I think its good to read the stories of successful people and try to learn from them. The domain industry has a lot of success stories and they are worth reading.
But you have to be careful in a business with such a low barrier to entry. People think hey Rick Schwartz just hand regged 10 domains about a certain topic, so I will do the same. Maybe the 10 domains becomes 100. Someone else reads that Michael Berkens spent mid five figures for .me domains. That inspired the reader to go register some .me domains. They may have never thought about .me until reading that blog post.
Others watch how much Taryn bids for names on NameJet or First on DropCatch.
The important thing to remember though is they are heavyweights with a heavyweight bankroll. They can afford to be wrong a lot more than the average domainer. I will be the first to admit that in 2003 – 2004, I was reading things and thinking “Oh let me emulate that.”
That was my mistake, because I could not put mid five figures into domaining. So I realized I am screwing up, its great they are having this success, but I can’t reg 10,000 names to have offers everyday.
When people read certain domainers and the offers they get each month, they have to remember these people own 20,000, 50,000, 100,000 domains. If you own a portfolio of 300 to 500 domains you are not getting offers everyday.
When you read about others success and you are not having any, it might discourage you. If you know what you know and stick to it, you should be all right. Understand that maybe you have $1000 names and not $100,000 names. There is nothing wrong with turning $8 to $69 into $1000. Know your weight class, look to move up absolutely, but make sure you understand each class you move up into. The game changes the larger your portfolio.
It’s important to have a budget and know what your real budget encompasses. You also want to have some of that budget always in cash so you can jump on an opportunity you were not expecting.
I once saw a two letter .tv drop and there was no premium attached, it just hit Name.com expiring, so I pay $468 immediately because I know I just found cash, I am going to sell it for $1,800 min. If I had every penny allocated to domains invested well then someone else gets that opportunity.
Make sure you know how long you can hold your portfolio and how many times you can be wrong.
Thoughtful article. You got my brains working.
Good article and very true.
Sometimes you have to do the opposite of what other domainers are doing.
interesting read. High risk – high rewards. this is how I started my digital marketing and advertising company
Good stuff.