Have You Been Making Money Lately?

[melvin]

Hi,

I'm researching for some information on internet businesses and one of them is profitting from DN. I'm sure there are some of you gurus that are quite successful.

I need to interview some of you and would appreciate if you could either post back a reply here or email me directly )if you prefer the anonymity).

As a gesture of thanks, I'll be forwarding a complimentary copy of my book when it's completed.

Thanks in advance!

And my email is [email protected]

 

[sheepster]

Business has been rock steady for me feeding expired domains to a search feed. Not like last July, but rock steady.

 

[tigga]

Another post by coolseller! Keep it up - we admire you and respect you!

 

[melvin]

Errrmmm coolseller....$50-$100 per month or per domain??

Tigga, was yours a sarcastic remark or sincere? Sorry to have put it bluntly but would like to get some facts right as I'm a 'newbie' at this.

Pleaseeeee forgive me

Melvin Ng

 

[com]

Cool is just a disgrunted postal worker. Disregard his comments. I'm depositing my latest domain sale in the bank today - $1500 (minus the promotional cost of $150)

 

[melvin]

Hi point8t,

Thanks for giving hope

I'm actually researching for some information on reselling domain names. Would you mind if I contacted you via email for an informal 'interview'?

Thanks!

 

[Luc]

Sheepster,

You're getting good results with searchfeed?

I didn't have much luck with them, can I see your
search page?

Thanks!
Luc L.

 

[com]

Originally posted by melvin
Hi point8t,

Thanks for giving hope

I'm actually researching for some information on reselling domain names. Would you mind if I contacted you via email for an informal 'interview'?

Thanks!

Be my guest. - [email protected]

 

[lgolding]

Good success over 5 years, 395% ROI.
Have to treat it like a business, or not do it at all.
I keep a good database for tax purposes, hold over 1000 domains, used to pay over $30k/yr renewals, sell one to five a month, max sold was $140,000+ minimum was $500, sell most for about 40% to 55% of the ask prices, and will hold most until the domain system changes.

Business was of course good in 98, better in 99, great in late 99 early 2000, dropped off in 2001 and 2002, and is very slow but steady on 2003. Mirrored very accurately the dot com economy because of start up activity. I expect it will rise again very slowly, but not very much, the current pace will be the norm. Its heyday is over for good.

I never order appraisals form anywhere, worthless for sure, negotiate myself, use my own contract and council, have defended and won all WIPO claims, defended all C&D letters, never register obvious TM domains, don't bother with product names in the domains, concentration is on tech names, I never spam the search engines, don't advertise much other than several trade magazines and trade shows, have good search engine placement, and utilize some of the direct type in traffic for money making affiliate programs (travel/adult/etc.) to help pay the bills.

I never register altTLD domains, like info or ws, or ccTLD's although many are available.

FYI, over the years, all of the over 1000 domains were always listed at both GD and AN, fully keyworded, and only ONE ever sold, at AN for. Received a grand total of 3 offers in 5 years, all lowball, those were worthless sites making money off of the hopeful sellers.

Regards,
L Golding
ChoiceNames.com

 

[mcom1999]

thanks for giving us hope. you seem one of the veterans in this business.

i have a few questions:

(1) have your customers generally been smaller companies (my experience is that the bigger ones haven't really figured out how important domains are)

(2) how is it that Ult Search and Buy Domains have done so well including getting some of the great domains that Snap can't get?

(3) if one pays $10 to register a domain and later someone offers $50 does it make sense to sell or wait for a much bigger offer?

Thanks in advance.

 

[lgolding]

No prob............

(1) "have your customers generally been smaller companies (my experience is that the bigger ones haven't really figured out how important domains are)?"

Most have been start ups, some small, some with VC backing. Best deals have come from VC lawyers very serious on obtaining a domain, but they first tried to lowball by posing as a dude with a wife who would not let him spend much. Few were sold to larger firms increasing their DN portfolio, like Lycos, who again posed as a little old lady.

(2)"how is it that Ult Search and Buy Domains have done so well including getting some of the great domains that Snap can't get?"

Time/staff on their hands, first to automate the drop recovery game. When drop recovery first started and was an inside thing, they just queued up a good list of soon to drops and ran the script at the exact time NSI ran the drops. NSI changed the drop times, their registration 'template', and many more joined in the drop recovery game, now a hopeless game. To be a player, you have to have a substantial deposit at NSI to pay for new registrations automatically. By design, domain gamers all used to not pay for registrations, it was billed later after 30 days, due in 60, and dropped in 90 days. So there were many good drops and hunting for them was worthwhile. So it was actually 'free' to hold thousands of domains for 90 days, but you HAD to renew them the instant they dropped. Of course these guys automated by running scripts and got much better at it than most of us, I lost many to them back then. The best IMHO was/is anything.com they were one of the earliest. Then buydomains has a small staff that did it full time, then Ult got into it. Snap is no better then their scripts, it is a true drag race to the now random drop/renewable time.

(3)"if one pays $10 to register a domain and later someone offers $50 does it make sense to sell or wait for a much bigger offer?"

These days anything over $100 is not bad. Any serious party would not consider 100+ a problem, less would be silly, there is time involved in the transfer, etc. It depends on how long the domain was held/managed/renewed. $1000 is good, and buydomains got where they are by doing volume at discounts, $500 to $2000. No holding out, not too much. And buying with a credit card helps sales. Only hold out on the ones that give you good direct type ins or that you have some remote plans to develop for example.

Hope that helps, I'm new here, had my head out of the game for a while now.

