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Domain investing without money is where I would begin…

April 7, 2017 by Alvin Brown 2 Comments
Written by: Alvin Brown

I often field emails and phone calls from persons wanting to break into the vast world of domain investing.

Some think it’s a business where they’ll be the ones to purchase a domain on Monday for pennies on the dollar and then flip it for thousands or millions by Friday.

I call this person the simpleton domain loser. Yes, I was once this person.

Without adequate understanding and comprehension of the various domain niches, they think it is just as simple as hand registering domains or bidding up expired domain auctions.

If you want to lose money quickly, then domain investing is one of many ways to lose your job, shirt, house, and car.

Domain investing is a precise game of patience and a thorough understanding of supply and demand economics.

So, where did I go wrong?

One of the first mistakes I made entering the domain investing industry was assuming I could purchase and flip in short order any ole’ hand-registration domains or lowly valued expired auction domains.

Looking back, I should have purchase 5-10 highly valued domains instead of the 300 to 400 perishable domains purchased using GoDaddy $0.99 coupons.

Knowing what I know today, I long for the existence of now-defunct GoDaddy codes in bulk as they existed years ago.

Nevertheless, purchasing perishable domains, whether hand registered or expiring auction domains, was an expensive lesson to learn.

When reviewing domain purchase logs from my early domain splurging investing days, there are a number of times that I would be the only bidder for a given domain.

This should have been clue number one, yet not the sole clue.  Without any domain background checks of any sort, I blindly proceeded down the path as a simpleton not seeing the challenges ahead in developing or flipping domains.

Why wishful domain investing is costly excitement…

A shame to admit, but my initial domain strategy was all based on the excitement of the find, and not a well thought out process.

What do I mean by well thought out process? Being shallow early on, I would consider only the age of the domain (if that!), and my simpleton life experience and expectations I placed on the domain.

Being a simpleton, it was all gut instinct. As a prudent investor should, I failed to perform any of the following actions:

I’m grateful things have drastically changed for the better over the years since my first couple of months entering the domain industry. I religiously execute the above and MORE.

That more part of domain investing is focused on becoming a lifelong student of the many facets of domain investing. There are too many to attempt to become an expert in all.

If I were to do it all over again and enter into the field as green as was I, I’d spend time executing the aforementioned bullet points against expiring domain auctions and without spending any money.

That’s right. I would crack open a web browser, grab pen and paper, and participate in expiring auctions without spending any money whatsoever. It sounds crazy, yet it’s quite easy to do and less stressful too. 🙂

It cost you nothing but time and your future ability to invest. I would rather invest time in educating myself, than wasting time and spending money on blindly guessing my way through only to own and drop worthless domains.

If you’re new to domain investing or been involved only from the buying side without any sales or inquiries, then I challenge you to start over today.

Start over and participate in expiring domain auctions WITHOUT SPENDING ANOTHER DIME.

How to domain invest without money

Here’s an idea to execute and experiment with:

  • ESTABLISH YOUR DOMAIN INVESTING PLAN IN ITS ENTIRETY FIRST – if you don’t have a clue, then focus on topics and subjects you know and have experience with (i.e., plumbing, electrician, carpentry, accounting, marketing, technology, etc.)
  • Review expiring domain auctions the night or a few days before the domains are set to expire
  • At a quick glance, create a spreadsheet with a list of 25 domains that catch your eye
  • Place the opening bid amount in the column next to each domain
  • In the next column, place your best dollar guestimate at where and what price the auction will end (i.e. $100)
  • Now making columns for each of the prudent investor bullets above, begin to make notes about each domain
  • Then follow each domain until the auction closes and note their closing price and number of bidders
  • Wash, rinse, and repeat daily for the next 3 months (don’t dare spend any money either!)

Now ask yourself the following questions:

  • How would you rate yourself in domain valuation on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being an expert?
  • Did you notice anything about your decision making increasing, declining, or staying the same along the way?
  • Did you assume certain domains to bid high, yet they didn’t?
  • Did you overbid any domains by a long shot? If so, how much over or under were you?
  • Were there any surprises, expected or unexpected?
  • Did you encounter domain bidding wars?

The above questions barely scratch the surface but give you a solid place to a good start.

Why purchase DNAcademy membership?

After you’ve spent 3 months in mock expiring domain auctions, reading, and studying domain investing resources, I STRONGLY encourage you to invest time and money in Mike Cyger’s DNAcademy.com.

Treat DNAcademy as reinforcement to your mock expiring domain auctions training.

In my humble opinion, if you’re NOT willing to investing the $300-$500 in DNAcademy.com as a newcomer to domain investing, then you more than deserve to lose everything you own. My apologies for being so blunt, but it’s the truth.

I would have gladly paid the $300-$500 back then versus the nearly $12K and time spent figuring it out on my own.

And in case you’re wondering, I invested in the course when it first hit the market a year or so ago. I’ve vetted the course myself and it’s worth every penny for both new and seasoned domain investors.

So there you have it! You now know my horror story of entering domain investing, and what I would do differently if I had to do it all over again.

From simpleton to prudent domain investor, I hope and wish you the best in this journey. May you sow and reap prudently in your domain investing endeavor.

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Written by Alvin Brown
He's an experienced and passionate serial entrepreneur, founder and publisher of Kickstart Commerce. Alvin possesses a great love for startups dominating their market using profitable digital strategies for greater commerce.