Confession: I’m a domain name buying addict
I have a confession. I am addicted to buying domain names. It’s true. In fact, at the present moment I have more than I can handle and I still have a list of domains that I want (aka think I need) to buy. It’s like my form of gambling or some other addictive habit. The worst part is that my html and web designing skills are just mediocre. It’s not that I don’t want to add to those skills, but I just don’t have the time since I am always working on new sites.
This does have an upside though. Back in February when I was let go at my job I was able to not have to worry about getting a new job since my online income was actually more than my day job. And it involves a lot of ‘on the job training’ in things that I am actually interested in since I do not possess a lot of the web-related skills that I desire. A lot of times I will also buy a domain name for a subject that I am interested in but know little about. That way I can learn about it while ‘working.’
The downside is that I am always working. At least it seems that way. And even when I am not working on sites I am thinking about them. For me, I think it takes a good three to six months work to successfully launch a site. So for each domain name that I buy that is what I try to put into it. I have some sites that are just static sites where I create a lot of content and then do minimal work. Then I have sites like this one that are more blog based and need constant work. The challenge is balancing work and relationships/social life.
The obvious question here is simply ‘why?’ Why do this?
The answer is also just as simple. I want to change my life.
And I’m really not into working for ‘the man.’
Each time I buy a domain name I am looking at it in a business sense. It didn’t start out that way. At first it was just fun and this is one of those first domain names that I bought. The entrepreneur in me quickly realized that the internet presented unique business opportunities with low startup costs. And with my debt that I am trying to pay off, well, that was quite attractive.
If you have noticed, my posting of five times a week here is now down to two or three times. That is due to a new site I have been working on. When it is done it will have around 500 subdomains and should double my online income in about a year according to my projections.
What are you doing to change your life? And if you haven’t taken any steps to do so, what is stopping you?
November 4th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I’m totally jealous of the fact you were able to leave your full time job and are able to make enough money ‘on your own”. Totally jealous.
To answer your question, I’ve started to do a few things to change my life. I’ve LLC’d myself to legitimize some business expenses. Truly the other thing I need to do is really figure out what I want to do with my life or how I can use the many skills I have to produce income for me and become self employed.
What’s stopping me? The scary prospect of not having any kind of steady income-been there, done that.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
It took a LOT of work to get to that point. But you can do it too! While it is a lot of work, it is so much easier to do more work at home as opposed to less work for someone else in a cubicle. The challenge is not getting distracted by things at home
Sounds like you’re on the right track though with the LLC thing. I did the same thing three years ago and look where I am now!