Last night I sold xoda.com, a four letter domain name purchased a few months back for $815. I sold it for $640 which is a $175 loss, but guess what, I’m happy to take the loss. Not happy to lose money but happy to to gain that budget for future investing.
Here are a few examples of what I can do with $640.
- 85 hand registered domains with GoDaddy
- 3 site graduate mini-sites
- A good quality keyword domain
- 182 cups of Starbucks coffee, meetings to network with local domainers
- 12 125×125 banners on pretty much any website I choose (branding)
Really the possibilities are endless, I could even buy a couple hundred t shirts or mugs and give them out to you guys, again for branding which is extremely important.
What the extra cash gives me is options and flexibility. I get dozens of emails every month asking me to purchase domain names, some of those people are desperate and need to sell. I hate to say it but in hard economic times a domainer or any business for that matter needs to learn when to take advantage. I wouldn’t even say take advantage of the seller, they are happy to get the cash. What I mean is take advantage of the times and lower pricing. Now is the time to buy the premium domain names.
Besides the blanket statement of buy now I want to say buy smart. Find a niche and buy domain names in that arena. I own hundreds of real estate related domain names, my prior businesses were in that field. I still have thousands of contacts and influence in real estate. My example may be a little extreme, I am fortunate to have built up a real estate contact list. For the majority of you start off with your hobbies and interests. More than likely you will know more people with the same interests. If your a gamer buy gamer domain names. Maybe your buddy wants to start a gaming forum or a games fan site, who will he reach out to when the time comes to buy a domain name. I don’t want to get off topic on how to sell domains but hopefully you get the point.
Back to my loss on xoda.com, I bought into a niche that I didn’t understand and had no end buyer contacts. Do I regret buying a couple hundred four letter domain names, never, it is all part of my domaining education. Will I buy more four letter domains, maybe, but they have to have obvious development potential or at a price I couldn’t pass up. In fact now is the time take to take advantage of me, not because I need the money but because the domains listed are not in my niche. If you are interested check out DomainSubway.com and make some offers. Remember I said take advantage, not abuse or beat me up, those offers will be ignored.
So to clarify, you are not happy about selling for a loss, just happy to get money that you can now put to more effective means?
Correct
If you never got offers on it before then I feel its ok for the loss……if your offers in the past were higher then maybe for 2009 its take first offer and run!
Anyways its money in hand for the next project/bills!
I did get some offers, all below the current sales price. I didn’t really proactively try to sell, just on a few of the domainer forums.
Good writing. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed my Google News Reader..
Matt Hanson
Congrats on the sale, Patrick. You have to take a loss every now and then if you realize that you won’t be able to break even or if you realize that it would just take too long to make a profit, so the lower dollar amount today is actually worth more to you than the potentially higher price in the future.
In addition, I would not only look at it from the “opportunity cost” point of view but it’s also important to note that taking a small loss is always better than taking a bigger loss in the future. Many people make the wrong decision in holding on to a domain/an investment that just won’t get profitable. The most successful business people know when it is time to quit and they understand the important concept of sunk costs.
Agree, gotta know when to hold em and when to fold em
I think you should get the 182 cups of Starbucks coffee! lol j/k. Actually, you should use it to improve ChefPatrick possibly, or maybe get a good quality keyword domain.
Very well stated Patrick. Sure, you’d rather have sold it for $1k and turned a profit, or at least for $815 to break even, but you ended up paying $175 to learn a valuable lesson. You know to focus on niche’s you better understand and now you have increased cash flow and can build out some sites and/or register lots of names.
It’s all about perspective and attitude, and you’re right on the money my friend. You’ll be hitting (or exceeding) your sales goals in no time! And thanks for sharing, I bet many people would be afraid to say “I goofed,” now we can all learn from this.
Sometimes you have to “lose” in order to win.
That minor loss is 100000 times gain of life experience
Hi Chef,
I’ve never been a big fan of non-english words in domaining.
Xoda is short and brandable, true! but without a lot spent on advertising, a website called Xoda.com is going to be hard to find if you’ve not heard of it specifically mentioned in an ad.
even then, some would still end up going to soda.com
so, congratulations for letting it go
in June last year I wrote about LLLL.com’s
belshass.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/in-10-years-time/
Again, I’d rather have ‘the best SODA in the world.com’
belated Happy New Year
bestS,
Ritz
Chef, I read your article, but I just wanted to say my personal opinion. Yes, it’s okay to take a small loss, lose a few bucks here and there. And yes, it’s okay to lose a lot more, like a few hundreds dollars on a few domains.
But whenever I lose money on a domain, I will always try to sell another name so that I the amount of profit I make on this other domain will make up for the amount I lost on the other domain. So that is just my way of thinking.
Yeah I have the same way of thinking also.
Chef: Well I don’t drink coffee so I would vote for the t-shirts myself (ha ha).
I like your take on things though. Great article.
Congratulation Patrick on another sale!
No one like to make a loss but I think you did the right thing – Letting this domain go and you still have more capital now to invest in other domains or promotion of your blog!
Regards,
Robbie
Great writeup Patrick and so true! If you don’t dare in business you cannot and will not learn. Losing equals learning in my book, just don’t make a habit of it! haha
If you have a keen eye for new domains the 85 reg fee domain option could be an amazing opportunity, there are still many gold mines to be had for reg fee. However I would say as ChefPatrick.com is doing so well at the moment put the money into improving it one way or another.
Best Regards
Stevie Watts.
I just wanted to add another note that came to my mind last night, it was probably best for you to take this loss in a risky market that could shoot up or shoot down at anytime. So in this situation Chef, I would’ve done the same thing
Hi Chef,
Congratulations on having the ability to move a name that you no longer seen any value in etc.
I believe it was a wise move and now you can invest that capital into a new domain asset that can produce more value for your portfolio.
What percentage of your portfolio would you guess would fall in the same category?
Keep up the good work!
Sometimes it’s not how much you make, but how little you loose.