Sedo.com .AI Auction 19th - 26th September / 99$ Reserve / 80 Keyword domains

Hey Guys,

Just wanted to do a quick post about the .AI Auction, which should be announced today by Sedo for the next week.

It’s quite a special auction because:

• I’m listing all my 80 .ai keyword domains.
• The reserve for all domains is $99.

When I decided to do the auction, I read through some posts here about high reserve prices and took that feedback to set the reserve at $99.

If you just want to take a look at all the domains, here they are:

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LnJK8APeevEWqaqG60h9nHG0EpDgA_2xSnpMQIgBgaA/edit?usp=sharing

The list includes domains like units.ai, terminals.ai, reselling.ai, pnr.ai, squads.ai, publicly.ai, kills.ai, musicals.ai, and divorces.ai.

Here the Backstory:

So, why the hell do I sell such domains at an auction and then all at once?

I got into domain investing because whenever I had a business or project idea, I’d think of the brand name and buy the matching domain. Most of those projects never happened, so I was left with a bunch of domains and no idea what to do with them.

I knew there was a market, but I didn’t know what buyers were looking for. So, I started researching, listed my domains on various marketplaces, and forgot about them—until one sold for $99. That’s when I realized I could buy and sell domains for profit.

I got hooked on finding dropping domains and became obsessed with checking Expireddomains.net daily, sometimes twice a day, for brandable .coms—no keywords, just names.

Then, GPT-3 came along, and I quickly became a power user. I used it for everything: work, study, research, and more—constantly running out of tokens and even upgrading to a second plan.

I quickly saw the potential in AI domains and bought a few at an expired .ai auction—Trademarks.ai, Units.ai, and Squads.ai. There were better ones available, but I didn’t have set criteria and was going off my gut feeling.

I listed them like I had before and waited. Nothing happened at first, but I knew it would take time. Eventually, I got impatient and lowered the price.

A few days later, I received an email: Trademarks.ai sold...

The domain was the product, and no one could judge me personally. If I had been selling a service or solution, people could have said, "This is crap." But with a domain, the value is in the name itself, not tied to me. (Obviously a fear of mine)

So, I decided to take action.

I wanted to buy more domains, but everyone kept saying the good ones were gone. I thought, maybe, maybe not—but manually researching is too time-consuming. There had to be a way to automate this.

Using ChatGPT, I developed Python scripts (despite not knowing how to code) to check the availability of around 20,000 keywords I had collected. After manually reviewing the results, I found about 70-80 domains I wanted to buy—and I bought them.

But now what?

List them passively on marketplaces and wait again?

I knew that successful investors like Andrew Rosener or the Booths made their money by:

• Acquiring great names
• Building large portfolios to cover low sell-through rates.

I had made some money this way too—it’s an old proven strategy.

But i made some calculations:

With an industry sell-through rate of 2-3%, on 80 domains, that’s just 1-2 sales per year. That was too slow for me.

I also learned that 99% of leads come inbound.

But when it came to outbound marketing, hardly anyone talked about it. And when they did:

• It was mostly brokers.
• They were working with domain listings priced north of $100k.
• Their focus was on 5-10 premium buyers.

So, I thought, if I could do outbound differently, things might change.
If I could:

• Target mid-market buyers with mid-market prices,
• Reach 50-500 prospects per domain, fully automated,

I could increase the sell-through rate to 10-20% and build a large portfolio much faster.

My plan:

• Identify valuable domains automatically.
• Sell them through automated outbound.

In theory, this approach sounded great, and technically, it was absolutely viable. But here’s what I underestimated:

• Relevancy in cold outbound: To get a response, the buyer needs to immediately see the value or problem being solved. The mid-market buyers I targeted often didn’t grasp the value right away.
• Educating buyers: The pain points weren’t always relatable—it was too abstract for some prospects.
• Different domains, different niches: For example, a domain like divorces.ai clearly fits any divorce-related service or software business, but a domain like thrones.ai has no clear niche, only loosely associated operators. - i was not starting with the niche, but always with the domain.
• Different niches, different messaging: Someone who owns a domain like setups.com would see different benefits than an AI automation service using getyoursetup.com.

Don’t get me wrong, this approach can work—especially for someone with a large portfolio of keyword-rich domains. But for me, it wasn’t moving the needle. It wasn’t bringing me the numbers I wanted.

And this isn’t a story about someone being entitled, thinking he’s better, or having a big ego.

I don´t think my thesis was completely wrong or that I was wrong for trying a different approach.

I just did it in the wrong order. And I did it in the wrong order specifically because I let my feelings and fears take control.

So what would have been the right order?

I should have tested the market and my outbound approach first. Before I bought 77 more domains. Before I automated the outbound process.

"Write some manual emails, get on the phone, and call."

I would have realized very quickly that most potential buyers don’t understand the value. They don’t think it’s relevant. They think you’re stupid.

People who buy domains either know the value and have the budget (they’ve thought about it, but it wasn’t the right opportunity), or they’re in the process of branding/rebranding or have just received new funds.

Why on earth would someone buy something if they don’t get an immediate ROI? If they can’t directly track it?
At least that’s what they think. And your job is to explain how it helps them, how it makes them money, and that it’s actually an appreciating asset.

Doing that through one email? Very hard.

If I had tested it first, I would have figured that out quickly. And I probably would have approached it differently—or maybe done something entirely different.

But honestly, I’m grateful for the experience because it taught me a few important things:

• It exposed my flaws and helped me grow.
• It pushed me deeper into AI and automation (I love make.com).
• I connected with some amazing people, like @Heath Ahrens and there ideas.
• It set me up for something new—something where I can take more control over the offer and delivery, make a difference, and be judged for the value I provide.