OnlineDomain.com Domain Name News & Opinions
In the past year or so I have decided that whenever I make a sale I will use some of the money for renewals.
I am not talking about the normal renewals that I usually do every 3-4 months and are quite costly.
I am talking about using 3-4% of the money to renew my best domain names for 5+ years each.
I started with what I believed were my top 10 domains and renewed them for 8-9 years. I then expanded to 20, 50 and now 100 domains. I intent to go to at least 200-300 domains and maybe more. These are domains that I know they have significant value and had multiple offers. But I also renew domains that are developed and make money (even though they are not that great), domains I want to develop, or domains that have some other functionality or personal value to me. These are all domains I know I want to keep for at least 20-30 years. The bulk of my domains are reevaluated on a yearly basis.
I want to note that I never renew at the max 10 years that is allowed by ICANN. I always leave 1-2 years so in case I want to transfer my domains to another registrar I will not lose the transfer fees. Yes, according to ICANN if your domain name expires in 10 years from now (the max) then if you transfer a domain to a new registrar the transfer fee does NOT add an additional year to your domain. The $10 are essentially lost.
Renewing all these domains is not actually a big cost but it gives me some peace of mind. It has been maybe $6,000 so far but I need to remind myself to do it because I forget and I tend to put all the domains in the regular renewal batches even though not all domains I own have similar value. This is a good way for me to quickly identify my best domains.
I renew the domains for a few reasons. First of all I want to be sure that I can run my business for many years to come even if something bad happens. Something bad can be anything from a worldwide recession, legal trouble, registry/registrar technical problems, registrar goes under (see Alpnames), etc. Or I somehow simply forget a few domains for a couple of months. (I have not lost a domain this way but I am just saying.)
And of course if something bad happens to me then it will be easier for my family to manage my domains if at least the best ones don’t start expiring as soon as I am gone.
Another minor reason is that .com prices are going up in the next few years so it doesn’t hurt to same a few bucks in renewals. And finally some interested buyers may stop waiting hopelessly for a domain name to expire and act faster!
OnlineDomain.com - © Copyright 2012-2024 - All Rights Reserved
nice note
I usually get a warning when prices are going to increase but I do regret not doing this 12 years ago.
Up until a few years ago my average price was around $8 including WHOIS privacy.
When the prices of some TLD’s started going up I disposed of those TLD’s as I really felt they had no value.
I was offered $1500 for a domain I felt was worth more about 5 years ago and repeatedly but I declined, then about a year ago I sold it for $10k and have been using that to fund all my renewals.
I know with some effort some of my domains could easily be sold for $10k as I can show they can earn $3k a month and I know that niche who can make the $3k, just been too busy to get around to it.
I think I will try and sell one of them and do what you say, domain renewal pricing can only get worse despite the fact that it is really foolish of the TLD operators.
Every time they put up the prices I review each of my domains, I may cut my losses because the attachment is probably more emotional or not appreciating sunken cost is not relevant. I got rid of 99% of my .info and .biz, I checked on them at the end of last year, they are not registered so that is lost income for them, not only that, I simply will not buy any .biz or .info domain unless a client specifically asks for it.
Extending for 10 years also makes sense as it adds value to any potential buyer, I would siggest that once you have the top 500 at 10 years you still add a year every time they drop to 9 years.
I also use money from domain sales to renew domains and other domain-related products.
At Dynadot there is a 5% sales fee for “inhouse” sales, the money stays at Dynadot but is handy for renewals
I also renew my domains between 2 and 5 years if I receive a good purchase offer, in a year I sell, if not, I prefer more years to make money with advertising content websites, in different formats for PC. mobile, tablets and social networks are get traffic, clicks and visits, to get this write good short titles, good content of the product “Keyword of the domain”
Happy Day. Jose.
Jose
I guess it depends on how many domains you have and their potential.
These days I have a spreadsheet of my domains with a column for WHAT it could be used for and WHO might want it.
I had a domain that was the .com variant of a major windows company, I actively contacted a number of their competitors, one was interested, I pointed out that for 3 of their average sales they could secure the most authorative TLD but they did not get it. They had even started a business using the name of that old company and had crap domains. I held onto it for several years, stuck it on Sedo for 10k and along came a roofing manufacturer who liked the name and they just paid it.
That Window company will never get another chance to buy that domain.
One of the messages I always try to convey is that owning another domain is like owning a shop in another town or country that is virtually rent free, all they need is the shopfitting (web design) and to create demand.
Also Jose, the age of a domain is a ranking factor, so by letting it go you trash the value.
If you really don’t want to keep it then stick it on a platform of your choice (anyone but GoDaddy) even Flippa if you are selling just for what you have invested to date.
Get your stupid spam off this page