Some time spent is wasted, but trying new approaches is essential.
There was an interesting discussion on twitter this week about domain names and the time you spend investing. It kicked off with George Kirikos sharing details of his experiment listing domains on NameLiquidate. He was going to let the 5 domains expire. He managed to sell two of them for total proceeds of $16.38:
Correction: A *2nd* domain just got sold via @nameliquidate , so that’s 2 out of 5, for a grand total of 2x$9×91% (i.e. 9% commission) = $16.38! 💰
Not bad for domains that would have otherwise expired “worthless” and not been renewed. https://t.co/Ctk3geSciB
— George Kirikos (@GeorgeKirikos) May 28, 2020
Shane Cultra chimed in about how this is a horrible use of time given the results. Kirikos responded by saying, “you have to put in the initial “setup” time for anything.”
They’re both right. A $16.38 return on just about any time spent is terrible, but you can consider the time spent an investment in testing.
You have to test things to see what works and what doesn’t. A lot of stuff I test returns nothing. Others return a goldmine. Savvy domain investors test, test, and test some more.
As a very relevant example, I also tested listing domains on NameLiquidate recently. I listed about 10 expiring domains and none of them sold.
This isn’t a surprise. I was about to let the domains expire, so I shouldn’t expect people to pay $9 or more for them. (Granted, on GoDaddy Auctions, they might sell as part of the expiry stream.)
A lot of what domain investors do doesn’t pay off. Other stuff pays off in spades. Sometimes it’s a matter of refining a system to make it work. NameLiquidate is a good idea and I will try it again.
I often think that domain investors undervalue their time. However, you can get satisfaction from these activities. I can look at reviewing drop lists as a waste of time for some weeks. Maybe I spend an hour looking at the lists and a couple of hours bidding, only to end up with nothing. But I have to admit, I don’t look at reviewing drop lists as just time spent. I kind of enjoy it. I enjoy kicking back on the porch with a glass of whiskey and searching for hidden gems.
Nat Cohen says
Good post. Domain investing can be an endless time suck. Much of the effort required is monotonous and tedious. The challenge is to find a way to make money at this business without it taking over your life.
Darryl Lopes says
Yes.
steven says
>> “I enjoy kicking back on the porch with a glass of whiskey and searching for hidden gems.”
one of my favorite past times over the last 20 years as well and the rewards have been exponential…
side note…i removed the whiskey component 3 years ago… the clarity has produced even better results and reg fees have been more than covered by the $ i would have otherwise been spending on single malt 😉
J.R. says
Depends on how much time you invest.
I see domain investing as a casual passive income stream for good speculators. I’ve heard Rick Schwartz say, ‘Don’t quit your day job’ – referring to the 80% that will never make a living as domain speculators.
But if you spend $100 make $5,000 after 10 hours of time invested even once per year. That is a capital gains with 0% taxation.
Also, domain speculation led me to learn some WordPress and coding basics.
If its casual or part-time, great investment. But most that speculate have horrible portfolios, but think they are full time domainers.
Very few will make a career of domain speculating, but more than a few can earn some passive residual income if done correctly.
Lifesavings.online says
I don’t know the first thing about Nat. I’ll point out though, the attitude is typical domainer arrogance. Worth and the ‘value’ is relative to both your enjoyment and how difficult it is for you to make money other ways.
For example, one might be wheel-chair bound, then domaining offers quite a bit opportunity for that person, if not only entertainment.
Is going to the casino worth anyone’s time? It goes for anything people do with free time. Nat here assumes people don’t domain ‘for fun’. Right? Why do people go to casino. Fun. They know their odds are bad. Money is a huge motivator in domaining, and also a affirmation of success. But speedy or consistent cash flow isn’t what it makes it valuable to any given individual…
One doesn’t need to make money today in order to ‘have fun’ domaining with the prospect of being profitable or hitting the jackpot in the future.
Wouldn’t Nat tell us some of his hobbies, perhaps he watches TV? Let me preach how it isn’t worth his time.
.
BullS says
Domain investing is stress reliever….hand reg at 99cent and sell for $$$ easy peasy.
No stress.
Andrew Allemann says
@BullS Every time your URL is included in a post, it will land in moderation. And then I have to remove the URL. Please stop including it.
BullS says
You are denying my right to free speech, my First Amendment!!!
As GoDaddy says, express yourself via domain names.
Andrew Allemann says
Last I checked, I wasn’t the government 🙂
Mansour says
Andrew Let every one say what he want we learn from smart people like you but we learn more from stubbed people like him.
DomainBoss says
“I enjoy kicking back on the porch with a glass of whiskey and searching for hidden gems.”
Perhaps a glass of whisky makes the gems pop which otherwise are hard to notice 🙂
I enjoy whisky/beer while reading blogs but not much while buying domains.
I have never played the “expired domain game”, now focus is on selling not acquiring anymore.
I do, however, like the idea behind NameLiquidate; even if your domain doesn’t sell at least you know you tried instead of just letting it expire and then wonder what if?
Alan Built says
Exactly, a waist of time listing domains to only earn a few bucks for so much time. Better off stocking shelves at Wal-mart one hour a week instead of using nameliquidate.com.
Dan Sanchez says
Alan, I don’t think you mean to sound like an incredibly wealth man that can afford to burn capital during one of the most liquidity-challenged periods in human history.
How much did a domain cost you? If you can recover 100% of that capital spent on domains that did not sell, did not perform, are going to cost you more capital to maintain… why not try?
I mean, the apathy needs to end.
We have sellers making 60 sales on the platform and reallocating hundreds of dollars into securing their portfolio.
What are you doing? Feeding the monopolists at Godaddy…
Don’t drop, liquidate!
sadiki says
It’s a great post.
As a beginner in domain investing world, I’m also a software engineer student, How much time I have to schedule it every week to have a great result in the end, and what’s the skill set I must focus to building trough this path ?
Thank for sharing and answering
John says
Drinking is bad for you. Including “in moderation.”
mikemichelini says
nice article – I just bought a couple domains off NameLiquidate from this post, ha. hope they work out 🙂
yes, this is a hobby for most
Dan Sanchez says
Andrew, thanks for the write up. The number one factor of success on NameLiquidate is recapturing otherwise lost capital. Domains are subjectively valued by the individuals that own them. One man’s drop is definitely another man’s premium domain.
Listings perform best when they are no reserve, for those seeking to truly divorce yourselves from renewal fees of domains that don’t serve your end goals, NameLiquidate has reallocated over 1300 domains. The impact is being felt by investors with the most to lose.
No sales for months and a long list of expiring domains? Liquidate the drops and renew the keeps.
Buyers are seeing the benefits too, a limited downside cost to acquisitions is rare in this industry. We have almost reached a balance between finding an immediate value for ANY domain and a repeatable acquisition model for aggressive and moderate risks investors.
Dropping without liquidating is now a rookie move.
Victor says
For me worth the shame. But I both the domains to develope. Not to sell them. I own 3. Getting trademarks. And starting. My bussiness. That’s all. I don’t understand people having hundreds of them without making profit. One it’s about 1000 dollars. The other about 20,000 according to godaddy. And last one 200.thats all.