Don't Fall In Love With . . .

by Martin Luxton

Posted: 13 years ago 39 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

. . . your domain names.

One of the biggest and most expensive mistakes I made was coming up with an idea and registering the domain. Then doing nothing with it.

It got worse. A year later I still hadn't done anything with it, but I loved the name so I renewed it.

Then I thought, OK maybe I'm not going to do anything with it so I'll sell it. A name like that is sure to bring in good money.

Well, it never did.

I'm much wiser now and I've let a lot of my domains lapse. And do you know something? Out of all the ones I let go, only one has ever been bought and had a website put up on it (there was usually nobody waiting to pounce on 'my babies' and steal my genius ideas).

So, if you're going to buy a domain name,

1. Get content up on it fast.

2. If not, have a damn good reason for keeping it because an empty domain is costing you time and money. The wasted time is probably more important than the money, because a domain you keep thinking about but don't activate is a big distraction. Have a dozen or so of those and you've got the perfect recipe for paralysis analysis.

Martin

#fall #love

Fernando Veloso 13 years ago

Soooo true.

I had same problem a couple months back, but fortunately we managed to create a way to solve the lack of content problem.

And funny how things relate: after PANDA update one of these tiny websites is sitting on a gold mine
- Thanks
- 1 reply
Signature

People make good money selling to the rich. But the rich got rich selling to the masses.
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4083004].message }}
- Mr Kevin 13 years ago
  
  What I do is I usually build a blog around my keyword rich domain, then I flip it quickly on auction sites such as ebay or flippa. This way, you can minimize your loss for the domain name, and avoid it collecting cyber dust
  
  Thanks
  
  2 replies
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4086359].message }}
  
  VegasVince 13 years ago
  
  Had a fight with the X lady after a sweat filled day with her and her two kids at Chuckie Cheese (a den filled with kids who tried to sell me aluminum siding, pick my pocket....and the place was hotter then two squirrels makin love in a wool friggin sock.)
  
  Get home pour the Jack...buy enough domain names to increase the stock price of Go Daddy by 2%....and NEVER USED ONE.
  
  Let 'em all expire and didn't much care......although that's my spin to convince myself I wasn't the idiot I was.
  
  Truth is.....create the product first....or at least have a solid grasp on your offer.....THEN GO GET THE DOMAIN.....BECAUSE YOU'LL FIND IT.
  
  Write down every friggin thing that comes to mind.....fast on a sheet of paper that is RELEVANT to your offer. Then buy the domain...because at that point....you've got something to fill it with......rather then "hey....that's a cool name...let me buy it....maybe down the road....I'll create a product for it...ugggg"
  
  Never happens.
  
  Lesson learned.
  
  peace, Vegas Vince
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  Buy High. Sell Low. Bank $ Top Selling Product Ever re: Exploiting the Secret Billion Dollar Barter/Trade Industry!
  
  Save Lives. Make Money. Henry Ford would endorse this!
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4086452].message }}
  
  Matt Briggs 13 years ago
  
  [DELETED]
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4086462].message }}
  
  VegasVince 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by kartin
  
  Happens all the time Vince, lol!
  
  Glad no one started a thread on Adsense. I make pretty good bling on and offline...but Vinnie is no Joel Comm when it comes to adsense.
  
  I believe after 3 years I have generated a staggering 24.36 cents.......and based on the fact google wont cut a check till I reach $100...factoring in the fact the big 80's ko'd at least 10 years off my life......
  
  Figure I'll be dead and buried right around the time it reaches $70 bucks. Sad 2 think I'm gonna shoot snake eyes with those *******s owing me 30 large.
  
  Fortunately I figured out a way to make a dollar here dollar there in other areas......
  
  peace, VV
  
  Actually if I ever release my adsense system.......you guys would get rich by simply reverse engineering what I do. Straight up......might just do that.......? If the demand is there.
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  Buy High. Sell Low. Bank $ Top Selling Product Ever re: Exploiting the Secret Billion Dollar Barter/Trade Industry!
  
