How Many Of You Are Domaining Full Time?

[Nametra.com]

Hi, All:

How many of you are domaining full time as your primary source of income?

For the FT domainers, how many domains are in your portfolio?

Many of the more successful and well-known domainers seem to have relatively large portfolios (i.e. over 5-6k domains).

Looking at the numbers, at a 1% sell through rate (which I was told by an Afternic rep is average), it seems you need to have a fairly large portfolio to net a six-figure income.

For Example:

Thanks for your feedback!


Andy

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

I'm a full time domainer since 2010 and currently holds 6,800+ domains.

Last year I had around 2.25% of STR.

For the last few years, the net income is into 6 figures.

 

[bmugford]

You need quality AND quantity if you want to build a sustainable business on passive sales.

I think a 1-2% sell-through rate is accurate when it comes to decent domains at standard end user prices ($1500 - $5K) with max exposure and priced domains.

If you own 100 .COM your renewal is around $950 a year. If you only sell one for $2,500 you have already returned 2.5x your investment. You mix in some larger sales over a year, and you are doing even better.

Also, good domains (especially .COM) tend to go up in value over time.

Brad

 

[jhm]

To sells domains as a sole source of income is quite something. Even the veterans within the community, and professional domainers as a whole, are always doing something else (citizens of the internet, always tinkering away with something)

Domaining is a love for me, than a sole source of income. I've been involved with domaining for a fair while, owning "under" 100 domains at a time, which is tiny compared to those that are serious. This year I'd like to step it up by buying some very specific "COM' domains (a small handful), that I've set a budget aside for. I'd like to look at development. The quality at present that I own isn't at a standard for me to consider development. If I was to put blood, sweat and tears into something I love, I'd want to at least have a small bandwagon of higher quality domains, for it to be viable

A 1 to 2% sell rate is fair. Assuming you have the the quantity, and the quality

 

[Recons.Com]

If your portfolio is actively growing, you can't just use 1% (or whatever STR) to the year end portfolio size. It must be weighted for the year and also adjusted for the fact that it takes some time for the names to be added to marketplaces and approved for Fast transfer, as well as for being discovered by potential buyers.

Although I ended 2021 with about 15k names, the weighted/adjusted number was around 11k and I did end the year with around 110 sales at an average price of 3k. So 1/3 of a mill in sales gross before commissions. Post commissions and renewals, and before further re-investments, the net would be around 180k.

 

[Clover]

So, you want to know how many domains we have and our average sale price?

100-150 domains / $20-$30 (lol)

Sounds about accurate for me. What about ROI though. I sold 6 .xyz domains last night for $100

 

[Nametra.com]

Thanks bmugford and Kainazarov for your feedback!

Kainazarov, I made the table in Excel.

 

[bmugford]

One thing to point out is most of the people who do domain investing "full time" have other steams of income as well like side hustles, investments, etc.

Being your primary source of income does not mean it is your only source of income.

Brad

 

[dotcorner]

Thanks @Nametra.com for the thread.

I am a full time investor with a small portfolio of 4.5K names. It is now very difficult to scale portfolio and really time consuming plus requires good investment.

Developed a small Google Sheet so that domain investors can run own scenarios. Here is a link

Projected Domain Income

Please report any errors and make a copy for yourself.

 

[lock]

Nobody that does will chime in just so they are left alone.

 

[Nametra.com]

Thank you Clover and DeniseDahmer for sharing.

I don’t necessarily need your average sale prices (unless you want to share). I’m just curious how large the portfolios are for anyone who is FULL TIME domaining.

I have about 1,100 domains in my portfolio and even at this size it’s difficult to make a substantial profit.

 

[jhm]

Domaining is not only selling mate. Agree or disagree ?

Disagree. You can be a successful domainer owning under one hundred high quality domain names.

Kudos bro !!!!

For that you don't need to obsessively use dot com domain names. There are plenty of high quality domain names you can build on with alternative domain name extensions. It's the quality of the content that brings you rewards in the development sphere. Only domainers seem to obsess about dot com. Most consumers just want a fast solution to a problem. Give them that and your bank account will thank you.

Again quality is the key. Quantity is a far off secondary consideration, as well as an administrative headache. Successful people usually develop something of value to others.

You're right...domaining isn't just about selling. And yes, if you're fortunate to own straight high quality, fantastic. With regards to "COM", yes its the dominant. I'd venture and play with other credible extensions to mix it up (outside of COM) if it was desirable enough. Again, no arguments there. Regarding the amount of domains, yep...I think it would be a headache owning A LOT of domains for me...like thousands (I think I'd hate it, even if I miraculously made it work)

 

[Recons.Com]

Very good data! And awesome profit per year but it can't be easy to keep track of 15K domains
I understand from your numbers that you are fully dedicated to domains.
¿Are you very diversified in your portfolio or do you focus on one extension?



