Today: What makes the final retail price of a domain name / Pysoft.com sold for $5,000 / Should I buy out a competitor .io domain? / And more!

Here are the new discussions that caught my eye in the domain community today!

looking to buy a brandable for domain marketplace – Budget: Up to $75 – If you have a brandable marketplace related domain name that meets this buyers specified criteria and want to quick flip it for some fast cash, this might be an opportunity.

Should I buy out a competitor .io domain? – Competitive buying. Do you play a counter-defensive competitive domain investing game to block other investors from getting a gem before you do? Check out what some domain investors are saying about it.

AFO.COM – Wow! Check out the domain name a broker put on the table to have appraised publicly. So far investors think it’s worth anywhere from $50k to $200k. What do you think it’s worth?

$5.99 .com domains @NameSilo – If you’ve been thinking about registering a new .com domain name to resell or develop, this $5.99 promotion might help.

Pysoft.com sold for $5,000 – That’s not a bad domain name sales report for a six-letter, brandable, pronounceable, .com. Do you think it should have sold for more or less than what it sold for?

What makes the final retail price of a domain name – Do you know what makes the biggest difference in the final selling/buying price of a domain name? Some domain investors think they figured it out. What do you think?

Discipline in Domaining – Do you have the proper discipline to be a successful domain investor? What is the disciplinary formula that you use? Take a look at what other domain investors do to discipline themselves.

Out of ~7.7 billion people on this planet today, roughly 1.4 billion of them live in China. It was hard to ignore China when they were going through a rough time economically (China after the First Industrial Revolution as well as China during Mao Zedong’s regime, two shameless plugs that I think you’ll find useful)… let’s not even talk about today’s China, with a GDP per capita that grew 25x (NOT a typo) since Mao’s death.

What I’m trying to say is that a trend has been set in motion that is ridiculously hard to stop and while there will be bumps in the road (remember, the US had its own share of problems until it became the economic superpower it is today!) as well as difficulties to overcome (the huge discrepancy between the economy of the highly industrialized regions of China compared to let’s say Western China), it’s only a matter of time until China will become the world’s largest economy.

And even once that happens, there will be PLENTY of room to grow, since its GDP per capita will still not be unbelievably high.

As such, I don’t care what industries you’re in, opportunities in China are and will be all over the place.

The trillion dollar question is this, however:

What exactly are you doing about it?

Time and time again, we become the masters of hindsight, the people who say “I knew all along that XYZ will be big” but made exactly $0 because they didn’t take any form of meaningful action to get a slice (no matter how small) of that pie.

What can you do?

Well, it depends.

I for one, as mentioned in an earlier post, am learning Chinese.

If you don’t want to do that, no problem. Some of you might decide to brush up on your history, especially Asian history. Great idea!

Others might choose to travel to China every now and then, make connections and see where that leads. Excellent!

As perhaps the architect of today’s China (Deng Xiaoping) said:

“It doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice!”

… a huge shift from Mao’s less than flexible ideology and wise words to live by, if you ask me.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter that much what you do as long as you promise yourself you’ll at least think of something to take advantage of this monster of a trend… which isn’t going anywhere. For a very in-depth perspective on all things China, I’d recommend checking out China Fund Dot Com when you get a chance to.

Half the battle is showing up 😉

Good luck!

Today: Share your 5 letter .com domains / SwimmingPool.de sold for $14,326 / I sold amor.tv for $2500 / And more!

Here are the new discussions that caught my eye in the domain community today!

Looking for One Word Brandable .com Domains (Aged) – If you have some single-word brandable .com’s in your portfolio that you would sell for up to $500.00, you may want to take a look at this buyers specified criteria.

BrandPa Portfolios + EMD domains – Budget: Up to $100.00 ea. – Do you have any BrandPa EMD assets in your portfolio you would liquidate for some fast cash? Check out this buyers guideline.

I sold aha.tv for $1200 – Here come the .tv ccTLD sales reports again. Those .tv’s just keep chugging alone. Do you think that this investor should have sold Aha.tv for more or less than what they sold it for?

