Interview: AbdulBasit Makrani on His $400,000 in Domain Sales Between January and June 2021

One of my favorite domain name investors is AbdulBasit Makrani, the founder of AbdulBasit.com who owns a portfolio of several thousand domain names. I last featured AbdulBasit on my blog in December 2020 when he broke $500,000 in sales for the year. Now, he’s back to discuss how he’s faring in 2021.

 

The last time we spoke, you had around 4,800 domains in your portfolio with 90% being .com. How has that changed?

Thanks, James for having me once again!

Wow! It’s been more than 6 months since we last spoke. Things have been going very well. As of now, I’ve reached 5,700 domains in my portfolio with 92% .com domains. My focus was to increase from 90% .com to anything above that. During this progress, I also focused on adding more non-hyphenated and non-English keyword domains which are easier to sell.

 

Earlier this year, you acquired a portfolio of premium .co domains. Are you happy with your purchase so far? 

Although I’ve not sold any of those .CO domains yet, I’m still pretty confident with that portfolio. Because those domains are of top quality so are their prices which usually takes time to sell. There have been pretty great .CO sales happening all around which can be witnessed through DNJournal and Sedo’s weekly sales report.

 

You’re notable for your experiments with the Afternic platform. Are you still using Afternic? Have you tested any other services?

I’m still using Afternic landers and plan to continue doing it. So far I haven’t come across any other existing or new services which I can justify as being a better option to give it a try.

 

Let’s talk sales. How have the first 6 months of 2021 fared in comparison to the first 6 months of 2020?

There are at least two things that have changed since June 2020. First is that I had 3,880 domains at that time compared to 5,700+ now which is an increase of at least 1,820 domains. Secondly, the awareness among end-users is increasing a lot with the passage of time.

Both collectively are positive changes for the sales part. In the Jan-Jun 2020 period, I had sales of some around $215,000 and during Jan-Jun 2021 period it’s been almost $400,000 of sales and the majority of them coming via Afternic. With some 1,820 domains added, the amount of sales is great which shows that if one adds quality of domains, sales will eventually happen.

 

Can you give a breakdown of your sales figures for this year?

January $68,294
February $57,392
March $27,466
April $98,442
May $99,404
June $46,428

It’s clear that there have been a lot of ups and downs every month which will keep happening all the time. It’s part of the business. The biggest sale was $50,000 which unfortunately I cannot disclose at this time but maybe in the future I’ll do so… Some of the other notable sales were:

Overloop.com $42,888
FinText.com $19,888
HempAndHeal.com $19,888
POM.org $15,888
Gubbe.com $9,888
WalnutCove.com $9,888
HabitApp.com $9,888
Zleepy.com $9,888
PrinciplesGroup.com $9,888
WorkplaceWellbeing.com $8,888

All of the above sales happened via Afternic except the Overloop.com which sold through Sedo.com. All were BIN sales.

 

How many of your sales this year have been BIN versus “make offer”?

At least 90% of the sales have been through BIN which is a very effective method of selling your domains. I’ve learned this hard lesson very late but like there is a saying better late than sorry. I strongly suggest everyone use BIN for having more sales. Having only the “make offer” option kills the chance of sales and I’ve failed using this strategy for several years. I don’t want anyone else to waste their time trying this.

 

Have all your sales happened via Afternic?

Around 95% of sales have been through Afternic. But to my surprise, all the top-dollar sales have been either private or via Sedo (Overloop.com). I’ll be more than happy to have more big sales privately so that I don’t have to pay the commission!

 

What is the best single domain you’ve acquired so far this year?

AnnuityRates.com

 

What is your favorite sale of the year so far?

Like I said earlier, I’m unable to disclose that sale right now which I sold for $50,000. I may share it in the future. But one of my favorite sales is Overloop.com whose details I’ve already shared on my blog.

 

Are you 100% focused on domain names, or do you also invest in NFTs, cryptocurrency, etc?

I’m fully into domain names only. I like to stick with domains and even in domains, I focus only on those which I believe will remain for a long time and have no chance of the failures like any hype or new technology-related domains.