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I’ve been selling domains for ~21 months and thought I’d provide some statistics to everyone. Thought this would prove interesting to others.
Acquisitions:
I originally purchased just over 1,950 names.
99.98% of them were .com’s.
90.7% were hand registered. The remainder were purchased as drops (i.e., NameJet, SnapNames, etc, or via GoDaddy Auctions.
The most I spent to acquire a domain was $166 via a NameJet drop auction (I still own it).
Sales:
I have sold 45 names to date (2.4% of total names owned).
I average about 2 sales per month, with August, November and December being the slowest months (holidays/traveling perhaps?)
The average net revenue earned was $701.59 (after commissions).
My largest sale was $4,195 (hand registered) via GoDaddy Premium. They took 30% of this revenue
53.3% were sold via GoDaddy Premium
15.6% were sold directly (buyer contacted me directly, likely via WhoIs info).
11.1% were sold via GoDaddy Auctions
11.1% were sold via the NamePros blog (almost all names sold via NamePros were sold at a loss, but allowed me to recapture some $'s before likely expiration).
6.7% were sold via Sedo
0% were sold via Afternic (although all names have been listed here at the same price as every other channel).
0% were sold by me contacting the buyer (I solely sell passively, I do not cold call or cold email).
0% via brokers/newsletters (I listed some names in newsletters with brokers but none sold).
Interestingly, the bulk of my sales go unreported (based on my sales avenues above). Based on this, I assume online sales reports significantly underport overall sales.
Conclusion
I let ~30% of my names expire as I’ve come to realize these names held less value than I originally thought when I first entered the business. I decided to cut my losses and let these names expire to cut down on future losses. I anticipate letting another 10% expire this year.
I am currently down about $4,000 since inception. Of course, I still own ~1,350 domain names which are assets but these names require continued annual registration. Based on current renewal prices and my average sale - I am almost breaking even now (but am not selling enough to get back the $4,000 I'm currently down). Although one may assume as my "better" names are sold, it'll be even harder to stay even, but this hasn't shown up yet as my average sale price has remained constant to date.
After 21 months, I've learned the domain name business isn’t as easy as I’d thought. I likely could get this to make a small amount of money, but I’d have to move from passive sales to active sales (reach out to potential buyers). I don't have the time or inclination to do this. I also have found I’m much better at identifying and hand registering brand names than I am identifying sellable GEO or keyword names. If I was starting today, I’d solely focus on the brand-able segment.
So that's my story. :wave:
Acquisitions:
I originally purchased just over 1,950 names.
99.98% of them were .com’s.
90.7% were hand registered. The remainder were purchased as drops (i.e., NameJet, SnapNames, etc, or via GoDaddy Auctions.
The most I spent to acquire a domain was $166 via a NameJet drop auction (I still own it).
Sales:
I have sold 45 names to date (2.4% of total names owned).
I average about 2 sales per month, with August, November and December being the slowest months (holidays/traveling perhaps?)
The average net revenue earned was $701.59 (after commissions).
My largest sale was $4,195 (hand registered) via GoDaddy Premium. They took 30% of this revenue
53.3% were sold via GoDaddy Premium
15.6% were sold directly (buyer contacted me directly, likely via WhoIs info).
11.1% were sold via GoDaddy Auctions
11.1% were sold via the NamePros blog (almost all names sold via NamePros were sold at a loss, but allowed me to recapture some $'s before likely expiration).
6.7% were sold via Sedo
0% were sold via Afternic (although all names have been listed here at the same price as every other channel).
0% were sold by me contacting the buyer (I solely sell passively, I do not cold call or cold email).
0% via brokers/newsletters (I listed some names in newsletters with brokers but none sold).
Interestingly, the bulk of my sales go unreported (based on my sales avenues above). Based on this, I assume online sales reports significantly underport overall sales.
Conclusion
I let ~30% of my names expire as I’ve come to realize these names held less value than I originally thought when I first entered the business. I decided to cut my losses and let these names expire to cut down on future losses. I anticipate letting another 10% expire this year.
I am currently down about $4,000 since inception. Of course, I still own ~1,350 domain names which are assets but these names require continued annual registration. Based on current renewal prices and my average sale - I am almost breaking even now (but am not selling enough to get back the $4,000 I'm currently down). Although one may assume as my "better" names are sold, it'll be even harder to stay even, but this hasn't shown up yet as my average sale price has remained constant to date.
After 21 months, I've learned the domain name business isn’t as easy as I’d thought. I likely could get this to make a small amount of money, but I’d have to move from passive sales to active sales (reach out to potential buyers). I don't have the time or inclination to do this. I also have found I’m much better at identifying and hand registering brand names than I am identifying sellable GEO or keyword names. If I was starting today, I’d solely focus on the brand-able segment.
So that's my story. :wave:
