My Good friend Elliot Silver on his blog last week a great 5 part Series last week entitled “Advice from The Most Successful Domain Owners of all time“.
Although Elliot kindly asked me to give my tip, I passed for a several reasons, one of which was that I had no one great piece of advice for success.
The truth is you can achieve success in this business from many different angles and ultimately your success is going to depend on finding your niche, feeling comfortable in your own skin, and doing what is possible under the circumstances you’re in.
For example, a common tip was to buy quality not quantity.
That’s great strategy if you have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on one domain, but if you don’t have the money to buy those domains , that advice isn’t going to help you.
The truth is there is not one simple formula for success, but there are certainly paths for failure that you need to avoid.
Number 1 on the failure hit parade is, don’t piss your money away.
Take these 53 domains.
They are all dropping in the next few days and they are all 13 years old.
That means they were registered back in 1996, in the days when registrations were $70 for 2 years.
Recently they are at Moniker where the renewal fees are more modest, but lets do the math.
Lets just call the renewal fees $10 a domain, per year.
You have 53 domains carried for 13 years for a total of just shy of $7K.
Wow.
Check these domains out.
If any of them were in the TRAFFIC live auction for $500 you would jump on the auction house for putting such a crappy domain in the auction.
Yet, for 13 years someone paid renewal fees on these domains.
Want to be successful in the domain business?
Don’t piss your money away.
240web.com
242web.com
246web.com
248web.com
250web.com
264web.com
268web.com
281web.com
284web.com
320web.com
330web.com
345web.com
352web.com
416web.com
418web.com
423web.com
441web.com
443web.com
473web.com
506web.com
514web.com
515web.com
519web.com
540web.com
541web.com
561web.com
562web.com
573web.com
604web.com
613web.com
630web.com
664web.com
705web.com
719web.com
757web.com
758web.com
760web.com
765web.com
767web.com
770web.com
773web.com
784web.com
787web.com
807web.com
819web.com
847web.com
860web.com
864web.com
868web.com
869web.com
876web.com
905web.com
906web.com
941web.com
954web.com
970web.com
972web.com
973web.com
actually, they had several hundred domains just like this… AreaWeb.com
was a (seemingly failed) attempt at a geo portal using area codes…
I agree 100 %, but lets go back 13 years.
In the year of 1996 there was not one person on this earth which really had a clue of what, when and if domains would be of very high value. Schilling, Ham, Schwartz, Day and others where actually taking very high risks. It paid and is still paying out.
Fast forward to 2009 , the market now has somewhat matured but far away from its peak. Many of us will never see the day when the Domain market reaches it’s highest possible value.
Not just because our time has run out, but because of a technology where actual domain names might not be needed anymore. This could happen quicker than most of us think.
“Don’t piss your money away.”
If your not making money now and today on your domains you need to change things quick. Sell, develope or lease them. If non of this works you need to delete them.
Years from now, there might be someone writing about the fools which held on to domains of a language not spoken or needed anymore.
Domain names are highly effective for navigating the internet. Street addresses didn’t do away. Personal names haven’t been replaced. A “car” is still a “car”.
So unless human language goes away, domain names are the single most logical, user friendly, and intuitive medium for navigating to internet web addresses.
@Duane – “a technology where actual domain names might not be needed anymore”. What are you referring to?
He speaks of the intuiweb (or is it the Matrix). We will all be connected directly to our brains and all we need do is think something, nay picture it, and the website will appear. This “new” technology will be ready to roll out in 2012 when the underlings (those that live underground) are finished with their 1000 year Brady Bunch rerun festival. But first they will battle vampires with chest hair and multi-colored bell-bottoms. You have been warned.
I wonder if these crazy people bought over 900 domains 13 years ago and sold all but 56 of them? But who really wants to investigate that!
Maybe there was a nickel to be made here at one point, but that “phase” is over. ###Web.com is about as exiting as e-plastic-fabrics.com
@ Menius
I do not want and can not be specific at this time, no one can be sure of what is coming in 5, 10 or 30 years from now.