  Save Lives. Make Money. Henry Ford would endorse this!
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4088002].message }}
  
  HN Banned 13 years ago
  
  Looks like I am not the only one, who had this problem. I once had 60 domains that I kept renewing. I let most of them expire, except 5. One of domains that I forgot to renew was listed for sale by registrar for $4,000, but they were kind enough to sell it back to me for $200. It was listed in dmoz, and had PR4. It 's a 10 year old four letter com domain.
  I now have another passion, I buy ccTLDs. Theoretically it's a small step to turn your liabilities into assets. Get some links, content, PR and you only need to sell 1 link for $1 per month on each domain to pay your renewal fees.
  It's hard to let expire domain names like money.ee , cash.ee , articles.li , seo.hn and I have 250 such one word generic ccTLD domains.
  
  Thanks
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4086460].message }}
mr2monster 13 years ago

Business decisions based on emotions are almost never a good idea.

I've learned that lesson many many many times over.. haha.
- Thanks
Signature

FREE Training - No Opt-In.
Learn To Make Money Buying and Selling
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4083015].message }}
WebsiteMarketer 13 years ago

Lol great post, so true.

It can be very difficult to break the mental attachment to your domain names but definitely needs to happen.

I once was up to like 25 domain names but realized how stupid I was being and let it fall off to more like 10 now.

Lucky for me that attachment ended up paying off. I bought and renewed AffiliateJack.com because of course I thought I was going to do something with it but never did and then just kept it because I thought it was a legit name.

Eventually someone offered me like $800 for it. Talk about an easy way to break your attachment .
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4083032].message }}
mosthost 13 years ago

Good points. That once-loved domain can quickly become costly, especially if the little bugger refuses to earn revenues.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4083033].message }}
TotalGaz 13 years ago

Originally Posted by Martin Luxton

So, if you're going to buy a domain name,

1. Get content up on it fast.

So true. I would suggest if you think it is a good domain to be in try get 5-10 article pre-written before buying the domain. So that means writing the articles yourself or outsourcing them. Either way it should help the focus when you buy the domain to gt the articles posted ASAP. I just did that with one site and mad a click on adsense within the first week. So it hasn't paid for itself yet but least I know its not just hanging around.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4083113].message }}
BloggingPro 13 years ago

More importantly, don't ever Drink and Buy Domains! Ever. Enough said.
- [ 4 ] Thanks
- 1 reply
Signature
You're going to fail. If you're afraid of failure then you do not belong in the Internet Marketing Business. Period.
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4083127].message }}
- jimba 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by BloggingPro
  
  More importantly, don't ever Drink and Buy Domains! Ever. Enough said.
  
  Haha. I'm not even going to ask.
  
  Thanks
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4083154].message }}

uniquesvcs

13 years ago

Martin,
Thank you for the wake up call. I have got to quit looking for new domains while I have domains that are empty. I will be adding a post-it to my screen "NO NEW DOMAINS"

Thanks
Thor

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4083306].message }}

Martin Luxton

13 years ago

Originally Posted by uniquesvcs

Martin,
Thank you for the wake up call. I have got to quit looking for new domains while I have domains that are empty. I will be adding a post-it to my screen "NO NEW DOMAINS"

Thanks
Thor

Or flag Godaddy and Namecheap on your antivirus software as dangerous sites

Martin

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4083617].message }}

Dean Jackson 13 years ago

Oh man.... I know what you mean... but it's that annoying little voice in the back of your head that talks you into it!

It sounds so cool...

What if someone else gets it and makes a killing with it...

I can't believe nobody else has registered this yet...

I've now got atleast 10 domains with nothing on them!

Anyway, I'll probably flip them or something eventually. And Brad Gosse's "FeedNamer" domain finding tool doesn't help lol...

