Here’s a list of poorly sold Domain Names since January, 2023. Inspired after going back to Afternic since the DAN.com shutdown. None of these names sold for over 5K.
I haven’t really had any ‘Good Domains’ in my portfolio since 2021, the greatest year of Domain Name Sales in my existense. A combination of ZIRP plus Facebook rebranding as META, plus 10 years of hard work, made this the best year of my life. Quick story at the end re: META.
Domains:
Age.info
- Auction win for $20 back in 2021.
CoinFlip.org
- Moderately severe fumble for 2K. Crypto didn’t even really cross my mind for some reason. Plus, this just sold. Whoops. Bought at auction for $200 in 2022.
RemotelyUs.com
- Hand reg
OneMeta.io
- A post meta domain purchase. Very suprised I still owned this as I thought I let all my remaining Meta names expire.
Influencer.Bio
- Hand reg from oneword.domains - a lovely website. This may not be a blunder, I never hear of .bio sales. Either way, I am putting it on the list.
x88.cc
- Picked up by a Chinese Investor for 2K. I got this at auction for $157 back in 2022. This was part of my liquidate .cc domain phase. The only .cc that ever sell are numbers, FYI. I just wanted to get rid of all of them. My favorite, www.human.cc is still available.
Voicing.AI
- Hand reg from ‘21 (I think). Was going to an investor meetup and wanted to look ‘cool’. Also, shamelessly promoted this name on Twitter for some reason. A triple blunder if you will.
AIpik.com
- Picked up for $11 at that domain liquidate site (name escapes me)
PhotoReal.io
- Hand reg
LazerGPT.com
- Hand reg
ColorLegal.com
- GoDaddy Close Out - $11
DealerShows.com
- GoDaddy Close Out - $11
- Quick side note: You can’t really go wrong with buying two common whole word combinations at closeout. That said, they are getting increasingly rare.
Total Fumbles:
Now for the Grand Finale. These domains I mistakenly had listed at 100 bucks and they were purchased. Not sure what a Bosdao is but the suffix Dao plus 6 characters makes this a blunder. Both hand reg.
911capital.com
BosDao.com
META Domain Name Success
Back in 2021, I was going to buy a project off Twitter. After looking at it closely, it didn’t do what I thought it did so I planned to just copy it and build out my version of what I wanted. AKA, Indie Hacking 201. I think 101 is just straight up stealing it with less features.
The project had a sweet domain name. So being the brilliant person that I am I registered 20 .org META domains plus some .io and whatever .com I could find available. Porkbun had a sale and I want to say they were like 2 bucks a pop for .org.
I didn’t have any of the domains listed for sale. Still, the emails from Perkins Coie started rolling in. Truthfully, at first, these frightened me after looking up their client list. Needless to say, it all ended up working out. I’m not sure the month this started but I know it all wrapped up in October since I took a vacation.
I tried to replicate this success with GPT names and have come to the conclusion that this was a once in a lifetime event.
Moral of this story and looking forward ~
Don’t get sloppy with Willy Nilly pricing at multiple marketplaces. This seems obvious but I’m guilty of it. In a way, while I am sad to see Dan.com shut down and dislike Afternic, it has helped me reevaluate my portfolio and pricing.
Looking forward
Domains aren’t going to get any cheaper and I’m still getting wrecked at Auctions. That said, I’ve decided to spend more on quality domains this year.
I’ve always thought it would be fun to leave my grandchildren with a portfolio of awesome domain names. Not so much for the money, just to get them thinking outside the box of a traditional 9 - 5. And maybe inspire them to build their own life.
That’s the post.