discuss Top 3 mistakes made by rookie domain investors

[Simon SE]

What were some of the rookie mistakes you made when you first started.. here's some common ones.

Thinking a comparable sale with different tld means yours must be worth the same

Not realising 1 letter can make the difference between a 6 figure sale and no value at all

not doing enough due diligence - web archive, trademark, ahrefs

 

[Kyle Tully]

Spending zero time learning, buying bad names, demanding appraisals, then fighting with more experienced domain investors about their value.

 

[Dom-Verify]

Great list. I'd add one more to the due diligence point skipping the security check.

New investors typically check Archive.org, trademarks, and backlinks. Almost nobody checks VirusTotal. A domain can look completely clean on every standard metric and still be flagged by antivirus engines for past phishing or malware activity.

I analyzed 200 expired domains and found 15% had at least one security flag including domains with solid backlink profiles and clean archive history. Bought one myself before I knew better. Emails went straight to spam, Google had it blacklisted. Cost me $500 in wasted investment and cleanup time.

It's the rookie mistake nobody talks about because most tools don't surface it.

 

[Ali Mustafa]

What were some of the rookie mistakes you made when you first started.. here's some common ones.

Thinking a comparable sale with different tld means yours must be worth the same

Not realising 1 letter can make the difference between a 6 figure sale and no value at all

not doing enough due diligence - web archive, trademark, ahrefs

Another common rookie mistake is registering too many low quality domains instead of focusing on a few strong brandable or keyword names because quality usually beats quantity in the long run.