Dean
- [ 1 ] Thanks
Signature

NEW: CRAZIEST Copywriting offer ever offered on WF
My top student WILL make your sales go BANANAS!
-> Click Here To Check It Out [Spots Going FAST!]
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4083373].message }}
WebPen 13 years ago

I've definitely bought a few domain names I had the highest expectations for then let them just SIT.

Now Im trying to sell em off before they get too close to the re-registration time!
- Thanks
Signature

*Need help marketing your business?*

----Click Here to Join Me and Learn What Really Works!----
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4083387].message }}
GetMoreTraffic 13 years ago

Oh, yeah, I have had a few hundred of those over the years - eating away at my profits ten bucks at a time...
- Thanks
Signature

Discover the fast way to accelerate your affiliate income
FREE WSO: Click Here To Find Out "HOW TO TRIPLE YOUR CLICkBANK PROFITS OVERNIGHT!"
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4083516].message }}
ginak59 13 years ago

I recently switched to a new hosting company after some major headaches (a little tip, stay away from Aplus!). Spent the entire weekend moving 10 sites, some of the URLs date back a long time. Long story short, this forced me to take a long hard look at a couple of URLs and sites which have never paid off. I decided to give up on 3 of the ten and am much happier not spreading myself so thin and just focusing on my winners.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4083562].message }}
omk 13 years ago

A lot of people have that tendency to horde domain names.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4084343].message }}
luckyshah290 13 years ago

Thats right ...

Domain names are just an web address .. the important thing is the content in it .. and its quality ..
- Thanks
Signature

-----Plorez: Let's Turn Ideas into Action Together
-----
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4084976].message }}
AmandaT 13 years ago

I have 6 right now and have been thinking the same thing. I was thinking I might just let some go but I think for now I will just outsource some content for the ones I don't have time to work on and give them a little more time. If they can bring in over $10 each then they will be worth keeping for me!
- Thanks
Signature

Newest PLR Pack: Tumblr PLR || Learn how to profit with PLR! || Free PLR

Join me on an Online Marketing Adventure.
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4085412].message }}
FitnessNut 13 years ago

You hit it spot on...

I think as somewhat of a newbie to internet marketing I initially found myself buying wayyy too many domains thinking that if nothing else they'd be worth something by themselves.

Boy was I wrong!

Anyways, great post!

-FitnessNut
- Thanks
Signature

"Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure."
-Norman Vincent Peale
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4085430].message }}

ZILLIONAIRE

13 years ago

i had a batch that i didn't renew recently.... i decided to never buy domains based on an idea...an here is a tip NEVER EVER set your domains to renew on autopilot, unless they are for a website that's actually making you money!

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4085444].message }}

Sandor Verebi

13 years ago

Hi Martin,

This is certainly true. Thanks for the heads up.

Your description fits me.

I'm cleaning my hard drives now and discovered many unnecessary things. Domains are also included which I'll let to go.

Originally Posted by Dean Jackson

Oh man.... I know what you mean... but it's that annoying little voice in the back of your head that talks you into it!

It sounds so cool...

What if someone else gets it and makes a killing with it...

I can't believe nobody else has registered this yet...

Dean, I thought, I hear these voices only. Calmed down.

...And Brad Gosse's "FeedNamer" domain finding tool doesn't help lol...

Brad, what do you do with us?

Originally Posted by Martin Luxton

Or flag Godaddy and Namecheap on your antivirus software as dangerous sites

One possibility that helps us sinners. But it is also important to resist the passion for collecting, don't you think?

Best,

Sandor

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4085903].message }}

talkfinance 13 years ago

I really identify with this! I have over 40 domain names that I renew every year/2 years and some I have had for almost 5 years and done nothing with them.
I guess like everyone I am paranoid that when I let them drop, someone will jump in and make millions (:rolleyes out of my fantastic domain when the reality is that they will probably stay available for eternity!
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4086289].message }}

DireStraits 13 years ago

I used to have this problem, but have recovered somewhat over the last couple of years.

In fact, I'm just now in the process of letting the last of my unused domain-names expire.

