Just catching up. Thanks for all of the great replies, everyone..
I thought I might provide my own answer. Here are some ways I think I am somewhat stronger than a year ago:
(1)
Marginally better made-up brandable investor. I would say I am still maybe onlyu B- or C+ in this category, but up from D- a year ago. I have switched from acquiring any name I thought a brandable marketplace would accept, to
is there something special and particularly strong about this name. It is important in this category to get exposure of one of the brandable marketplaces, but that by itself is not enough.
{2}
More on top of renewals. I was pretty good a year ago in this, but now whenever there is a forthcoming price increase really look hard at which domain names will warrant long term holds, and have more names registered years in advance. That has partly come from not spending everything that comes in on new acquisitions.
(3)
Ask AI for second opinion more regularly. Yes, I do think this is a plus (know some of you will not agree). After I have considered a few names for acquisition, and trying to decide which are best, I ask ChatGPT to tell me what it thinks, how are they good as brands, which are more likely to sell, what are cons of each name. I still go with what I think, but almost always the AI has deepened my understanding of the category. It's much better than it was a year ago, so if you tried it in the early days and found it useless, I urge you to try again. ChatGPT remembers pervious names I asked about, and if I want will compare the new names to others.
(4)
Laser focus on quantitative estimate of likely return versus annual holding cost. The exercise of estimating the sell-through rate for every name in my portfolio was one of the best things I have done in years for helping me focus on quality. Read more on that here:
https://www.namepros.com/blog/how-i-ranked-every-name-in-a-2000-domain-name-portfolio.1383894/ .
Of course I still have terrible domain habits in many ways, but that is not what this discussion is about!
Thanks again to all who have shared, and hope others will join this discussion.
-Bob
