Over the years, it feels like I have been spending less time working. I think I can attribute this to a maturing business requiring less time to operate on a daily basis. I have built a daily routine with only slight deviations. I feel fortunate to have a super flexible schedule, and while I may always seem to be working, I wanted to make a guesstimate about how much time I actually spend working. For the sake of understanding a bit more about my business, I have somewhere in the ballpark of 1,500 domain names, and I have been buying a higher quantity than I am selling – growing from about 600 domain names several years ago.
Every day, I spend some time reviewing auction lists, doing acquisition research, and placing bids on domain names. Depending on where I am and what I have planned for the day, this can be as quick as a half hour or possibly a couple of hours. I would say on average, I spend about an hour a day doing this – every single day. 7 hours total
When I have deals pending, I spend time researching a variety of things related to the domain name, counter party, current market…etc. I also spend a bit of time responding to inquiries, but by now, much of the response time is picking up old emails that I previously sent and changing a few things.
With nearly all of my inventory listed with BIN prices on Afternic and Dan.com, I don’t field a ton of inquiries that need my full attention. I receive quite a bit of interest in my premium-priced domain names, but the majority of those prospects aren’t qualified or don’t have offers worth discussing. I would say, on average, I spend about 45 minutes a day doing this. On some days, I could spend an hour and on other days – like weekend days – I might spent no time negotiating deals. 5 hours total
Similarly, I might spend on average a half hour a day on legal and escrow. When I have a deal pending, I could spend a couple of hours dealing with purchase agreements and redlines. I also spend time explaining the escrow process and dealing with transfer issues. When I don’t have any deals pending, I don’t spend any time doing this. I would estimate another half hour a day on average but this really varies. 3.5 hours total
I hardly ever do outbound marketing these days. I’ve probably tried it for fewer than 10 names this year and have maybe spent two hours total this year on outbound. In fact, one of the few names I spent time outbounding was sold to someone who had inquired about it via Dan.com. Given the limited time I have spent, I will say this is about one hour a week at the most. 1 hour total
My domain names don’t require a lot of ongoing maintenance, but I would peg my time at about 45 minutes a day on that. This includes changing nameservers, updating pricing, adding inventory to Dan.com and Afternic, and other general types of upkeep. 5 hours total
Believe it or not, I spend quite a bit of time maintaining this blog. It pays me far less than my domain investment business, but advertisers pay in advance and I owe it to them to write when I see something newsworthy. I probably spend an hour – on average – researching and writing articles every day but the weekend. If I have spare time and there’s a breaking news article that isn’t too difficult to write, I might spend a little bit of time on a weekend day, but generally I am with my family and friends and don’t spend any time on my blog. 5 hours total
I spend some time reading articles written by friends and colleagues. I also spend time responding and discussing domain names on social media (including LinkedIn, Twitter, and NamePros. 5 hours total
It looks like I spend 31.5 hours a week on my business on average. Some weeks there’s a lot more time spent while other weeks, the work is a bit lighter. My wife would probably say otherwise because I am often looking at my phone, but in terms of actually working, I have been able to cut down a lot of time.
Thats the goal Elliot! Your organization skills and intelligence regarding priorities are paying off.
I spend zero Nada hours in this BS hobby, when you are having fun and making money, time is irrelevant.
As a matter of fact, it is a stress free -therapy- It is not the money, it is how much get out from it.
How do you put a price tag/cost on this ENJOYMENT!!?
I spent most of my domain time on how to invest the money $$$$$ I sold from all the hand reg domains and reg more hand reg domains and sell more…………easy peasy, and the big money I get from the advertisers too
31.5 is a good number. I am not so organized and have no set hours which is affecting the business as well as personal life. These days too much time is spend on doing lists and finding pigeon-shit domains which nobody wants to pick.