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  1. #1

    Can anyone tell me if I'm domain crazy?

    Last night I purchased my very first domain name. It was the first time I had ever done that. And I don't even have a website. In fact I've never owned a website, ever.

    Purchasing my first domain name was very exciting. Don't ask me why. I guess because a few of my names were already taken. But alot of them weren't, so when I came across one that was available, I snatched it up. I must say that I totally lost control. You know how some people are addicted to buying stuff on eBAy? Well, I guess I had the same affliction last night. I was up all night till 6AM purchasing domain names!

    My first few domain names were purchased without any fanfare. And then, later, I put in this one domain name and GoDaddy.com surprised me with a special page/message that I hadn't seen during my first 3 or 4 aquisitions. It's a page that's headed "You've found a great domain...." and it had a big fat green check mark next to those words. That was kind of exciting! Especially since moments before I started buying my first domain name, my one tekkie friend "guaranteed" me that most of the names I create will already have been taken.

    Not all of the domain names that I purchased came with that message. All told, I purchased around 20 domain names and 15 or so had that message attached to them. Those type of messages did make me feel a little special, but I have to wonder if that's GoDaddy's way of tricking a person into buying more names.

    Now I know people sell domain names. So I just guess that a few of them might be worth something to somebody. Someday maybe, I really don't know for sure. And I know that you can get a domain name appraised. I know a little about domain appraisal, just a little. I'm real green, a rookie, so please keep in mind that my opinions are raw and possibly faulty. And what I read somewhere is that if you have to pay somebody to appraise your domain name, they said that you can't trust the appraisal because they (the appraiser) wants you to keep coming back to get another appraisal.

    So if a person has a name that's not worth anything, they, in this case GoDaddy, won't really tell you that. Supposedly, they'll inflate the value of the name a little. Now I don't know if that's true or not. GoDaddy.com charges 5 bucks for an appraisal, so according to what I read, you might not be able to trust their appraisal system all that much. Is that true?

    Some of my domain names are related to sex and real estate. I know that sex is one of the biggest markets on the Internet, so I just thought that that might be a good area to key in on. As far as real estate is concerned, we all know that successful real estate agents/investors make real good money, so I made up a few names that might appeal to that market. I also made up a few names that represent the software industry. And oh yeah, I also made up some names that might appeal to someone in the auto industry.

    They were all dot com names. I know that the lucrative market for dot com name market has come and gone. So I have no illusions about any of this. Despite all of the "You've found a great domain...." messages that I received from GoDaddy, I don't know if I really did find a "great domain" like GoDaddy says I did or if I just made the GoDaddy people a little richer. Oh well...

    Let me just say that I know a little HTML and I expect to soon learn alot more along with CSS. So can anyone out there tell me if what I experienced last night during my spending spree (approximately $200!) was really worth it or did I just waste alot of money by getting all caught up in a buying frenzy?

    This is a very serious question as I don't have alot of money to spend recklessly. I was kind of excited all night long and I must say it was a very gratifying experience. I wasn't using any illegal substances, nor was I drinking, though it was quite the rush. I guess some of those messages that read, "You've found a great domain" kinda got to me. But now, later, I really don't know what to think. And oh yeah, I'm not bi-polar, at least I don't think I am lol...

  2. #2
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    Yep.

    We'd need to see the list of domains you regged before we could tell for sure
    Signature Under Construction.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Apple Spice
    So can anyone out there tell me if what I experienced last night during my spending spree (approximately $200!) was really worth it or did I just waste alot of money by getting all caught up in a buying frenzy?
    Thanks for reminding me of my own buying spree one morning back in 1999 when I got a bill from Network Solutions totalling some $2,300. Yes, at least flash us a name or two before anyone can tell whether you've wasted your money or not.
    Co-Founder @HostHideout. Profoundly influenced by #Bauhaus, @Nameslave unrepentantly embraces #Minimalism with a bias for functionality, color theory and pixel precision: a #multimedia messenger in the McLuhan sense. His totally irrelevant M.Ed. dissertation examines Organizational Culture and Change Management. He also likes Patrik Ervell, Wong Kar-wai and IKEA.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by nameslave
    Thanks for reminding me of my own buying spree one morning back in 1999 when I got a bill from Network Solutions totalling some $2,300. Yes, at least flash us a name or two before anyone can tell whether you've wasted your money or not.

