Do you still find Domaining as Fun as 5, 10, 20 years ago? (2.Viewing)

domains

domains

DomainMedia.ca
Joined
Nov 18, 2020
Topics
95
Posts
1,650
Likes
799
From
Nelson, BC
I have been investing in domains for almost 25 years now, and I still love the industry but feel that it used to be more fun.

These days it feels like more of a grind, for reasons I posted in another thread here:
  • higher costs for registrations/renewals
  • inquiries are down for me
  • sales are down for me
  • issues with domain marketplaces (eg: closing, technical issues, getting bought out and merged by Godaddy, raising commissions, etc)

Godaddy used to have great coupons and an affordable Domain Discount Club, now the DDC is over $300/yr and after 20 years with Godaddy this past year I started transferring everything out vs paying Godaddy's outrageous renewal fees.

Everything changes when you start getting regular sales, or a few big sales, then I'm sure I'd change my tune. But it just seems it's been a few years lately of grinding. I mean there used to be dry spells but eventually a few sales or a big sale would come in to make up for it.

Don't know if anyone is feeling the same, at least in .ca I don't see lots of big sales being reported for a long while now. Seems we just see the odd x,xxx sale reported at Sedo now.
 
The fun starts as a new as soon as you get another sale, you tend to forget the dry spells when the sale rolls in.

Yes there is more backend work but its still a lot less than a factory job.
 
domains said:
I have been investing in domains for almost 25 years now, and I still love the industry but feel that it used to be more fun.

These days it feels like more of a grind, for reasons I posted in another thread here:
  • higher costs for registrations/renewals
  • inquiries are down for me
  • sales are down for me
  • issues with domain marketplaces (eg: closing, technical issues, getting bought out and merged by Godaddy, raising commissions, etc)

Godaddy used to have great coupons and an affordable Domain Discount Club, now the DDC is over $300/yr and after 20 years with Godaddy this past year I started transferring everything out vs paying Godaddy's outrageous renewal fees.

Everything changes when you start getting regular sales, or a few big sales, then I'm sure I'd change my tune. But it just seems it's been a few years lately of grinding. I mean there used to be dry spells but eventually a few sales or a big sale would come in to make up for it.

Don't know if anyone is feeling the same, at least in .ca I don't see lots of big sales being reported for a long while now. Seems we just see the odd x,xxx sale reported at Sedo now.
Click to expand...

MDGA
 
MapleDots said:
The fun starts as a new as soon as you get another sale, you tend to forget the dry spells when the sale rolls in.

Yes there is more backend work but its still a lot less than a factory job.
Click to expand...
Theres nothing that makes a sailor more happy than a furlough
 
domains said:
I have been investing in domains for almost 25 years now, and I still love the industry but feel that it used to be more fun.

These days it feels like more of a grind, for reasons I posted in another thread here:
  • higher costs for registrations/renewals
  • inquiries are down for me
  • sales are down for me
  • issues with domain marketplaces (eg: closing, technical issues, getting bought out and merged by Godaddy, raising commissions, etc)

Godaddy used to have great coupons and an affordable Domain Discount Club, now the DDC is over $300/yr and after 20 years with Godaddy this past year I started transferring everything out vs paying Godaddy's outrageous renewal fees.

Everything changes when you start getting regular sales, or a few big sales, then I'm sure I'd change my tune. But it just seems it's been a few years lately of grinding. I mean there used to be dry spells but eventually a few sales or a big sale would come in to make up for it.

Don't know if anyone is feeling the same, at least in .ca I don't see lots of big sales being reported for a long while now. Seems we just see the odd x,xxx sale reported at Sedo now.
Click to expand...
Agree not as fun as it used to be. In the beginning I felt like I was on the cutting edge of something that was life changing - I was right but as the saying goes things change
 
With GD closing down Dan, my "fun level" in domain investing has dropped to almost zero, and it's quickly heading into the negatives.

Dan was like a perfect marketplace for me - fully-featured, fast, reliable, and you had access to not only a near-perfect self-brokerage tool, but also the option of pushing higher-value domains to their broker team.

But man, Afternic has been quite the comedown. Each morning when I load my Afternic dashboard, all I can do is cross my fingers that one of their brokers has finally forwarded a buy price or counter to a potential buyer, as each step in the negotiation process can literally take 2-3 days each. "Strike while the iron's hot" is definitely not an Afternic mantra.

I think fighting a team of ghosts would be easier and quicker than trying to sell on Afternic (or as I call them, SlowDaddy). It would sure be more fun.
 
