Domain Name Return on Investment » Blog » DNAcademy.com

People often ask me why I invest in domain names. Here’s why.

It’s easy to throw up a list of the top 100 domain names sold and be amazed and the sales prices, but domains like Insurance.com, Hotels.com and Toys.com selling for multiple millions of dollars are not representative of investing today — because many of these domains were hand registered in the 1990s and held by the initial owners for decades.

So in this video, I’m going to show you what sales ARE representative of domain name investing TODAY.

The domains I’ll show you are hand-selected by me from reams of sales data because I think they were good domain names investments with commercial appeal to businesses.

If I’m going to buy physical land, I don’t want to buy it in the middle of the dessert. I want to buy appreciating land close to cities and people, where it’s desirable. Same for domain names.

So for each domain name, I’ll tell you when it was bought and sold, the purchase and sale price, and the profit and return on investment.

All the data in this video is from 2011 to 2017.

Past performance is not indicative of future results, and I am not making investment recommendations.

And before we jump into the data, special thanks to Michael Sumner and NameBio.com for pulling data and supporting our analysis in this video.

There are six major categories of domain names you can invest in:
1. Generic words
2. Keywords
3. Brandables
4. Acronyms
5. Numerics
6. Alphanumerics

Investing in any of these six types of doman names requires knowledge, skill and practice.

But once you know what is selling in each category, you can then wait for opportunities to cross your path and be a sniper…picking off exactly the types of domain names you want at prices you know are under market value.

So let’s look at a few representative sales from each category.

Generic words are in the dictionary, but have no direct product or service. Think Amazon.com or Apple.com. Without their marketing efforts you may not know what you would find at their websites, but once a brand is built it can be stronger than Fort Knox.

Here are some recent representative generic word domain name sales:

xylem.com $3,400 2/24/10 NameJet $47,100 8/5/13 Afternic $43,700 1285 3.4
tempt.com $7,700 1/7/13 Sedo $20,000 4/17/13 DomainShop.us $12,300 160 0.3
pedal.com $8,100 8/9/11 Sedo $25,000 11/16/15 Flippa $16,900 209 4.2
let.com $15,000 8/23/11 Sedo $100,000 2/22/12 Afternic $85,000 567 0.5
mind.com $46,000 4/7/11 Sedo $171,600 4/13/11 Sedo $125,600 273 0.0

But it’s not just .com domains that sell…

ground.net $530 1/20/11 SnapNames $6,999 9/3/14 Uniregistry $6,469 1221 3.6
nerd.org $1,744 10/27/16 Sedo $8,999 12/8/16 Flippa $7,255 416 0.1

And ccTLDs do well too…

awesome.de $1,368 6/29/11 Sedo $10,000 6/11/14 GoDaddy $8,632 631 2.9
designer.io $1,600 11/25/16 Flippa $4,999 12/14/16 Flippa $3,399 212 0.1
angel.in $1,750 4/25/12 Sedo $30,000 11/12/14 Sedo $28,250 1614 2.5
welcome.co.uk $2,500 8/23/11 Sedo $14,191 6/14/16 Sedo $11,691 468 4.7

Let’s turn our attention from generic words to keywords…

Keyword domain names are in the dictionary and can be associated with a product or service. Think Shoes.com or EmergencyShelter.com. You know exactly what you’re going to find when you visit those domain names.

Here are some recent representative keyword domain name sales:

forauction.com $151 9/2/15 GoDaddy $3,350 9/2/16 GoDaddy $3,199 2119 1.0
lotteryservice.com $230 2/16/16 DropCatch $7,000 3/2/16 Sedo $6,770 2943 0.0
urbankitchens.com $309 6/14/14 NameJet $2,950 2/3/16 BuyDomains $2,641 855 1.6
baltimoremagazine.com $601 3/1/16 GoDaddy $3,500 6/9/16 Uniregistry $2,899 482 0.3
apartmentslondon.com $1,050 10/6/15 SnapNames $3,800 3/8/17 NameJet $2,750 262
forexaccount.com $7,605 9/29/16 DropCatch $55,000 1/23/17 NamesCon $47,395 623 0.3

Some non-.com domain name sales include…

storelocator.net $304 2/23/13 GoDaddy $5,000 11/12/14 Sedo $4,696 1545 1.7
thefoundation.org $360 10/13/12 NameJet $5,000 1/14/15 Sedo $4,640 1289 2.2
luxurylodges.co.uk $1,268 8/6/14 Sedo $8,965 9/10/14 Sedo $7,697 607 0.1
lampara.es $1,560 9/26/12 Sedo $37,989 12/5/16 Sedo $36,429 2335 4.1

Let’s take a look at some brandable domain name sales…

Brandable domain names are usually a mix of words plus something else, like a modifier or adjective. Think Facebook.com or Instagram.com. You might have an idea what they do, but brandables require a company to build a brand.

