My domain sales are down significantly this year compared to this point last year.
We’re halfway through 2024, and my domain sales are rather dismal compared to last year. At many times in recent months, I’ve been reminded of one of my favorite books as a child.
The reality is my portfolio has a lot of noise. At 2,500 names, a bit of luck one way or the other makes a huge difference. I handful of buyers deciding now is the time to buy a domain makes or breaks my portfolio. (In the first half of 2023 I sold four domains related to AI. This year, just one.)
Last year I felt smug having a great year, but heard from others that they had bad years. I’m sure after posting this update, many people will say they’re having a good start to this year. Small portfolios don’t have statistical norms.
So, let’s look at the numbers.
This year vs. 2023 YTD
Total domain sales: 17 / 23
Annualized STR: 1.36% / 1.96%
For most passive portfolios like mine, a sell-through rate of 1-2% is considered solid. There will be ebbs and flows.
But I have to say, it’s was frustrating going through June with just one sale for the month. Especially since there appears to be little I can do about it.
There are a couple of things I’m going to try.
First, I want to self-broker some more of my domains to understand what buyers are really saying and thinking. Afternic’s Lead Center is great, but it has also shown me that some brokers there don’t reach out with the frequency I’d like. Or at least that’s how it looks based on the data in Lead Center. And when they decline a sale, I only hear that they aren’t willing to pay what I’m asking. So, I moved some of my domains to Atom recently to see what the inquiries look like and to negotiate directly.
Second, I signed up to try outbounding with Domains Outbound. I have no idea how it will go, but I should have a good idea sometime in July after the company starts sending emails.
Here’s to a better second half of the year.
Thanks for sharing your experience. It should’ve been better. There is always inconsistencies in this business. In my experience, the best way to reduce this issue is to add more number of quality domains to keep things moving.
Thanks – I continue to acquire domains and stay the course.
2024 has been bad, but it was during Q2 that I really felt the growing macroeconomic forces halting. The U.S. economy only grew 1.3% in Q1 2024, terrible.
https://apnews.com/article/economy-growth-inflation-gdp-consumers-federal-reserve-a6c0086a4a55111c38939bf6cfa0db79
Q2 numbers will likely be the same or worse.
Macroeconomic changes that impact PE, VC, or startup outlook trickles down to domain sales eventually.
I’m not surprised at all by Andrew’s bad 1st half of 2024. But Q3 will see a deep recession take hold of the US economy. Stay liquid, stay solvent.
My sales are always good because I have low or no expectations at all…..maybe one should change their mindset when comes to this unpredictable business or in any ventures.
I love this book. I hope the rest of your year turns out like the end of this book! I will be following along on your site to see how these changes and especially outbounding does for you. I am working on an Afternic best practices/ tips and tricks live class for Domain Academy. It is not ready to launch yet but I am shooting for this quarter. Follow us on X as I announce things there if you are interested.
Thanks Joe, looking forward to learning more about your class. I *think* I use best practices, but I’m always learning.
It’s okay to have quiet seasons. It’s all about timing and having the right domain name for the right client at the right moment. Patience.
I didn’t know about Domains Outbound but a few things make me wary:
– the domain name was registered one month ago, so this is a new operation without an established track record (unless the owners are already well established by themselves…)
– there is a fine line between outbound and glorified spamming
– the idea is not new, has been tried before.. didn’t last
So you pay for some kind of black box service without any guarantee of results.
One person is sure to get paid but it’s not you.
Plus, if you are an outbound genius why not sell your own inventory instead, why bother with somebody else’s domains? The trick is, people who own good domain names don’t need to do outbound because people will find them (ok, that takes some patience).
People with so-so or adverse portfolios might be tempted to try that type of service, but there is a law of domaining which says that it’s extremely difficult to sell something that nobody wants.
These are valid points and it’s important to proceed with caution. That said, the creator of this service is an expert in cold emailing, and I believe in using experts for something like this. Good domains can sell on their own, but not necessarily quickly. And I will use the service to sell “inventory” type domains, not great domains.
I’m willing to take a flyer on something like this, in part because I want to keep abreast of the opportunities for domain investors out there so I can write about them.
The last couple of years have been very good for me, as I was focusing on SEO domains and I was moving around 3%-4% of my portfolio monthly, but all came to a crashing halt given that I was mostly using GoDaddy 7-auction as sales channel, so the rest of this year will be slow for mee too that’s for sure. I will be very curious to hear about the outbound service you are testing. Question: Do you know the guys behind the service, or you are giving it a try just to see how it goes?
I only know the founder through Twitter
Status Quo here. Not too hot, not too cold, just right most times. Last fall was a bit slow, but other than that, consistency since the pandemic.
Hopefully it continues.
I feel ya!
Thanks for sharing that you’re experimenting with Domains Outbound. Are you trying the $200 or $500 package?
$200
2023 was my worst year since 2018. 2024 has been better but not near as good as 2020-2022.
I don’t feel like 2024 is worse than 2023 so far.
Domains Outbound aka AJ is a scammer. Takes your money then ghosts.
Same here. He talked a good game and strung me along for months with a variety of excuses why I wasn’t given any leads. But in the end – he stopped replying to my inquiries and disappeared on me as well.