Morning Folks!!
I don't care if people know what I paid for my domains. What I buy for and what I sell for have NOTHING to do with each other, and if a buyer were even to try to use that as a bargaining chip, it would be the end of the negotiations. I know most want to keep that info close to the vest. I don't.
This is an adult post. If you can't handle adult issues or adult domain names, then please pass on this post. But it does have historical and valuable information.
These 25 domains ate nearly every penny I had, but it also was the engine that earned tens of millions of dollars without adult content and changed my life in ways I could not even dream of. Little did I know at the time just how life changing those purchases would be.
Remember there was no aftermarket. I had to hunt these folks down one by one. From the introduction to the sale. There was no escrow.com. So, they were all paid on a leap of faith. No contracts. Contracts would lose me more domains that I got because I was not the only one out there fighting for these and a contract would waste valuable time that I could not afford. Besides, I think emails are pretty strong when used in court. It shows intent and much more.
I only sold 2 on the list. Of course, if you were to ask know-nothings the first thing they would accusingly ask is "What have you sold lately?" But they are not smart enough to ask what were the past and current earnings. And of course, those geniuses would have sold all of them for CHUMP CHANGE! They would have bought and then tried to flip to double their money and never learning about the millions locked in those domains.
And since I have not sold them, I am not a good salesman, and of course, none of the ones remaining have any value right? I wish they could teach me the right way. Twenty years and only managed to sell two domains. It was a little over $10 Million and if we counted the $25 million those two domains earned via PPC it adds up a bit more. Then, of course, most of the other domains earned a few dollars. Sexo.com earned over seven figures. Ass.com earned much more.
And there was no mainstream back then. But I took my earnings and bought those mainstream domains because I
| June 1997 thru January 1998 | |
| livebabes.com | $2,200.00 |
| orgies.com | $1,750.00 |
| getlaid.com | $4,000.00 |
| co-ed.com | $3,500.00 |
| oral.com | $14,000.00 |
| voyeur.com | $15,000.00 |
| pornstar.org | $375.00 |
| pearlnecklace.com | $375.00 |
| eatpussy.com | $1,500.00 |
| liveteens.com | $325.00 |
| livestripshows.com | $325.00 |
| sexo.com | $10,000.00 |
| vagina.com | $6,000.00 |
| booty.com | $1,000.00 |
| nymphos.com | $5,000.00 |
| webwhores.com | $1,000.00 |
| ass.com | $12,500.00 |
| men.com | $15,000.00 |
| porno.com | $42,000.00 |
| virgins.com | $8,500.00 |
| xxxvideos.com | $900.00 |
| bitch.com | $2,500.00 |
| whore.com | $5,000.00 |
| horny.com | $40,000.00 |
| slut.com | $75,000.00 |
| $267,750.00 |
Rick Schwartz
Yes
Great buys for sure.
Rick Schwartz
I was called some pretty condescending names back then for “Wasting” my time and money and not understanding search engines.
The techies were very smart, but they had no common sense and no foresight nor were they business people in any way shape or form.
CEO’s were depending on these techies to make all their decisions. But the techies were “Business Blind.”
How dumb were techies? You have no idea. They saw NO NEED WHATSOEVER for a domain name. Their world was 102.252.197.156.
They had no clue about advertising or word of mouth or anything related to simple business. If I even dare say that, I would be banned.
I was banned from more forums than I can count! Daily! Just for having a thought and showing a different way to look at something.
Glad I tuned these know-nothings out.
Ibrahim Khan
“I am not a good salesman” in reply to Mike Mann. He wants the Domain King title, hence he mentions Rick every other day.
John
I doubt you would list OnlineCasinos.com at all as one you ever sold if you sold it at an embarrassingly low price, so I would surmise there may be an NDA behind “undisclosed.” And if that NDA has an expiration or is no longer binding, would love to know what you sold it for.
John
Then again, maybe you did sell it at an embarrassingly low price and are just counting on people tending to think the opposite.
John
(I’m inclined to doubt that, however. Perhaps you allowed an NDA and then decided no more because I’ve seen what you wrote about NDA’s before.)
Anunt
Those domains are worth millions…
One question…
Why directnic?
Rick Schwartz
And that is why I sell only a few. I am not going to sell for chump change.
If I did, I could sell many many domains. But that is weak.
