Everybody wants to give opinion and talk about what you should and shouldn’t do in domain investing. The simplest way to help others is to show what you’re buying. Where your money is flowing. I certainly made some bad buys in 2016 and wasted almost $20K on .ws , .co, 5Ls and some 6Ns. But it still turned out to be a great 2016 thanks to my 2015 and summer of 2016 purchases of some LLLL.coms and patterns. My portfolio has always been fairly diversified among my likes so this year was still very strong. Here are some of my favorite purchases in 2016 that I still own
Botany.com Perfect name for my industry and also a good brand
BlowTorch.com Worked this one for over a year, used to be a movie company
HandTorch.com Bought it recently to match the above
RefuseToQuit.com Nice mantra IMO
Blueberries.net It’s a dot net but pretty solid keyword. Dot nets are cheap IMO for the super keywords
SugarMaple.com Brand or Tree
LLL.xyz When people talk about LLL.xyz names now they are talking about mine. I bought 543, 885, and 887 for $8 each
GoHike.com Popular term among hikers. Saw it on several license plates and then at auction
IslandSolar.com First place they are going to use solar is on islands
Seed.cc
Weed.cc
Flame.cc I like cheap .cc names. Not much value now but hoping I’m buying low. Got Christmas.cc for $12 a few years ago and Coins.cc for a price less than how many years it was renewed for
LeafSpot.com A plant disease but nobody else but me saw it as a canna name
SocialGain.com What every is trying to get
TheBigIsland.com My favorite Island in Hawaii. Got an offer for 5 times what I paid for it a week after owning it
PrairiePlants.com One of my fastest growing plant categories
CurlyWillow.com A plant or a brand
888733.com Overpaid for the name but I like the pattern and I think I can get half of my money back now or maybe I’ll get lucky and someone will really want it. That’s what happened when I sold 50X.
NYY.club and NYN.club Bought these two the day they were released by .club. Dot club doesn’t really like DSAD for some reason but I think their tld has its place now and in the future
PondRepair.com More money is spent on maintenance and repair on koi ponds than installation. Industry purchase
WSWC.com LLLL.coms that I like for business use across the world
WMHC.com
AWBD.com
MRLB.com
CarpetLiquors.com A childish, adult name that I bought because I giggle every time I see it. Feel like I could set up a fake business and website and sell thousands of shirts to 18 year olds on the net.
And a reminder on these purchases. There was not one penny of money from my nursery income or any outside money used to purchase these names. All funds were originated from selling names or this blog. Some may say “if you’re so good, what names did you sell?” The answer is I obviously either did very well with this blog and/or I sold some names. And the answer is both. It was a great year and my portfolio grew, even with the bad purchases mentioned above. And for those that asked several times. Yes, I sold Trunk.com to Andrew Rosener at the beginning of the year. His like for the name was enough to give me a great return and he got a great name. We both won.
And my strategy this year for buying names has changed. I have been buying a lot of private names that are in use or were in use. Some times the name has more value than what its being used for and I just ask to buy the blog and name, or company and name. You just have to offer good money. Lowballing doesn’t get these names. If someone has had a name for a decade or 20 years you have to offer enough to change their year, or at least their month. Having people help makes it go faster as well. I have been having my wife and even daughter hunt down the names and I give them a piece. My wife found and is closing a great name this week. All it takes is a lot of time and good money. Money that I didn’t have when I started but have been working my way up year after year.
Hope this gives you a little insight into my spending habits.
I started a couple of months ago and invested some $18K now in domains.
Got $15K returned, thanks to VyDy.com, selling for $7200.
I hope I will learn from you all.
Hey Shane,
you have some great names in that list, thanks for sharing your acquisitions, gives those who follow your blog something to shoot for.
Best of luck with 2017 and beyond. Keep the info flowing.
Noor
Thanks for sharing Shane. I’m working on putting together a similar post today but will be sharing a bit more such as sales and financials.
Besides the obvious great names like Botany.com and BlowTorch.com, as an avid hiker, I love GoHike.com
I purchased a number of names from your daily list this year – thanks for that!
Shane, after listening to you on domain sherpa about how you like four letter domains that end with the letter c.
I just won these 2 domains on namejet auction.
myuc.com
glwc.com
Like thebigisland the best.
I think I tried to buy the .org years ago when geo names were more hot.
That’s a honey
Some of my 2016 acquisitions:
telephones.com
nebulizer.com
nightstands.com
AFib.com
douches.com
bobsleds.com
inequalities.com
drained.com
inelastic.com
voipphone.com
cablecompanies.com
septictank.com
getcredit.com
presby.com
presbyt.com ($8 reg)
Great names Tony. You get the singular of some of those names and you’re very wealthy 🙂
If I could acquire a similar lot of domains in 2017 for what I paid in 2016, I’d be super happy.
Botany.com
Nice one Shane!
Happy New Year.
Roberto F.
I like Botany.com very much. I wonder how much cost you spent for this great name 🙂
Some of my acquisition this year:
Candybay.com
HempVibe.com
StreetPlant.com
Botany.com and Sugarmaple.com are my favorites. Thanks for sharing all of you insights on your blog and Domainsherpa! Very useful!
2016 for me was the year of learning about domaininvesting, so thanks for sharing your experiences and tips.
Some of my 2016 acquisitions (mostly hand registred):
– humanplugins.com: read about it in a trend report
– tropeo.com: just a short brandable domain name
– bookdesert.com: a geographic area where printed books and other reading material are allegedly hard to obtain
– dakkochi.com: a type of Korean chicken kebab, usually served on a stick
– lensesprinter.com: 3D printing of contact lenses will happen in de the next years
-…
All the best for 2017
Jeroen
Thanks Shane for sharing your acquisitions and I like Botany.com and SugarMaple.com and fits really well for your business as well especially Botany.com
Good luck with it and wish you all the best for 2017 🙂
Thank you AbdulBasit,
Luck is certainly part of our business. A prosperous and healthy 2017 to you as well
Thanks for sharing I like Botany.com I have topiarian.com
How did you get your wife to work for you on commission? I’m more interested in knowing that, lol.
HNY, have a fab 2017
thanks for sharing Shane and bringing some transparency to the industry. I’m super motivated for 2017!
nice one Shane, botany.com is great domain! this is rich keyword domain. good luck for you.
Great job Shane, the strategy seems like it worked well. Wish you more success this new year!
liked few of your domains a lot. specially “Gohike.com” and “botany.com”
i acquired many domains in 2016. few of my favourites are :
iExports.com
wifi.ws
Spanks.net
1BHK.com (its 1 bed hall kitchen apartment.highly searched in india and other asian countries).
Starweddings.com
and many more.
wish you a very happy 2017.