How many members do this for a living?

[Nova]

I was just wondering how many members make a living from buying and selling domain names, or developing domains in order to sell or generate money?

I don't believe it is as easy to do as some might believe and most, probably only do it as a hobby, or do it part-time, am I right?

 

[Edwin]

Yes and no. Selling domains is the sole business of one of the companies I run, but I am involved in 2 other companies as well.

 

[BREWSTERS]

Been full time for a few years. Have dabbled at development with no success, so just stick to buying and selling.

 

[accelerator]

I was just wondering how many members make a living from buying and selling domain names, or developing domains in order to sell or generate money?

I don't believe it is as easy to do as some might believe and most, probably only do it as a hobby, or do it part-time, am I right?

I'm full time, mainly a developer, and although I like my job, I'm sure there are easier ways to make a living.

I think pure domaining is going to get a lot harder, as supply of the decent names is going to dry up, and the years of the "internet gold rush" or domain land-grab are behind us.

Whether you can make a living from it comes down to your own ability. I would say quite a lot of skill is needed to become a full time developer, but the good news is you can start part time in the evenings. If you can combine business analysis, technical know how and marketing skills, it might be for you.

Rgds

 

[Nova]

Thanks for the input guys. I am working full time but like a lot of people my job is under strain and I may be made redundant in the near future. I have already developed one website as a hobby and it is doing well and bringing in some money so I plan to try and build on that. I'm playing around with Wordpress and enjoying getting the hang of it. I like working with computers but I'm manly self tought. I also started a limited company where I buy and sell specific products and it's ticking over okay.

I'm thinking of developing two or three websites in my own specialised field. Then looking at other options. I would like to buy and sell domains to but don't have a clue about pricing them.

Regards,
Nova

 

[boxfish]

I don't make my money from domains but I have been self-employed running an ecommerce site since walking out of my job 4 years ago.

One thing I don't get is people who want to create more than one site to start with. In the past, say up to the 90's no-one quit their job to start 2 businesses or 5 businesses, they built one business then expanded/diversified as it grew. Nowadays people want to build 3 or 5 sites incase Google bins some of them.

One decent 'full-time' site with full-time development and promotion has a much better chance of success than 5 'backup' sites, it also has more chance of being promoted in other ways as, in theory, it should be a better finished product.

My advice is build one site, make it awesome, get a stable income then decide which route to follow.

 

[Bailey]

From a purely domainers point of view, I don't think it's possible to start 'fresh' today. ie from scatch and expect to be able to gain an income just from domain trading. Even from the postion of someone like myself who started buying domains as an investment in the late 90's, over time the holding starts to diminish. I'm fortunate in that I do have other incomes. So domaining for me is a mixture of work and play.

I'd love to get into development but, feel I spend too much time in front of my computer as it is

 

[stender]

When People say I gave up my day job and do this or that full time now it can be misleading. Theres a difference of I gave up my macdonalds job and now do affiliate fulltime covering my £100pw and I gave up my £70k job and am making £70k + doing this.


I did an anonymouse survey once asking income from affiliate/domaining/adsense/ecommerce and how many sites? time spent on each area etc... would of been quiete inspiring but didn't get too many responses.

I think it would be very difficult to make good money domaining these days. There isn't a lot of decent stuff dropping these days, domain owners you may approach are either clued up or unrealistic. Most have been approached by us already.

I echo "concentrate ideally on one good site" Once that's making money you can try and replicate and pay someone to admin the first one.

 

[boxfish]

When People say I gave up my day job and do this or that full time now it can be misleading. Theres a difference of I gave up my macdonalds job and now do affiliate fulltime covering my £100pw and I gave up my £70k job and am making £70k + doing this.

I gave up a job living and working on a Scottish holiday park where I was earning £35k selling static caravans and had free accommodation (a crappy old caravan). I had no internet and no computer for 2 years.

I made 18k in my first year self employed so not heaps but enough to pay rent and eat. I don't think that is too shabby since I didn't even know what SEO was and hadn't touched a computer in 2 years.

Since the second year I have been earning more than I was in my old job and I have lots of spare time to work on other projects too now.

If you have an existing knowledge and sites that are already established then you could do really well even in the first year.

 

[SCJohnson]

I don't make my money from domains but I have been self-employed running an ecommerce site since walking out of my job 4 years ago.

One thing I don't get is people who want to create more than one site to start with. In the past, say up to the 90's no-one quit their job to start 2 businesses or 5 businesses, they built one business then expanded/diversified as it grew. Nowadays people want to build 3 or 5 sites incase Google bins some of them.

