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Just dropped 198 New gTLD domains and saved $45,000

Just saved about $45,000 of future renewals by dropping 200+ domains, including 198 New gTLDs.

This is the review of my domain name renewals and drops in the months of March and April 2017.

I had about 1,568 domains in many different extensions expiring in the months March and April. These are busier months than usual.

DROPS

I had 276 New gTLD domains expiring for a total renewal cost of $7,255. Most of my New gTLDs are in Donuts extensions.

I decided to drop 198 of them that had a $4,508 total yearly renewal cost. The average renewal price of these dropped domains was about $23. I dropped about 72% of my New gTLDs.

So these domains were not too expensive in average but were a lot of them and in extensions that don’t sell. 125 of them were .photos (photographers don’t pay anything for domains) and .domains. I guess you all know about domainers and their love/hate relationship with New gTLDs and also how they are not paying much money to fellow domainers.

I am not only dropping New gTLDs. I also dropped 19 other domains: 5 .com, 2 .net, 1 .org,  6 .info, 1 .biz and 4 .us. But that is a very low percentage compared to the New gTLDs.

Here are a few of the domains I dropped:

friend.photos
star.photos
england.domains
revenue.domains
gay.holiday
england.marketing
select.photo
redcarpet.photo
freelance.photo
grey.photo
greek.photo
infrared.photo
extreme.agency
glamour.agency
carribean.us
internetbusiness.biz
bistrot.us
adultshow.org
distill.info
greektv.net
tissues.info
fiestas.info
excaliber.info
humiliation.info
manipulation.info

and here are some more domains I dropped:

remote.training
unlimited.training
blog.systems
open.training
custom.training
broadway.agency
architecture.agency
europe.agency
adult.agency
hollywood.agency
logistics.link
revenue.domains
list.domains
branding.domains
country.domains
blackandwhite.photos
restore.photos
agency.photos
company.photos
website.photos
original.photos
platinum.photos
quality.photos

RENEWALS

I renewed 78 of my New gTLDs for a total of $2,747. The average renewal price was about $35 so you see that is not always about price but it is a combination of price and quality.

I follow my 10 rules and decide firstly based on quality and potential and then on renewal price.

I renewed New gTLDs domains such as:
sold.domains
e.repair
sport.marketing
sports.marketing
weed.farm
print.green
o.domains
t.domains
q.domains
r.domains
usa.repair
like.photos

There are 14 domains out of 78 with a renewal price of over $40. These bring up the average renewal.

My average on the 550+ New gTLDs I had at the end of 2016 was at about $40. I see this average coming down to about $35-$36 when 2017 is over. I have already dropped 223 New gTLDs in the 1st 4 months of 2017. I don’t expect that many drops in the coming months.

I renewed about 1,273 domains in .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .us in these 2 months. So the percentage of dropped domains in these extensions is very low compared to the New gTLD percentage.

DISCUSSION

I don’t liquidate my domains by selling them for $5 or $10. That takes too much time for me that simply it is not worth my time. I just drop them. But that is just me. I very rarely flip domains.

So by dropping 198 New gTLD domains I actually saved $45,000 in renewals from these drops as I consider all domains as at least a 10 year investment.

These renewals and drops were decided before the Uniregistry wholesale price increase and the Uniregistry retail price increase. And I had started dropping New gTLDs in January and February.

This has not changed much about my New gTLD strategy except maybe it will make me drop more of the (very few) domains in the Uniregitry extensions that I have. I am just telling you this to not think that Frank’s decisions affected my decisions. I had done this review in February.

(If you want to read more about my New gTLD investment you can read here and here.)

This is not something new. I am always reevaluating and dropping domain names. I had decided to cut down on my New gTLD renewals and I should have done it last year. But last year I was very busy making money selling to the Chinese! I didn’t have time to do proper reevaluation. This takes time but also it also saves a lot of money in the long run as you can see.

But New gTLDs were fresh out of the market in 2014 and I did some mistakes. The most important mistake was buying domains in extensions that people don’t want to pay any money for (like .photos or .gallery) or buying domains that weren’t taken in many other extensions. The other mistake I did was buying a lot of domains where the .com equivalent was for sale at a very low price. No one will pay $1,500 (and have a $40 renewal) if the .com costs just $2,000.

I mostly made the mistake of rushing in and not following my own rules. I have a few rules on deciding what domains to drop and what to renew and I follow them when deciding what to buy too.

But something good came out of these drops. I actually made some money. First of all I tried to sell some of my New gTLDs. I sold one for $600. I was probably going to drop that one.

I also found a matching .com to my New gTLD for $365 and bought it. I then decided to renew this New gTLD although I was dropping it initially.

2 months later and I now have a deal to sell this .com domain and the money is in escrow. But that is another story.

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.

41 comments

  1. Congrats on the saving. Who said new extensions can’t make you money ? 😀

    And indeed reevaluating one’s own portfolio should be done at least once a year.

  2. Andrea Paladini

    Great choice of dropping those new gTLDs … they are just bills … 🙂

  3. Thanks for sharing and worth reading it. You didn’t mention this time what sample of domains you are going to drop and renew other than new gTLDs. Thanks anyways 🙂

  4. It’s nice to see that you held onto some of the new gTLD’s. Single letters in any extensions are generally liquid to some degree, so there’s always some cash in those later. Weed.Farm is excellent with the big “Legal Marijuana” movement happening. Hold that one!

  5. With all due respect , of the names your dropping g , there is not one that I would of registered to start with , I don’t think this is a gtld problem I think it’s choice of domain problem . Good choice in dropping these .

