strategy Your Reason For Trading Domains - Why/How Did You Start?

[GetBigDomains]

I'm curious to hear from established and newbies..

What was your real reason for getting into domain sales (your motivation)?
How did you stumble upon it/start selling on day 1?
How much was the first domain you bought?
Where was your first sale auction/private?
How long did it take you to sell one?
Who contacted who?
What tools do you use for domain handling if not Excel?
How many names have you cancelled, dropped, forgotten/lost?
What would you tell yourself if you were starting today?

 

[GetBigDomains]

I just got into it, I'm a noob and don't have a sale yet. Main motivation was to purchase domains for a website/forum I was thinking about trying to start. Decided I did not want to deal with the liability involved with that type of forum. Held onto the domains incase I changed my mind... Now I find buying domains to be slightly addicting. I think it's more the challenge of wanting a specific type of domain name and trying to find one that's catchy, short and not already taken.

But it's mostly just a hobby what's a few bucks here or there? While I learn something about an industry I know almost nothing about and could potentially make a few bucks off, I see no harm in it.

It is addictive! Or maybe a percentage of us find it so. I hope you're addicted to buying the right names!

 

[namerav]

Discovered this article: http://www.businessinsider.com/most-expensive-domain-names-of-all-time-2015-7

Started Domaining immediately afterwards.

Liked it.

 

[MapleDots]

My journey started when I was looking for an email address instead of using a hotmail type of service.

I was looking for something special and loved the word maple because it represented Canada and I thought whoever I emailed would see that.

That was the year 2002 and I combined thousands of words with maple and finally came up with....

[email protected]

I was so proud and then someone registered mapleone.net and I hated it. I bought up maple1.com and maple1.net and everything else. Then I bought up more maples and had a inquiry to purchase one. A startup Canadian company and I sold for 5k. OMG.... after that I dabbled until 2010 when I decided to do it permanently.

So even though my profile says 2010, I actually started my journey in 2002

I thought maples only had appeal in Canada but I sold a number to China and the USA. I am now known as the maple man in Canada and that niche has served me well over the years.

 

[GetBigDomains]

My journey started when I was looking for an email address instead of using hotmail.

I was looking for something special and loved the word maple because it represented Canada and I thought whoever I emailed would see that.

That was the year 2002 and I combined thousands of words with maple and finally came up with....

[email protected]

I was so proud and then someone registered mapleone.net and I hated it. I bought up maple1.com and maple1.net and everything else. Then I bought up more maples and had a inquiry to purchase one. A startup Canadian company and I sold for 5k. OMG.... after that I dabbled until 2010 when I decided to do it permanently.

So even though my profile says 2010, I actually started my journey in 2002

I thought maples only had appeal in Canada but I sold a number to China and the USA. I am now known as the maple man in Canada and that niche has served me well over the years.

Wow! Your enthusiasm worked for you pretty well. Maple Syrup actually has some health benefits too. So your well known for Maple Domains and what other niche/s? I have a spare spot on my site for portfolios..

 

[mitok]

I'm curious to hear from established and newbies..

What was your real reason for getting into domain sales (your motivation)?

I liked the idea of trading with domain names, doing that from any location that allows you to go online, doing that at the time you like and to make money of course. Later I realized that domaining is also my way to freedom as I am no more a slave of some corporation.

How did you stumble upon it/start selling on day 1?

I get this idea in 90-es, but unfortunately didnt start at that time. It was clear to me that (quality) domain names will have big value, but was occupied with other things at that time and did not start right away.

How much was the first domain you bought?

Reg fee

Where was your first sale auction/private?

I think here at NP

How long did it take you to sell one?

I think 2-3 weeks.

Who contacted who?

Not sure if I listed it for sale here or offered it via PM.

What tools do you use for domain handling if not Excel?

Word, e-mail, paper & pen and registrars data When I exited the corporate world I lost my Excell skills And I dont miss them

How many names have you cancelled, dropped, forgotten/lost?
[/QUOTE]

Probably x,xxx. Among them were about 50 LLLL.coms which I had at some wild registrar where I used some wild e-mail address so I have forgotten to renew them on time. Those LLLL.coms would be worth $x,xxx each today as they were either the type that we call chips today, or highly pronounceable.

What would you tell yourself if you were starting today?[/QUOTE]

Dont be lazy, do your homework and consider domaining as a real job (and work 5 days a week) and you will make a lot of money.
I cant force myself to work seriously even 5 days a month However, it is still enough to have domaining as my only job.
What I mean by "work seriously"? Get a knowledge and start working (searching for domain names and then for the end-users). If you will wait for an offer via Sedo and Afternic, you will be hardly able to rely just on domaining for a living. You should do outbounds with lower quality domains (which when chosen correctly will yield a regular $xxx and $x,xxx sales) and wait for the offers with a better quality domains.

 

[MapleDots]

Maple Syrup actually has some health benefits too.

The Maple is our National symbol, it has very little to do with the Maple Syrup market. Maple... as in Canada flag. Lots of our businesses covet the Maple as a brand.

 

[Doron Vermaat]

What was your real reason for getting into domain sales (your motivation)?

I co-founded an employment website for the Greater China region in 2006. That company didn’t make it and was shut down four years later. The domain, which was administered by a web development company, was neglected and ultimately expired from Network Solutions in December 2012. I wanted to relaunch the site so I did some research to find out how to gain ownership of the domain again once it would drop.
This led me to NameJet where all the expired inventory from NetSol is being auctioned. At NameJet I learned about the domain name aftermarket, drops and auctions. That month I won the auction for the NewChinaCareer.com domain name but also started bidding on several others that caught my eye. I was hooked right away.

How much was the first domain you bought?

I paid $314 for the NewChinaCareer.com domain name and some other names I purchased at NameJet that same week were RecipeDog.com for $59, AKKZ.com for $200, Ebore.com for $59, Ehila.com for $59, ActionBee.com for $59, OnlyJobs.com for $375 and HongKongFlats.com for $69

Where was your first sale auction/private?

My first sale was Obria.com which sold for $ 4,696.00 at BrandBucket.

How long did it take you to sell one?

It sold in August 2013 so it was 8 months after I started investing in domain names. I did receive and turned down several offers for other domains at that time but Obria.com was the first finalized sale.

What tools do you use for domain handling if not Excel?

I eat my own dogfood, Efty.

How many names have you cancelled, dropped, forgotten/lost?

What would you tell yourself if you were starting today?

Quality over quantity. As you can see above I dropped a significant number of domains over the years and my profits could have been a lot higher if it wasn't for all the rubbish I purchased during my first couple of years. But,... this is also the cost of an education

 

[golan]

i got an offer $100 via whois but i do not trust them.. not sure how to deal with a shady buyer

Initiate the sale via Payoneer Escrow. Nobody can loose anything, don't release the domain until the money is in escrow, you are protected.

 

[golan]

Coming from SEO, in the beginning i was only interested in abandoned domains as valuable asset for authority laundering. Soon enough i also started to notice nice names that were abandoned or dropping. Learnt that there is another market for them. Discovered NP. Sold a few domains in XXX range. But i still can't afford real long term investments. In SEO domains, turnaroud is much faster.