I like to read and listen to experts from fields outside domain investment. Sometimes this is in sectors like technology, that will directly inform investment in new niches or sectors. Other times, it is in aesthetics or design, that can be helpful in name creation and evaluation. But I particularly like to follow what conventional investing...

Welcome to our Sunday review of Top Topics here at NamePros! :glasses: Domain investor receives cold call from potential buyer; Namesilo lagging with delivery of a $2,500 dollar domain; Investor returns to domaining after more than a decade; SAV vs. DAN as a selling marketplace; Strategic approaches to dropcatching. Cold call offer for...

While there are many ways to find success in domain name investing, I suspect that most successful investors have a strategy to guide their acquisitions. This week, investor James Kim shared his strategy for finding names. With his permission, I am sharing his strategy here, along with a few of my observations on domain name acquisition...

Welcome to our Sunday review of Top Topics here at NamePros! :xf.cool: New owner of EM.com is not Exxon Mobil; When did you acquire or register your very first domain name? Can investors treat domain sales revenue as capital gains? Can you buy a domain matched to a trademark and use it in a different locale? Domain investor lost his expired...

It seems that many domain investors are scaling back domain acquisitions these days. This may be because of economic uncertainty, a possible drop in domain sales activity, or profits from parking, or simply because the renewal increases have used up funds that might have been available for acquisitions. I conducted a poll on NamePros, and of...

Welcome to our Sunday review of Top Topics here at NamePros! :xf.smile: Namecheap "shady" auctions stir controversy; Is my domain infringing on a trademark? Bodis trims PPC due to upstream provider clawbacks; How do I get domains related to my company's name? Park domains or develop them as SEO-enhanced portals? Namecheap Garbage Auctions...

It can seem complex, with all the metrics and tools and more, to decide which names are worth acquiring. Let's simplify the process to some key questions to ask. None of these are original, and most have been around for years, but I thought, particularly for those new to domain investing, it might be handy to have them all in one article...

Welcome to our weekly review of Top Topics here at NamePros! :xf.cool: A former employee of Epik shares his experience in the domain industry; A growing trend among domain investors seems to upset some; Artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool for domain investors; Uniregistry BIN pages are now blocked; Important questions about the UDRP...

Is it possible that recent branding trends have resulted in overlooking beautiful words? Is there an advantage to having a beautiful name? What does beautiful even mean in the context of words? What Do We Mean By A Beautiful Word? The primary purpose of words is utilitarian, to describe something or some action or feeling, rather than to be...

Welcome to our weekly review of Top Topics here at NamePros! :glasses: Registration of Porn.uk reversed at Namecheap; Honoring one's word and its appreciation in the domain business; What is the hype about .ai domains all about; Fiasco.com sold for $203k dollars; WordPress and its 100 year domain registration plan. I Registered Porn.uk and...

Next month in San Francisco TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 is happening. This event brings together tech leaders and enthusiasts, startup founders, and early stage investors. It struck me that the conference agenda and speaker list could provide valuable insights for domain investors. So what did I find? The 8 Industry Stages In the past...

Welcome to our Sunday review of Top Topics here at NamePros! :xf.cool: Sold a domain on GoDaddy but their cut amounts to 39% of the sale; Movies about domain names; Mana.org expired and sold for $167,000 dollars; How to fight blackhat SEO guys restoring web content; Alter.com is now FURM. GoDaddy deducted around 39% from auction sale. Am I...

Last week, I analyzed 3-letter (3L) .ORG domain name sales. In this article, I use the same methodology with 3L .NET domain names. I used data from the past 5 years only, and considered separately retail and wholesale sales, although the dividing line is not always clear. Sales data came from NameBio. I followed up the retail sales to see...

Welcome to our weekly review of Top Topics here at NamePros! (y) Epik withheld $1.5 million dollars in Masterbucks, says domain investor; Someone trademarked a term after investor acquired the matching domain name; Is domain parking revenue down up to 60% this year? Random domain sale is good news; What is the value, if any, of the domain...

Short names are highly valued, both because they are easy to remember correctly and they are rare. This week I take a look at 3-letter (3L) .org domain names. To focus on current and recent market conditions, I used data from the past 5 years only. While no dividing line is perfect, I separately analyzed a set of primarily retail sales, and...

Welcome to our Sunday review of Top Topics here at NamePros! Is Domaining an investment or an addiction? Prospective buyer threatens with a UDRP; Is my Registrar holding me back? Can Epik be trusted with low cost registrations? Dot .in domain renewal issues at the Indian Registry. Domaining is a investing or a addiction? Some people...

Domain renewal price increases make domain investing even more challenging. We are about to see another 7% increase in .com wholesale prices on Sept. 1, 2023, and a 10% increase in .net prices on Feb. 1, 2024. Prices for .xyz have increased each of the last two years, with timing and price increases roughly in line with the .com increases...

