- Joined
- Feb 13, 2006
- Messages
- 821
- Reaction score
- 24
Fellow Domainers
I thought it would interesting to share some interesting stories from our time as domainers. I'll start.
I stumbled on domaining only about 5 years ago. I was passionate about computers and the internet but never really thought I could make money from it. I come from humble beginnings and work a desk job which isn't all that interesting. I originally wanted to start my own blog and looked into getting my name as the domain. Surprise, surprise the domain was already taken and I was so disappointed! However, it was a blessing in disguise because it prompted me to learn more about aftermarket and how domains are bought, traded and sold. Had my name been available in the .com originally I probably would have just regged it and never looked back. Instead I became caught up in the fascinating world of domain name trading. For whatever reason I was instantly hooked.
I remember spending hours on the big forums (including DNF of course!) trying to learn how it all worked. I knew nothing about TLDs, registrars, PPC, drops and the like. It was all new to me. I remember being stunned by the amounts of money some of these names were going for. I quickly began regging some names that I thought surely would make me money...and of course they never did. After some time I began focusing on acronyms after seeing the big boys like TheLegendaryJP and AndyBooth flipping LL and LLL names for five figures and up! I had to get into that somehow I thought. I began saving up a weekly domain budget of $50 and using it to buy LLL.biz or some shit like that and eventually amassed quite a collection. Prices seemed to be always on the rise so I'd flip them and then use the money to buy new names. After about a year I had made enough to buy my first LLL.net - whoah!!! Then things just continued like that. Buy names, sell names.
I quickly realized that I could not both buy and sell on the forums - I had to find a better source for the names. Heck - why not email a bunch of domain owners and ask them if they wanted to sell their names to me?! So that's what I did. I wasn't using any automated tools so I didn't consider it spamming and because it was all manual I could really only send out about 10 or 20 emails a week before I got bored. But eventually I found names. At that point I was still only able to afford LLL.nets and perhaps the occasional LLL.com. I remember my first LLL.com - what a treasure! I'd come from dealing in $10-$20 names to actually owning a LLL.com worth about $2000! That was a real confidence booster.
Anyway, after I'd saved up about $5000 I thought I'd try and email a few LL.com owners. I knew these LL.com names were worth six figures so part of me thought this would be a waste of time but I thought what the heck and sent out a few random emails. Not many, maybe about 10 or 15. Of course all were either no-response or "go to hell" responses but one day I got a reply that said "Yes we're interested in selling did you have a budget in mind?". I was so happy that someone just agreed to talk to me let alone make a sale! The website for this LL.com was for a small regional bank but what got me excited was that it appeared they had just merged with a bigger bank and were in the process of changing their name. I decided to reply by saying some bullshit like "I'm putting a new website together for my project and only have a small budget but I'm really not sure what this name is worth." I didn't give any dollar number and wanted them to make the first move. Still, I was sure they'd reply with something like $80K or whatever. Bear in mind this was only a few years ago so LL.com were still super premium.
A day or so later I got a reply that really blew my mind - "I spoke to my boss and we'd be willing to let you have this name for $10,000". Holy shit! My heart was racing...surely this can't be for real?! Now, the next part still blows my mind to this day. For some reason I can't remember I decided to reject their offer. Right, I decided that my response to this deal-of-the-century would be "I'm sorry that's a little out of my budget. Can we agree on $9,000?". Crazy...I actually haggled an offer to buy an LL.com from $10K down to $9K! They could well have been offended and walked away but fortunately for me the response came back a day later - "OK we can settle for that.". Phew!!
Now, I didn't even have $9K in my account and had to scrape beg and borrow to pull it together but eventually made it happen. Anyway, we ended up exchanging some details on how to do the transfer and within a week I had the LL.com in my GoDaddy account and remember that day thinking I'd won the lottery or something. I hung onto it for a year and eventually sold it at Sedo for $125K. Now, the taxman took about $40K and Sedo took a $12K cut (criminal I know) but the rest was all mine!
To all the newbies out there struggling to find a break I hope this is inspiring. I started with nothing but with a little effort and a bit of luck I was rewarded handsomely.
