Comments on: The Psychology of a Multi-Million Dollar Sale (Bored.com) http://www.impulsecorp.com/the-psychology-of-a-multi-million-dollar-sale A blog about running an Internet business, domain names, and making money. Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:00:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Internetual Domain Forum http://www.impulsecorp.com/the-psychology-of-a-multi-million-dollar-sale/comment-page-1#comment-66 Internetual Domain Forum Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:00:21 +0000 http://www.impulsecorp.com/blog/?p=29#comment-66 great to hear your story i remember when your sale was posted on dnf and you posted once i think and then was never seen again. i remeber thinking did you just take cash and run off into sunset thanks for a great post, fascinating stuff. hope i will be where you were in 2007 in a couple of years! cheers Pred great to hear your story
i remember when your sale was posted on dnf and you posted once i think and then was never seen again. i remeber thinking did you just take cash and run off into sunset
thanks for a great post, fascinating stuff. hope i will be where you were in 2007 in a couple of years!
cheers
Pred

]]> By: admin http://www.impulsecorp.com/the-psychology-of-a-multi-million-dollar-sale/comment-page-1#comment-56 admin Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:07:33 +0000 http://www.impulsecorp.com/blog/?p=29#comment-56 I was paying around 40% in taxes (Federal, State, Social Security, etc.) so my after tax profit was more like $20,000/month. That is still a lot of course, but for a few years I used that profit (after living expenses) to payback past debts, and before that my company as a whole was not making that much money. I had a lot of other expenses which were not all directly related to Bored.com, but were because owning Bored.com made me a big company and I was constantly expanding. For example I had a lot of employees and contractors and servers which I did not need just to run Bored.com, but I needed to keep building new sites and growing. When I sold Bored.com and those 170 other sites I decreased my company expenses by around $15,000 month and only 1/2 of that were expenses the new owner ended up assuming. What it comes down to is that before the sale, I was constantly building new sites, buying sites, adding programmers, and all the typical things a growing company does. Since the sale, I have pretty much stopped all that and I just focus on the sites I already have, and that requires little cash. So, at the time I sold Bored.com I had around $200,000 in the bank, and that would have grown over the coming years, but probably by more like only $100,000/year, since much of my "profits" I would have reinvested into my business to try to make more money. Maybe in 10 years I could have then sold this much bigger business for $45 million instead of $4.5 million, but there was also the risk things could change and I would lose it all, or die, or whatever. Plus, I don't really need $45 million (although it would certainly be nice). In answer to your other question, no I had no idea when I started Bored.com it would be my main site. That is why I built so many other sites over the years, because I was not sure what would become big. I knew Bored.com would be my most popular site, but that does not always translate into making a lot of money. Looking back though i should have focused much more on growing Bored.com so I could have sold it for much more money. The main thing about having one big site (Bored.com) was that that pretty much any site I created or bought would do well as long as I associated it with Bored.com (like linking to it from Bored.com). Or, if I linked to Bored.com from the new site, at least it would send more traffic to my main site, even if the new site did not make money on its own. I was paying around 40% in taxes (Federal, State, Social Security, etc.) so my after tax profit was more like $20,000/month. That is still a lot of course, but for a few years I used that profit (after living expenses) to payback past debts, and before that my company as a whole was not making that much money. I had a lot of other expenses which were not all directly related to Bored.com, but were because owning Bored.com made me a big company and I was constantly expanding. For example I had a lot of employees and contractors and servers which I did not need just to run Bored.com, but I needed to keep building new sites and growing. When I sold Bored.com and those 170 other sites I decreased my company expenses by around $15,000 month and only 1/2 of that were expenses the new owner ended up assuming.

What it comes down to is that before the sale, I was constantly building new sites, buying sites, adding programmers, and all the typical things a growing company does. Since the sale, I have pretty much stopped all that and I just focus on the sites I already have, and that requires little cash.

So, at the time I sold Bored.com I had around $200,000 in the bank, and that would have grown over the coming years, but probably by more like only $100,000/year, since much of my “profits” I would have reinvested into my business to try to make more money. Maybe in 10 years I could have then sold this much bigger business for $45 million instead of $4.5 million, but there was also the risk things could change and I would lose it all, or die, or whatever. Plus, I don’t really need $45 million (although it would certainly be nice).

