What would you do with $500,000?

[tm3500]

If you had $500,000 to invest into the domain name market, what would you do to generate exceptional returns?

Here are a few ideas I've come up with.

* Acquire and resell a limited number of existing high-profile one-word, keyword, and 2/3 character .com domains

* Acquire same and monetize the traffic (rather than reselling the domains)

* Acquire and resell a large number of cheap mid- to low-profile expired domains that might or might not have link traffic

* Acquire same and monetize the traffic (rather than reselling the domains)

* Acquire one-word and keyword .biz and .info domains and resell them later when the value has gone up

* Register all remaining 3-character .us domains

* Start, or acquire, or make a deal with one or several registrars to have a competitive advantage in acquiring expiring domains

* Use that registrar connection to grab expiring domains for yourself, or to start a service like snapnames

Any other ideas? How would you hedge against WLS coming or not coming into effect (assuming that it might still be derailed)?

(This is for an investor friend of mine who is considering getting into this business).

 

[NameTower]

big names, monetize, sell for ridiculous prices only.

only invest if you would have no financial problem with losing the $500000 investment.

- Jordan

 

[ToastyX]

I would acquire a limited number of existing high-profile one-word, keyword, and 2/3 character .com domains and monetize the traffic (rather than reselling the domains), but maybe that's just me.

 

[darrenl]

Make a company so the income could be stable

 

[actnow]

tm3500, It looks like you had some strategic training !!!

Congratulations on joining the forum.

 

[RMF]

I'd buy some domains in a specific industry, develop them, and do some major marketing.

Honestly though, if I had $500k+ to spend, I would rather invest in real estate. I wouldn't go out and buy one house. I'd buy several. In a small GROWING town that sells homes real cheap ($40-75K "CAD"). Let the renters pay off the mortgage. Many of these type towns, you can pay off the mortgage in 4-6 years. Or... you can do a rent to buy deal with your tenants, and after like 10 years, they could own the house, and you could make a huge profit. When its a rent to buy deal, the tenants will be more inclined to look after the property, instead of wreck it.

RMF

 

[Steen]

In a small GROWING town that sells homes real cheap ($40-75K "CAD").

I have never heard of a house selling so cheap in BC. Are we talking very small towns?

 

[tm3500]

Thanks for the welcome, guys! :-D

While real estate can be a good investment, I'm not asking for general investment advice or comparisons of various investment types... but rather about how you as domain name experts and insiders would invest half a million dollars specifically within the domain name market.

My investor friend asked for my advice and I have a rather limited amount of information to base my opinions on, as I've only been researching this industry for about a week. (Already got my feet wet with a few smaller purchases on ebay and from sellers in this forum. :bandit: )

So, what would you do? The registrar strategy seems appealing, but might be a waste of time and money if WLS comes into effect sooner than expected. On the other hand, from what I gather the actual launch could take 2 or 3 years, or might even be derailed through legal maneuvers.

More opinions appreciated... especially any ideas that are not on my list yet.

 

[RMF]

yeah, there are many small towns like that. I hope to buy my first in a smalltown in a year or two. You're not gonna find any deals like that in whiterock, lol.

If you look around, there are some AMAZING deals all over BC.

Think about it though. If you can put $10k down on a house, then rent it out, you could get your money back in a year or two. Depending on how much you rent it out for. Obviously you would probably use that rent income towards the mortgage.

RMF

 

[RMF]

I wouldn't get into your own registrar, but I could be wrong. I just don't think it would be that great of an investment right now. Hard to make money with so many low cost registrars out there.

If you intend on developing the domains, then pick a topic or industry that you enjoy. You don't want to work on something that you don't enjoy. If the domains are for holding (as an investment with the intent on selling later), then you will want to stick to generic names. Maybe head on over to greatdomains.com, and see what you like.

RMF

 

[Bionic]

cannibis.com makes $10,000 a month from 10,000 uniques per day.

I'd buy that, wait 4 years and repeat.

 

[JMJ]

I would buy $400,00 worth of reg fee domains over time. Whether they have traffic or not. Live off the 100k for awhile while I turn the 400k into a few million and keep doing the same over and over.

Walmart did 1.2 billion dollars in sales on Black Friday of last year. I forgot the percentage but it was something like 10-20% of the entire sales for the US that day. Volume buying and wholesale pricing is the key.

 

[RMF]

Or just buy $500,000 worth of lottery tickets...How could you lose!???

RMF

 

[JMJ]

Or just buy $500,000 worth of lottery tickets...How could you lose!???

RMF

A guy tried that in Palm Beach back when I was younger. Even ran ads in the newspaper for people to come up with combinations. He lost.

 

[seeker]

I would do the following:

take 1/2 the money and put it in a bank with good interest rates (obviously Euros).

with the rest $250000
I would seperate into:
high profile investment names: $100,000
domains for development (reg fee/reseller): $100,000
development costs for above: $50,000

and wait...

"Lottery: a tax for people that are bad at math"

 

[sasquatch]

...speaking of lottery > http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040402/od_afp/canada_lottery_people

 

[Nameable]

All of the above.

Seriously - 500k isn't such a huge amount that you can turn around tomorrow and beat BFD. As long as you can risk all 500k, get a friend/banker/investment pro who can help you leverage that into a much larger line of credit. Then use your loc to create a laddered portfolio (ala bond investing) of domains.

 

[diverge]

d

Give it all to me. I have ~50 business plans (with domains to match) that are only waiting on the necessary capital and time for me to develop, monetize, and sell. Each is a million $$$ idea. We both live comfortably off the 500% ROI.

:-D

Oh, come on, somebody had to pan-handle. Figured it might as well be me since my last name literally means "Pan Handle" in German.

 

[nicorlino]

that would be pfannenstiel, not pfanstiel

 

[diverge]

that would be pfannenstiel, not pfanstiel

Haha. Yeah, that's the original root. Pfanstiel is "Americanized".