I wrote the article below 9 years ago. It only shows that not much has changed in Domain Investing and never will. 98% relevant today
We all have our ways. Things that we do that we feel help us get the highest price for our domains. What works for one may not work for another but it never hurts to read. Here are 10 little tips that I have found help me make a little more money with my domains.
10 Things that Will Help You Make More Money in Domain Investing
1. Give your name to the people that have contacts. There is a reason the that the more experienced domainers of the world get the best prices. They know everyone in this industry and have contacts outside as well. They can look at a name and immediately come up with a person that would be interested in that type of name. Or they will at least know someone who can point them in the right direction. You have to face the reality that you don’t have that ability. With time you can certainly get there ,but in the mean time give your name to a broker or an auction house that has the ability to get your name eyeballs. Don’t be afraid of commission. We all preach of having beachfront property but when you want to sell it why in the world would you only post your for sale in your homeowner’s association newsletter?
2. Be willing to accept you have messed up and cut your losses. It’s the trader coming out in me here. We all make mistakes yet you hardly ever hear anyone ever admit it in domain investing. The key is to realize it soon enough, milk what value is left in the domain, and get it quickly into a better investment. Pawn it off on some other person that hasn’t learned what you’ve learned. Let them think they can do better. Morgan Linton realized he was moving down the wrong path with non dot com domains and did the right thing. Realized he was leaving money on the table, reversed course, and started on a new path. Screwing up is not a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of activity. The more choices you get to make, the more chances you have to screw up. I bought too many 4 letter “collectible” dot coms. I have a ton of triple repeating letters and I paid too much. I am taking my losses and putting it into better domains. Now my money is in names that are appreciating instead of stagnant.
3. Friend Liquidity. Many domainers can’t afford three letter dot coms. But they can afford three character dot coms. Because of this the three character dot com market is very lucrative and liquid. Liquidity is a flippers friend. I have never found a three character dot com that I can’t sell. A pattern that seems to do well for me is Letter Number Number. It hasn’t failed me yet. I buy low, sell high…..usually. I’ll lose money every once and a while but I’m always turning them. It’s a turn and burn strategy but there is opportunity in this market.Which leads me to.
4. Making a little money each time is OK. You’ve heard the saying “You’ll never go broke selling at a profit”. Well it’s true. You guys keep reading all these stories about these high priced domain sales and dream. That’s not the reality. The reality is you make a little money at a time and build reserves to buy strong names. There aren’t very many people that can pull a Chef Patrick and go from a portfolio of small names to a $150,000 domain. The rest of us have to build our portfolio by selling names for $100 profit ten times. Then $1000 profit ten times. THEN we move up to bigger names. It takes years. You can dream of hitting the jackpot but I prefer to work towards my big payday rather than hoping I’ll hit the lottery. This method makes me money and I think it will for you as well.
5. Perfect your counter. I think the counter is one of the most important strategies in domain investing. You could use the Rick Schwartz “Fuck You”. The Frank Schilling “we don’t sell names under $20,000” or the Michael Berkens “I don’t have a price but it’s certainly more than that offer” methods. In reality, most of us don’t have the type of names that command those types of prices. You want to be an unmotivated seller but you don’t want to scare anyone off. If you get an offer, you need to have a price in your head you 1. Want to get or 2. Willing to accept. You better be realistic if you want to sell the name. If you have plenty of money and it doesn’t matter, then hold off and sell high. I categorize my names into groups. 1. Dump if you can 2. Turn and Burn 3. Hold for a decent price 4. Big Money. My counter offers usually reflect which group the name is in.
6. Buy Privately, Sell Publicly. I realize that’s everyone’s strategy. It’s hard to sell a domain for $1500 when you just bought it at a public auction for $800 last month. It’s not to say you can’t sneak in and get a good buy at an auction and resell , but ideally you want a domain that hasn’t had its value defined by a previous public sale.
