Buying and selling domain names

MichaelDooner

Hello I am interested in buying and selling Domain names,and hence would appreciate any advice,tips or general info concerning this matter. I am thinking of registering over 200.coms with Go Daddy

Graham

MichaelDooner wrote: »

Hello I am interested in buying and selling Domain names,and hence would appreciate any advice,tips or general info concerning this matter. I am thinking of registering over 200.coms with Go Daddy

There are forums dedicated to domainers/domaining, go and dig some out.

Why .com's, the only remote chance of you getting any good ones are catching them as they drop.

Why that particular domain name registrar, have you researched domain registration prices at all?

How will you recognise domains of value, how do you plan to market these 200 domains?

RossieMan

You seen that you can make money at this but have done no research. Its not just a question of buying domain names and them selling straight away.

Graham

I've seen you can make money at poker. That's hardly a basis for a sound investment though.

You could potentially be sitting on a domain for a few years and then not get a sale. You may be able to flip a small percentage of names quickly but I doubt it, as a beginner the pros will have the tools to tie up the decent names before you've finished your morning cornflakes.

Of course any domains you buy will also need to be renewed every single year, sound investment or good money after bad?.

NeptunesMoon

out of interest, how do you sell a .ie address? Is it just a case of agreeing a sum of money and transferring login details and ownership to them? is it easy? what if you sold it for 10,000 or something, do you need to pay capital gains tax on that and what would you likely come out with in the end in your pocket? is there any way to do it "off shore" or under the scope of revnue so you don't need to pay any/as much tax or can it be "sold" another way where money exhanges but its not seen as a capital gains issue?

Graham

NeptunesMoon wrote: »

out of interest, how do you sell a .ie address? Is it just a case of agreeing a sum of money and transferring login details and ownership to them? is it easy? what if you sold it for 10,000 or something, do you need to pay capital gains tax on that and what would you likely come out with in the end in your pocket? is there any way to do it "off shore" or under the scope of revnue so you don't need to pay any/as much tax or can it be "sold" another way where money exhanges but its not seen as a capital gains issue?

The official stance from the IEDR is you cannot sell .ie domain names.

Anyone that buys a .ie domain is taking a risk too:

Someone else wants my domain. Can I sell the domain to them?

No. The sale of .ie domains in a secondary market is strictly prohibited and the IEDR reserves the right to delete a domain that has been sold or is being offered for sale. Domain names can be re-assigned to another party, but no money can be offered or taken for the re-assignment.

https://www.iedr.ie/faqs/managing-your-domain-name/someone-else-wants-domain-can-sell-domain/

NeptunesMoon

Graham wrote: »

The official stance from the IEDR is you cannot sell .ie domain names.

Anyone that buys a .ie domain is taking a risk too:


https://www.iedr.ie/faqs/managing-your-domain-name/someone-else-wants-domain-can-sell-domain/

cheers for highlighting that, but I'd be ok to sell the business itself as a means to be able to sell the domain, so it would actually be the sale of the business which has the asset of the domain. Surely its possible to sell a business in this instance so im guessing then tax minimilisation would be even trickyer though?

Graham

NeptunesMoon wrote: »

cheers for highlighting that, but I'd be ok to sell the business itself as a means to be able to sell the domain, so it would actually be the sale of the business which has the asset of the domain. Surely its possible to sell a business in this instance so im guessing then tax minimilisation would be even trickyer though?

I can't see you would have any problems selling the business including the domain name. Whether you would find a buyer who is prepared to take on a business of unknown pedigree for the sake of a .ie domain name is another question entirely.

Finding a good .ie domain name is not difficult specifically because of the rules limiting domain name speculation. You would want to have a fairly spectacular .ie domain name for anyone to consider jumping through the necessary hoops. If the domain is owned by a Limited company, there are risks and costs associated with taking over the company. If you're a sole trader trying to claim the domain is part of an existing business it looks like the purchaser runs the risk of forfeiting the domain if it's not the case.

I think tax minimisation is going to be the least of your problems.

NeptunesMoon

cheers, it's a sole trader not a company and the business name is the same as the domain name, it's a good name though and has had 5 figure offers already so providing the sale is seamless i was wondering what kind of money would end up in my pocket after tax etc.

pedronomix

No problem transferring a .ie domain name along with with the business or even goodwill and any associated trade names. As to your tax liability, post up all your costs/investments and sale price, and I will have a go (joking!) The amount depends on all those factors.. Capital Gains Tax applies http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/money_and_tax/tax/capital_taxes/capital_gains_tax.html 33% on gain with the first €1270 gain exempt!!

devildriver

MichaelDooner wrote: »

Hello I am interested in buying and selling Domain names,and hence would appreciate any advice,tips or general info concerning this matter. I am thinking of registering over 200.coms with Go Daddy

Domain squatting / speculation. or flipping is certainly not the get rich quick scheme it once was or pretended to be.

