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discuss TOP 10 mistakes new gTLD investors are doing in 2018 - Are you GUILTY of any of them?

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MarekTop Member
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Hi friends,

I did not have much time for NamePros discussions lately (except my appraisal thread for new gTLDs, where I spend some of my time), but I still like to read new articles and threads here. As some of you might know, I invest exclusively in new gTLD names. It is difficult for me not to notice that some new gTLD fellow investors are not doing well, therefore I am going to write some suggestions & hopefully it will be helpful for some members here!

TOP 10 mistakes new gTLD investors are doing in 2018!

Mistake no.1 - you are registering BAD, WORTHLESS names!
This mistake is far far the most important one - everything else can be forgotten, but if you have bad names, you will never make any profit. The appraisal thread I am running is unfortunately full of such examples...

Mistake no.2 - you are registering lot of names, and will be forced to dropped them prior the first renewal.
This is because you ignore the fact that even in best portfolios which are really well selected, only 1% of names are sold yearly for price which can be considered significant. And many portfolios I see here are not well selected, and there will be 0 sales in total, due to mistake no.1

Mistake no.3 - you spend too much time at Namepros, instead of LikedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Twitter.
Just to clarify, I love Namepros, and I love to hang around here. I also like to buy domains here for few dollars. But most of your end users (when it comes to new gTLDs) are simply not here. You need to reach out on various platforms, as here you speak mostly with other domainers, which is great for educational or recreational purposes, but not for your sales. Largest sales are made to end users, not to fellow domain speculators/investors.

Mistake no.4 - you are trying to impress, or get an agreement/approval from hardcore .com investors.
I mean, come on - selected, high quality new gTLD domain names are direct competition to valuable .com portfolios - there is only limited amount of money spent on domains, and new gTLDs are redirecting part of that money flow towards them. It is therefore logical that it is an unwanted competition for many .com holders and we can not expect lot of praise on them because of that. Saying that, I can clearly see some .com investors are very nice and genuine here, so this can not be generalised - still, it is good idea to have this notion somewhere back in your mind, as seeking approval of your new gTLDs names from someone who spent years to build his or her legacy extensions portfolio can be an doomed effort from the very start.

Mistake no.5 - you are trying to get an appraisal of your new gTLD name from .com investors.
Again, even in 2018, you will get lot of "regfee" comments or "I would stick with .com" comments -this is one of the reasons I am runnig the appraisal thread exclusively for new gTLDs, and I would like to invite other new gTLD investors to be more active in appraisal threads as well. In general, anytime someone gives you an appraisal or advice, try to check the domain portfolio of that person ..for example, if you see lot of bad domain names, it also can give you some information about the quality of such "appraisal".

Mistake no.6: you do not have your own marketplace ..
It really takes only few minutes and few dollars to create domain name marketplace, using solutions like efty.com, or to create simple webpage using wix.com. There is really no excuse for not having your marketplace nice and ready. Especially after GDPR legislation in place since May 2018, we really need to project some more credibility towards end users, and having nice marketplace is very good way to do so!

Mistake no.7: you have your marketplace created, but you operate from .com domain name...
Really???If you sell new gTLDs, you need to lead by your own example...so your markteplace also should operate on new gTLD extension. How can you possibly persuade end user to replace his long or ugly legacy name with new gTLD, if you do not operate from new gTLD? Think about it for a minute.

Mistake no.8: you are registering domain names with renewals around 500 and higher.
And you persuade yourself that you will develop it, if not flipped within 1 year. Yes, you can have 1 or 2 such names, no problem, but if you buy 30 of them, there is no way you will be able to develop all of them within 1 year. So you will end up dropping maybe 28 of them. And then you willl be really hating new gTLDs and "those greedy registries and ICANN maybe as well". This happend to many people 4 years ago, and we saw that recently again few weeks ago (who can guess the extension?), and I am sure we will see it again in near future when other planned new gTLD extensions will go to General Availability.