I sold amor.tv for $2500 – For those of you still holding onto your .tv ccTLD’s tight, check out this other single-word .tv sales report.

SwimmingPool.de sold for $14,326 – That’s not a bad .de ccTLD, twelve-letter, two-word, five-figure domain name sales report. Do you think it should have sold for more or less than what it sold for?

Share your 5 letter .com domains – Are you investing in five-letter ,com domain name assets? Share a few of your best and take a look at what other five-letter domain investors are buying.

Funny comeback lines from endusers…. do you have one? – Have you ever sent out an outbound email and got a funny response from the potential buyer on the other end? What did they say? Check out some of the funny things other were told.

Time and time again, this way of thinking proves to be wise, at least in my case. When it comes to anything from domains to real estate negotiations, it makes sense to get outside your comfort zone and even if you think you’re being too aggressive… just ask.

I was involved in a negotiation this week for something I didn’t really *want* but I knew it was a decent opportunity. However, since I wasn’t really all that motivated, I felt I had nothing to lose and made a very, very low offer.

When it wasn’t accepted, I thanked the other party for their time and wished them all the best. A couple of hours later, I got a call that they changed their mind and decided to accept my offer, sealed the deal yesterday.

The thing is, our brains want to keep us safe more than anything else. As such, they’ll fight anything that takes us outside our comfort zone and the idea of asking for something that you think would be too good of a deal for you doesn’t represent an exception.

In my opinion, you need to have an “AHA!” moment and realize that while your brain’s defense mechanisms are more than justified evolutionary (being afraid to pet a tiger is a good thing, ask our ancestors!), in today’s complex world, your brain can end up being the very thing that stands between you and a good deal.

I’d strongly recommend deciding to no longer think this or that is out of your league, whether it’s a partnership with someone you perceive as being higher up the ladder than you or an acquisition.

Am I saying you’ll always succeed?

Nope.

Am I saying you’ll usually succeed?

Probably not.

But think of it from a best case/worst case perspective:

A) What’s the best thing that could happen? Well, you might end up on the receiving end of a truly awesome opportunity, one you would have been to afraid to pursue in the past… tempting!

B) What’s the worst thing that could happen? In most cases, just someone saying no… not pleasant by any means, but you’ll survive 🙂

I really believe people need to try rewiring their brains this way, as in my opinion, the risk/reward ratio is usually asymmetrically in your favor in such cases!

Today: Looking to Purchase a LL.cn domain – Budget: Up to $1,000,000.00 / GLO.tv sold for $1,049! / Just Playground.TV sold for $3,000! / And more!

Here are the new discussions that caught my eye in the domain community today!

Twork.net – I know twerking got popular a few years ago, but do you think the world is ready for a twork network? Ist even brandable in .net? What are your thoughts?

UniversalBasicIncome.info – Is that like universal healthcare, but for income? How would one monetize that and does the .info help or hurt it?

Looking to Purchase a LL.cn domain – Budget: Up to $1,000,000.00 – Stop the press! Did they just say $1,000,000.00 (One-Million Dollars)? If you have a two-letter .cn ccYLD you may want to jump in on this potential action.

GLO.tv sold for $1,049! – Wow! A .tv ccTLD sales report has emerged again. That’s not too bad for a pronounceable, three-letter, brandable, .tv.

Playground.TV sold for $3,000! – Boom! And yet another strong .tv ccTLD sales report for $3,000.00 on a ten-letter, dictionary-word. Should it have sold for more or less than it sold for?

Has .net fallen out of investors favor? – When did this happen? Does anyone investing in .net have some research data to compare to these claims? What has been your experience with .net gTLD’s in today’s markets?

Southampton.com sold for $36,237 – That’s not a bad domain name sales report for a eleven-letter, two-word, Geo, .com domain name for a nice five-figures.

Today: Falling in love with your own domain names / 10678.com sold for $12,227 / Just Closed my First Outbound Sale – It works! / And more!