    One name is titled,

    Killbaby.com

    Now at first glance that might be offensive to some people, but we have to keep in mind that it's the Internet we're talking about here. And the pioneers of the Internet have always been know for veering off away from the mainstream when it came to naming software programs, or any other kind of different computer related stuff. I mean, look at Apple.

    I could easily see the next Marilyn Manson of the world using that name for the shock value alone. Or maybe a slightly possessed and tenacious stock broker (or real estate agent) who makes a killing on the stock market or the real estate market. And the stock broker, nor the real estate agent, needs to be a male. A female with a certain...panache' or 'attitude' could use it just as well. Or an NFL linebacker, for that matter.

    BTW, Killbaby.com was one name that GoDaddy labeled "You've found a great domain...." though it appears as if that label is not one to rely on.

    Anyway, it is a name that someone could use if they want to scream their name out to the world and have everyone out there assimilate it without any confusion or mystery. Especially if they were selling alot of goods on their site.

    Hotsexrider.com is another one. I could see that name covering both the gay and straight crowd, which would make it perfect for a porn site that caters to both orientations. Or anyone who has a thing for animals

    Anyway, I'm new at this, and now I don't feel so bad for spending $200 or so, especially when I see that you once spent $2300 at what appears to be one sitting. No wonder you call yourself Nameslave lol! Here's hoping you made all of your money back on that one.

    For now, I'm just going to figure out how to market them (if they're marketable), learn a little more about HTML, CSS, and just keep my eyes and ears open for what it takes to earn some pocket cash (or a little more if that's possible) in this type of business. Marketing the name and getting the word out to right people is something I need to learn how to do since it seems to be a vital part of selling domain names.

  5. #5
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    after that...frenzy
    With more success comes more expense!

  6. #6
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    hah, i've had the same kind of problem :p .. Although all the domains i've bought are/can be usefull in different situations like subdomain hosting, nameserver hosting & domain names for vhosts.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by nameslave
    Thanks for reminding me of my own buying spree one morning back in 1999 when I got a bill from Network Solutions totalling some $2,300. Yes, at least flash us a name or two before anyone can tell whether you've wasted your money or not.
    That $2,300 would have bought you about 23 domains back then - right?

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lubeca
    That $2,300 would have bought you about 23 domains back then - right?
    33. They were $70 for 2 years each.
    Co-Founder @HostHideout. Profoundly influenced by #Bauhaus, @Nameslave unrepentantly embraces #Minimalism with a bias for functionality, color theory and pixel precision: a #multimedia messenger in the McLuhan sense. His totally irrelevant M.Ed. dissertation examines Organizational Culture and Change Management. He also likes Patrik Ervell, Wong Kar-wai and IKEA.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Apple Spice
    One name is titled,

    Killbaby.com

    Hotsexrider.com is another one.
    Not my cup of tea, but these 2 are definitely NOT crappy. My take is that domain speculation is a waiting game. If you're not in a hurry, these 2 names alone will cover your $200 in the foreseeable future. Better still, put them in some decent use, and their value will go up a bit and appreciate faster. Good luck.
    Co-Founder @HostHideout. Profoundly influenced by #Bauhaus, @Nameslave unrepentantly embraces #Minimalism with a bias for functionality, color theory and pixel precision: a #multimedia messenger in the McLuhan sense. His totally irrelevant M.Ed. dissertation examines Organizational Culture and Change Management. He also likes Patrik Ervell, Wong Kar-wai and IKEA.

  10. #10
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    Domain buying is definitely well fun!

