Reg fee .au domains can pay off!

I still 'hand register' domains every week, so I thought it was time to write an article on reg fee domains:
http://www.domainer.com.au/reg-fee-au-domains-can-pay-off/

 

I think most would know that some reg fee domains sell, but a true comparison would look at total costs of each sale, not just the $20 -> $3000 isolated examples. In other words what was the total cost spent on registering names to get each sale, including the names that didn't sell.

 

Obviously if sales aren't at least covering the reg fees then you've got a problem!! As noted in the article, reg fee domains still make up around 25 - 30% of my sales, so they're easily covering reg fees. In a nutshell snoopy - yes I'm making a profit!

 

To expand on that, let's take a one year snapshot of hand regs based on my example in the article of "probably a dozen or so each month". That's 144 domains for the year, for a total cost of $3,168 for the fixed 2 year registration period (at $22 a domain - I pay less but keeping things simple). So then I've got 2 years to make the 1 or 2 sales which will cover that cost. Provided you know what you're doing (i.e. you don't buy 144 horsesh*t domains) that's a very low bar to success imo.

 

i think demoniod has the right balance, i have a different balance, i only buy hand regs based on my client based.
i charge $90+gst to clients and pay wholesale, this allows me to register 3 potential hand reg domains for myself and know i don't need to find the money anytime. every month the same renewal fees are already covered.
pressure comes from the 2nd year if you haven't done this, or haven't done what demoniod does.
i'm getting better at not buying crap i think as its been a while since i bought on drops, but every domain i own is financially covered by my clients fees.
as for bidding big on a domain you really like on drops, then i always think " its only $11 after i own it"
its when people buy buy buy without a PLAN to exit that you have a problem, there's a real obvious example thats been happening for the last 12 months...... for newbies........sorry but if you don't know, then you just don't know and i don't want to post it out of respect, but PM me if you want

snoopy: you're exactly right also and newbies should pay attention, do the numbers because if you buy crap then you are never going to reach profit by holding on , and look i have waste heaps of money that i am now letting drop, i suppose its the learning curve.
i look at is the expensive of taking courses and doing seminars, spending TIME connecting with people who know more then yourself so i think its all been worthwhile IMO.

the reality is demoniod is in profit and so am i ( and many others ) so snoopy bring some wisdom to the table
the reality is it can be done

tim

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story: this relates to buying and selling.
if for some reason i was broke tomorrow, what would i do ? what would you do ? ZERO MONEY
would you sit in swanson street and beg in front of "young and jacksons"? would you steal ? would you go get the dole ?
of course you'd get the dole !
its what you do with the money that counts.
and a bad investment when you are rich ( eg: onetel ) is still a bad investment
but you can "bet the farm" if you believe and do the work.

tim

 

I should have gone to bed earlier then I might not have hand registered the following domains...
Mortgage Broker Franchise (.au)
Mortgage Broker vs Bank (.com /.au) .. (.com seems to look OK with 1,300 avg. monthly searches)

 

Personally I think it is a very high bar, because the vast majority lose money reg fee domaining, and the failure rate is much higher than other areas of domaining in my view. I think the reason why it is so high is basically because the available names are almost entirely names that others have already rejected. To expect say 1:144 to sell each year for reg fee name is very hard to achieve in my view. That is why most find it easier to concentrate on dropped names and names bought on the aftermarket.

Still think we've only got half the stats. $3168 in costs, but what is the revenue? Would like to see some real world number crunching on those reg fee names.

 

I tend to agree with Snoopy on this, I very rarely see any benefit in hand reg domains, there is always the odd exception.