The highest offer I have gotten on Booty.com is $60k. Most would grab that. I could not live with myself if I sold it for $60k. So I MUST own it until I find a genuine buyer that understands the value and has a need.
Btw, Estibot finally got an appraisal I like. It is still WRONG! But it shows Booty at $5 Million!!! Lol
As for Directnic, been using them for 20 years since moniker imploded and their security was questionable, etc.
Mark Thorpe
Adult domains are harder to sell now.
Green Jobs
Great foresight Rick.
They all say you are crazy at first.
Reuben
Huhn! All these super premium domain names bought 22 years ago never been developed, why? What is the mystery in this? I checked all of them, only 2 (porn.com and men.com) are developed. Oh God! help us know the reason why this is happening. Why are the adult industry end-users dodging them? Is not this the reason why when we go to Namebio daily sales report page all we see is people selling at a loss?? Isn’t it because end-users have an endless alternative domain names?
Hopefully these domains can fetch something on Godaddy auction these days even if at loss, this way the money spent on these domains or some of it can be recouped before they become valueless. Only the people who hand registered them can make some profit even today. If for 22 years no end-user has been fished for a decent money it is unlikely one will be fished in the next 20 years, and that is if domain names will still be relevant by then. Life is too short to wait for so long to make a decent profit from a sale of something evolutionary. Taken into account the stress, tensions and anxiety you go trough for being unsure if an end-user will ever come by, plus if he/she will make a profitable offer, it not worth it. You could be doing something else, where you could be making sales with profit everyday and enjoying it and your life at the same time.
These days I can see that a lot of domainers are hand registering or buying on auctions marijuana related domain names, but when you go to Google and search websites that are selling marijuana using the keyword ” Buy marijuana” you will see the websites selling marijuana using made up domain names, their domain names has nothing to do with the word marijuana or cannabis or hemp, nothing, nada, nulo connection, and these are the end-users, they all are dodging the premium domain names. hence premium domain names are changing hands/ownership among the so called domain investors. As long as almost all premium domain names are being dodged/avoided by end-users and almost all END-USERS prefer to use made up domains names then this business amounts to a business based on luck, and a business based on luck amounts to gambling/lottery, which is driven by excessive hope and maybe unreasonable hope to easily make lots of profit and become rich without rendering any useful service/product for fellow human beings, and believe me, end-users are conscious of this, that is the reason why they dodge premium domain names even if they have the money to spend and prefer to make their own domains up, and it is working. To them buying a premium domain names for the price they are being sold is like enriching someone unnecessarily, without doing anything useful for human progress. Because of this, not because of any other thing, the top of Namebio Daily sales report will always look red, not green, domains being sold at a loss. THIS IS THE REAL LESSON FOR DOMAINERS, there must not be other lessons for the domain investors selling at loss. All these many domainers selling at loss can’t be wrong with their research. What would be the purpose of research anyway if/when the vast majority of end-users of the product are dodging/avoiding it. It is not because of GTLDs whatsoever. Anyone who keeps on giving domainers lessons on how they could sell must have agenda.An hidden agenda. End-users are visionaires, have ideas, they are the ones who create things that we are using for our advancement as humans. If they dodge domain names or buy GTLDS they know what they are doing.
John
> “End-users are visionaires, have ideas, they are the ones who create things that we are using for our advancement as humans. If they dodge domain names or buy GTLDS they know what they are doing.”
Schwartz is right about you and you are clueless, and they do not “know what they are doing.” You can’t even keep some of the biggest names in domaining from drinking the Kool-Aid of domain-debasing propaganda, essentially spearheaded by Google, and tolerating and even embracing harmful phenomena like “Estibot.” And that’s all that it is – mindless groupthink and accepting propaganda. You find it in virtually every major area of life, from insane delusional hysteria over “Russiagate,” to insane psychopathic warmongering against Venezuela, to buying suppression of business competition under a pretext of righteousness, to domain names. However, powerful reality and truth like 100,000 visitors a month among other things exposes that folly for what it is and shows who really knows what they are doing.
Rick Schwartz
Reuben you’re not a smart as you pretend to be. You’re like a half an equation guy. You forgot to ask a key question. You should’ve asked me how much money those domains have made and keep earning. Those worthless domains according to you, pay all my renewals. It’s the engine that keeps me independent so I don’t have to take low ball crummy offers from a jackass
As a ghost, tell us your accomplishments Reuben?? Show us how smart you really are. I don’t think you are fooling anyone here.
