My 2840 Hand Registrations in 2010. Most Ever in 1 Year

Morning Folks!!


I know it is not in vogue to talk about hand registrations as I know all the domains of value were scooped up years ago according to many. But while so many shun hand registrations, I managed to register 2840 so far in 2010. As I say many times, I register domains by hand nearly every day of my life. 2010 was the most ever.


Sure it is a different game than 1996. I can buy 8.5 domains now for the cost of just one domain back then. That would have been 334 domains back then. Even at $25 a pop for a .co is still only 25% of what it used to be.


So what is the difference? Well when I buy a domain it goes into storage first. I don’t go and try to sell domains I bought today. They have to be “processed”. Then studied. Then they have to be monitored. They have to ripen. They won’t have much value in 2010. But come back in 10 years.


You have to assume that every domain I ever hand registered had ZERO value or it would have already been scooped up at time of registration. Including the domains I registered today.


The only difference in the equation is patience and understanding how long it takes for something to manifest itself and evolve to a different state of being.


So I keep playing the “Domain Lottery” whether it is popular or not. I play it because it works for me. In these 2840 domains I only have to sell one to pay for all. One to pay for all for many years. In the meantime I BUY TIME. Time for the universe to evolve. Evolve in the direction of the domains I invested in.


2800 of those babies may expire or have no value because it was time related or become Pigeon Shit. But the 40 others, I expect they will rake in some $4 Million over the next decade and provide a nice return. I know many of you don’t like or agree with this approach. Ok. But it is tried and true and it works for me because I have patience and look at things with an eye that combines the evolution of business with the evolution of consumers and then factor in plain old evolution. Success breeds more successes and more folks looking for success.


I have just been betting that success in the future starts with a domain name. Been betting that way since December 26, 1995 and everything I see leads me to believe that it is now happening in a way that I once envisioned. An overnight success 15-20 years in the making. The scene in 'The Social Network' cemented that vision and memorialized it for the world to see.


Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz




38 thoughts on “My 2840 Hand Registrations in 2010. Most Ever in 1 Year

  1. Greg

    Happy Holidays! thanks for sharing.
    I look at myself as a buyer/seller of”Ostrich Shit”, just a bit better and rarer than pigoen shit. looking to move up to tiger shit.
    OOOPS gotta go see if they are available lol.

    Reply
  2. Scott Alliy

    Maybe the best advice I got from this post without saying it in so many words might be to”play hunches in bunches” in the end increasing your odds that one of the bunch will be”the one”. This is a strategy that I have successfully applied in our education network and have started applying to all our domain purchases. Simple math one domain one chance, several related domain names equals higher chance for success It makes sense!
    It was Zig Ziglar who said his mother told him”Son, if you’re in something get in it…If you ain’t int get out!”
    Happy holidays to you and your family

    Reply
  3. Jorge

    Rick,
    A real pleassure to read your comments. Its great that you inspired others and live by the motto:”What Is Not Shared Is Lost”
    Wishing You Happy Holidays and Great Year!

    Reply
  4. Will

    So I think I finally have the answer to the question”Does Rick Schwartz buy .co names?” Looks like I’m in good company. Happy Holidays, Rick!

    Reply
  5. Altaf

    Great insights and appreciate for sharing it by writing so nicely.
    How do I hand register domains?
    -I take a few hundreds & check their OV value in descending order. Now I run it with google income estimator and buy a few to see if they make any $ over 1 year period. Then I keep for 10 years those with some income.
    Rick, do you agree with my strategy?
    Wishing you a very happy holiday & Merry Christmas.

    Reply
  6. Domain Report

    Thanks for your posts Rick, you’ve had some really good ones lately and it is great that you share these insights with everyone.
    Can you share some of your hand registrations, or the extensions you are buying? Also, how do you expect those 40 names will pull in $4 million over the next decade, in PPC, ads, or by selling them?
    Hope everyone here has a great holiday season and an excellent 2011!

    Reply
  7. owen frager

    Please provide list of all hand-registrations you cite so the naysayers can chime in like they did on BP- which I still chuckle at when I see the law firm tv ads for similar cases that are still churning cash 20 years later

    Reply
  8. BullShitwebsites

    Rick-another excellent post.
    All it takes is vision, after all what have you got to lose.You will be the one shouting all the way to the bank$$$.
    Time for me to look into my crystal ball.
    Year2011 will be a good one!!!

