It is easy to start out on the wrong foot in domain investing.
Whether it is hand-registering too many names, choosing quantity over quality, or investing in sectors or languages that we don’t understand, there are many ways to go wrong. Those initial mistakes can be compounded by poor pricing choices.
It is very easy to approach the end of the first year with no sales, and no remaining funds to invest.
When I read Yassine Nahid’s story of his first domain sale, it struck me that there were valuable lessons for any first year domain investor.
Path To First Sale
I reached out to Yassine Nahid for permission to highight his story in the NamePros Blog, and to obtain a bit more information.
You can read the full story here on NamePros, or in a social media thread he recently posted. Note that the latter has a slight error: the name that sold was actually his second, not first, acquisition. Nevertheless, the two registrations were in the same niche and registered at essentially the same time.
Here are the basics of the story:
Learn Before You Invest
Before those initial registrations, he spent time learning here on NamePros, on social media, and on the web. As he says,
Invest Only What You Can Afford
Fear of missing out and addiction are real in the domain world, and it is easy to spend more than we really can afford. Keep in mind that a return on domain investments is never assured, and invest only what you can afford to potentially lose.
Start very slow in acquisitions until you come to understand the often subtle differences between strong and mundane domain names.
Get Ideas From Many Places – Keep Lists
One should have a much longer list of names you have researched and considered than names you actually acquire. As Yassine wrote:
He expanded on the idea in a discussion with me.
Use Your Expertise
Yassine looked for names in niches that he knew from his work, education and interests. That is a smart way to approach domain investing. Don’t chase niches and sectors you do not know well just because you have seen others sell domain names in that sector.
Develop A Keyword List
Part of having a methodology in domain investing is to maintain your own list of desired keywords. Yassine does that. This can be based on some combination of past sales, business use, and trends. For example pivot and startup were words he considered having value as part of his keyword list.
Be Clear On The Business Use
Probably the most important aspect when considering any domain name is to ask how it would be used. Are there businesses that could benefit from this name?
For example, for the
Quality Over Quantity
Note that while he had lists with hundreds and hundreds of names, he did not register hundreds and hundreds of domain names. Choose quality over quantity.
Get Second Opinions, But Trust Your Judgement
Yassine asked for suggestions regarding pricing, both at NamePros and on social media, and obtained a wide range of suggested values. That is not unusual.
I think a common mistake is to rely too much on what others say. You should have done the research and reflection on each name, so you are more expert in that name than any other person. While others will have more experience with domain name sales in general, that does not necessarily mean their opinion on this one name should be weighted more heavily than your own.
Partly because of the variation in responses, he used Make Offer pricing most of the time on these domains, although did move to Buy-It-Now pricing near the end.
Help Your Representative Work For You
While in the end the sale did not happen, it seems, through the Afternic agent, note that he enabled the agent with more than simply an asking price, giving them a clear indication of the price minimum and that he was eager to make a sale.
Know Your Competition
Note that he had searched for similar names, in this case reversed wording, and found it was listed for sale. He ultimately moved his price to just below that of the competitor name.
While you should always compare the quality of the names, you should know what names are competing in the same space as your names, how they are priced, how long they have been listed for sale, where they are listed, etc.
Make The Sale Happen
After he received the Afternic price request, and after no immediate response, he set a buy-it-now price and slightly lowered that price to secure the sale.
I think that was smart. Especially to get that first sale, don’t let opportunity pass you by. He is now in the position that he has recouped his modest initial investment, taken out some profit, and invested to build a larger portfolio.
Final Thoughts
Fun fact: The $10 was actually given to Yassine to get a haircut. but surely it is more important to have a domain investment than a haircut!
Yassine has now reinvested a portion of the profits from the first sale in some additional names, and continues to look for names both as hand registrations and using
One sale does not guarantee long-term success in domain investing. Nevertheless, Yassine has already achieved a retail price sale within the first year from a very small portfolio. That is no simple feat.
He wanted to express his appreciation for the NamePros community.
Particularly those who found success in their first year, please share your own experiences in the comment section.
