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?

Nǐ hǎo! I’ve always kinda-sorta wanted to learn Chinese but last month, my wife and I have signed up for an actual Chinese class… should be interesting!

But why?!?

In my case, it’s a no-brainer, as I know how many additional doors knowing Chinese can open. Hopefully, once my Chinese is decent enough, we’ll be spending a month or two in China for business+pleasure reasons.

Yes, I know people can just use English, fair enough.

But we’re young and in our case, I see learning Chinese as an investment in our future. Not necessarily one that will generate returns right away but a promising one nonetheless (check out ChinaFund.com for some investment advice you can put to good use right away, although there are quite a few longer-term perspective articles over there as well).

Let’s look at it this way: perform a Google search for the term “Angus Maddison database” and you’ll come across data about which percentage of the world’s GDP various countries represented over the past 2,000 years… I kid you not.

You’ll notice something interesting: when it comes to the majority of those 2k years, China + India accounted for more than 50% of the world’s GDP. And as far as the Chinese culture is concerned… let’s just say that even the first emperor they have recorded information about is described as someone who *took over* an empire that was in bad shape and turned things around… but that empire already existed!

So, on the one hand, there are benefits associated with my career and on the other hand, there are benefits associated with immersing yourself in a culture as impressive as that of China.

But the potential economic benefits transcend just my career, make no mistake. I for one find it hard to believe that China will not become the world’s #1 economic power during the lifetime of most people who are reading this. In terms of GDP, of course, because even once that happens, China will have its share of poverty issues, for example Western China vs. the powerful coastal industrial regions.

But still, it is an economic force that shouldn’t be ignored, even if the benefits related to your career aren’t as obvious as in my case.

Perhaps investment opportunities will eventually arise, perhaps you’ll be able to *attract* investors from China… who knows. The bottom line is this: there will inevitably be several ups and downs over in China (the short domain mania represents an eloquent example that pertains to domaining). Even the US didn’t get to where it is today very smoothly, let’s face it.

But after drawing the line, this much is certain: there are or will be life-altering opportunities in China for pretty much everyone who is reading this and those who are properly immersed in Chinese culture (among other things, by trying to learn the language) will have a huge edge IMO.

Today: The floor price of a 3-character .com’s / ChandlerProject.org sold for $9,211 / Buying A Gaming Domain – 1 or 2 Word Brandable – Budget: Up to $6,000.00 / And more!

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

Buying 4L, 5L or 6L, only listed or approved on brandPa/brandBucket – Be sure to check your portfolio for one of these brandable four, five, or six letter domains. This buyer has a max budget of $300.00.

Buying Brandable domains – 5L.com, 6L.com – Do you have any five or six-letter, brandable, .com’s that meet this buyers guideline you would liquidate for up to a quick $30.00?

Fired.info – It’s a short, five-letter, .info gTLD that could be businesses or recreational related. Do you think that’s enough to give this domain value in today’s market? What is it worth?

Buying A Gaming Domain – 1 or 2 Word Brandable – Budget: Up to $6,000.00 – Be sure to triple-check your portfolio for a gaming domain name that meets this buyers specified criteria.

The floor price of a 3-character .com’s – Are you researching or investing into three-character .com domains? Check out what other like-minded investors are saying the floor value is and share your own thoughts.

ChandlerProject.org sold for $9,211 – That’s not a bad fifteen-letter, two-word, .org gTLD sales report for a high-four-figures. Do you think it should have sold for more or less than what it sold for?

Share your LLL.io domains without UHFYZQV – Are you investing in three-letter .io ccTLD’s and have some that don’t include the following letters: UHFYZQV? If so, share what you have and check out what other investors own.

Keyword domain or brandable. Dot com or ccTLD. Niche-specific metrics. Domain-specific metrics (age, past sales prices… if any, etc.), there are a ton of things that are on your mind if you’re serious about being a good domain investor.

Therefore, I don’t judge those who tell me they don’t care about politics-related stuff at all.

You’ve heard the narrative: that stuff just fills me up with negative energy, I stopped following the news a long time ago, I don’t even own a TV anymore, etc.

I get it.

But (because of course there is one!) you do need to understand that just like economics, there’s no running away from politics, there just isn’t.

If you think that as long as you’re a good domainer, you don’t have to care what your country’s politicians do, well… tell that to a domainer from the UK who invested in a bunch of let’s say one-word .eu domains and risks dealing with a business, legal and logistical nightmare in light of the entire Brexit situation.

If that’s too specific, think about scenarios involving the fragmentation of the Internet.

