Addicted to Buying Domain Names

I have a confession to make.  I have a rare compulsion–an addiction really.  I am addicted to buying domain names. I wish I could stop and I do believe I have the addiction beat, but it is definitely something I should have stopped sooner.   If only there were a domain name intervention.

It has gotten bad.  And it all started so innocently.

Addicted to Buying Domain Names: The Beginning Stages

One of the most exciting things about deciding to start a blog is picking the domain name.  With my first blog, I had no knowledge of what constituted a good domain name.  Through common sense I figured shorter names were preferred.  As were real words.  As were only letters rather than symbols.  I also figured a .com name was best, since most of the sites I visited had the .com extension.  (not that I knew it was called an extension then).

I ended up with www.brokeprofessionals.com, which became my first blog.  I thought the name accurately portrayed the theme of my blog: a personal finance blog through a personal lense: that of a young professional with a ridiculous amount of student loan debt.    Later my wife became my co-blogger.

As a former English major and long-time failed novelist, having my own blog was from the start magical.  Although I wrote all day as an attorney, that is different.  I became hooked.

I began to dream of having multiple blogs.

I knew if I ever open my own law firm (a personal dream), I would blog for my firm.  One day while talking with a representative of my domain name provider, the fact that I was a lawyer somehow came up.  “You should purchase X domain name”, he said. “It’s for sale for $2,000, but that would be cheap compared to what it may be worth later on.” It was a good domain name.  But it wasn’t in my area of law.  Nor did I have $2,000.  This conversation accelerated my path to ultimately owning 18 domain names.

Addicted to Buying Domain Names: The Middle Stages

I began searching for good domain names.  I purchased most of my domain names during this period of time.  Some examples are: www.injuryautolaw.com, www.municipalcourtlaw.com, www.municipalcourtattorneys.com, www.superiorcourtlaw.com, www.lawcollaborative.com, www.lawslipandfall.com, and lawforblogs.com.

Then I read short domain names are rare.  I purchased www.4agy.com and www.zerjo.com.  I began to stay up at night thinking about how I could develop these names.  I though www.zerjo.com sounded like a Google-esque great nonsense word for a website.

I purchased www.mobilepublicrelations.com, thinking a pr consultant friend of mine would like it (he did not).

I made two more purchases, www.bloggingupstart.com (to blog about blogging), and www.discreditors.com (an idea for a blog that was so bad that I won’t even disclose it.).

Addicted to Buying Domain Names: Rock Bottom

I woke up one day realizing I had spent hundreds of dollars on domain names that I would likely never use, despite my best intentions.  When I sold www.brokeprofessionals.com, I purchased a few more domain names so I could keep blogging.  That was when I purchased www.freelancepf.com (my business name), and www.debtpayer.com.  I also purchased www.lawclerkships.com, where I know blog about legal employment.

I didn’t know what to do about all the domain names I had.  It was embarrassing.  I called up my domain name provider who stated that a few, such as www.injuryautolaw.com or www.municipalcourtlaw.com could be worth “4 or 5 figures, at least.”  I was no longer sold.  I tried listing the domains on sedo.com, but they did not sell.  They are currently listed in a godaddy auction but after three days there have been zero bids.  The starting bid for most of them is only $10.00.

I never set out to be a domain name flipper, I just got overambitious.  I am not looking to do anything but break even, but I know even that will likely not happen.  A few of the domains I plan to keep and develop later on, but I definitely can now admit I own too many domain names.

Addicted to Buying Domain Names: The Aftermath

As with anything like this, the first step is admitting the problem.  Publicly admitting this problem will hopefully go a long way in stopping my domain name buying addiction.  If anyone has any ideas about unloading some domain names, I am certainly open to suggestions.  If anyone else suffers from this rare addiction, I would be glad to hear about it.

Now if you’ll pardon me, I have to go unplug the internet…all of this talk of domain names makes me want to do a little domain name searching.

Have a great holiday weekend.