learn what works and what doesn't.

I'd venture to say those same people will fail at developing domains as well.

 

[Steven McEvoy]

Message to the average domainer. Stop obsessing about selling and start obsessing about developing. You only need to earn $2.74 each day to profit $1000 in a year from your domain names. So if you have 10 domain names it would be $10000 profit each year. Stop listening to all the hype about selling because it will most likely NEVER happen for you, and you will only realise this once you've lost all your money. Take heed NOW. Register, develop and monetise. Listen clearly, most domainers will FAIL. Nobody wants you to know this because they want to sell you their domains. This message will either be moved, deleted or down-voted or a combination of all three because the sellers can't profit from you. You can free yourselves by investing your time to learn how to develop your domain names into profitable revenue streams and sell later if you so desire. STOP LOSING MONEY, Stop buying worthless domain names. Stop dreaming and start WINNING.

Developing isn’t just putting couple of blog posts and call it a day… theirs a lot to it like putting up capital, marketing advertising etc..

You preach like this is something new no one knows about but everyone does. The problem is it’s harder to make a daily earning website then just sit on Domain to sell.

Now if you know this so called secret formula where you don’t have to put in work just develop a domain then please share it. If not then just stop wasting your time.

 

[twiki]

I see several view

no such thing, I challenge you to show one example of a high traffic keyword with low competition

Been in all these boats, deep in actually, so I can therefore have an educated comment I hope. I did performance SEO for many years and I'm still up to the track with it, though I rely less on it.

Today I prefer to use a distributed approach and not rely on a single thing (= ad revenue? organic traffic? .... etc) in order to avoid single failure points in business. I learned that hard when I first got my major sites penalized in Google. Then through other things. So I have history behind. Now running a few different businesses at once for the same reason. Very different ones including a brick and mortar.

I see several opposite viewpoints in this thread. And while OP @redemo and you (just for example) are now in heated contradiction discussion, these viewpoints don't exclude each other, in my experience.

Both "seo is hard" and "develop sites is easier than domaining" are valid. It's all in the viewpoint = subjective.

Usable, viable paths, valid assessments here likely coming from personal experience (hence the heated discussion = strong belief in them), but definitely subjective.

As always, it all depends.

One's experience, skills, assets are not the other's.

The truth is, I think, for the average domainer who never reaches performance, but who has good enough computer skills etc, developing a site might have better chances at earning something long-term.

Domaining is hard, but so can be anything else depending on where you come from.

So maybe everyone here should chill (including OP) and try to learn from other's experiences. Disagree or not, but anyway, any different experience is something we can learn from.

Edit: Path to success is like forensics. Often the one who has great success with little effort has found a tiny detail that makes the difference, although sometimes they're not really aware of it. I had this so I know. It's like a forensic pro finding a tiny clue which cracks the whole case open. The devil is in the details, therefore discussing the bigger picture does not bring one directly to some end result, unless one finds that minute detail that makes all the difference in results.

 

[HotKey]

@HotKey you said Development and domaining are not the same thing. An apple and a orange aren't the same thing. What's your point? Developing domain names for profit is a part of domaining. Or are you disagreeing with Godaddy? https://www.godaddy.com/garage/domaining-101/

This is different than apples and oranges. Domains are a means to end, development is a continuation of that end. Even if someone chooses a domain name that isn't up to par to our investor standards, they can still develop it into something meaningful because of what it brings to the table in terms of content or services. And once that's done, are you not going to commit to all your hard work?

My point is suggesting to monetize is fine and dandy, but what happens when we want to sell the domain? These are two different beasts. You've presented and established a website to the net and now just abandon it? Some domains take years to sell, do we assume we want the baggage of a 2-hour build site to go along with it?

A developed site should be dependable to those who visit it. A domain name is the prelude to that. If you're an investor, you're interested in the latter.