Michael COSTELLO (I know it’s Castello, just writing COSTELLO in the hope that he’ll drop by and say “It’s Castello… punk!” like he did when people misspelled his last name in the comments section back in the day… the good old days, heh!) has frequently voiced concerns about this scenario from a domain investor’s perspective and his arguments make perfect sense.

Currency wars (countries trying to weaken their currencies after a financial calamity, the Great Recession in our case) already escalated to trade wars from many perspectives… if any of those end up manifesting themselves in an “I’ll just pack up my toys and leave!” manner when it comes to the Internet, domaining as we know it will be in for its biggest test.

If you don’t know what currency wars or trade wars are, here’s a link to one of my one minute videos that’s about currency wars and here’s one about trade wars.

You probably already know a fair bit about the Great Recession, so there’s no point dwelling on that.

What I’m trying to say is that in an Internet fragmentation context, stuff would happen to domaining that would make past challenges (the post-Great Recession crash, new gTLDs and so on) look like a walk in the park and you need to keep your ear to the ground.

Is there something we as domainers can do to stop such things from happening?

Let’s face it… no.

Our industry is way too small for us to be able to influence things one way or another, the only thing we can do is voice our concerns whenever we can (during ICANN-related discussions, for example, or in other similar cases) and most importantly, plan ahead so that IF (not when but if… nothing is certain and there’s nothing wrong with hoping for the best) such a scenario ends up unfolding, at least we’re not being taken by surprise.

Therefore, yes, I’m afraid domainers do need to keep up with politics-related stuff.

Even if it only means spending 5-10 minutes each day reading the news. I’m not saying you need to invest a huge amount of time, I am however *strongly* recommending that you do something. You might hate it so much that you feel the need to shower right away after doing it but… yeah, sorry 🙁

Today: Can Non Chinese non Gov domainer from USA reg .gov.cn domains? / 2301.com sold for $24,250 / How to appraise a .FR ccTLD keyword domain / And more!

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

Domain for Software Consulting Company – Budget: Up to $15,000.00 – Be sure to check your portfolio for a software consulting related domain name that fits this investors criteria.

Artists/Designers /Creators / Branders who Domain – Are you a creative and investing into domain names? Take a look at this like minded creative just coming into the industry with some great ideas and inspiration.

The current state of typo traffic – Have you been following typo domain name traffic over the years? What do you think the current state of affairs is with typo traffic? Take a look at what some domain investors said.

How to appraise a .FR ccTLD keyword domain – Are you investing into any niche keyword .Fr ccTLDs? What are some tips you can suggest for a better evaluation? Check out what other .fr domain investors are saying.

2301.com sold for $24,250 -That’s not a bad four-number .com domain name sales report for five-figures. Do you think it should have sold for more or less than what it sold for?

Can Non Chinese non Gov domainer from USA reg .gov.cn domains? – Does anyone know the restrictions on the ccSLD .Gov.Cn? Can anyone own one or do you have to be a Chinese based Government agency?

The formula of success for creating a domain name – Do you use a special formula when researching domain names to find the gems? Take a look at the formulas other domain investors are using and compare notes.

I don’t know about you guys but personally, the idea of someone like myself (who works on a computer for a living) also spending his free time online seems… just plain wrong.

Therefore, I just can’t see myself wasting countless hours watching cat pics on social media, I just don’t see it happening. Perhaps if my job didn’t involve using the computer so darn much, there would be more of an appeal, I don’t know.

However, as someone who is also in the education space given the fact that I run the One Minute Economics YouTube channel (where I teach people economics through one minute animations)… I’ve decided to change my attitude toward social media this year.

I mean look: I’m an economist who wants to teach as many people as possible economics.

Why?

Well, because the difference between knowing and not knowing your basic economics can frequently end up being the difference between being financially resilient and being extremely vulnerable.

I’ve noticed that way too many economists judge “the average consumer” for spending so much time let’s say following celebrities on Instagram instead of educating themselves… while I agree that it’s a problem, I disagree on what those in the education sphere need to do about it.

Whining isn’t going to cut it.

So I ended up telling myself that look, I agree that too many people are following celebs on Instagram.

But why not see it as an opportunity?

If so many are doing this, it means their attention is on Instagram. And if their attention is on Instagram, perhaps I can tap into that and convince people to also spend a little bit of time learning.

How?

By sharing anything from memes to infographics… whatever it takes 🙂

The same principle is valid when it comes to Twitter, Pinterest and so on.

I’ve noticed that economics-related memes tend to do well on Instagram. On Pinterest, people seem to really appreciate infographics, so I’m having a bunch of infographics made, one for each video that I’ve published.

