The domain industry is made up of a diverse group of people with vastly different backgrounds. I’ve always found it interesting hearing about how domain investors became familiar with domain names and ultimately decided to invest some (or all) of their money in these virtual assets. Today we learn about how Andrew Allemann, editor of Domain Name Wire, became interested in the domain industry.
“I started registering domain names in 1997 when I was in college.   At first it had nothing to do with domains: domains were just a means to an end to create web sites.   But as I created my first web site I realized their was a lot of value in the domains themselves.   I got addicted when I sold my first domain name on eBay.   I would track expired domain lists and look for good domains to register (back then you could get good expired domains even days after the domains expired).   The only problem was that domains were $70 to register, and that’s a lot of beer money.   I didn’t register nearly as many domains as I should have.
I still remember getting all of those paper registration notices in the mail from Network Solutions for each domain I registered.   My roommates thought I was crazy.   I also remember when registration became deregulated.   Dotster was offering domains for something like $15, and I went crazy.   I was one of their first dozen customers — I think my order number was 19 or something like that.”

The domain industry is made up of a diverse group of people with vastly different backgrounds. I’ve always found it interesting hearing about how domain investors became familiar with domain names and ultimately decided to invest some (or all) of their money in these virtual assets. Beginning today with my domain beginning, I will be posting stories from industry veterans, so you can learn how they became involved in the domain industry.
When I was in graduate school studying direct marketing at NYU, I wanted to earn some extra money – New York City is very expensive!   One week, a family friend was contracted to clean the theatre curtains in the Empire State Building, and since I lived next door, he asked for my help.   For 3 days, we cleaned the curtains, and I got some sage advice from him, an entrepreneur who has built a very successful business in California.
I was told I should find some type of unique product to sell online – maybe using a venue like Ebay. Since my apartment was small, the product would have to be compact, so the inventory didn’t take up too much space. I spent a few days looking on Ebay for products that were selling, and I saw that some domain names sold for hundreds of dollars.   I looked into this some more, and I found unregistered names that looked similar to ones that were commanding big bucks.
After a few hours, I made my first purchase at Network Solutions.   It was something related to the legal field, and I remember that it had a hyphen.   I still have the receipt packed away somewhere, but I forgot what the name was.   I do remember that I tried to sell it a couple of days later for a few hundred dollars to no avail.   I eventually broke even on the name and found Godaddy, where I could buy names for much less.
I spent the next several months buying and selling domain names on Ebay, reinvesting almost all of my profits along the way.   I continued to learn about what makes a good domain name, and had some good luck along the way.

After learning about Rick’s pending big sale, I am wondering what other domain investors do with the proceeds from a very large sale.   Personally, I almost always reinvest as much as I can in better domain names for development or for resale.   I would think that once you’ve sold a 7 or 8 figure domain name, you are less inclined to reinvest in lower value domain names. So I’d like to pose a question to those of you who completed large domain sales or anticipate closing on one:
When you sell a high value domain name, how do you reinvest that money?

• Do you buy other domain names?
• Do you invest in real estate?
• Do you provide seed capital for incubating companies?
• Do you invest in the stock market?
• Do you live off of your revenue in the French Riviera?
• Do you make it rain at the Spearmint Rhino?

As the storm reports continue to worsen, I want to take a few moments to send my best wishes to my friends at NewOrleans.com, FatTuesday.com, and other non-domain friends who live in the New Orleans area.   I love New Orleans as much as I love New York, and I had one of the most fun weekends in my life in New Orleans a few months ago. New Orleans residents are some of the friendliest people I’ve met, and I hope they stay safe over the next few days.
Here’s hoping the storm isn’t as bad as predicted, and as they say down there, laissez les bon temps rouler.