As more tlds are being released every day there's less value associated with dot coms.

With that said you can still make money on highly desirable short domains but it's a risky enough business.

If you do want to enter the market have a look at flippa.com which is one of the biggest domain marketplaces.

https://flippa.com/

PS: I wouldn't touch GoDaddy with a bargepole, they have a horrible reputation. Do some searches

Arbitrary

Graham wrote: »

Why .com's, the only remote chance of you getting any good ones are catching them as they drop.

Because .com is still king and they command the highest prices. This also isn't true at all, there's a huge market for brandable domains and many people hand reg domains and sell them on a few months or years later for a very healthy ROI.

Granted you have to know the brandable market very well to achieve success. To know the market is study the market and past sales history and also to gain experience through actual sales.

Another strategy is to register domains in emerging markets/niches, take virtual reality for instance. Every year there's always someone who claims that they missed the boat, but this couldn't be further from the truth.

The biggest problem for people starting out in this area is most people go and register/buy a whole bunch of crap that will never sell for the price they paid for it (I know this from experience!). Before you put a red cent in to a domain, read, read and read. Once you think you've read enough, repeat again. As suggest join the plethora of domain forums, namepros is excellent. Make good use of the search function as the regs can be tetchy with newbie questions.

devildriver wrote: »

Domain squatting / speculation. or flipping is certainly not the get rich quick scheme it once was or pretended to be.

You're right, domaining requires a huge amount of patience in most cases, but your post more or less suggests domaining is dead, this couldn't be further from the truth and many people flip domains on a regular basis for a healthy ROI. Be it hand registering, buying expiring domains or purchasing domains from other domainers. You clearly don't know what you're talking about. I just closed a sale for a mid x,xxx on a domain I bought 2 months ago for $35. The proof is in the pudding.

devildriver wrote: »

As more tlds are being released every day there's less value associated with dot coms.

:eek:

Do tell, do you have any idea what kind of percentage of these new tlds are actually developed, or what their uptake and drop rate is? .com is king and still leads the sales charts year in year out. Sure some of the new tlds are seeing strong sales, mostly these are fads, take .io for example.

.com is ingrained into internet users and it's going nowhere any time soon, the same can't be said about the endless stream of terrible new tlds hitting the market each day. They have HUGE drop rates and a very low % of them are developed websites.

devildriver wrote: »

If you do want to enter the market have a look at flippa.com which is one of the biggest domain marketplaces.

https://flippa.com/

PS: I wouldn't touch GoDaddy with a bargepole, they have a horrible reputation. Do some searches

While I'm no fan of Godaddy as a company, it's one of the best marketplaces to sell a domain and no other marketplace has as many end users looking to buy domains.

http://www.webhosting.info/registrars/top-registrars/global/

Talk to any professional domainer and all of them will tell you they sell a huge amount of their domains through GoDaddy.

Flippa only account for a tiny fraction of domain name sales and they're mostly geared towards ultra premium domains. They're not the biggest domain market place, not by any stretch of imagination.

Godaddy
Sedo
Domainnamesales
Afternic

Flippa are at the bottom of the pile as far as domain market places are concerned, unless like I mentioned you've got an excellent domain that can justify the upgrade fees to get proper exposure there. ($249 or $349)

If you had said this about selling a website, I would have agreed with you, that's what they are primarily, a marketplace for selling websites. I've sold a site on there myself.

OP don't be discouraged by the posts here, there is money to be made but I can tell you from experience it's not an easy game. Patience, tact and a good instinct for marketing is required for buying and selling domains.

Check out namepros and domainsherpa - two excellent resources.

Best of Luck OP and remember what I said, don't go investing a red cent until you've done your homework.

Edit

Just to add OP, if you're hand registering domains, you'll find lots of 0.99 cent coupons for Godaddy, however, if you use too many and run out of options then I recommend the likes of NameSilo, as they're 8.99 per year for .com domains with free privacy. Though as a domain seller you never want your whois details set to private.

Graham

Arbitrary wrote: »

Because .com is still king and they command the highest prices. This also isn't true at all, there's a huge market for brandable domains and many people hand reg domains and sell them on a few months or years later for a very healthy ROI.