 

[mcom1999]

That really does answer my questions. I was thinking - have you considered writing a book on your experiences in the industry. I say that because there are soooo many people now who are trying to get a piece of the action so to speak. At the very least, consider a newsletter as you are 5 years of experience (which seems like a lifetime in this business...

I would like to know your thoughts on the WLS - will it even the playing field for the "lilttle guy"? Clearly Buy domains is against it.

Also, how do you explain the completely different strategies taken by buy domains and ult search. One focuses on the buying/selling and the other on monetization of traffic. Which would you venture to believe makes more money now and which might make more in the future (which do you think is a better business model?).

Looking forward to your response.

 

[lgolding]

Well about writing a book.
If the author of this thread is legit, I wanted to provide info for a book, that is why I posted to this thread. I'd be glad to brain dump to an author, I myself have no time for writing or a newsletter, I'm an architect full time with kids plus my weekend warrior sports.

I don't even know what WLS is, sorry.

On the surface it may seem Ult and BuyDomains (BD) are in different businesses but perhaps not.

If they each had the same number and caliber of domains I believe Ult would win out. BD has a simple standard model and makes good money on sales up front. The market is slow, and may slow further, but it is still good money. The better names will eventually sell, the poorer ones dropped.

For ult, I have serious doubts about the money made from the traffic. I have tried several things like that; adult stuff as well, and it is poor money. Because the money is made only when the links are clicked on, and most surfers do not click thru. The links are very very poor, low-end companies desperate for traffic and they pay for clicks. Smart surfers see the results are bogus, or at lease made up of only paying advertisers, not relevant search results. So I believe that because the click through is poor, and the fee per click is low, there is little money to be made, but some none the less. So they must rely on heavy volume.

Their real deal is I believe to eventually sell the domains! Again, smart surfers know that when they see bogus search results from a direct type in, the domain is probably available. It would not take a high offer to exceed the money made through the silly click through fee (half of the fee (+/-) is split with the search engine company anyway). So because they will probably make money selling big domains in addition to the trickle of SE fees, it may be better than BD.

Personally I will keep doing what BD is doing, because it is obvious to the direct type in surfer that the domain is for sale, no lost sales potential which may get a domain sold much faster. I also believe that the whole click through thing is a front by ult as a defense in WIPO cases. In a few cases they have won precisely with the defense, that their business model is a legitimate use for a domain, way better than a for sale page (!) Smart? I don't know. For them, they do so many TM domains or near TM domains that they need this; for BD, they remain mostly generic so they do not need it and sell directly.

I would love to see ANY stats on the pay per click stuff from domain portfolios. Even the providers will not provide this to me, and I have been in contact with the big players, all gun shy about numbers. Would appreciate any links to people/contacts with these stats.

Thanks.

 

[Duke]

Great posting LGolding. Thanks for taking the time!

 

[lgolding]

How on earth do you find the time for that many posts? Brevity I suppose, a skill I do not possess.

mcom 1999......

Ok, now I know what WLS is, duh. Told you I was out of it for a while. I was interviewed by NSI for that program in October of last year. I really put in my 2 cents worth, hey they asked.

Not sure how it will actually turn out, not sure about the system details, but I agreed that the ask prices had to be put in check. I scorned them for their appraisal fees, and preying on the wishful sellers that pay for those, and that they should not be required to get higher priced domains listed like GD did. But then what is the solution for the high ask problem? I'm interested in how their final version will work. I do like their idea of 'broadcasting' the listings at registrars to registrants at their time of registration when their search turns up 'taken'. If that works, it should fire up some sales for sure.

Why exactly would BuyDomains hate a system that lists names for sale by other people? I am likely missing something here again; if they hate it them I would hate it also, I'm in the same biz.

 

[melvin]

lgolding,

Thanks for your offer. How do I get in touch with you? Can't seem to locate your email on your details page.

Could you drop me a quick mail at

[email protected]

Thanks!

Melvin

 

[lgolding]

newbieitus.......
I had my email 'hidden' so I guess you could not send a message. Most forums hide the email yet send messages from their servers from their form, seems this place does the same, not sure why a hidden option turned off the email.

Email me anytime at [email protected]
L Golding

 

[DotDuDe]

nice info Thanks

 

[domainAddict]

Originally posted by mcom1999
That really does answer my questions. I was thinking - have you considered writing a book on your experiences in the industry. I say that because there are soooo many people now who are trying to get a piece of the action so to speak. At the very least, consider a newsletter as you are 5 years of experience (which seems like a lifetime in this business...

Theres already enough competition, we dont need more..

 

[lgolding]

"Theres already enough competition, we dont need more.."

Agreed, no aspirations to pen a newsletter or such here. This forum, and other sites like it are very sufficient at providing any info a newbie to the game would need. Very comprehensive, I'm not sure how vets could provide more thorough info, other than creating explicit step by step how to instructions for things (which for some things I have searched for here and not found). That info is scattered about here, but to consolidate thoroughly and sell such a guide would be too much, and how much would we change for that? One would have to consider the industry completely over with and end users saturated, and resign himself to profiting off of the new comers, which is EXACTLY what most of the adult industry forums and resource sites have done, set out to profit heavily from newbise, as opposed to from the end user.

But that is not to say we are holding out on any info here. To the contrary, I see that most vets here are perfectly willing to share their info, and I see they do so pretty much everywhere on the forum. That is what it is for, giving back, I suppose. And any info I was spewing here, or is solicited by the thread starter, I feel is geared to being newsworthy or an overview. To get the full picture, you either need to dig into the forum, or have at it for a year or more.