I look forward to hearing some of your stories.
I thought it would interesting to share some interesting stories from our time as domainers. I'll start.
I stumbled on domaining only about 5 years ago. I was passionate about computers and the internet but never really thought I could make money from it. I come from humble beginnings and work a desk job which isn't all that interesting. I originally wanted to start my own blog and looked into getting my name as the domain. Surprise, surprise the domain was already taken and I was so disappointed! However, it was a blessing in disguise because it prompted me to learn more about aftermarket and how domains are bought, traded and sold. Had my name been available in the .com originally I probably would have just regged it and never looked back. Instead I became caught up in the fascinating world of domain name trading. For whatever reason I was instantly hooked.
I remember spending hours on the big forums (including DNF of course!) trying to learn how it all worked. I knew nothing about TLDs, registrars, PPC, drops and the like. It was all new to me. I remember being stunned by the amounts of money some of these names were going for. I quickly began regging some names that I thought surely would make me money...and of course they never did. After some time I began focusing on acronyms after seeing the big boys like TheLegendaryJP and AndyBooth flipping LL and LLL names for five figures and up! I had to get into that somehow I thought. I began saving up a weekly domain budget of $50 and using it to buy LLL.biz or some shit like that and eventually amassed quite a collection. Prices seemed to be always on the rise so I'd flip them and then use the money to buy new names. After about a year I had made enough to buy my first LLL.net - whoah!!! Then things just continued like that. Buy names, sell names.
I quickly realized that I could not both buy and sell on the forums - I had to find a better source for the names. Heck - why not email a bunch of domain owners and ask them if they wanted to sell their names to me?! So that's what I did. I wasn't using any automated tools so I didn't consider it spamming and because it was all manual I could really only send out about 10 or 20 emails a week before I got bored. But eventually I found names. At that point I was still only able to afford LLL.nets and perhaps the occasional LLL.com. I remember my first LLL.com - what a treasure! I'd come from dealing in $10-$20 names to actually owning a LLL.com worth about $2000! That was a real confidence booster.
Anyway, after I'd saved up about $5000 I thought I'd try and email a few LL.com owners. I knew these LL.com names were worth six figures so part of me thought this would be a waste of time but I thought what the heck and sent out a few random emails. Not many, maybe about 10 or 15. Of course all were either no-response or "go to hell" responses but one day I got a reply that said "Yes we're interested in selling did you have a budget in mind?". I was so happy that someone just agreed to talk to me let alone make a sale! The website for this LL.com was for a small regional bank but what got me excited was that it appeared they had just merged with a bigger bank and were in the process of changing their name. I decided to reply by saying some bullshit like "I'm putting a new website together for my project and only have a small budget but I'm really not sure what this name is worth." I didn't give any dollar number and wanted them to make the first move. Still, I was sure they'd reply with something like $80K or whatever. Bear in mind this was only a few years ago so LL.com were still super premium.
A day or so later I got a reply that really blew my mind - "I spoke to my boss and we'd be willing to let you have this name for $10,000". Holy shit! My heart was racing...surely this can't be for real?! Now, the next part still blows my mind to this day. For some reason I can't remember I decided to reject their offer. Right, I decided that my response to this deal-of-the-century would be "I'm sorry that's a little out of my budget. Can we agree on $9,000?". Crazy...I actually haggled an offer to buy an LL.com from $10K down to $9K! They could well have been offended and walked away but fortunately for me the response came back a day later - "OK we can settle for that.". Phew!!
Now, I didn't even have $9K in my account and had to scrape beg and borrow to pull it together but eventually made it happen. Anyway, we ended up exchanging some details on how to do the transfer and within a week I had the LL.com in my GoDaddy account and remember that day thinking I'd won the lottery or something. I hung onto it for a year and eventually sold it at Sedo for $125K. Now, the taxman took about $40K and Sedo took a $12K cut (criminal I know) but the rest was all mine!
To all the newbies out there struggling to find a break I hope this is inspiring. I started with nothing but with a little effort and a bit of luck I was rewarded handsomely.
I look forward to hearing some of your stories.
