Earlier this week, I bought my first .AI domain names. I have been looking at aftermarket options, but my level of risk tolerance for these domain names is below what it would take to purchase anything worthwhile right now. As a result, my first .AI domain names were hand registrations.
The alternatives to hand registering domain names are aftermarket acquisitions or expiry auctions operated by the .AI registry.
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:
I can’t tell you how many times someone has learned about what I do for work, and they share a domain name story. Just yesterday, I was at a car dealership and the sales associate told me about a friend who creates funny domain names with his daughter.
George Conway, an attorney and political activist just experience what it is like to be a domain investor. Conway, who became most widely known when Donald Trump was serving as President, is a vociferous anti-Trump pundit. Apparently, he was at a diner yesterday, and someone approached him about a domain name the person registered:
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.
I have one ongoing Lease to Own (LTO) deal at Squadhelp. The total sale price was just shy of $5,000, and the buyer is paying over 12 months. Payments are due on the 26th of each month.
Prior to this weekend, the buyer had made 4 monthly payments, which were disbursed via PayPal the day after being received. For January, this meant the fifth payment was due to be disbursed on a Saturday. Most companies don’t have accounting staff working on the weekend, so it would take a couple of extra days to be paid. Platforms I use that offer LTO (Dan and Squadhelp) don’t notify sellers when the buyer makes a payment, so I would only receive an update once the payment is disbursed.
Several years ago, nearly every day, I posted a poll on my blog which often led to good discussions. The polls were typically about something related to domain investing or something specific related to domain names.
When I was at the ICA event, someone I hadn’t seen in a while mentioned that they missed this feature and that I should bring it back. On one hand, it’s a somewhat easy way to generate content and start a discussion, but on the other hand, it can be a bit tedious to think of something interesting enough that is worthy of discussion.
So, I’ll post a poll on Twitter to ask you if I should bring it back. I would probably post the polls on Twitter and embed, although a WordPress polling tool might be a better option. I will investigate further if there’s interest.
Several years ago, nearly every day, I posted a poll on my blog which often led to good discussions. Should I bring this back to my blog?
Discussion: https://t.co/W2PYpjQruc
— Elliot Silver (@DInvesting) January 26, 2024