Welcome to our weekly review of Top Topics here at NamePros! (y) Elon Musk has potentially acquired ai.com; Billing error at GoDaddy reverses acquisition; Afternic broker involved in trademark case; Advice about how to best manage your domain names; How do end-users negotiate with domain investors? Elon Musk buys ai.com The domain ai.com...

One of the key ways that a prospective buyer seeks a domain name is by using the search feature at the marketplace. But how effective is that really? I take a look at search capability at general purpose and brandable domain name marketplaces. Try This To get a feel for how effective domain marketplace search is: attempt to find one of...

Welcome to our Sunday review of Top Topics here at NamePros! :xf.cool: A cautionary tale about the Twitter handle @x; The domain Llama2.com was sold for $30,000 dollars; Sedo broker sold SolarEnergy.com for 6 figures; Won the auction but lost the domain; Which TLDs should domain newbies avoid? Let @x be a cautionary tale Twitter's recent...

The .eu domain extension was one of the bright spots when I analyzed how different extensions had fared in aftermarket sales volume during the first six months of 2023. The .eu extension sales dollar volume was up significantly compared to the same period during the preceding year, or recent years. I decided to take a longer term look at the...

Welcome to our Sunday review of Top Topics here at NamePros! Some things you must be aware of when investing in .XYZ domains; Reza, founder of Dan, might return to domain investing; Fast transfer concerns; The future of GPT domain names; Domainer is "so done" with Epik. Some things you should know about XYZ For almost a decade, the .XYZ...

A lot has happened since I last covered Domain Name Payment Plans in the NamePros Blog in 2019. Partly because of the terminology used by Dan, one of the major marketplaces offering payment plans for a number of years, such plans are usually now called Lease-To-Own (LTO), a more precise term. More marketplaces now offer LTO as an option, and...

Welcome to our summery review of Top Topics here at NamePros! Dan.com has changed the VAT/invoicing process, becoming the middle man for buyer and seller; India is about to ban .in domain investing; Expired domain auctions at GoDaddy can be manipulated, apparently; LTO options a new feature at Afternic; Sedo parked domain gets clicks but no...

Many domain investors are familiar with the site:TLD Google search command. This allows you to restrict search results to either an individual website or to a certain extension. For example, it can be a useful indicator of how much use, at least as measured by web pages, for that extension. But the site: command can do much more than that...

Welcome back to our weekly review of Top Topics here at NamePros! Meta rolled out Threads on a .net domain; Domain Agents: Use or not? Afternic "forever troubled" as far as BIN setting goes; Optimize a domain that earns $1 /day; How hard is it to set up a domain registrar? New social network by Meta, Threads, is using a .net domain...

The first six months of 2023 resulted in just over 70,000 NameBio-listed domain sales in total, with a dollar volume of just over $66 million. That is a decrease of 21.5% in sales dollar volume compared to the same six months of 2022. In this article I use the same procedure I have since 2019, including all sales in the Namebio main...

Welcome back to our weekly review of Top Topics here at NamePros! Domain investors are invited to say something positive about a fellow domainer; DAN ends listings of .in domains on its marketplace; If you have a trademark, can you negotiate the price of the matching domain? Nissan.com was stolen, according to news sources; ICANN & Verisign...

If we could accurately predict relative sell-through rates (STR) for different domain names, we could focus on names that are likely to sell quickly. Curated marketplaces would also benefit, since they would be able to predict the kinds of names that are more likely to sell, and not waste promotional costs on names with low sales prospects...

Welcome to our weekly review of Top Topics here at NamePros! Brokered offer of $10,000 dollars indicates end-user value? Find premium domains registrant forgot to renew; NameJet's new look, good or bad? Lost access to my domains at GoDaddy; .XYZ Registry grabs back most dictionary domains that drop. Broker Offer Question - $10,000 Offer...

Probably many of us have been asked by friends or acquaintances what it is that we do as domainers. After all, the term domainer is not even in the major dictionaries. For this week's article, I decided to compile an answer. Create Names Domainers create names. They come up with names that were never used before, they combine words in...

Welcome to our weekly review of Top Topics here at NamePros! Zero Knowledge: A blockchain term triggers new domain registrations; Abandon your domains, or sell them in a firesale? Kings and Gods: dot .com as a powerful extension; Industries most profitable to sell domains to; The supply side of domain name pricing. ZK (Zero Knowledge)...

It was widely anticipated that Apple would introduce at the annual 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference goggles to support virtual reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and Extended Reality (XR). What was not expected to many, was that the device would be much more than a viewing device with some sensors, but rather a...

