When I had to write reports in high school and college, I was usually required to cite many sources rather than a single source. This was to ensure that the information was accurate and factual instead of simply one person’s opinion. Sometimes a person’s opinion is accurate and factual, but it is important to see what others say to make sure of it. The same goes when you are looking for advice in the domain industry.
Whether you are looking for advice on whether to buy, sell, develop, park…etc or anything at all in this industry, you should try to get as many opinions as possible and make the best determination yourself. Before Frank Schilling started his famous blog and before the domain forums became as popular as they are now, most industry pioneers had to go out on a limb and go solo for many of the things we openly discuss today. They didn’t have (many wouldn’t want) the luxury of openly discussing strategy. Today, it is an important part of the domain industry.
Just like anything else, it is important to know about who is giving the advice and their motivation. I was reading one of the popular forums the other day, and someone was asking how they should reply to an offer/solicitation. Some of the answers were not only unhelpful, but they probably would have been harmful. There are plenty of sources of information out there, so the best advice I can give is to use all of your trusted sources carefully.
Free advice is cheap, but it can be very expensive.

Of course I am referring to the size of your domain portfolio. Some people may think that because they have 1,000, 5,000, 10,000 or 20,000 domain names, they are better off than others. I really couldn’t disagree any more, unless you happen to have an unbelievable portfolio (meaning you spent many sleepless nights over the past several years researching and cashing in on money making domain names).
I saw a post where people were asked how many domain names they own, and I was pretty surprised at the amount of people who owned hundreds of domain names. Additionally, I’ve received emails from many people who have asked me to appraise their domain names, and they’ve sent a list of hundreds of mediocre domain names to evaluate. I really believe a person can go broke quickly by registering hundreds of new domain names. Technology and data mining scripts have gotten to the point where it is nearly impossible to hand register domain names that will pay for themselves in PPC revenue, unless a trend or event happens that makes the names relevant. I would like to suggest that people focus on quality and not quantity.
One trend I’ve noticed is that some people believe that because they have an entire portfolio of hundreds of similar names, the set has more value. For example, if someone owns 12345Golf.com, 12345Shopping.com, 12345Travel.com, 12345Sex.com…etc, the names aren’t more valuable simply because almost every 12345 domain name is owned by them. Unless someone else wants to build a huge network of websites using that idea (doubtful), the set is a $7.50 X x,xxx annual drain. One thing to think about is why would someone pay your premium, when they could come up with an idea that is similar and hand register the set (123456 for example).
There is nothing wrong with owning a large portfolio of domain names if you are generating enough revenue to support it, or if you are making enough profit in sales that you can incur the renewal costs with no problem. However, I have seen people become overwhelmed with renewal fees, and it can be difficult to watch some domain names drop because of it.
My advice is to keep your portfolio as trim as your budget will allow. Instead of buying dozens of new registrations, it might make more sense to buy one quality name.

I was looking in my trackbacks today and saw a trackback from a blog to my post “.Mobi Meltdown” where I linked to another blogger with whom I agreed about .mobi names at the TRAFFIC auction. I was going to respond in the comment section of that person’s blog, but I ended up writing quite a bit and figured I would give my thoughts more exposure rather than burying them at the bottom of someone else’s blog.
From DomainerDeveloper.com:

“I must reiterate that I find it disenchanting and absolutely remarkable how so many credible, domain industry veteran investors appear to still be missing the mark when it comes to understanding these fascinating domain extensions. Instead of exploring the many possibilities and communities that are building up around these unique extensions, they continue their relentless attacks.”

First off, I disagree that I have been a source of “relentless attacks.” Before last week when I asked “Is There Money in .Mobi Development,” (which only received one affirmative response with hundreds of page views) the last time I even mentioned anything about .mobi was a February 7th post where I was commenting on someone else’s post about the trouble facing .mobi in getting consumers to recognize and adopt the extension. Prior to that, my last mention was way back in December – a lifetime in this business. If this is considered relentless, that’s pretty weak.
Aside from this inaccuracy, I must ask one important question. Why would I care about .mobi or .any other extension when I can do the same shit with my .com names? If I believe many mobile users are navigating to my websites, I can make sure the mobile browser is detected to give the visitor an optimal experience. Whether I own the .mobi or not, my websites can be mobile-ready, just like thousands of other large companies who may not have even heard of .mobi (or own their .mobi names for protective purposes).
I don’t have the time or bandwidth to develop more than a few domain names at a time. Why would I want to mess around with an unproven extension when I can stick to .com? I am sure there are plenty of people who have plenty of time to experiment and try to earn a return on their investment, but I don’t have the time or the desire to become a .mobi missionary.
At this moment, I don’t envy people who paid mid 5 figures recently for .mobi names to see the 13 “premium” names sell for no more than $18k at last week’s TRAFFIC auction. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, people like Rick Schwartz can afford to take a $200,000 gamble on a .mobi or .whatever domain name. If he hits paydirt in 5 years, people will still probably be jerkoffs to him, but it is his prerogative. I don’t see a very active market for .eu domain names, and I am not familiar with too many that are developed, although there were many people who spent thousands of dollars on those names.
When I buy a domain name for development, I make sure the name is as liquid as possible in the event things don’t work out. If I wanted to sell Lowell.com, Burbank.com (currently under development), WeddingEntertainment.com or a few other names I own, I could make a profit because I bought them for fair prices. If I paid $25k for a non-“premium” .mobi name, I wouldn’t be happy at this moment knowing what these recent “premium” names did. That was the point of my last post.
Sure, maybe 5 years from now some alternate extension domain owners will hit paydirt. IMO, it would have been smarter to invest in more liquid domains in the .com extension either for development or to flip. Are condo investors in Vegas or Miami happy when they see much lower comps on similar condos that they own? Are they willing to wait out the market? Some are, but many are just trying to not lose their shirts when they sell rather than waiting out the market.
Sure, maybe I am “missing the mark,” but I think we are aiming for different things.