advice Where to go from here...

[mrandrew]

First, thanks to all that responded to my first post last night. I can tell this is a great site and people here are both knowledgeable and also generous with their advice. So thank you.

So, I did do the newbie mistake in registering maybe 10-15 domains that are probably not worth anything.
Mostly .co and some.orgs. My newbie logic was, if people have them on .com and they sold for a lot, there must be small money to be made on the.org side. I also looked at what domains were selling in english for good money and translated that to Spanish and bought a few domains. Again probably dumb.

Sooooo, where do I go from here. My thoughts are to chalk up the money I already spent on learning. The try to sell what I bought for 10 bucks and maybe invest in one llll.com down the road.

Your thoughts????

 

[garptrader]

Most people come into the industry with the perception that registering and reselling domain names is easy money. The reality is it is far easier to lose money buying domain names than it is to make money. Typical industry turnover (percentage of domains held sold in a year) is in the one percent range. Before SEDO stopped publishing their quarterly reports, they were showing a median .COM sales price on their platform around $600 and that only a small percentage of domains sold were sold for over $1500. Given that most marketplace charge commissions in the 20% range, to breakeven with a .COM portfolio you need to sell one domain at $1250 (assume one sale per 100 domains held with $10 average renewals)...

100 domains x $10 renewals = $1000 in renewal costs annually

100 domains x 1% turnover x $1250 sales price x (100%-20%) net after commission = $1000 net sales

Even the breakeven renewal cost scenario above ignores acquisition costs. It is unlikely someone new to the industry is going to acquire industry average results acquiring domains for reg fee. Regardless, if the typical sale price is mid-$xxx, then that means the average domainer is losing money. If their average renewal cost is more than $10 (the case with certain extensions), one either needs a higher average sales price or higher turnover but alternative extensions do not generally yield the results that newer domainers think are possible.

There are now hundreds of new extensions but the best keywords are either reserved by registries or priced with premium renewals - making it very difficult for an investor to make money at a portfolio level. The sales you make have to pay for the domains you do not sell. Even in 2016 most end users do not place much brand value on domain names. They generally prefer reg fee options rather than pay an investor.

What are valuable skills are website development and online marketing abilities. Millions of people worldwide make a living offering web development and online marketing services.

As well there are people who take a great domain name and turn it into a real business. However, creating a thriving online business cannot be viewed as an easy task either. It is an option however for someone who is passionate about a topic and can find a way to make money with it.

This is just a reality check as most people come into this industry with unrealistic expectations. The registries and drop catch services pump up sales reports to make it seem like domaining is easy money. That way domain investors continue registering more domains and bidding aggressively in domain auctions. Be very selective and best wishes.