    • Phil, the good names cost $100-$3000 in annual renewals, it is pointless, you will bleed to death, and then the registry takes the name back, when you have no more blood to give.

      Your renewals are exceeding your sales, and sales are slowing, and if registrants are going the new gtld route why would they pay anyone $30K for solar.services, when they can go get solar.solutions for reg fee * Just using that as an example as they can sub so many different extensions in a startup stage, and worry about the rest later. Most companies end up failing anyways.

      If K went back to 2014 knowing what he knows now, and had that bankroll to use on .com, he would be much more ahead.

      Live, and learn, but don’t keep making the same mistakes over, and over.

      • Im not sure what they paid, but a large solar company did buy solar.services and they are currently redirecting the name , it looks like they also have a .solar name as well.

    • I post the worst ones. I bet you have a few bad ones too.

    • Domain Observer

      Agreed. It depends on each individual name regardless of extensions.

    • Phil, with all due respect the stuff you have picked up is in the exact same boat.

      • Snoopy ? The stuff I picked up? Help me with the names your speaking of?

        Do you mean all gtlds , or you think a few I have picked up are like the ones he dropped ?

        I don’t think you mean to say that names like smart.watch , cannabis.online , car.loans green.world are the same boat as the ones he dropped?

  6. did you drop any eap ? or quality word.word names that flow well? like the above dropped seemed like one offs.. instead of freelance.photo freelance.photography or even the .photos or friendly.photos verse friend.photos would be more branable

    maybe share 5-10 of the best ones you dropped to give us an example of quailty..

  7. Rather than dropping tons of new g’s why not post them for-sale and see if you can at least recoup some investment? Many times one mans junk is another mans treasure…

    Something is better than nothing and a drop equals zero. JMO.

  8. This is what a New G for sale looks like on the domain forums: “For Sale $1000 – 24 hrs only”

    Two days later: “Price reduced $750 – 24 hrs only”

    Four days later: “$500 TODAY ONLY”

    One week later: “$250 – available offer for 24 hours only”

    Two months later: “bump”

    Three months later: “Free”

    • I’ve grabbed some nice g’s that were being dropped for one reason or another. If the quality is really bad I can see where it would not be worth your time, just saying for little effort you never know but I understand everyone has their own strategy and time restraints.

    • Aaron, not a good strategy for a domain you’re wanting to drop. 🙂

  9. thanks for sharing

    weed.farm is good lol :)) can compete against top names.

  10. Dropping 12000 plus XYZ domains at Uniregistry , waste of money even at the one cent promo

  11. I’m surprised you have a dot farm.
    I thought I was the only one with a dot farm!

    You also have companies like monsanto that maybe would like your domain so you dont only have to target MJ operators. They originally made their name with weedkiller.

  12. Should I drop my Weeds.City ? Or keep it ?

  13. @Raymond,

    It is absolutely worthless. I am continuously amazed at how some people claim to imagine to see any value in ANY of the new .gtlds. To me, they are all worthless horse manure.

    • @dave , it surprises me that someone would ever make s blanket comment like that. Lots of really nice sales of new gtlds , thousands of great sites being put up on new gtlds , there is junk in every string and are great names in every string .

  14. Nice list of keepers.

    That’s a big chunk of change you’re going to save on renewals could put that to use on a single word domain.

  15. I quite understand the whole thing especially new gtlds but in order to avoid high renewal costs I usually register just few exceptional .com domains only at a time for 2 years at promo prices with GoDaddy then try to sell them within this period (also buying few more at Flippa or GoDaddy Auction as well). I did make a mistake of dropping some good domains which are then taken by other persons like Drop Catch or Huge Domains so now I just list such domains before registering if they are still worthwhile at a later date only after selling some first thus limiting my portfolio to a maximum of 150 domains mainly .com’s.

  16. wise decision to drop .photo.

    By the way, I am holding some Ngtld’s, share your thoughts on that.

    cars.zone
    digital.zone
    green.zone
    fly.zone
    speed.zone
    internet.zone
    newyork.zone
    losangeles.zone
    robotic.zone
    animation.zone

    apps.guru (app.guru owns by amazon and redirects too)
    dm.guru
    account.guru
    recharge.guru
    patents.guru
    transplant.guru

    ayurveda.city
    warehouse.city
    SOLITAIRE.GIFT
    airfare.global
    kabaddi.club
    rummy.live
    commercial.media
    tvc.media
    warehouse.property
    barcode.work
    Program.codes

    thanks in advance,

    ashvin*

  17. So by dropping 198 New gTLD domains I actually saved $45,000 in renewals from these drops as I consider all domains as at least a 10 year investment.

    ////////////////////////

    Kidding yourself because you renewed 80 others. How much did that cost? If you believe it is a 10 year investment why drop 200 names in under 3 years? Nobody waits 10 years for something to work out.

    • I wrote how much the 80 domains costed. I dropped the worst. When I buy 1000 .com I don’t expect to sell them all in 3 years but I expect to sell enough. I have sold new gtlds but not enough so I am reevaluating. I will still have new gtlds by year 10.

  18. K, thanks for sharing. Posting your names that you have and/or drop is a gutsy move on a blog. You always open yourself up for criticism by others who think they have better knowledge. I like to see what seasoned domainers have in their portfolio. Thanks again.

  19. You would save money if you did not buy them.
    Now you are just cutting losses.

  20. Thanks for publishing this information and being so honest about it. I have also let hundreds of domains drop, though mainly domains registered during promos where a domain cost like $0.99 each.

    Brandon

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