How did you stumble into "domaining"?

[Infoproliferati]

I remember Nov 16th 2008. I was really bored at work and browsed through sites while trying to kill time. What I can't remember is how I ended up at Godaddy. I assume all those Danica/Godaddy ads had done their part in convincing my subconscious to check out the site. Anyway I found myself at Godaddy and I thought to myself "well let's see what names are available."

Almost 30 names in and they were all taken. So I figured I'd create a brand name. I did. My coworkers thought it was cool that I owned a domain. They weren't fun of the domain though. The next day I registered the 2nd domain which I have until this day.

I gotta tell ya the rush I got from registering the first 2 names was incredible. I registered them not wanting to sell or park and without any ecommerce strategy in mind. The names would just be used at a later date I told myself. I decided to do some general research on domains. The main driver to research domains was triggered by stories I'd heard as a teenager about some "lucky" person selling a domain for big bucks.

My search led me to Dnjournal where I read invaluable articles and stumbled onto the domain sales weekly. "WTF?" I remember thinking. That domain can't possibly be worth that much...Can it? For the longest time, I'd held the displaced belief that the market for domains had seen its best days in the 90s. If there was anything left in the marketplace, it certainly wasn't for the newcomer.

Upon further research, I discovered Sedo and its great many listings. Almost instantly, I easily convinced myself the domain marketplace may have a spot for a newcomer. It was then that I made the decision to start domaining.

Boy! What a road it has been. I bought a load of crappy names and trimmed down my portfolio every month. Today I have 53 names. If I hadn't trimmed down I would have close to 300 or 400 names by now. Cash burned: $2300-2400. Has domaining been worthwhile? Well that's for another thread.

So my dear domain investor, what brought you to this corner of the web?

 

[TheLegendaryJP]

Mine is simple, was never a computer guy, never owned one until 2004/5, my girlfriend at the time had one and when I would visit I would go to ebay and a car forum I joined, thats it, she restricted my time lol

One day while watching the superbowl I saw GD's first ad and said to myself " if there is a forum to discuss my car, is there one about domains? " I had no clue what a domain was yet but soon found out, rest is histroy... Lost my first $800 to new regs ( at GD ) and my first purchase was a $500 acronym I resold for $4k and on and on.

So essentially I fell into it but it was the hard work and research that made it pay off.

 

[hugegrowth]

In late 1999 I read about some big domain name sales, and went to Register.com to see what was available. Bought my first names in Jan 2000. They cost $35/yr back then to reg. When the Internet bubble burst I didn't do much for a few years, held some names and dropped a bunch of crappy ones. Started getting back into it in late 2004/2005 when I discovered DNJournal and this forum.

 

[Jilo]

Up to 2008 I wasn't aware of the domaining world. In November 2008, I stumbled on a domain for sale on eBay for around $300. After much research, I found it could be a pretty good buy, so I bought it.

A week later, someone offered me $600 for it. So I took it, researched some more, read a few blogs and ended up here!

 

[Tia Wood]

The year was 1999. It was a dark and stormy night. Just kidding.

The year was 1999 and I was pregnant with my daughter. Her Father was earning his Microsoft certifications and had a slew of computers in the house. I was always curious about them and wanted to learn how a website worked. That got me into web development and graphic design.

From then, I just naturally collected domains and built websites, nothing major. A few years later I stumbled upon DNForum but did not join because it cost money. I thought DNF was nuts for charging people to join but it sparked my curiosity even further and I became excited that there was a name for my "addiction". I had a hunch that I probably wasn't the only one who loved domains so I was very excited to find this community.

I remember when Google and GoDaddy were the best secrets on the internet and eBay was just a rumor!