I registered my first domain name on June 26, 1997 for $70 (a 2 year registration). I sold that domain in 2001 for 1000 times what I paid for it.

Just like the diet commercials warn in small print, those results are not typical. However, if I knew then, what I know now about domain names, I would have made 1000 times more in the domain name marketplace.

I’m not a big player in the domainer game by many standards; I only own a few hundred domain names. I usually register names that I think would make a great website someday. 99% of the domains I own I actually have a “plan” to develop into something useful. However, I’ve never been one to look a gift offer in the mouth, and I’ve had some decent sales in the domain aftermarket.

I actually started the domainjunkies website about 6 years ago (in March of 2000). It was one of those names I registered because it sounded good and described what was happening with me at the time. I was registering a lot more domain names.

In 1999, there was no longer a monopoly on where you could register a domain name. Up until that point, webmasters and companies were at the mercy of interNic to pay a $70 fee for a 2 year registration. When the domain registration fee price became more reasonable and open to competitive pricing from different registrars, webmasters partied like it was 1999 :)

So in 2000 I created this little website and hosted a small NNTP newsgroup where other domainjunkies like myself could talk domains. Some of the members of that original group of junkies are some of the largest players in the domain market today. The domainjunkies newsgroup is still open, just less active. Feel free to post and strike up a conversation. The great thing about the domainjunkies newsgroup is that it’s NOT the usenet, it’s a privately hosted newsgroup hosted on a dedicated server. Less noise, more signal. No spam harvesters. If you’re an old school nerd who prefers the newsgroup format, why not drop a line :)

The current incarnation of this site is a domain blog journaling my ups and downs as a website developer, small business owner, and part time domainer. True confessions of a domain name junkie. Feel free to comment on an entry, correct my mistakes, or if you are a domainer as well, contact me about becoming a guest author in the blog.