You are likely aware by now, but the price of .com domain names is increasing again on Sunday, September 1, 2024. Verisign is raising the wholesale cost by 7%, as permitted in its registry agreement. Retail domain registrars will likely pass along the price increase to customers, but it could be more than 7%.

If you want to take advantage of current pricing, you should renew the .com domain names before the price increase. You may also consider transferring domain names for the same savings. Domain registrars sometimes bill customers for transfers upon completion, so it may be too late depending on where the domain names are registered.

This past week, I transferred more than 50 .com domain names to GoDaddy that I held at various registrars following expiry auction wins. My preference is to keep nearly all of my domain names in one account to ensure they don’t get “lost.” The Verisign price increase is an impetus for bringing more of my domain names into a single account at one registrar.

Thanks to Brian Wick for the article suggestion.

Today is the (first) day. John Berryhill and I are riding in the Pan-Mass Challenge to raise funds for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. This is my 11th PMC ride and John’s 6th ride.

The PMC is making a difference in the lives of patients at Dana-Farber and around the world. The funds we raise support the innovative work of doctors, nurses, and scientists in their search for cures for cancers and related diseases. Dana-Farber is one of the top three cancer institutions in the world, and over the last 10 years, has helped develop nearly one in four FDA-approved cancer drugs in the US. The PMC is Dana-Farber’s single largest contributor, accounting for 62 percent of the Jimmy Fund’s annual revenue.

This year with the help of domain investment industry friends and colleagues, John and I have raised nearly $21,000. I would be delighted to add more people to our list of domain industry colleagues who are supporting us. My fundraising goal for the year is $18,000, and I am about $3,500 away from hitting it.

On Sunday, John and I will proudly wear a special domain industry PMC jersey with the logos of supporters. John and I appreciate everyone who has helped us help Dana-Farber. It is a fantastic organization with a critically important mission.

I would imagine the average sell through rate (STR) for most domain investors is below 3%. If you have a domain portfolio with 1,000 domain names, that would amount to 30 domain name sales per year. If the rate is much higher, I think it probably means the seller’s prices are too low. The trouble with this, in my opinion, is the difficulty in replacing these assets once sold.

Mike Cyger posted a poll on X asking people if they have self-doubt about their domain investing strategy and tactics:

Do you ever have self-doubt about your domain investing strategy and tactics?

— Michael Cyger (@MichaelCyger) July 30, 2024

As you know, I am riding in the Pan-Mass Challenge to raise funds for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. When people ask how to donate to my fundraiser, I give them the link, which is profile.pmc.org/es0223. It is easy enough to share the link via email or in a blog post, but it is not so easy when I mention the PMC ride to people in passing.

Domain investors know a complicated domain name or web link can make it difficult for people to directly navigate to a website. It is one of the biggest reasons why many major companies own domain names they use for forwarding. Customers can easily navigate to a business website with a memorable descriptive, call to action, brand match, or acronym domain name.

Earlier this year, I won CancerStinks.com in a GoDaddy expiry auction. I began forwarding the domain name to my PMC fundraising page. I am sure there was very little existing type-in traffic to the domain name, but using it for forwarding makes it easy for people to find my fundraising page when I tell them about it.

Dharmesh Shah is most well-known for being a Co-Founder of HubSpot. Notably to domain investors, Dharmesh has been involved in a number of high value domain name acquisitions, including Chat.com, Connect.com, You.ai, Wordplay.com, and quite a few other domain names. Dharmesh has spent tens of millions of dollars acquiring valuable domain names.

Dharmesh recently launched Agent.ai, a website that allows people to create and use AI agents to accomplish various tasks. Over the weekend on LinkedIn, Dharmesh announced that he created a domain name appraisal agent within the Agent.ai platform:

Ten days ago, Elliots.com sold for $2,759 via GoDaddy Auctions. I was a bidder on the auction, but I maxed out just below $1k. I appreciate that many people reached out to make sure I was aware of the auction.

This morning, I received an email from someone who wants to buy the domain name: