From Zero to Domain Hero (story)

[Kamil Witakowski]

I'm not sure if it's allowed here to post something like that but I wanna share with You with my story. Kind a little diary. Why I want to do that ? for more motivation I hope You will motivate me to do more and more in this topic and maybe some usefull tips from You.

Begin:
I started with domains about 6-8 years ago with small amount like 3-5 to just learn how to create websites, joomla, wordpress, forums etc. I learned a lot about simple sites and had some nice developed forums (working fine for my country not much competitors) about 1000 unique views for a day. First steps with with adsense and some other ads.

Next stage I found out that domain are something that i can buy and sell it was about 2-3 years ago. I use some cash that i earned on adsense and other programs it was about 10% i bought for that about 15 domains. I not sell even one domain so i just let them expire. In that period of my life i found out that i do something wrong so again learn a lot of things research on forums like this and get some usefull information. I found out that there is lot of things to check before buy domain name and there are some nice and juicy domains and some not worth penny.

1 year ago i had about 60 domains and sold about 7 of them for more than 60$ each.

Now:
I own about 150+ domains, selling 1-10 for month. I mostly sell domains with traffic for people who works with parking etc. I earned about 2000$ for this year, from domains but 1000$ used on new pc.

Future:
In next year (2020) my target is to buy 500+ domains (it's big amount for me but i hope i will get them).

a bit more Information:

1.What domains i buy?
Mostly domains with traffic and with nice names one-word or two-words. Mostly .com, .net, and biz but sometimes top, cc and more extension.
2.Where i buy domains? Everywhere i search cheap places and places with good discounts.
3.How I search domains ? mostly manualy checking expired old domains on my own using some own scripts etc. I also check metrics from sites like: majestic, semrush, ahrefs etc.
4.Domain auctions (i buy 1-5 domains for year on auction rest are expired or new). I put domains on many auctions like: namecheap, namepros, godaddy, sedo, above and few more almost always in place where register too.
5.Who buy my domains ? I have some people who mostly buy some domains with good traffic from me for parking purpose thats a great deal for me becouse i no need to go to auction with them. ( It takes about month to test traffic source and information before i know if domains is good or not really).

If You have any suggestion or something that want to share with me just reply here .

 

[RoyalOffshore]

Having so much domains you can:
Sell guest posts
Sell services on BHW - you can upgrade if your story is true
Sell redirects
Profit in while sellling

Hope that helps. Do you use unique content or you just post from archive?

 

[Kamil Witakowski]

Thanks for respond i have only 1% developed sites (about 15) rest of all parking. On few i have unique content hand made everything and few auto working scraping and rewriting.

 

[RoyalOffshore]

Thanks for respond i have only 1% developed sites (about 15) rest of all parking. On few i have unique content hand made everything and few auto working scraping and rewriting.

Why not build them up and try banking with ads in the meantime? Just a suggestion

 

[twaen]

Domainer here. You probably still need to learn a lot first. Don't jump into buying 500 names. Grow steadily and slowly. Domaining is hard work, a ridiculous amount of learning, and not as everyone expects.

As a side note, I'm making 2k on a single sale on the lowest end priced domain in my portfolio. I have the feeling you're selling them way too cheap. The average domain sale at market prices (quick flip) is around $200-$300 on .com's but also .net and .org.

Anyway, good luck! You're making profits and there's always room to improve.

 

[Kamil Witakowski]

Thank You for advice I learn every day and nice to meet someone who already makes great job in this topic.

 

[Deleted member 813988]

I always buy the domain when I feel it's unique in some way.
The first domain I bought was over 15 years ago and it was the last name of the politician, who offered me (kid at that time) $5,000 for the domain

I still buy a lot of domains, most of them I don't use, but keep them as I like them.

 

[Intexam]

Domainer here. You probably still need to learn a lot first. Don't jump into buying 500 names. Grow steadily and slowly. Domaining is hard work, a ridiculous amount of learning, and not as everyone expects.

As a side note, I'm making 2k on a single sale on the lowest end priced domain in my portfolio. I have the feeling you're selling them way too cheap. The average domain sale at market prices (quick flip) is around $200-$300 on .com's but also .net and .org.

Anyway, good luck! You're making profits and there's always room to improve.

How do you evaluate/appraise the price of a domain?
And where do you sell it?
I have an unused domain which I want to sell but I don't know how can I make the most of it.
I guess OP would be happy to get this information too as it will increase his profit margin a lot.

 

[HiPurple]

How do you evaluate/appraise the price of a domain?
And where do you sell it?

These are good questions but difficult to answer. An accurate appraisal of a domain is dependent upon many factors.

Please don't use valuation tools to appraise a domain. They are worthless. The only time that I will use one of these (NameWorth, who is notorious for sky-high appraisals) is if I want to artificially inflate my asking price to an end user whose gullibility is in question.

For a naked domain, i.e. a domain without an attached website and without SEO metrics, the best appraisal, if you don't have experience in the domain industry, is to look at comps (recent domain sales), just as in real estate. Those will give you a baseline, anyway.

Brandable domains are a different animal. These are novel domains that are geared towards startups. Think Flickr, Venmo, etc. With some outbound marketing muscle, you can successfully market a brandable domain to the right startup and do very well.

DomainSherpa podcasts can help educate you in domain valuations. Also, you can look at DNAcademy.

Beyond this, the most important criteria in valuing a naked domain are:

• Extension (.com is king for a multitude of reasons that I have explained elsewhere, despite the ignorance of many who don't understand domains - my portfolio consists of 0.5% net, 0.5% org, and the rest are .com)
• Length
• Radio test
• Memorability

Another thing to consider, especially when asking other domainers for assistance, is your profit goal. What is a great flip for some people may be peanuts to another. It really just depends upon your own situation. For example, I've never sold a domain for less than $3K (and my highest was $47K), but I know many people are quite happy just quick flipping domains for 2x or 3x, and that's fine as well.

 

[Intexam]

These are good questions but difficult to answer. An accurate appraisal of a domain is dependent upon many factors.

Please don't use valuation tools to appraise a domain. They are worthless. The only time that I will use one of these (NameWorth, who is notorious for sky-high appraisals) is if I want to artificially inflate my asking price to an end user whose gullibility is in question.

For a naked domain, i.e. a domain without an attached website and without SEO metrics, the best appraisal, if you don't have experience in the domain industry, is to look at comps (recent domain sales), just as in real estate. Those will give you a baseline, anyway.

Brandable domains are a different animal. These are novel domains that are geared towards startups. Think Flickr, Venmo, etc. With some outbound marketing muscle, you can successfully market a brandable domain to the right startup and do very well.

DomainSherpa podcasts can help educate you in domain valuations. Also, you can look at DNAcademy.

Beyond this, the most important criteria in valuing a naked domain are:

• Extension (.com is king for a multitude of reasons that I have explained elsewhere, despite the ignorance of many who don't understand domains - my portfolio consists of 0.5% net, 0.5% org, and the rest are .com)
• Length
• Radio test
• Memorability

Another thing to consider, especially when asking other domainers for assistance, is your profit goal. What is a great flip for some people may be peanuts to another. It really just depends upon your own situation. For example, I've never sold a domain for less than $3K (and my highest was $47K), but I know many people are quite happy just quick flipping domains for 2x or 3x, and that's fine as well.

That was a very insightful answer.
I had had used two domain appraisal tools to determine the price of my domain and after reading your post I checked on NameWorth. The difference of determined price is huge in results of all of those 3 tools. GoDaddy shows me approx $1200 and NameWorth shows me under $500.That's why I'm confused.

I checked 3 websites of domain sales history and figured that the domains containing my keyword were sold in range of $200-$5.5K with average value of $790.

My domain is naked. It has 8 letters, no numbers and has .com extension. It's very easy to remember and passes radio test.

Would you suggest me to sell it directly to a buyer or park my domain and wait for a buyer or list my domain for direct sell/auction on GoDaddy, Flippa and Sedo? I don't have outbound marketing muscle to persuade startups to buy my domain. If it's possible to do it by myself then I am ready to try for 100 times.

My goal is to get at least $2k for it but I will be content with the suggested price by GoDaddy as I want to use that money to kick-start my project.

A lot of my queries match with questions of OP. I appreciate you for sharing your valuable knowledge.

 

[HiPurple]

Yeah, @Intexam , those valuation tools are a joke. I have no idea who writes their algorithms. The disparity amongst them is pretty normal, so yeah, I understand your confusion.

An 8L .com is a great start. Radio test, memorability check. As for a marketplace, I would ask you what is the timeframe for selling it? In other words, do you want/need to sell it faster for less money... or would you prefer to hold it for the right price?

If #1, then you can list it on a multiple of active domain marketplaces, e.g. GoDaddy, Afternic, Sedo, Efty, etc.

If #2, then you can find a decent broker to middleman the sale for you. Although they charge a commission, it's usually worth it because of their extensive resources.

Alternatively, you could park it and wait for the right buyer. Don't expect any/much revenue from parking, however. Those revenues these days are generally dismal. Better would be to design a custom landing page for your domain name.

When I say outbound marketing muscle, that can be as simple as outbound reach via email. I've sold many domains this way, including a geo domain to my dentist (cityname)dentist.com.

Finally, is the domain brandable? If it's 8L and a catchy name, it could be. (It's hard to steer you here without knowing the exact domain name). You could list it at BrandBucket, Brandpa, Namoxy, etc.