It takes a LOT of hard work to have a developed site speak above all the rest of the noise; similar to just domain names, and advising people to simply develop for monetization is the same as advising people to register domains in bulk or keeping to trends or sticking to just a certain extension, without adherence to a ton of other factors that determine things like quality or longevity or probable sales in due course/traffic.

 

[poweredbyme]

Domaining requires more capital. Content creation requires more time. If your capital is more than your time, domaining would likely the better choice, otherwise content creation would be better. Everyone has different capital and time amounts and different risk appetite.. Everyone is different. But all business are the same, all businesses pay you back what you pay and how much you pay to the business. You can pay to your business with your time or your money, whichever is more for you. The result/profit would be almost the same. At the end of the day, money (capital) talks.

 

[AEProgram]

People that never actually built content sites think it's easy. People that never purchased domains for resale, think it's easy.

You can build a content site now about any niche and hire the best article writers, the best designers, and update once every hour and after a year have nothing but a lot of contact form and comment spam attempts to show for it.

Without real authentic backlinks to your content you are not ranking for anything that has search volume and the chances of getting people linking to your site (not the fake spam backlink packages) is almost 0. There is a reason domains with big quality backlinks go for a lot of money, if it was easy to get this any other way, those domains wouldn't go for 10k plus.

What about getting visitors to return on their own? Your guide about building content sites misses that. Should you use push notifications for new content and ask users to agree? Should you collect emails? If you don't plan correct, one change in Googles search algorithm and if you did manage to make some monthly income, it can go to 0.

Using math to make a case is flawed. Everyone does it. If you do day trading and have a small account of 5k, if you just try to earn 1% a day, for example, if you find a stock that is trading at 1 dollar and you buy 5000 shares, if it goes up just 1 penny you made your 1%, how hard could that be? You might be able to do this a few times a day too on some days, in a year if you keep reinvesting the with the profits, you will turn that 5k into 188k, even if you just count trading days and take days off you can cut that in half and still have turned the 5k into about 90k. Now imagine if you find a stock that moves just 5 cents up, after a year your 5k will be $280 Billion, you'll be the richest man in the world! Check the match https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

In the 90's there was a guy on TV selling a course that showed you how to make money with classified ads. He said if you find a product that sells in classified ads and you make just 10 dollars profit a week from it, you can just replicate it and place that ad in 3000 news papers and now you are making 30k a week. People fell for it.

 

[Steven McEvoy]

One day. That's all it takes to set up a basic developed domain name. Then you're looking at 15 minutes a day for a year. Yeah that's 91 hours aggregate. For the record there's ZERO capital and ZERO marketing, it's just a time investment. If you're wasting your 91 hours trying to sell without success, then why not develop, earn your 30 cents each day and collect your $100? What's stopping you? Laziness is all I can think of, that's the cold hard truth of it, and you know it.

First of all I’m a developer, not a domain investor
If you think you don’t need any capital or marketing your just pulling shit out of your ass.

In your so called post about how to develop a domain you literally point out that you need to market and buy advertising..

Total baloney, you're making up facts. There's no preaching going on here, it's the just combination of you being here trying to sell your domain names, and you preferring to type messages than develop your domain names, and you know it.

Have you even read it? I doubt it. Read it, then come back with some real questions mate.

I have read it lol it’s nothing new it is basic points that almost everyone here probably already knows… you still have to put in the work.

 

[loredan]

Lovin' this guy attitude... he'll battle anyone and fight for his own ideas like a zoo tiger despite the fact that most of us actually owned and built hundreds of minisites 15-20 years ago when this thing actually worked well. He probably used to run around in Pampers those days but now, hell, he'll teach you what needs to be done in order to make money out of domains. Crazy kiddo, huh?

Well, can you show us some of the sites you built, spent ten minutes a day on each and made you $1,000+ a year? Let's cut off the BS, links please... ty.

 

[bmugford]

I have taken the OP's post and swapped the terms for development and sales.

You see how it works? Lacking any specifics makes the statement pretty hollow.