Mistake no.9: you do not care what are companies behind particular extensions.
You even can not tell difference between registrar and registries. You do not understand that once you drop you new gTLD domain name, it can be easily re-priced by registry, or it can be reserved by registry. You drop your good name, and then you start topics on Namepros saying "Registry reserved my name, please help!"...

Mistake no.10: you registered 1000 of very bad names, which will be only pure money loss.
Then (because you got lucky), you finally get a really good new gTLD name, with low standard renewal. Finally something good! This is a name which you should keep and wait for good ofers. But (because you have spent money on those 1000 bad domain names and everyone laughts at you ) you feel you need some casflow now! And because you are lazy to create your own marketplace (and from unknown reason you cannot also create your LinkedIn profile which is free of charge), and you do not like to send emails to end users because it is too much work, and you do not like to make phonecalls (from your country it is expensive anyway), you start $1 auction here...then it goes like this:
1
up
up
last 24 hours, SUPER PREMIUM name, a STEAL!!!
2
up
LAST BID IS $2, SUPER PREMIUM, INSANE NAME!!! Can anyone give $3? Do I see $3 for it?
up
up
up
me: ok, I will take it for BIN, USD 10...

And then you are again left with your bad 1000 names.

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So guys, are you guilty of any of this?
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
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Great post, Marek!!!
Thanks Ru!

Lol, as I see no one yet admitted that they are guilty of any of above ...it seems only very profitable and professional new gTLD investors are here. I personally commited few mistakes from the list, but will not tell first :)
 
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So much wisdom in this, @lolwarrior !

I think your points re marketplaces are particularly well taken. As you say, using Wix or Efty or Undeveloped make it easy to have a site to showcase your names, and even if you go the more flexible route of your own full website, even that is much work.

Your point re selling ngTLDs from a .com website is a good one, and I am surprised how many do that. If you don''t believe in ngTLDs enough to use one, why should someone buy one from you? Now I presume in many cases the domain investors started before ngTLD and gradually moved into ngTLDs but wanted to keep the site they had promoted and established. In other cases they have a mix of legacy and new domain names.

I also like how you constantly (in your appraisal thread, here and elsewhere) stress the importance of considering renewal costs and that (at most) 1% of names sell in any year, even if you are judicious. The math must support a name acquisition, so the odds are with us!

Thanks again for a fantastic contribution to our community!
 
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Great well written post @lolwarrior

I also like how you constantly (in your appraisal thread, here and elsewhere) stress the importance of considering renewal costs and that (at most) 1% of names sell in any year, even if you are judicious. The math must support a name acquisition, so the odds are with us!
Yes,I lurk some of the "super/uber/premium" gTLDs listed here...the renewal costs was always a deciding factor! Can get some some good "coms" for that price with 2+ years registration!

Just my opinion..
 
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The problem is they only have $20

That's why:
Budget $20-$2,000
Total budget $20,000
Dictionary work $100
 
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So much wisdom in this, @lolwarrior !

I think your points re marketplaces are particularly well taken. As you say, using Wix or Efty or Undeveloped make it easy to have a site to showcase your names, and even if you go the more flexible route of your own full website, even that is much work.

Your point re selling ngTLDs from a .com website is a good one, and I am surprised how many do that. If you don''t believe in ngTLDs enough to use one, why should someone buy one from you? Now I presume in many cases the domain investors started before ngTLD and gradually moved into ngTLDs but wanted to keep the site they had promoted and established. In other cases they have a mix of legacy and new domain names.

I also like how you constantly (in your appraisal thread, here and elsewhere) stress the importance of considering renewal costs and that (at most) 1% of names sell in any year, even if you are judicious. The math must support a name acquisition, so the odds are with us!

Thanks again for a fantastic contribution to our community!
Hi Bob, thanks for your kind words :)

Yes, I really stress the importance of renewal costs everywhere.and everytime ..I did not pay attention to it when I started, but few renewal cycles quickly tought me (an expensive) lesson. I have around 1k of new gTLD names, and I would not be able to maintain this size of portfolio should I not become very aware of renewals.