Granted you have to know the brandable market very well to achieve success. To know the market is study the market and past sales history and also to gain experience through actual sales.

Arbitrary wrote: »

The biggest problem for people starting out in this area is most people go and register/buy a whole bunch of crap that will never sell for the price they paid for it (I know this from experience!).

From the incredibly limited information provided by the OP it's not really possible to know how well he/she understands the domain market or how to recognise brandable domains. Given the venue of this post I suspect (and I could be wrong) limited knowledge of either. The OP may be back to enlighten us.

Arbitrary wrote: »

While I'm no fan of Godaddy as a company, it's one of the best marketplaces to sell a domain and no other marketplace has as many end users looking to buy domains.

Do you need to purchase domains via GoDaddy to be able to utilise their marketplace?

Arbitrary wrote: »

Check out namepros and domainsherpa - two excellent resources.

Cool, they're the types of sites I was thinking of in my initial post.

Arbitrary wrote: »

Best of Luck OP and remember what I said, don't go investing a red cent until you've done your homework.

+1 last thing the OP needs is 200 crap domains on his hands

Arbitrary

Graham wrote: »

Do you need to purchase domains via GoDaddy to be able to utilise their marketplace?

No, that's the great thing. You can hand register something for 0.99 cent there with a coupon, next year move it to somewhere cheaper and still list on their marketplace, they get a commission so they don't care whether or not it's with them.

For brandable domains the biggest marketplace is brandbucket. I just had a few domains accepted there. They're quite fussy about what they accept and they take a big commission, but it's the best place to sell a brandable.

Graham

Arbitrary wrote: »

No, that's the great thing. You can hand register something for 0.99 cent there with a coupon, next year move it to somewhere cheaper and still list on their marketplace, they get a commission so they don't care whether or not it's with them.

Thanks, I thought that was the case. Do GoDaddy still offer a pseudo-separate registrar for large volume domain purchasers?

Arbitrary wrote: »

For brandable domains the biggest marketplace is brandbucket. I just had a few domains accepted there. They're quite fussy about what they accept and they take a big commission, but it's the best place to sell a brandable.

I've come across brandbucket in the past, their 'brandable' domains are usually in the region of $2K. Probably better for sellers than buyers

Arbitrary

Graham wrote: »

Thanks, I thought that was the case. Do GoDaddy still offer a pseudo-separate registrar for large volume domain purchasers?

Yvw. There are a few GD resellers alright that offer better pricing. $8.99 for .coms, there's also the Godaddy domain discount club which carries a yearly membership fee. It's poor value for bulk pricing though. If you're buying bulk check out NameSilo (free privacy too)...

https://www.namesilo.com/pricing.php

Their default price is 8.99 for .com and 8.49 for 101+ domains.

With Godaddy you get the best value by working the system. Use up as many 0.99c codes, transfer them out when you're looking to renew, then look for a transfer coupon code to move them back. Rinse and repeat.

There may come a time when they'll stop you from using any further codes. Do not under any circumstances create a second or third account to avail of discount codes, lots of folk have lost their domains trying to abuse the discount codes.

Graham wrote: »

I've come across brandbucket in the past, their 'brandable' domains are usually in the region of $2K. Probably better for sellers than buyers

Hehe, no question about it. Though if your a startup company looking for a catchy pre-screened domain along with a twitter handle and facebook page. It can save you a lot of time and hassle, providing you have the budget of course.

devildriver

Arbitrary wrote: »

You clearly don't know what you're talking about. I just closed a sale for a mid x,xxx on a domain I bought 2 months ago for $35. The proof is in the pudding.

Clearly I don't! :rolleyes:

Some good information there so thanks for that. Namesilo looks good pricewise in that privacy is included. I generally use DirectNic who are also in the $8 range for dot coms but without privacy which is an extra $5.

It will be interesting how the new tlds pan out over time. Everybody is trying to figure out if the descriptive tlds will have an affect on SEO. Google is keeping schtumm on that one.

MichaelDooner

RossieMan wrote: »

You seen that you can make money at this but have done no research. Its not just a question of buying domain names and them selling straight away.

Thank you for your message what do you mean when you say it's not just a question of buying and selling.

Buttercake

is a .ie domain considered an asset sale or goodwill?

If you sold one to another company, would you put it through as a sale+vat or as a capital gains sales?

mneylon

Buttercake wrote: »

is a .ie domain considered an asset sale or goodwill?

You'd need to confirm with an accountant, but I suspect it'd be an asset unless sold as part of a larger transaction