AKA anyone can say anything, but without examples or data to back it up it doesn't really have much value.


Message to the average domainer. Stop obsessing about developing and start obsessing about selling. You only need to earn $2.74 each day to profit $1000 in a year from your domain names. So if you have 10 domain names it would be $10000 profit each year. Stop listening to all the hype about development because it will most likely NEVER happen for you, and you will only realise this once you've lost all your money.


There are plenty of people on NamePros who have experience with development, myself included. I don't think there is some magic effortless formula that doesn't require some combination of time, money, knowledge, and experience.

Not to mention many of the most valuable types of domains, like brands, short domains, etc. are not that suited for development.

Development also really hurts potential sales of a domain. It would not make much sense to develop a valuable domain to make $100/year.

I feel like this is a discussion from a decade ago honestly, where people cranked out poorly done mini-sites with article spinners on long-tail domains. They were far more popular then.

If it works for you, great. However, people are skeptical for a reason.

Brad

 

[HotKey]

This approach ends the same as it does with bad domain investments: An Internet full of bargain-bin websites with no real contributions with original information.

Development should take time and an ongoing commitment produce an end-result that provides an actual service or trustworthy and meaningful content.

If you can produce a site in an hour or two, than what's the sense of directing people to develop DNs vs registering domains that they'll drop in in year? Both of these models suggest throw-away endeavors.

Development and domaining are not the same thing, but I think the approach to how we choose to populate either field is reflective of our expectations: attempting profiting at all costs in the cheapest possible way, vs true sector improvements that takes time and lays a good foundation.

 

[Future Sensors]

I'm trying to help. How many help guides have you posted on the forum?

If you would bundle Brad's many postings into a guide, you would have a perfect foundation to succeed at least on this forum.

 

[bmugford]

What I love about domaining, a lot of the basic portfolio management can be done during a bathroom brake. No additional time or devices needed. Just a phone and your brain.

I love development like OP, but nothing beats closing a sale while taking a dump

I have been extremely sick this week. I have done hardly anything and sold (2) domains directly, and another one on an (8) month installment plan.

It sure is a lot less work to sell a domain than develop it.

Brad

 

[twiki]

I still don't understand what's all the fuss in this thread.

Can money be made developing? Yeah, has been done and proven.

Can everyone do it? Nay, such as in domaining. Some do, most don't, you need to have certain skills, work and a bit of luck sometimes.

Is it easy? Well, when is making money easy? Perhaps stealin' or something. Or inheriting a castle if you're that lucky.

Is this offtopic? Then tell OP to move to different forum or something. I'd say it depends.

It all depends.

This really gets to be funny. Someone bring some bricks in, they're gonna be needed for all sides soon.

 

[Daniel Owens]

My point was that I'm going to buy you roses on valentine's day because I love you very much. You are so dear to my heart. Read my posts mate. I'm simply offering an option to all those domainers who might like to develop their domain names, and would otherwise lose all their money and give up. What's so bad about that?

"Stop obsessing about selling and start obsessing about developing." You say which I find an interesting statement. You could cause people to lose money if they only take part of your advice. If you tell them traffic is free but they find out traffic can and often does cost money, they might spend money developing a domain rather then making a profit selling. However, this is just a thread and not everyone is going to listen to you so no big deal, you are still lovely.

 

[inforg]

The system works. You know it works. $10 registration equals $90 profit. 30 cents each day. Read the guide mate. Not answering questions I've already answered. Developing instead of flipping.

I don't think people have questions, so much as they want some proof of your claims. You won't link to any example sites (weird, but ok).

You could at least show them some screenshots of your AdSense or affiliate accounts to show this .30 a day.

 

[poweredbyme]

My point is suggesting to monetize is fine and dandy, but what happens when we want to sell the domain?

