“Try selling a few domain names early on.” Words of advice for Noob domainers. Not sure exactly where I read it but earlier this year I realized I had to get out of my comfort zone and try selling some domain names. Sure I had my domains at Sedo. I had received a lowball offer for one of them even. But I hadn’t done any ‘active’ selling. I’d read a post by Randomo at NamePros about domain flipping. He’d flipped 1,700 domains in 2007. He didn’t go into the exact details of how much he’d made, but a few people in the thread put the pieces together and figured he’d netted over $50k at least–he’d sold them for between 3 and 5 times reg fee. He had a business model. He was making a living domaining. I thought I’d try flipping some domains–maybe I could help cover my renewals at least. I got back on The Drop looking for domains to flip. I figured I’d try selling them on Ebay first. Why Ebay? Possible end-users. Also I didn’t really feel I knew enough to try it in the Forums.
Here’s a list of names I tried to sell on Ebay and the results.
DIDN”T SELL
1yj.net One Yankee Juliet NLL 3 Character Domain Name $9.99
5jd.net Five Juliet Delta NLL 3 Character Domain Name $9.99
These aren’t something I’d normally be attracted to, but when I found a handful of these in The Drop one day I decided to try to flip them. A couple did, these didn’t. Typically, I did more research later on and found that these NLL.nets are considered worth Reg fee only.
From 3character.com
LLN com $220 net $10
LNL com $220 net $reg fee
NLL com $220 net $reg fee
NNL com $220 net $reg fee
NLN com $220 net $10
ENGILBERT.COM First Name Domain Name Baby Boy? $24.99
I see these name domains available in The Drop and I think End User! I’m sure there’s an Engilbert out there somewhere who would love to have his first name domain name. I didn’t find him on Ebay though.
LUBARS.COM Domain Name $9.99
NEVESS.COM Domain Name $9.99
A couple of surname domain names. “nevess” scores 175,000 in a Google search and is also Hungarian for ‘renowned’. “lubars” scores 434,000 in a Google search. I’d have to assume there weren’t any Lubars or Nevess family members in the market for domains on Ebay that week.
[Updated 030809]
RFUK.NET Semi-Premium LLLL.Net $9.99 sold $.99
BMBY.NET Semi-Premium LLLL.Net $9.99 sold $.99
COKX.NET Pronouncable Semi-Premium LLLL.Net $9.99 sold $.99
GUCS.NET Pronouncable Semi-Premium LLLL.Net $9.99 sold $.99
GEWL.NET Pronouncable Semi-Premium LLLL.Net $9.99 sold $1.25
JLOC.NET Pronouncable Semi-Premium LLLL.Net $9.99 sold $.99
JROE.NET Common Initial/Last Name Combo LLLL.Net $9.99 sold $.99
EXLA.NET Pronouncable LLLL.Net $9.99 sold $1.25
TKUN.NET Semi-Premium LLLL.Net $9.99 sold $.99
OMBJ.NET Semi-Premium LLLL.Net $9.99 sold $.99
RIUV.NET Pronouncable LLLL.Net $9.99 sold $.99
BFWM.NET Semi-Premium LLLL.Net $9.99 sold $.99
UTTP.NET Semi-Premium LLLL.Net $9.99 sold $.99
MOAU.NET Semi-Premium LLLL.Net $9.99 sold $1.29
ROWG.NET Semi-Premium LLLL.Net $9.99 sold $1.25
Oh boy. This was clearly a mistake. Inspired by what I’d been reading on DropDude.com, I picked these up in The Drop thinking they’d filp for at least a few dollars profit. Kind of silly to discover, after the fact, they weren’t the sort of .nets domainers are buying, i.e. Premium.
From 4letternoob (soon to be LLLL.com)
In general, the best performing letters are: A, S, E, M, D, I, T, O. Other strong letters include F, G, H.
The letters J,K,Q,U,V,W,X,Y,Z are referred as non-premium letters. The presence of one of these letters considerably devalues a 4 letter .com under most circumstances. Of these, Q, X, Z are the weakest.
premium letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T
medium: J, K, U, V, W
most hated: QXYZ
ShaggyDogBlog.com Domain Name – Great For Joke Site $24.99
This was one of mine that was up for renewal. Probably I’ve had it long enough that I’ve just become attached to it but I could say that for a lot of domains and so I decided to let it go. But not for less than $24.95. Like I said, I like this one anyway.
