Domain names are very tricky assets for a webmasters. They in theory are very cheap to buy and you can hold on them for an entire year before needing to pay another cheap renewal fee, for yet another year. It is not so cheap anymore once you buy another, and another, and yet another domain name. I know my addiction to domain names are not that bad compared to others, I think! I currently am sitting on 25-30 domains. I used to have a lot more but I’ve sold them throughout the last few years and let some of the bad ones expire. I had bluejar.com for at least a year before developing on it and it did rather well with the cure I have come up with.
So what is the cure for domain name addiction? One of the cures is to have somebody block you from visiting all domain registration, web hosting, whois, or related websites. That is probably close to half the Internet as just about everybody is selling domain names these days. Obviously that will be quite impossible, so your cure is to make money from your domain names waiting to be developed by parking them at a domain parking service.
Domain parking is when you point your domains DNS to a parking service and they will display ads or a list of links to your visitor. When your visitor clicks on any of the links you will get paid, usually a few cents. The current services I am parking domains at are Sedo and AfterNic. Both will allow you to park your domain names and also list your domain for sale at the same time. I like this arrangement because if somebody wants to buy my domain and makes an offer, I can decide if I want to keep my domain or actually sell it.
Your cure is to make at least as much as you registered your domain name for in one year. If you don’t reach your end goal by the end of the year and haven’t developed your domain, you might want to consider selling it to recoup your expenses. This way you will always be in the green with your domain name buying. If you only hold on to your domain names and continue to renew and buy new ones, you will find yourself with a pretty hefty domain name bill each year.
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I don’t know.
I wouldn’t say I made money on rhyswynne.co.uk, but I don’t intend it to. Likewise fair-review hasn’t been profitable yet in monetary terms, but has been worthwhile so far.
But I suppose my addiction is not as bad as yours. Depends whether you’re doing it for a hobby, or making money.
I dont think 3 domains counts as an addiction!? most of my others I’ve let expire - some were gifts anyway!
Annoyingly i’ve just bought a new domain (femgeek.co.uk) which I dont know what to do with! I bought it on a whim - whims are good, aren’t they!?
I don’t have too much experience with domaining but I would imagine if you don’t make your money back after 1 year its best to sell it. Good post keep up the good work
-Shaun
If you are developing your domain names you probably don’t have an addiction, yet! Hehehe. But those of us who have domains sitting around doing nothing for years and keep buying, there is cause for suspicion.
I’m not an addict yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised that I crossed the line one of these days. They’re just so cheap and easy!
I think I have about five that I don’t use. I bought them purposely so I could eventually sell them. The other seven domains are active.
I am just into this whole thing….any advice to stop this?
TechZilo, the only thing that works for me is to buy them and if they don’t make any money to cover the cost of the domain or I don’t develop them I sell them off. That way I can still enjoy buying them but I won’t have my husband ask me “YOU BOUGHT ANOTHER DOMAIN NAME???”. :c)
I might step on some toes here, but I have a very bad opinion about “blocking” domain names from using by those who buy domains in bulk and then just sit on them. i have 17 of my own. i am not domain addicted, I am site addicted since all are sites being developed. I buy a new domain only when I have to develop a site on it. And hate having to spend hours getting a domain name to suit the site and seeing hundreds of my choices being blocked with no content on them, just sitting there.
I don’t pay more than 10 USD on a domain and will never do. I would rather work more on the SEO than pay more than this sum. I wish there was a limitation of some sort: if you don’t use the domain for 1 year for instance to have it removed from your list … many think the same I assume …
Anyway .. the good thing is there are infinite possibilities for people who don’t want to spend a fortune on a domain name. And there are also domain portfolios for those who want a good name and are willing to pay more on it.
Interesting post. I am a domainer and surely do not want to be cured! I agree that you should make as much as your registration fee.
Might I suggest if you buy alot of domains like me, try to sell them as fast as possible to recoup your investment. However, some domains may increase in value with age… especially if they are related to something that may be big in the future. Those domains may be worth paying your $8 domain fee per year.