There are other models on how to begin domain investing with minimal resources, a topic I am developing for a future NamePros Blog post.
NamePros Resources For Early Stage Domain Investors
If you are early in your domain investing journey, the following NamePros community resources will be helpful.
Update: I made three slight corrections following the initial posting. The time period between the two domain registrations was about a week and a half, and not the next day as originally stated. I confirmed that he does use a keyword list, so the text was slightly altered to reflect that. I added his quotation in the final section expressing appreciation for the NamePros community.
Sincere thanks to Yassine Nahid for being willing to have his story highlighted, and for providing additional information. Best wishes for future success.
Whether it is hand-registering too many names, choosing quantity over quality, or investing in sectors or languages that we don’t understand, there are many ways to go wrong. Those initial mistakes can be compounded by poor pricing choices.
It is very easy to approach the end of the first year with no sales, and no remaining funds to invest.
When I read Yassine Nahid’s story of his first domain sale, it struck me that there were valuable lessons for any first year domain investor.
Path To First Sale
I reached out to Yassine Nahid for permission to highight his story in the NamePros Blog, and to obtain a bit more information.
You can read the full story here on NamePros, or in a social media thread he recently posted. Note that the latter has a slight error: the name that sold was actually his second, not first, acquisition. Nevertheless, the two registrations were in the same niche and registered at essentially the same time.
Here are the basics of the story:
- Yassine is a young digital marketer. He was facing financial challenges due to the economy. He had been reading and researching what makes a good domain name, at NamePros and elsewhere and hoped to invest in domain names.
- Just over 8 months ago he was given $10, and then about a week and a half later $15 more, and decided to invest that money in two hand-registered domain names.
- He got ideas for names from many places, and would keep lists.
- From a list about 400 possible domain names, he applied what is a good name to narrow that down to about 100 names, and then selected the best from that list.
- From his digital marketing expertise and personal interests, including watching shows like Shark Tank, he was particularly interested in startups. More narrowly, the idea of making a smart redirection, a business pivot, is a concept that resonates with him. Here are some famous business pivots.
- From his prioritized list of possible names, he decided on
HelpPivot.comas his first investment with the initial $10 gift. He saw that name as a strong fit for a consulting operation that helps businesses pivot. - When he received the additional $10 + $5 gifts a week and a half later, he reconsidered his keywords and lists, and discovered that the name
PivotStartup.comwas available, and he registered it. - Fast forward about 8 months, and after an Afternic price request, and setting, then slightly lowering, a buy-it-now price, the name sold for $1895.
- I asked him what he is doing with his profits, and he took out several hundred dollars as cash, and the rest he is putting into domain investments, slowly growing a portfolio in niches of interest to him.
Learn Before You Invest
Before those initial registrations, he spent time learning here on NamePros, on social media, and on the web. As he says,
Through the deep study, I learned how to differentiate between a good domain a decent and a bad domain.
Invest Only What You Can Afford
Fear of missing out and addiction are real in the domain world, and it is easy to spend more than we really can afford. Keep in mind that a return on domain investments is never assured, and invest only what you can afford to potentially lose.
Start very slow in acquisitions until you come to understand the often subtle differences between strong and mundane domain names.
Get Ideas From Many Places – Keep Lists
One should have a much longer list of names you have researched and considered than names you actually acquire. As Yassine wrote:
I use everything I come across as an inspiration for domain names, even though I don't have the money to acquire them. I have lists of domain name ideas on my phone on, my computer, on paper, many hundreds of domain ideas.
He expanded on the idea in a discussion with me.
i'm subconsciously actively searching for domain names all the time. I might be watching a video just for fun, and then i see something and ask, what about the domain names of that industry. Then i start brainstorming domain names, checking if they are available and also i could go to ExpiredDomains.net to see if there are any decent or quality domains of that particular industry are available.
Use Your Expertise
Yassine looked for names in niches that he knew from his work, education and interests. That is a smart way to approach domain investing. Don’t chase niches and sectors you do not know well just because you have seen others sell domain names in that sector.
