From time to time, I will post a job opening or two at a domain industry company. Some of these job opportunities are at domain brokerages, some are at parking companies, some are at domain registrars, and others are at companies that operate in the domain investment space.
For someone who wants to work in this space, there are a number of advantages and disadvantages to getting a job for a domain industry company, and I’ll share my thoughts with you. As always, you are welcome to share your thoughts as well, and if you work (or have worked) for an industry company, you can tell me if I am right or wrong.
Advantages
- More people are buying domain names than ever before, so there’s a larger audience.
- The business of selling and marketing domain names is still developing, and people who are able to innovate in their roles can advance within the company.
- Many industry companies are small, allowing employees to help make key decisions and grow the company.
- There are hundreds of conferences and tradeshows (mostly outside of the domain investment space), so there are an abundance of travel opportunities in the US and abroad.
- People with various backgrounds buy domain names, allowing industry employees to work with all sorts of people.
- It seems like there are plenty of entrepreneurially-spirited companies in this space, giving people a dynamic and exciting work environment.
- The opportunity for a growing salary is present due to the growing nature of many companies.
Disadvantages
- For a variety of reasons, the domain name aftermarket has lost value over the past few years, leading to many cutbacks.
- Non-compete clauses may prevent employees from going out on their own to start their own domain investment business.
- Non-compete clauses may prevent employees from working for competitors in the domain industry space.
- Some of the people who patronize domain companies may be “rough around the edges” a bit and may be more demanding than clients who have worked with corporate account managers before.
- Competitive nature of the business may make it difficult to become wealthy.
- Smaller companies may not be able to offer top tier employment benefit packages.
These are sales jobs, a lot of cold calling, and email, telemarketer stuff to the core in most cases, minus all the pretty name titles.
Car Salesmen make more money than domain brokers…it’s true…from the best ones to the worst…all the way down the spectrum.
Heck, Suit Salesmen make more than domain brokers.
How much do you believe the top domain brokers earn, including commissions?
E.,
The top 10%, in the aggregate, over $400,000 per year.
All of them, lumped together, on average? Maybe $40,000 per annum.
I agree that the top 10% most likely make $400k++. I don’t think that the rest bring down the average to $40k, unless you count the people who sort of “dabble” in domain brokering and don’t make much at all. Those people wouldn’t really be considered in this post, as this is about jobs and not hobbies.
I’ve never asked a broker (or anyone really) how much they make, but I would imagine it’s much higher than $40k.
Perhaps someone with real knowledge can post a comment here.
DomainSherpa had an interview with Toby Clements a while back. I think it said at the time he was on pace to do $2 or $3 million in domain name sales for the year. If he gets 10-20% of each sale and he is one of top brokers there is one industry benchmark. But, one should remember there are no recurring revenues from a sale like other sales jobs.
You should try to do a Q&A with him. He has a large newsletter subscriber base and years of experience.
That would be a range of $200k – $600k if the sales and commission figures are accurate.
Good for Toby Clements, that he can make money in the domain industry in spite of not being able to identify a quality domain, nor price domain inventory.
Just more proof of how incredibly weak this space is.