In my case, this year I am increasing my portfolio. Now about 1.500 and at this time, only three sales this year.
I still have a long way to go before I can make a living from domains. Now it is just a little extra.

No, I am not fully dedicated to domains. First, my business is branding/rebranding/marketing and domains happen to be important for that, as I believe brands have become heavily domain-centric. Second, I have other startups at different phases of progress too.

There is nothing to keep track of with about 19000 domains. They are almost all at the same registrar. You just list ones and then take care of renewals.

 

[Recons.Com]

@Recons.Com Could you please elaborate further how to calculate the weighted/adjusted number of domains, I'm struggling with calculation?

Basically, if you evenly add names (more or less) throughout the year from Jan 1 to Dec 31, you could just take your portfolio size on June 1.

If your data is very skewed, then you could set up your excel with dates added:

- if a name is added a year before, then counts as 1
- if a name is added in the current year, then count as number of days in your portfolio divided by 365. So, if a name has been in your portfolio for one quarter of a year, it will be weighted as 0.25. You can even deduct 60 days from the number of days in your portfolio to reflect the fact that names often take 60 days or more to properly propagate across, like being eligible for fast transfer and simply being noticed by a potential buyer as available for sale. So, if a name was in your portfolio just for 90 days, you could count it as (90-60)/365 if you choose to reflect for this lag.

 

[Nametra.com]

Again, thanks for all the feedback!

How many of you have developed your domains and has it been profitable?

 

[Intop]

Although I ended 2021 with about 15k names, the weighted/adjusted number was around 11k and I did end the year with around 110 sales at an average price of 3k. So 1/3 of a mill in sales gross before commissions. Post commissions and renewals, and before further re-investments, the net would be around 180k.

Very good data! And awesome profit per year but it can't be easy to keep track of 15K domains
I understand from your numbers that you are fully dedicated to domains.
¿Are you very diversified in your portfolio or do you focus on one extension?



In my case, this year I am increasing my portfolio. Now about 1.500 and at this time, only three sales this year.
I still have a long way to go before I can make a living from domains. Now it is just a little extra.

 

[Nametra.com]

Thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts on this!

 

[Kainazarov]

I spend up to 20% of my time on domains. I would like to add about sales, all the same, some part of buying or selling a domain is played by psychology and the situation at the moment (the story with the DNZ.com domain is not far off)

P.S where is the table from?

 

[Catchy Website Names]

Would love to do this full time but I'd probably need be full time to get to full time. Yeah, I know how much sense that makes!

 

[jim h]

The quantity and average price can not determine the selling rate. The key is the quality of the domain name. Stay away from the domain names with high renewal price as far as possible.

 

[dotcorner]

Domain Name Sales Projections - Commission & Acquisition Costs

Just modified the initial version to add couple of more rows for Commission and Acquisition Costs.

 

[NYJimbo]

If you own 100 .COM your renewal is around $950 a year. If you only sell one for $2,500 you have already returned 2.5x your investment. You mix in some larger sales over a year, and you are doing even better.

This right here is what took me years to understand. I mean it was right there, but I wasn't trying to accomplish that target. I was trying EVERYTHING to see what worked, often following "advice" from people here that were not really using their advice themselves on a continuous basis, year after year.

Once you can do something similar to the above, consistently, you then just scale it up.

But you must always be keenly aware of what is working for you and what is not. Re-investing a portion of your profit is crucial or you will never have a constant stream of new names. You also need to get a feel for what to keep and what to drop, even though those ones you keep are obviously not selling.

Its all about numbers, percentages and odds. You have to put a lot of time in it and take it seriously.
Also when you figure out what works for you, consistently, don't share it with anyone else. Just keep at it and try to improve your "game" month after month, year after year.

 

[DeniseDahmer]

My husband has 150 names , he shares this account. His top sale thus far is 1k

 

[redemo]

some part of buying or selling a domain is played by psychology and the situation at the moment

This is why domain valuation tools will NEVER, and can never, be 100 % accurate.

 

[inforg]

Thanks @Nametra.com for the thread.

I am a full time investor with a small portfolio of 4.5K names. It is now very difficult to scale portfolio and really time consuming plus requires good investment.

Developed a small Google Sheet so that domain investors can run own scenarios. Here is a link

Projected Domain Income

Please report any errors and make a copy for yourself.

How do you address your acquisition costs? Or is this model based solely on hand registering domains? As an example, if you paid $50 each on average to get the names, at 500 names you are already negative 25k.

I’m a spreadsheet guy, so definitely going to take this and build on it, thanks.

People need to remember to take out commissions as well 2k sale price is net $1600 at someplace like Afternic.