Develop A Keyword List
Part of having a methodology in domain investing is to maintain your own list of desired keywords. Yassine does that. This can be based on some combination of past sales, business use, and trends. For example pivot and startup were words he considered having value as part of his keyword list.
Be Clear On The Business Use
Probably the most important aspect when considering any domain name is to ask how it would be used. Are there businesses that could benefit from this name?
For example, for the
HelpPivot name he writes:A pivot is a common word in the business and startups world. It means change the direction of a company. A pivot can be a rough thing for those entities, so they might need consulting to do it. Meaning the target for this name was a business consulting firm.
Quality Over Quantity
Note that while he had lists with hundreds and hundreds of names, he did not register hundreds and hundreds of domain names. Choose quality over quantity.
Get Second Opinions, But Trust Your Judgement
Yassine asked for suggestions regarding pricing, both at NamePros and on social media, and obtained a wide range of suggested values. That is not unusual.
I think a common mistake is to rely too much on what others say. You should have done the research and reflection on each name, so you are more expert in that name than any other person. While others will have more experience with domain name sales in general, that does not necessarily mean their opinion on this one name should be weighted more heavily than your own.
Partly because of the variation in responses, he used Make Offer pricing most of the time on these domains, although did move to Buy-It-Now pricing near the end.
Help Your Representative Work For You
While in the end the sale did not happen, it seems, through the Afternic agent, note that he enabled the agent with more than simply an asking price, giving them a clear indication of the price minimum and that he was eager to make a sale.
Know Your Competition
Note that he had searched for similar names, in this case reversed wording, and found it was listed for sale. He ultimately moved his price to just below that of the competitor name.
While you should always compare the quality of the names, you should know what names are competing in the same space as your names, how they are priced, how long they have been listed for sale, where they are listed, etc.
Make The Sale Happen
After he received the Afternic price request, and after no immediate response, he set a buy-it-now price and slightly lowered that price to secure the sale.
I think that was smart. Especially to get that first sale, don’t let opportunity pass you by. He is now in the position that he has recouped his modest initial investment, taken out some profit, and invested to build a larger portfolio.
Final Thoughts
Fun fact: The $10 was actually given to Yassine to get a haircut. but surely it is more important to have a domain investment than a haircut!
Yassine has now reinvested a portion of the profits from the first sale in some additional names, and continues to look for names both as hand registrations and using
ExpiredNames.net.One sale does not guarantee long-term success in domain investing. Nevertheless, Yassine has already achieved a retail price sale within the first year from a very small portfolio. That is no simple feat.
He wanted to express his appreciation for the NamePros community.
This is a manifestation of what i have learned from this community, and I hope this story helps new domainers to start on the right foot.
Particularly those who found success in their first year, please share your own experiences in the comment section.
There are other models on how to begin domain investing with minimal resources, a topic I am developing for a future NamePros Blog post.
NamePros Resources For Early Stage Domain Investors
If you are early in your domain investing journey, the following NamePros community resources will be helpful.
- NamePros Popular Beginner Resources
- Starting Out In Domain Investing – Check Out These Articles
- Six Lessons for Domaining Beginners
- 12 Common Domainer Mistakes
- Part 1 Domain Investing Basics – domain terms, extensions, research, registration, buying, renewing, where to list, and developing a plan.
- Part 2 Domain Investing Basics – characterizing domain names, landers, pricing, payment plans, DNS records and verification, fast-transfer networks, and domain transfer.
- Part 3 Domain Investing Basics – outbound, parking, development, legal, resources.
- Simple Ideas to Guide Domain Name Investing
- Free Tools For for Quick Domain Research
Update: I made three slight corrections following the initial posting. The time period between the two domain registrations was about a week and a half, and not the next day as originally stated. I confirmed that he does use a keyword list, so the text was slightly altered to reflect that. I added his quotation in the final section expressing appreciation for the NamePros community.
Sincere thanks to Yassine Nahid for being willing to have his story highlighted, and for providing additional information. Best wishes for future success.
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