Follow Up: Make 1,000% Profit

I want to follow-up to a post I wrote a few weeks ago called “Make 1,000% Profit.” In the article, I discussed how people can analyze what names are selling at auction at Snapnames, buy names for registration fee at Moniker, and then sell them on Snapnames. The jist was that you can register a domain name for around $8.00 and sell it for $80 (give or take depending on your starting price), for a 1,000% profit.

Since I posted that article, I went out and attempted to do what I had been doing, with then intention of writing up my results here. I had done what I mentioned a few times, and I wanted to prove that it is still possible, even after I publicly wrote up what I was doing.

In any event, the results aren’t as good as the title of my article, but as you will see, I am clearly still more than happy.

Names Registered: 204
Total Spent: $1,550.40

Names Sold: 91
Net Revenue (minus sales commission): $5,849

Total Profit: $4,298.60

All in all, I earned about 3x my investment in profit, and I have over 110 domain names left to sell. One thing that surprised me is that some of the names I bought actually get traffic and some are earning PPC revenue. I suppose with domain tasting being eliminated there are more opportunities to buy names that get random bits of small traffic, but I was surprised. We aren’t talking about a lot of money, but a little bit is more than nothing and shows that there is a value to these names and the buyer presumably knows this.

All in all, I think the test was successful, and I am very happy to have made over $4,000 in profit on this. I still have several months to go to sell the rest of the domain names, but any additional sales is just gravy.

As I said in my initial post as a caveat, it’s important to be able to distinguish a similar domain name to what is selling, and you need to be able to determine someone’s (or many peoples’) buying habits to be successful at this. If you are going to try and do this, I recommend starting small and scaling.

I am sure some people will criticize me because it’s not 1,000% profit as billed. However, I am not selling anything and not making any money from anything you sell, so there’s really no reason for criticism. The first time I did this, the profit margin was greater because some of the auctions had mutliple bidders, driving the price (and profit) higher.

***

Just as a “head’s up” I am leaving for a long weekend in Atlanta later on today, so comment approvals may be a bit slower than normal.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

37 COMMENTS

  1. **I am sure some people will criticize me because it’s not 1,000% profit as billed. However, I am not selling anything and not making any money from anything you sell, so there’s really no reason for criticism.**

    You killjoy!

    Not a bad experiment Elliot, especially since you only posted that initial article fairly recently, made $4300 bucks, and still have half your ‘experimental’ inventory to sell. You’ll probably make that 1000% bar or more when the rest goes! So, guess you’re right, no need to criticize.. :l

    • @Kevin

      LOL… I am not counting on all names to sell. Just wanted to be upfront 🙂

      But yes – I am still happy with the profit. It’s somewhat amusing that I was able to do this with a small effort, but it takes so much more effort to sell advertising to make that much profit 🙂

    • @ Todd

      Maybe 2 hours total. I think I might have spent more time looking at my names and sorting through to see what had bids while they were up for auction.

      @ Ron

      I found similar names to what was selling on Snapnames.

  2. There are a number of domainers at NamePros who focus on selling large numbers of domains in the $200-$500 range and do very well. Most domainers try to sell for thousands and sell none. So perhaps given the economy one has to be flexible…

    Your average sales price was well under $100 but your ROI was phenomenal! It would be interesting to see how many of the others you are able to sell in the next several months.

  3. Wow, congratulations Elliot. I don’t think it’s a failure at all, it still shows the power of volume selling. Out of curiosity, how much time have you spent in total? (from researching the domains to selling them)

  4. Elliot,

    From the part time domainer world it is nice to see a guy like you provide a strategy and then actually go out and do it. I like the fact that you are basically providing all the data. Cost, expense, relative time. Thanks for putting that in print.

  5. How did you find the buyers? Did you track them down? Did they contact you? Did you post your names on a forum or something.

    Thanks and awesome job!

  6. Elliot,

    Congratulations on your great success. Anyone how would give you flack because you didn’t hit 1000% on the names you already sold is a FOOL.

    We are in middle of a recession or heaven forbid a D———.

    I like everyone else who reads your blog, wants and needs to know more so we can survive these challenging times.

    If you can share some more of your insight about how this is done it would be greatly appreciated.

    If I wore a hat I would tip my hat to you.

    Thanks George

  7. Elliot – Did you use any tools/software not freely available to help you find and register domains similar to the ones ppl were bidding on at snapnames?

    When registering the new domains, do you register multiple variations of a single domain you chose at snapnames?

    Could you share more about methods/tools you use to accomplish these quick flips?

    I am stunned by how much you were able to make in such a short time, but I am guessing your success flipping these domains had more to do with the experience you have in this field than anything else. For less experience domainers the profit would be lot less if any, correct?

    Thanks

  8. E: Ideally; and to maximize the already nice value of sharing this success with your readers; maybe you’d be willing to share the names you bought and the ones that sold.

    Perhaps a detailed start-to-finish how-to?

  9. @ Todd … welcome to Elliot’s blog; where Elliot regularly and by personal and conscious choice shares with his readers what he’s doing … how he’s doing it … and the results.

    … as do many of us readers.

    No suggestion here that he share which specific domains he’s considering (or even would consider) buying … or is currently negotiating for … or even how much he’s paid or sold “big dollar” domains for.

    But if he does decide to share more, feel free to cover your eyes if doing so bothers you.

  10. Steve M., Elliot was very generous in sharing what he did…IMO, he shared an incredible amount and to ask him to do even more than that he already has done is very rude IMO. Sure, I’d like to know more but under not circumstances would I ever ask what you did in the manner that you did.

  11. Elliot,
    Are you selling names on snap names monthly auction for 79 bid or are you selling names to end users you personally contact and offer the names for 79. if selling names to end users for 79 i am assuming you are asking them to cover the escrow fee. Which escrow account do you use. Escrow.com charges $25 per name for transfer.
    Thanx

    • @ Dave

      I am selling names through Snapnames, and the 20% commission covers all costs except of course for the registration fee of the domain name.

      In general when I buy or sell and need escrow, I use Escrow.com.

  12. Ok. Let me understand this. Each name you sell for lets say $80 minus 20% minus reg fee $8= -$24 so your profit per domain is $56. Am i reading you correctly?

  13. My domains are registered with godaddy. Will i have to transfer the names to snapnames for renewal fee once i make a sale?. Or how does this work?

    • @ David

      You can’t. I just pay close attention to all of the auctions to try and find names I think are similar to names that are selling. There’s nothing automated about what I’ve been doing.

  14. Sorry for the many questions and i really appreciate you taking time to respond. I see 100 bids on domains but the names are still the same bid price. $79 with many bidders but the bid price remains the same.

    • Some domain names are expiring and they will be in a drop auction on a specified date. Others are current “In Auction” and those are what I sold.

  15. So, the domains that have multiple bids at the same price are domains that are dropping and bidders have placed backorders on them before they expire?

  16. Elliot,

    I know this post is old, but I was wondering if you could tell me if i am on the right track. If it is to much to ask, I understand. I have gone to snapnames, I type in ends with lawyer…. I see many names with bids. I go to ends with vacation…. I see many names with bids. I go to ends with builders… i see nothing. I go to moniker register names associated with successful names at snapnames. I know this is oversimplified, but in essence is this what you have done. I also understand your ability to understand the market is better than mine, but like you said a person could start out slow and learn the market.

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