AmateurPom.com Click-Alike Domain Name $24.99
AutolnsuranceOnline.com Click-Alike Domain Name $24.99
AffordableHealthlnsurance.com Click-Alike Domain Name $24.99
Part of my Click-Alike collection. I fell for these types of names about a year ago after reading a blog post on DomainTools I imagined a network of Click-Alike sites full of high dollar Affiliate products. When the renewals came up recently I decided I’d see if anyone else thought they were valuable. Hmm.
DID SELL
StormTrooperEffect.com $.99
StormTrooperSyndrome.com $.99
Before I was even a Noob I was getting excited about names like these. Rather than let them expire I put them on Ebay. The other thing about a sale, even a $.99 sale, is that you end up with positive feedback. You need 20 sales to open an Ebay store, which was something I was considering.
BUNX.NET Pronouncable LLLL.Net $9.99
GOYZ.NET Pronouncable LLLL.Net $9.99
PULV.NET Pronouncable Semi-Premium LLLL.Net $9.99
A couple of the ‘Semi-Premiums’ sold!
4cq.net Four Charlie Quebec NLL 3 Character Domain Name $9.99
4ql.net Four Quebec Lima NLL 3 Character Domain Name $9.99
OddioBook.com Brandable Domain Name – Odd Audio Books! $0.99
RikiTikiWiki..com Domain Name Att. Mongoose Lovers $0.99
A couple more of my pre-Noob acquisitions. Sold them rather than let them expire.
Dalores.com First Name Domain Name Baby Girl? $24.99
This was a name I found in The Drop. Buyer got a great deal IMO.
Looking at only the domains I purchased off The Drop for the purpose of flipping…
Acquired for Ebay flipping: 25 @ $7.69 = $192.25
Ebay selling costs: $27.34
Total cost: $219.59
Total sales: $80.93
Cost of experiment: $138.66
I suppose that could change. I still have the domains for sale.
Another thing I should mention was that in the process of looking for flipable domains I found a couple I think were keepers that are now parked and for sale at Sedo. I could be wrong, but they seem to me worth at least a couple of hundred each, and I wouldn’t have found them if I hadn’t been in Drop-Flip acquisition mode. (But what do you think?)
Pussied.com
and
Hobbying.com
What’s my take-away?
I think people shopping for domains on Ebay are looking for steals.
I think that at these prices, the Ebay charges really do impact your profits.
I think that unless you just love to do it, (or get really lucky) the number of hours spent scanning the drop lists, acquiring names, listing names for sale, and following up on the sale (getting the domain transferred) makes the whole process a big time-waster! Even if you got good at it, it’s not going to scale. It’s got ‘Don’t quit your day job’ written all over it.
Sour grapes?
P.S. Great post from Joshua Hunt-Smith on the How-To nitty gritty details of putting a domain up for sale on Ebay at LLLL.com.
.
John@DomainNoob.com
2 Comments
Great post.
There still are plenty of opportunities for the newcomer to come into the game and make a few bucks, however without coming in with a large bankroll, it will be very difficult to make a career out of it.
When most domainers factor in how much time they’re putting into domains versus how much they’re making, it’s under $10/hour and for many it’s a negative return. If it’s a hobby or something you do in your free time, that’s fine I guess, however it really does take a lot of hard, long hours to make a serious go of it.
The real opportunity at present is in domain name development — I purchased DomainingEbooks.com for regfee in October, however if I setup a minisite affiliate program on it for existing domain name ebooks, I could easily make 10-20 times the regfee back.
There aren’t very many webmasters even today who thoroughly understand all the principles behind what make domains valuable. Domainers really are at a competitive advantage if we take the time to learn about domain name development, monetization, and SEO strategies.
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Thanks Reece. I have a couple of Noobish development stories I’ll get into print soon. Best of luck with LLLL.com
I have had my fair share of junk domains that I can’t get $9.99 for on Ebay. It is really all about coming up with a formula that works. I have made money this year fliping domains but clearly not enough to live on. I just sold a military related domain for $100 and in negotiations for a domain I picked up yesterday for $150. I am usually happy with a 200% return so anything more rocks. Occasionally you land a big one and it makes it all worthwhile. I also like to roll my profits into domains worth holding like I bought a lll.net domain just a month ago with the profit from flipping. Maybe one of these days I will be able to afford a .com.
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Hi Jason. Thanks for stopping by. Glad to hear some of your Drop catches are turning into larger sales. Good luck with tastedrop.com
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