From Namezero to Domain Mogul: My Journey into Domain Ownership as a Kid

Acquiring a domain in the nascent days of the internet was far costlier compared to today’s standards. Securing a coveted dotcom domain name meant engaging with the sole registrar at the time, Verisign. However, this privilege came at a price: Verisign mandated purchasing a minimum of two years’ registration upfront, a stark contrast to the flexibility offered by contemporary providers who typically allow yearly renewals.

As a youngster, I was eager to take my locally crafted websites from Notepad or FrontPage and launch them online. However, the biggest hurdle was acquiring hosting and a domain. While my ISP did provide hosting, the cost of purchasing a domain for two years upfront, totaling $70, was beyond my budget at the time. As a workaround, I resorted to using subdomains provided by my ISP, although this made it challenging to share my sites with others.

As the dotcom bubble gained momentum, an increasing number of companies began offering free services in exchange for displaying online advertisements. Internet providers introduced free Internet access with ad-viewing bars on your desktop, while companies expanded free offerings such as email addresses. Web hosting companies also joined the trend by offering free hosting in exchange for automatic ad embedding on websites. Notably, Namezero emerged, offering users free domains in return for allowing an advertising frame to be placed around their websites.

At that point in my journey, I did have a debit card and my own bank account. However, the cost of paying for two years of a domain up front was a steep expense that I wasn’t willing to pay. The idea of acquiring a domain at zero cost in exchange for displaying advertisements on the website was very appealing to me. Plus, each domain came with a free email account at your domain, which was a significant bonus at a time when email services still charged per month.

I still needed to arrange my own hosting service, but I was confident I could utilize one of the available free hosting services or even leverage the complimentary hosting included with my ISP’s internet plan.

I figured that securing a domain linked to my name would be a solid first step. This way, I could establish an online journal to share my thoughts and connect with the friends I was making on the Internet.

After acquiring my first domain, I quickly found myself craving more. However, with limited funds, I knew I couldn’t afford to buy multiple domains, so I devised a plan. I registered a second domain on Namezero, this time posing as a business.

With those two domains in hand, I was hooked. Over the next few decades, I developed a knack for registering more and more domains. Every time I had a new business idea, I’d grab a domain for it. Before long, I had amassed hundreds, then thousands of domains.

Eventually, I reached a point where every idea I had came with a corresponding domain. Unfortunately, this led me to become something I had always despised—a domain squatter. This wasn’t intentional, and I never planned on making money by reselling the domains to others who genuinely wanted them. I just had a lot of ideas and wanted to secure the proper domains for when the time came to bring those projects to life.

I always wanted to avoid becoming one of those domain squatters, so eventually, I started letting some of my domains expire, thinking it would give others a chance to grab them. But, of course, what usually happens is a squatter buys the domain and immediately puts it up for resale.

This has come back to bite me more than once. There have been times when I later decided to pursue the project, only to find the domain I let expire now squatted and listed for thousands of dollars—when it would have cost me just a few bucks to renew it in the first place.

I’ve also had a few domains that I purchased for specific ideas, and then I was approached by someone interested in buying them. Most of the time, I’ll just give them away, but there have been a few instances where I’ve sold them. However, I never buy domains with the intention of squatting and selling them. In every case where I have sold a domain, it’s been because I realized I wasn’t going to pursue the project—whether the opportunity had passed, my interests had shifted, or I simply knew I wouldn’t have the time to bring the idea to life.

I’ve also had my share of domain-related headaches. I’ve lost a few simply by forgetting to renew them, only to see them snatched up by someone else. In some cases, bad practices by registrars led to domains being stolen right out from under me. There were even times when false claims were made against my domains, and the registrar handed them over to another customer. For a long time, the domain industry was like the wild west, with lax policies around transfers, claims, and all sorts of other shenanigans.

Even after all the ups and downs, I’m still in the game of registering domains. Each new idea sparks that same excitement to secure the perfect web address, and I continue to add to my collection. Who knows? Maybe one day, I’ll finally get around to organizing a list of my domains here on this website so others can reach out if they’re interested. Until then, the hunt for the next great domain continues.