One decent 'full-time' site with full-time development and promotion has a much better chance of success than 5 'backup' sites, it also has more chance of being promoted in other ways as, in theory, it should be a better finished product.

My advice is build one site, make it awesome, get a stable income then decide which route to follow.

Totally agree. I started an ecommerce website three years ago and now it's well into a six figure profit a year.

I have a few other ecommerce websites that I just let tick over but I put nearly all my effort into the main one. If I split my time between all of them I guarantee I wouldn't be earning as much, even with them all combined.

I'm just starting to think about diversifying now and that's only because I feel like I need a new challenge.

My advice would be to choose something, stick with it and work your arse off. Trust me, after a few years you'll have learnt so much and picked up so much information you'll be in a good position to start something new.

There's no contest between one kick-ass site and ten sites which have no real effort put into them. Think about it... if you split your 100% effort into ten, you can't expect much return on that 10% effort.

Let's face it, in this game, the saying "You only get back what you put in" is a good thing to remember.

 

[Pred]

I don't make my money from domains but I have been self-employed running an ecommerce site since walking out of my job 4 years ago.

One thing I don't get is people who want to create more than one site to start with. In the past, say up to the 90's no-one quit their job to start 2 businesses or 5 businesses, they built one business then expanded/diversified as it grew. Nowadays people want to build 3 or 5 sites incase Google bins some of them.

One decent 'full-time' site with full-time development and promotion has a much better chance of success than 5 'backup' sites, it also has more chance of being promoted in other ways as, in theory, it should be a better finished product.

My advice is build one site, make it awesome, get a stable income then decide which route to follow.

best advice you will get
most of us will make mistakes before realising this is the course to follow

alos problem with domainers is they have very active brains and are never short on ideas and want to start many projects
best to sell up smaller sites especially if on good domains and stick to best great domain and build something amazing

 

[Nova]

Thanks for all the advice gents. I am going to take it all on board and do my best. At least at the moment I am financially stable, so I don't feel pressured. I'm just going to enjoy it and do my best.

I'm glad I asked the question now, at first I didn't think I would get much response but I do really appropriate all you experienced members sharing your advice. It had been very useful.

Regards,
Nova

 

[donreeco]

Interesting thread - I've often wondered how many members on here do this for a living (and whether it's from pure domaining or from sites).

SCJohnson and boxfish, I'd be interested to know whether you stock products or use dropshipping with your eCommerce sites? I keep considering starting an eCommerce site myself, but then I hear stories of needing huge amounts of stock, or dealing with unreliable dropshippers, as well as dealing with customers and it just seems easier to go the affiliate route. Although I always suspect that you may have less problems with G with a proper eCommerce site, than you would an affiliate site?

Cheers

 

[boxfish]

Interesting thread - I've often wondered how many members on here do this for a living (and whether it's from pure domaining or from sites).

SCJohnson and boxfish, I'd be interested to know whether you stock products or use dropshipping with your eCommerce sites? I keep considering starting an eCommerce site myself, but then I hear stories of needing huge amounts of stock, or dealing with unreliable dropshippers, as well as dealing with customers and it just seems easier to go the affiliate route. Although I always suspect that you may have less problems with G with a proper eCommerce site, than you would an affiliate site?

Cheers

I sell a type of commercial furniture which is made to order and sent direct from the manufacturer so it is a bit like dropshipping but a little bit more involved as I need to make sure the dimensions/specs are 100% and the customer has a team to offload and sign off each item.

The benefits are the same as dropshipping (no start-up cash, no stock), plus you don't get returns (unless faulty) and the order value is usually several £k so each order is worth spending time on getting.

I think the downside is I spend quite a lot of time on the phone with customers so I have to be available 9-5, the benefit of this is I get to build relationships and get more repeat business, negative is set hours.

When I'm not on the phone there isn't loads I have to do so I can spend time working on sites that give me a more passive income which is eventually where I want to go so I have more freedom during the day + I don't really have a passion for the field I am in I just chose it as I saw massive opportunity.

Another piece of advice I would give to anyone starting is choose something you enjoy, it will be a lot easier.

