Over the years in reading many threads and posts it always seemed that the majority opinion was that more domain investors lose money than make money.
I have had conversations with people who expressed their opinion that 80% plus were losing money over the long haul.
A poll at Namepros which had 177 votes, went against those opinions with the majority of voters claiming to be profitable over their investment lifetime.
So I am going to ask readers here, “What percentage of domain investors do you think are profitable?
What percentage of domain investors are profitable?
Most gamblers swear that they make money. They’ll tell you about all the fabulous wins.
My guess is 25-30%, but just a guess. Personally, I would never continue with my domaining, if it wasn’t profitable.
love the first comment, stole my line, sounds like the plane back from vegas… ohh you know was up but lost a bit….
page howe
Power Law: 20% make all the money.
BD
Rather 2%
Another point to take into consideration.
Of the group that are making money in domaining, if they put a value on time, how many would be profitable?
12 – 15 yrs ago, I was putting 14-16 hours* a day, 6-7 days a week into domaining.
Today, it is only a few hours a day.
* researching domains, working expiring domain list, managing domains, talking on the phone, emailing, visiting forums, reading blogs, attending trade shows, etc., etc.
I have had good years and bad years since I started. Probably around break even but have built up a decent portfolio of names.It is the occasional nice sale that keeps me going.
Over the lifetime of domaining, i am up huge.
Domaining changed my whole life around.
From 1995 to 2007, i made lots of money.
But from 2008 till now, not that good.
To be honest, I have made money over time, but not that much money. I used to own about 500 domains and they used to basically pay for them selves via parking revenue. I would have sales here and there (only 2 major sales though) and eventually you have to let them go if no one offers anything after so many years.
I do not believe domain names have ever been a big time investment that one can live off of (except for some like Rick and a full of other people).
And yes, I believe that there are B.S. announcements and the biggest that sticks out is Wine.club that supposedly sold at the Name Con for six figures.
But, it is a great side business to say the least.
I am not a domain investor, I am a domain Hobbyist…having fun and making lots of money.
I hand reg during those good old days of 99cents GD…love them and selling them for 200000%
from 99cent to $30 and as high as $$$$$, bought those 4L domains at $15 a piece and selling like marijuanaguy.com
love this “BullS” business, easy peasy.
Only 5% of day traders and network marketers are profitable. I would guess domaining is similar. I would say less than 10%. In any large population or bell curve, the top 10% are two standard deviations above average. You are talking about either the really smart ones or consistently lucky.
Hello Everyone,
This is a really great topic and it is something the new domainers should understand it is not that easy the way it seems, one needs to really be patient no matter how good of a keyword you choose or have. a saying goes ” beauty lies in the eyes of beholder” if the buyer is willing to pay then for sure your domain is going to fetch money but if the buyer is just a random reseller then the price might just pay for the registration cost x 5-10 = which considering your time and efforts is really nothing.
I have several domains not in dotcom mainly but dotme which has had plenty of good offers but so many domains these days going to startups its good to have a tie up with them instead of selling maybe that one tie up can pay for all your time and effort you spent in domaining.
I feel people should make a mentality of building something with someone or by themselves then just flipping domains because of you keep flipping a day might come you might lose your best asset for nothing.
Anyways I wish good luck to everyone as we all have invested our precious time into it and hope it pays off 🙂
First to the trough, circa 1996-1999, .com, one word registrants make up 95% of profitable domainers!
There is no way in for anyone else, period.
Asking the question, “What percentage of domain investors do you think are profitable?” is counter intuitive to the claim that domaining is a viable vehicle to making money.
Hatred for domaining, perpetuated by Google’s constant algorithm changes to distort ‘exact-match’ search has all but nailed the coffin.
Criminal conflict of interest happily maintained by registrars mining expired domains, assuming ownership prior to falling from grace periods is a clear indication of the health of domaining.
Shill bidding swept under the carpet colluded with ICANN crooks and the New GTLD clusterfuck, icing on the Sedo headed aftermarket, parking fiasco wild west bullshit, regurgitated ad infinitum with Godaddy’s massive portfolio acquistions.
Sick? Sick!
Many may like to think they are profitable but often aren’t. I wonder how the Koreans that buy non stop from dropcatch could ever be profitable. They pay such high prices..I never see many of the domain sell. Just seems like they have non stop capital.
I make a profit. Its not as much as I’d like to be but its enough to pay renewals, buy new inventory and pay my living expenses. I’m certainly not getting “rich” though.
Got in the game in 2006. I’ve made a few sweet 4 and 5 figure sales…but overall it’s been a money losing “hobby” for me.I’d say this was true for about 97% of all domainers.I’d be willing to bet that you could fit all the domainers who are making consistent 6-7 figure real money into a 1 bedroom NYC apartment…with room to spare. I keep a modest 500 name portfolio that I “refresh” with new names as I see fit / can afford. I do not “put the work in” that I did starting out…because I’ve come to realize that I’ve made just many sales when I didn’t care (maybe more)…as when I went out looking for buyers. Buy…Hold…Repeat.