hello,
i had read many ebooks, articles, forums on domaining, did many registrations and realized at the end the following things:
1>i just dont have the brains to register super-good names, not even the keyword research tool can help me out. as the good ones are already taken almost all the time.
2>i just keep on begging to sell my domains as i cant appraise them properly any time and either sell them too low or let them drop. IMHO!
3>i felt that i dont have patience to wait for years to find and end user and have never found a really solid millionaire buyer till date.
4>i just think that all my developed websites just make me scores of huge income to do whatever i like and even buy plenty of even costly domains, but my domains never do the same for me... leave scores of income all i see at inforum and at other places that majority of domainers struggle to make above $2.5k per sale while the webmasters easily cross $10k in monthly income.. thats one of the reason why i dont like domaining much of a bit.
5>since last year i have dropped about 45+ domains thinking that i would find better ones this year and its happening.. im getting so many domain drops this year specially now(of domains which were worth hundreds of bucks.. if not thousands!).. that im very very confused which one to register and which one to not.. as i see many drops in .com/net and major cctlds that i feel that registering a .in this year would just not do any good even next year as the major cctld thats the .com and .net is experiencing so much drops thats making me feel like crazy.. earlier people would buy any 3 letter .net at a good price(at almost $120 to $600 almost 2 years from now) regardless of if its a pure LLL or not and now i see people are not even willing to register 3 Letter .nets and the 3 letter .orgs biz have almost died just 2 yrs back only. if any body tells me his LNN.net is worth $600.. i just laugh at him thinking that this is exactly what i did 2 yrs back and see i got no buyers and just keep on renewing it for years and years till i find an end user or just die myself(whichever first!).
6>i finally settled till now that i wouldnt do much of a domaining and waste my money on tons of registrations which makes no significant return on investment and no sense at all unless i make them a website and sell the products in my website by myself.

this was my part of the story..

what about you? whats your domain strategy in this time/market conditions?

I do domaining as a hobby .. its an addiction to hold on to such domains.. it acts as a great jaw dropper at social events when i tell them about the domains I own... more for pleasure than for money.

Could you share product sites you launched on your indian domain names? e-commerce is yet to evolve i believe.. maybe your info might shatter my myth.

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looks like somebody just moved my post!.. so i would like ur opinions plez! xD

well i dont go to high-class parties so in my sad case people at social events dont know what domain means actually though they understand what a .com means and if i tell my friends about my great collection.. they just think that im boasting.. so its all of no use to me!

well for ecommerce, i actually design and sell websites(in hobby), and i also design site templates and do custom programming for mods and scripts as per clients as im an independent freelance web designer/developer/software developer and not just that i contribute to hacking/exploits and programming community with my main interests in compiler design, os development and firewall and antivirus research which makes me a very odd-alien from the ones hanging out on the malls and cinema complexes of kolkata city with their girlfriends.

when going for an IT company interview.. i show them my diverse skills, 11+ yrs of IT knowledge, my portfolio and proof of my existing monthly income which is around 2 Lakhs INR(5k+) and they get impressed and when i ask them for a job which would get me to a better position like 'software analyst' or so with an income more than my present income then they say 'JAI ho!' and at the end of the day.. i dont get the job.. so i decided to work on my own only as i earn more now than what i would earn when working under somebody in kolkata.. probably a position like maybe Bill Gates' assistant! xD but i think starting an IT company of my own here would also be a good option if i could just manage to do it all so good.

i have a lot of nice plans but i do need money to start them as though i program all night but its difficult to make some sort of custom-coded sites which havent been actually made till date(unique scripts and sites) in a very short time span by a single person though im trying my very best to do them. for money only i entered domaining but now i see the indian stock market is better than domain names when it comes to return on investment at every single hour xD and websites are very good source of income at the end of every month.

i will definitely add u my list of website sales once my sales list grows up to be as big as $500k or more in sales revenue so that atleast some people would know me here as a webmaster(if not a domainer xD)! till then my list is not available to public.

if you need to open any sort of sites, templates, make any sort of software which arent yet available in the market.. you can outsource them to me! thats what i do in-short!

regards,
Abhishek

well the above post is too large to talk!.. ignore that one and tell me you domain strategy right now.. im looking for more replies! to this post xD

Abhishek, you'll find some answers to your questions in this related thread:

What's the Plan for Your Indian Domains?

Since that thread was initiated, I think developing domains into mini-sites/websites has become more popular. The main drawback is that if you have a large number of developed domains, then updating and maintaining these sites on a regular basis can be challenging.

hey i just forgot the old post,
now when i saw it.. i couldnt believe it was me saying such words so long time back! man.. what im an odd-alien..really! xD
thanks for making me remember what i had posted long time back! i've become very motivated after reading my own reply on your old thread!

LOL. Well you're not alone, I have many quirks as well.

I used to have thoughts like this when I first started out... there's nothing wrong with having doubts along the way.

I think once you get your first end user sale, that really changes your mindset. This little bulb goes on over your head and you say - hey, people really want these things and are willing to pay big bucks for them.

You can buy quality domains on the secondary market. Hand registering domains isn't the only strategy or even the main strategy you should follow.

It's a tough market to sell in right now with the economy.

Read lots of appraisal threads and ask questions in them.

Unless you are a flipper, domaining is a long term game, especially .in.

Even big companies like with great portfolios only sell 2 to 3 per cent of their portfolio per year. BuyDomains has a great .com portfolio, a sales website, a huge advertising budget, sales staff, etc., yet they fall into the 2 to 3 per cent range.

Maybe you should try buying domains to flip, although for that I'd probably recommend .com just because it is so much more liquid than any other extension. You need to be fairly good at selling though for this to work.

Not only millionaires buy domains - BuyDomains.com's whole business model revolves around selling domains to small and medium sized businesses, and that's the market I think most domainers have success with.

There is a big difference - developing and marketing websites is a job; domaining is more of an investment - it's a lot more passive. But you can combine the two - develop a few premium domains. Lots of domainers do both.

A lot of domain prices have fallen over the last year, particularly in weaker extensions like .biz, etc. Lots of domainers are pruning back their portfolios to concentrate on higher value domains and getting rid of lower value domains.

That's a fair statement. One factor I use in evaluating domain purchases is: if all else fails, could I develop this domain myself? If so, I'm probably willing to pay a bit more.

It sounds to me like your best bet, given your skills and personality, is to buy a small handful of premium domains and develop really great websites on them.

all of the replies were really very true..

the last paragraph of your reply just made me realize about what actually i was doing since years and the same is my aim even now and i probably hope to make it the same in future too! maybe i would be doing much of a webmaster stuff in the better way coz thats an easier thingy for me which is tried n tested to be working till date xD !