 

[Pred]

i'm self employed. mainly domaining, developing and whatever else is needed
whatever i was offered I would never work for anyone but myself again
been self employed 6 years

not making fortunes or I would have to be vat registered and not lol

downside is ups and downs , no 2 months are the same and I hate public holidays and everything dies, so this summer if you can't beat them , join them
I will be doing very little but enjoying myself
tbh this business is as hard as you make it
you can get away with a few hours a day

the vicious circle comes when you have too many domains
as the holy grail for me is getting enough sales to cover renewals and bills etc (not easy) and making enough to buy the time to indulge yourself in one main site

and yes, it has to be something you're passionate about, at very least enjoy
whether writing, blogging, journalism, arts and crafts, whatever floats your boat

domain sales can be perfect for the revenue when things going well as sites don't have to be making money to be worth a lot, depending on genre
helps if ecomemrce of course but if looking at the really big paydays having the 'big site' is something we all dream of I'm sure
and many of us may well be working towards that as we speak.......

 

[Bailey]

Funnily enough I find domain sales (names only) pretty static about 9 months of the year from Mid Jan to around mid October. I think thats because I hold a fair amount of .com's and the yanks don't do Summer breaks. (sales freeze from Oct to Jan)

I think most that are long term ie 5 years plus in domains know to either list them at high prices and accept the odd sale ie, perhaps 1 or 2 a month. Or do what I do and don't list or advertise them and respond to the enquiries as they come along. Having said that I am going to list all my .co.uks over the next month or so with similar pricing to Edwins model and keep my .com's sales model as it is.

The worst thing You occasionally see done, is to list all your domains at "make-offer" and get cherry-picked leaving you no decent inventory for the years to follow.

 

[Pred]

I think thats because I hold a fair amount of .com's and the yanks don't do Summer breaks. (sales freeze from Oct to Jan)

surpising you find that
the yanks do 'vacation'
they all piss off for months on paid leave. kills me

thats why I love dealing with self employed and entrrepreneurs as they work all hours and are very direct people

suits, lawyers, admin people, marketers etc all piss off on paid leave in their safe little jobs

i have about 2k .coms
and selling .coms is my main area, I have studied past few years and there is no set pattern in concrete
but july august and december are crap almost always

weird thing this year
jan and feb were crackers, feb sales rolled into march which made look good but knew they were initiated in feb

bottom line last 6 weeks I have had 1 enquiry from enduser
normally get them daily
i was checking mailservers, sites etc
have not known anything like it in 10 years
easter destroyed business for me

but, it's a funny old game. last week of month anything can happen
and can turn it round

I am currently thinking of diversifying and doing a new business with one of my .coms
real physical work but for myself and just do couple of hours on domains a day as if you give the catching and regging a rest there isn't that many hours domaining takes when organised

then the domain sales are a massive bonus when coming in, as they always do as endusers come to you
given up even approaching them

but another strategy I muist implement is to ration myself on this forum!lol
might just pop in on sundays or something

 

[BREWSTERS]

Anyone who says you can't carve a living out of pure domain sales...is wrong. I've cleared four figures this past 10 days with more than that yet to clear escrow. All from names I've picked up for less than $200. That said, total purchases have been a multiple of that figure - but thats future profit in my mind.

Is it easy? No. But if you're prepared to put in as many hours as you need to (proper work hours, not pissing about on forums, ahem...) and are willing to speculate to accumalate, it can be done.

The number one thing to remember is, it's all in the buying. Buy the wrong names (and we all do this, it's a matter of making sure you get some good ones in with the crap) and you'll never make money. There are people out there making much more than me because they bought better. Sales are easy, so long as you bought well - in fact you barely need to think about sales, just concentrate on buying well. If you do that, you'll be made.

BTW - this last part I only realised this past couple of months. Several years of worrying where the sales were going to come from and then it hit me that I'd been thinking arse about face all along. Good names sell themselves, but no-one can sell a crap name.

PS. I feel a 'meet' coming on...anyone up for a night in Manchester anytime soon?

 

[khalid]

I haven't exited the 9-5 rat race for two reasons...

1. I support my girlfriend and I'm just about to purchase my first house!

2. I have a second business with my employer!

If I kept all the domains/sites I ever sold I dare say I wouldn't need to hold down a job. But, I'm happy with the progress I've made.

I've got the patience of an excitable puppy and I can't sit still but I've had to learn that moving forward takes time and it's all about enjoying what you do.

 

[Bailey]

Anyone who says you can't carve a living out of pure domain sales...is wrong.

from and then it hit me that I'd been think arse about face all along. Good names sell themselves, but no-one can sell a crap name.

The thing is Brewsters I think we all know (or Most) that it takes more than holding good names to be able to complete a good sale. Not everyone has all the elements/acumen to make the sale happen.

Second point - True, wish every 'domain seller' that spams my email was aware of that