Lots of words, lots of drivel, little understanding or knowledge,
Johan
You should start to collect emails Rick. I’m surprise you haven’t consulted with digital marketing firms for how to try and squeeze out every dollar possible from your type-in traffic.
Johan
Create well-designed templates and collect email address. Instead of parked pages, which 90% of visitors instantly click the back button.
Donny M
Each is it’s own virtual printing press on a large scale and still going.
Today we still have them but on smaller scales through the correct monetization partners. I will take it:)
+you bought from 3rd parties- still holds true today to get a great deal.
Donny M
Marod
Rick
How much traffic does sexo.com and ass.com get daily?
Rick Schwartz
About 100,000 visitors a month.
Jay
And there it is. Rick Schwartz is the Domain King who has shared his knowledge for free to all those who would listen.
Rick Schwartz
And started doing in in 1996 in real time as I was discovering things!
There was enough booty in domaining for everyone!
But even back then, those that even knew what a domain was thought it was too late cuz they were no longer FREE!
I think they blew millions. Many millions.
Leo Angelo
Clarifying and especially inspiring for all domainers. Thank you.
P.S. I now understand why my SuperBottom.com gets quite a few unwarranted hits :)
Owen
Porn industry is the most misunderstood on the planet. It generates more revenue than NFL, NBA, and MLB combined. Ten times Hollywood box office. One site alone gets 84 billion views! Here is an eye-opening education.
https://medium.com/@Strange_bt_True/how-big-is-the-porn-industry-fbc1ac78091b
Joe
Did the $267,750 that was spent on the domain names that you bought come from different previous businesses that you made money on? What I am asking is if you reinvested your money from one thing to another and domain names have been the most profitable so far with the best return on investment (roi).
Rick Schwartz
Nope, it ALL came from domain EARNINGS! 100% of it.
I started with $1800 charged on my visa credit card for 18 domains.
But thankfully the geniuses at Network Solutions had no cash register.
Told you geniuses have no common sense.
They never hammered my card for nearly 9 months. So I kept buying.
By the time they did actually charge me, I was making money!!!
Network Solutions was my invisible Angel Investor. I owe it all to them and their stupidity!
Jay
haha Beautiful, I love it I absolutely love it.
Reuben
With real estate business, most people who are rich, if not all of them, prefer to live in nice environment, in nice neighborhood, in nice and big and luxury homes, and they buy these homes for lots of money, millions of Dollars. These houses are many, millions of houses, the vast majority being used, being sold or being rented. I personally have never seen a rich person choosing to live in poor neighborhood and/or in tent, maybe others have seen that, I have not. And I have never seen a house or a commercial space that is for sale or for rent taking 2 or more decades to sale or to get a tenant sign a lease. Even if the decades long that the property is taking to sell or to get a tenant is being compensated by appreciation of the property, it still does not make sense as appreciation could be happening while you renting it, and life is too short to wait for so long. You have to know how to manage your time. We are not here forever and one has to enjoy his/her life and whatever skills he/she has that allows him/her to make money, plus the internet may not be here forever. In case your property is depreciating then one has to even be a fool to wait for decades to sell it. This is the case of domain names. They are not appreciating. The vast majority of end-users are dodging premium domain names. They go for made-up domain names. This is the reality. If you go to the top of Namebio daily sales report you will see what I am talking about. Almost all domainers are selling at a loss, unless you sold a domain you registered. If not, then you must be very lucky to sell with a profit, it is like winning a lottery, that is, if/when you are lucky enough to find an end-user who does not care about the price, and that takes decades for such person to come by. Nonsense, stress, tensions, nervousness, anxiety will almost kill you, you can get stroke.
Except for MEN.COM, all 25 domain names that Rick listed here, if auctioned on Godaddy today, I am very doubtful they could fetch a profitable amount of money or an amount they could fetch 15 years ago, and bear in mind that that adult domain names are no longer in demand, not even by domain speculators. And I have a free advice for domainers: If you were there when domain names started and was able to register dictionary words domain names then start selling your domain names now, before they become valueless. There is a website that is coming out in 1 year or so that will render domain names irrelevant. I will give you the address of the website when I get more details of the project.
