Throughout my years as a full-time domain investor, my business model has not changed much. I’ve been buying and selling domain names for around 20 years, and I went full-time into domain investing in 2008 when I left a corporate Direct Marketing job.
My philosophy about domain investing and my business strategy haven’t really deviated much since the beginning. My philosophy is pretty simple. I want to own domain names I think startups and businesses will be willing to pay a premium to acquire from my company.
This translates into my domain investing business model:
- Acquire as many blue chip one or two word .com domain names as I can comfortably afford while maintaining a strong liquid position to make opportunistic acquisitions. Some of my favorite current domain name assets in this category include Embrace.com, Logical.com GoodTimes.com, Honeydew.com, and Stampede.com.
- Acquire inventory-quality .com domain names in auction without overpaying (too much) for them. I defined inventory quality domain names before, but the short of it is domain names that are easily replaceable. Some examples I recently acquired include Handology.com, OnlyFi.com, RapidReact.com…etc.
- I am willing to take some low cost chances with hand registrations and even a handful of non .com domain names.
- Sell inventory-quality domain names on various sales platforms at BIN prices. I like LTO deals, too, but I’ve shortened the permissible length of those deals and stopped offering them at the lowest price points. In general, I like to price these names at least 10x what I paid and sometimes considerably more. The more room there is on profitability, the more likely I am willing to add an option for prospective buyers to make an offer.
- Sell a small number of my most valuable domain names for full retail prices.
- Supplement my income via banner advertisements on this blog and pay per click revenue for a subset of domain names that get traffic.
One of the important things I have learned as a domain investor is that there are many different business models that work for different investors. I can argue that mine is great until I am blue in the face while someone with a totally different business model argues the same.
Domain investing is a capital-intensive business, but there are many ways to be successful at it. Since I began investing in domain names for a living, I don’t think my business model has changed much.
Hi Elliot, Where do you have yours for pay-per-click? I would really appreciate more info about that. Thanks for putting this info out to help other domainers.
GoDaddy/Smartname and Bodis. I make less than $500/month generally and only have a handful of names parked. I have not done extensive testing since it’s a tiny revenue stream.
My Domain Investing Business Model Today is hand reg at 99 cents and sell for $$$$$
Never fails
Easy peasy
And no regrets and have fun
Stress free BS hobby and earning $$$ and can work anywhere
I am in Melbourne Australia…. gorgeous city
Lots of competition out there for domains, especially one-word dictionary names. Good Luck!
I have been a domainer for about 20 years, my business model for the last 15 years has never failed me and made me 100’s of thousands. I am a mini-Schwartz. Unless you pay me big bucks, I will give you domain for free in exchange of a small piece of the action. The worst thing that can happen to me is that they buyer prefers to pay me the big bucks. The caveat is that you need patience and a strong stomach to refuse big bucks on a straight-out sale in favor of a JV.