Can domaining become a real job?

[ian]

The other thing is, you're asking the question way after the big opportunities were available, i.e. the early days of .com, and to a lesser extent .co.uk, when you could pick up very good domains relatively cheaply. Now everyone has regged most of what is good already.

Isn't that the point, the OP is asking if it is still possible to make a living from domaining in 2015; not from past purchases/acquisitions. With the boom of .com domains previously and in the last year, we'd have all retired by now!

 

[accelerator]

Good point, I already own a selection of reasonable domains so my question really relates to whether marketing these domains via a portfolio is a worthy exercise and whether I should be looking to expand this hobby into a business.

If you want a short answer to whether domaining could now easily be a full-time job, the answer is no. For me, it's one string to my bow, and that's what I would suggest you make it. It depends what you mean by expanding into a business, but if you mean full-time business and nothing else, that's a long shot, but if you mean attempting to trade domains "on the side", then of course it's worth doing if you are adept at it. For example, had you spotted the cloud computing trend starting a few years ago, and regged related .com domains, you could have done very nicely.

In summary, sure have a go and do it on the side, if you think you can do it from scratch now, you are going to have to be very skilled and a lot better than average.

 

[keys]

With domains, antiques, car number plates and other near unique items - to make a return you need a regular margin. This comes from buying in one market, and selling in another, or adding value in some way.

Domain names are tricky, it can be hard to find ones offering a good return, and turnover is slow at end user prices. There are no established venues for regular buying and no reliable way to generate consistent sales.

Relatively few end users understand the merits of a good domain, at the prices they command. The recent flood of new extensions has diluted the market.

Is there scope to earn a living as a full time domain seller starting now? It really depends on experience, resources and income requirements. I think anyone with the ability to succeed would achieve a better return by focusing their efforts on related services, rather than just domain sales.

A sales platform with set prices will provide turnover, but not the best margins. It does however provide a steady stream of customers, and other opportunities.

The popular model for domain sales is a large portfolio, and parking pages with a "make an offer" link. With enough capital and quality domains this plan works, but it relies on careful buying decisions and reaching a viable size. Nokta have taken this to the extreme.

 

[accelerator]

Good answer keys. Like you say, high volume does not get you the best margins. It would probably be easier to make money from trading something else, e.g. antiques, than trading domain names. It's getting tougher that's for sure.

 

[humble pie]

In answer to your question which is basically can you can make a serious living 'now' out of .UK domaining, my response is ROFLMFAO..

..seriously though it depends on 'how' you want to make your money with domains. Domaining is an extended serious hobby for me. I've been moderately successful, since 2000 my highlight being a 3k purchase dev'd to a site then into to 30k sale. I've had numerous other successes of 1k/2k investments and sold to around 7/8k and lots of smaller sporadic sales of domains undeveloped at £500/£750 some with only 50% margin, so I suppose you could live like this quite well if you can consistently repeat the formula*.

I'm greedy I guess, my model is I look to make at least 5x profit on any domain I buy, this is long term stuff. I've bought plenty of flash in the pan worthless turds though lost thousands, turned down many £500 offers on £3.50 handreg domains never to get another offer - and in my book this brings me to the conclusion there are only two critical skills to be successful in domaining: knowing what domains to acquire and when to sell them.

(*The thing that puzzles me more than anything else is what changed 5 years ago, the need still exists, the services still exist, there are more users, I've got my suspicions )