Why it’s important to create a sales forecast for your domain investing business

When I first started buying and selling domain names I thought that my revenue in any given month was pretty random. Some months I’d get lucky, others were slow or didn’t produce any revenue at all. Then I started putting together a sales forecast which at first I thought was silly but now I see as a must-have for one simple reason – when you set goals you actually push yourself to hit them.

I’ve gone through a number of different iterations on how I forecast my domain sales for the year. I used to get very granular and try to predict how many domains I would sell each month and what my average sales price would be. As time went on I realized that was probably getting a bit too detailed and it made it a bit more difficult to track or trend towards a specific goal.

Now I keep it simple. At the beginning of every year I put together a forecast with a number for each month. Every Sunday, I sit down and look at my forecast and see if I still believe in it, adjust up or down, and if I’m behind, do some things to get back on track.

Here’s a good example of where having a forecast can be helpful. Let’s say you have a goal of selling $10,000 in domain names in February. Now mid-month you’ve sold $3,500 in domains, you’re behind. This means maybe you  do some outreach to people who have inquired in the past, maybe put some names on a platform like DNWE, start reaching out to end users, etc.

The point is, if you have a goal that you’re striving to hit each month, you’re going to push yourself to hit the goal. What you’ll learn over time is what’s realistic and what isn’t. I think of a forecast as a living document, it isn’t set in stone when I first create it, instead I continue to update it over time as I learn more, and the thing about domain investing is – you’re always learning because the market dynamics are always changing.

As I’ve said many times before, I don’t spend any time on Domaining on the weekdays, I learned years ago I’m just too busy to fit it in. But today, Sunday, I chisel out 2-3 hours and focus on my business and often that starts with looking at my forecast and seeing how I’m doing. Since today is the last Sunday of the month I’m taking a look at how I did in January vs. my forecast and also deciding if I want to keep February where it is or move the goal up or down.

The more time and energy you put into being organized, the more control you’ll have over the results and the more realistic you can be with what to expect. There’s a cheesy quote that has been in my head since 7th grade, it was written on the planners my school gave us and said, “if I plan to learn, I must learn to plan,” and those words still ring true today.

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton