Domain investing tips, strategies, and industry insights
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Most of the domain investors I talk with are in the US or Europe. Thyago Guimarães teaches domain investing to a Brazilian audience through Domínios Lucrativos. He talks about .com vs .com.br, the keywords Brazilian businesses buy, where he points beginners, and the opportunity he sees coming in Brazil.
Ibrahem Abdelghany bought Royal.health in 2019, tried to build a business on it, and is now selling it. He talks about what failed, the misdirected patient emails that still land in his inbox, the zero-cost stack behind Doha.health, and why he thinks .health is a very long-term hold.
I can talk myself into a $12 domain pretty easily. I like the name, I can think of a business that might use it, and the price is low enough that I don't spend much time questioning it. Even if I'm wrong, it's twelve bucks. But I'm not necessarily spending twelve bucks. I'm adding another annual expense to my portfolio, and there's a good chance I'll be paying it more than once. That's the part I think we tend to leave out when we're registering names.
Something happened recently on NotRenewing that got me thinking about an issue that probably comes up more often in the domain business than we realize. A seller had sold several domains through NotRenewing. The buyers had paid for the names and were expecting the transfers to take place. Before that happened, the seller received higher offers for the same domains somewhere else. He contacted the buyers and told them he planned to accept the higher offers instead. I reached out to him, and to his credit, he immediately agreed to honor the original sales.
Spend enough time on the forums, on X, in the Facebook groups and at the conferences, and something shifts in how you buy without you really noticing. You start picking up names other domainers will like. Not names that'll sell. Names that'll get a reaction. You want to post it and see "nice pickup" underneath. You want the other guys to get it instantly. You want a portfolio that looks good when you share a screenshot of it. Other domainers aren't your customer, though. They're never going to buy the name.
There's a point where owning more names starts to feel like getting somewhere. You pass 500, then a thousand, then twenty five hundred, and the number itself starts doing something for you. Every acquisition is another ticket in the drawer. Another shot at an inbound. Another name that might turn into something in a few years. What the number won't tell you is how many bad calls are buried in it. Ten thousand domains might mean ten thousand chances.
The country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Anguilla that has become extremely popular for artificial intelligence companies and projects.
A generic top-level domain (gTLD) operated by Google, designed for mobile applications and app developers.
A generic extension launched in 2001 as a .com alternative for businesses. It never earned the respect, and the aftermarket is thin.
The country code for the Cocos Islands, operated by Verisign and marketed as a .com alternative. Had a run of popularity in China.
A generic top-level domain for communities, organizations, and membership-based groups.
The commercial second-level extension under Britain's .uk, run by Nominet. Expired names are suspended for 90 days, then dropped without auction.