Aside from money, what do you enjoy about domaining?

[ben]

Don't you think expired domain names are a bit like houses? They all have a bit of history to tell. One of my favourite things to do with domains is discover how they were used in the past. I'm not talking about their SEO worth, which is something we are all interested in, I'm talking about the stories they tell.

In 2015, I met a person who became a sort of mentor to me, we went down a path and became friends and ended up in business of sorts together. He told me once about how he'd worked for a company called iomart, who owned a subsidiary company called "UFindUs" one of the earliest online directory services for businesses, which was later acquired by BT for £20m in 2008 and renamed to BT Customer Street. In 2022, ufindus.co.uk came up on the droplists, and just for the sheer historical value of this domain, and what I knew about it, I caught it. I doubt it was very much competed for anyway. Point is, I suddenly found myself owning a domain name that at some point was, in part and parcel, worth £20m. I let it drop the next year, if I remember right, but for a time, I can say I owned one part of one of BT's largest and earliest acquisitions.

 

[RegalDomains]

The hunt.

Trawling through lists of thousands of expiring domains, to find a couple of gems that few others notice.

 

[ben]

The hunt.

Trawling through lists of thousands of expiring domains, to find a couple of gems that few others notice.

I'm with you.

I remember hand registering softplays.co.uk off the droplist in August 2022, and it was funny really. I then went and registered the .uk which was FTR anyway. I put it on DomainLore, and expected it to get maybe £100, being the fact that nobody had bothered to put it on their catch list (not even me). But I'd just had my eldest Hallie in 2020, and then my youngest Maddie the next year, so was very much knee deep in childs play, and going to softplays often, I knew there was potential in the name. The pair ended up selling for £710, I couldn't believe it. It was my biggest sale that month as well out-pricing the likes of premium names such as gtm.uk, spot.uk, thanks.uk which I also sold about the same time.

 

[Kaleido]

Landing names on my wishlist when they drop.

 

[ukbackorder]

Nothing. After 40 years of programming looking forward to winding down in the future and will probably only switch the PC on to play games. The most exciting times was early 2000s in my opinion. Now there's no innovation just more of the same.

 

[Hook]

My interests are mostly financial with domains, I've never been much of a collector of anything - but I l have a passion for digital marketing and domains are a tool for that - so they are part of a wider puzzle for me. An important, integral part.

 

[ben]

Nothing. After 40 years of programming looking forward to winding down in the near future and will probably only switch the PC on to play games. The most exciting times was early 2000s in my opinion. Now there's no innovation just more of the same.

Fair play, OG. What games?

 

[ukbackorder]

Fair play, OG. What games?

Not trying to derail the thread. I like most games - 295 games at steam and about 20 at other places.

 

[RegalDomains]

Not trying to derail the thread. I like most games - 295 games at steam and about 20 at other places.

Sounds like your cue to start a gaming thread @ben

 

[username]

I like buying domains and building websites on them.

 

[diablo]

I love the portability of domains as a business. Wherever I am, I can sell a domain name, take payment and process the transfer.

Fantastic feeling when you're on holiday and you get a domain sale!

 

[Aaron]

Drop catching is my only real involvement nowadays, the fun of the competition is my only real interest, developing my own script and going up against the big boys is rewarding at times, the money is 100% a secondary to it all.

 

[Wayne]

Chasing unused aged domains to buy is how I seem to be getting my fix nowadays.

 

[ben]

I love the portability of domains as a business. Wherever I am, I can sell a domain name, take payment and process the transfer.

Fantastic feeling when you're on holiday and you get a domain sale!

I love that feeling. When you’re just out anywhere. I have been in Grizedale Forest and woodland up to my eyes in full camo gear doing some photography, when getting a notification about X sale or Y sale completing. Feels good when it’s feeling good. But it’s not stable enough to be like that all time. Still, it’s good when it’s good ha

 

[Jeff]

I love that feeling. When you’re just out anywhere. I have been in Grizedale Forest and woodland up to my eyes in full camo gear doing some photography, when getting a notification about X sale or Y sale completing. Feels good when it’s feeling good. But it’s not stable enough to be like that all time. Still, it’s good when it’s good ha

Just think, if you catch twitter.uk this evening you might get a call from Elon when you're next out stalking someone...

 

[ben]

Just think, if you catch twitter.uk this evening you might get a call from Elon when you're next out stalking someone...

 

[baldidiot]

Aside from money, what do you enjoy about domaining?

Aside from the money... probably the things you can buy with the money

I wrote that as a joke, but it probably is actually a bit more accurate than I first meant. Our main business is affiliate marketing and related bits (eg: adsense and so on) and we stockpile domains we might want (or others could use to compete with us).

One of my main goals with domaining is to just cover the costs of our domain portfolio (buying and renewing), if we can do that I'm a happy man. So selling domains here and there helps us buy more domains that we can use ourselves.

And I'm not going to lie, I do probably get a disproportional sense of satisfaction from selling a domain, even when it's just for a few hundred. Especially when that domain was hand regged just because a random idea popped into my head (normally some kind of terrible pun).

 

[ben]

Aside from the money... probably the things you can buy with the money

I wrote that as a joke, but it probably is actually a bit more accurate than I first meant. Our main business is affiliate marketing and related bits (eg: adsense and so on) and we stockpile domains we might want (or others could use to compete with us).

One of my main goals with domaining is to just cover the costs of our domain portfolio (buying and renewing), if we can do that I'm a happy man. So selling domains here and there helps us buy more domains that we can use ourselves.

And I'm not going to lie, I do probably get a disproportional sense of satisfaction from selling a domain, even when it's just for a few hundred. Especially when that domain was hand regged just because a random idea popped into my head (normally some kind of terrible pun).

Gotta love those hand reg winners. The, sometimes, exponential return on investment is largely unbeatable in any other industry. To reg a domain for say, £7, at a mainstream registrar like Netistrar. I sell it for £800, that's a 11,000% return lol. Where else on earth can you do that.

 

[baldidiot]

Gotta love those hand reg winners. The, sometimes, exponential return on investment is largely unbeatable in any other industry. To reg a domain for say, £7, at a mainstream registrar like Netistrar. I sell it for £800, that's a 11,000% return lol. Where else on earth can you do that.

My all time favourite was a domain I registered on a whim that involved a pun. Sold via BIN on Dan for 2.5k a couple of months later.

 

[ben]

What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it?