    Reply
  9. David Laurent Guffroy

    Everything is said here. Time value is our best allies. Such honesty and generosity deserve honor and respect.
    I think there is one last and ultime objective for Rick: leave a mark in history of the domaining as the Greatest Philanthropist Domainer.
    Merry Christmas!

    Reply
  10. Leonard Britt

    With more than 91.6 million .COMs already registered, it is difficult to hand reg .COMs :) I believe .CO could work well long term for premium Spanish keywords but I have enough Spanish domains already and enough alt TLD domains as well. There has been an incredible amount of marketing of .CO and it appears Godaddy may step it up a notch. There is just no way to predict what a Godaddy plug for .CO might do the psychology of domain registrations over time. In January check Twitter for how all the people complaining about not being able to find a .COM domain because of all those domain squatters who aren’t even using them…

    Reply
  11. .Co sucks

    The the poster above, .Co sucks balls and will never be worth anything. You got scammed by the .Co registry. Happy Holidays sucker!

    Reply
  12. Anunt

    As successful as you are Rick, you are going to sit there in front of your computer and hand register over 2840 domain names in 2010…thats over 7 domain names per day…that’s pretty damn impressive!
    You are definately a domainaholic Rick…and i see that all your followers and friends are domainaholics also!
    Speaking of domainaholics…i own domainaholic.com and domainaholics.com
    Which one of you domainaholics wants these two great domains for a total discount price of only $1,000.

    Reply
  13. Rich

    Rick,i bougt aprox.1500 Hand registration domains this year.Show me the list and i will show you my list.I know you bought some .co because i check some 3 digit number.co at whois and i saw your name.Anyway… God bless you and Happy Holidays!!!

    Reply
  14. Lucas

    @Leonard Britt
    “people complaining about not being able to find a .COM domain because of all those domain squatters who aren’t even using them…”
    —-
    yeahh I hate this comment and it´s amazing how widespread it is… These guys often call developement to load with boring texts a domain, claiming that anyithing else goes against the quality of the internet… yet, many times having the domain full of ads in parking is better for all: the parking company wins, the domain owner wins AND THE END USER WINS TOO!
    Also calling domainers squatters… What do they think McDonald´s does in city centers? What do they think skyscrapers are doing in financial districts? What does the dam do sitting in the river? Or the windturbines in strategically windy valleys? Or mingin companies on mines? Or farmers in fertile land? Or houses built along the river side? So verybody does it, but they are just doing “normal”, but for domainers… here have a label: SQUATTERS! Domainers don´t take dotcoms to Mars! they just move them to a secondary market as the scare highly demanded resource they are.
    The trouble is that 99 out of 100 internet users seem not to have meditated all this… so unless domainers educate the masses we migh have one of those strange scenarios in history where the “good ones” doing “the right thing” are overthrown… In that respect Rick is doing an EXTRAORDINARY job, and this I believe, more than anything else qualifies him as “the domain king”.
    @Rick
    Great that your drilling still bring gems to the surface… just hope that you are not overconfident about the strength of the .com, because, as your vision will probably suggest you: .sony, .canon, .apple, and so on (if approved) WILL cut all those trillions of dollars that indirectly used to pump the .com so high above.
    @[all]
    Merry Christmas and happy new year!!

    Reply
  15. Andrew Rosener

    Rick,
    You should post your list.
    Would love to see the type of hand registrations you go for.
    Myself, I only hand registered around 100 – 150 domains this past year.

    Reply
  16. Andre

    Rick, as usual some excellent insight and inspiration. I must admit that your outlook – and advice herein contained makes sense for those that wish to take a long term view within domaining. Thank you for taking the time to share with us, as you always do. Happy Holidays to you and your readers.

    Reply
  17. Anders Olofsson

    Domaining 1.0. What particular personal trait Rick, do you think makes you able to scoop up the winners? Odds should be you scooped a bunch of crap. Just a nose for it?

    Reply
  18. Gypsum Fantastic

    Good to see! Although I’m on a vastly smaller scale to you, this is the approach I’ve always taken to domaining, and this patient approach has also worked quite well for me to (again on a much smaller scale of course!).

