FRANK: Well, the sellers aren’t going around now and saying the metrics don’t work, I’ll just lower my price. That’s just not happening. We’ve gone from 10X to 100X on the sell side. There are no big buyers anymore. But it really doesn’t matter. The good names are being renewed and the bad names will always be the bad names, and they will cycle in a boulevard of broken dreams to come.

That really hit home last night. I had to take care of my September and October renewals and it’s finally dawning on me how much crap I own. I guess because I have one of those runaway imaginations, it’s easy for me to get caught up in the possibilities of a domain. I also seem to become attached to domains I’ve owned for a few years. Even though the parking / WhyPark  stats barely dip into double digits a month, there’s something about owning a domain name that leads me to become fond of it!  But no more. Many will drop. I need to get leaner. These ideas didn’t ‘work’. Here’s the list of what’s going and in some cases, what I was thinking when I picked them up in the first place.

First off, my ‘click-alikes’. These are domains who because of clever letter configuration, appear to be other than what they are actually. Like an l/L representing a capital i/I or the one I was fond of, the letter m/M representing rn/RN. I guess this is similar to what Typosquatters do, but I was targeting generic keywords. I’m still convinced they could be very useful to someone, especially someone who already had a bunch of traffic but just wanted to move it around. I also think they might do well in a Google Adwords campaign, because they would appear to be authoritative keyword domains. If you built out around these names they might also be very effective. But developing click-alikes to compete with multi-million dollar companies, was more than I was up for. I think in the back of my mind somewhere was a get-rich-quick scheme that never materialized.  I want to state that I do not think there is anything ‘shady’ about these names! Words convey meaning. These click-alikes represent words whose meanings are worth millions of dollars – same meaning!

dornainnames.com    10/28/09 0:27
websltes.com    10/28/09 0:32
webslte.com    10/28/09 0:35
internetrnarketing.com    10/28/09 0:39
affiliaternarketing.com    10/28/09 0:43
rnassage.com    10/28/09 0:47
glfts.com    10/28/09 0:51
plurnbing.com    10/28/09 1:06
rnovlng.com    10/28/09 1:06
carnping.com    10/28/09 1:06
savlngs.com    10/28/09 1:06
freernusic.com    10/28/09 1:06
rnp3players.com    10/28/09 1:06
dornainname.com    10/28/09 4:16
hornevalue.com    10/28/09 4:16
apartrnent.com    10/28/09 4:16
horneforsale.com    10/28/09 4:16
rnoving.com    10/28/09 4:16
asianpom.com    10/31/09 3:25
bdsrn.com    10/31/09 3:25
bigtlt.com    10/31/09 3:25
freepommovie.com    10/31/09 3:25
freepommovies.com    10/31/09 3:25
freepomvideo.com    10/31/09 3:25
freepomvideos.com    10/31/09 3:25
latinapom.com    10/31/09 3:25
lesbianpom.com    10/31/09 3:25
shernale.com    10/31/09 3:25
shernales.com    10/31/09 3:25
amateurpom.com    10/31/09 3:25
hardcorepom.com    10/31/09 3:25
teenpom.com    10/31/09 3:25
attomeys.com    10/31/09 4:14
casinogarnes.com    10/31/09 4:14
rnusicvideo.com    10/31/09 4:14
rnutualfunds.com    10/31/09 4:14
freernp3.com    10/31/09 4:14
intemetdating.com    10/31/09 4:14
televislons.com    10/31/09 4:14
casinogarne.com    10/31/09 4:14
freegarnes.com    10/31/09 4:14
rnusicvideos.com    10/31/09 4:14
rnutualfund.com    10/31/09 4:14
unlverslty.com    10/31/09 4:14
homeirnprovement.com    10/31/09 4:14
rnaps.com    10/31/09 4:14
shopplngcart.com    10/31/09 4:14
covvboys.com    10/31/09 16:03 Remember?
covvboy.com    10/31/09 16:03
businesslnsurance.com    10/31/09 16:03
cheapautolnsurance.com    10/31/09 16:03
automobilelnsurance.com    10/31/09 16:03

