Managing Your Domain Portfolio

There are several pieces that go into building a domain portfolio, and if done correctly you can have a substantial return on your investment. There are various strategies that go into building a domain portfolio such as defensive or promotional approaches. After choosing a strategy consider consolidating, security options, and maximizing cost reduction to save you time and money.

What is a Domain Portfolio?

A domain portfolio website is a collection of all your domains. All the domains in the collection are owned by you or your corporation. Your portfolio should be well organized and store everything in one place so you can easily transfer, change prices, and consolidate as you see fit. 

Investment Strategy

Choosing the right strategy for your portfolio will ensure you're getting the right domains and the biggest return.

Buy and hold

This strategy takes the most time, with the top domain investors holding on to domains for upwards of a decade. That being said, the return on these investments can be huge. With this strategy you purchase a domain you think could be valuable in the years to come. These domains are short, easy to read and pronounce, have potential for high search engine optimization, and have a good chance of having value in the future. Essentially, they are generic domain names. For example, something as simple as furniture.com could be $20 today but if a small business turns into a chain and the company name is furniture, there’s no telling what they would be willing to pay for that domain name. Mike Mann is a great example of picking out domains he feels will be a great domain opportunity in the future. For instance, in 2012 he paid $158 for TinyTree.com, in 2019 he sold it for almost $30,000. 

What should I look for in a buy and hold? 

• Common words (ex: house, sunset, science)
• Short as possible (4 letters is ideal)
• If the domain is a few words long think: INDUSTRY DEMAND (what's popular right now? what do you think will be popular in the future?)

To start buying domains for cheap visit Sav.com.

How can I acquire the perfect buy and hold domain? 

1. Choose an industry to familiarize yourself with. 
2. Do research on this industry and start creating predictions for what you think is to come in that market.
3. Make a list of words that you feel would preform well in the future. For example, let's say you want to focus on the fitness industry. Based on your research you believe that there will be a market for at home exercise classes and training in the next few years. Taking this subject into account start thinking of phrases that fit within the subject. For example "at home pilates, boxing in house, remote running".
4. Start putting these keywords in as domains and see if they are available--try getting .com TLDs if you can. For this example trying: remoterunning.com, homepilates.com, and boxingathome.com are just a few ideas. If you're unable to find the phrases or words you want ending in .com try other TLD's that make sense. Such as boxingathome.us, mypilates.live, and remoterunning.org.

Start searching for domains here.

How can I acquire the perfect buy and hold domain? 

Another way to acquire high quality buy and hold domains are premium domains. Premium domains are names that have a likelihood to become popular web addresses. They most likely already have high SEO and are getting organic traffic on their own. These domains are likely to increase in value as time goes on, which makes them a perfect buy and hold option.

Quick flip

Flippers couldn’t be farther from a buy and hold. This tactic is when a domain investor buys a domain for less than its market value and quickly sells it for higher than what they paid for it. While the turnaround isn’t instant, it almost always happens within a year, most times within a few weeks. To view what the market value of a domain is you can go to EstiBot.

There are three main types of quick flips. The first is wholesale. Wholesale flips are when individuals buy domains at miscellaneous sites and then sell them on a bigger platform in hopes for more money than what they paid for it. For example, prospects.org was bought in June 2018 for $180 and sold seven months later for $421. That being said, wholesale flips are the riskiest of the three and you are more at risk for loss. For example, goodmakers.com was bought for $3,500 in May 2018 and sold eight months later for $687. 

A less risky way to flip domains is geo-flipping. In geo flipping an investor buys domains based on a geographic area and may sell them to businesses in the community. For example, Chicagorealesate.com could be sold to a real estate firm in the Chicago area. Lastly, there’s targeted flipping. This flipping is targeted to be a quick sale to a brand that already exists. For example, Chicagorealestate.com may buy Chicagorealestate.xyz to make sure that more traffic goes to their homepage in case anyone types in the TLD incorrectly. 

