When it comes to domain industry trends, I am not a first mover. I probably own some trend-ish domain names, but my bread and butter remains good one or two word .coms.
For the past year or so, I have been keeping an eye on startups using .AI domain names and publicly reported .AI domain name sales. After seeing some friends and colleagues appear to have success with their own .AI domain names, I decided to buy my first .AI domain names. I succumbed to FOMO.
For a variety of reasons, I am not going to share the names I bought, but I will share some insight behind my purchase.
The domain names I bought are pronounceable 4 letter .AI domain names. I am not a branding expert, but I believe these names could be used as unique brands by startup companies in the artificial intelligence space. There are many companies that use these terms within their branding, so these made up terms can easily be brands. They look like words and are super easy to spell.
I believe there are 3 letter .AI domain names that are available to register, but I chose to buy names I think could be used as brands rather than buying meaningless 3L combination names for the sake of buying 3L names.
I chose to hand register my domain names because I have not seen any meaningful one word .AI domain names at a price level that matches my .AI investment comfort level. My perspective is the owners of these names who are willing to sell them know they are at peak demand (my opinion) and they’re pricing them accordingly, as they should. I do not have the appetite to drop 5 figures on a decent .AI domain name or 4 figures on a meh .AI domain name.
Atypically for me, I registered these domain names at Namecheap. The .AI registry requires people to register these domain names for 2, 4, or 6 years, and I opted for 2 year registrations. While I almost always use GoDaddy for my domain names, I chose Namecheap because the registration cost was lower and I already have an active account there.
To try and sell these domain names, I will be using Afternic. Since my Dan.com account is connected to Embrace.com – a .com domain marketplace – I will be using Afternic nameservers with the price request landing pages. I figure Afternic has the broadest reach and the most brokers who can help sell these domain names.
I am not changing my business model in any way. I look at these purchases as a gamble. In fact, I had more cash at the blackjack table in Las Vegas for the ICA meeting than I spent on these domain names.
People should definitely do their own research and not look at this as any sort of investment advice. If I never sell these domain names, I am comfortable with my loss ceiling on these names.
You’re wasting your money just like you did with .XYZ
You got it too late, after the pump!
Thanks for looking out for how you think I am wasting my money. I could use your voice over my shoulder when I break out another hundred dollar bill at the blackjack table! I think my wife has that covered though.
As I shared, I sold one XYZ domain name for ~$20k, so even after the Afternic commission and other acquisition costs, I am still ahead: https://domaininvesting.com/my-first-xyz-sale-bought-for-sold-for/
I dropped one .XYZ name I acquired in the aftermarket after realizing it had a premium fee: https://domaininvesting.com/dropping-my-one-premium-fee-xyz/
Let me ask you this. If I was interested in buying one of your unpriced .com domain names, and I offered you 5x what you think it is worth, would you happily take my money and celebrate a great sale, or would say “you’re wasting your money” and not sell it to me?
Good Luck!
Thanks. I will definitely need luck to sell one of these.
I always encourage people to buy and spend money,Regardless whether you need the services or goods
Good for the economy good for the market and good for my portfolio and everyone else.
It also provides employment.
You are only as good as you are alive and healthy,so spen the money.
You can’t bring the money to hell…
Good luck, Elliot!
It’s never too late to score on a domain.
The first domain I registered in 2001 remains my biggest sale all time — it involved 3 months of negotiating with Marksmen, the IP company contracted to acquire this domain on behalf of AT&T … and with the proceeds I purchased 2 houses, one in Florida and one in North Carolina mountains … i did get lucky
I hope you do well with your .AI domains.
Also Andy Booth came on to .AI a bit late, and he’s done extremely well.
You will too.
Andy has much, much more skin in the game.
I gambled what would amount to an expensive night out with my wife.
Andy already has made major bank.
And he will make mucho more.
He also will launch ai products and companies — I can attest he is all in on .AI.
Blueprint.ai and Blueprintai.com were super acquisitions
the cost of an expensive night out with your wife being the equivalent of your foray into .ai domains sounds worthwhile to me === worse case scenario: you lose some coin
best case: you score some coin and get to celebrate with your wife on an expensive date out 🙂