OnlineDomain.com Domain Name News & Opinions
Like every month I go through my domains to see what to renew and what not to. In September I renewed 639 domains and dropped 118 of them. So I dropped about 15.6% of the total 757 domain names that I had expiring.
These are the domains I renewed in September for a total of 639:
| .com | 222 |
| .net | 4 |
| .org | 52 |
| .info | 328 |
| .biz | 8 |
| .us | 25 |
Here are the domains I dropped in September by extension for a total of 118:
| .com | 16 |
| .net | 3 |
| .org | 25 |
| .info | 65 |
| .biz | 3 |
| .us | 6 |
And here is the percentage of total domains that I dropped by extension:
| .com | 6.7% |
| .net | 42.9% |
| .org | 32.5% |
| .info | 16.5% |
| .biz | 27.3% |
| .us | 19.4% |
Percentages are all in the double digits except for .com. .Net is taking the biggest hit despite the small sample.
Once again .Net and .Biz have a small sample but I never was a big fan of .net and September is not a “.biz” month. I have very few .net domains. I don’t have as many .biz as I used to mainly because I have sold over 1000 .biz in the past few years to a single .biz domain investor.
These monthly numbers are not exactly representative of my portfolio. August more representative. I have more .com, .org and .info, then .biz and .us and then a few .net and New gTLDs and of course some .gr domains that I don’t list here. September is a .info month as this is the month that .info launched back in 2001.
I estimate that I saved about $1050 in September from renewals. That is money I can spend to buy a couple of quality .com domains that are cheap such as bloginfo.com. And a few New gTLDs if I can find any lately such as diy.guide, africa.guide and city.deals.
What did I renew? Here is a small sample:
- .com: SpySecrets.com, MedicalStudy.com, MovieMuseum.com, MyKiss.com, EggWhite.com
- .net: Devotion.net
- .org: Hoop.org, Vitality.org, Rocky.org
- .info: Comedy.info, Posters.info, Ambition.info, Ebola.info, BoraBora.info, Pot.info, Marihuana.info, Earthquake.info
- .biz: suu.biz
- .us: Inbox.us, Subtitles.us
Why? Because I think that these domains are good. Some may have traffic and/or have received offers in the past.
So what did I drop? I dropped:
- weak 2 word .info, .biz and .us domains: IntegratedCircuits.biz
- average or bad letter 3-letter .us or .biz or .info domains: loj.us
- domains for which I own the .com version: OrganicLeds.net
- unsellable domains with no traffic
- domains with suffixes or prefixes: myprice.info, onhold.info
- non-com domains that end with -ing and -ed: duplicating.org, dressed.info
- niche products that don’t sell well online: IceTea.info
- plurals that don’t work well: oliveoils.info
- words that don’t make sense on their own: deja.info
- long 2 word niche domains: labradorretriever.info
I am dropping most of my defensive registrations (to my .com) as they don’t make much sense now with all these New gTLDs coming out. I own OrganicLeds.com so OrganicLeds.net is pretty much useless to me.
Some of these 118 domains may have some value of maybe $50 but I can’t spend my time on these. It will cost me more to sell them than drop them. And selling 118 domains individually can be a nightmare. And most will not even sell so I would probably be wasting my time. And I have to do my taxes every month here in Greece and the tax office isn’t making it easy to do them either.
In June I dropped 193 (23.9%) and renewed 614 domains. Click here to see what domains I dropped in June and why.
In July I dropped 130 (11.5%) and renewed 996 domains. Click here to see what domains I renewed and dropped in July and why.
In August I dropped 67 (10.5%) and renewed 571 domains. Click here to see what domains I renewed and dropped in August and why.
So why am I dropping all these domains?
First of all I have been dropping about 5% of my portfolio for years now. I explained what I am dropping and why above. I also drop domains for new technology ideas that I registered for example back in 2003 but never panned out and never will. Some I keep with uncertain future.
In most of the months I am dropping about 10%. I am trying to keep up with the registry renewal increases and since I am always buying domains I need to drop at least 10% of my domains. That is to keep the renewal costs stable.
I have been more aggressive lately and I am trying to drop some of the domains that I am more of a collector than an investor. I stop and think on each domain: who would ever buy this domain and why?. If I can’t think of anyone then I drop it. I search google to find other people using the words on businesses and if I can’t find any then I drop the domain.
July was at 11.5% while June was at a remarkable 23.9%. September is at 15.6%. I always reevaluate, keeping the best domains and dropping the worst. I am really proud that I was able to let go more than 500 domains in the past 4 months. I really tried to make it above 15% in September.
Now with the New gTLDs I expect that the value of 3 letter domains, especially bad letter combinations, will drop to reg fee. FMA dropped about 7,500 of .info and .biz domains in the past few months. Some of these .biz are now free. I dropped about 100+ bad 3-letter .us, .biz and .info domains in the past 4 months.