Here are the new discussions that caught my eye in the domain community today!

Moouv.com – This is a pronounceable, five-letter, .com domain name that could work as a brand. Do you think that is enough to give value in today’s market though? Check out what other investors think.

Buying CC.org – Budget: Up to $1,500.00 – If you have any two-character .org domain names you would liquidate for some fast cash, take a peak at this buyers specified criteria.

Buying General Words .com domains – Budget: Up to $600.00 – Do you have any general word type domain names in your portfolio you would sell for up to $600.00? Take a look at this buyers guideline.

Just Closed my First Outbound Sale – It works! – Have you ever had any success with outbound sales? This domain investor tried it and made their first outbound sale today. Check it out.

Falling in love with your own domain names – Have you ever fell so deeply in love with one of your domain names that no amount of money would motivate you to sell it, so you develop it instead?

10678.com sold for $12,227 – That’s not a bad domain name sales report for a five-number .com domain for five-figures. Do you think it should have sold for more or less than what it sold for?

Anyone can sell a domain name if I could sell… – Now thst’s an interesting domain name sales report. Do you think the domain they sold was rubbish or did it warrant the value the buyer saw in it?

Etymologically speaking, the term “newbie”or “noob” might derive from “new blood” and I’ve chosen it for this title because in my opinion, our industry needs new blood desperately for it to even be called an industry.

Yes, “veterans” love making fun of beginners for their acquisition mistakes and all that but… frankly, the reseller market is witnessing first-hand what happens when “new blood” (those who are interested in making money online by investing) no longer considers domaining an attractive destination.

Nowadays, even after the humongous crash, it’s still all about crypto and while you might think it’s time to celebrate because there is less capital bidding against you at domain auctions… this might just be a curse disguised as a blessing for many reasons such as:

A) Less and less liquidity on the reseller market. Now there are certain domainers who are wealthy enough not to care about this. They only sell to end users and have a robust enough nest egg set aside so that if something like a medical emergency arises, they don’t need to liquidate domains on the reseller market. Most people, however, are not as fortunate and if you end up needing quick capital in a dry reseller market… good luck with that!

B) Less of a voice. The less influential an industry becomes, the less its voice matters and a few years from now, people would have told you you’re crazy if you would have predicted Verisign’s major attitude change when it comes to domainers, our most talented allies such as Phil Corwin moving on to greener pastures, etc.

C) Less critical mass when it comes to domaining-related projects. Even a few years ago, it was hard to do well with a business that catered primarily to domainers… don’t expect it to get any easier, on the contrary!

D) Less (or no) new leaders. My generation of domainers was spoiled because quite a few “old timers” were more than willing to generously share information free of charge. Unfortunately, I have it on good authority that they’re not immortal and with no new leaders being eager to fill the proverbial void, future generations of domainers won’t be as privileged as I have been

… I’m sure you get the point.

I wish I could do more through this post other than just (hopefully articulately) state the obvious but I really do believe there’s a ton of value in no longer minimizing the issue of “new blood” or “hotness” when it comes to domaining.

I have no idea what a solution to this problem would look like, but who knows! Despite domainers not always being nice to one another and despite the many shortcomings of our industry, there are a ton of talented individuals around who might be able to take this conversation to the next level!

Today: Hand Registration Contest ii March 2019 / Avesa.com sold for $5,150 / The appraisal of identity.id / And more!

Here are the new discussions that caught my eye in the domain community today!

DomainEscrow.net – What do you think about a domain escrow related .net? Could it be developed successfully with all the competition out there? What do you think it’s worth in today’s market?

Buying only “CBD” Domain – Budget: Up to $200.00 – Do you have any CBD domain names in your portfolio you would sell for up to $200.00 in fast cash? Take a look at this buyers guideline.

The appraisal of identity.id – Now, here’s an interesting looking new gTLD. A single dictionary word whos extension matches the words known abbreviation. How would place a value on a unique combination like this one?

Hand Registration Contest ii March 2019 – This looks like a fun contest to enter. Do you think you could grab the best hand registration to win? Have you entered yet?

