How I turned $23.76 into $6,000 IN 21 Months With Absolutely No Effort

byTheCatherine

14.4K followers

3 years ago

You never know where the world of online business is going to take you. Over the last 20+ years, I have been buying domain names for my retirement fund. I never stopped to think about it or plan it but whenever I saw a good domain name especially a good two word domain name I bought it.

In February 2020 I bought a two word domain name with the intention of doing something with it. As it happened I didn't do anything about it, it's in the box of future ideas.

About a week ago I got an email from a domain broker, with a question. He said that as he had offered me $3000 for the domain and I haven't replied, was there a figure that I would consider selling this two word domain for? To be absolutely honest I haven't seen his original email, and pretty well known for ignoring emails.

First of all, I couldn't remember owning the domain. There are some domains that I own that I know are worth at least 50 K each, and these I do tend to remember. This particular one wasn't designed for domain flipping and I had to actually look up that I owned it.

The image below shows when I registered this domain. I have cut off the first word of the domain. The nine months is the last payment of $11.88 the cost of my domains for a year having said that the ones I remember may well be worth much more that 50K each, that was in my head a great price twenty years ago

I discovered that I had paid $11.88 for it in February 2020. You can see that in the image above. So that means in total I paid two years registration fee which is $23.76 (I think that's my mental arithmetic in play!) So, I then sat down and thought do I want to sell this domain and I said I would consider it for $6000.

So the domain broker phoned me up from the States to the UK and asked me was there any movement on that and I said no! I explained that it wasn't a domain for flipping and $6000 was a fixed fee. Lesson 24-hour is later I got the acceptance.

That of course made me think, umm did I sell that for too low a price? Then common sense kicked in it's not a domain I intended to flip, so $23.76 turning into $6000 in less than two years is an okay profit.

What it did make me realize that all the domains I am sitting on (I have over 500) I ought to think about selling. The oldest one was registered in 1996 and I have at least 20 registered between that date and 2002. All of these are one or two word domain names. So when I put in the acceptance of the offer for my domain name today I contacted the broker and asked for his terms.

I can save 10 OF MY MOST PROFITABLE WEBSITES.

If you are flipping domains you can sell them individually. None of the domains I've sold in the past have I put up for sale. To be fair, I have only sold about six domains and always when the offer was presented to me. Not every domain you purchase will have of high value. The price I have recouped in the past has covered the cost of registering the domains and hasn't gone into profit.

Most people who flip domains for a living will say that only 50% of domains that you purchase will be worth a premium price. As I have over 500 I reckon that they will be worth at least $500,000. I certainly know two of them will be worth a minimum of 50K each and possibly a lot more.

So even taking into account paying for the domains over that period now is the time to turn them into a pretty profit. I can't turn all of them into profitable websites although I have sold websites I have made in the past very successfully.

What I am going to do is to put them into the hands of brokers because despite their fee it is in their interests to get the highest price. The fact that there was no quibble on the $6000 offer would indicate that the domain will be worth more than that, having said that I am grateful and have no wish to be greedy.

Maybe, it's just the timing that tells me now is the time to cash in my retirement fund. And anything is a bonus.