Andrew Alleman of Domain Name Wire had a great interview with fellow domain investor and friend Mark Levine yesterday. I know Mark’s great backstory but was really looking forward to hearing the details of how his year went. The great part about Mark is he keeps excellent records and doesn’t mind sharing details. You’ve heard me mention how the details are how we learn and he provided plenty. I took notes as I listened and although I think you should listen to the whole interview here are my notes and some of the interesting facts.
- $118,000 in sales on cost of $3400
- 48 domains
- Inbound sales only, no outbound sales
- 15 of the names were .io, the rest were .com
- All brandable names except for one 3 letter .io
- 25% were purchased on park , all .io of course, average $100 each
- the rest of the .io were hand regged, some as late as 2018
- 45% of the names were purchased on Godaddy auctions
- 4 names were purchased through Namepros (all.io)
- 34% of the names were sold on Brandbucket
- StoryTone.com was purchased for $12 and sold for $2300, 3 years later
- SeatSide.com, LaunchCart.com were some examples of names that were sold
- 3 names were purchased at Namejet
- Sales average is $2500 per name
- Feels that if you price right you can get people to make impulse buys
- Negotiation is not comfortable for some so BIN makes it easy
- Has adjusted prices upward as time and sales move forward
- 18% sales through Afternic
- 44% through Efty landing pages
- Have not added any names to Brandbucket in over a year
- Efty tends to be a negotiation sale and not usually a BIN
- Because of this his BIN is higher to establish higher value
- Has 1200 name so roughly $12K in renewals
- Spent $20K on new names so $32K in total cost give plenty of cash flow and profits
- Hardest part is finding new names at lower prices
- Can spend 15 minutes per name going over one name
Here are today’s names. Click through to see the current price and to fund this daily list
Quote of the Day: “A bowl is most useful when it is empty.” —Lao Tzu
Domain of the Day: HappySushi.comHappy and Sushi go together perfectly
Namejet and Sedo Names and Others
YFax.com Perfect name for fax to email program
Xelo.com Will be interesting to see if anyone want to pay more than the $3500
Jeremy.tv I would think some Jeremy will be willing to pay more than $99 for this
PureFood.com Great brand for the all nature, organic, market
Windowz.com Met reserve at under $250. Worth a flyer at that cheap of a price IMO
IGLH.com I for International and H for holdings
FxOptions.net Forex has a big CPC for those that want to build out
PersonalBrand.net What everyone is trying to build on the Internet
Metal-Tiger.com Oh shit!!! Mr. Schneider is going to come after this with fury
Grania.com No bids. I would pronounce it as Granya. You?
InstantCredibility.com What a domain can give you. No bids
BoatFest.com I feel like there is going to be some boats tied up together and some nudity here
Tigio.com Another nice 5L.com IMO
CountryCloset.com How many country and closet names do you think there are? Tens of thousands in use
Godaddy Domains That I Like With Multiple Bids
LowerEnergy.com As in lower energy cost or use less energy
TrueRecord.com Easy to spell and say. Maybe a verified records site
ToughAct.com “We’re hard to follow” Free slogan with purchase
TheStyleBox.com StyleBox would be worth much much more but this one is still doing well because of its history
Yando.com Great 5L.com brand. Brother of Lando
HolidayVouchers.com Save money during the holiday
VipEvent.com Add and S to this and you could double or triple the price
LetQ.com Have no idea what it would stand for but short and memorable. And I guess pronounceable
Nugreen.com Upgrade name for dozens of companies
PureCoin.com Highest number of bids on the GD board today. Existing crypto coin
LieToMe.com OK, this one is at $27,400
SugarCult.com Sounds like an 80s Hair Band
GlobalWatch.org Sounds like a legit global organization
Metch.com I’d love to own this one under $100
OptimalVapor.com Gets a couple hundred visits a month
Godaddy Domains With One or No Bids
FZ55.com Always surprised how well the repeating LLNN.coms do at auction
