Tired of asking Google, human answer needed.

[Trent1000]

Hi Guys!

As many of the rookies I also made a mistake when I hand regged a bunch of domain names in a hope that I'll be able to sell them later on. Until I came to realize that they worth nothing without a history, or without traffic on them. So here is my question. To not let lose all of that money, is it possible to sell them or at least some of them, if I build a basic website on them, and let it run for a few months? I have some html, flash knowledges from the past, enough to build a simple website, or run a wordpress blog(what I hate becouse I like customize a lot of things, and as I noticed wordpress doesn't really let you dig into the small details).

I want to do it myself, for two reason: 1. becouse I don't want to spend more money on them by asking a pro designer team to make it, especially if I capable to build some stuff on them and 2. becouse it would give me an idea what I need to face with, when I going to buy dropped, or expired domains in the future.

From the professional point of view, is it possible to give them some value in a few months, or they are garbage no matter what, and I should focus on dropped, and expired ones?
I know guys, you heard this story many times before, and probably extremely bored of it, but I need to ask questions from human beings becouse the infinite googling makes me sick. (and sorry if my english grammar wasn't the best).

 

[CrocodileDundee]

Depends on the domains, although if you develop a website and manage to create some revenue / traffic in theory they would be worth more than just a domain by itself. Difficult to say without knowing the domains though.

 

[Trent1000]

I was thinking to use those which had some value by estibot. Like MartianDay.com, which got some decent value, but now I know the reality is not that simple. Although I have some idea what to publish on it.
Or HeavyMovies.com, where I would put up some youtube trailer list about some mind-twisting movies, or something like that, I don't know exactly yet. Or Switch4k.com (no estibot value) which would give an idea to people from the latest 4k gadgets, or even a webshop, though I have no clue how to create a webshop, but probably not a nuclear engineering. Other potentional webshop names, like LegitOrder.com, or GrapheneDepo.com, what if graphene will really hit the market, and not just an early hype, will be be sold. I say it as a rookie, so who knows.

 

[jlwhite405]

How many domains do you have?

 

[Trent1000]

Only 20, but at the begining when I didn't know how things are going, I stupidly spent some money on flippa to listing them, which doubled the costs.

 

[Theydon]

I'd cut your losses, try sell them on NP to recoup some money and use your time on names you are happier with that deserve your time.

 

[jlwhite405]

@Trent1000

Hey, don't beat yourself up over it. When I first started, I went crazy on the hand regs. I wont disclose the extent of my follies but lets just say I didn't wise up as fast as you have. I wish I would have stumbled onto NamePros a lot sooner so I could have averted some of the wasted time and money.

I'm still a student here and there are plenty of good people that can give you a wealth of knowledge if you're willing to absorb it and put it in to action. Just don't get discouraged and keep reading the many threads available here.

Cheers!

 

[Trent1000]

Thanks Jlwhite405! I definitely will.

 

[Kate]

Cut your losses. Don't waste your time on bad domains. Time = money.
Besides, they may still not sell at all in spite of all the lipstick you put on them Then you wasted even more time and money.

 

[jamesosix]

imo its harder to develop a domain than just to sell domains. You need unique fresh content and to be able to get a good ranking in google just in hope for some ad clicks..a lot of effort and time and it still does not offer any guarantees.

Just my opinion.

edit:
eek 400th post :O

 

[Trent1000]

@jamesosix
But that's not equals to dropped, or expired domains right? If I understood well that's the whole point of this business. How often people sell domains, not some handsome macho named domains, but some regular domains without touching it, only listing it with patience?

 

[NameOmnia]

@jamesosix
How often people sell domains, not some handsome macho named domains, but some regular domains without touching it, only listing it with patience?

More often than what you think. The secret is patience ( and having decent names fairly priced )

I learnt on my skin that domaining doesn't give you a constant cash flow unless you have thousands and thousands of name you constantly flip, therefore developing them just into a basic site might give you a better / quicker chance to sell them and make some profit.

 

[ulterios]

Just because a domain has no significant traffic, that doesn't mean it's of little value. It depends on the name, the potential use as well as how good the name is. Some end users don't care about traffic, especially if they are looking for that particular name or perhaps just the way the name sounds and looks.

Also, don't hold too much value as to what estibot says a value is. I have seen people on this site alone with domains with estibot values in the 10's of thousands and nobody would even want to pay $100 for them.

You can use estibot as a guide but I wouldn't let what it says hold much weight as far as value.

 

[Electric-Shadow]

Agreed. Even a domain with a minisite will automatically be worth more - even a new site - as this creates history for the domain and has the potential to generate traffic from related searches. I would consider doing this and putting google ads on them so you can perhaps at least recoup reg costs.

 

[Trent1000]

@photonmymind
Okay, so the point of this business, just like real estates in the physical world, these are real estates too. A good name with good history will not loose it's value, becouse as we getting ahead in time, the chance to get good names are less and less. And the loop hole here is if someone dropped, his/her domain for some reason, or simply expired, we pick those domains up and sell it with a profit. Is that right?
Sorry for going back to the fundamentals, but that's how things become clear in my head.
I really appreciate all the answers.

 

[NameOmnia]

I can only share my experience so I can't speak for anyone else.

Good history is not a must in names; looking for age is an old school thing that doesn't apply anymore, you can easily hand register names and sell them for profit.

Another way is going through expired lists, dropping lists, aftermarket domains and auctions.

There is no loop in my opinion but skills and intuition ( plus a lot of patience and possibly a big fat wallet... ).

As @ulterios said before leave estibot aside as NO ONE who calls himself a professional domainer gives credit to its appraisals ( but some end users do.. ).

The subject is a really big one and it can be deeply addressed in just a few posts. My suggestion is to read as much as you can around the forum or the web to get some solid basis.

Good Luck

 

[ulterios]

A good name CAN lose value and even become basically worthless.

Example: If someone with a good name lets it drop/expire/doesn't want anymore for whatever reason and someone else picks the name up because it has traffic, good history, etc and develops a porn site or practices spamming the world or whatever it can get blacklisted, get manual penalties or have other issues that can become very hard and costly to recover from once that user drops, sells or whatever the domain.

Good name and good history are the names the spammers and porn developers look for many times as this can give their sites an initial boost.

Do research ALWAYS before buying what was once a Good Name. Many have learned the hard and expensive way.

 

[Trent1000]

Thanks guys you helped me a lot.

 

[bonin]

Just because a domain has no significant traffic, that doesn't mean it's of little value. It depends on the name, the potential use as well as how good the name is. Some end users don't care about traffic, especially if they are looking for that particular name or perhaps just the way the name sounds and looks.

Also, don't hold too much value as to what estibot says a value is. I have seen people on this site alone with domains with estibot values in the 10's of thousands and nobody would even want to pay $100 for them.

You can use estibot as a guide but I wouldn't let what it says hold much weight as far as value.

Totally agree, if the domain is good, my personal opinion, and practice is not to create a website, but simply to start looking for a buyer of the domain.

My vision for the development of a domain 100% not the same with that of its new owner, why should it harm this domain, since I will not be the one who will use it and manage.

 

[ulterios]

Totally agree, if the domain is good, my personal opinion, and practice is not to create a website, but simply to start looking for a buyer of the domain.

My vision for the development of a domain 100% not the same with that of its new owner, why should it harm this domain, since I will not be the one who will use it and manage.

That is true. If you build a website on a domain that is something opposite of what an end user is wanting to use it for you can hurt the value of a domain name.