Do You Want To Be A Domainer? You Need To Work Hard!

gtldsI want to offer a real example of what is needed to become a domain name investor. How to buy good domains and ultimately sell them and be a domain investor.

You need to work hard. Every day. For years. There are no magic tricks in this business just like any other business.

Do you want to succeed? You need to work harder than most other people.

So here is my example from this past summer. This doesn’t just apply to New gTLDs but applies all domain lists such as the expired/dropping domain lists. Of course many will say that I wasted my time buying these domains but time will tell. The point is that whatever domain names you are buying you need to work and do the research.

So here is my summer experience. Donuts released over a million of New gTLD domains over the summer. I bought over 130 of them (read here a small list). But I didn’t just buy them! I researched thousands of domains to get to these 130 domains.

I spend hours upon hours per week reading boring lists.

I took the 144 collision lists, took out maybe 50 strings that I don’t care about and then took out the junk domains off the lists. (domains like 324ferfe3.guru) That left me with 90 lists with 2500 domains on average in each list. That left me with about 225,000 domains. That is like a 750 page book. Guess what I did? I read all these thousands of domains. At night, during weekends etc. All of them!

I sorted out the ones I liked. That is not easy to do. It takes years of experience and years of reading expired domains lists. I have been “reading” since 2002 when I read the entire .info landrush list. And I do it faster now because of practice.

I then checked the most popular extensions and found if these left.right combinations were registered in them. If the domains were registered in 6-10+ TLDs the domains remained in the list. I also checked Google to see the popularity of each term.

Then I took out the domains that were reserved by Donuts, took out the domains that had a renewal rate of more than $100 and finally took out the domains that were bought before I had a chance to get them. I probably ended up with 150 domains. That is across 12 weeks, so it was a bit more than 10 domains each week. I then preordered the domains to at least 2 registrars. I lost a few. Not much. I won a few in auctions too.

But if you ask me: “What did you do this week?” and I reply “I bought 10 domains” that does not paint the entire picture. It doesn’t describe the hours spent on this task.

No, I will not sell a domain name I bought for $200 for $400 today. I have a lot more than $400 in it. Most people don’t understand it. They will say “100% return on investment”. Hmmm… No, thanks!

How many people did this during the summer? Maybe 5 or 10 in the world. And maybe a couple of people have automated software. But that misses a lot of domains. That will probably miss some domains from your niche.

So this is the work needed to become a domain investor. Can you take it?

And then you need to sell the domains you bought and that takes even more work.

I have already sold 2 of these 130 domains and I have a 5 figure offer on a 3rd. With these 3 I will cover my summer financial investment. But not my time. Not yet.

And finally I can’t stress this enough. You need to keep track of the past domain name sales. All sales. This is how you spot a trend or a buyer that buys similar domains. And this is how you learn what domains to buy and how to price your domains and not leave money on the table. Again judgement is needed as many domain sales contain cheap prices or one time purchases. You need to identify these.

For New gTLDs there is only one website to visit to search for past domain name sales: Sold.Domains. (shameless plug)

Sold.Domains

About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

25 comments

  1. Dead on information…plus you become the best in the world in your domain “base word” if you stay at it for years!

  2. I use my God’s given “BullS” common sense and working smart!!

  3. Yep, a lot of work that people dont see. Good job on your domain selection. I been doing my dues in nyc and its a lot of work.

  4. “i call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man.”

  5. great article. glad to read that im not the only crazy one ..

  6. “How many people did this during the summer? Maybe 5 or 10 in the world.”

    I hope you included me in this number…..:)

  7. Spot on. It’s important for non-domainer buyers to understand the work that goes into selecting and managing domain inventory.

    End users don’t just undervalue domains because they fail to see benefits or are unaware of market prices; they also undervalue domains because they don’t imagine the labor involved in bringing digital goods to market.

    Ugh! I shudder to think how many thousands of pages of domain lists guys like us have “read” over the years. Algorithms get us only so far.

  8. Nice article konsta and agree that domaining is not that easy business needed lots of hardwork and research to grab the niche domains. Its almost more than an year since the new gTLDs launch I spent most of the time doing research and finding the convincing domains suitable to my budget even though I lost the money registering waste domains and trying to replace them with good ones. Till date I sold 2 domains for (5k & 7k) and this month received 70+ inquiries @ DNS except couple of genuine offers but they are not upto my expectation.

    Advance Wishes to you all a Happy New Year 2016
    2016 brings you Prosperous Life and Great Success
    Lets celebrate New Year – New Domains – New Sales

    To view our domains portfolio visit : abc.domains

  9. This is bad advice.

    Working smart is important. Smart and hard is much better.

    I made a mistake in spite of domain king’s advice. Buy small number of high quality domains which are easy to spot and easy to sell that too with high return on investment.

  10. Great article, Konst. Now I know what I’m getting into.
    Maybe you can share some example of a domain that you bought. What went into your mind as you were researching. And when you see that domainavailable, did you go crazy. Did you jump up and down? Were your fingers shaking when u regged it? Once it’s paid for, what figure do you imagine in your head when the sales time come? Give us your vivid narration.

  11. Very good post K and I wish u a happy new year.

    • ah yes, I forgot ..

      domaining means research research research research research research research research research research research research research research research research research research invest money invest money invest money invest money invest money invest money invest money invest money invest money invest money invest money invest money invest money invest money invest money = sell one name

  12. Very good article, people on main street do not realize the work involved in selecting a domain.
    Happy New Year
    Richard St Cyr

  13. you are working too hard bro. its 2015. nobody is ‘looking at lists’ my computer does that …. 😉

  14. Konstantinos Zournas who bought these domains .xyz and where they were sold in an auction. Were the buyers real or a fake flashing game.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.