Welcome to our weekly review of Top Topics here at NamePros! RIP Jason Sheppard, also known as DNKingpin; Epik LLC acquires its own assets back via a proxy buyer; Best way to get sales on Dan.com; Symbolics.com is now a domain grading tool; Domain investors leaving Epik en masse. R.I.P. Jason Sheppard aka DNKingpin It's with heavy heart...

Successful domain investment depends on the art of selecting effective names, as well as the science of using measures to evaluate positive attributes of names. We often consider various metrics, such as the number of extensions, or how frequently the term is used in business names. In most cases it is better to take a multifaceted...

Welcome to June's first review of weekly Top Topics here at NamePros! ICANN sent a breach notice to Epik; Holiday.com sold for $1.4 million dollars at NamesCon; How to find the owner of a domain name; Removal of Rob Monster's Pro badge; Domain auctioned on both NameJet and Snapnames. ICANN Sends Notice of Breach to Epik, Inc. Domain...

It is a familiar refrain within the domain world -- I have some great domain names, but I am not getting any sales. In some cases, the owner may be overlooking weaknesses in the names. However, even solid domain names can go year after year without buyer interest. How is that possible? There Are So Many Potential Buyers For This Domain... A...

Welcome to the latest review of weekly Top Topics here at NamePros! Should domain name investing be restricted to mature people aged 50 and up? Sedo refreshed the look of its web site; Did this registrar send an expired domain to auction "early?" Former Uniregistry customer locked out of their transitioned GoDaddy account; Strategy of...

Afternic recently provided data insights from the 2022 sales year. While precise numerical values are not given, graphical results are presented for total dollar volume, average price, sell-through rate and average revenue per domain. This allows one to compare the performance of different extensions. Total dollar volume was released for the...

It's the latest review of weekly Top Topics here at NamePros! GoDaddy brokers engaged in questionable activity, according to email exchanges; An end-user is trying to get his 15 year old brand back; The story of acquiring SuperTokens.com; Chrome will autocorrect URL "typos" suggesting valid web sites; An ongoing spate of fake offers and...

Almost 2-decades ago, I hand-registered "Casino" and 9 other ultra-premium one-word domain names in the .SO extension. .SO is the ccTLD for Somalia. Unfortunately, I dropped all of the names because of their renewal fee and zero inquiries from prospects. At the time, it did not cross my mind that any business would ever be interested in...

Welcome to the latest review of weekly Top Topics here at NamePros! Some buyers or sellers like to play negotiating games; Unethical selling practices; Epik's own scam reviews web site; Flippa has outrageous fees, according to some; Why would you list your domain portfolio at SquadHelp? How do you deal with buyers/sellers playing games...

Domain investing is a thrilling and dynamic profession that attracts people from all over the world. It's a global activity that offers the potential for passive income and the freedom to live the lifestyle that you desire. One of the most significant advantages of domain investing is the ability to work remotely and outside of standard "9...

Hey! It's the latest review of weekly Top Topics here at NamePros! Domain portfolio access lost at Epik; GoDaddy fails to sync domain pricing; Dan.com BTC payments are currently frozen; Wondering why your domain names aren't selling? GoDaddy valuations getting lower. Epik fail. My account completely stolen. A domain investor's portfolio...

In recognition of the 15th anniversary of general availability of the .me domain extension, I thought it was a good time to look at the performance, use and sales record for the extension. The registry has a 15th Anniversary promotion on -- you can read about the anniversary in a blog post on their site. The Country Code for Montenegro...

It's the latest review of weekly Top Topics here at NamePros! What is the best registrar to move 500 domain names to? One word domain acquired for a bargain price; PayPal suspended dotDB without explanation; PAUU.com is stolen, says the owner; Unconventional methods of promoting domains for sale. Best registrar to move 500 domains to? A...

Domain names listed on a marketplace by someone other than the owner are a problem. Often these are the result of the previous owner overlooking taking down the listing after the name expired or was sold at another venue. In some cases, the names may be deliberately listed in error for nefarious purposes. In the past, if an invalid domain...

Welcome to this week's review of Top Topics here at NamePros! ICANN & Verisign are considering a dangerous new tweak to domain seizure policies; Spaceship.com launches $3.08 .com specials; NamePros members do well picking up trending keywords; How should a price request email be responded to? OpenAI exec wants to buy 20k GPT domain names...

Introduction As I was getting started in domain investing, one of the voices offering sound advice was @JudgeMind. While not quite as active currently in NamePros, when he does contribute, I always know it will be well thought out and based on a decade plus of domain investing success. While he only formally joined NamePros in 2013, he was...

Welcome to another weekly review of Top Topics here at NamePros! The domain name NewYork.com was sold for 7 figures, according to DNJournal; What is the best marketplace to sell .it.com domains? The owner of Register.to has passed away; Roulette.com appraises highwhy's that? Afternic to implement DNS/TXT record verification soon...