What country are you based in?
London, United Kingdom
Do you feel your location has an effect on your domain investing?
How long have you been involved in domains?
Are you a full time domainer?
How did you find out about domain investing?
How many domains do you currently hold?
3800+
What's your favourite non .com tld/nTLD/gTLD?
.net, .org, .io, .co, co.uk – They make up about 10% of my portfolio. I am not a fan of new gtlds but I have a few .photography domains for my personal projects.
What's the best advice you've been given by another domain investor, either directly or through something they've said on twitter or in an interview?
A friend of mine took me in his Bentley and said “man you need to work smart. Working hard will not always bring in the reward you expect.” Then I started figuring out how to work smart in the field I am in.
Alex Verdea also said in Alvin’s podcasts to build your own system or follow a proven business model. This can save money and time. Another thing he mentioned was Quality Vs Quantity.
You need to decide whether you want to be a Nissan/Toyota salesman or Ferrari Sales Man. One is not better than the other.
What kind of goals do you set yourself?
Who are your top 3 domain investors?
DomainKing (Legend and use his as my inspiration)
MikeMann (Legend, I try to mimic his model on a smaller scale)
AlexVerdea (my friend and mentor)
+ If I may add one more (Domain Boardroom Gang – Alex, Darryl, Dennis, Ed, Jonny, Yogi – These guys provide inspiration and motivation daily for the last two years and share a wealth of knowledge with one another)
What's the toughest part of domain investing?
Staring at the screen and scrolling through lots of junk daily in the hope of finding a gem or two.
Placing a $59 backorder on a name that you know you will never going to get.
Getting told off by my Mrs for spending too long on the computer or mobile. She married an IT guy what does she expect.
How do you structure the domaining part of your day?
I tend to do most of my domaining in the evening after work or on weekends. Working from home gave me some flexibility to do some of my tasks during the daytime.
How do you manage your portfolio?
I am not a very organised person and this year I have decided to be a bit more organised in terms of managing my portfolio, renewals, finances etc.
I manage my names on Epik. I import all of my names (even external names) into Epik Portal and manage it all under one roof. Features such as the number of WHOIS lookups, IP Addresses, Appraisals can be useful to a certain degree when deciding to renew your names).
I also have a few excel spreadsheets. One to manage my finances and others to organise my renewals month by month at various registrars. I have tabs for each month so I can easily plan renewals.
Do you also have any NFTs or Crypto in your portfolio?
What's the most you've ever spent on one domain?
Have you ever done outbound? If so, were/are you successful?
You're given $10k to spend on domains, how do you spend it?
I will spend it on a few Closeouts, cheap backorders, re-register names on the days they drop and possibly spend it on one or two domains in the XXXX range from auctions or private acquisition. My model is quantity over quality. I don’t want my money to be stuck in one or two names. This may change as I start upping my game.
Outside of domains, what other business/wealth/personal growth figures do you look up to?
My Dad and Rich Dad Poor Dad – Robert Kiyosaki
What do you do when you're not domaining?
Spending time on Twitter helping new domainers, spending time with my son. I enjoy doing Photography and managing my Instagram channel.
I have been doing Karate since 2006 and it stopped after I got married. I need to get back to the class focusing on getting my 2nd Dan Blackbelt.
What advice would you give to people just starting out in domains?
- Understand the reality: Not all of your domains will sell. I use 1% sell-through rate as a guide but for most people, it’s even less than that. It’s not a get rich quick scheme. Otherwise, everyone will quit their jobs and become full-time domain investors.
- Get a mentor earlier on. They don’t need to be a top domainer. They need to be a few steps ahead of you.
- Education: Enrol on a course like DNAcademy or buy a book by Alex Verdea or Yogi Solanki. There are tons of free information floating around on Youtube, Forums and Podcasts but take them with pinch of salt. That’s why I always recommend a structured course like DNAcademy or proven system by Alex or Yogi.
- Follow a system until you have your system. When I started, I didn’t have a system or plan, I was buying names without any business strategy and wasted tons of money until I figured it out a year or two later thanks to guys like Alex Verdea and Darryl Lopes.
- If you want to invest in .com, look up to guys like DomainKing and MikeMann, If you want to invest in .xyz, follow Swetha and study her model. Don’t buy a handful of xyz in the hope that you will be successful like Swetha without understanding her model or how much time/effort/money she poured in to make it work.
- Stick to .com when starting new. We know it worked well for Domain King and Mike Mann. They are still successful even after being in the industry for 30+ years.
- Avoid Handreg at the beginning. You will end up buying a lot just like you go to a dollar or pound store and fill your trolley up because they are cheap. Buy names from Closeouts, place cheap back orders, buy names from the expired list on the day they drop and gradually up your game to auctions and private acquisitions.
- Don’t give up easily on anything in life. Find out why it’s not working and figure out a way to make it work. It may take days, weeks, months or years but one day it will click. I made more money in January 2022 than in the entire of 2021. I made more money in January 2022 than in my entire first two years combined. What would’ve happened if I gave up after my first year? If you believe in something, keep working and the rewards will come eventually.
- One last thing: Don’t spam other domainers with your worthless handregs or add the word “Premium” in front of your names when promoting.
- All the best. If you need some busyfatherly advice, you can reach out to me @busyfather on Twitter.
