Domain investing tips, strategies, and industry insights
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Some domain names support a business. Others become the business. That is what makes the journey of David Timmis especially interesting. He founded the company that would become Leasing.com in 2000 and spent years building real traction on the long, descriptive domain ContractHireAndLeasing.com . The business grew, the market matured, and eventually the name caught up with the ambition.
I should know better. And yet I still catch myself making the same mistake. I buy a name that feels right. Clean. Logical. Real industry. Nothing embarrassing about it. I'd show it to another investor and they'd probably nod and say that's a good name. And then it sits. Not because it's bad. Because it's mismatched. That's the thing nobody really talks about when they're honest about their portfolio.
People ask this question constantly. They paste a domain into an appraisal tool, see a number, and assume that settles it. It does not. I have been investing in domains since 2006 and I still cannot give you a clean formula. What I can tell you is that the tools most people rely on are often wrong, the signals that actually matter are learnable, and the honest answer for most domains is somewhere between "not much" and "it depends on who wants it."
There is a version of domaining that can make you look smarter than you are. I have been there. You get an inbound. Then another one a few weeks later. Maybe something closes. You start telling yourself your instincts are working, your pricing is solid, your portfolio is stronger than you thought. And maybe that is true. But sometimes the name is just doing the work and you are mostly staying out of the way. That took me a while to admit.
NameBio is essential. I'm not going to bury that lead. If you're buying or selling domains seriously and not checking comps, you're guessing. Sales history matters. Price memory matters. I use it every week. It keeps me honest. But newer investors fall into a trap with it. They think the spreadsheet is the whole story. It's not even close. NameBio shows you what sold and for how much. What it doesn't show is why that number happened.
Most domain investors end up clustering in the middle. Solid names. Sensible prices. Familiar comps. Nothing reckless, nothing embarrassing. A portfolio that looks responsible on paper and probably is. I built portfolios like that for years. Still have some of that inventory if I'm honest. The middle feels safe because it mostly is safe. The problem is safe tends to produce average.
The country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Anguilla that has become extremely popular for artificial intelligence companies and projects.
A generic top-level domain (gTLD) operated by Google, designed for mobile applications and app developers.
A generic top-level domain for communities, organizations, and membership-based groups.
A generic top-level domain suitable for any internet-based business or presence.
A generic top-level domain designed for e-commerce and retail businesses.
A generic top-level domain targeting the technology sector.