END-USERS DON’T WANT TO ENRICH DOMAIN SPECULATORS. THEY FEEL BAD DOING THAT, HENCE THEY DODGE PREMIUM DOMAIN NAMES. The fact that people are leaving facebook and linkedin or twitter will not solve this problem. End-users are just too jealous to enrich someone for nothing. They have to think and work hard to come up with ideas for projects that can change our human being lives and we domain speculators just have to block their way by registering domain names they could use and make money. They feel bad. Avoiding premium domain names and opting for made-up domain names is a way of inventors/innovators/end-users telling us “”FUCK YOU WITH YOUR DOMAINS, I WILL SHOW YOU WHAT I AM GOING TO DO”” “YOU WILL WROTE WITH YOUR DOMAIN NAMES”
Thank you.
John
It’s clearly a waste of time trying to reason with you now, so I will just give you a “LOL” for this:
“There is a website that is coming out in 1 year or so that will render domain names irrelevant. I will give you the address of the website when I get more details of the project.”
Additionally, I’m raising it to a “triple dog dare” that you tell us what this great domain-killer site is so we call all have a good laugh at it.
youtube . com/watch?v=ZLZj3zOUZNs
Snoopy
“There is a website that is coming out in 1 year or so that will render domain names irrelevant.”
Well this going to be funny, Reuben is this your site?
Reuben
I just checked the top of Namebio daily sales report page for today Sunday; All but one domain sold at a loss.
For yesterday it shows that all, but all sold at a loss.
Snoopy
Very true, but I think the reason is most names with 2 sales in Namebio have been bought by endusers and then dropped and picked up by a domainer at auction. So a typical case will be sold at Sedo and sold again at Dropcatch.
Alex Verdea
1. 99% of investors and “experts” are clueless when it comes to domain name value;
2. 99% of ALL domains are sold to CHEAP today and everyday as a result.
Poor negotiating skills, having to sell/depending on one deal aka empty pipeline, no follow up etc are ALL factors that result in selling a domain at a loss.
The weird phenomenon is that demand is HIGH, and supply of high quality .com names is dwindling(ie: single words)…but I guess people can’t sell.
Jose
This post that you write is for adults great investment that over the years bear fruit in a lot of money, it deserves it for several things, it was daring to see a market that would be made to the finger of those who knew how to carry it in two directions all are financial and according to your plans that you were creating little by little to achieve what you have achieved. Congratulations.
Happy day. Jose.
Nick
I’m starting to look forward to reading Reuben’s replies as much as reading The King’s posts ;-) You may not agree with everything that Reuben writes, but he does offer a different and interesting perspective. And I have to admit, he may not be as clueless as we may wanna assume he is. Just my 2 cents.
John
You’re missing it too. Nobody’s assuming. It’s not that he’s wrong about 100% of what he says, and it’s not like everyone doesn’t know about the things he is correct about. He’s wrong about what is really going on and how valuable good domain names still really are. Do you have any idea how valuable 100,000 visitors a month is to an end user who is not parking is, for instance? All modesty aside, you would do better to look forward to my replies instead of Reuben’s.
Snoopy
He’s a a techie :) Maybe even work for a new tld registry.
DomainBoss-RK
Nice post and of course you bought domains before many people even thought of spending on domains and that I believe is one of the reasons for your fortunes in domaining.
But my experience is that porn domain values have dropped significantly over last few years especially because of free porn availability. There needs to be a unique change in porn site models for these values to pick up again.
Reuben
I checked the top of Namebio daily sales report page for today Monday. All but 1 domain name sold at a loss.
Rick Schwartz
You have my first purchases, here are my last purchases. There would only be a handful of domainers I would even consider discussing value with and take seriously. And I mean a handful. Possibly 10 at most. I am not out there listing these at every auction. I am not actively trying to sell any of my domains. When I see something that is a bargain, I grab it to ADD to my portfolio. Most of these names cost $500 – $2000. The rest will take care of itself. I have an average price of around $1000.
I am merely betting that ONE SINGLE DOMAIN-SALE will end up paying for all the other purchases. That’s a simple equation. I just set myself up for success. As a full-time domainer, if you don’t see that and don’t see the value sitting there, that’s on you. I go to sleep every night knowing I have gold.