Then there was the iTeachMusic directory business idea. Only iTeachMusic.com is taken, and he wasn’t selling for the few $k I could scrape together to offer him. Somehow I convinced myself to go ahead and purchase a network of iTeach domains anyway. “Yeah, they’ll all funnel into the main site!” Because music and teaching music is my background, I could do this, I do know the business.
ITEACHCLASSICALGUITAR.COM    9/19/09 17:45
ITEACHPERCUSSION.COM    9/19/09 17:45
ITEACHVOCALS.COM    9/19/09 17:45
ITEACHACOUSTICGUITAR.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHBASS.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHJAZZGUITAR.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHKEYBOARDS.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHBLUESGUITAR.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHROCKGUITAR.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHSHREDGUITAR.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHSLIDEGUITAR.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHVOICE.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHCOUNTRYGUITAR.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHSONGWRITING.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHMUSIC.ORG    9/19/09 22:46

And related keyword domains that would be easy to build mini-sites on to funnel traffic back to the hub. (Now which podcast did I get that from?)
BLUESSTANDARDS.COM    10/6/09 1:30
JAZZSOLOING.COM    10/6/09 1:30
BLUESSOLOING.COM    10/6/09 1:30
ROCKSOLOING.COM    10/6/09 1:30
BASSSOLOING.COM    10/6/09 1:31
CHORDTONESOLOING.COM    10/6/09 1:31
Not a bad idea right? Except that because I’ve been involved with it for so long I have absolutely no passion left for it whatsoever!

Then there were the ‘clever business idea domain names’ (and to be honest I have kept quite a few of these). Some of these were the result of trying my hand at PickyDomains.com where clients are looking for a domain name to match a business idea and you get a finder’s fee if they like yours (in theory).
MALALATETE.NET    9/17/09 21:07 Nice ring to it for a French health-related site, only they’d probably want to use .fr
MATCHSET.NET    9/17/09 21:59 Still think this is a great domain for a tennis site.
SICKPET.NET    9/17/09 21:59 This one actually gets enough traffic at WhyPark to pay for itself.
CCMASHUP.COM    9/21/09 18:29 CC as in Creative Commons, and mashup. The .com would allow you to publish commercially.
CCMASHUP.ORG    9/21/09 23:29 The .org would be for the not-for-profit version.
NORTHPOLEREPORT.COM    9/21/09 22:20  A Christmas site that would follow Santa on his travels.
FAMILYVIDEOTREE.COM    10/2/09 16:0 A video business my wife and I thought about getting into.
COMPAREPORT.COM    10/5/09 1:29 Compare/Report/Port nice ring to it for a shopping comparison engine.
TODOLOOP.COM    10/8/09 15:25  Collaborative ToDo lists.
TODOLOOPS.COM    10/8/09 15:26

A couple of Geo/Keyword domains.
NEWYORKCITYUSEDBOOKS.COM    9/20/09 3:36
NEWYORKDANCEINSTRUCTION.COM    9/20/09 3:36

A couple of high search result keywords that didn’t get any type-ins.
HISTORYOFVIDEO.COM    10/11/09 13:38 Google: 205,000 for “history of video”
HISTORYOFINFORMATION.COM    10/11/09 22:49 Google: 124,000,000 for “history of information”

And a few leftovers from my flipping on Ebay experiment.
6-49.NET    9/10/09 18:25 Thought this might make a great 6/49 lottery info page. But very few type-ins.
1YJ.NET    9/4/09 19:24
5JD.NET    9/4/09 19:24

There you have it. That’s a little over $700 I’ll save in renewals by letting these drop. I kept another $400 worth. Hopefully I’ve learned enough in the last few years to know that the ones I’m keeping have more re-sale or development potential. But I also kept a couple of crazy names I just like.
As I mentioned, these are all going for $59, what you’d pay to backorder them. Or wait around and I’m sure a lot of them will make it back in to the pool–will, as Frank put it, “cycle in a boulevard of broken dreams to come”.

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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.

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