Where's a good place to buy domains for a quick flip?

Our recommendation is to take advantage of expired domain auctions when buying domains for quick flips. The seller potentially wanting the domain back and traffic already going to the domain are just two reasons this is a good option. 

If you go to Sav's Auction Marketplace anything marked Pending Delete is an expired domain. To find the expired domains on the auction page, go here.

Consolidating Your Domain Names

Consolidating your domain names has several benefits. When building your domain portfolio you may realize that you have domains with several registrars. Which means several logins and furthermore several assets all over the place making it harder to realize what’s working well and what’s not. Choosing one domain registrar and having everything in one place will help you easily compare all your domains. To that point, having everything in one place means one login. 

It’s of the utmost importance that you keep your login and contact information up to date. ICANN has a contact policy that if your contact name is not up to date within 15 days your domain registrar is required to suspend your account and all your domains. Another reason you should consolidate your domain names is to build a relationship with your registrar. Registrars know who their top domain name investors are. If you have multiple domains with one registrar they are more likely to give you the best user experience possible. 

Another feature to consider when picking a registrar is whether they have other features to maximize your time on their website and consolidate other features into your experience. Sav is a great example. While you can manage your domain on their website you can also utilize their website builder and keep everything in one place. This makes for an all inclusive portfolio site experience. If you haven't done so, transfer all your domains to one registrar!

Domain Name Security

When thinking about having all your eggs in one basket you want to make sure that basket has high quality protection. Especially when the basket is holding onto personal data. The first step to making sure your domains are protected is picking a good registrar. Making sure your registrar is reputable ensures that your online presence is protected. Once setting up an account with a registrar make sure you opt-in to two step authentication. While most apps, sites, and social media platforms have this option, now is when it really counts. Making sure that only the people that are supposed to access your domain do is crucial. 

While most sites offer two factor authentication, some registrars offer additional privacy options. Registrars like Sav.com have free privacy protection and SSL for all. These features ensure that all online transactions are protected and keep your information secure. Another way to keep your information safe is WHOIS protection. WHOIS protection is when your registrar replaces your contact information with a forwarding address. So if someone looked up your domain your private information wouldn’t appear. 

Keeping Costs Low

When building your domain portfolio you need to be as efficient as possible. Saving dollars in some cases could add up to thousands. There are several things you can do to save money. One is keeping an eye out for domain name registration deals, no site is going to have free domains but some registrars sell domains for as little as $0.69. Additionally, they will offer discounts on registration or renewals when first signing up on their site to bring in more potential clients. Renewals are another thing to keep in mind, these prices will vary from registrar to registrar so look at the entire cost before deciding on one. Another cost to look out for is transferring fees. When selling your own domain you may have to pay a fee to sell it and in some cases it can be upwards of 20%. 

1,000 Day Rule

Before getting started on your portfolio you want to make sure you are setting a good foundation for your domain investing venture. Michael Cyger, domain expert suggests to take 1,000 days studying the domain name marketplace before diving into your first purchase. He recommends breaking the 1,000 days into an hour a day for six days of the week over three years. While this seems like a lengthy process there is so much to learn. From custom domains, TLDs, auctions, and more. Spreading out the information over a long period of time increases retention and ensures you are really understanding the market. We recommend utilizing tutorials, forums, and our Help Center for any questions you may have about the domain name world.

Maintaining Your Domain Name Portfolio

When you have an online portfolio there are several moving parts. Throughout the process of managing your domains you will need to renew, transfer, modify, and more. Being able to do this at one time is highly recommended simply because it’s more efficient. Many registrars will allow you to renew, transfer, and edit prices all at once. Make sure your registrar is performing at its highest functionality by offering features like these.

How Can Sav Help Me Build My Portfolio?

Our low transferring fees, bulk management tools, and free privacy protection will help you maximize your domain portfolio experience! Start selling today.