Big Domain Purchases

By | July 12, 2011

I have some interesting news to report. In a previous posting I wrote about how I was unsure what to do with my 9000 domain names because I was losing money on the vast majority of them. And, in another posting I wrote about how I developed big sites on some of my domains but they still only made less than $1/day.

So, since I obviously have no good plan for making money from domains, I did what any wild and crazy Internet entrepreneur would do: I bought more domains. Here’s a list of my recent purchases:
Pastries.com – $12,500
AdvertisingAgency.com – $33,000
Physical.com – $42,500
FanLetters.com – $600
Humidifiers.com – $50,000
NurseryRhymes.com – $13,050
Fairies.com – $32,500
LocalArea.com – $4,500
Adventure.com – $200,000
Feminism.com – $5,000

I said I have no “good plan”, but after kicking around a bunch of ideas, I do have some sort of plan for these domains. For
Pastries.com, Humidifiers.com, AdvertisingAgency.com, Physical.com, FanLetters.com, Feminism.com, and TattooShops.com (which is a domain I already owned), I am going to setup WordPress article type sites. I have used WordPress before (this blog that you are reading right now is in WordPress) but I have never used it just to try to increase search engine traffic. Google likes frequently updated sites, and because WordPress can be set to automatically publish articles over time, it is ideal for keeping a site frequently updated. Plus, WordPress offers a bunch of good SEO tools and features.

At LocalArea.com, I am in the process of setting up a site showing local news, photos, videos, deals, concerts, job listings, reviews, etc. for each city/town in the USA. The site will be fully automated, and have its own page for each city/town so that will hopefully be good for getting search engine listings.

I plan to turn NurseryRhymes.com into a site with lyrics and music (midi and wav files) for over 1000 popular nursery rhymes.

Fairies.com will be a virtual world about fairies.com, similar to my existing site at MyLittleFairy.com.

Adventure.com will be a site all about adventure, with sections such as:
Online Adventure Games (what I have now at http://adventure.com/games/ )
Adventure Travel (articles, videos, vacation offers, etc.)
Extreme Sports (videos, articles, etc. )
Adventure Movies / Videos

I bought all of these domains cheap enough so that if I don’t make money from developing them, I can sell them instead for hopefully at least what I paid for them. So, there is little risk for me in buying them. I will post an update on my blog once I have all these sites fully launched and know how well they are doing.

33 thoughts on “Big Domain Purchases

  1. Michael

    Good luck with the development of these. Hope you will follow up with posts about the progress.

    LocalArea.com was a steal, by the way…

    Reply
  2. Frankie Aladi

    I love your updates because it always makes me think. You make it look so easy and you also sometimes come across as if you are just gambling with ideas but having followed your success over time, I know that there is more to everything you do than meets the eye.
    Try to get this if you can dehumidifiers; because dehumidifiers cost more than humidifiers and there is a big market for it. I know, because I have looked for a whole-house dehumidifier and was amazed at the price.
    All your purchases are top notch. Here is an idea for FanLetters.com; how about having a database of all the top stars with there pictures, profile and all and then you have people post fan letters to there idols. Over time this could be awesome. Fairies, personally I hope this becomes a children’s site with tales pictures and wonderlands and not the obvious route most people will take.

    Reply
  3. Ted Nugent

    These are all great domains..Congratulations and keep doin it!

    My personal favs on the list:

    Pastries.com – $12,500
    LocalArea.com – $4,500
    Adventure.com – $200,000

    Each one of these is a multi million dollar a year business minimum of done right..

    Reply
    1. admin

      They were all from different sources. Some from auctions, some from brokers, some direct from the owners.

      Reply
  4. Own This Domain

    congrats on the purchases
    love pastries and adventure best i think
    fairies would be fun to develop and make you a hero with your daughter! my daughters would love me to own that

    if you’re still in buying mode
    pay us a visit at main site in link and let us know your requirements
    cheers

    Reply
    1. admin

      I looked at your site, but I am really not looking to buy any more domains until I first see if I can make money from the ones I just bought.

      Reply
  5. Ricky

    On avg for your wordpress sites how much are you throwing in to build the site, promote it etc AND on avg how much rev are you making? If you dont mind

    Reply
    1. admin

      I am spending around $500 per WordPress site. It has only been a few weeks and none of the sites are fully launched yet, but they are averaging 50 cents a day.

      Reply
  6. Albert

    If I have that much of money to spend on domains. I will choose to retire and relax. LOL. I am so poor 🙁 .

    Wish you success in your business.

    Reply
  7. Sameh

    My favorites on your list are :

    AdvertisingAgency.com – $33,000
    Adventure.com – $200,000

    Just don’t spread yourself all over the place and keep yourself focused on the lowest possible number of running projects at the same time.

    Thanks for sharing and best of luck!

    Reply
  8. Michael Sandfort

    Thanks for shareing your insights. Having 9,000, how much are you paying for renewals, and where?
    Best regards

    Reply
    1. admin

      I pay $8.45 each for .com domains through moniker.com. They are not the cheapest, but I am happy with them and it is a pain to move the domains, so for now I am keeping them with moniker.com. At some point I might switch to a cheaper provider though.

