What I've Learned In Four Months of Domaining

[sashas]

Two months ago (11 August to be exact), I started a thread named 'What I've learned in two months of domaining' and was it was suggested by someone that I should start another one after 2 more months.

So here I am again.

Over the past two (four) months, I've seen:

- LLLL.coms dominating the reseller market. It seems that the ones who managed to hand reg some decent ones before the rush are flipping them for a quick profit, and those who missed the train (people like me) are now buying them to avoid missing the train when their prices increase. However, looking at the sales threads, people are keeping their quality LLLL.coms close to their chests.

- Huge debate over whether LLLL.coms with bad letters would be worth something when they're all regged out. Personally, I don't believe that names with two bad letters (unless pronounceable) will be worth much; the ones with premium letters and not so bad letters (say klui.com, or something) will definitely be worth a few bucks.

- .in names being the new flavor of this season with the reduced prices. I can personally see all LLL.in names being regged within 6 months. Then there would be a surge in LLL.in prices which will come down once renewal dates come around and many names drop.

- .info seemed to be going very strong with some big sales (travel.info and sex.info), but of late, the market has died down a bit. Premium .info names are still worth something though.

- LLN.com names are selling for a minimum of $200, even the ones with bad letters.

- .net and .org seeing a huge downturn in sales, especially .orgs. I haven't seen one good .org sale at Sedo or Traffic in some time.

- .com has pulled way way ahead of all other extensions. If you own a generic name in .com with even a hint of commercial appeal, 10k is the minimum (ok this is not absolute).

- LLL.coms will sell for a minimum of 10k by the middle of next year. LL.coms might start going for 300-500k minimum.

- The best place to invest is in LLL.coms. If they're expensive, then CCC.coms are another good bet. CVCV.coms and good VCVC.coms are great too. LLLL.coms might be good, but their prices are very ambiguous; the buyer would need a keen eye to recognize the good ones.

- The best place to get good deals is still NP!

- Investing in your own ccTLD is one of the best things you can do, especially if your country speaks a language other than English. American domainers with .us are at a significant disadvantage here.

- And lastly, to all the newbies who've heard a thousand times that its just not doable, I'll say that its more than possible. For instance, these are the first names I registered four months back: http://www.DNF/f4/newbie-lots-domais-help-thread-235844.html
The only advice I can give is to actually not register any names, particularly hand regs. Instead, save the money and buy a good name for a couple of thousand bucks. It'll give you much better returns.

 

[Krossat]

nice list sasha.
how about adding one more point which sez "The best place to get great domains, and where i do all my shopping is _________"

Youve been doing some incredible purchases lately. Truly exceptional!

 

[accent]

Good information. I dissagree about newbees buying $$$$ domains, however. I think, other than LLL's, the value of higher level domains is so difficult to quantify that only someone with years of study and experience should venture into that realm.

CVCV.coms could be another area that would need less study, however that market is currently getting so much attention that it could be overheated (or not, I don't know, just presenting the possibility)

I have been at this about two years, My game is to look for potential $$$ and $$$$ domains that I can get for reg fee or low $$.

Your mileage may vary.

 

[sashas]

Good information. I dissagree about newbees buying $$$$ domains, however. I think, other than LLL's, the value of higher level domains is so difficult to quantify that only someone with years of study and experience should venture into that realm.

CVCV.coms could be another area that would need less study, however that market is currently getting so much attention that it could be overheated (or not, I don't know, just presenting the possibility)

I have been at this about two years, My game is to look for potential $$$ and $$$$ domains that I can get for reg fee or low $$.

Your mileage may vary.

I'll agree that it can be complicated getting generic names for newbies. Their prices can vary a lot. But still, with some study of the market, its not so hard. I'm pretty much a newbie myself, but a careful study of past sales and keyword popularity can give an idea of a names value.

