£50k budget, how best to spend?

[sparkie]

Hi,

I'm pretty new here and looking to get into domain name mgt. I'd be really intersted to hear everyone's views on what you all think would be the best way to get into the market with a budget of about £50k?
What sort of return can you expect from the PPC ads which appear on the holding pages? I want any growth in the value of the domains to be a bonus so mainly looking for income at this stage, is that realistic?

Do you think its possible to buy a decent domain for say £5k and achieve income of circu £50pm from ads?

Any views welcome!

Tim.

 

[rob]

Hi Sparkie,

I'm pretty new here and looking to get into domain name mgt. I'd be really intersted to hear everyone's views on what you all think would be the best way to get into the market with a budget of about £50k?
What sort of return can you expect from the PPC ads which appear on the holding pages? I want any growth in the value of the domains to be a bonus so mainly looking for income at this stage, is that realistic?

£50k is a decent budget - it could be a case of buying one or two nice names for that or spread it out further. How 'up' with domain / web stuff are you - as buying a nice generic and developing it up could / would return far more than buying names to park.

PPC earnings vary depending on what keywords you are targeting eg. obvious big payers are finance related.

Do you think its possible to buy a decent domain for say £5k and achieve income of circu £50pm from ads?

Yes.

I would advise against buying domains that are trademark / typo based earners and stick to generics if possible, no point forking out for a potential liability.

Cheers,
Rob.

 

[yesterday]

Hi Sparkie,

If I were in your position I'd hold onto your cash right now.

There are names to be had that are available that can get you a few quid a month and they will cost you a fiver, but are hard to find.

Nevertheless I suggest buying/playing with a few much cheaper names until you understand the market much better.

It is a fool who goes in buying with big bucks before understanding what is going on.

There are quite a few sharks too, it is best to know who you're dealing with.

You can get a great portfolio if you know what you were doing with £50k or you can get a heap of crock if you don't. And you are very unlikely to be lucky - there is no substitute for knowledge and experience in this market.

JMO

yesterday

 

[sparkie]

Thanks for the replies. From a time/hassle point of view i'd rather 10/20 decent domains to a 100/200 average ones. I will watch for a while and get a feel for prices i guess sedo would be one of the best places to monitor the market?

What would you say something like fishingboats.co.uk would be worth?

 

[yesterday]

Well, if you're looking at revenue generics then the price to you is worth whatever multiple of years you want to pay.

e.g 5 years revenue gives you approx 20% return per annum (assuming all other sale factors in your favour.)

yesterday

 

[sparkie]

If i could achieve 20% per annum return then i'd be very happy.

Is that the sort of level that you'd expect?

I guess the hard bit is proving the revenue when buying something as can be manipulated.

 

[yesterday]

I guess the hard bit is proving the revenue when buying something as can be manipulated.

quite.

The multiples are low because of the high levels of traffic and revenue variance, and not all of it fraudulent.

A domain can show all signs of being profitable today and it can wilt within a few weeks, similarly a seemingly benign name can suddenly turn a good return.

Knowledgeable members here have bought domains for as much as £45k that have huge ovt etc and that now have minimal - I'm sure it's not purposeful manipulation (or am I!).

The current low prices of domains generally reflect the risk involved which, as the market matures, will become slightly less of an issue.

That is why, to start with, I suggest you go for lower budget domains ( < £1k) until you understand and begin to "feel" what sounds right.

yesterday

 

[yesterday]

You'd be wise to privately put purchase suggestions across experienced members before you buy, or better still go through an experienced broker like rob (previous post) who you can trust to know the market as well as anyone can.

yesterday

 

[fred]

and if all else fails, I can sell you i-spent-50k-and-all-i-got-was-this-lousy-domain.co.uk for £50k :mrgreen:

<note>
Yes, I know it's still free to reg
</note>

 

[Admin]

As has been said, learn the market before you spend £6 let alone £50k

It will be time well spent.

 

[businessdata]

The above post says it all. Get to know the market first with around 10% of your portfolio value.

I have been buying and selling domains over the last 10 years, and in my experience it is hard to find domains that produce good PPC income on their own, especially non .coms. They do come around though. Other domainers may well be better at making money here than me.

My best returns have come from 2 sources: a) the odd domain that someone really wants and is prepared to pay top money for it. I can't help you pick these, but if you have a balanced portfolio with quality domains, this does happen eventually. b) building web sites around the domains.

Good luck!

 

[stender]

Just read all the posts on here and you'll be off to a good start. I would suggest buying a few cheap domains as suggested previously then have a play with adsense and affiliates on a minisite.

Have a read of the "making a domain earn £1 per week" thread as a start

http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/affiliate-marketing/15996-making-domain-earn-1-week-16.html#post77500

Not the sort of money your looking at but advisable to walk before you can run.

I went into this all guns blazing buying loads of domains which I now realise are shite! My portfolio will be a quarter the size it is now when they are up for renewal.
I'm also veering away from parking towards minisites as are a lot on here.

Good Luck

 

[Pred]

hang about the forums for a bit & learn your trade.
research sites too. do abit of reading on dnjournal.com is a good idea
also i wouldn't put all your eggs in one basket either, ie: .uk domains
depends what you want really
good luck whatever you do

 

[alexsimon]

Also I wouldn't recommend Sedo as a starting point.

DnJounral is ok, and namebio.com is excellent.

