I started my domain-flipping journey in March of 2022.
And like many domain flippers out there, I had the dream to make one big sale.
Sale big enough to shake the entire domain-flipping Industry.
So, I invested in 45 domains in 2022…
And here’s an update, one year later!
Did I make any sales?
Even better…
Am I a millionaire now? 😉
In this article, I will share everything about my domain-flipping journey and the lessons I’ve learned along the way.
let’s dive right in:
What is Domain Flipping?
Domain Flipping is the process of buying a domain name at a cheaper price and selling it for a higher price.
You do not have to add content or build a website on the domain, you will be selling just the domain name.
Now, you may be wondering:
Why would people buy a domain name for a higher price when they can simply register a domain themselves for like $10?
Well, not all domains are created equal.
Some domain has a higher value, whereas some domain has a lower value.
To explain this:
Imagine your name is Ron and you started a brand new restaurant “RonDeliversOnline”.
And you want to register the domain name “RonDeliversOnline.com” but the domain name is taken by someone else.
Now, think about it:
You really like the name RonDeliversOnline.
Now, would you compromise with changing your restaurant name or getting any other random domain name because the domain is already taken?
If you are smart, (and have a few hundred dollars in your pocket), you won’t.
Right?
So, your next step will be contacting the domain seller to negotiate a price for the domain name.
You will probably pay a few hundred dollars for the domain name because it is exactly what you need.
And the seller makes a good amount of profit right?
So, this is how domain flipping works in a nutshell.
You buy a domain name that is short or brandable and put it on sale and someone who needs the domain will buy it at your price.
Now, that we know how Domain flipping works, let’s move straight into my domain-flipping journey:
How I started Domain Flipping?
In 2022, I was looking for different side hustle ideas and I stumbled upon “Domain Flipping”.
I’ve heard about it before and but I really didn’t give any attention to it.
But this time, I wanted to create some passive income on the side so I thought to give it a try.
I watched a couple of Youtube videos and did some research on the web.
And I found some interesting insights about domain sales.
For instance, voice.com was sold for $30 million in 2019.
It blew my mind!
But I also knew that it is impossible to find a 1-word domain name so I made up my mind to sell two words domain names for few thousand dollars at least.
And within a few days, I decided to start investing in the domains.
I did some math and created a plan of action to buy 20 expired domains to officially start my Domain Flipping business.
How did I select Domain Names?
I started researching expired domains on ExpiredDomains.net which is a free site. You will find thousands of expired domains updated daily on the site.
My process of selecting a domain was simple.
ExpiredDomain.net updates its list every day at midnight (for my timezone) so I would set a reminder to log in to the site every single day.
Then I would manually check the massive list of domains and favorite the domains I like the most.
If a domain name is really good, I would immediately start checking its stats so someone else will not register it first.
I’ve learned this lesson the hard way: if a domain is so good, never wait.
Then I would manually go through my favorite list and then check the stats of the expired domains.
Here are the things I check on the domain before buying it:
- Length of the domain – Shorter domain names have a higher value.
- Keywords – I usually buy keyword-rich domain names.
- Spam score – Domain names with a spam score of less than 20%
- Domain Authority – Domains with higher domain authority are valuable.
- WayBackMachine – Check the history of the domain on the Wayback machine
- Indexed Pages on Google – If there are indexed pages on Google, then it has some SEO benefits.
After checking these factors, you will have an idea of how valuable the domain is, what was the history of the domain (what was it used for), and so on.
So, I started registering domains after analyzing all the factors I’ve discussed above. The initial goal was to register 20 domains but I registered around 45 domain names in 2022.
Now, let’s move on to the juicy stuff:
How Much Did I Make Flipping Domains in 2022?
As I said earlier, I invested in a total of 45 domains and the price of domains ranged from $5.17 all the way to $44. I’ve bought some domains at a higher price as the metrics were really good.
And the total cost of all the domains was $426.86
So, how many domain sales did I make?
Drumroll…please
I sold a grand total of 6 domains.
And I sold these 6 domains just 1 month before the domains were getting expired.
(And I will discuss how later in this post)
The domains were sold for $20 each which I bought at an average price of $9.48
After Namecheap’s 2% marketplace commission, I made a total of $108.
So, I made a loss of $318.86
Losing $318.96 was painful, obviously.
But what I am happy about is:
I’ve learned a lot more about Domain Flipping than 1 year before. And all the mistakes I’ve made will help me to be more careful this time.
And that takes us to the next section:
Why Did I fail?
I was a complete newbie when I started this journey. I had no previous experience with Domain Flipping. So, I was destined to make mistakes.
But we all make mistakes on our journey to success and we have to learn from our mistakes and plan accordingly.
That’s my thought process!
So, what are the mistakes I’ve made, and what you can also learn from them:
#1 Higher Expectation
As I mentioned at the beginning, I had a dream to make a huge sale. And that was one of my mistakes.
I was expecting to make a huge sale, so I tried finding the perfect domain name that can be sold for thousands of dollars.
And with that mindset, I set the price of each domain really high.
And the result?
11 months passed by and nobody was willing to buy the domains for such a high price.
Instead, they probably find an alternative domain name.
But the thing is:
If you buy a domain for $10 and sell it for $20, you will still make a good profit of around $8 per domain.
And that is a nice profit magic considering the fact that it’s a passive income source.
So, unless you have a really good domain name with great metrics, never set a high price.
This was my mistake and I learned it at the last moment.
When all the domain name I had bought was slowly near the expiry date.
I thought, why not lower the price to $20, and see If I can make some sales?
And I set the price of all domains to $20.
The result?
I was able to sell 6 domain names.
But one month, all the remaining domain names got expired.
So, If I had set a realistic price for each domain from the beginning, then probably I could sell most of the domain names and make some profit.
So, the bottom line is:
Unless you have a domain name like Google.com, never set a huge price.
You can still make good money keeping a small profit margin 🙂
#2 Never Listen to your Heart
If a domain name has good metrics, it will eventually sell.
Simple… right?
But what I did at the beginning was purchase domains based on my own thought.
I purchased a domain because I thought it sounded cool and I made the judgment without checking the history of sold domains, and metrics.
That was a huge mistake!
And this mistake sounds obvious.
But I fall into this trap and I keep buying more and more domains that sounded good but had no value.
So, I purchased around 25 more domains than I initially planned.
And I regret this more than anything.
#3 Didn’t put Time and Effort
After putting in the time and effort to find the best domain names, this business is mostly passive.
Do it once and forget everything.
But if you really forget everything, then you are doomed!
That’s what I did.
So, I listed the domains for sale on Dan.com which is a domain marketplace.
And once I did all the hard work to list the domains, I took a short break.
And I forgot everything about Dan.
Since I was using a secondary email to create an account on Dan.
I didn’t check any email and didn’t log in to Dan for months.
When I checked my Emails I had 2 offers to buy the domains.
Offer #1
Offer #2
But it was too late.
When I replied back, the buyers probably changed their minds.
I am not saying that It was a guaranteed deal.
But If I had replied in time, then there would be a great chance of making the sale.
Final Thoughts
Despite making a loss of $318.86, I still consider domain flipping a profitable business. And I am excited more than ever to invest more (and carefully) this time. With all the AI trends lately, there is a good opportunity to make money by flipping domains. This time I won’t be repeating the same mistakes I’ve done before.
And I will keep you guys updated about my domain flipping journey in 2023.
If you have any questions or want to share your own experience flipping domains, then feel free to share them in the comment section.
