Making a Living with Domains

[Seraphim]

Are a lot of the members here making their sole living off of domain trading / parking? Is this something feasible with a modest amount of investment funds? Just wondering where to set my expectations, as I'm just setting out into the domain biz. My initial impression of this area of investment is it seems like a few big time domain players own a massive chunk of any domains out there worthy of owning. Seems like a tough game.

 

[GT Web]

This is a very popular question.

Most members of DNF have other employment, but a fair number do make their entire income from domains. I am a student, so domains are my "sole income", but I'm not making enough yet for it to be considered a full time job.

 

[jdk]

Definately not a full time job for myself; however, I am a webmaster and develop my names. So far I have not sold many names, rather building up my portfolio. I do make a nice income, but nothing to pay the bills. I think of domains as a hobby of mine.

Of course as you mentioned if you have the funds to get into the "game" big time you will do fine. Otherwise, it will not happen over night.

 

[DNjet]

part timer here, most of the big players had the smarts to start back in the 1990's and have a nice position now, I started in the 90's but didn't have the smarts in the year 1999 I let my whole portfolio of 300 names expire, you don't even want to know.

 

[dsturbed]

Don't quit your day job.

 

[Johnn]

Don't quit your day job.

Right on!

It's like a stock market. Many members are here not because of the profits but this is an addicted hobby.

It may become expensive hobby before you know it. Owning several hundred or thousand names will suffer big 'OUCH' when it comes to renew them.

You get on and can't get off! See below!
lane:

 

[joeny]

I do this as a full time thing and support 6 kids............

 

[dotNetKing]

Sole living off domain trading and parking.

Started investing around $150 a month in 2000. Didn't really "break even" for about 3 years.

Only support 2 kids, but also support a wife

 

[OgieOgalthorpe]

Part time. I usually develop my domains.

 

[dvestors]

.

 

[Duckinla]

As this becomes more popular, I think for every person making money there will be 5 who never break even.
The good side is that more people use the internet everyday around the world. The Bad part is that there are very few "nuggets" left to be found from the past.
I think more and more you will have to "create" your success (developing sites) rather than "find" your success by just grabbing great names.

As for me, if I were single and had a very low standard of living and no partner to share revenues with, I could probably just get by (without health insurance!) on this business alone.

The great thing about this industry is that the entry barriers are so low, the overhead is almost zip and the risk is minimal. It's a great hobby/opportunity to do in addition to your day job.

 

[VisualDigits]

develop..develop and develop. This is my way of achieving success. I'm making 10 times more than I used to last year before I joined DNF! I have about 200 doamins parked at NameDrive but they don't make me even $20 a month. I know that big playas like DCG make big $$$ off domains but in order to get to his level you really need to have gems like he does. I was going to buy some nice names but I used the money I would need to waste on them to build sites instead.

 

[typeins]

Bit hard to come in these days and make a living without investing a few hundred K.. aint what it used to be

Should have gotten into it around 96-97

You can still make some good money at it though, just got to work a lot harder and develop. I mean geeze we are only getting around to developing the 14K names we have now after however many years of buying them, a very ominous task.

 

[Chappy]

Of course we all wish we started doing this back in the 90's. There is still hope however. I new nothing about the domain business 3 months ago - I was asking questions like "what is reg fee" and "is nevadagolfcoursesforyou.biz worth anything?". Now I'm sitting on a few x,xxx profit and going strong. Not sure I can live off this alone though...!

 

[Beachie]

If you're starting from scratch, find a niche that you're interested in and develop. If you have some investment cash, don't try registering hundreds of bad names - find a few good names with either strong keywords or strong traffic in your niche. It's difficult to compete in the drops, but I see plenty of names for sale that are great value. There are still plenty of opportunities in this business if you do your research

 

[JMJ]

It's possible even without loads of cash as long as you don't need loads of cash to live on. I've made a modest "living" off of domains for over a year and a half now. Just completed my taxes with higher earnings from the pevious year of 50% work and 50% domaining. Take your time invest wisely. Buy low and sell high. Stay away from the drop auctions. And most importantly, when people tell you to pick your niche. Don't take this advice as picking a category and registering every possible combination of that category with every word you can think of attached to it.

 

[typeins]

Yes good advice, dont register a lot of bad names.. better idea buying a few better names.

 

[WeBuyThe.Com]

Getting a second job to support my domain buying addiction...

 

[SouthernTn]

You can make a living off domains and websites quicker than you think.. Just will have to take a big risk to do so.

This is the only thing I do right now.. But, that will be changing soon... I want to open some type of business down here in my area

 

[bladex5k]

The big problem I'm afraid of is that the money I invest, I will not make back...

My portfolio is rather small, and I'm not making too much $$.. But I'm afraid if I invest a couple hundred, it could fall through, and now I did it for nothing... ya know? What would you guys suggest?