In answer to your other question, no I had no idea when I started Bored.com it would be my main site. That is why I built so many other sites over the years, because I was not sure what would become big. I knew Bored.com would be my most popular site, but that does not always translate into making a lot of money. Looking back though i should have focused much more on growing Bored.com so I could have sold it for much more money.

The main thing about having one big site (Bored.com) was that that pretty much any site I created or bought would do well as long as I associated it with Bored.com (like linking to it from Bored.com). Or, if I linked to Bored.com from the new site, at least it would send more traffic to my main site, even if the new site did not make money on its own.

]]> By: Porter http://www.impulsecorp.com/the-psychology-of-a-multi-million-dollar-sale/comment-page-1#comment-55 Porter Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:52:48 +0000 http://www.impulsecorp.com/blog/?p=29#comment-55 That was an awesome read. It's very inspiring to see an quick overview of how your built your company, and how you eventually sold it. Were you at any time banking a certain percent of your earnings? If you set aside $20k a month, that would have been nearly a quarter a million a year. I assume you were living a rather luxurious lifestyle with $30-$40k profits a month. Question for you, when you first started your company, was bored.com the only site, and did you decide that it would be the main site? If so, did you then build other sites, and eventually evolve bored.com? I have a site right now, and I want it to be my main site. I do however think that owning other domains and pointing the traffic all to one main site is the way to go. Did you just keep purchasing sites, knowing that bored.com would always be the center of attention? If you have any posts about this, or any info, email me at contact@princeporter.com, I'm eager to read/hear about it. Either way, you now get to sit back and do what you want with life, and have enough money to comfortably do so. Again, awesome read, thanks for sharing. That was an awesome read. It’s very inspiring to see an quick overview of how your built your company, and how you eventually sold it. Were you at any time banking a certain percent of your earnings? If you set aside $20k a month, that would have been nearly a quarter a million a year. I assume you were living a rather luxurious lifestyle with $30-$40k profits a month.

Question for you, when you first started your company, was bored.com the only site, and did you decide that it would be the main site? If so, did you then build other sites, and eventually evolve bored.com? I have a site right now, and I want it to be my main site. I do however think that owning other domains and pointing the traffic all to one main site is the way to go. Did you just keep purchasing sites, knowing that bored.com would always be the center of attention? If you have any posts about this, or any info, email me at contact@princeporter.com, I’m eager to read/hear about it.

Either way, you now get to sit back and do what you want with life, and have enough money to comfortably do so. Again, awesome read, thanks for sharing.

]]> By: admin http://www.impulsecorp.com/the-psychology-of-a-multi-million-dollar-sale/comment-page-1#comment-44 admin Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:29:52 +0000 http://www.impulsecorp.com/blog/?p=29#comment-44 Yes, I like SurgicalAutomation.com a lot. That could be a big industry soon. Yes, I like SurgicalAutomation.com a lot. That could be a big industry soon.

]]> By: Marc http://www.impulsecorp.com/the-psychology-of-a-multi-million-dollar-sale/comment-page-1#comment-43 Marc Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:20:21 +0000 http://www.impulsecorp.com/blog/?p=29#comment-43 Thanks for your advice. I too did some checking into cloning domains around 7 years ago and I can recall coming upon some great generics which I for whatever reason didn't get around to registering unfortunately, then later realized they had been grabbed (maybe by you! ha) By the way, if you don't mind me asking, what do you think about this domain?: SurgicalAutomation.com I own it and feel it could be an emmerging premium tech TLD especially as searches for that term increase over time. Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci surgical robot is a smash hit and a harbinger of what's to come in a big way (or so I'd bet my bottom dollar). Thanks for all your selfless sharing. -Marc Thanks for your advice.

I too did some checking into cloning domains around 7 years ago and I can recall coming upon some great generics which I for whatever reason didn’t get around to registering unfortunately, then later realized they had been grabbed (maybe by you! ha)

By the way, if you don’t mind me asking, what do you think about this domain?:

SurgicalAutomation.com

I own it and feel it could be an emmerging premium tech TLD especially as searches for that term increase over time.

Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci surgical robot is a smash hit and a harbinger of what’s to come in a big way (or so I’d bet my bottom dollar).

Thanks for all your selfless sharing.
-Marc

]]> By: admin http://www.impulsecorp.com/the-psychology-of-a-multi-million-dollar-sale/comment-page-1#comment-42 admin Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:44:38 +0000 http://www.impulsecorp.com/blog/?p=29#comment-42 Yes, I think buying domains that you think will be big topics in years to come is a great way to invest. For example, I bought a bunch of HDTV domains when I first heard about it, and also a bunch of cloning domains when cloning sheep (Dolly) started getting publicity. But, it does cost a lot to renew all those domains each year, so it is important to try to put some content on them to get them listed in the search engines at least, so you get some income from them. No, I have never used WhyPark.com, but I have read about them. It is certainly worth a try over Sedo. Some people have had good luck with minisites (like from at WhyPark.com), other people say they make just as much from traditional parking. No matter what, it is always worth trying new parking type services. If you do spend time using WhyPark's customization tools to make your sites unique, then that might work out really well. Most of what I have read is from people who just use the standard minisites that services like WhyPark automatically create. I don't think you will get penalized for using whypark dns, but duplicate content could hurt you. See details at http://www.dnforum.com/f222/do-whypark-sites-get-banned-google-thread-365070.html . But, I hardly get any search engine traffic to my parked domains (at companies such as Sedo), so I don't think you can really lose much traffic from this. You can always switch back to Sedo if there are problems, and Google will reindex your pages. Yes, I think buying domains that you think will be big topics in years to come is a great way to invest. For example, I bought a bunch of HDTV domains when I first heard about it, and also a bunch of cloning domains when cloning sheep (Dolly) started getting publicity. But, it does cost a lot to renew all those domains each year, so it is important to try to put some content on them to get them listed in the search engines at least, so you get some income from them.

No, I have never used WhyPark.com, but I have read about them. It is certainly worth a try over Sedo. Some people have had good luck with minisites (like from at WhyPark.com), other people say they make just as much from traditional parking. No matter what, it is always worth trying new parking type services. If you do spend time using WhyPark’s customization tools to make your sites unique, then that might work out really well. Most of what I have read is from people who just use the standard minisites that services like WhyPark automatically create.

I don’t think you will get penalized for using whypark dns, but duplicate content could hurt you. See details at http://www.dnforum.com/f222/do-whypark-sites-get-banned-google-thread-365070.html . But, I hardly get any search engine traffic to my parked domains (at companies such as Sedo), so I don’t think you can really lose much traffic from this. You can always switch back to Sedo if there are problems, and Google will reindex your pages.