7. Build a price guide in your niche. Collect every sale and put it into a spreadsheet. Having knowledge that others don’t, will make you money. I can tell you pretty much every 4 number dot com sale this year. I also track every garden name I can find. The data helps me negotiate a price and of course I use the low sales to help me buy and the high sales to help me sell.
8. Take auto renew off your domains you want to drop. I can’t tell you how much money it’s saved me or lost me when I don’t. This doesn’t help you make more money but gives you more money to spend.
9. Don’t be afraid to start low and let the bidding run the price higher. I realize there is a risk involved when you do this but I often find it worth the risk. It is important to only do this when there are plenty of bidders, ie large auction or platform like Sedo. Doing this on a smaller platform will burn you more often than not. For the big auction I find that the lower reserve gets their attention and the competing bidders move the price along. There are different opinions on this but when I’ve gotten into a name at a good price and I know it will do well, I keep the reserve modest. For every “I’ve could have gotten more for it” I have a nice “Then you should have bought it and flipped it”
10. Make sure all your Buy It Nows are changed to current prices. If you don’t it you are going to lose money. Because some one is going to find it or you will negotiate a price and THEN they will find it and make you honor it. It takes time to do but it could be worth a lot of money
These are just some of the things that I think lead me to more profits. I’m ever learning but it gets better every year. I’m shooting for the million dollar sales but I’m smart enough to know that it’s going to a lot of time and effort to get there. Inch by inch making money millions is a cinch. Or so they say.
Quote of the Day: “One of the hallmarks of the dangerously stupid is the consistent belief they’ve found great solutions that experts somehow missed” -Craig Mazin
Domain of the Day: RedX.com Of every domain at auction at Godaddy, this is the one they give the highest value to right now
Park.io Names at Auction or Dropping
Boulder.vc A lot of people are going to be on this one. I think it crosses $1K
Lethal.gg Gamers love killing
Treasure.ly I know the keywords is awesome. We’ll see how people like it with dot ly
Calgary.vc It looks like a ton of major city dot vc are dropping. My guess is one person had them all and let them all go
Casino.sc Probably one of the very few dot sc that I would buy
Namejet and Sedo & More Domains at Auction
LaserVideo.com Remember when laser disks were the best quality you could buy in video. Most of you probably don’t
Insecure.net vulnerability check. Taken in 101 other extensions
CheeseHere.com Some in Wisconsin could really use it for their cheese marketing
NYGuides.com Eventually the tourism in NY will return
TBDM.com No reserve. M for management
StoryPlus.com Has 92 bids and the most popular name on the Namejet board today
Gafu.com Met reserve at $2900 so it going to a new home
Fahi.com Same here. Met reserve at $2900
RXC.com Back at auction. the RX part makes it a prescription medicine
VPNO.com The VPN part is what gives this value. At $100
SpeedyCare.com Sounds like they are going to take care of you quickly
Pleasure.app Not a big dot app fan but I sure do like pleasure
TheStudentGuide.com 21 years old with some backlinks and history
Godaddy Domains With Bids
87588.com Might as well lead off with a five figure domain. Crazy how so many people just plop down $10K on a numeric domain
6834.com This one should be higher but its not at press time. But will be by the end
YogaNut.com I knew this one would get some action. Yoga names all do well
CGWI.com Great letters, ends in I which is one of the best letters to end in
UnitedSoccerArchives.org 2.3 million backlinks can’t all be bad
TGASolutions.com I have no idea why this has the most bids on the board today
OTCapital.com Overtime Capital
Chuzo.com Spanish slang for a shiv or a shank
LasPlayas.com and LaPlaya.com both up for auction. One has no bids, one is approaching $8K
ANOE.com Sounds like a word but I don’t think it is. Just a nice acronym that’s registered in 22 other extensions
SplashGroup.com I use SplashTop every day if that means anything
StepGroup.com Sponsored by Fitbit
MundoMaya.com An incredible Mayan ruin and a tourist attraction. Registered in 20 other extensions
Vanucci.com Sounds like an outfielder for the Red Sox
LittleTalents.com The talent agency that preys on families a few times of year at the local mall
1366.net the B shares of the the NNNN.coms
CozyFrog.com What’s up with this price. Wow
OrchidLady.com Same here. She must have had some amazing orchids
Fur.cc Did fur make a comeback? How about dot cc?
