Building Domain Portfolio Value: Scoring, Pruning, Arbitrage

Great portfolios are managed with data, not intuition. Here’s a pragmatic operating model.

1. Portfolio Data Model

Minimum fields:

• Domain, TLD, Registrar
• Acquisition cost & date
• Renewal cost (current + tier changes)
• Traffic (type-in, referral, search)
• Inquiries / leads
• Comparable sales (last fetch date)
• Appraised value range
• Strategy tag (Hold, Sell, Lease, Drop)

2. Scoring Formula (Example)

Score = (Brandability * 3) + (SearchVolumeFactor * 2) + (TypeInTraffic * 2) + (Liquidity * 1.5) - (AnnualCarry * 1)

Normalize each 0–10. Carry = renewal / benchmark.

3. Monthly Workflow

4. Pruning Criteria

Drop or liquidate if:

• Score < 4 for 2 consecutive quarters
• 0 organic type-in visits in 12 months
• No strategic thematic fit

5. Monetization Modes

• Fast-flip marketplace listing
• Lease-to-own payment plan
• Parking with zero trademark risk keywords
• Development (microsite or lead-gen)

6. Liquidity Signals

7. Arbitrage Opportunities

• Underpriced ccTLD analogous to trending .com sales
• Expiring auctions vs BIN discrepancies
• Bulk registrar transfer promos (lower renewal base)

8. Risk Management

• Enable 2FA + registry lock on top 5% value
• Stagger renewal dates for cash flow smoothing
• Monitor DNS changes (unexpected NS swap)

9. KPI Dashboard

• Portfolio market value (est range)
• Realized sales vs projections YTD
• Renewal cost vs revenue ratio
• Avg score delta Q/Q
• Drop rate trend

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Want a portfolio scoring spreadsheet or API endpoint? We can build it next.