      Reply
  9. Frankie Aladi

    I am not sure if you are at liberty to answer this question so don’t feel pressured if it is above the line. How much does these 9000 domains currently make monthly? By my calculations it cost $76,050 a year which is $6337.50 a month to keep them.

    Reply
    1. admin

      I only own 5000 domains now. See my recent blog posting at http://www.impulsecorp.com/my-9000-domains-part-2 . The 4000 adult domains I sold were making $1500 from parking. The 5000 non-adult domains that I have left make $1000/month from ads and parking, and cost me $3500/month in domain fees. But, I also sell $5000+ of domains each month which covers the fees.

      Reply
  10. Frankie Aladi

    Yes, I did read that article, I was just confused when I kept reading ref to 9000 domains so I thought this must be your new magic number -lol
    You look like you are having a lot of fun in this biz.
    I would have ended with “good luck” but you certainly have enough of that already so I will close by saying;
    Remain blessed and may God give you the wisdom and health to reap the fruits of your labor abundantly.

    Reply
  11. Michael Sandfort

    Who are the three cheapest providers for renewals? Currently I also pay $8.45 each for dotcom, dotnet and dotorg domains at eNom (former Bulkregister).
    Best regards

    Reply
  12. Frankie Aladi

    If you are happy with Moniker and the price then stay there. I despise Godaddy due to their baiting pricing. Like is already mentioned, the low price is just to get you and after the first year, they go for the jugular. I have long moved the few domains I had there. I have used enom from inception. They are great but the only problem is that they charge you 3% for using paypal or any credit card. Lets say you put in 100 dollars, you only get 97 of it. The only reason I have stayed this long is due to the fact that they do not randomly increase prices and I have sort of mastered there platform. I love Name.com for easy of registration and search but like Godaddy they also go for the jugular during renewal.

    Reply
    1. admin

      The only drawback to using a cheaper provider would be that it might be a hassle for you of they ever go out of business, but it is very rare for that to happen. Almost all registrars have lower pricing for .net domains as compared to .com domains.

      Reply
  13. Martin

    Hi Eric,

    Adventure.com will definitely generate a lot of traffic.

    AdvertisingAgency.com is great for business and a really good price!

    Congrats!

    Reply
  14. Not Offline

    Awesome purchases man. I actually got here via your recent sales which were all to be jealous of 🙂 I admire the fact that you respond to most replies and answer with what seem to be transparent replies. I wish I made such sales like you did, Eric. More power, more sales! 🙂

    Reply
  15. Andrea Canal

    I was curious to see what you did with adventure.com and I have to tell you that a am surprised. How can you put such a indian graphics website on a good domain like that? Those 5000 games are obsolete, anybody can have that package of games for free and build a website like yours in 5 minutes. Please make a better use of adventure.com!

    Reply
    1. admin

      The arcade part is just a rough version I am using while I am developing a better version. The new version has custom developed adventure games with a rewards system built into the site and also Facebook integration. But, since the I bought the domain, I have also had several companies offer to buy it from me, so I may end up selling the domain instead of developing it. I might close a deal on it as soon as next week.

      Reply
  16. Randomo

    So THAT’s what happened to FanLetters.com after I sold it too cheaply! 😉

    Might be worth a few minutes of your time to drop by my domain sales site (URL should be appended to this post). Drop a line about any that interest you.

    Am also working on developing parts of my portfolio, but it’s easy to get overwhelmed by sheer volume … I should look into outsourcing some of the work. Good luck with your sites.

    Reply
  17. William

    Hello Eric
    ***** You recommended a couple of books to me, for which I am grateful. I have almost finished Kesmodel’s book and I have ordered Ostrofsky’s. In this post you said :-
    “I wrote about how I was unsure what to do with my 9000 domain names because I was losing money on the vast majority.” In 2008 Ostrofsky wrote about a couple of web businesses that develop these type of domains for clients – by a combination of advertising and adding content. I checked them out of curiosity and they’re still going; TrafficZ.com and Whypark.com which is now Domainapps.com
    *
    ***** I now see that the error I made with my domain names was in thinking up clever titles, whereas I should have used plain, popular words for type-ins. I think some of them will sell if I go direct to appropriate businesses, so that is my next job.
    *
    ***** What would be best for me, is to earn money as a writer, coming up with domain names for someone who registers in volume. The adult industry seems the easiest. If you know anyone who might be interested, let me know.
    Best wishes. William.

    Reply
    1. admin

      Yes, I have tried domain development services like TrafficZ.com and Whypark.com, although not those 2 in particular. I never had much success with them, although I know many people are happy with the results.

      Reply
  18. RAMONE FISHER

    sell them all as a portfolio in order to generate income for you give me more details by email i am a domain name buyer and seller

    Reply
  19. William

    Hello Eric
    *
    Can I send a message to Ramone Fisher?
    I’ve got 60 I don’t have the time to do anything with.
    How do I contact you?
    Thanks Eric.
    Regards
    William E. Milverton

    Reply

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