 

i get what you are saying, but you are saying is all good names have now been taken ? surely thats impossible ?
based on that we must say that the ONLY good .com.au names have to be found on drops or purchased from someone else who owns them.......... hmmm thats a tough question ( i do note your "odd exception" quote )
so then we have to think about you agreeing with snoopy given that he is totally against EMD's , which would lead you to think he feels "brandables" are better, so if a brandable is better then isn't anything really available as a handreg?

fiverr dot com was a hand reg , elance dot com, o desk dot com, and they are not emd's

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story:
i purchased these old 1950's cast iron oven doors from a restoration place, they were rusting, i put them onto my pizza oven and let them burn with the heat and the patina over time is just beautiful,
the moral is it was a "hand reg" but i had a VISION, and you know what you do find people with a vision for your hand regs.

stay away from misspells, hypens, trademarks, .net.au and you can find a profit

tim

 

You're on the wrong track.

This is what I said (I think you are mainly referring to the other thread),

-EMD that don't work very well as a brand have fallen off a truck value wise, both .com and .com.au (I own lots of these as do most domainers so that is bad for me). These are names where in the past a big reason for buying them was SEO/getting a better Google rank. Stuff like womensclothes.com, investmentproperty.com.au. Some look to be down 50%, others 90%+ (e.g. .net.au's)

-This does not make registering stuff like "fiverr" a good idea. These are worthless names for when someone want to spend $9 on their domain. These aren't common brand names that companies use, it is just "bad". One company might use it, and if as a domainer you're trying to sell names like that with asking price is $100 (versus the $9 budget they have) they'll register "fourrr" or "sevenn" instead.

-Other categories have done well, "brandy" names that companies often name as, e.g. stuff like amber.com, letsgo.com, customroofing.com, as well as acronyms and numerics. In .com.au that doesn't seem to be the case, prices look at be well down in almost all categories. Ned's sales might be doing fine, but the actual liquid values of .com.au's have dropped significantly since the Google changes.

 

For the record I dont always agree with Snoopy! I support .au and believe that there are a lot of opportunities with .au domains. I like EMDs and brandables alike. I did add the exception because I have seen some good exceptions to the rule. When I have purchased domains for my business (for example www.tm.com.au) I have had to approach a current registrant to do a deal, or picked them up on the drops.

 

Nice (one-pager) site.

 

erhan the topic is "Reg fee .au domains can pay off ! "
your tm.com.au looks great, perfect for what it needs to do, but its not a hand reg , you should have gone the LLL and got "tim.com.au " LOL

tim

 

Erhan is saying he goes for aftermarket domains typically, like tm.com.au. That is a much better bet in my view.

 

How do you know these people who are buy buy buying don't have "plans", Tim?

 

robert, i suppose everyone has a PLAN, maybe what i should have said " not a good plan " , a plan needs to be followed through in my view.
when you go and register 4000 domains and every domain shows "coming soon" , thats not a plan, when then you pay money to renew them again, thats not a plan, then when you let them drop, thats not a plan and thats when the plan fails but i also agree you can just sit on a domain until the time is right to implement the plan.

NOW, i have domains with "coming soon" and i have a plan, i won't be letting them drop, i also have others i am letting drop, my mistake in the early days and i put it down to "learning the game" .

MOST people i talk to are reducing their portfolios, getting back to the very best they have, from what i have seen its a common cycle, you come in.........get the BUZZ........... buy........... and then discover the costs of it all.
i've purchased crappy names, but at least acknowledged that and let them drop, $$$$ ....YEP , down the toilet ! but why keep paying out of pride ?
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back to hand reg which is what this thread is about,
hand reg is alive and kicking, more likely a "brand able then a EMD " , i think you'd struggle for an EMD now
tim

 

Hand-reg is possible but rare. Quality EMDs cost more but are the future if you ask me. Just good timing and luck to score them from drops or people or businesses. And I'm interested to know who this "real obvious example" is, who's registering 4000 random domains without a plan as a newbie? Must love steep learning curves and be cashed up!

 

i don't think it is fair to post the business name so google can grab it, just review dropping domains for when 100 town/sheds.com.au, and ******plumbers, electricians etc, where all dropping, there was a thread on here about it as well.

tim

 

I have several hand reg domains and most of them make me more then reg fee every day even some .net.au hands free

 

If that was working well for you wouldn't you own 10,000 reg fee domains rather than "several"?