    When I started out with just one domain (for a fansite), I told myself "NO MORE!" but today, I have about 10 domains lol and I want to buy more.

    It is really exciting when you've thought of a great domain name!

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by nameslave
    Not my cup of tea, but these 2 are definitely NOT crappy. My take is that domain speculation is a waiting game. If you're not in a hurry, these 2 names alone will cover your $200 in the foreseeable future. Better still, put them in some decent use, and their value will go up a bit and appreciate faster. Good luck.
    Thanks, Nameslave. That makes me feel a little better knowing that I didn't purchase a crappy one. And I can use the boost because I just found out that the buying spree I went on didn't cost me $200 but $500. And for those who didn't read the thread starter, I had never purchased a domain name before.

    I wound up purchasing 29 names, all at one sitting! I didn't know that until today. I just went crazy. No drugs, no alcohol, nothing. Of the 29, half of them came with a GoDaddy message that says, "You've found a great domain...." Now I figure most of the experienced pros out there get that message on a regular basis. Right? Am I right? You guys do get those same messages, right?

    Then again, "You've found a great domain" really means "Don't get your friggin' hopes up!"

    Nameslave, you have alot of posts, plus your name itself implies dedication, so I appreciate the feedback. Don't sugarcoat anything though, even though I am a rookie. I can take negative criticism.

    BTW, as luck would have it, GoDaddy has a 7 day return policy where they'll take back the name and refund 100% of your money back. So I have a few days yet to think about what I'm gonna do. They asked me why I wanted a refund, and I told them the truth, that it was my first time out purchasing domain names, I'm a rookie, and I didn't know what I was doing.

    One last thing Nameslave, what did you mean when you said, "Put them to decent use." Do you mean that I should build a site and dedicate myself to directing traffic to the it, and then sell it off?

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by laydee
    Domain buying is definitely well fun!

    When I started out with just one domain (for a fansite), I told myself "NO MORE!" but today, I have about 10 domains lol and I want to buy more.

    It is really exciting when you've thought of a great domain name!
    Yes, I can relate to that feeling. But to be honest, I've never experienced that feeling. For me, it would only come if and only if I sold that domain name for a significant amount of money. Say a couple hundred dollars or so. Now, selling a name where I earned $1000 for it would have me doing back flips. That would be a true rush.

  13. #13
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    Wait until you start reviewing the drop lists. You'll get even more ideas for names

    Buying domains is like eating peanuts --you can never stop at just one.

  14. #14
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    Those 2 domains are worth the regfee, imho. I'm a bit surprised that killbaby.com was still available. It had been regged before, in 2000. Checkout www.archive.org to see what it was used for. Google returns 97,000 results and Overture (http://inventory.overture.com/d/sear...ry/suggestion/) returns 241 results. Not bad for a short brandable name. Nice purchase I'd say. If your others are as good as this one, you're onto a winner.

    To generate a small bit of revenue, you should immediately park your new domains with a PPC service like Sedo, Afternic, Goldkey, or NameDrive. It is generally considered that you will only get a small revenue from newly regged domains. But it's better than letting GoDaddy receive the revenue, which is what will happen if you do nothing. Then you should go about developing the domains one at a time, and put Google Adsense on the pages. It is generally considered to get better revenue than parking. Be mindful of SEO (search engine optimization). Then submit your domain you have just developed to all the search engines and directory listings you can find. At least submit to Google/Yahoo/MSN.

    Welcome and good luck with your domaining.
    Signature Under Construction.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by stu2
    Welcome and good luck with your domaining.
    Well, Stu, I must say that I am taken aback by your post. To say the least, it is very...well, it makes me feel good. Real good. (To those of you out there that didn't read the thread starter, this was the first time I ever purchased a domain name. I'm a raw rookie. I've never owned a website, and I have to learn-and will learn-HTML and CSS. Suffice to say, I have ALOT to learn.)

