May 30, 2023
Is it still possible to make money buying and selling domain names?
For answers I turned to James Iles, who started flipping domains when he was a teenager. Later, he became a blogger in the community. Since last December, James has taken on the role of Global Domain Investing Community Manager for GoDaddy.
In this episode, James shares insights on;
- the critical step you need to take prior to putting any money down to buy domains as an investment,
- how to determine if a particular one is a good choice,
- what it might be worth,
- as well as costs involved,
- what you can expect to earn working at it a couple of hours a day, and
- a fun fact about the .ai extension.
What you’ll hear:
01:45 What a Domain Investment Community Manager does
03:05 James started domain investing as a side hustle
03:29 Can you make money at it today?
04:35 Start with a good education in domain investing, for example GoDaddy’s Domain Academy
05:30 How do you tell if a domain name is a good investment?
07:22 NameBio offers a great database of domain sales that gets updated every day (upwards of $2.3 billion in sales in the database)
08:14 GoDaddy’s tool that uses its back data is called GoValue
10:27 The biggest mistake domain investors make
11:23 One of James’s biggest investing mistakes
12:05 Some of the metrics to look for
12:57 Fees for buying and selling
13:50 Afternic is GoDaddy’s aftermarket sales portal
14:32 James discusses what he sees for side hustle revenue potential
16:43 The .ai extension
18:05 Consider off-line learning resources like in-person conferences, ie NamesCon
20:08 James’s regret in selling staycool dot com
22:03 Low barrier to entry
22:32 Reach out to James through email or Twitter
23:06 His best tip
24:42 Put in the time to learn about the industry - take James up on his offer!
25:13 Before buying what you think is an extremely valuable domain…check the spelling!!!
Connect with James:
Email, jiles at godaddy dot com
Connect with Joan:
https://www.instagram.com/joanposivy/
https://www.facebook.com/posivy/
Be on the show!