Survey

[stender]

Im interested in doing a domainers survey which will ask questions about holdings and income etc... For that reason it will be anonymous and you can email the answers or i can stick them on a form on a site.
It's to give an idea of how diverse it is and how people are doing and also spur on those that are starting out or convince those not doing so well after years to finally chuck it all in.

I will show the questions before finalising so that any suggestions can be added or changed.

Could you let me know what you think and also if you would be willing to submit (honest answers)

Type of questions.

1. How long in business
2. Is it your main income.
3. how many domains owned
4. How many active sites
5. income per month (total) and breakdown of sites/parking/affiliate/adsense/domains
6. top ten earning sites income pm (not giving domains)
i.e. 1. £50pm
2. £40pm etc....
7. How much do you spend on domains pm.
8. How much do you spend on adwords

etc. etc...

Also decision if results be published or just sent out to those who contributed.

Please let me know thoughts and more importantly would you contribute

 

[stender]

Heres some example questions. Not including business such as hosting or merchandising, seo, designing etc..

1. How many domains do you own?

1a. How many are .com and how many .co.uk

2. How many active websites do own?

3. How long have you been domaining/developing sites?

4. Do you work alone or part of team or company.

5. Have you formed a company for your web/domain business?

6. Is it your main income?

7. Do you pay Tax on your web/domain income i.e. declare earnings/profits?

8. Do you pay VAT?

9. Of your websites list the income per month total for the top 10
i.e. Site1 = £50pm Site2 = £40pm etc....

9a. of the 10 sites above list their average Unique visits pm.

9b. Of the above please state if they are .co.uk or .com etc...

10 . Of your monthly income list the breakdown for each of the following.
A. Adsense
B. Parking
C. Affiliate
D. Domain Sales.
E. Catching.
F. Website Sales.
g. Dropshipping.

11. How much do you spend per month on advertising (including adwords)

12. Do you design your sites yourself (inc using templates) or outsource.

13. How many sites do you have on page 1 of google.

14. How many of your websites have PR

15. Are you a nominet tagholder?

16. Do you dropcatch using your own script/app?

17. Do you dropcatch using others?

18. What was you profit on selling domains over the past 6 months.

19. Do you see domain prices rising or falling over the next year?

 

[rob]

I have something along these lines 95% ready to go via an online survey.

Inital testing of the waters revealed that most would not reply to such a survey - but I certainly think it is worth doing.

 

[stender]

I thought by being anonymous people might be up for it.
I could even post a load of anonymous proxies if people are worried about IP address.

 

[stender]

Good Sign for a domain forum when posts about what you've eaten warrant a response and relevant posts don't

 

[rob]

Good Sign for a domain forum when posts about what you've eaten warrant a response and relevant posts don't

...thats the issue People like keeping things quiet, which is understandable, but I am all for opening things up.

 

[Skinner]

I think the big issue is we all know that the 'man' checks these forums, be it the 'man' from nominet, or sedo or indeed my best buddy the tax 'man', so people are wary.

 

[Jeewhizz]

I think the big issue is we all know that the 'man' checks these forums, be it the 'man' from nominet, or sedo or indeed my best buddy the tax 'man', so people are wary.

Nominet shouldn't care - I can't see what they would benefit from knowing ht results.

Sedo should be happy to promote the UK domain market

The taxman will get you eventually if you are fiddling the books.

 

[rob]

I think the big issue is we all know that the 'man' checks these forums, be it the 'man' from nominet, or sedo or indeed my best buddy the tax 'man', so people are wary.

I was leaning more to maintaining a competitive advantage but going by some peoples methods of 'accounting' the latter could be true as well.

It does depend on your view point of domains, either area of business, a paying hobby or a mix of the two. Those in the form or stuck in the middle can often become quite 'confused' on how to do things it seems

 

[Skinner]

Jeewhizz, nom, sedo etc was examples of people we know lurk here but I was more leaning on who we dont know lurks here.

I love the tax man, he's my bum chum (giggity giggity). best thing I ever did was go and actually sit down and ask him 1034 questions, the stuff you can declare is insane

However Rob (soz bud your names just on my screen), could openly say 'I earn 1 squillion zimbawe dollars (about £1.83 )', and if the 'man' is around here trying to crack down on domainers, and should they wish to check into it, and rob's declaration here doesnt match up, it maybe cause to start rob a serious headache.

I don't know if this could happen, but I can't see why it couldnt ??

 

[rob]

I agree - but the usual thing, if you are legit there is nothing to worry about

The secrecy does nothing to improve the image of domaining which causes hassle for those who do things totally correct, likewise the perceptions damages everyone on the whole in many ways directly ie. DRS responses etc.

As Khalid mentioned - taxman will get you eventually if you are fiddling the books!

 

[Skinner]

Have you ever spoken to anyone who has had a tax audit ?

Legit or not, an audit is a fucking nightmare, I personally haven't had one but a friends dad (a rector who couldnt follow the law more exact if he was a robot) had an audit and they spent weeks trawling thru all his stuff and in the end they turned up thay he had lost some parking receipts and a few meal receipts but it was the hassle that comes with it.

Surely its easier to keep ya mouth shut and concentrate on your business and when the tax man cometh (and like death he always does), deal with him then ?

 

[stender]

I hate doing tax returns but I would hate it more the taxman chasing me for 10 years worth if I didnt do them.

The questions posted were examples. Could remove or add any. Would of hoped people would of said if there was anything they didnt like about the idea.

 

[rob]

Dont get me wrong - I totally agree, and concentrate on your business ought to be no1 rule. The hassle factor of audit and or inspection cannot be underestimated however in terms of a truly anon survey it ought not be a barrier.

As for going back to the survey - one thing I found when drafting it was how far reaching the 'domaining' side goes ie. into wider web dev work or pure domain related stuff.

If you pop me an email rob atsign hey dotcodotuk I will forward you a link to whats up at the moment, and perhaps work on questions to get it going?

 

[stender]

I give up. I'll just post on here to let you know what i had for dinner.

 

[rob]

I give up. I'll just post on here to let you know what i had for dinner.

Just about to make some spag bol here... start it nice n early to get the flavour flave going

 

[Skinner]

I don't know why anyone cares other than to compare their incomes but anything like this won't come easy, if you give up this easy your never going to get anywhere

I have been arguing with my bank for 9 months about a merchent account, and each reason they give me, I go back back and destroy their reason, I figure they will have to give me eventually, and I aint giving up until they give one for the reason I want it (mostly coz I don't like the % ccbill take off me).