I am almost five weeks into a supposed $10k transaction at Afternic that should have been a LTO but the broker thought it wasn't possible with a .ca, then the buyer was supposed to have full payment ready by end of Nov, now after nudging the broker this week, he says he hasn't heard anything from the buyer since Nov 21. So yeah you don't get just the basic update from the broker. I suppose any transaction can take a while or fall through at any point, when the buyer is ready to pay and follows through is something you get to appreciate when it happens.
 
domains said:
I am almost five weeks into a supposed $10k transaction at Afternic that should have been a LTO but the broker thought it wasn't possible with a .ca, then the buyer was supposed to have full payment ready by end of Nov, now after nudging the broker this week, he says he hasn't heard anything from the buyer since Nov 21. So yeah you don't get just the basic update from the broker. I suppose any transaction can take a while or fall through at any point, when the buyer is ready to pay and follows through is something you get to appreciate when it happens.
Click to expand...

If you handled the transaction yourself you'd have your first payment already.

I always direct clients over with my personal info and handle the larger transactions myself. Nowadays all banks can do a bank transfer for little to no cost.

SAW & DomainEasy allow you to engage the client and you can just ask him to contact your email.

Afternic is such a shit show now, I can't believe anyone is still giving away that much control and using them for the privilege of 25% commission.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rlm
yeah, due to the changes at Uniregistry a while back, then Dan, my domains have moved all over the place, but mostly now at Afternic, DomainEasy, or my own landers. I need to consolidate and organize it better over the winter. If anyone is using Afternic you have to make sure you're nameservers are pointed to one of their sets to get the 15% instead of 25% commission. I let my Dan domains migrate to Afternic because it was easy, and to see if Afternic had improved, but I'm having my doubts now. I always think if someone really wants a domain they are going to make the effort to buy it wherever it is. The potential buyer for my domain either wasn't really interested enough, or is taking their time. I've had potential buyers disappear before only to re-emerge, they just took a little longer than I expected to get it together.
 
I tried to visit one of my domains I'd put on it's own lander I built, and I got the dreaded forwarding error message from Google. So had to move it right away to something else. It's crappy when you've set up domains to resolve to a selling page and find out later it's having issues.
 
domains said:
It's crappy when you've set up domains to resolve to a selling page and find out later it's having issues.
Click to expand...

I am assuming this is Afternic as it happens ALL the time. Their servers go up and down like a teeter-totter.

I'm starting to reach my breaking point with these guys, as not only are their innumerable technical issues, but they're slow as molasses in January... that's being stored on Jupiter.

Negotiating on Afternic is a lot like playing chess through snail mail - each move takes several days to complete.
 
MapleDots said:
If you handled the transaction yourself you'd have your first payment already.

I always direct clients over with my personal info and handle the larger transactions myself. Nowadays all banks can do a bank transfer for little to no cost.

SAW & DomainEasy allow you to engage the client and you can just ask him to contact your email.

Afternic is such a shit show now, I can't believe anyone is still giving away that much control and using them for the privilege of 25% commission.
Click to expand...
25% IS CRAZY EVEN IF THE SERVICE IS EXCEPTIONAL
 
DataCube said:
There are just less appealing buy opportunities now than years ago.
Click to expand...

No joke and investors be spending money like it's going out of style.

I think it's mostly newbies with dreams of glory and 'getting rich quick', and I hope their wives cut up their credit cards soon.
 
All in all yeah domaining was more fun 15 years ago when drop catch didn't get all the drops, many new industries were emerging, the internet was relatively new, new gtlds were coming out, better sales options, stronger dollars "remember when our dollar was better than US 2011 or 2012 ish...", 0.99$ coupons at GoDaddy!, cheap renewals etc. etc...

I have noticed a downward trend in sales since godaddy bought many out. Domain Name Sales was one of my favorite services back in the day but went to godaddy. Dan is now GoDaddy, Afternic now GoDaddy. Efty is good but too expensive for my smaller portfolio. Sedo is ok but i had issues with a .ca sale there so i only use it for .coms now.

When I control the sale process and follow ups etc. the sale happens. With GoDaddy I don't even know if they follow up with previous inquiry's etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Sponsors who contribute to keep dn.ca free for everyone.

Sponsor
CanSpace
CIRA
FullHost
WHC
Donors (6)

Sponsors who contribute to keep dn.ca free.

Members who recently read this topic: 28

Back
Top Bottom