Nothing I have not done since 1996. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat. That’s my simple secret. Accumulate magnetic and valubale domains that have meaning and maybe, just maybe, one person out of 7 BILLION will find an active and vital need!
Zonked.com
Boopy.com
HotKey.com
Broadstaff.com
RapidPop.com
TurboPress.com
SiteMonkey.com
BoldPrint.com
SmartGlasses.com
SmartDigest.com
FaceFind.com
FaceMovie.com
KitchenBuilder.com
OrganicGourmet.com
TravelKing.com
HotelandSpa.com
GtldDrops.com
iCourt.com
iFlirt.com
JustHelp.com
YouCruise.com
CommonSenses.com
Benova.com
Inverso.com
Soozy.com
Ulana.com
Instacast.com
Canteral.com
WeddingToday.com
Ritzville.com
PrettyYou.com
DailyCode.com
DataStrip.com
CodeWizards.com
PersonalVideos.com
Cybersquatter.com
Cybersquatters.com
Bocahantas.com
TileCleaner.com
TotalShare.com
SinglesGuide.com
AssCoin.com
SelectCoin.com
CryptoLawyer.com
BTCattorney.com
LibertyMotors.com
Deplorable.com
Deplorables.com
Despicables.com
BasketofDeplorables.com
FakeRepublicans.com
CampaignAdvisor.com
NoOneCares.com
FakeMedia.com
YouAreFakeNews.com
Motherfuckers.com
xubee.com
Nick
John, no one will dispute the value of the very top names. But how many of these top names are there that get such traffic in the grand scheme of things? And most of these top names are held by a very small number of people. The King being one. Now, there are lots of other domainers who have maybe not the top 5% of names, but damn good names nonetheless. And take a look at the sales data like Reuben has. The demand for domain names keeps on dwindling and no one is paying top prices anymore. When you have DomainNames.com sell for ONLY $350K, well, I rest my case. I have a great 1 word domain (.com) ideal for the biomedical industry. I get an inquiry (from a biomedical company) for it some 3 months ago. I price it at an extremely attractive price in order to sell it and maybe buy bigger gifts for my kids at Xmas, plus I throw in a monthly payment option that is not even half of what you’d pay for an apartment in San Francisco. What reply do I get? “We can’t afford it.” I mean, here I am almost giving away an outstanding 1 word name and I am told that a biomed company can’t afford it. Sounds to me like what Reuben has been writing all along. I also have other names that I feel are quite good. The way I see it is that it’s not that there is no demand for names, but they want them for nothing. Price your names at $50 each and see the incoming stampede blow your computer server. So the problem is not with domain names, the problem is that the market has stopped wanting to pay top, or even reasonable dollars for them. So outside of the very few who hold the gems of domains that bring in good traffic, there are tens of thousands of domainers waiting by a phone that never never rings. And not only the phone rings less than it ever has, but if this trend continues, the phone line will just die.
John
That’s part of my point, Nick. The value of domains hasn’t changed, the people have. And the groupthink, brainwashing and Kool-Aid has gotten so bad that even industry luminaries who should know and do better have embraced the Kool-Aid and the propaganda, and serve it themselves. And they all most certainly do dispute and debase the value of the very top names as well as all other good ones as a result. The very Estibot phenomenon itself and everything like it is a symptom of this.
I just recently chewed a whole community of end user out for exactly the kind of thing you just said in the last part of your statement. They have become absolute entitled lowballers who feel that should get the best for next to nothing. The “domaining” industry and community has been COMPLICIT in this development and continues to be so. Then it leads to more zero sum thinking, lead to a lovely state of divide and conquer for all of us.
Rick Schwartz
By the way I have been writing about the lowering demand for domain names for several years now. That’s why it’s so important to pick right to mean names. And the price has nothing to do with the market itself. It has more to do with the individual sale. It’s about and their need their want and their desire. The value they placed on it depends on The value of the place on it depends on their numbers.
Buyers that want to upgrade or need a single domain don’t give a rats ass about the condition of the domain market and whether it’s horrible or anything else.
Every domain is unique and every deal is unique. Some domains are for chump change and some people hold out for big bucks. But if you hold out for big bucks you have to have gems.
In that case you didn’t realize it markets go up and down. Real estate a few years ago was horrible now it’s flying high again.
In the case you didn’t realize it markets go up and down. Real estate a few years ago was horrible now it’s flying high again.