FleetHealth.com “making sure all your equipment is effective and efficient”
Godaddy Names With One or No Bids
The Rest of the Godaddy Names With Bids
999cr.com
AbbeyHire.com
AddisLocal.com
AESRepair.com
AlfonzoRachel.com
AlvineAndKingLaw.com
AsicBoost.com
BackOffBully.com
blychiropractic.com
BritishSpanking.com
BrookLean.com
BSVX.com
CadexWatch.com
Cmbiaghi.com
CannabisChina.com
Cductive.com
CharliePaille.com
ChristopherDurang.com
citized.info
CHABaltimore.org
CSGoroute.com
CTShoreline.com
CureSpotBaldness.com
d0x.com
DarceySteinke.com
DawnPatrolCharters.com
ExactCam.com
experienceadkoutdoors.com
FreeHomeSecurity.info
FusionFox.com
GarageInsider.com
GodspeedCyclery.com
GreenPirates.com
GreenSponGallery.com
HopeMall.com
HotelShark.com
househunt-inc.com
imessagepcapp.com
InstAtRain.com
IspartaYatiRim.com
jalengreen.com
jjuy.com
JustFlorida.org
JustFrance.org
JustGermany.org
Justuk.org
JYLU.com
LavidaGlobal.com
Love-My-Pet.info
madeinbirmingham.org
ManMoth-BigMan.com
MetaWishList.com
MistInger.com
MobilesIntro.com
MzI.org
ncrtm.org
NetStatistics.com
NuovaColombia.net
OracleMiningCorp.com
oSexy.com
PernikMuslim.com
Pictadesk.com
Poliuretano.com
PTYU.com
Rabiah.com
Resource-Aware.org
RicenwMuseum.org
RichardPetTinger.com
RiskArt.com
RoyalParksFoundation.org
SchoolhouseTheater.org
SeaBurn.com
Slora.com
SmartPhonePhysical.org
Snitch-Movie.com
SoloDefense.com
SurveyingSystems.com
TaxEvaders.net
Techanism.com
TechBlogng.net
TeleTubbieSlive.com
terrencemcnally.com
ThrottleMeister.com
TimeForTuckerMan.com
TotalPestControls.com
TotalRelocation.com
Toy-Band.com
tv-alnoor.com
Ultrasonic.org
UtopiaWeed.com
VBCodesource.com
VitaLant.com
Vooloo.com
WineFusion.com
winesofvinhoverde.com
WordsOverweb.com
WorldVisaPolicy.com
WowGanda.com
wvjd.com
xtuboar.com
Yesia.com
YMMedia.com
youthconnektafrica.org
Have a name at auction and need more exposure? Send me an email. We Charge $10 per name per day. We may be able to help. If you have an auction you want to promote, email us for details.*All names chosen by us, Shane and Josh . (ie you click through and purchase a name you like) or an occasional paid listing. Everything we say is based on our own research or is opinion. Do your own due diligence. That means look it up yourself if you don’t think the stats or our opinion is correct. We hand choose the names but we are paid to make this list by both the auction houses, individuals that are auctioning names, and Godaddy affiliate links. Keep that in mind and only buy names that YOU think are good.
Oops! You have vpno.com linking to analit.com on sedo
Thanks David, fixed
Shane,
I have been following your blog since my first days in this industry. I remember reading your “10 Things That Will Help You Make More Money in Domain Investing” when it was originally published. I’ve done very well investing in domain names and you have been a big help.
Thanks for everything
Ken,
You’ve done well at everything you do. That’s more a testament to your hard work than my sharing but I appreciate the kind words