AI Has Changed the Way I Look at My Domain Portfolio

It has been quite a while since I wrote regularly about domains, technology and building businesses online.

My relationship with the internet goes back to 1996, when building a website meant writing HTML by hand. I eventually transitioned to WordPress in the early 2010s, and over the years I experimented with everything from ecommerce to affiliate websites, video-curation sites and domain investing.

For a long time, domain names themselves became the primary focus.

Around 2016, I became particularly interested in catching freshly expired domain names. It was incredibly competitive. I was essentially trying to compete with large-scale drop-catching and backorder services, but somehow managed to capture a surprising number of names I really liked.

I sold quite a few of those in bulk at wholesale prices, often in the $200 to $300 range, and held onto others. Some of those names continue to sell today in the four-figure range.

Then, over the last several months, something changed the way I look at domains again.

AI got me building.

I've used ChatGPT for several years, but more recently I started using commercial AI development tools to actually build and launch projects.

For someone who remembers hand-coding HTML in 1996, what is possible today is pretty remarkable.

What has impressed me most isn't simply that AI makes development faster. It expands the creative process.

Things I might once have dismissed because they required technical skills beyond my own, or an entire development team, are suddenly things I can experiment with and build myself.

And that has completely changed the way I look at my domain portfolio.

I don't just see domain names sitting in an account waiting for the right buyer anymore.

I increasingly see them as raw material for businesses, tools and experiments.

Ironically, the problem now is restraint.

There are many domains in my portfolio I'd love to develop, but I'm trying to be selective. Launching something has become relatively easy. Building something worthwhile and continuously improving it still requires time, attention and commitment.

So rather than trying to develop everything, I'm choosing a small number of ideas where I think I can put my all into them.

There is something else I find interesting about this new chapter.

Around 2011, I maintained a blog and wrote regularly. I would often take six-mile walks, think about whatever was occupying my mind, and then write from a coffee shop or when I returned home.

For various reasons, that habit eventually stopped.

Now, roughly fifteen years later, I find myself building again. And writing again.

In a strange way, AI has brought me full circle, from building websites, to investing in domains, and now back to building businesses and products around ideas again.

I'm curious whether other entrepreneurs and domain investors are experiencing the same thing.

Has AI changed the way you look at the assets, ideas or opportunities you've accumulated over the years? Has it made you more inclined to build?