About the CVCV.coms, well, I thought that they were a fad, a result of an overheated market. But I've been researching some high quality CVCV.coms (the ones with 'O' - I consider them to be the highest quality, like Poko.com, Loho.com etc.), and I was surprised to find so many of them being used by established websites. Needless to say, CVCV.coms (again, especially the ones with O) make for great brandability. So this market will always have a good value.

how about adding one more point which sez "The best place to get great domains, and where i do all my shopping is _________"

lol...I'll just say that it takes hours of whois searches and some hard negotiations..

cheers!

 

[godolphin]

.in names being the new flavor of this season with the reduced prices. I can personally see all LLL.in names being regged within 6 months. Then there would be a surge in LLL.in prices which will come down once renewal dates come around and many names drop.

IMO, if all LLL.in get reg'd in say 4-6 months, it is the domainers who would have invested in most of them. And no domainer is going to let their LLL.in expire knowing the fact that they are all reg'd.

However, there will be drops from non-domainer LLL.in owners as usual.

Other thoughts:

-> .com is the Red Hot Property of the Internet TLDscape. There are other opportunities too but this one is special, it's value rises very fast compared to others.

-> Revenue domains are an essential part of any domainers portfolio in any extension.

-> It is better to own 10 Liquid names (names that have a ready market and appreciate in value) than owning 1000s of No-Traffic/Revenue names. However, most of the domainers might still be left with a proportion of such useless domains in their portfolios which contain value only in their thoughts and not in the markets.

 

[sashas]

I'll say that LLL.in names will drop. You have to keep in mind that lots of LLL.in names will be regged because they're $4 right now. An year later, renewals will cost $13. Not every domainer will have the money to renew a 100 LLL.in names at $13 (thats $1300 right there) a piece. So many will drop.

 

[godolphin]

I'll say that LLL.in names will drop. You have to keep in mind that lots of LLL.in names will be regged because they're $4 right now. An year later, renewals will cost $13. Not every domainer will have the money to renew a 100 LLL.in names at $13 (thats $1300 right there) a piece. So many will drop.

That is an exception, it will happen only with domainers who do not plan their registrations keeping the renewal price in mind. Whoever does it might have to let their names drop. That is the reason, i only got around 10 LLL.in in this promo period complying to my complete renewal budget per annum.

 

[sashas]

I'll agree. I got a bunch of premium LLL.in names recently, but I'll have to deal with their renewals soon.

So that adds one more point to the original list:
- Buying names without managing the renewal dates can be a disaster! You don't want to renew names worth $10000 in 2 days!

 

[shockie]

well you've definitely come a long way since those first reg's, and i think that a lot of it has to do with actually spending time and doing research, reading, and being on namepros!

Total Posts: 1,690 (15.46 posts per day)

 

[kwakkwak]

it's in fact some nice information. The most i even know. When i started i regged and buyed everything i could get. A great mistake. Now i made already some nice deals and i start to understand it.

I started looking to keyword domains, real word domains and then off course the xxx and xxxx domains. I recently bought something from aftermarket and also that was the first time. So no i take my time before i make a deal.

It's possible for newbies but just look out and don't start regging and buying but take a look for keywords like insurance, money, poker, sex .....


regards

 

[floatingworld]

for newbies on a limited budget, probably the best strategy is to focus on sub-$25 LLLL.com It is still the best show in town.

 

[sashas]

for newbies on a limited budget, probably the best strategy is to focus on sub-$25 LLLL.com It is still the best show in town.

I'll agree!
But I'll also say that sometimes, if you hunt for the deals, you can get good quality LLLL.coms for sub $25 too...

 

[bizwiz]

Nice list! I am focusing on LLLL.com right now, hope they will rise in value soon.

 

[acronym007]

Hey sashas, nice list. I do have one exception...


"- .net and .org seeing a huge downturn in sales, especially .orgs. I haven't seen one good .org sale at Sedo or Traffic in some time."


Keep your on eye on dnjournal.com, .org and .net are growing but they will never keep pace with .com. .Com is standard to which no TLD's come close but .org & .net have some great weeks on the chart.

 

[Spade]

.org and .net are growing but they will never keep pace with .com. .Com is standard to which no TLD's come close but .org & .net have some great weeks on the chart.

