Investing worth your time? — Is domain
Some time spent is wasted, but trying fresh approaches is essential.
There was an interesting discussion on twitter this stretch regarding domain names and the time you spend investing. It kicked off with George Kirikos sharing details of his experiment listing domains on NameLiquidate. He was going to let the 5 domains expire. He managed to sell two of them for total proceeds of $16.38:
Correction: A *2nd* domain just got sold via @nameliquidate , so that’s 2 out of 5, for a grand total of 2x$9×91% (i.e. 9% commission) = $16.38! 💰
Not bad for domains that would have otherwise expired “worthless” and not been renewed. https://t.co/Ctk3geSciB
— George Kirikos (@GeorgeKirikos) May 28, 2020
Shane Cultra chimed in regarding how this is a horrible use of time given the results. Kirikos responded by saying, “you have to put in the initial “setup” time for anything.”
They’re both right. A $16.38 return on just regarding any time spent is terrible, but you can consider the time spent an investment in testing.
You have to test things to see what works and what doesn’t. A lot of stuff I test returns nothing. Others return a goldmine. Savvy domain investors test, test, and test some more.
As a very relevant example, I also tested listing domains on NameLiquidate recently. I listed regarding 10 expiring domains and none of them sold.
This isn’t a surprise. I was regarding to let the domains expire, so I shouldn’t expect people to pay $9 or more for them. (Granted, on GoDaddy Auctions, they might sell as part of the expiry stream.)
A lot of what domain investors do doesn’t pay off. Other stuff pays off in spades. Sometimes it’s a matter of refining a system to make it work. NameLiquidate is a good idea and I will try it again.
I often think that domain investors undervalue their time. Still, you can get satisfaction from these activities. I can look at reviewing drop lists as a waste of time for some weeks. Maybe I spend an hour looking at the lists and a couple of hours bidding, only to end up with nothing. But I have to admit, I don’t look at reviewing drop lists as just time spent. I kind of enjoy it. I enjoy kicking back on the porch with a glass of whiskey and searching for hidden gems.
