Mi.ke

Battle of the Domain Investors: $500, 1 Year, Who Wins?

Battle of the domain investors $500, 1 year, who wins?

TL;DR: Key Takeaways for Readers

  • The goal of the DNAcademy $500 Investor Challenge is for each participant including me to make as much profit as possible in one year using just $500 to buy and sell domain names.
  • Six seasoned domain investors start with the same modest budget and share everything: strategies, purchases, sales, and lessons via blogs, podcasts, and social media.
  • Our experiences are fully transparent and documented giving you a real-time inside look at domain investing from the ground up.
  • The challenge seeks to educate, inspire, and engage anyone interested in domain investing by showing the highs, lows, and day-to-day decisions of real investors.

Leaderboard

What Is the DNAcademy $500 Investor Challenge?

This is a year-long battle of brains and strategy where I and five other experienced domain investors each receive $500 in seed capital.

Over twelve months we try to outdo each other in generating profit by buying, managing, and selling domain names.

Our decisions and results are posted publicly for all to see making it equal parts competition and learning experience.

The competition is organized by GoDaddy’s Domain Academy (formerly DNAcademy), and runs from April 2025 to April 2026.

How the Challenge Works

  • Each investor starts with $500, no more no less.
  • We can pursue any legal domain investing strategy, such as hand registrations, auctions, flips, or holds ‒ as long as the domains are purchased and sold at GoDaddy, the contest sponsor.*
    *Some additional limitations apply to the two GoDaddy employees who are participating.
  • Every acquisition, sale, and tactic is shared transparently through podcasts, blogs, social media, and the spreadsheet.
  • Regular updates keep everyone posted on strategies, wins, losses, and key lessons.
  • The investor with the highest profit at the end of the challenge wins.

Purpose of the Challenge

  • Education: Prove how much is possible starting with minimal capital in domain investing. View what strategies and tactics are working (and not working).
  • Community: Share real-world lessons, encourage discussion, and foster learning in the domain community.
  • Inspiration: Demonstrate that with planning, patience, and smart moves anyone can make meaningful progress from a small starting point.

Follow Along With the Challenge

You can track progress, hear about sales and struggles, and learn in real time through these channels:

Quarterly Summaries

Below I will share my progress each quarter to keep you up-to-date with numbers and key lessons:

Q1 Summary (April through June 2025)

Q1 Results: My first few months in the challenge were spent researching trends and targeting underpriced domains. I prioritized GoDaddy Closeout domains at the $5 (plus registration) pricing tier.

While I initially priced all my domains at retail levels at Afternic, I quickly determined that to win this contest I would need to “turn and burn” domains at a wholesale price to other investors for a small markup.

One big bet of $415.20 for ElevateFund.com brought in a sales price of $888, and a profit of $473. I could only risk this amount because of the smaller sales I was making.

Domains Acquired: 8
Domains Sold: 7
Total Profit: $1,269

Takeaways:

  • Daily searching ExpiredDomains.net and GoDaddy Auctions revealed only 7 Closeout domains I was able to purchase in this 3-month period.
  • Don’t buy crap. Only invest in domains other investors will find value in.
  • Small wins allowed me to make a larger win.

Q2 Summary (July through September 2025)

Q2 Thoughts: I’m finding very few Closeout domains worth investing in, which might be caused by the “summer lull.”

Because I have more capital than my competitors, I’m now looking at auctions where I can get a 2X wholesale sales price to another investor that gives them a 20X to 50X return. That’s a win-win.

Full summary coming in September 2025.

Q3 Summary (October through December 2025)

Coming in January 2026.

Q4 Summary (January through April 2026)

Coming in April 2025.

Follow, learn, and let us see just how far $500 and the right mindset can go.