One of the more popular debates in domaining is who had the easier time? Was it easier in 2007 to make money than it is today? That’s the latest thread I came across on Namepros.
I know Rick Schwartz has tweeted out in the past that it was harder back in the day, he said, “Wasn’t so easy. I invested in the net that was a FAD at the time. There was no playbook/aftermarket. It was a GREAT UNKNOWN RISK!”
Now going back 20 years is one thing because the net was so young and many did not know much about it, they knew less about selling a domain name for money.
The topic on the Namepros post was 2007 vs 2017. There was a lot of info by 2007, not as much as 2017 but still a fair amount of information on buying and selling domain names.
The consensus presently is on the side of harder today vs 2007.
Reasons given for making it harder today include:
- Parking’s downward turn
- NewGtlds
- Social Media popularity
- Cheaper acquisition costs
Longtime domain investor Jim Holleran summed it up:
Way harder today. In 2007, many of us made a living just parking domains, without having to sell any domains. Type-In traffic was much higher, and Yahoo was still a great feed in 2007. IMO Google is the #1 reason why it’s harder today, they have a monopoly on search, which is bad for everybody. 2015 was a great year when the Chinese entered if you had short names to sell, but it’s been down hill since, not sure if the chinese are coming back like 2015.
The GTLD’s have poisoned the industry as well. In about 3 years they will buried in the grave, maybe 1 or 2 will survive. Convincing end-users is tougher today than it was in 2007. Many think FB, or other social media accounts is all they need. I don’t even try to convince end-users, waste of time, either they get it or they don’t, the value of a domain name.
See some good future ahead, especially in growing spanish .com market, and india as well. Just got to follow future trends and be in the best position to capture on those trends to make yourself successful! Good luck to everybody!
Here is a look at the current voting:
So what do you think, is it harder today to make money as a domain investor?
i started buying names in 2007, by 2009 i was domaining as a full time job. there is way more competition in the drop catch arena now, domains i could of got for 10 bucks are now going for hundreds on dropcatch.com or simply being gobbled up by hugedomains. i’m glad i’m not starting out now but with the right amount of start up money and the smarts, it can still be done. i never got rich but i make a living.
Why is dropcatch taking the domains we backorder ?
Shame…
In 2007 you could find good quality closeouts at Godaddy for10 bucks that easily sold for a few grand. Less quality names are selling for $300 in GD expired auctions now.
Just look at the brandable market. Really good quality two word domains were available to register in 2007. Now all that’s left is the scrap after the dogs have chewed down the bones.
Didn’t have to compete with the Chinese in 2007. LL, LLL, LLLL dotcom’s were much cheaper back then. One-word and EMD dotcom’s are cheaper to come by today on NJ but GD and Dropcatch not so much – you have to overpay to get them. The total number of people looking at domains as investments is probably 10x that of 2007 also. Overall, it’s a no-contest. Much harder today,
Harder is an understatement!
Hah! In 2007 I was literally told to “run for the hills” as it I was too late to the party and investing in domain names “was not possible anymore”. Following that advice would have been a terrible decision. There is still great money to be made investing in domain names, presuming you buy the right domains and invest smartly. Don’t listen to the rhetoric, because in 2007 I was too late as well. Yet here I am today….
was harder back before the crisis, as people didnt sell there domain that easy, when the crash came lots of companys went bellup and domains became cheaper in my opinion
It’s easier to buy to the wrong domain today if your only device is a smartphone. A monitor, at minimum a laptop to make all the checks (whois, tm, sm, related/unrelated establishment sites/sales/domain asking prices/guestabot/tld stats). It’s nifty the app facilitates one touch of a button transfers but whois really so busy to demand making transfers while walking or waiting at the redlight . Mobile will never completely replace the workstation for business and all signs point to the desktop PC making a big return thanks to esports.
Agree with Jim on every point he made. Much harder.
More than anything MOBILE, AI and APPS I think are impacting domains.
You have 60% of Internet users engaging on their phones and small screen devices that have search assistance by voice and they are doing way less typing in. The only page of huge value from search traffic is 1st and then 2nd page above the fold on Google. Good luck getting that spot and keeping it. How many people scroll 10 pages out? Google doesn’t seem to give much creed to keywords like they used to. Mostly domainers own fault. Google is ALL ABOUT USER EXPERIENCE. For years all you got on the majority of keyword domains was the same crappy parked page experience. Users stopped clicking after seeing the same layouts all the time and it started costing Google lost income and unhappy searchers and changed the algos.
AI is a HUGE problem. Now with the advent of Echo devices users are having AI devices do all the surfing work and just voice back the info they are looking for – no need to even go to a website or URL destination. This technology is advancing rapidly and soon we’ll have full on robots at home and work changing the world as much if not more than the Internet itself did.
The closed environment of APPS is another major factor changing the domain landscape. Majority of users aren’t even surfing websites like the early days. They download tons of apps on their phone and they stay within the confine of those apps all day and night, espcially the big ones like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, SnapChat, etc. These app users are not spending time typing in URL’s. And if they do go outside the sphere it’s likely by clicking a Facebook ad.
End Users are tremendous work but still can be found. It’s very costly time process though. So really only makes sense for extremely valuable names.
The gTLD’s I think displaced a good portion of the domain investors who were active buyers of 3, 4 and 5 figures names which created the liquidity for the market in prior years. Now those investors are reg’ing one and two word prime keyword gTLDs more than the long tail .coms.
I think the best advice is to buy the highest quality domains you can. Prune and discard ALL the domains you’ve had for years and not been able to sell. Start over if need be like Rick preaches.
Domains are still very useful and valuable for brand advertising purposes. That is where the best investment is. Not easy to get those super keyword names at a flippable price, but some gems can be found.
Best moneymaking opportunity I see is in coming up with innovative ideas and doing the hard work of developing yourself or via joint ventures with a great brandable name.
It was much easier to make money in domains before because domainers were buying and selling to other domainers. There was a lot of liquidity before mostly because of domain parking income.
Now, you have to deal with end users which makes the domain game much harder but can be done with patience.
20 years ago maybe. Same things being said now mirror 2007. I think the distraction and confusion of gTLDs has opened up more opportunity to invest in .Com and sell to end users passively.
The perspective depends on the “domaining” model. Flipping is a game only for those with super creativity and relentless hustle. The past 10 years has seeded out those that lack one of the above.
Passive .Com investing in with sound methodologies is a boon right now. As the masses realize all the options lead to .Com being the only real option for business I see this window as the ultimate opportunity to buy low.
Now that the gtld’s are considered to be dead and no longer a distraction, today is a good day to domain.
Weeks ago I found RXeth.com has never been registered before. I went back to get it today and dammit it was registered yesterday 8/13/2017. It was on my list when I registered ethxl, ethxr, ethmx, and xleth last month.
I put off RXeth since ethRX.com was taken, which is fine name for an Ethereum based ledger for the medicine industry. Luckily I found EthxD.com today which has never been reg’d before either.
Like mining coins, the mining of valuable 5 & 6 character .coms hasn’t been completed yet.
Pivoting to $8 .coms after buying 500 gtlds at $25 avg. is a welcome relief.
There is a 5 or 6 character .com waiting to be mined that will instantly be worth 6 figures and everyone reading this has a shot at registering it for $8.