But as we all know technology is a race and there is no finish line, just changing leaders.
“ So unless human language goes away, domain names are the single most logical, user friendly, and intuitive medium for navigating to internet web addresses.”
There is more than the English language. Human language can also change. We could all be speaking Chinese, Spanish, or what ever. Domains in certain languages could be useless.
Best example:
The German Language. Just a few years back was completely reformed and the German dictionary replaced. They called it the “ Rechtschreibreform” The letter “ß” was replaced by “ss”. Thousands of words where written completely different. For example the word “Straße” meaning “Street” is now written “Strasse” ! Before they made that change there where no triple sss or ttt in one word. This has changed. Thousand’s of names from then on where written different.
Just this simple example could be a disaster for many of us.
@Duane……”In the year of 1996 there was not one person on this earth which really had a clue of what, when and if domains would be of very high value.”
Your wrong. I did, and there were others too.
I bought $30,000 worth of domains in 1995 on my credit card, convinced domains were my future. And they were/are, since I am sitting here today and buying domains as a full-time job.
I was wrong about the “when” though. I thought the whole world would see the value of domains by 1998. It turned out that it really was not until 2004 that the market really started to catch fire in a big public way.
@ Duane
The telephone was invented by Bell in 1876.
Despite obvious technologic changes we still use it anno 2009.
Look at telephone numbers f.e.
etc…
C.
Back in 1997 when I first got my first computer, the thing that struck me the most was, how does a website get found out of all the millions of websites online. As a scientist I was fascinated and still am. I have spent the years since studying the subject since I was a senior and enjoying my retirement. Today I have a Internet marketing and SEO business from my study, which I still find intriguing and fun. The thing that drove my thinking process was, everything else being equal, people still have to use their language to find what they are looking for online, unless there is a new language developed specifically for the Internet. Me thinks that will not happen so quickly. Therefore, using your everyday spoken and written language is the way to go and always will be. Good luck everybody.
Even domainers can get on worthless tangents, an “ebiz” empire comes to mind for me. A complete set of domains of which I would not renew a single one I believe this owner truly may believe he is a multimillionaire on these domains. He even talks of nirvana…a domain that could be US or use.
I do not want to argue with this individual, but in the end, it shows the trash vs treasure valuation dilemma of non-premium domains. I am sure I carry 1,000 “trash” domains as well and know I let 10% of reg’d domains drop as I should have never originally registered.
This post is great advice though. If not worth the reg fee in the current year, don’t get caught in the sunk cost of the past. Let it go. Evaluate now.
This is a timely post for me. During the past 2 years I have experienced some very major life changes and, as a result of my preoccupation with those events, I neglected some of the management and development of my domain portfolio. Having now made a serious reevaluation of my life and looking at what I already have to work with and where I want to go, it is clear that I have some excellent domains and some not so great.
But don’t we all? I think every domainer would have to admit that they have (or had) some garbage in their portfolios that, at the time of purchase or registration, seemed like a good idea. I’ve also obtained some really good domains that didn’t necessarily fill with me with excitement at the time, but for which I now see great opportunity.
Fads come and fads go. Every domainer would be wise to avoid filling their portfolios with fad domains and concentrate on the niches that will remain viable for the long run. And develop those domains!
As for the “ebiz” guy, I came across his site some time ago and remember thinking, “WTF?” I hope he either finds a buyer who loves his idea, or that he does some serious reevaluation soon.
. . . but Mike; in actuality, you just did provide great advice:
” . . . finding your niche, feeling comfortable in your own skin, and doing what is possible under the circumstances you’re in.”
One can “drill down” to the specifics of their chosen niche from there.
@ Johnny:
I am jealous of people like you. Back in 1995 I thought baseball cards and pogs were my future… i spent nearly all my income on them. I guess i was way off on that. Oh yea, I was 12 years old in 1995.