I’m planting lots of small seeds and making marginally bigger bets.
There are lots of great domain investors out there. People who make bold investments and great sales.
I am not one of those people. I’m good at it, but not great. (Note that some of the people you think are great at domain investing actually suck, and there are lots of quiet people on the sidelines who are making a mint.)
Here’s how I look at it: Domain Name Wire has been my primary business for a long time. Now, from a revenue perspective, PodcastGuests.com has caught up with it. So I have these two very high margin businesses and then domain investing, which is more capital intensive. Domain investing is something I do as icing on the top; it helps me stay on top of what’s going on in the business, to understand more when I write, and to have fun.
I don’t count on domains for cashflow. In fact, I try to reinvest everything I make selling domains into buying more domains and improving my portfolio.
Over the past few years, I’ve grown my portfolio from about 1300 domains to around 1600. I’ve pruned quite a few over that time, so my total additions is higher.
Most of my adds are low-cost auctions sub $300, and the majority of these are sub $60 including “closeouts” and uncontested expired domain auctions.
These domain acquisitions form the portfolio model of my business. This means I’m buying domains for cheap and selling them for 10x-200x the purchase price — but at median prices below $5,000.
While some of these new additions sell quickly, I look at it more like planting seeds. Most of the sales occur at least a year after I buy the domains.
Those seeds have come to fruition nicely this year. When I look at my BuyNow sales at Afternic, I have 11 sales in the past 3.5 months going back to June. The domains sold for between $495 and $5,800 with a median of $2,300. I’ve made additional sales outside of Afternic.
Lately, I’ve tried to acquire some more marquee names that could make great brands and businesses. I picked up Warmfront.com in an expired domain auction. I just bought Shortbread.com yesterday at GoDaddy Auctions. The Shortbread.com purchase alone cost the same as about 700 closeout domains. But it’s also a domain that has a decent liquid value should I ever need to cash out. The same can’t be said for 700 domains you buy in closeouts.
So that’s my model. It’s been a good year so far, and I hope it continues.
“there are lots of quiet people on the sidelines who are making a mint.)”
that Me!!..me making money on this easy peasy BS hobby and having lots of fun.
*** only you know yourself if you are making money***
Thanks for sharing. Sounds like you’ll do quite well with this approach. Shortbread.com is a nice pickup.
I like Shortbread.com better than Frank Shilling’s Rumcakes.com. : )
Andrew, Your approach is similar to mine. And it’s worked out well…no 6 figure sales this yr, but many 5…
I’m the founder of a software biz, so I do this as an active side gig. My acquisitions relate to niches I’ve been targeting for about 7 years: SportsBetting, Fans, Casino and Remote, AI and Augmented Reality. so far, so good..hope you continue to get a nice ROI
I think it’s smart to get domains related to industries you know well. It gives you a bit of extra edge over people who are just going after popular keywords.
So I own 2300 domains and I buy more as I see them I challenge you to chow the last 10 domains you bought and I put the last 10 I bought and let the readers say which domains are more valuable.
I don’t understand. Are you saying the domains you sold are more valuable? If the median price is over $2,300, then that’s probably the case. Congratulations.
Mansour, why are you challenging the author to a contest of names? What big ego you have, which of course equates to a small person.
Mark,
I don’t think you have a place in this conversation. I’m sure that Andrew can defend himself. I usually don’t respond to people like you, who do not deserve a response.
For Andrew, my posting was not a challenge. It is an educational one. I would like to know the last 10 domain names you bought and how much did you paid for each one, and I will do the same.
I have no clue as to what you are buying and what you pay, and no one else does. If you provide this information I am willing to give the same information, so your readers including me, will know how you evaluate your domains when you are purchasing them, since we both buy domains for investment.
Please let your readers know there is no place in your for one reader to insult another one .
Thanks’
Congrats!
Shortbread is a nice pick up Andrew, cannot go wrong at that price point. I have bought a domain or two over the last 16 years and the most important element of success was always the entry price. Not a matter of if profitable but rather how much was always my goal.
Great strategy, Andrew! I’m planting small seeds everyday.
Good job Andrew! Very well said “some of the people you think are great at domain investing actually suck, and there are lots of quiet people on the sidelines who are making a mint”.
On top of this, there is no genius in selling at high price a 1-word or NNN or LLL registered in early 2000 (reward for being an early bird innovator – yes). Or buying for 50k now to sell for $50k later. But it is respectable, if today an investor can regularly flip sub-$500 acquisitions for $5k.
On the other hand, I am not an enthusiast of so admired newbies who spam the world with $199/$299 BIN listings of hand-reg domains. I regard it as harmful for the industry and not impressive at all.
innovator – I meant rather a risk taker
Do you know how hard it was to get a 1 word, NNN.com or LLL.com in early 2000s? That took real scripting skills.
I think there’s a distinction here. People who were early deserve praise. But people figuring out how to do things now can’t look to that as a model.
Sounds like you have a winning formula! I have thanksalot.com for sale if it fits your portfolio.
Helen
heavensmagic@aol.com
So most people won’t scroll down to the comment section…….. so what’s the catch you guys…….. from what I understand when you find a business that’s lucrative and making you money usually don’t go tell everyone about it on the internet ……so what’s the catch ??? in white randomly tell everyone on the internet how lucrative this business you are is in
Thank you to the author and everyone in this thread for illuminating such a fascinating subject.