Regarding selling new gTLD names from .com sites, I personaly think that defines "crazy". If they have mix of legacy and new gTLDs then it is ok, they need to choose something, but if they focus on new gTLDs and sell from .com site..that is pretty pathetic.

What is even worse ...is when someone has hundreds or thousands of names and no marketplace of website...what are the reasons for that? It literally takes 1 -2 hours to create a simple webpage using wix.com and put your domains into it...again, this is way too crazy for me to think of some reasonable explanation..
 
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Great well written post @lolwarrior


Yes,I lurk some of the "super/uber/premium" gTLDs listed here...the renewal costs was always a deciding factor! Can get some some good "coms" for that price with 2+ years registration!

Just my opinion..
yes, anytime I see keyword1keyword2keyword3 . top SUPER PREMIUM domain names for sale here, I start to shiver :)
 
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I don't regret any of my "bad" domain choices. I have this thing I do that I call "The $20 deal".

Anytime a TLD goes "99 cents" or "$1.99" I take out an electronic $20 bill (credit card), go to my various resources and reg' 10 or 20 domains. Its not just random, I probably put an hour or two into it AND its not every TLD. I end up with 10 or 20 domains I feel might be worth something.

I then immediatly put them up for sale in different places, TURN OFF AUTO RENEW, and pretty much forget them.

I really enjoy doing it and make an occaisional sale to keep me happy.

So, right now I dont think I have made any mistakes that I regret, but I do "waste" $20 a few times a month doing this deal.
 
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I don't regret any of my "bad" domain choices. I have this thing I do that I call "The $20 deal".

Anytime a TLD goes "99 cents" or "$1.99" I take out an electronic $20 bill (credit card), go to my various resources and reg' 10 or 20 domains. Its not just random, I probably put an hour or two into it AND its not every TLD. I end up with 10 or 20 domains I feel might be worth something.

I then immediatly put them up for sale in different places, TURN OFF AUTO RENEW, and pretty much forget them.

I really enjoy doing it and make an occaisional sale to keep me happy.

So, right now I dont think I have made any mistakes that I regret, but I do "waste" $20 a few times a month doing this deal.
So basically, you are guilty of mistake no.1, is that correct? :)
Because I can assure you - if I get my hands on something really good (which is great name PLUS with low standard renewal), I extend the name few years ahead! While In your case, you turn off auto renew - in other words, it simply means that you know the names you bough for "$1.99 are not worth to renew anyway.

It is a good fun, but imo one can not build anything valuable like this ...or?
 
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While he (and many of us!) are probably somewhat guilty of breaking your first rule, @lolwarrior, I regard his strategy as in the spirit of your attention to doing the math re domain names - i.e. I can buy this for $1, it has 1 chance in say 200 to sell for $400 say, the odds say it is worth trying for a year at $1, but not worth paying $25/year to renew. (sorry to put words in your mouth @NYJimbo and correct me if I have misinterpreted your $20 post idea)

I do also agree with your philosophy re multi year renewal too though, @lolwarrior. In about a dozen names I have renewed right off for 5-6 years (10 in a couple of cases) because although I saw value in name, I also did not expect it to sell probably for some years, and I wanted to lock in my renewal costs.

I virtually never have autorenewal on as I fear some trick of big increase in renewal price. Of 240 domain names I have I think only 2 set to autorenewal, one I have held since 2001 and would hate to lost it by chance should I get sick, and 1 for a site I manage for a family member. The registrars do a pretty good job of reminding me when I have expiry coming up, and I do have both a website and Efty that I can arrange by expiry date and see at a glance what is coming up.
 
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So basically, you are guilty of mistake no.1, is that correct? :)
Because I can assure you - if I get my hands on something really good (which is great name PLUS with low standard renewal), I extend the name few years ahead! While In your case, you turn off auto renew - in other words, it simply means that you know the names you bough for "$1.99 are not worth to renew anyway.

