Signals May Have Changed

Throughout the last several years, the size of my portfolio has ballooned. For many years, I kept somewhere in the ballpark of 400 – 500 domain names in my portfolio. It has now grown to more than 2,000 domain names and counting.

With a larger portfolio, I pay more attention to domain name renewals. When I seek out domain names, there are many things I observe to try and buy commercially viable assets. I look at things like the number of businesses with that could upgrade to this domain name, the size and growth of the industry related to the domain name, the generic nature of the domain name, how the domain name sounds to me, and quite a few other factors that have become second nature to me.

All of these different factors are signals about the viability of a domain name.

When it comes time to renew domain names, I also look at these signals. I pay closer attention to the ‘what was I thinking’ domain names, but I try to pay attention to every domain name each year.

Sometimes these signals change from the time I bought a domain name until the next time I think about whether or not to renew it. Perhaps some of the companies that existed have folded – or perhaps were already dead when I bought the domain name. When looking at domain names in my portfolio, I will often ask myself if I would pay $11 to acquire that domain name today if it was available.

When the domain name is coming up for renewal, I will have had the benefit of time owning the domain name to understand if there is any traffic, possibly revenue, and importantly, inquiries.

All of these factors combined help me determine if I want to renew the domain name for another year or let it expire and write it off. These days, I am finding myself letting many more domain names expire than I ever did before. It’s a natural repercussion of growing my portfolio to the size it has become.