Domain Stories

[Rockefeller]

I'd like to hear your domaining stories. How did you get into domaining? What was your first big sale? What does your spouse think of domain names? We all know that this is the place to come for domain names. Not many of us have people in the "real world" that we can talk to about domains, so here is your thread. Tell me your story.

I first seen a domain name listed on Ebay. It was a 3 letter .com and was selling for around $3K. I wondered if it was a website so I started researching a bit more. After about an hour I thought to myself "I can do this." I immediatley started searching for names. We all know how we were when we were newbies, you are destined to register horrible names, which I did, but I got lucky. I received an offer on Sedo for $350. I was so excited. Ever since then I have been hooked....that was years and years ago now...

 

[Rico]

My domain storie begon with mslinux.com which i registered and put on ebay for $1,000,000.00 I though it was a perfect name for Microsoft or linux (not aware of any tm's in that time)

After 10 days i got an email from a guy who wanted it for $250 I was a what the hell i sell! - after that i was quick in the drop game I knew the good domains where there, so i started acquiring names with traffic.. on top of that my referral code was quiet populair. I was making suddenly $20.000 a mnoth from my affiliates - I was as happy as akid in a candy store (1 real big player was my client)

Then I kept investing in traffic names and cool sounding names and 3 letter .coms which im still doing.

 

[typist]

I started registering some domains because I wanted to develop online shops... Needless to say, I never had time to develop these shops, and after renewing unused domains two years in a row I thought, ok, I'll let them drop. I can't remember why, but for some reason I decided to park the domains. When I saw the results, kept them...

 

[Argie]

Well, my first contact with the Domain World was here on 2004 (can't remember the month) . I was researching about different ways to make money online when i found DnForum (thank God!!). After that i spent a lot of time reading until i bought my first domain, it was eJavaScript.com (i still have it).

Unfortunately i've never found the way to make big bucks with domains (not yet), in fact, since 2004 i've made not more than $1000 dolars (yes, i know, it's sad), but i'm trying to change that.

I own 50 domains.

 

[Rockefeller]

Well its not really sad Argie, maybe you just don't know where to look..PM me and I will help you out.

 

[Rico]

you'll need traffic to make money.

 

[NameGuy]

mslinux.com

lol. Good one.

 

[Theo]

Registered my first domain 10 years ago, for my own portfolio.

As a newcomer to the US, my finances were limited but I started looking up domains for fun using NetSol's WHOIS tool. All creative names that I'd look up would be snapped within days; NetSol was selling the lookup records to other parties!

In 1998 I registered my 2nd domain, simply because I liked the way it sounded In 1999 I registered my 3rd one. All with Network Solutions. That 3rd one was a 2-worder that had 1 vowel different from a Singapore-based corporation (I registered mine first.) I started getting emails that were meant for them! After a lot of email forwarding I decided to ask if they'd be interested in buying the domain. So my first sale ever was a mid 4-digit one!

I got hooked and started getting drop lists from DomainsBot, going through each one (thousands of names) and picking cool-sounding domains & dictionary words. I used GoDaddy at that time and soon I moved to Stargate, which I used for 3-char .com registrations en masse. I must have sold 500 of those!

My 2nd sale ever was to an obscure British guy. Again, mid 4-figures for a 2-worder. After 2 years, he let the domain drop, never using it. After several years, he re-registered it a year ago. It's been "under construction" since

The rest of the story will be part of my memoirs

 

[Rockefeller]

I was approached almost 11 years ago now by a friend of mine asking if I had any spare cash. It was tax time and I had just received my income tax refund. I put in a few thousand dollars and purchased several domain names that you see me listing today. I was only 16! Now I am able to sell them at a great reseller's price and still make a profit. This was even before I knew what a domain name was and 5 years before I would get into domaining fulltime. It was probably one of the best decisions of my life.

 

[Theo]

The sad thing is those days won't return

 

[Rockefeller]

The sad thing is those days won't return

Yeah, I wish I had that opportunity again. I put in around $5,000 and purchased around 40 one word, generic, .com/.nets. I've only sold 4/30 here.

 

[Biggie]

Yeah, I wish I had that opportunity again. I put in around $5,000 and purchased around 40 one word, generic, .com/.nets. I've only sold 4/30 here. And what does this all lead too? Being harrassed by a mod because my whois info is in my partner's name.......wow.

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[domain newbie]

I hooked up on domains, when was researching/looking for a "make money while you sleep conception", coz i hate working..

...still looking!

 

[jasdon11]

I got turned onto domains when my brother told me he'd just paid (I think it was ) $8k for his companies name, mardon.com - and he thought it was a bargain.

That showed me that domains are like people - even the ugly ones can find love...you've just got to be a good match-maker.

 

[acegoet]

I am new to it. Just started about a year ago. Now I have about 80 or so names. Not too many, slowly growing and I typically stick to .com's. Only because that is the only extension I really understand! (to be clear I do have a few .net, .org, and .mobi)

The first name I purchased was in the high $x,xxx range. I have always felt I overpaid on the hype that it was going to be bought up by a big company. Luckly development of the name has allowed me to make my money back and now I'm onto profit. Parking it would have been a horrible failure.

I think the learning curve is pretty steep. I have found lots of value here at DNforum in just looking and watching. Being new to the game, I can't prove it, but it seems like parking $$ is falling for everyone...at least as a % of the true advertising revenue.

