When I found out first hand that you can make money with domains, a lot of money, and pretty easy money actually, the year was 2003... Unfortunately, I was so freakin busy with a million other things that I could barely dedicate any quality time to this new found opportunity. So, basically all I did was buy a few good domains per week when I had enough time to do the research / commit and then attempt to flip them over at eBay a few days later. So a few month's go by and I did something like 100 deals and I am thinking to myself... Time to take it to the next level. It's time to get serious and see how far I can go...
So in late 2003 I signed up with Afternic and listed some of my domains there... My domains didn't get much action over there, because they weren't all that great, hehe... But whatever, I continued to do all my research on the domain business and reading up all the domain forums whenever I had free time. So after at least 6 good month's of researching all about domains, I signed up over at the #1 domain forum in the world, DNForum.com and the other domain forums as well and started selling domains there right away...
I always did the sales in bulk. I never bothered much doing one deal at a time with the exception of a few where I could turn in a guaranteed profit. I'd put up groups of domains for sale with the stats, etc... and I'd figure at least some of the domains would sell. I'd also contact many of the "serious buyers" privately and offer them amazing deals that they simply couldn't turn down. I priced them more than fairly always. Well, all of the domains sold pretty much each and every time. I offered traffic domains with revenues. People loved em!!
I was never big on sound good / brandable domains or ones in weird gTLD extensions and all that crap. I wanted domains that were "alive" that generated money and traffic. I didn't want to get stuck with deadweight. So yea, anyways... Within a few month's of buying / selling domains each and every day on the forums and closing lots of deals I decide that I need to dedicate 100% of my time to domains. This is where it's at.... Huge opportunities!!!
It was really tough for me from 2003 - 2004 though... Because I was going to school, I had a really awesome job too offline which paid good money, trying to do the sports thing as well and chasing as many girlies as I can get on the weekends... You know, I was a youngster and still very much interested in all that social stuff that most teens do daily. Even though the money was very good with domains, I was like... Ok, it will always be there. No?! I got more important stuff to do right now.... No rush?! Or is there... Hehe.
So, I finally came to my senses in mid 2004 as I continued to learn more and more about domains by actually dealing with other veteran domainers. It became 100% clear to me that "you snooze you lose" in this game and that this opportunities wait for nobody... I made a series of the biggest decisions of my life in a very short period of time. I dropped out of school. I quit the job I always wanted. I moved out of my parents house. I told most of my friends and other people I knew that I am moving back to Florida to do other shit. Oh yea, I wasn't even 18 when I did all of this. People thought I was CRAZY!!! :)
Hehe.. It was crazy, sure, but I knew what I had to do. It was hard to explain to everyone the domain biz and everything else that was going on and I really didn't give a shit back then whether I had anybody's approval or not. I basically wanted to be isolated and spend as much time as possible with this domaining thing. I spent day in and day out finding the best domains to acquire which I could monetize by parking them and then selling them to others. I was in the house in front of a bunch of pc's fired up for really really long periods of time.
I'd buy a domain which had traffic, monetize it.. Collect stats for a few weeks or month's and then put it up for sale. I'd sell 100s of traffic/revenue domains per week. I was spending $xx,xxx monthly on buying new domains but consistently turning in a very nice profit whenever I needed/wanted to sell. I had deals completed within 1 day. It was great... So from having no time to dedicate to domains, to going full time with it... Before I knew it, I was doing over time!! Big time!!! We are talking about 80 and 90 hour weeks. Only a few hours of sleep and going out to the gym to stay sane. It was unreal. Time really flew by and there were so many opportunities to come along the way.
Since 2005, I have applied the same aggressive approach to various other opportunities and biz ventures which I've researched thoroughly and things have worked out lovely for the most part. I was never afraid to take a risk. That is just how I am naturally. You know.. Big risk= big rewards. It really is all about thinking outside of the box this days in 2009 and beyond and committing yourself 100% to whatever it is that you feel passionate about. If you find something that works, go at it hard. Find that something that you are really good at and get that success going x100 or x1000s on the next level and then the next and so on. If you don't know how to, or attempted already but failed... No worries. Find something else. There is so many opportunities!!
You know... Domain investing, this is the "foundation" of every successful business operation on the internet today. You really want to make sure you know what you are doing with em... If you don't get domains 100% or quite clearly understand how to make money with em, at least a little bit of money... Hehe... Houston, we have problem!! All of this opportunities are right around you but it is up to you to spot them and make em work... Then of course we also have: Affiliate marketing. Development / SEO. E-Commerce...and so on.
They are all businesses which you can hit it big within a few month's if you are serious about it and know what you are doing. It's not easy, sure... But nothing is this days. You gotta bust your ass and hustle. But you only need a few thousand bucks to get up and running and see results!! If you enjoy all the challenges and have a good work ethic, you can make it. Believe in yourself and try your best to make it work. Do the research. Invest money wisely. One step at a time.. Things will come together. With time...
The most important thing though is to enjoy what you do. I always enjoyed domaining, development, seo, etc.. If you don't absolutely 100% love what you do... You will never peak at 100% productivity and bring out all that potential that you may have hidden somewhere. You have to be fully committed and determined to succeed with your projects and pour your heart and soul into em... Because if you don't... FAIL! It shows in the results and elsewhere.
If you find it difficult to get inspired by other successful people and your face turns red and you want to kick and scream and curse everybody out because you start feeling a bit weird... Heh.. What can I tell ya.... "breathe, just breathe..." It's ok :) It's just not your time, yet ... Don't get bummed out or be too hard on yourself. Some people have it easy, Ok, a lot easier than others... While some simply don't. If you truly want something, you don't let anything get in your way. You go out there and get it. Everything is possible on the net.
Articles at WannaDevelop.com
02/18/2009: New year.. New products... New prices.. New staff... Lots going on in the development biz! 02/06/2010: Must see auctions at Bido! Five days, back-to-back all this week.. Over 100 keyword domains priced to sell! No offers will be turned down 12/01/2009: Domain Stryker pre-registration now officially open... Launch date set for later this month! 11/25/2009: WordPress based affiliate e-commerce shops available for as low as $249 per domain!! keep 100% of all sales and leads :) 10/17/2009: The wait is over... DomainStryker.com is live!