It is a good fun, but imo one can not build anything valuable like this ...or?
Basically I play the "domain lottery" every now and then. It's not that they are worth nothing, its just I dont want them to auto-renew unless I get a "feel" for them. If I let them go to expiration and do nothing I lost $1. But if I left auto-renew on, I might lose $34.95

I dont expect domains in this group to be money makers, but at the same time I gotta spend a few bucks to dip into the crappy TLD market "just in case".
 
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@lolwarrior I am always reading your feedback on the appraisal thread and have learnt a lot because of it, so firstly thanks for that and also the info on this thread is very helpful - appreciate it (y)

Been guilty of Mistake number 1 (numerous times) but would like to think I am learning my lessons and I am definitely guilty of 3 & 6 !

I am using undeveloped, sedo and godaddy BUT really really need to set up own site and get using social media more and try and get more proactive.

As always life gets in the way though! I have several ongoing projects, family, dog and the day job.

But where there's a will there's a way + improving time management skills = problem solved!

Regarding renewals, I have a few on auto but the majority are not, similar to NY Jimbo, I like to get a feel for the names and as MetBob pointed out the registrars are pretty good at letting you know when they are due.

As I do not own 1000's of names I can easily gauge interest levels and track the industries/trends that they are in and base my decisions on a per name basis - as I am in my first year of domaining, there will be a lot I wont be renewing!
 
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I mean, come on - selected, high quality new gTLD domain names are direct competition to valuable .com portfolios

This is actually another mistake some of you guys continue to make. That you think these are direct competition to .coms. These names are names people settle for, the names people get when they can't get a .com. So they're direct competition not to .com but to alternatives to .com. .net, .info, .me., .us .any new gtld etc.

Whenever I see a site on somesite.(not.com), I'm thinking they couldn't get the .com, it's what they really want in the first place.

Which is why you have this:

It is difficult for me not to notice that some new gTLD fellow investors are not doing well,

Which is why you have threads like this on a daily basis:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/dom-io-sold-for-7-500-besecure-be-for-5-824.1092868/

Typical day - Market Stats for July 26th, 2018

217 sales............
1 new gtld sale

Really take a look at that section.

Let me pick another random one:
Market Stats for July 24th, 2018
208 sales............
1 new gtld sale

https://www.namepros.com/threads/ta...-999-aeos-com-for-7-169.1092548/#post-6823069

So there is your reality. Right there in front of you, Daily Sales:
https://www.namepros.com/forums/daily-domain-sales.383/

So the #1 mistake was investing in them in the first place. Good luck nevertheless.
 
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gtld's are like a bag of haribo candy. They look nice but are not good enough for a meal or what you'd want to be known for if friends come around for dinner.
 
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Good points and all but got me thinking, especially the mistake no. 5...

I think by going the new G route from the very beginning, one never truly learns what makes some domains good and others not. Foremost, one never learns about the only two things that really matters when it comes to value of a certain domain, i.e. scarcity and uniqueness. And that's why their taste in domains is always going to be a bit off, or standards too low.

My opinion only.
 
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If we look at the NameBio statistics, there have been 48,010 domain sales in total so far in 2018 of which 649 were in ngTLD. Sounds gloomy for the ngTLD investors.:xf.sick:

However, important also to take into account that majority of domain names registered and for sale are in com/net/org or country code. Using Verisign global domain market most recent stats 333.8 million total domains registered, and 20.2 million ngTLD registered. Therefore we have:
So far in 2018 1 domain name has been sold for every 6953 registered in all domains.
So far in 2018 1 ngTLD domain name has been sold for every 31,125 registered

(these are registered, rather than for sale, so if we looked at for sale would be more optimistic in both)
Still gloomy for ngTLD :xf.frown:, but 5:1 ratio not as bad as reading the NameBio daily reports would at first glance suggest. Many more domains are com than anything else, and many more sales are com too, naturally.

However, NameBio also gives price information so that should be considered too. I mean most of us would happily sell fewer domains if each sale was for more dollars :xf.grin:)
So far in 2018 average sales price of all domain names $1393
So far in 2018 average sales price of ngTLD $5531

About 4:1 in favour of ngTLD.

