Advice Needed for the Sort of Exoperienced

[mlalande]

I am not going to surprise anyone with my request for help. I have a great career as counsel and several years ago I ventured into the world of ecommerce with some partners. We build an american ecommerce brand and build up a company that eventually was purchased. At that point I learned a lot about seo. When the company sold I ventured into buying domains (almost 100% are .ca) that revolved around my law practice niche. (right around the time I joined this forum in 2006 - big reader and not a big poster)

I kept buying good domains in other professional fields and now I luckily own about 250 to 300 great .ca domains. My problem is like everyone's problem - my registration fees are getting out of control and unbelievably expensive per annum. Every month Im shelling out tons of dollars on names I refuse to get rid of.

I looked at parking last year and that seems to be a lose lose deal, especially after google's several shakeups. At this point Im caught between a rock and a hard place. I'm quite possessive about my names and I can't part with them....but my fees are just crazy.

Im wondering if other successful domainers can share their strategies with me, to a certain level. I bet that nearly all the top domainers are a part of this forum - would you share some advice with me on what to do, how to moniteze, if there is any custom software (outside of traditional cms's) that they focus on or own, or how in fact I can just satisfy the cost of my registration fees, monthly?

I have some ideas - For example I own a top toronto site (in my field of law) that has good exact match traffic that has a CPC over 45.00 that I would be willing to share with someone for development. Im very familiar with design and seo, but my problem is time. Perhaps if someone wants to create a monster I can absolutely load it with content and put a keyword loaded blog posts on there every morning.

I dont know what to do and I am very welcoming of advice, both here and privately.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[katherine]

You know, many domain holders, including domainers are infatuated with their domains.
They don't even realize they are domain collectors. That's what they are.

You say you own 250-300 domains. Have you got any inquiries/unsolicited offers for any of those ?
If the answer is never, it probably means your portfolio sucks.

What was your intention when you bought them if you don't park them or advertise them for sale ? use them all ?

Trimming the portfolio sounds like the thing to do, or at least cast a critical look at it. Post them in the Appraisal section and you'll see if any stand out.
If you have tried to corner a niche, you probably have a lot of redundant domains, keep the best, dump the rest.

 

[BostonDomainer]

A few years back, when my portfolio was getting fairly solid, what I did was trusted my judgement on purchases but created a safety net by purchasing a handful of strong .com domain names who's traffic and revenue was able to sustain the cost of all the other domains and then some. So my suggestion would be to diversify your portfolio a bit or as Kathrine mentioned, identify the winners and drop the losers.

 

[mlalande]

That's a good idea. What about something to moniteze them in the meantime - at least a little bit? Im just confused at what system to buy, and/or whether to pay them some of them to be developed for content. Ive had problems with parking - but is there other systems out there now that members can comment on?

A few years back, when my portfolio was getting fairly solid, what I did was trusted my judgement on purchases but created a safety net by purchasing a handful of strong .com domain names who's traffic and revenue was able to sustain the cost of all the other domains and then some. So my suggestion would be to diversify your portfolio a bit or as Kathrine mentioned, identify the winners and drop the losers.