]]> By: Marc http://www.impulsecorp.com/the-psychology-of-a-multi-million-dollar-sale/comment-page-1#comment-41 Marc Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:30:29 +0000 http://www.impulsecorp.com/blog/?p=29#comment-41 Thank you so much for sharing your interesting story. I was able to glean a lot of wisdom from it. And your down-to-earth candor is very refreshing. I can tell you are a very pragmatic person. I have bookmarked your website and will be sure to return regularly. I'm new to domaining and own a portfolio of 125 domains, plus two content sites I am developing with unique keyword-focused content in my spare time. So far I'm only making a profit from my two content sites. Since I have a Science background many of my domains deal with emerging technology, such as: nanotechnology, photovoltaics, robotics, and sustainability. Question 1: Do you think emerging tech domains might be a good way to invest in what will in 5 or 10 years be the newly born premium generics as those new terms become semi-household names in the world's lexicon? And do you know of any domainers who specialize or have portfolios of emmerging tech domains? I own a few which I think may bring top dollar from industry buyers in that timeframe, but they are definately more speculative and require patience to hold with little to no fundamentals supporting name value currently (I know I probably broke a cardinal rule of domaining by registering the below emmerging domains without a developed market - but they were bought as speculative ground floor investments in anticipation of future developments...risky I know...like I said I'm a domain newbie;^) Here's a few examples of my nano domains. Am I a fool for registering these even if I can afford to eat the losses for years to come? nanotoxicologyjobs.com nanosphericals.com nanohepa.com nanoporosity.com nanopvs.com greenhousesustainablehome.com nanocosms.com nanoparticlescience.com nanofiltrations.com nanosilicates.com nanotubular.com nanolithics.com nanovocation.com nanosynaptics.com nanotoxics.com nanodeposition.com nanolurgical.com nanopoisoning.com nanotitanate.com nanosyndrome.com nanologicals.com nanoparticletoxicity.com nanotoxictorts.com nanodegrees.com nanohms.com nanotoxictort.com nanovocation.com nanopoisoning.com nanosyndrome.com nanotitanate.com nanocarbonbased.com nanologicals.com nanodegrees.com nanozap.com nanohaz.com nanoill.com Several are related to the inevitable health problems that will increasingly make news as nanoparticles in numerous products become inhalation hazards for workers and the public. Question 2: Do you have any experience with WhyPark.com? I just transferred my entire domain portfolio to them because it seems a big step above Sedo.com's plain old parking (which earned mere pennies for me). I like WhyPark because they allow you to automate content and monetization via their article feeds and PPC ad network. Plus I can add my own unique keyword-focused content pages too (which I definately want to do since I fear search engines will penalize for having duplicate content in the form of their widely distributed articles). Any thoughts on how successful a rich content site COULD be with WhyPark? Or will my domains be automatically hobbled because the search engines will see whypark in my DNS settings and rank them lower despite rich content? I would love to hear any advice you have. Thank you so much for sharing your interesting story. I was able to glean a lot of wisdom from it.

And your down-to-earth candor is very refreshing. I can tell you are a very pragmatic person. I have bookmarked your website and will be sure to return regularly.

I’m new to domaining and own a portfolio of 125 domains, plus two content sites I am developing with unique keyword-focused content in my spare time.

So far I’m only making a profit from my two content sites.

Since I have a Science background many of my domains deal with emerging technology, such as: nanotechnology, photovoltaics, robotics, and sustainability.

Question 1: Do you think emerging tech domains might be a good way to invest in what will in 5 or 10 years be the newly born premium generics as those new terms become semi-household names in the world’s lexicon? And do you know of any domainers who specialize or have portfolios of emmerging tech domains?

I own a few which I think may bring top dollar from industry buyers in that timeframe, but they are definately more speculative and require patience to hold with little to no fundamentals supporting name value currently (I know I probably broke a cardinal rule of domaining by registering the below emmerging domains without a developed market – but they were bought as speculative ground floor investments in anticipation of future developments…risky I know…like I said I’m a domain newbie;^)

Here’s a few examples of my nano domains. Am I a fool for registering these even if I can afford to eat the losses for years to come?

nanotoxicologyjobs.com
nanosphericals.com
nanohepa.com
nanoporosity.com
nanopvs.com
greenhousesustainablehome.com
nanocosms.com
nanoparticlescience.com
nanofiltrations.com
nanosilicates.com
nanotubular.com
nanolithics.com
nanovocation.com
nanosynaptics.com
nanotoxics.com
nanodeposition.com
nanolurgical.com
nanopoisoning.com
nanotitanate.com
nanosyndrome.com
nanologicals.com
nanoparticletoxicity.com
nanotoxictorts.com
nanodegrees.com
nanohms.com
nanotoxictort.com
nanovocation.com
nanopoisoning.com
nanosyndrome.com
nanotitanate.com
nanocarbonbased.com
nanologicals.com
nanodegrees.com
nanozap.com
nanohaz.com
nanoill.com

Several are related to the inevitable health problems that will increasingly make news as nanoparticles in numerous products become inhalation hazards for workers and the public.

Question 2: Do you have any experience with WhyPark.com?

I just transferred my entire domain portfolio to them because it seems a big step above Sedo.com’s plain old parking (which earned mere pennies for me).

I like WhyPark because they allow you to automate content and monetization via their article feeds and PPC ad network. Plus I can add my own unique keyword-focused content pages too (which I definately want to do since I fear search engines will penalize for having duplicate content in the form of their widely distributed articles).

