#DomainKing Aishwin Vikhona: Living the successful .com lifestyle
Hi there! Freelancers are raking in the money. Trust us we know! Our backend adjusts and compensates the billings of over a 1000 freelancers each day. Therefore, as we are new platform it is always nice to see and talk to people who have been the pioneering pillars of Indian freelance since the concept gained traction. It can be traced to recent years where the digital revolution and internet have shaped a lot of changes and provided a lot of opportunities for Indians.
Today I am in talks with one such pioneer, Aishwin Vikhona who hails from Aurangabad
Aishwin is a mastermind when it comes to Domaining: the art of buying and selling domains. He is so well versed in his business that people who know him for a while (like me) call him #DomainKing. I met Aishwin a while back briefly and have always been in touch since, discussing ideas about the IoT which will take us further in our endeavours.
So here is a sneak peak in to life and journey of Aishwin Vikhona, the mastermind domainer from Aurangabad.
- Hi Aishwin, why don’t you tell us briefly about who you are and what you do?
Hi all, I am Aishwin Vikhona, a Domain Name Investor with over thousands of domains including half a dozen premium LLL.coms in the portfolio, an IT Entrepreneur running a software startup focussed on both product and service based. I am based out of Aurangabad, India.
Wow, that’s something. It’s always interesting to know about what inspires people.
- What drove you into starting your own business and how has it been so far?
The passion to be my own boss, to work on my own terms, to make more money, to get more stability and to create more jobs motivated me to start my own business. The hardest part was to resign a lucrative 5 days working MNC job to something that you’re not even sure of will work. My family specially my younger brother did support me and pushed me to get out of this vicious cycle and take control over things.
Three years later, I am happy I made that decision; things now look a lot better than those times. I am working with my brother, got an office, a good supporting staff and some amazing clients to work with. I am making profits (Not very huge but good enough) and can see myself growing everyday in terms of skills, knowledge, networking and revenue.
- People generally think that entrepreneurs have a lot of free time? What do you have to say on that? How much effort does it really take to make it to success? Do enlighten us.
Entrepreneurship brings along responsibilities, you have to be accountable to MANY people, and you have to make sure that the project gets done ON TIME, you have to make sure that all the bills are paid, and there are lot between these. Since I don’t have set work hours, any time is possibly the working hour for me. Whatever comes up I have to handle it. Once you’re done with most of the things and you still have time left that’s probably your free time. But again it all depends on your goals and what you think is your priority. I try and make sure that I find time to go gym because that’s in my priority list.
Entrepreneurship is like running your own bus instead of sharing a bigger bus (a job), once you know where you’re going, what speed is required and if the bus has sufficient diesel required, things probably can go smoother on their own in the future. Lot of entrepreneurs don’t want to give up driving the bus and they think nobody can drive as good as they can.
- Many people on the freelance Indian IT scene regard you as the king of the domain estate. I am sure it’s not luck? How do you do it?
I believe in the quote “The harder you work, the luckier you get”. I buy domain names every week, most of the times every day. I work over 13 hours a day; most of my time goes into screening new domain names or bidding at different domain name auctions. I have a team who actively support me in selling domain names. We reach out to different end users and pitch them the domains we own. Having sold domains worth $250,000+, I feel it’s more than just pure “luck”.
- Our readers would love to know the scope, opportunities and risks regarding what you do? Care to elaborate?
The scope in the industry is huge. See what Bill Gates has to say about Domain Names “Domains have and will continue to go up in value faster than any other commodity ever known to man.”
The opportunities are rising because of new gTLD’s launching every month, domains expiring every day and the market is growing.
Risk is the key element. Before making any investments we first look for the risk and the growth rate. If anyone invests into a traditional property it’s still considered to be a safe investment because the if value of the property does not go up, will at least remain constant. While in Domain Names, this base value is not constant, it changes from buyer to buyer. For someone the value of a domain could be a 3, 4, 5 figure, while for someone the same domain could just mean nothing. This very thing makes it little more risky.
But in a nutshell, you should know what you’re doing. When I buy a single domain for over $20,000 USD, I make sure that I do my research well, I also check the past related sales or the trends which very much helps me to know if I am on the right direction. But these are just indicators, it also needs little courage and trust to roll the stone ahead.
- Buying and selling profitably must require some astounding negotiation skills. What specific skills do you use when interacting with your clientele?
Negotiation skills indeed are the key element for any entrepreneur. Domain buying and selling is all about right negotiation. I have lot of friends who are domainers. They have made lot of money just because they are exceptionally good at negotiation; they know how to get the best deal to buy a domain, and how to get the most out while selling it.
If you’re buying a domain you need to know how much the other person paid to buy that domain, for how long the domain was registered, what other domain names they currently need to understand better s that they can negotiate better!
Same applies if you’re selling it, you should know who the buyer is, what they do, if they have received any recent funding, why they need it, who are the competitors etc. I know a few domainers who make it a point to know the end person before selling the domain, they probably will not reply to any enquiry if it’s coming from a free email account with a very generic name.
- In our recent talks, you mentioned about various products which you will launch to aid this business sector. What are these?
The following software is being developed at our office to simplify the process of Domaining as I do not want others to face the same problems while buying / selling domains:
A Freemium tool that extracts email address of domain names in bulk in Excel sheets. Works fast and worth trying
It is a Service where we ask for $31 to provide a targeted leads of someone who might want to buy your domain. Works well with keyword domains. The list is made manually at our office and we use lot of research tools for it.
If you have over 20 domain names that you bought to sell, this piece of FREE software will make your life easier to setup a “Domain for Sale” landing page with contact form in seconds, you get a backend where you can see analytics of the domain, can change templates, can do on page SEO etc. All this can be done by just changing the name server of the domain.
- As a successful man, living life on his own terms, what advice would you like to give our freelancers and aspiring entrepreneurs out there?
Congratulations all freelancers / entrepreneurs, I am glad you’re up on this journey. I personally admire all those who choose to be different and I want to make sure that you stay organized and plan things well in advance, this is very important because when you decide and take control over everything it’s important that you stay disciplined. So polish your skills, organize them well in a portfolio and above all network and connect well. And yes some more, take your work seriously, be professional and take and commit to only those task that you’re confident about and can do it. Don’t do too many things together, first get expert in a single arena and later start growing.
Finally, Here are a few tips for budding domainers out there from the expert Aishwin himself
Do NOT buy Trademark domains
Make sure that you buy only generic keyword domains. E.g. MakeMoneyNow.com is a generic keyword domain, so that is good. MakeMoneywithGoogle.com is a Trademark domain, so DO NOT buy domains that have Trademark words in them.
Do your researches before you buy a domain name
It would be ideal to also look who could be potential buyer of your domain that you’re planning to buy. Don’t just buy it because you liked it, have a plan for each domain.
Anyone who wants to know more about Domain industry or how to make money with domain selling, should also check for my upcoming Book on domains, you can get more information on my website aishwin.com, keep yourself subscribed to my blog so you stay updated about all the new things that are coming up.
You can also connect with Aishwin on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram(Username: aishwinv) and Skype (Username: aishwinv) by clicking on these. They will take you to his profile.
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