    Reply
  19. 3dDomainNames

    Mr. Schwartz
    “First Time – Long Time”
    Thanks for the post. Encouraging to read after a year of fighting with domainers who insist that the ONLY way to make money is to buy aged domains. I have shared your exact thought process while hand registering virtually every single one of my domain names throughout my first complete year in domaining.
    … ya see… a lot of so-called ‘top domainers’ who are so far from the pier that they forgot how they got where they are, no longer understand that this is a very difficult industry to get into without much upfront cash – for many of us – the only way ‘IN’ is to hand reg domains with an eye on scoring a few big ones in the future and waiting for the others to mature ‘years’ later.
    …so without spending thousands of dollars for one or two ‘half way decent’ names that may or may not be worth as much or more as i layed out… i turned to future trends and figured i’d take my chances there.
    instead of dropping $2,500 in one shot, on one name, i read and researched for days and weeks, and months and started hand registering a couple of names here and a couple of names there… the research always led me to another amazing finding.
    I myself, bought into 3d, holographics, solar, telepresence, a handful of dot co’s and a few other future trends… again, for me, this was the only way in.
    Yes, it very easy to get frustrated waiting for your names to evolve into what you think they could/should be, but in truth, I have always seen my personal venture as a five year plan , so one down, four to go.
    I trust my research and findings and registrations enough to confidently think that i will actually be able to play a part in this crazy industry.
    For me, i think i live by a modified saying:
    “The Future Has Arrived – We Just Haven’t Developed It Yet”
    A year later and i’m still very low on the domaining totem pole, but i’ve been preaching my own set of ‘Patience’ to those who know me so i’m prepared to wait… all the while, just as prepared to succeed.
    Wish me luck and thanks again for the post.

    Reply
  20. Jon

    If you do your research, there are great domains to be registered. New markets and trends are always popping up, so there is no reason why any domain investor should say that there is no value in hand registrations. That’s just false. I’ve sold tons of hand registered domains that are very valuable to the end-users, all because of my due diligence.
    Study markets and trends, find opportunities.

    Reply
  21. SDM

    Domains that are currently registered cannot be”hand registered.” These are purchased in the domain aftermarket – usually at a premium price.
    However, if you find a domain name that is currently unregistered (i.e., the name has expired and dropped or has never been registered before), this kind of registration is referred to as a”hand reg.”

    Reply
  22. Blitz

    What a boost by the domain king himself. I hand regged about a quarter of his number in 2010, sometimes asking me”Am I crazy?”. If yes, I am in good company, even if there have to be very different levels of domain quality between Mr. Schwartz and”teenage domainers” like me (started 2007).
    I don´t believe it. Though being German and a .mobi fan most of my 2010 registrations have been English dot coms. If names are crap, which is liekely for most impulsive handregs, discovering and regging made fun at least, if not even improved your nose to identify more enjoyable digital truffles.
    As many have posted: To see your list of handregs or a percentage split in TLDs would provide a great Christmas gift, Rick!
    Happy Holidays

    Reply
  23. Phgauge000@aol.com

    Thanks for the post. I believe the value is in the eye of the end user.. In a quick survey in your local area how many web address are easy to remember or brand? For instance .. Our local chevy dealer had a URL of loubachrodhtchevrolet.com the store was located on state street… So we registered backonstate and bachonstate… Both names worthless except to mr. Bachrodt that wanted a catchy domain to market his dealership. That was easy to remember and say and spell… So a worthless domain to most was a steal to him for 3000.00 dollars at the time. That was four years ago… So opportunity abounds everywhere…
    Merry Christmas and God Bless
    Phil

    Reply
  24. John Couch

    Great post and I couldn’t agree more. My company has hand registered thousands of domains in 2010. Recently I subscribed to the drop list at AddDomainNames.com and I cannot believe some of the great domain names people let expire every day. Sorting the drops by local and global searches is definitely the way to go.

    Reply
  25. Paul pigeon

    I know you are a big proponent of the rinse and repeat method so i am assuming you are registering pigeon porn names. Why not post the list the world is in need of more laughs at your expense.

    Reply
  26. pigeon shit .co

    with the correct time, research and patience, quality hand registrations are available in cctlds and com
    however you have regged most of those in .co i think Rick
    and most are almost worthless imho, even without seeing the list
    especially with the cost of .co regges i doubt any pay their regfee either
    its possible with that many a few enduser sales may be possible but i think you will see big losses especially on timescale you’re talking
    if you stuck to .com or decent cctlds, like .de or .co.uk rather than pigeon shit you may have been ok

    Reply

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