Here are some recent representative brandable domain name sales:

earthhero.com $121 3/14/15 GoDaddy $5,000 3/16/16 Sedo $4,879 4032 1.0
nymble.com $341 6/21/15 GoDaddy $7,000 11/4/15 Uniregistry $6,659 1953 0.4
neverfail.com $2,900 2/20/15 NameJet $150,000 3/30/16 Uniregistry $147,100 5072 1.1
payrocket.com $1,000 8/7/15 Sedo $4,246 8/27/16 NameJet $3,246 325 1.0
convertly.com $610 4/20/16 GoDaddy $6,000 2/15/17 Flippa $5,390

Let’s turn our attention from brandables to acronyms…

Acronyms are simply a series of letters. The shorter the better. For example, Z.com is worth more than ZZ.com, which is worth more than ZZZ.com. Tons of companies like law firms would rather use a shorter acronym for their company website and email addresses. Think International Business Machines using IBM.com or Google rebranding their holding company to Alphabet and choosing ABC.xyz.

Here are some recent representative acronym domain name sales:

lcgp.com $169 3/20/13 GoDaddy $4,088 2/9/14 Afternic $3,919 2319 0.9
jphl.com $459 8/11/15 NameJet $3,100 12/24/15 NameJet $2,641 575 0.4
cfcu.com $929 10/17/15 NameJet $8,500 6/17/16 Sedo $7,571 815 0.7
hyfy.com $904 12/16/13 SnapNames $20,000 12/14/15 Uniregistry $19,096 2112 2.0
rhmf.com $1,525 12/8/16 Sedo $9,900 2/23/17 Sedo $8,375 549 0.2
tcp.com $18,500 12/20/11 Sedo $133,000 12/19/16 Sedo $114,500 619 4.9

Some non-.com acronym sales include…

opex.net $155 8/5/14 GoDaddy $4,500 9/22/15 Sedo $4,345 2803 1.1
btr.org $475 1/19/10 SnapNames $3,750 10/25/16 Sedo $3,275 689 6.7

acm.com.au $334 3/3/11 NetFleet $8,041 6/19/13 NetFleet $7,707 2307 2.3 2-3 com.au
hb.de $5,100 1/10/11 Sedo $34,320 4/11/12 Sedo $29,220 573 1.2
jt.tv $525 3/24/11 SnapNames $6,100 10/19/15 NameJet $5,575 1062 4.5

Let’s look at some numeric domain name sales…

Numerics are a simply a series of numbers. Numerology is a cornerstone of many cultures around the world. In addition, in some non-English languages, navigating the web is easier only using numbers. Think 123.com or the mega-popular Chinese website, 360.cn.

Here are some recent representative numeric domain name sales:

5924.com $2,252 2/2/14 Afternic $8,000 12/9/14 NameJet $5,748 255 0.8
33512.com $107 1/2/14 GoDaddy $3,251 12/30/15 4.CN $3,144 2938 2.0
6105.com $3,462 11/6/13 Sedo $9,000 3/26/15 NameJet $5,538 160 1.4

And in the non-.com sales, we can see…

8878.net $1,075 6/5/14 GoDaddy $14,926 6/5/16 GoDaddy $13,851 1288 2.0

1.gg $1,007 11/23/11 Sedo $7,655 1/3/16 Sedo $6,648 660 4.1
9.pe $2,094 7/9/15 4.CN $5,862 1/16/16 4.CN $3,768 180 0.5
24.tv $4,500 1/21/11 Sedo $28,342 9/10/15 4.CN $23,842 530 4.6

And finally, let’s look at some alphanumeric domain name sales…

Alphanumerics are mixed letters and numbers, and while they’re definitely less popular than acronyms and numerics, we are seeing investment and sales in this space as well.

Here are some recent representative alphanumeric domain name sales:

6t.com $8,200 1/7/11 Sedo $12,874 1/19/11 Sedo $4,674 57
33y.com $1,064 11/24/15 Sedo $5,700 12/7/15 Sedo $4,636 436
hr4.com $780 11/25/15 GoDaddy $5,400 6/1/16 Sedo $4,620 592
bt88.com $2,025 3/29/16 GoDaddy $5,000 10/18/16 Sedo $2,975 147

And in the non-.com space…

mp3.co $4,657 3/23/11 Sedo $9,525 10/15/14 Sedo $4,868 105 3.5
n1.de $2,900 1/8/11 Sedo $12,330 3/2/11 Sedo $9,430 325 0.1
k6.io $104 6/22/16 Park.io $3,000 1/3/17 TLDPros.com $2,896 2785 0.5

So we can see that in all six types of doman names, making smart investments in under-market value domain names — or holding domain names and waiting for appreciation — can yield tremendous results.

Buying a domain name for $100 and selling it for $2,000 after a couple of years, generating a 20x or 2,000 percent return on investment is normal. But you have to be

Again, investing in any of these six types of doman names requires knowledge, skill and practice. Thanks for watching.