Am I already too late in the game?

[sashas]

It seems to me that all the good names have already been taken, and all the good aftermarket names are taken by established players.

So is it totally worthless coming into domaining now?

I don't hope to make huge bucks. I just hope to do this thing on the side, not like the big players (dn forum has a lot of those). Heck, I'd be happy with just 500 bucks a month (being a college student, even that much is great).

But it seems that I'm already too late in the game. I've spent a decent amount on domains already (which I don't think are that bad), but don't seem to be recouping any of it.

Is it hopeless?

[DomainsInc]

If you have a lot of money to spend, no. If you don't unless you get lucky and just happen to hand reg something decent, yes. You have to think about if the time you put into it is worth what you are getting out of it. Chances are no matter what you won't make money right away but if you are doing a ton of work for $500/month, your time might be better spent elsewhere.

[Focus]

Pm me your list of domains and I will give you some pointers on how to make more money if they have traffic...or point you in the right direction to get better domains..it is NEVER too late. There is ALOT of opportunity for everyone and it's a HUGE PIE, all you need is a little slice to make decent money...but you have to know what works and what does'nt...and yes, you do have to spend money to make money.

[whitebark]

You have to work hard and find a niche that is not heavily exploited. For some that may be cctlds or idns and for others it might be typo domains. Either way, you will have to spend some money and spend even more time.

I'm in university too - I sacrifice sleep. If you are prepared to sacrifice and work hard and smart, there is avenues to make money here.

Good luck.

[bwhhisc]

You might put a small part of your domain investment into IDNs, Internationalized Domain Names in foreign languages which will come into mainstream use over the next year and beyond when IE7 browser (which is IDN compatable) gains major market share in Asia, Russia and elsewhere. There are still some decent .coms if you spend some time searching, and still a lot of good .nets and .jps. Also some good deals on the secondary market that could potentially give you extraordinary returns over the next 12-36 months. Check out some of the IDN sales reports at DNJournal or idntools.net sites to get a feel for some of the x,xxx and xx,xxx sales that are have been happening over the past year.

[wrdekle]

If you have limited capital, your only hope of doing well is either through website creation (better be crazy good) or from fresh regging IDN domains (.com/.net or ccTLD only) or perhaps do both (gulp).

Don't let anybody talk you into non .com or .net extensions, it's far too hard for you to make money in those niches.

Even if you don't speak another language fluently, it just means you need to try a little harder but at least in IDNs unlike everything else there is still hope of doing well because it is very early days. Also the majority of domainers don't fully understand the opportunity yet so the field is still relatively undisturbed for those who do. I make far more than $500 per month on traffic from IDN domains so your stated goal is not far fetched.

[xserver]

The same to me!

[duskdawn]

It's never too late.
You see many people here responded actually joined 1 or 2 yrs earlier than you (even though not necessarily). If they can do well then you can too.
I did pretty well with new TLDs, .us/.mobi all make me a confident player now. When your fund grows, you have more options and strategies to invest in.

[Ashaw]

Its certainly not too late... I am actually in the middle of writing an ebook on how to get into the business quick and easy in todays day and age. If anyone wants to contribute and add any kind of tricks or tips they find useful please feel free to help me out and add some suggestions. More people in this industry will only make things better. More Buyers and more sellers, not just a lot of one. Opening up doors, and showing the newbies how things are done would be benificial to everyone here.

[hugegrowth]

If you don't have a lot of money, you'll have to rely on smart regs, keeping a lookout for new terms and words and trends, doing some web development, and some web 2.0 networking wouldn't hurt (like starting your own blog on a subject of interest and monetizing it). Even the top domainers are still hand regging every day (Kevin Ham said he does what, 10-20 new names per day?). If you get some decent money coming in, reinvest some of it in domains. If I lost all my names today I'd be back in tomorrow starting over. You are still way ahead of the general population by getting in today - good luck and you are in the right place to learn here.

[Poker]

Not too late, just get creative.

[Focus]

I hand reg good domains every day..you would be amazed at whats left and what becomes available and the drops don't catch because it does'nt have ovt with ext...I have domains that get HUNDREDS of type-ins per day that have zero ovt with ext and only a few hundred searches per month also...you just have to do you research and ask questions, so good start!

[hugegrowth]

I would love to hand reg a .com domain that gets hundreds, even dozens, of hits per day ... JUST ONCE. lol

[tonyfloyd]

Originally Posted by Focus

I hand reg good domains every day..you would be amazed at whats left and what becomes available and the drops don't catch because it does'nt have ovt with ext...I have domains that get HUNDREDS of type-ins per day that have zero ovt with ext and only a few hundred searches per month also...you just have to do you research and ask questions, so good start!

Focus - whats your secret man????....lol...

i also would love a hand-regged domain with 100's of type-ins per day...

Focus - do u really develop any...or are they all parked??

[sashas]

I have funds - for now at least. I had something of a windfall and investing it in a bank seemed stupid (4% interest? hell no) and domains seemed to be a good investment.
I don't think I have too bad domains. I atleast don't have the newbie domains (5 words, 3 hyphens...those type).

One thing that I've found really helpful is the New York Times, especially their technology section. If they report on something new, odds are, its going to be big.

And I've found the people here to be really great, really encouraging.
Thanks to everybody for replying...I'm gonna stick through the domaining business for atleast another couple of years

Thanks!

[touchring]

Careful, what the ASCIIers are telling you is that it's not too late, but you must spend helluva time to find the untaken gems.

[sashas]

time is something I have a lot of (college's out!).

I need to research more about IDN's though. Seem a bit complicated...

[lazyleo]

Well i develop most of my names and make traffic if i happen to have regged a domain without any traffic ...this industry surly can accommodate many more

[cee]

Question: Is it too late?

Answer: I would not jump to say "no." I would say it depends on how smart you are. The more literate you are with computers, the better chance you have at being successful. The less you know, the closer to "Yes, it is too late for you" you get. Creativity is also a big factor, as Poker said. Connections are very helpful, too. If you know the owner of a registrar site, even a small one (size does not matter), the better chance you have for acquiring dropped names (and we all know that x,xxx+ domains drop every day). Having an affiliation of some sort with a registrar gives you the upper hand in registering these names (as the registrars are informed first when the name drops). For instance, I've known domains were available (recently dropped) from another registrar and GoDaddy would still say they were taken (queued? purposefully delayed?).

[Johnn]

It is a billion dollar business across the globe.
You can start and stop anytime from $1 to whatever your budget can handle.
People are making money everyday and there is no blue book for the price.

Never too late to learn and make money. It's too late to spend money.