First year in domaining

[davedevelopment]

Khalid wrote a post a while back about his first year on Acorn Domains, so I thought I'd do the same.

Like Khalid, I found my way here after being suckered into domaining by a blog post by ScottJ. I've progressed from there somewhat, and while I do operate towards the bottom of the food chain, I've still completed 56 deals with 44 different Acorn Members in a timely and orderly fashion and I'm quite proud of that!

My progression:

1. Mining the GKT and hand registering domains
2. Mining the GKT and booking drops at the public catchers (Cheers Dale, Chris and Stephen)
3. Frantically going through the domainlore droplists at midnight to book drops with the public catchers
4. Getting my TAG and DAC, coding up DaveCatcher and catching for myself.
5. Starting to develop some names (poorly)

I've also spent quite a bit of time doing freelance development for another member on quite a popular UK site, which has inspired me. The site is very simple compared to the in house software I develop day to day, but does everything it needs to and is a great success. I used to try and get freelancing gigs on elance and getafreelancer and had some moderate success, but it's few and far between and I'd never go back there now, not when I know there's plenty of people I can trust who are after development
work.

Unlike Khalid, I've not actually met anyone here in person, I'm waiting for the next meetup that's not too far from me (Ilkley?) and I'll make my way there. Would be nice to put names to faces.

I held off upgrading my membership for quite a while, although I would have done straight away if I could pay monthly. Once I knew I was here for the long haul and I was making regular money, I planned on upgrading and did about a month ago, hope admin got himself a pint or two from that.

I've started dabbling with affiliate marketing, but I'm not all that good at it, I'm considering investing in a couple of sites that are already established hoping it'll be easier to maintain than build from scratch.

My targets for the next year:

* Turnover £20k
* Make my first £xxxx sale
* Have a profitable sale reported on dnjournal.com
* Actually meet some of the folk here
* Build my portfolio with £xxx names
* Get a blog going on davedomains.co.uk
* Give more advice because I've taken plenty

Cheers everyone, had a good first year and I hope to have a few more

 

[suzi]

Great post - I would comment more - but having just finished looking though the drop lists I need my bed!

 

[rob]

Tidy - and congrats

 

[doodlebug]

My targets for the next year:

* Turnover £20k
* Make my first £xxxx sale
* Have a profitable sale reported on dnjournal.com
* Actually meet some of the folk here
* Build my portfolio with £xxx names
* Get a blog going on davedomains.co.uk
* Give more advice because I've taken plenty

Cheers everyone, had a good first year and I hope to have a few more

Very good post Dave >

Firstly, atleast you have plans in the first year, I've been involved on and off for 5 years and only now taking it seriously (trying to)

My hope is that by this time next year I have at least 1 quality domain as in 50k UK exacts per month on something selling for at least £50 per sale.

Also next year I want to have my own tag and get catching probably just for myself but I do own domainnamecatching#co#uk and expiringdomainnames#co#uk so would be tempting to monetise them unless someone buys them from me ?

I have 200+ generics in which I am desperate to reg but that = £1300 which I don't have

I'm going to contact tons of businesses next week trying to sell, I only go for like £400 upto 3k max so here's hoping

Good to see someone being so positive and active in their 1st year

ps > love the script name Davecatcher lol

1 year from now let's me, you and Khalid do a review of the previous year and see where we're at ?

And never forget Admin > without Acorn this wouldn't even happen !

Good luck with your venture

 

[HariSeldon]

Cheers everyone, had a good first year and I hope to have a few more

Congrats on your first year and a great post.

If I were to offer advice... the key to success is focus; "do fewer things better" as a recent business leader said. Now I just need to follow my own advice.

I'm going to contact tons of businesses next week trying to sell, I only go for like £400 upto 3k max so here's hoping

I'm sure many on here have been meaning to do the same and would be very interested to hear how you get on.

 

[aZooZa]

Congrats Dave. A very interesting post. Best of luck to you!

 

[ScottJ]

suckered..suckered?! Lol - nice post Dave and stats. 56 deals is superb and I'm sure with your work ethic your new goals are very achievable.

You should consider ThinkVis in September, good place to meet, listen to talks & stories and socialise.

 

[techtimmy]

Blimey Dave, you must be doing something right if your hope to have a turnover of 20k next year.

I've been domaining for about a year (part time when i can squeeze a bit in) and i'd die from excitement if I even managed to make 2k next year!

Maximum respect to you

 

[grantw]

Great post Dave, congrats on an excellent first year.

Grant

 

[Edwin]

56 sales is excellent for your first year. If you can maintain the same number of sales but average 350 pounds per sale, you're going to be close to your 20K target. If you double your sales, then you've only got to average 200 pounds per sale. And so on. It can sometimes help to break a larger goal into small, easy-to-visualise pieces. And then work out how many sales a month that represents, and it may make it still easier to plan for.

 

[golddiggerguy]

Good post Dave, you do know I'm about 10 minutes away from you don't you?

Gilberdyke!

Ever fancy a pint in http://www.redhawkpub.co.uk just shout.

 

[davedevelopment]

If I were to offer advice... the key to success is focus; "do fewer things better" as a recent business leader said. Now I just need to follow my own advice.

Definitely, but I'm too much of a Jack of all trades and I while there are still things I haven't tried, I'll never settle down with "fewer things". (Hope the missus doesn't read that!)

You should consider ThinkVis in September, good place to meet, listen to talks & stories and socialise.

I'll be there! Wanted to go the last one when Al was speaking, but I couldn't make the date.

Blimey Dave, you must be doing something right if your hope to have a turnover of 20k next year.

I've been domaining for about a year (part time when i can squeeze a bit in) and i'd die from excitement if I even managed to make 2k next year!

Maximum respect to you

Like Edwin says, if you break it down it's not that much, especially as I have development work and affiliate income to bring in some regular cash, just need to top it up with domain sales.

Good post Dave, you do know I'm about 10 minutes away from you don't you?

Gilberdyke!

Ever fancy a pint in http://www.redhawkpub.co.uk just shout.

How could I not know, you've got every connotation of hull(service|product).co.uk I can think of! Will take you up on that offer sometime.

Thanks to everyone else for the comments!

 

[mat]

Great post! Just worked out I have been on this forum for around 3 years now!