 

[Intexam]

Yeah, @Intexam , those valuation tools are a joke. I have no idea who writes their algorithms. The disparity amongst them is pretty normal, so yeah, I understand your confusion.

An 8L .com is a great start. Radio test, memorability check. As for a marketplace, I would ask you what is the timeframe for selling it? In other words, do you want/need to sell it faster for less money... or would you prefer to hold it for the right price?

If #1, then you can list it on a multiple of active domain marketplaces, e.g. GoDaddy, Afternic, Sedo, Efty, etc.

If #2, then you can find a decent broker to middleman the sale for you. Although they charge a commission, it's usually worth it because of their extensive resources.

Alternatively, you could park it and wait for the right buyer. Don't expect any/much revenue from parking, however. Those revenues these days are generally dismal. Better would be to design a custom landing page for your domain name.

When I say outbound marketing muscle, that can be as simple as outbound reach via email. I've sold many domains this way, including a geo domain to my dentist (cityname)dentist.com.

Finally, is the domain brandable? If it's 8L and a catchy name, it could be. (It's hard to steer you here without knowing the exact domain name). You could list it at BrandBucket, Brandpa, Namoxy, etc.

I want to sell it soon at expected price at least because I want to use that money to invest in my ongoing project. Since I don't know how much can I ask for that domain I do not know for how long shall I hold that domain for right price. The way you are saying it's making me feel little greedy. If the right price multifold high than my expectation then I am willing to wait and hold.

I Googled if there are any businesses or startups whose brand name resembles my domain but I found none.
The domain is catchy.

 

[zionbar]

interesting. i know godaddy also offers some sort of "domain parking" meaning while u dont use your domain they will place ads on it and if it gets traffic you can make some extra $$$ while waiting for it to sell. not sure if thats the actual name of it but the process can be easy for u so check it out

 

[twaen]

interesting. i know godaddy also offers some sort of "domain parking" meaning while u dont use your domain they will place ads on it and if it gets traffic you can make some extra $$$ while waiting for it to sell. not sure if thats the actual name of it but the process can be easy for u so check it out

Domain parking revenue is long dead.

 

[Kamil Witakowski]

Not really, domain parking is great profit on this forum should be some sort of big players at this stage like on "namep". Godaddy is worst parking becouse You need to pay to get paid it's sick. Year by year there is less traffic domains but still it's big deal when You will find some of them and get some extra cash.

 

[twaen]

Not really, domain parking is great profit on this forum should be some sort of big players at this stage like on "namep". Godaddy is worst parking becouse You need to pay to get paid it's sick. Year by year there is less traffic domains but still it's big deal when You will find some of them and get some extra cash.

It depends on expectations and what you call great profit. A few domains might have high direct traffic, but then it's probably stupid to simply park them. Should develop them and earn way more by selling stuff, rather than passing on 99.9% of the cash to others.

I'm a domain investor and in our world there is a general consensus that parking revenue is a thing of the past, and pennies, so we don't bother with that anymore.

 

[franklinaveblvd]

Yeah, @Intexam , those valuation tools are a joke. I have no idea who writes their algorithms. The disparity amongst them is pretty normal, so yeah, I understand your confusion.

An 8L .com is a great start. Radio test, memorability check. As for a marketplace, I would ask you what is the timeframe for selling it? In other words, do you want/need to sell it faster for less money... or would you prefer to hold it for the right price?

If #1, then you can list it on a multiple of active domain marketplaces, e.g. GoDaddy, Afternic, Sedo, Efty, etc.

If #2, then you can find a decent broker to middleman the sale for you. Although they charge a commission, it's usually worth it because of their extensive resources.

Alternatively, you could park it and wait for the right buyer. Don't expect any/much revenue from parking, however. Those revenues these days are generally dismal. Better would be to design a custom landing page for your domain name.

When I say outbound marketing muscle, that can be as simple as outbound reach via email. I've sold many domains this way, including a geo domain to my dentist (cityname)dentist.com.

Finally, is the domain brandable? If it's 8L and a catchy name, it could be. (It's hard to steer you here without knowing the exact domain name). You could list it at BrandBucket, Brandpa, Namoxy, etc.

Whats the best way to confirm if a domain gets any traffic before registering it? Thank you for your informative responses btw.

 

[rafark]

interesting. i know godaddy also offers some sort of "domain parking" meaning while u dont use your domain they will place ads on it and if it gets traffic you can make some extra $$$ while waiting for it to sell. not sure if thats the actual name of it but the process can be easy for u so check it out

You'd need a s*ton of traffic to see any decent profits.

 

[James Tora]

Are you sure that domain flipping is still working in 2019 ?

 

[Kamil Witakowski]

Like someone said it depends what is penny for You. And I need to confirm that is much better to develop site than park it but not all of us have time to manage that much sites and it's simple to park.