True. I will disagree with Sasha on his blanket statement and add my 2 cents. I see and believe that .org is finding its own identity as a TLD and as such, is seeing stronger sales and value growth quite nicely.

Is this at the same rate as .com? Absolutely not. Nothing can keep up with the com behemoth.

.Net is having the exact opposite problem. I think its failed to create an identity and will always be known as .com's little brother. .Net is the Eli Manning of the domain industry (Football fans will get my reference).

Still valuable, but struggling to get out of the light of its older brother. The super premiums are always gonna be valuable, but resale on .nets is difficult if its not top of the line.

Justin

 

[jacal1]

As time goes by, and more good ones are registered, I've found incraesing numbers of appraisal requests of truly horrible names. And many threads where people try to convince themselves that their strategy will payoff (I've decided to stay out of threads where there are absolutely no voices of dissent present or tolerated when they try). Its concerning that newbies are probably wasting money like never before - they see people around here who have been doing this for a while make money and start regging like crazy.

On the positive side, I've seen some people like Spade and Sashas (yes this is blatent a-kissing but true) really start to lend great expertise and thoughtfulness around here. Thanks.

 

[clickcents]

for newbies on a limited budget, probably the best strategy is to focus on sub-$25 LLLL.com It is still the best show in town.

i also agree..investing in LLLL.com is the best right now..surely the price will be high after all the LLLL.coms registered

Even bad letter LLLL.coms will also get some good value than reg. fee

After one or two years,the LLLL.com will get decent revenue for domain investors

 

[tpruby]

What I have learned...hint (alot)

I've been doing this for about 4 months as well and I have completely changed my direction. I am now speculating completely on generic names in the .IN and .CO.IN market. I am of the firm belief that the days of hand regging .com's ( undeveloped) for profit are long gone.

When I started, I regged close to 100 .com names, that really were pretty decent names...if developed. I regged them all and thought I could sell them for hundreds of dollars. I was shocked that no one was visiting my parked pages, let alone offering me a thousand dollars for a name that I was eventually lucky to sell for $4.

This is about when I found namepros....

Thanks to namepros, I realized that my names were not going to fetch me xx, let alone, xxx or one name I thought was worth $5000 ( embarrasing admission...lol).

I sold the names quickly for about a 60% loss ( better than 100% at renewal) and am now off in my new direction.

My new direction only involves registering solid generic names in emergingin / speculative domain markets. The generics that I register are carefully chosen and nothing that does not have at least tens of millions of returns on google and thousands of overture searches or LLL names.

Also, in relation to parking...domaining is a speculative investment for me and something I enjoy doing, so I have no intention of quitting my day job.

That being said:

After months and months, and a ridiculous amount of time, I was finally making about $3.50 a day off of a small number of my parked names. I was excited for about 2 days. I came to the sad conclusion that that much effort to make $3 a day is absolutely ridiculous....and I promptly dumped the 3 names that had no type in traffic and were sucking up all of my time and making me enough money for 2 cups of coffee a day.

Sure, it would be nice to cover my costs parking my names, however, not at the expense of the majority of my very limited free time. The decision has been made, I am in this for the resale or possible development of my names...parking is only a perk. I wish I were one of those guys who claim to have been domaining for 3 months and make $25000 a month...hmmmm...yeah right.

This is speculative investing for me, I am fully prepared to lose all of the money that I have relegated to domaining, but fully intend to hold onto the names I have regged for many years.

I do not want to look back in 10 years and regret having left the business over my initial efforts that were a complete failure.

My message to all newbies, of which I am still one, there is no easy money to be made in domaining and on that point I will never be convinced otherwise.

Happy domaining!

 

[LatE]

Nice point!
Amd what about LLLL.net?

 

[Spade]

My message to all newbies, of which I am still one, there is no easy money to be made in domaining and on that point I will never be convinced otherwise.

Bingo! There is no "easy" money. There is money, but you need to work hard, be smart, and see all the angles. Most of the successful domainers have been doing this for at least a couple years and have really honed their skills.