Domain Beginnings: Andrew Allemann

The domain industry is made up of a diverse group of people with vastly different backgrounds. I’ve always found it interesting hearing about how domain investors became familiar with domain names and ultimately decided to invest some (or all) of their money in these virtual assets. Today we learn about how Andrew Allemann, editor of Domain Name Wire, became interested in the domain industry.

“I started registering domain names in 1997 when I was in college.  At first it had nothing to do with domains: domains were just a means to an end to create web sites.  But as I created my first web site I realized their was a lot of value in the domains themselves.  I got addicted when I sold my first domain name on eBay.  I would track expired domain lists and look for good domains to register (back then you could get good expired domains even days after the domains expired).  The only problem was that domains were $70 to register, and that’s a lot of beer money.  I didn’t register nearly as many domains as I should have.

I still remember getting all of those paper registration notices in the mail from Network Solutions for each domain I registered.  My roommates thought I was crazy.  I also remember when registration became deregulated.  Dotster was offering domains for something like $15, and I went crazy.  I was one of their first dozen customers — I think my order number was 19 or something like that.”