So overall the ratio seems like 4/5 comparing ngTLD to all domains, about 1/5 as likely to sell as any old domain, but when it does 4x more cash per sale! :happy:

However, the registry (mean folks grrr.... :grumpy:) take some of the ngTLD nice sales for themselves. I am trying to actually estimate this as part of my monthly ngTLD report, but it seems like something like half the dollar value (this number subject to change and is just for NameBio reported sales) If they do take 1/2 then it would seem that ngTLD investing, on average, is about 1/2 of 4/5, or ngTLD investing about 40% as lucrative as domain name investing in general.

Of course, the ngTLD haters keep reminding us how stupid ngTLD investors are, so I figure if the ngTLD competition is made up of, well not very smart folks, that gives me an advantage :xf.smile: (or maybe I am one of them, oops disadvantage Bob :xf.eek:).

Don't take all this too serious and I am sorry if the numbers hurt our heads :hungover:.

Getting serious, I think that the numbers support the idea that the easier money is in com, but it's not as one sided as first seems, and as some claim. I think we should all respect each other and what each individual choice is with respect to how they want to invest and contribute to the domain name business.

Have a happy day,

Bob

ps This is my favourite statistics book << NOT an affiliate link:sneaky:
 
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Good points and all but got me thinking, especially the mistake no. 5...

I think by going the new G route from the very beginning, one never truly learns what makes some domains good and others not. Foremost, one never learns about the only two things that really matters when it comes to value of a certain domain, i.e. scarcity and uniqueness. And that's why their taste in domains is always going to be a bit off, or standards too low.

My opinion only.

I did put a like for your posting, since I think your comments are perceptive and valuable, @nomen especially the emphasis on scarcity and uniqueness.

However, and maybe this was not your intention, but I don't agree if you meant to imply that ngTLD are by definition lower quality or an investor that only invests in them never truly learns what makes a good domain.

I don't think that adding .com inherently makes a name higher value. It is simply, conditioning and other forces, have made a lot of people feel they should have a .com or it is the only choice. I am surprised how long this has persisted, but it won't necessarily forever. I view the .com as sort of a fashion, that does help sell, but its not fundamental. Therefore, just because someone owns .com does not per se make them a better (or worse) evaluator of domain quality.

For me when I consider how much weight to place on an appraisal I ask myself these questions:
(a) Is there evidence provided? i.e. if they say something won't sell, have they actually done the NameBio work, like detailed NameBio looking at all the related names, when they sold, etc.
(b) Does the person really know the area? Like if it is a blockchain name does the person really understand what a blockchain is.
(c) Do they understand the elements of inherent quality? i.e. do they have at least some exposure to aesthetics, consumer behaviour, business trends, social trends, etc.
(d) Are they fair and reflective and open or do they essentially say the same thing about many domain names, or just use some simple rule like any ngTLD extension domain is worthless, any name with hyphen has no value, any plural is no good, etc.
(e) Are they semi-quantitative? This is what I really like in @lolwarrior thread as he always presents things in a ROI expectation way.

It's a lot to ask, and we should all feel indebted to those that do offer quality appraisals. Sorry this got so long. I guess I am saying that I don't agree entirely with the OP that a .com owner will necessarily be less good at ngTLD appraisal, but nor do I accept that inherently they are better.
 
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However, and maybe this was not your intention, but I don't agree if you meant to imply that ngTLD are by definition lower quality or an investor that only invests in them never truly learns what makes a good domain.

I don't think they are by definition lower quality but I do think that they are lower quality investments. For numerous reasons.

However, I do think that a person who have never invested in .COM can never truly understand domains. Because basics and fundamentals first. As in everything in life.
 
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Basically I play the "domain lottery" every now and then. It's not that they are worth nothing, its just I dont want them to auto-renew unless I get a "feel" for them. If I let them go to expiration and do nothing I lost $1. But if I left auto-renew on, I might lose $34.95

I dont expect domains in this group to be money makers, but at the same time I gotta spend a few bucks to dip into the crappy TLD market "just in case".
Lol, I completely understand what you say. At least you are honest you yourself and do not pretend anything. There is nothing wrong in loosing 20 bucks from time to time, it is one big pizza here and glass of wine, so who really cares.