Just one part of a greater endeavour to clear unnecessary clutter from my life.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4086350].message }}

brunom

13 years ago

Never happened to be actually. I usually only buy the domain when I have a complete plan on what I'm doing with it.

Thanks

Signature

1500 Backlinks For Youtube Videos

Several #1 Rankings Achieved With a $5 Gig

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4086413].message }}

alen0817

Banned 13 years ago

[DELETED]

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4086580].message }}

amoeba

13 years ago

Originally Posted by alen0817

What I do is I usually build a blog around my keyword rich domain, then I flip it quickly on auction sites such as ebay or flippa. This way, you can minimize your loss for the domain name, and avoid it collecting cyber dust

i never had good response on flippa for small sites...just tried twice with smaller sites... is ebay a good marketplace for sites?

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4086637].message }}

Kevin AKA Hubcap

13 years ago

Let me step on the other side of this.

You had a domain name, for a year, which you planned to put some kind of content on but didn't.

Sounds to me like buying the domain name is not the problem.

Follow through, for whatever reason, is.

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4087061].message }}

Martin Luxton

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Kevin AKA Hubcap

Kevin,

How could I follow through - I was too busy buying more domain names.

Martin

[ 1 ] Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4087248].message }}

amoeba 13 years ago

very true...i have recently dropped 7 domains which were unused,,,i never bothered to develop...feels sad
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4086472].message }}
dark witness 13 years ago

This almost feels like therapy... I am not alone
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4086555].message }}
sbucciarel Banned 13 years ago

Yeah ... learned that the hard way too. Bought plenty of domains that I didn't get around to developing and then comes renewal fee time. Fortunately, by then I learned to let them go and didn't renew.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4087462].message }}
ankushkohli 13 years ago

Lol...it's funny but true and happened almost all the webmaster or marketers.

Design your strategy before buying domains & specially more than 1 tld's.
- Thanks
Signature
Orange County Local SEO Company | Emarketing Guide
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4087507].message }}
Jimmy101 13 years ago

this is a good post, loving it,will save this on my pc for future reference.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4087513].message }}
affiliates 13 years ago

yeah, u r right, I used to be crazy on domain...
- Thanks
Signature
$7.49 domain in godaddy without any coupons!!!
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4087678].message }}
Jody_W 13 years ago

I, too, had this addiction. Now I don't put a domain on automatic renewal until it is paying for itself. It's time for a mini-celebration the day that a domain turns from a liability to an asset, and it's reward is automatic renewal.
- Thanks
Signature

Get Fiverr "Top Rated Seller" Quality Backlinks for LESS Than Fiverr Prices.
Less than Fiverr??? YES, less than Fiverr.
Visit my lame squeeze page for more details.
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4087821].message }}
peteranderson874 13 years ago

Nice post! I totally agree with you. I'm wondering why many people tend to buy lots of domain names and end up not using them. I'm starting to think if they treat domain names as collector items. lol
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4088365].message }}
uebomoyi 13 years ago

Similar thing happened to me multiple times. It was very upsetting and the crazy part is that that stuff creeps up on you slowly, you can't really monitor it.
- Thanks
- 1 reply
Signature
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4088376].message }}
- ExRat 13 years ago
  
  Hi Martin,
  
  I don't have as many domains as I used to and things have changed quite a bit in the market, but I'm probably still in profit from the domains I sold in comparison with the ones that I wasted money on.
  
  I do think that having unproductive investments hanging around isn't a good idea though (for a variety of reasons), which is why all unused domains should be parked somewhere that earns some pennies and creates the opportunity for them to sell, in my opinion.
  
  It's interesting to see all of the comments from others here.
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  
  Roger Davis
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4088498].message }}

Don't Fall In Love With . . .

Trending Topics

Been a while! Any of you Old Timers here?

How much does the rebranding affect CR ?

Are billboards still effective in driving customers?

Boat and Jet Ski Rentals...... Door Hangers Effective?

Clickbank low cost recurring