Just like you have strengths and weaknesses in other areas of your life, they’re present when it comes to your domaining journey as well, so identifying the #1 strength/weakness would be a decent starting point in my opinion.
I’ll go first:
My #1 strength: the fact that I’m very good at buying the right domains at the right prices. As some of you guys know, I’m a cheap bastard and therefore extremely picky/aggressive when purchasing something.
For this reason, I rarely get carried away.
If for example the bidding heats up during an auction and the price exceeds the risk/reward ratio I’m satisfied with, I’m out. Some people let their emotions get the best of them once a bidding frenzy starts, I’m not one of them.
The same way, I’m very aggressive when negotiating acquisitions.
All in all, my personality as well as acquisition-related skills enable me to be a very competitive domain buyer.
My #1 weakness: I’m not as good when it comes to selling domains. I frequently take the proverbial bird in hand and since I’m a flipper at heart, it’s very hard for me to say no to a deal which involves me making more than I’ve invested.
That’s why as a broker, I focus on reseller market sales exclusively and charge the lowest commission by far (3%). By doing that, I’m putting a very good deal on the table for those who are for example selling short domains or generally speaking, highly liquid domains for which approximating the reseller market value is relatively easy.
Why?
Because sure, you could get more by auctioning it for example but the commission you’d have to pay would be in the 15%-20% area. For certain domain types (highly liquid domains such as LLL dot coms for which the reseller market value is relatively easy to approximate), you’re better off letting me be your broker at a 3% commission because after subtracting the commission from the final sales price, you’re most likely going to end up making more money by having me as a broker than by auctioning it due to the ridiculously low commission I charge.
For less liquid domains or for domains you want to move at end user prices, my brokerage service isn’t the best solution and that’s why I for one don’t accept such projects.
Other domainers/brokers are very good at saying no and extracting higher sales prices. In my case, there’s plenty of room for improvement in this area.
What about you guys?
June 24th, 2014 at 2:24 am
A very interesting topic. For me, as a domainer, my strengths are…
1. I am pretty good at marketing (especially niche marketing).
2. I price my domains cheap.
3. I am consistently disciplined.
4. I plan things very well.
5. I constantly increase my knowledge about the business.
Weaknesses…
1. I am also involved in other businesses.
2. Less time devoted to this business.
3. More focused on other areas of my life such as family, social life, meditation, writing, etc.
There are many more strengths and weaknesses I am sure but don’t want to write a blog post out of it. But, all said and done, I am pretty certain that this is a wonderful business to be in and I will never mock or put down domain names (no matter what extension) but only put down and eradicate those domainers who claim to know it all (for eg. Rick). Domainers who claim to know it all are the ones who put down the same industry that helped make them money and such people are the scum of the earth in my book.