Sedo.com has many shill bidders, and sometimes those domains did not sell for that, as buyer never paid. dnjournal and namebio are both ok. snapnames should be also a good place, there you see what people are bidding for.

i started back in March with an initial $400 budget (very low I know), and last week I had my first $x.xxx sale. And besides that now I have a portfolio of 40 decent names (some are better, while some are fresh regs).

Anyway, I read two months before buying my first domain. You will need patience to find the best deal.

Alex

 

[retired_member16]

Get pissed and spank £50k by buying up reams and reams of shite.

Convince yourself your new domains are great (make sure you buy both the plural and singular of each and also the hyphenated version.) Why not go crazy and get all typos too?

Add unrealistic prices and ensure that you list them all in the 'Domains for Sale' section, once, twice (of if you have time) three times per day.

Ignore all comments directed towards your gems from experienced domainers and tell yourself they are trying to knock you into lowering your prices before snapping them all up and getting themselves mentioned in www.theregister.co.uk

Finally, after selling one name via Ebay for less than the advert cost, throw a fit on the board, slating everyone, including Admin, let all the domains lapse and put it down to experience.

:mrgreen:

 

[seanc]

the namedrive market place might give you some idea of what sites can bring in a monthly revenue.

 

[aZooZa]

Get pissed and spank £50k by buying up reams and reams of shite.

Convince yourself your new domains are great (make sure you buy both the plural and singular of each and also the hyphenated version.) Why not go crazy and get all typos too?

Add unrealistic prices and ensure that you list them all in the 'Domains for Sale' section, once, twice (of if you have time) three times per day.

Ignore all comments directed towards your gems from experienced domainers and tell yourself they are trying to knock you into lowering your prices before snapping them all up and getting themselves mentioned in www.theregister.co.uk

Finally, after selling one name via Ebay for less than the advert cost, throw a fit on the board, slating everyone, including Admin, let all the domains lapse and put it down to experience.

:mrgreen:

Smart man's advice. Jeez. Come here for handy hints. Ughhhh.

 

[Johnp]

Some good advice and also some in jest.

A good plan is to take 1% of your budget and spend it in the next 6 months, yep £ 500.00 or about 50 odd registrations with 1&1. Use that experience (with all its mistakes) to spend the next 10% your budget over the following 6 months to prove revenue/sales. I think you invest far more wisley by taking a stepwise approach.

Just my thoughts anyway !


JohnP

 

[retired_member9]

It seems many people get original question wrong and don't understand intentions of the asking person. Still everyone likes to answer

Sparkie, it's much easier to get on the domain ladder than many advice here.

If you have budget, you can really buy some decent names which will earn you stable income. Follow few simple rules and you don't need to spend time tasting market or getting to know industry. From your question, I understand you'd happy to pay 5k for the name which brings 50 quid/month back. That's 100 month revenue multiply and many people would love to part with their domains for such ratio. Just don't buy typos or trademark domains; names which have dubious traffic sources. Rely on generic and keyword rich, descriptive domains (imaginative examples like carparking.co.uk, insurancequotes.co.uk, flightsearch.co.uk ..etc). Verify stats with the parking company representative where current owners park them.

If everything looks credible, your investment should also be fine. PPC prices are likely to increase, so return could be achieved much earlier than it looks now. And if you manage to get nice names, during those years you will definitely get a couple of buyers prepared to acquire something off you. So the future is kinda bright. Those in the know don't sell for investors prices at the moment. But many still do ;-)

 

[retired_member6]

It is as with anything, timing and knowledge. The amount of money you have is neither here nor there, it's your method and accountability that will make you gains or losses. There's many an happy millionaire without a penny because they spent as they got it, others invest and earn more or the lot. It all sounds like a riddle but makes sense to me.

There's some on this forum who are buying domains on a monthly basis and are growing at a fast rate using shrewd methods of purchase and are moving up the ladder on the back of people who wnat readies now in advance of real value in the future or unbeknown to them, the true value of the domain - I see it every day as I'm selling the domains and seeing others and what they've bought and resold, meanwhile others sell to pay as you go, many more just muck up or get on with it.

Read up on all you can and then look where best to place your money, you have a choice, be lucky and try and grab domains at £6 but you'll need catching slots, partnerships or to develop your own system to get any real value, or you can buy at resale with proven traffic stats, try and catch some domain owners unawares and buy on the cheap and build a portfolio that way.

Ultimately, there's loads of people with ideas and no money, loads with money and won't tell you a thing and others who will work on your side for a cut or up front payment, a lot of knowledge and answers are buried in this forum. Re your shelling out £5k and getting £50 back a month, yes that return is possible, you're talking 100 months, a lot only ask for four to five years but I aint in traffic so seek advice.

Put it this way, no matter what end you start at, it is possible to buy a domain at £6 and earn £12 back a month, but it all comes down to varying factors, whether you want proven stats, to build a top end portfolio with traffic generation from the outset or mix it a bit with £2k buys and drop catching. If I had £50k and was asking the question you just had, I'd be scared of myself, keep asking questions before you spend anything. That's my thoughts, as someone who has renewal fees in the several of thousands, not advice because I'm hardly living in a mansion although where I live I think is pretty cool. (smiley)

£50k will get you some nice names, traffic too but just do your research and sums, keep plugging away with the lower offers and you'll start to see your efforts rewarded and further still, stick to top keyword generics and who knows, your first purchase within a few months could cover your existing buys with one sale, it can happen, not saying it will happen.

Good luck, I'm for hire but probably only for putting your rubbish out.

Lee