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.”
Elliot-
I’d love to hear a success story of someone who started with domains after, say, 2005. Otherwise it’s just another no-brainer (and effortless) success story with anyone who registered a name before 1998.
Just a suggestion for your next entry can can help inspire modern-day domainers.
Best
-Mike
Hi, I am Connie from Network Solutions. It’s really amazing to see how far the industry has come. What was a domain name business has evolved into so much more, from basic hosting to full business and eCommerce solutions. I wonder where we will be in another 10 years?
i hear you mike lol. but there are people out there making it. But no matter where you turn, its always some guy who stumbled into the industry after even drop catching names wont get you amazing quality. Go ahead say it aint so… but this credit crisis will change things. 🙂
What Andrew didn’t mention is that I bought his beer for him while he was in college, and then I gave him credit when he needed the money to buy his premium domains but he still wanted his beer. I paid the money to get his beer so he could invest in all his great domains. He had so many chicks hanging out in his apartment (most of them semi-nude) I thought “this guy can’t fail at anything he does”.
However, Andrew still owes me for six keggers, which comes out to about $400, but with interest, I’m afraid he owes me his most valuable domain. I’m trying to get him to reveal what that domain might be, but he’s not spilling the beans. I’m sorry I had to out him like this, but Andrew is a well-known Jim Dandy, second only to John Belushi in Animal House.
So why should I be his benefactor? He never once set me up with any of his babe cast-offs. His reasoning? “Stephen, I never had any cast-offs with da babes… they all wanted me, at the same time.” Sheeesh.
Dang that Double A.
(This comment brought to you by my imaginary sponsor, Eric Rice of DNcartoons.com, who has no idea I’m posting it and wouldn’t sanction it if he did)
My first taste of this industry was when I picked up a domain in November 2007 for $7 and resold the domain for $400 in June 2008. I was building and running over a dozen sites and never had time for myself. I closed all but 4 sites and now domain in my free time since I webmaster FT as a job. Since then I have acquired about 100 more domains. Estibot batch legacy tool tells me I have about $350K in domains at the moment. I would be happy to take 10% of that and actually have 45 premium domains as a lot on ebay right now for $5K no reserve ending Friday 10/10.
dcmike77— I am one of the success after 2006.
I got into an industry that was real slow in ecommerce and that is wine.
dcmike77 – Well, I can tell you that most of the domains I’ve made money on were purchased in the aftermarket in 2005 or later. I was just willing to spend the money to buy aftermarket domains that I felt were undervalued, and then flip them.