Avesa.com sold for $5,150 – That’s not a bad five-letter, brandable, pronounceable, .com domain name sales report for a mid-four-figures. Do you think it should have sold for more or less than what it sold for?

Alternatives to outbound – Has outbound domain name sales worked for you? Does something else work better? Share what works for you and check out what is working for other domain investors.

… Stockholm syndrome?

As I was browsing around the domaining space this morning, it became clear to me that despite several years of cold showers, waaaay too many domainers are still buying the new gTLD dream.

They’re following landrush/GA phases, building portfolios, paying “premium” registration fees or at the very least higher-than-average renewal fees on completely unproven assets, calling other investors ignorant for not jumping on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity… I just don’t know what there is to say anymore.

At the end of the day, maybe articulating additional arguments as to why new gTLDs are just not worth it for investors (again, for investors, not developers) is pointless.

Instead, I’ll just go ahead and post a few questions for those who believe new gTLDs represent opportunities worth taking advantage of for domainers.

How much money have you invested in new gTLDs thus far?

How much money have you made thus far?

Has your new gTLD adventure been profitable or not up until this point?

Maybe the answers to these three questions are not exactly impressive. Perhaps you’re losing money now but believe there’s so much opportunity out there that it’s only a matter of time until things will move in your desired direction.

If that is the case, here are a two additional questions:

When browsing through databases of recorded sales, how many dot com sales do you have to go through until you get to a new gTLD sale?

Out of the new gTLD sales you do notice, how many are sales made by registries rather than individual domainers?

Leaving everything else aside, here are some final questions that pertain to your portfolio:

How many new gTLD domains do you own and how much does it cost to renew them each year?

What’s your average sales price for new gTLD domains?

How many sales would you need just to break even on renewals?

How many sales would you need to not just break even on renewals but also recoup your initial acquisition costs?

Which percentage of your portfolio would you need to sell at your average sales price each year just to break even?

Is that percentage higher than let’s say 2-3% per year?

If so, what makes you believe your new gTLD portfolio can beat a decent turnover rate (end user sales, not reseller market sales) for dot com portfolios?

… hopefully, answering these questions will help you draw your own conclusion when it comes to the financial viability of your new gTLD strategy.

I mean hey, maybe you’re making a ton of money via new gTLD sales and are laughing all the way to the bank… if so, good for you!

But I for one have not come across a single meaningful *domainer* success story that pertains to new gTLDs, as in a domainer who makes a decent living by buying/selling new gTLDs. I’ve come across several case studies involving registries who made a bunch of money selling their own premium inventory but domainers… yeah, not really 🙂

Food for thought…

Today: .com’s value influence when registered in other TLD’s / KAA.com sold for $19,999 / New .TOP domain registrations for $0.99! / And more!

Here are the new discussions that caught my eye in the domain community today!

Buying domains appraised at Godaddy over $4000 – Budget: Up to $500.00 ea. – Are you holding onto any domain names that has a Godaddy appraisal of at least $4,000 that you would sell for up to $500.00 in fast cash? Take a look at this buyers guideline.

RapidSnacks.com – This one sounds interesting. Fast/Rapid snakes… Who doesn’t like to get their snacks quickly? Do you think that catchy phrase is enough to give the domain name value though?

362224.com – What is going on in the six-number .com markets these days? Is there a floor value or things to look out for? How much would you appraise this one for?

New .TOP domain registrations for $0.99! – If any of you are investing into .top new gTLD’s, this might be a great opportunity to grab one cheap.

KAA.com sold for $19,999 – That’s not as high of a three-letter .com sales report I would have expected for that domain name. Do you think it should have sols for more or less than what it sold for?

.com’s value influence when registered in other TLD’s – What kind of value influence do you think a .com has that is registered in multiple other TLD’s? Check out what some domain investors are saying about it.

Crazy outbound domain sales stories – There are a lot of different types of encounters in outbound domain sales. Check out some of the crazy things some domain i9nvestors encountered. What’s your story?