I get a lot of emails from blog readers every week and as many of you know, I take the time to respond to every single one of them. Heck, if you’re going to take the time to read what I write, I will take the time to respond to you and help in any way I can. Unfortunately this often leaves me as the bearer of bad news as I have to tell people every week that what they thought was investments, are really just collectables, often valuable only to them.
Now there is nothing wrong with making mistakes, that’s how we all learn, it’s not learning from your mistakes that can be dangerous. Domaining can be an incredible investment opportunity, or a massive waste of money, just like real estate or the stock market, it all depends on what kind of return you are making on your investment, or lack thereof.
So I decided that I would put together a simple quiz that you can take to determine if you are actually making investments, or just building-up a collection of domains that will sit, collecting digital dust, for years to come. After taking the quiz, if you find-out you aren’t really investing, good! Now is the perfect time to make a change and turn things around, identifying bad habits is the first step to creating good ones.
Answer the questions below honestly and at the end I’ll let you know whether you are investing, or just collecting.
- How much money did you spend on domain names in 2011?
- How much money did you make from selling domain names in 2011?
- How much money did you make from monetizing domain names 2011?
- Did you turn down any offers on domain names you own? If so, what was the total of the offers?
Remember, an investment is something that pays you. Take a look at how much you spent on domain names and compare this to what you made selling and monetizing domain names. If you are spending more money than you are making, you might be tricking yourself into thinking you are investing, when in fact you are collecting.
However, there is a caveat here, if you turned-down offers that could have made the year profitable then you might have some solid investments, and yes, it’s okay to wait to sell these when you’re ready, and for the price you want.
So where do you go from here?
Well, if you are an investor, pat yourself on the back! This is a very challenging industry and if you’re making real investments, you should be proud!
If it turns-out that you’re a collector, don’t panic! Take this post as your wake-up call. Stop buying domain names that you can’t sell and don’t make you money. Look at how much money you spent on domain names last year and look at how you could have spent that money better, most likely on fewer domains. There are lots of incredible resources out there to learn more about how to make good investments.
Want to make money selling domains? Make sure to watch my interview with Toby Clements and he’ll help point you in the right direction.
Want to make money developing and monetizing domains? Make sure to read my article on Domain Development 101.
