Happy New Year and welcome to 2013! Most people take some time at the beginning of the year to make resolutions, adjustments they want to make after looking back on the previous year. Domainers are no different except our resolutions tend to center around the world of domain names, and mistakes we learned from in the previous year.
Below are what I think just might be the top ten resolutions that Domainers have, if yours isn’t on there definitely feel free to add it in the comment section below.
- Buy more one word domains
- Start testing different parking services
- Lease more domains to interested buyers
- Stop buying expired domains just because other people are bidding on them
- Get better at dropping names (yes, sometimes your babies are ugly)
- Sell a domain for over $100,000
- Improve monetization techniques
- Get your best developed domain to the #1 spot in Google
- Sell a domain for over $500,000
- Sell more domains to end-users
My personal Domaining New Year’s Resolution this year is #1 – to buy more one word domains. I really took a deeper dive into one word domains in 2012 and it made a big difference, this year I’m going to buy many more and really make this our focus when it comes to buying, selling, and monetizing.
What’s your Domainer New Year’s Resolution? Comment and let your voice be heard!
Uzoma January 1, 2013 at 7:55 pm
I have only two:
1. Have a monthly $600 domain auction sale every month. These will be top grade names that could fetch the buyer a great business, or thousands in the resale market.
2. Open a parallel domain lease/rent market for the average non-elite domainers, to rival Rick Schwartz. This lease will range from $50 a month per domain to a couple of hundreds for the category killers.
Have a great new year, Linton!
AbdulBasit Makrani January 1, 2013 at 8:48 pm
I agree to all your points and the first one is what I will be focusing the most as well. But #4 to stop buying expired domains doesn’t make sense to me. What else to buy if not expired domains? There will be definitely bidders on quality expired names… Although there are many bidders on crappy names as well. We have to choose the right domain at the right price even there are bidders.
Let me know if someone disagrees with me…
Uzoma January 1, 2013 at 9:06 pm
@AbdulBasit Makrani,
I may be wrong, but he didn’t mean stop buying expired domains, I believe the emphasis is on the reason why. In essence, don’t just buy expired domains because it has other bidders interested in them, rather, buy expired names because it’s has value, or some other quality. Simpler put, remove “bidder-pressure” as a reason for buying expired names.
AbdulBasit Makrani January 1, 2013 at 9:32 pm
@ Uzoma
I think you are right. I have read several posts where Morgan have said the same. Not to have any pressure from bidders and just focus on what you are willing to pay no matter how many bidders have jumped in.
Krishna January 1, 2013 at 10:20 pm
“Buy more one word domains” – this is the biggest lesson I learnt from my 2012 sales. One will get buyers from unexpected angles.
Uzoma January 1, 2013 at 11:08 pm
If you look at most recent Verisign report on domain names, you’ll notice that 33% of .com and .net domains are either hosting one page websites or no websites. Sooner or later, we domainers will have to go to the end user, where their thinking is, and get down to business, not just what domainers buy, sell, hold, park, or whatever. The action should be in what type of names are getting developed into lucrative businesses, or information hubs? 33% is just way too many.
2013 should be a dynamic year in domaining, rule breaking, venturing, daring into new horizons. Don’t follow the herd. Let’s domain! Cheers
iain January 1, 2013 at 11:21 pm
The list of lessons above are great. I will be focusing on #3, 5, 7 & 10
In order to focus on these I know that “Reducing domain dev projects” will help. Especially dropping projects that have not shown as much promise as you had originally thought.
All the best for 2013.
Morgan January 2, 2013 at 12:58 am
@Uzoma – you are correct! I definitely did not mean that anyone should have a New Year’s resolution to not buy expired domains, but instead to not buy simply because other people are bidding on it. In essence, avoiding a herd mentality.
@Abdul – you said “What else to buy if not expired domains?” Most of the domains I buy are directly from end-users, not expired. There are plenty of places to buy domains, from end-users, from auctions, through domain listing services, from other Domainers, and of course hand-registering.
There are lots of great places to buy domains, and different strategies behind each. I wrote a post about where I buy most of my domains recently, you can read it here: http://morganlinton.com/where-i-buy-most-of-my-domains/
Morgan January 2, 2013 at 12:59 am
And of course all the best to everyone in 2013, hope you enjoyed day one!
AbdulBasit Makrani January 2, 2013 at 2:25 am
Thanks for the reply Morgan. I really appreciate that
James January 2, 2013 at 4:37 am
11. Develop my best domain name.
One that, as you so often have pointed out, is a lot harder than people think.
Happy New Year Morgan!
Paul S January 2, 2013 at 10:26 am
Nice list Morgan. Curious about your #1 – Buy more one word domains – is that just .com?
Would have to put my top 3:
1) more efficient centralized domain control platform
2) better monetization
3) develop develop develop
Morgan January 2, 2013 at 10:49 am
Thanks @Paul – while my focus is .COM I had some great .ME and .CO sales last year so continue to buy one words in those extensions as well.