Unfortunately monetizing became the most difficult part for even experienced developers. I develop websites for almost 2 decades. I still run aged websites with stable organic traffic which I developed in 2000's. Frankly, domains of those developed websites are worth more than websites. If I didn't develop those domains, I could sell those domains easier. Domain buyers look like less interested once you develop a domain or maybe I know it wrong. If I know it correct, then developing a domain has one more risk: if you change your mind later, the chance of selling a developed domain will be lower.

 

[Joe N]

Anyway back to the o.p's o.p. you guys can all earn $ 100 or $ 1000 from your domain names by simply developing a website and earning a trickle amount from links and banners each day. All adds up at the end of the year, Yes it takes time but how much time do you already waste anyway? All these people losing money from trying to sell domain names could easily learn how to develop websites. Just be honest you like the thrill, the journey, the ride, not so much bothered about the end result or if you make any profit. That's fine, have fun, just don't complain when there's a simple solution to being lazy i.e. work hard. All this about you need skills, not true. You already have 95 % the skills you need. The other 5 % gets learned over time like anything. If you you're not interested in developing, and you're not trying to make a profit, why on earth are you even reading this thread?

You're not wrong, but everything you're saying about hard work can be applied to selling domains as well. People who want to sell domains don't need to give up and focus on developing only (although it's certainly a valid option).

Put in the time. Do the work. Start small and scale up. That's a great recipe for success in domain investing.

It seems like you're frustrated with investing/selling and are looking for opportunities to be contrary.

 

[branding]

There's a middle road you know...

 

[NYJimbo]

Stop listening to all the hype about selling because it will most likely NEVER happen for you, and you will only realise this once you've lost all your money.........

 

[branding]

They ONLY need to buy a domain name, the rest is FREE. Fact.

Not true. Fact.

 

[Steven McEvoy]

You're chatting complete and utter tripe mate. You ONLY need to buy a domain name. That's it. No other capital. If you say otherwise you have never developed a domain name for profit at the average John Doe domainer level. We aren't mostly agencies on Namepros. Most members are looking for a side hustle, a nice little earner on the side. They ONLY need to buy a domain name, the rest is FREE. Fact.

It's not so-called, it's actually called. Don't invent scenarios from newly-discovered planets HD 260655 b and HD 260655 c. Yes, you need to do marketing, and no it doesn't NEED to cost anything. ONLY buy a domain name, the rest is free. This isn't Wall Street, it's Main Street.

Look man if you’re all about it. I’ll send you $100 if you can pick any of my domains, to develop and make at least a $0.25 a day.

 

[twiki]

True... It ain't expensive but not free. Well, there are free options but a developer and businesses would need some level of stability and continuity.

Hence my previous question? Is this thread geared towards people looking to learn and dick around with a domain or are we talking a serious profitable business setup? Cos if we are, that $3 for 15 min or work isn't gonna put much food on the table.

There are people with frugal mindset that would do anything to get everything for free.

In most cases they find them.

But is it worth it? Not all the time. Often it is far better to spend a just little $ for something better, if you're making money. E.g. on hosting, or seo research etc.

 

[branding]

That's a more balanced reply mate. I'm talking only about making profit from domain name registrations instead of registering and letting them expire with zero profit. So, again, I'm talking about spending $ 10s and earning $ 100s from every registration. Nothing more. I'm saying I've done it, thousands of others have done it, and thousands more can do it. If it's not true then why does Adsense exist?

Being blunt here. I don't care about giving balanced comments. I'm here to learn, and help others... While profiting from it myself by gaining insights.

As a business I know making $10/h in revenue(!) isn't gonna put food on the table. There's far more expenses you'll have to take into account when you want to scale up and even if you don't (when done legally) you'd actually be better off flipping burgers.

I can't speak for the UK but that $10$/h in revenue will leave me with almost zero profit profit... Taxes, social security, insurance, pensions... Energy, working space.

You think it's free... It isn't.

So unless you can scale up , the numbers don't work. In the UK you'd need what? 3K Net/month to be considered a moderate income? That's a lot of domains to find, develop and maintain.