    I love the Internet. I spend more time on the Internet than I do watching TV. Up until now, I've just been a regular, ordinary surfer. I would imagine that most of the people here use it to make money. And that's great! Maybe some of you are fortunate enough to earn a living from it. And you're the lucky ones, that's even better! Whatever category you're in, please don't take it for granted. You should all consider yourselves very lucky to be able to work from home and not have to deal with hard goods the way eBay sellers do. JMHO.

    My goal is to be able to earn a modest income ($2-3000 a month) which would allow me to support myself soley with whatever I do using only my computer. The tips you provided will aid me in that goal.

    And most of all, thank you for the very warm welcome. I really appreciate that.

    Sincerely,
    -Apple Spice-

  16. #16
    Update: This morning I got some bad news. And some good news. The bad news came when I called my credit card company and found out that I had spent not $200, but $500 on domain names. All told, I now know that I had purchased a total of 29 names. I was up all night and morning trying to create domain names that I thought might appeal to people. When I was done buying, I figured that I had spent around $200 on all of them. Obviously, I was wrong.

    Not long after finding out the bad news, I called GoDaddy up and got some good news. They told me that I could get a refund on all of the names and get my money back. When they asked me why I wanted a refund, I just told them the truth:

    "This is the first time I had ever done something like this and I guess I really didn't know what I was doing. I'm a rookie, and therefore dumb and stupid. But that's what happens when you're just starting out. I got in a little over my head I guess. Of the 29 domain names I purchased from you guys, half of them came with a GoDaddy page that said, 'You've found a great domain...' and that got me a little excited. Now I'm not a gambler, but being a rookie I got carried away and reading those messages just got me more and more excited. And no, I wasn't doing drugs or drinking that night and morning. And though I don't gamble, it did feel a little like I was winning at the blackjack table."

    Throughout that night and morning I had consulted with the GoDaddy people on numerous occasion. And I must say that they have excellent service. And not just because they're willing to offer me a refund. They're polite, and very helpful.

    Fast forward to today and someone on another forum was aware of everything contained in this thread. I was tossing around the idea of giving Killbaby.com back to GoDaddy, and they were aware of that, too. And someone wrote that they thought that it was a "cool" sounding name, and that while they wouldn't pay "ridiculous" money for it, they would consider buying it from me. They said that I was going to give it back to GoDaddy anyway, so why not sell it to them?

    The thing is I don't know if it's worth $5 or $500. Maybe less, maybe more, I don't know.

    I don't know. Creating and inventing domain names seems too much like gambling. Lots of highs and lows. Or songwriting or writing poetry. For every winner you create you have to first generate 20 or 30 duds. I like the way most people here develop web pages and go through the search engine optimization steps. That's where it's at, I think. One step at a time, for me, anyway...

    I want to thank everyone here who contributed to this thread.
    Last edited by Apple Spice; 09-03-2006 at 11:59 PM.

  17. #17
    yes i think the domain addiction can be worse than drugs,,, therre needs to be a AAA plan for domain addicts

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by lotustar
    therre needs to be a AAA plan for domain addicts
    That's true. A few years ago my brother and I went on a little shopping spree watching dropping domains for a little while and registered about 50 over a 2 week period, most of which we have let go since.

    Back then domains actually dropped. Now most of the domains we let go are at buydomains and sitting there.
    Mike
    cPanel/WHM scripts at Premier Website Solutions (all your website needs)
    Support young figure skaters in training. juniorskaters.com

  19. #19
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    What do you people think about these two domain names?

    httpfirewall.com & windowsproxy.com
    Last edited by Bashar; 09-09-2006 at 07:36 PM.
    Surebrowse

  20. #20
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    httpproxy.com and windowsfirewall.com would be better
    Signature Under Construction.

  21. #21
    very crazy.
    Cheap web hosting, domain names & ecommerce solutions

    web: www.ecommercedev.com
    email: contact[at]ecommercedev.com

  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by stu2
    httpproxy.com and windowsfirewall.com would be better
    Yes. but my hard luck both are booked long before
    Surebrowse

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