It’s time to set the stage for a successful 2012.
There’s just one month left in the year. Rather than settling in for the holidays and vacation, savvy domainers will make December a critical month to set the stage for 2012 — and make it their best ever.
Here are 6 things you should do before the end of the year to prep for 2012.
1. Look for end-of-the-year bargains. A lot of hand-to-mouth domainers sell domains in December to raise cash for holiday presents. Some others are willing to drop prices in January to pay off credit card bills. Other domainers will sell certain domains before the end of the year for tax and budget reasons. Use this to your advantage.
2. Add your domains to Afternic DLS, Go Daddy Premium, and Sedo MLS. If you haven’t maximized your exposure by listing your domains with one or more distributed listing services, you’re likely leaving a lot of money on the table.
3. Renew your domains early. In January wholesale .com prices go up 7% and .net go up 10%. Renew before the end of the year for two benefits: beat the price increase and expense your renewal cost in 2011 (always ask a tax attorney or CPA about how to expense your domain fees).
4. Reevaluate your domain parking strategy. Do you make anything worthwhile from domain parking? If so, consider optimizing your portfolio. Contact your parking company and see if there’s any way they can help you squeeze more revenue out of your existing domains. If you don’t make much money, perhaps 2012 is the time to try something different. Have you thought about simply forwarding your domains to “for sale” pages?
5. Plan to attend at least one domain industry event in 2012. The first big one is DOMAINfest in late January. Can’t afford it? There are now plenty of local domain industry events ranging from free to a couple hundred dollars.
6. Organize your portfolio. I use WatchMyDomains Pro to manage my portfolio. It helps me keep track of when my domains are expiring and if whois records have changed.
What else do you recommend domainers do in December to prep for 2012?
Mike says
Save as much cash as possible for the next big crash, which no doubt is coming.
rs says
Why go to those indursty events? Everybody who covers these events always recommends them but they never say why and the stories of the conferences are usaully fluff. My impression is that it is mostly shysters and that writers covering domains write all these glowing recommendations to get free admission to the parties. Am I misssing something since I never attended any?
Andrew Allemann says
@ RS – I’d say go to one. Don’t go for the sessions so much as networking. The people you meet will be worth the trip.
Daniel says
Hi Andrew,
With Sedo’s parking program, you can park your domains using our “For Sale” lander, which allows you to receive parking revenue on the name while promoting it for sale. Parking with the “For Sale” lander is the perfect option if your main goal is to sell the names in your parked portfolio: there is no down side because you keep your parking earnings, and you can use the Parking Reporting section of your account to review statistics for that domain.
If your main goal is to optimize your current parking portfolio, you should use one of our regular parking page templates. You can take a look at the Parking section of your account to get started on optimizing parking earnings for that template, or get in touch with our Customer Care team!
Thanks,
Daniel
Josh says
Hand to mouth domainers…
So crappy enough at the business they live hand to mouth but good enough to trade consistantly in order to survive hand to mouth.
Say wwwwhhhhaaaatttt
Kevin M. says
@rs “Am I misssing something since I never attended any?”
Depends on how serious you are on domaining. Attend one, meet and network with the people that ‘are serious’, and then..give your impression.
jp says
I’m confused about something. Why bother with a GoDaddy premium listing? Doesn’t listing with Afternic DLS Premium accomplish the same thing (as their listings show on GoDaddy), but at a 20% commission vs the 30% commission with GoDaddy?
I’m sure if you are listed on both GoDaddy will show their 30% listing rather than Afternic’s 20% listing.
Am I missing something?
Andrew Allemann says
@ JP – The Afternic deal still requires GoDaddy customers to buy through GoDaddy Auctions. It’s not instant.
jp says
@Andrew
So DLS Premium does not get into GoDaddy’s registration path, just into the GoDaddy Auctions/Aftermarket, or does it get to the registration path but not as a direct sale but redirect to godady auctions?
I know I should be asking them but trying to coordinate hours of operations with the people that have the answers to these questions from Bali has proven to be a nightmare. If you have any knowledge on the matter I really appreciate it!
jp says
@Andrew
With some searching, I found the answers I was looking for all on your site. Your blog rocks. Thanks for all of your hard work!