If I can advise something, do not focus on handregging new gTLDs in 2018. Almost everything what was worth something was already taken in EAP days of the particular extension (EAP = Early Access Days, you can google what is it if that is unfamiliar), we speak mostly about years of 2014/2015. There are lot of sharks there and all good names are getting distributed among few wealthy individuals and companies pretty quickly. But you can still drop-catch some good names (which means you need to learn how and where to do it, and no one is really going to tell you due to huge competition), or buy them at forums like NamePros for small wholesale prices. I think it is better to have 2-3 really good names (and also much easier to keep them), then 100 of $1 names which are not going to be renewed anyway. Get yourself few really good names :)
 
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If we look at the NameBio statistics, there have been 48,010 domain sales in total so far in 2018 of which 649 were in ngTLD. Sounds gloomy for the ngTLD investors.:xf.sick:

However, important also to take into account that majority of domain names registered and for sale are in com/net/org or country code. Using Verisign global domain market most recent stats 333.8 million total domains registered, and 20.2 million ngTLD registered. Therefore we have:
So far in 2018 1 domain name has been sold for every 6953 registered in all domains.
So far in 2018 1 ngTLD domain name has been sold for every 31,125 registered



Metbob - good points. I believe there is more speculation in new TLDs (perhaps 75-90%) as a percentage of total registrations than there is in .COM. Yes, there are millions of .COM aftermarket domains for sale. But there are far more end user registrations (large and small businesses, developers, personal sites, etc) in .COM relative to the total.

There are NDA and unreported sales in all extensions but no reason to believe NTLDs are underreported here. There are clearly more registry sales than domainer sales and the big sales which influence the average (Vacation.Rentals and Home.Loans etc) are mostly registry sales.

There are some very methodical new TLD investors who are successful with them but most are deep in the red (just look at weekly sales reports vs number of NTLD sales relative to 15+ million aftermarket registrations many with premium renewals). Despite some interesting sounding choices, given my experience with alternative extensions, NTLDs are just too risky for me.
 
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@lolwarrior I am always reading your feedback on the appraisal thread and have learnt a lot because of it, so firstly thanks for that and also the info on this thread is very helpful - appreciate it (y)

Been guilty of Mistake number 1 (numerous times) but would like to think I am learning my lessons and I am definitely guilty of 3 & 6 !

I am using undeveloped, sedo and godaddy BUT really really need to set up own site and get using social media more and try and get more proactive.

As always life gets in the way though! I have several ongoing projects, family, dog and the day job.

But where there's a will there's a way + improving time management skills = problem solved!

Regarding renewals, I have a few on auto but the majority are not, similar to NY Jimbo, I like to get a feel for the names and as MetBob pointed out the registrars are pretty good at letting you know when they are due.

As I do not own 1000's of names I can easily gauge interest levels and track the industries/trends that they are in and base my decisions on a per name basis - as I am in my first year of domaining, there will be a lot I wont be renewing!
@MrAcidic thank you for your kind words! And also for a honest post. In first year of domaining everyone is guilty of number 1. I think no.6 can be easily solved in few hours as well. The number 3 is very important - I am pretty guilty of that one myself :) Instead of selling to end users, I am chatting here with my fellow domain investors - I really like it and it is a recreational activity for me, but money-wise, it is not going to bring even a single dollar to my bank account. Still, somehow I like it, lol.
 
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@MrAcidic thank you for your kind words! And also for a honest post. In first year of domaining everyone is guilty of number 1. I think no.6 can be easily solved in few hours as well. The number 3 is very important - I am pretty guilty of that one myself :) Instead of selling to end users, I am chatting here with my fellow domain investors - I really like it and it is a recreational activity for me, but money-wise, it is not going to bring even a single dollar to my bank account. Still, somehow I like it, lol.
Do ngtlds bring any money to your bank account? (NET profits)
 
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