discuss Why do people insist that 99% of domain investors are losing money?

[wormfood]

Many people often repeat this here, and I don't understand why.
Sure, maybe they are just exaggerating, but even 80 to 90% seems high. Most of you have probably seen these threads:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/are-you-making-money-losing-money-dont-know.945592/
https://www.namepros.com/threads/how-much-do-you-earn-from-domaining-per-month.958903/

which show that maybe 50 to 70% are making money. These results are probably skewed by non-response and some people not doing their numbers right, but at least there is some evidence there.

Where is the evidence that 99% of people are losing money?
If you are looking at namepros auctions and thinking "people who own that junk cannot be making money," well that is why they are selling it here at $1 start. To get rid of it.
I think people are trying to give newcomers realistic expectations, but they are going to an extreme. They continue to say things like "most people do not make money in the first few years" when nobody could actually know that.

 

[Asfas1000]

Sales to end users are exception. There are end users in forex market as well but yet it's considered as zero-sum. End users in forex markets make currency exchange for real reasons like foreign trade, borrow/lend to foreign countries, tourists-visitors in foreign countries, etc..
Zero-sum game is the game between the players only. End user buys something to consume, not to resell. Having end-user transactions can not make an industry free from zero-sum game. One "reseller" can make loss from a sale to another "reseller" in domaining. This is similar to how forex players work. I am not saying domaining and forex are identical, they look like similar as there are resellers in both markets.

If most investors lose money in domaining, one probability is they may be trading between each other more than they sell to end users.

I see what you mean. A negotiation between 2 domainers is (usually) a zero-sum game (what one "saves", the other "loses"). But... domaining is based on end user sales too, which are also monetarily heavier than domainer sales (eg. $1,500 vs $30 sales).

Also there exist domainers that do not inhabit NP or other forums and do not trade with other domainers.
Buying and selling on NamePros only ...is not domaining !

Besides, when you buy from an auction house or a registrar, you introduce a new asset to the game (a new domain), and move cash out of it. So it can not be viewed as a "closed system" (leaking cash !)

Re Forex, I am not familiar with it, but it sounds like it's not a zero-sum game either...

 

[lock]

If we look at the amount of dropped per day we can see there are some losses.
A professional in anything is being paid a professional sports person gets paid a professional domainer gets paid a hobbyist does at their cost whether that is coaching little league or domaining. I am a lil league domainer wanting to go pro as it isn't my primary income. If the other 99% step forward you will have your numbers. If buying an not advertising to sell you can make up for the 99% for sitting on assets as is about the sale not what sitting on.

 

[Domain Galleria]

You can only make money if you tell yourself the truth. Instead of focusing on exact percentage, why don't we take that stat as grapevine?

If you are expecting registries and registrars to come out with facts and figures, I bet you won't get it. No serious minded business would release any discouraging data to consumers.

You can only make money by maintaining low inventory of good names but not hundreds of craps we often see here. My first year was horrible but what I learned from this forum within same period was priceless.

 

[Name Trader]

I read just the first page of this thread before replying here. Apologies if the obvious has already been said.

You can buy a name for say $500 and maybe flip it for say $4000. So, yes you made a profit of $3500 ON THAT ONE DOMAIN. But if you are holding say 1000 domains. These need to be maintained and paid for. So you only make a profit, if you have positive cash flow for your entire business for the whole year.

Just my 2c worth of wisdom

 

[Kuffy]

If you can cover the reg fee from advertising revenue, then it's worth holding the name, and I believe in the end you will show a good profit from it. If you can't cover the reg fee, then you probaly should have reg'd it in the first place.

 

[Jv1999]

Only people who hand registered dictionary or short domain names in 90s are making money. If you got in this business starting 10 years ago you are not only losing but also wasting your life.

What about the people last year who hand registered 4l .com chips or bought them for 30 then sold them for 1-3k and made xxx,xxx?

 

[Name Trader]

What about the people last year who hand registered 4l .com chips or bought them for 30 then sold them for 1-3k and made xxx,xxx?

They were selling for $2500 at their peak.

 

[daica85]

What about the people last year who hand registered 4l .com chips or bought them for 30 then sold them for 1-3k and made xxx,xxx?

I almost buy my domains by hand-reg and flip it some months after, the most revenue I earn was $3500.