Any thoughts on how successful a rich content site COULD be with WhyPark? Or will my domains be automatically hobbled because the search engines will see whypark in my DNS settings and rank them lower despite rich content?

I would love to hear any advice you have.

]]> By: admin http://www.impulsecorp.com/the-psychology-of-a-multi-million-dollar-sale/comment-page-1#comment-40 admin Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:09:59 +0000 http://www.impulsecorp.com/blog/?p=29#comment-40 Back before parking companies existed, I used to manually put affiliate links and search engine results on each of the domains. Once parking companies came long, I just parked them. The sites I create usually have nothing to do with me owning a particular domain. I create new sites based on new ideas I have. The problem with parking though is that unless you have a huge number of domains, you will never make a lot of money from it. Parked domains get hardly any search engine traffic and traffic does not grow over time. Developing the domains at least gives you a shot at hitting it big in the SEO lottery and getting a lot of traffic. Back before parking companies existed, I used to manually put affiliate links and search engine results on each of the domains. Once parking companies came long, I just parked them. The sites I create usually have nothing to do with me owning a particular domain. I create new sites based on new ideas I have.

The problem with parking though is that unless you have a huge number of domains, you will never make a lot of money from it. Parked domains get hardly any search engine traffic and traffic does not grow over time. Developing the domains at least gives you a shot at hitting it big in the SEO lottery and getting a lot of traffic.

]]> By: Pritish http://www.impulsecorp.com/the-psychology-of-a-multi-million-dollar-sale/comment-page-1#comment-36 Pritish Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:57:30 +0000 http://www.impulsecorp.com/blog/?p=29#comment-36 Hi, I read the whole story and am wondering how you managed so many domains. I have only 10 and I can never focus on all at the same time. I have also sent an email to you. If possible please provide me an idea which one I should focus on. I work from home and have time for my domains. But I always wonder, which one I should be focusing on. BTW it was a great story. I guess all the readers and specially domain guys will have a lot of encouragement by reading this. Cheers Pritish (from India) Hi,

I read the whole story and am wondering how you managed so many domains. I have only 10 and I can never focus on all at the same time. I have also sent an email to you. If possible please provide me an idea which one I should focus on. I work from home and have time for my domains. But I always wonder, which one I should be focusing on.

BTW it was a great story. I guess all the readers and specially domain guys will have a lot of encouragement by reading this.

Cheers
Pritish

(from India)

]]> By: admin http://www.impulsecorp.com/the-psychology-of-a-multi-million-dollar-sale/comment-page-1#comment-32 admin Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:38:38 +0000 http://www.impulsecorp.com/blog/?p=29#comment-32 Yes, looking back I should have focused on only big sites. But, at the time it was hard to know which sites would take off, so I wanted to play it safe and have lots of sites that were making money. Since I sold Bored.com, I have launched very few new sites and instead am just focusing on building up my existing sites, and trying to make a few of them really big (mainly Dumb.com, Adoptme.com, OfficeHumor.com,. and CheapFlowers.com). Yes, looking back I should have focused on only big sites. But, at the time it was hard to know which sites would take off, so I wanted to play it safe and have lots of sites that were making money. Since I sold Bored.com, I have launched very few new sites and instead am just focusing on building up my existing sites, and trying to make a few of them really big (mainly Dumb.com, Adoptme.com, OfficeHumor.com,. and CheapFlowers.com).

]]> By: GenericDomainMarket http://www.impulsecorp.com/the-psychology-of-a-multi-million-dollar-sale/comment-page-1#comment-31 GenericDomainMarket Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:39:15 +0000 http://www.impulsecorp.com/blog/?p=29#comment-31 Thank you for sharing and congrats on such a great deal! BTW, since you who are running your company (yourself) after the sale of Bored.com & even before that. Why you didn't focus on a couple of big websites instead of running hundreds? Thank you for sharing and congrats on such a great deal!

BTW, since you who are running your company (yourself) after the sale of Bored.com & even before that. Why you didn’t focus on a couple of big websites instead of running hundreds?

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