Also I think that the value of the New gTLDs is in 1-word.newgtld domains that make sense as a combination. So I am applying this to the old gTLDs as well. I have dropped more than 80 2-word .us and .biz domains. If the domain name doesn’t make sense with .biz or .us I drop it. e.g Adult domains are really bad with .biz.
In terms of sales, .com and .org have produced solid 5-figure sales in 2013 and are still going strong in 2014. I sold a 5-figure .com and another .com close to 5-figures in the past 10 days plus a few smaller ones.
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You renewed labradorretriever.info. I was going to reg it. 😀
No I didn’t.
It is going to drop.
Great learning article, thanks for sharing hard data, other blogs really just give generalizations of if or maybe’s, but that was very informative.
Hi Konstantinos,
Just wondered how many names total you have to compare the stats with mine.
Fatih
About 10,000.
Great snapshot of a domain investor. I can’t imagine dealing with decisions (drop/keep) on close to 1,000 domains every month, in multiple extensions. The flood of new gtlds have got all of us re-evaluating any of our domains that aren’t .com. You have some really nice .info domains!
Thanks! I have been buying and selling .info since 2002.
Great article and series.
To share hard details and insight is very special.
Thanks so much.
You continue to push the Domaining industry to higher standards with your transparent, open and honest experiences. We learn more collectively, and to that you are appreciated by many.
It seems that you invest in .info.
I am little surprised as many people say it is not a good extension.
To be honest I have never been into .info.
I am not a guy who says this or other extension is bad if I have no experience with them.
I myself invested in an extension which usually people think it is bad but I have made quite good money so…
Can you please tell just a little bit of your experience with .info
“I myself invested in an extension which usually people think it is bad but I have made quite good money so…”
Same with me and .info.
I keep selling them since 2002. In 2003 I made my first .info 5-figure sale with england.info.
A lot of Europeans, and not only, like them.
Congrats on sales!
Nice post with key stats but would appreciate if you could analyze also how many of these drops consists of hand registrations and purchases from aftermarket.
I have very few hand registrations in my portfolio.
Maybe less than 5%.
But a lot of the drops were cheap godaddy or other backorders for less than $20.
And most of the dropped domains are from these cheap backorders.
Thanks for the update, it means you’re not losing much on these drops.
What I’m most curious about is between parking and selling domains do you generate $100K and break even. I have always assumed but never seem you write about cash flow and sales
I don’t just break even. I make a profit and at the same time I am buying more and better domains than the ones I sell.
Parking is maybe $15-20k per year. But I am trying to protect my domains than make an extra dollar here and there.
So I am serving a generic PPC page with no targeted links on most of my domains.
On some domains I don’t even have that.
I will start posting past sales with number and domains. I keep saying it but never find the time.
I am sure I have more than $150k in sales this year so far. Probably more as I might be forgetting some.
And love the article.
Thanks!
Needless to say you are doing just fine then. I’m sure we’d all like to hear more of the back story. Where did the money come to buy 10,000 domains. A big sale? Slow reinvestment? Looking at your parking and sales you have become a very wealthy man because of domains. The journey to hear would be fantastic if you were willing to share. As much as I love a published press release, I’d love to hear more about your experience and path. Just my opinion.
I have written a bit here and there.
I got my first $4,000 from my grandmother.
Then the short story was slow reinvestment since 2002.
At least 1-2 posts per day are 100% original posts.
I only have one .info VoiceControl, i do like them and think if looking to sell flippa seems like a great outlet especially for .info’s. I think it pays to be proactive and cull where necessary, cheers
Great article and really informative. This gives more clear picture of what domains to keep and what to drop. I closely follow your posts of each month where you share about renewals/drops.
Good luck!
I’m relatively new to all this and you are a source of information and inspiration. Thanks for sharing the stuffs which connects with experience.
I am doing about the same. I’m dropping the worst 20-25% trying to replace them with better ones.
Interesting as always, Konstantinos! Thank you.
@Konstantinos
I agree with Shane that it would be quite interesting to hear/read about your Domaining adventure from the beginnings to now in more detail.. maybe in an own exclusive article series published on your blog from week to week (or month to month)?
You are without doubt one of the most successful Domainers out there and it would be very inspiring for everyone in this business to see another “From Rags to Riches” story besides those from Frank, Rick and few others..
ps: am quite sure many others do agree with me on this
Thanks Daniel. I try and write a post about this.
I am not sure about “most successful Domainers out there” and I wouldn’t call it exactly “From Rags to Riches”… 🙂
So modest 😉
but thanks for giving it a thought
how about going on Domain Sherpa with your story Mike would love to have you on
I was asked in the past but my spoken English is not so good.
I am a bit rusty. I need at least a couple of days speaking it before I can do an interview.