AlpineNorth.com Already a clothing line but could be a lot more things
Igeta.com Also could be seen as I Get A
Kiobo.com Another nice 5L brand
Unsoiled.com Clean and as good as new
RoyalPixel.com Upgrade name for a few companies. Cartoon oriented
TotalPath.com They do it all. Yeah it makes no sense. I just put it here because I could spell it
KickMotion.com same here. I do like kick and motion as brand keywords
TheYoyo.com Because you aren’t going to be able to buy Yoyo
Nabbly.com Good brand for $12
StrongServe.com Hosting or Tennis instruction
ClimbingChina.com China has some of the greatest mountains in the world
River.cc I have sold two of my .cc to Christian Churches. There are several River Christian Churches that would be better off with this one than the dot net or chopped .org
ExtremeUltra.com Ultras are certainly getting more extreme every year
SweetOrganic.com No bids at $12. Unusual for an organic name
The Rest of the Names With Bids
24OptionCapital.com
2668819998.com
74gm.com
9Mobile.mobi
AbcPlantNursery.com
AmberTrade.com
AmbianceCottages.com
AmigoFish.com
ANSAfrica.org
BBWBustyRuby.com
BickleRacing.com
BlackFriendlyHotel.com
blwangluo.com
BooKitMe.com
Boss50.com
BQNH.com
CarVanRentalPhilippines.com
CBDOilSupplier.com
ChefNadeHomemade.com
cq907.com
DesignBusinessEngineering.com
DiabetesVault.com
DirectoryDental.com
DragonflyHealthFitness.com
EGYO.com
ExclusiveRealtyRentals.com
FireFoxFacts.com
fktz8.com
ForEsky.com
ForexHoster.com
FreeAlternative.com
FusionPipe.com
GetWedlock.com
GrowVending.com
GuangShuang.com
IndieReviews.com
InfusionMalta.com
Intrescom.org
Javhd720.com
JobsIntr.com
JustMyFlight.com
KaiteHotel.com
KnifeDeal.com
Kulturfestnyc.org
Langgusm.com
Lanqinjm.com
LeftFieldCards.com
LegalScholar.com
LetSallAgree.com
Meiyanchu.com
MilanoExpo-2015.com
MilLikensReef.com
MingGardenChinese.com
MRIScreening.com
MyKoiWaterGardens.com
NationalAccountsOfWellbeing.org
Nudaysyria.net
PlaysToReinstalLieren.com
qp102.com
RCUZ.com
RegulateMarijuanaInNevada.org
ReneWitCarCareSales.com
Rokhsah.com
Shatengjz.com
shkd10010.com
shwelayoung.com
SSTXX.com
StonebiltConcepts.com
StudioFlash.com
Suoyike.com
TechSupportUsa.com
Terra-Organics.com
UglyHousePhotos.com
UrjaCart.com
uVap.com
vns990.com
vns991.com
vns992.com
vns993.com
WatchOnlineEpisodes.com
WebHostingShow.com
WishWale.com
wty90.com
xatquiz.com
xhjtlm.com
xl5design.com
Yantailg.com
Yantailgsm.com
Yantailq.com
Yongliandg.com
ytbolikj.com
ytlanggu.com
ytlanqin.com
ZenbuRestaurants.com
Zhilizixun.com
Oh dear, copy & paste strikes again!
You might want to check the day and date on the title of this article. It’s not Monday…and it’s not the 20th.
Good think I get up at 4:30 most day. Fixed and thanks Simon
Shane. InstantCredibility.com links to a typo!!!!!! Bad seller – bad seller!
That’s on me. I put a D in for a T. I must have been really drunk last night. And I don’t drink……..very often
Preparing for NamesCon? Hope you have a nice Thanksgiving. Cheers.
INSTANDCREDIBILITY.COM Its a typo while you have posted the correct spelling.
Wow, Shane I’m very impressed you took notes and thanks so much for sharing them. I started to listen yesterday but got discouraged with the slow pace and turned it off. Your notes provide great insight.
On a side note, one of my pet peeves about our niche industry is our tendency to paint a rosy picture and make it look like domaining is easy money. You and I both know it isn’t. In this case the title of the article (48 domains, $114k sales on $3400 investment) is factually accurate but at also misleading because it doesn’t include the 20% to 30% commissions paid out on those sales. I wonder what his profit was for the year after deducting acquisitions costs, renewals and commissions. I hope that was covered somewhere in the interview. Thanks again for your post and Happy Thanksgiving 🙂
He did and I posted it. I guess not all commission but posted the renewals for entire portfolio. The acquisition costs for sold domains and costs for domains to replenish portfolio. Sure, there is a little bit of info missing but there’s more info there than any portfolio analysis of a year than anything I’ve seen on the net.
Thank you very much for your notes of the interview!