How do you decide what to let drop?

[danielcoates]

I've been looking at my portfolio over the last couple of day's and I have around ten domains that are expired, suspended or near expiration, and I'm not sure what to keep and what to let drop, and was wondering what other people used to determine if a domain is worth the renewal fees.

Ideally, I'd like to keep them all but budgets don't alway's allow that, at least not with my retail job.

 

[ian]

If there is no interest on a particular domain and it doesn't have any visitors, it might not be worth the reg fee, but it is a funny game! You should ask @Edwin because I believe he made the decision to have a huge cull of his domains recently to reduce his outgoings.

 

[Adam H]

I normally judge based on any previous interest, if they've had a sale/landing page all year and not received one offer then its a good indication, if im really unsure ill offer it around some forums and see if there is any bite. I dumped a bunch of .co's the last couple of months as the renewal costs for 30 odd .co's that didnt get an offer we're too much of a risk. So i renewed the ones that did have some interest and dumped the rest.

that being said, I've got some domains I wouldnt drop even if they didnt get an offer for the next 5 years so I guess it depends on what your plans are for them .

 

[Edwin]

Actually it was a couple of years ago, mainly. Basically once .uk was set in motion...

We primarily got rid of the kind of long tail stuff that used to get enquiries when there was still a big Google SEO boost from EMDs but no longer did so after their algorithm changed.

 

[danielcoates]

@Adam H: That's the issue, I've never really actively tried to sell any of them, I've alway's had some sort of plan for them. There are some I would consider selling, but most of them were registered with an idea in mind, and time, or the lack of got the better of me :/

For those that are interested, I have a spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14T60lANpQAsHZINhtSf2DYZDn3EQs9pcWudE33OEEhM/edit?usp=sharing

 

[martin-s]

I would let most drop, but I'm pretty tough on name quality

 

[danielcoates]

I would say the second domain down is probably the best domain on the list and you would be crazy to let that drop.

I agree, I intended to turn that into a trailers site, but as above, I never seem to find the time t develop anything. #6, #8 & #42 were intended to be turned into small retail sites, but again time and money scuppered that one :/

 

[danielcoates]

I would let most drop, but I'm pretty tough on name quality

I kinda thing your right there, some of them don't really have any value for anything other than the project there related to #16 and #27 for example

 

[Murray]

It's a pretty branded list on the whole, not too much generic appeal

Personally I would just offer them on here (which I see you have before), if no offers let them drop

 

[danielcoates]

For those that are interested, I have a spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14T60lANpQAsHZINhtSf2DYZDn3EQs9pcWudE33OEEhM/edit?usp=sharing

There are an awful lot of 'Anonymous Animals' viewing this spreadsheet, a koala has been in there longer about as long as I have

 

[Edwin]

#42 looks very solid.

 

[danielcoates]

#42 looks very solid.

If your interested, I'm open to offers

 

[Edwin]

If your interested, I'm open to offers

Thanks, but I'll pass. However, I wouldn't drop it! It's an entire category in the book trade, after all...

 

[accelerator]

Given the state of the market, I would say you should be extremely strict with yourself, and only let yourself keep something that has a very good chance of a sale.

The problem is that domains are illiquid. I think this means for most domains you should be making a big effort to sell anything you hold, and if you get no interest at all then drop it.

An exception is made for domains of high quality, and like Edwin graphicnovels was the only one that spoke to me.

In general, be strict now, especially with .uk. You can be slightly more lenient with .com.

Good luck!

 

[Edwin]

Another point to consider: are you willing to be pro-active, or not?

You might wait a hundred years before a buyer approaches you on a particular domain, but if it's generic and you can readily identify the audience it might apply to, then for the sake of a few emails you might have a sale on your hands. You're probably not going to score the big money that way, but there are folks on here and elsewhere making decent coin out of a constant trickle of low-£xxx sales (i.e. at a price-point that takes almost no thought, even for a small company, so long as they see the basic idea).

That's only likely to works for generics - you're not going to get anyone proactively excited about a brandable because they have to be in "looking for a brand" mode before they'll consider one.