My goal with all of my domains is development or pointing. I only have 4 of the 80 parked. I find I can make more by developing 1 domian and using the others to drive targeted traffic.

Rockefeller, you must be married! My wife is a huge part of the game. We discuss every purchase and get mutual agreement before a purchase is made. That part can be frusturating....

Sales? I havn't sold on DNforum yet. My luck is in selling names to businesses I know are looking. Silly networking events do pay off! My first sale was for 50% more then I paid for it....and the buyer considered it a steal.

Umm...so that's me so far. Not too much excitment. My wife and I still have full time jobs, but I have made enough to know that even if domain names are harder to come by, the Internet is still the new: Wild, Wild, West.

 

[Jacksplat]

A few years ago I wanted to build a family tree site, featuring the family tree my father spent years making. Much to my dismay my surname was taken. I checked other possibilities and they were all taken too. While on the registrars site I though I'd check for my given name (taken) my wifes name (taken) all my kids names (7 of them) taken, all their middle names (between 2 and 11 middle names each) all taken. For kicks I checked many names of interest to me and everything was taken. Much of the names were owned by mattel, hasbro, barbie and others.. They tm many of their doll names even if the doll had minimal shelf time. To sum it up after a short time i figured out how to find the owner/s of some of these names and I began inquiring to buy some. My surname owner simply stated "I'm not interested", my wifes given name wanted 35,000GBP. Many of the others didnt reply or the price was unreal (I thought) I then checked on the .ca of my names, offered upwards of ten k for one.. many of the .ca collectors dont reply to offers. I've offered to consider the price of Kevin.ca each year, she never replies. It's parked, shes a collector, and perhaps doesnt sell names. Anyhow, frustrated, I do as I always do in any situation like this (I Research more) Seeing the potential I of course got involved and start buying up decent names, registering other potentially good names as well. I rarely speak of my domains and have kept many a secret with assorted idents and servers for some sites. I have at least 1500 domains now and have no plans of stopping. I stay on top of the original names I got into this game over. I'm not one to give up. Although I earn sweet coin in this market, I understand everything goes up and down. I stay flexable and develop sites more than I buy domains. I consider the www as I would have considered the early years of Television and the Radio. Get in while there's room on a level which everyone has access. Things are changing and If your not on your toes you will miss the ride.

I'll stop now, I can go on and on.

Jack

 

[Rockefeller]

I am new to it. Just started about a year ago. Now I have about 80 or so names. Not too many, slowly growing and I typically stick to .com's. Only because that is the only extension I really understand! (to be clear I do have a few .net, .org, and .mobi)

The first name I purchased was in the high $x,xxx range. I have always felt I overpaid on the hype that it was going to be bought up by a big company. Luckly development of the name has allowed me to make my money back and now I'm onto profit. Parking it would have been a horrible failure.

I think the learning curve is pretty steep. I have found lots of value here at DNforum in just looking and watching. Being new to the game, I can't prove it, but it seems like parking $$ is falling for everyone...at least as a % of the true advertising revenue.

My goal with all of my domains is development or pointing. I only have 4 of the 80 parked. I find I can make more by developing 1 domian and using the others to drive targeted traffic.

Rockefeller, you must be married! My wife is a huge part of the game. We discuss every purchase and get mutual agreement before a purchase is made. That part can be frusturating....

Sales? I havn't sold on DNforum yet. My luck is in selling names to businesses I know are looking. Silly networking events do pay off! My first sale was for 50% more then I paid for it....and the buyer considered it a steal.

Umm...so that's me so far. Not too much excitment. My wife and I still have full time jobs, but I have made enough to know that even if domain names are harder to come by, the Internet is still the new: Wild, Wild, West.

LOL, yes, I am married. I forgot to mention that when I first started in the business I would spend hours and hours on the computer. My wife would rag on me about not spending time with her. As I became more experienced I now spend less time at the computer and more time with her. I had to sit her down one day and explain that the computer, and me being "on" it, is the reason that we have food on the table everynight.

 

[jazzpetals]

I developed a couple of websites and decided it was too much work, was spending way too much time on the pc, so I gave up on the sites, but still had the domain names. I stumbled onto the old Afternic, where I saw people were selling their names, I've sold some, but none for big bucks....I had no idea back then about traffic or parking, and I got in too late in the game for that, just hoping someday a name or two will find its way to an end users' hands. I might go back to developing until then, since what with RSS feeds and such, maintaining a site seems to be much easier now than it was back then.

 

[Hal]

I was watching a movie called "About a Boy", starring Hugh Grant. Already inspired because his character "earns" 40k GBP a year of royalties from a Christmas carol that his father or grandfather wrote, I immediately started looking for domains after a bored Hugh types in girlswithbigbreasts.com on his computer. I was already active on the web prior to that but only bought domains that I planned to develop immediately or almost immediately.
I can't claim particular success in domaining but doing ok with parking, make some sales now and then, and have endless ideas for development. Hoping to launch many new sites in 2007.

 

[leo]

I wanted to buy first website way back in 1997 but i lived in india at that time and domains costed a ton in indian rupees so could get myself a dot com so i built myself websites in free hosts most of my sites were based on hacking and free music downloads..and some on exotic cars..i just wish i had boguth those dot coms sighh i am sure they would be jems now ...after several years i bought my first domain nraged.com and now got addicted and got a few other domains still ahvent made much money yet but nraged won me $1500 in a web award and got my pic in several major newspaers in UAE so i dun mind