… the list could go on and on.

That made me think about domaining.

Frankly, I haven’t seen that many domainers try to properly leverage social media and while it isn’t as obvious as with education-related projects what you can do, I can’t help but think there’s some gold in them thar hills 🙂

What I do know is that if you understand what makes each platform tick and immerse yourself in the community, there’s a lot of free* exposure to be had. Please notice the “*” because there is a significant investment of time required, especially until you learn the ropes.

I wish this post could provide some easy-to-incorporate domaining solutions… unfortunately, it doesn’t.

But I hope that by sharing these thoughts as well as my own social media experience (albeit with a project that’s not related to domaining), I made some wheels spin in your brain. Sure hope so!

Today: Outbound Buyer Psychology / Visionable.com sold for $7,900 / First Domain Sale – Hosts.app – For: $2,000 / And more!

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

Wanted short brandable .com cannabis domain – Budget: Up to $4,999.00 – Be sure to check you domain portfolio for one of these brandable cannabis domains. This buyer is ready for a smooth transaction.

Buying: Word + “Tech” .com – TechFury.com / TechLabs – Budget: Up to $500.00 ea. – Double check your portfolio for one of these Word + “Tech” .com’s – (E.g. TechFury.com / TechLabs). If you have more than one, this buyer is ready to take them all off your hands if they meet their specified criteria.

Worst Legacy TLDs – Which one of the old legacy TLDs are the least popular to domain investors. Some investors seem to think there are several, if not most of the legacies that have fallen to the worst. What are your thoughts?

Outbound Buyer Psychology – Is there really such a thing as outbound sales psychology? If so, what would a strategy using such psychology look like? Take a peak at what some domain investors said.

First Domain Sale – Hosts.app – For: $2,000 – That’s a pretty cool four-digit new gTLD .app domain name sales report. Check out what some domain investors are saying about the sale.

Visionable.com sold for $7,900 – That’s not a bad ten-letter, single-word, .com domain name sales report for a high four-figures. Do you think it should have sold for more or less than what it sold for?

My experience pre-registering a .Dev – Has anyone else pre-registered a .Dev new gTLD extension yet? Check out the experience this domain investor had registering one.

The ideal scenario when it comes to domaining has always been acquiring good domains at low prices and selling them to end users. But as time passed, while many still hope to sell to end users, you’re left scratching your head if you were to analyze their business models.

Why?

Because two categories of domains stand out:

On the one hand, you have domains that don’t have end user potential because… well, because end users don’t want them. Or, to put things differently, there’s just no pool of potential end users for them.

A good example would be the overwhelming majority of LLLLL.com domains (five letters)… let’s be honest, the abbreviation potential is just not there and the likelihood of an end user contacting you about one is slim to none.

Even when it comes to LLL.coms, I distinctly recall a conversation I had back in the day with someone who had lots of LLL.coms for an extended period of time (with letters that were considered non-premium by Western standards but many of which would be considered premium by Chinese standards nowadays)… let’s just say end users weren’t assaulting him with offers 🙂

So, yeah… even for a lot of stellar names like LLL.coms, the end user game is not as easy as it seems, so if you were thinking about buying LLLLL.coms… don’t. At least not if your intention is selling to end users (but more on that a little later).

The second category is represented by domains that do have a decent pool of end users but have a reseller market value that’s more optimistic than the real end user potential. I’m referring to domains that are just so darn expensive these days compared to how much you could realistically sell them for to an end user that the numbers just don’t make sense.

For example (albeit an extreme one), any kid with a lemonade stand would love to own LemonadeStand.com but he just wouldn’t be able to pay all that much for it. In contrast, LemonadeStand.com could be auctioned at any half-decent domaining venue with no reserve and would most likely fetch a pretty penny. This would be an extreme example of a situation where there’s a disconnect between reseller market valuations and what end users can realistically afford to pay.

Oh and yes, I realize LemonadeStand.com could also be used as a great brandable domain, so let’s just leave that aside… I’m sure you get the point 🙂

What I’m trying to say is that domaining is a much more mature industry nowadays. This inevitably leads to low-hanging fruit being harder and harder to come by, it’s just the way it is.

Today, I brought two types of domains to your attention for which business models that revolve around end user sales don’t make any sense: domains that just don’t have enough potential end users on the one hand and overpriced domains on the other.

When it comes to both of these categories, it’s not impossible to make money. For example, your business model can revolve around flipping them on the reseller market or something along those lines. But the absence of any meaningful end user potential is, even in such cases, something that adds another layer of risk to the equation… so be sure to at least acknowledge its existence!