Many years ago, there was a skit on Saturday Night Live about a fictitious investment firm called Dillon-Edwards Investments. The investment firm had to use ClownPenis.Fart for its website because it was the only domain name left when it launched its website. Have a look at the skit and continue reading below:
One of the most common questions I am asked and I see being asked on NamePros, Twitter, and elsewhere is related to knowing what types of domain names to buy that will be desired by end user buyers. After all, it is simple to buy domain names but a domain investment business needs to sell domain names to survive and thrive.
Sedo, NameJet, and SnapNames report the domain name sales transacted on their platforms when privacy is not requested on a weekly basis. GoDaddy has begun reporting the largest sales transacted on its platform on a trailing basis. NameBio records all of these sales and many additional sales. What gets the most coverage, though, is the largest sales on each platform while the smaller sales tend to get lost.
Someone I follow on Twitter responded to someone else, and I noticed that she is sharing lists of domain name sales transacted on DAN from the prior day:
GoDaddy has acquired another domain name portfolio, which will be added to the company’s NameFind portfolio. Jamie Zoch first reported the acquisition in a tweet this morning:
It certainly looks like GoDaddy, via it’s NameFind division has acquired another domain portfolio. Pearl Advertising/Cayman Web/Quality Hosting/Internet Brands/ TD Domain Names are names I’m seeing in prior whois https://t.co/9aES3t3vce
— Jamie Zoch (@DotWeekly) January 12, 2021
GoDaddy SVP and Aftermarket GM Paul Nicks confirmed that the company made the acquisition in an email to me. “I can confirm, we acquired another portfolio and are excited to price the domains and bring them to market,” he told me.
Whois records at ICANN show the Parler.com domain name, used by the Parler social network, has transferred to Epik today. The domain name had been registered at DreamHost before it transferred to Epik at some point within the past few hours. Parler has been used more frequently by US conservative politicians, groups, and supporters in light of President Donald Trump ban from Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms.
Last October, I changed the phone number I have on my Whois address for domain names I acquire and have registered at NameBright. I am using a Google Voice account with “Do not disturb” on since any phone calls or text messages to that number will be spam from businesses who think my “new” looking domain name registrations mean I am in the market for development or design services.
Since setting up this Google Voice account, I have had over 1,000 phone calls with a bunch of voicemails and text messages. Having the Google Voice account has really helped reduce the volume of unsolicited calls and texts.
Every morning, I spend around an hour going through lists of domain names that are coming up for auction. When I say every morning, I mean every morning. I do this on weekends, when we are traveling, when we have friends or family over (in non-Covid times), and all those times in between. I review lists from auction platforms, Dropping.pro, and I recently added ExpiredDomains.net to the list of tools I use daily. This is the hunt, and it is probably the most enjoyable part of domain investing.
As I and others have discussed many times, the prices achieved in expiry auctions have grown in recent years. It has become much more challenging to find what I would consider to be a deal, so the hunt has expanded. I never focused much on pending delete auctions, save for the occasional gem, but I have been focusing on that area a bit more.
