First Name Domain Showcase (2.Viewing)

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rlm said:
Well if you'd quit moving and changing your number I'd be able to call you! Are you in the witness protection program or what?
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LOL. I know it's been a bit of a "tour de Canada" this past 6 -7 years. It looks like Ontario is our home province for good now. Not sure if Kitchener is, but southern Ontario is.
 
I'm not sure i'd be spending a lot on a first name domain. just find something that rhymes and add it in front or back of the domain and you have a cheap alternate for a blog or personal site.
 
LovelyLynda said:
I'm not sure i'd be spending a lot on a first name domain. just find something that rhymes and add it in front or back of the domain and you have a cheap alternate for a blog or personal site.
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I would never price it such that a blogger or personal site could justify the expense... I would assume only a business of some sort would buy it for a brand name, or alternately maybe a realtor or consultant of some sort. A realtor should be the easiest sell - if they weren't so cheap and short-sighted!
 
LovelyLynda said:
I'm not sure i'd be spending a lot on a first name domain. just find something that rhymes and add it in front or back of the domain and you have a cheap alternate for a blog or personal site.
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I think many of the short first name domains would make great brands. In terms of a personal site or a blog, agree, probably not worth the cost.
 
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FM said:
I only got my son's first name, kaeden.ca. Interesting to see that another spelling (kaden.ca) was included early on in this thread.
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I like names starting in K, I was going to name my son Cameron but in Latin that means crooked nose so I switched the c to a ka and now it has no meaning. My son grumbles though because no matter what souvenir shop we go to he can never find one with his name on it.
 
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MapleDots said:
So Jane.ca sold early in the new year for 25k and it is still parked at godaddy :o
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I think that it’s very obvious now that it will be a cannabis website. The new owners were so happy with the purchase that they have been using their own product everyday and forgot about the domain! :lol:
 
You're not wrong. I have sold 11 over the years. I never sell my first names any lower than 25K. I found that Canadians don't like spending above that number.

rlm said:
I know of at least 2 of us here that have their wife’s first name. But does anyone have their own first name? Actually, I just remembered someone here that does, because I told him it was free to register!

Btw, I have maybe a hundred of them myself, some fairly popular. I have sold only two obscure ones at $1500 each. I’m not sure why I keep collecting them, I guess I keep dreaming that one day Realtors are going to suddenly recognize that they should be branding themselves with a short and unforgettable first name domain that will make them the talk of the town...

I did get a $500 offer on Colin today, told him to pound sand, but in a much more polite manner of course.
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I like first names and last names. I have done well with them over the years. I own quite an amount. Both in .ca and .com. Here is a few .ca my favourites. Sold 2 men names and 1 female. (April, June and September)

gwendolyn.ca
marybeth.ca
myra.ca
wilhelmina.ca
viviana.ca (Wife-not intending to sell this)
 
Bul said:
You're not wrong. I have sold 11 over the years. I never sell my first names any lower than 25K. I found that Canadians don't like spending above that number.
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Am I reading that right, you've sold 11 .ca first names at $25K plus?
 
rlm said:
Am I reading that right, you've sold 11 .ca first names at $25K plus?
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Yes. Do NOT give away your first or last name for cheap. First and last names in any extensions are for the exclusive few. If you don't have a broker (I know a Canadian girl out of Calgary who is good at brokering them) Put it in the godaddy network and sit back.

The trick is to list it for 29K and then put the floor price to 3-4k under the asking price. Your buyer is going to be someone in the real estate or financial services sector and they rarely bargain. . Let me know if you have any. Seen how buddy is selling LLaw domains? Now the people who buy those are the guys who will pay you 25k for the first name or common last name.(everyone should invest in those, forget about what you read in the forums)
 
I agree 100% - I'm always pushing people to not sell cheap. But despite being a guy who's made a good living for 15+ years on nothing but domaining, I just haven't been able to sell any name based domain (first or last) for $25K+. And while realtors seem to be the perfect buyer for a first name domain, they're notoriously cheap...

So I'm definitely curious, do you mind sharing which ones you've sold? (don't need prices). I mean, are these like mike/david/rob/jim etc? Or Wilhelmina/Gwendolyn? I've also been looking for good examples where realtors use first name domains and are very successful with it. Just trying to find ways to convince realtors it is worth the investment.

The only firstnames I've sold are some of the most obscure names I own, ronan and alphonse - and that was only because I chose option a), I gave up and sold them cheap because they were pretty obscure to begin with.
 
rlm said:
I agree 100% - I'm always pushing people to not sell cheap.
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And the funny thing about this is, that the minute you start sticking to your guns and enforcing a minimum price level, your average sale price starts spiking. Pure cause and effect.

That happened when I drew a line in the sand where I would not accept less than 4-figures for any domain and aim for 5 with premiums. Suddenly I blew through a nice string of 4-figure sales in 2020 on domains I never thought would hit that (nothing special), and have live negotiations on better names that may yield a 5-figure or two.

A great example was a trio of low to mid-level domains there were under negotiations for high 3-figures and I was trying to get them to climb the tree. I enforced a mid to high 4-figure BIN on all three, and all three buyers left in a huff. Fine. Then a week later one skulked back and took the BIN, which was much higher than the 3 x 3-figure max bids I initially had, plus I got to keep the other 2 domains!

Some important points:

Be patient.
Domain value is almost entirely in the eye of the beholder.
Buyers often have far more money than they let on.
 
From my experience once you turn down the $50 to $500 offers, most potential buyers are gone. It is a small percent of people who inquire on my domains that are willing to go over $1000. But l'd rather sell less domains for higher prices. If you always cave and sell at the xxx and low x,xxx offers, you'll never make xx,xxx or more on a domain. I think it has gotten a little better every year on what buyers are offering, or at least they understand why you turn down their $100 or $200 offer, but still most people expect to get a domain for nothing.
 
domains said:
From my experience once you turn down the $50 to $500 offers, most potential buyers are gone. It is a small percent of people who inquire on my domains that are willing to go over $1000. But l'd rather sell less domains for higher prices.
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Exactly, and the only way to make money on domaining is to sell a handful of domains each year at 4- to 5-figure prices. Annual sell-through rates are 1-2% and that's for good names, so do the math.

Even if you hand-register 100 domains at $14 a pop (probably 1% sell-through or less for hand-reg) you'll still need to sell your 1 domain at $1400 to break even. Let's say you sell 2 of those hand-regs, one for $300 and the other for $500, and that's probably generous - congratulations, you just lost $600 - and that's if you did all the work and had no commissions. At a 20% GD rate, you just lost $760.

And now you're staring at annual renewal costs for the other 98 unsold domains - which incidentally, will cost more than you made in sales. So after hand-registering 100 names, and "making" $800 in sales, you're now sitting at a negative total investment of - $2,132 after 1 year.

The numbers are shockingly scary, so you need to make every sale count. The "small sales" will not save you, and if you just give it away like candy, the acquisition and renewal costs will eat you alive.
 
rlm said:
I know of at least 2 of us here that have their wife’s first name. But does anyone have their own first name? Actually, I just remembered someone here that does, because I told him it was free to register!

Btw, I have maybe a hundred of them myself, some fairly popular. I have sold only two obscure ones at $1500 each. I’m not sure why I keep collecting them, I guess I keep dreaming that one day Realtors are going to suddenly recognize that they should be branding themselves with a short and unforgettable first name domain that will make them the talk of the town...

I did get a $500 offer on Colin today, told him to pound sand, but in a much more polite manner of course.
Click to expand...
 
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