As a full-time domainer, my life has revolved around buying expired domains on the drop auctions every day.
They call it “cold turkey” when you suddenly give up smoking (thank goodness I did that 20 years ago!).
But I decided to do a different type of “cold turkey” – I resolved to give up buying domains on the Aussie drops for the month of September.
Like smokers, I was totally addicted. Every single day perusing the drop lists; getting bids in on various platforms; and then going through the highs and lows of winning or losing. It wasn’t unusual to buy at least 5 domains a day. I’ve been doing that for about 6 years straight.
So I just stopped. I’m now three quarters of the way through the month; and so far so good.
I let a few of my competitors know, and told them to make hay while the sun shines – or “fill their boots”. 🙂 My absence from the “daily competition” has definitely seen average prices drop.
My Reasons
There were many. Different personal circumstances; a health scare; suppliers moving goal posts; & changing market conditions brought about by possible future changes to our domain space (read uncertainty).
A domainer friend of mine in the UK (he’s also a registrar) did the same a few years ago (except he stopped for much longer). This is what he said:
I came to realise just how many hours a day I’d been burning on repetitive, boring (if necessary) work.
He also said one other thing which totally resonated with me:
We’re not likely to run out of inventory any time soon.
Given I have thousands of domains, how true is that! 🙂
The Benefits Of A Time Out
On the positive side, I set myself the target of selling 30 domains this month. I’ve never set a defined goal like that before. I generally get quite a few enquiries from my Fabulous landers, and for the first time in ages, I’ve also done a bit of outbound marketing.
Pleased to say I’m on track to succeed. To achieve this, I’ve also been far more generous in my pricing. I dropped my minimum sale price to $550 (normally it is at least $1130). Had quite a few sales at that price point; and I’ve had a few low 4 figure sales. Also done quite a few sales on payment plans over 3 to 6 months.
So if anyone wants a bargain, now’s the time to contact me!
It’s also great to be cash flow positive for a change. Plus I’ve been able to devote a lot more time to writing for this blog – and planning future activities. 🙂
Has anyone else ever tried “giving up” the bidding and the buying (even for a while)?
I stopped bidding on Netfleet a while back, good domains rarely drop anymore.
There is a really good one today though – ADS.com.au
You just can’t imagine how much that hurts me not to bid on it! 😉
I stopped bidding completely for around 12 months, and thereafter only made the occasional bid. Now I’m at a point where I barely check the emails.
I did this so that I could direct my attention to developing existing projects, rather than continuously creating new ones. I’m not opposed to buying more domains, but I’ve just become more selective in my approach.
I also chose to let go of some names that I had always planned to develop, as I felt I had too many irons in the fire. It was hard at first, but now refreshing..
..
Having said all that, I did make some great ROI in past 18 months and now that inventory is running low I miss the sales.
Get back in there and start buying then. With me not bidding, there are some bargains to be had. LOL! 😀
Though ADS.com.au was a goodie today – congrats to Netfleet and the buyer.
The industry has definitely gone through some clearly defined stages and the current one is defined by the crap droppings. And as 40% of domains are less than 2 years old, it ain’t going to get better.
i gave up sometime this year, can’t remember when but it just happened, there was no pain , went back to focusing on DEV , but buying domains was fun.
i actually have enough now to develop for the next 5 years and i suppose i am different as i really do want to sell my domains “as domain businesses” i want to build them and then sell an online business ready to go for a business, i don’t think i’ve found any other people doing it my exactly my way.
of COURSE, others do it, but i haven’t found anyone doing it for small business, if you are give me a call i’d love to cross notes.
i still have NF alerts but mostly for clients to brand protect them, i often just don’t look, i certainly no longer search like i use to, just for fun i view what was caught to keep me up with the market.
but with drop not performing well, NF just crap, and domainshield not publishing its pointless in my opinion, either you are IN the game or stuff it
tim
Thanks for sharing Ned.
I stopped buying for two weeks now. My reason is to sell ‘first’ domain.
Decided I should sell what I have before going to buy more. Also learned that should get what buyer wants and not what I like!
Wish me luck 😉