What has happened to domaining?

I tend to agree.

It is a combination of many things -

1.) The economy. People don't have as much disposable income as they used to. This also creates a lack of liquidity.

2.) There are far fewer quality names dropping than in the past, and fewer available on the secondary market for reasonable prices. The quality domains that do come up are generally going for far hire prices than in the past, which lowers the margin for resale.

3.) "Flipping" is not really possible anymore without effort. In the past a lot of people were drawn to domaining because of the potential for easy money.

4.) Domain forums are not as popular as they used to be to buy & sell domains.

There is still plenty of potential when it comes to end users.
My sales have been trending up year over and year for several years.

Brad

the "death" of parking and tasting changed a lot about the reseller market.

Jasonn said:

the "death" of parking and tasting changed a lot about the reseller market.

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I agree. People are scrambling for an alternative. Monetization is a bit harder than what it used to be.

Yes, since long time
http://www.webhosting.info/registrars/fastest-growing-registrars/global/?ob=nc&oo=asc

For me personally it was a situation of "writing" is on the wall. As posted earlier the easy money was off the table. The days of me working a few hours and flipping domain names dried up on both ends. It became harder to buy good domains at a reasonable price and it became difficult to sell as even the secondary reseller market started to tighten up.

I went into Hibernation mode. I now sit on a pile of domain names, plucking through offers every month waiting for the good ones. I no longer Domain full-time and instead have a "real job" and selling domain names on the side.

I know a lot of colleagues either diversified heavily or have left domaining almost entirely because they simply couldn't make a full-time living doing it.

I agree. This is reflected by my post per day count which seems to be going down and down year on year which is very sad. Development is the way forward :tu:

I think it ultimately comes down to the fact that there is no 'easy' way into the industry anymore. It's extremely difficult to start in the domaining industry with no capital these days - you need a decent amount of disposable income and a lot of people don't have that at the moment.

A lot of people entered the industry when the economy was more fruitful - sites like Namepros were offering an easy way into the industry (get NP$, buy your first domain etc. etc) and that attracted younger people to join too. The only domain you can now pick up without 'paying' are the free ones that are given away - but clearly those are poor domains and there's a reason they are being released.

Many domainers who thought their domains were the best thing since sliced bread are realising that they have little to no value without development and aren't prepared to spend the money to develop the domains. I personally consolidated my domain portfolio and spend about 100-200 bucks developing each domain with a content rich minisite and add an affiliate scheme or advertising - some domainers don't want to take that leap and prefer to sit on their domains. The problem is - a fruitless year with very few end user sales means you've got to renew a lot of domains with very little cash ... thus why a lot of 'part-time' domainers have given up and moved away from the business.

I think changes of google alghorytm impact to domaining trend

I would imagine that consolidation is a factor. Fewer people own more quality domains compared to six years ago.

1) I think the Recession/Economic Downturn is forcing Domainers to jack-up their price tags. Imagine a few $x,xxx sales could pay for your 3-6 months worth of food and utility bills. The problem is, buyers have become cheapos for the same reason related to Recession/Economic Downturn. So you end up with sellers asking for the moon, and buyers contented with lowballing. Result= No Sale.

2) The Domaining "Industry" has been invaded heavily by big pocket entrepreneurs the past years, who hoard hundreds upon thousands of nice domains in their prison cells. They are like large vacuum cleaners, siphoning domains leaving you with nothing but dirtbag cheapos you couldn't sell for 60 bucks at SEDO because of minimum commission cost. Even Andrew Reberry is busy vacuum cleaning the drop pool garbage dumps. So the mortal domainers are left regging .INFOs and .MOBIs instead and spamming the "end-users" (who turn out to be fellow domainers as well) and begging them to buy their domains because they "sound similar to yours".

3) And then lastly, Domaining follows the business model of a Pyramid Scheme. The ones who came in early, get to sit on the throne. The latecomers end up fighting for crumbs. And when the pyramid becomes saturated, the Pharaoh known as ICANN, creates a new set of pyramids to restart the money-making racket all over again.

What seems to me is that only the newbies are participating in the domain forums. The pros do not open their mouths... :o

alien51 said:

1) I think the Recession/Economic Downturn is forcing Domainers to jack-up their price tags. Imagine a few $x,xxx sales could pay for your 3-6 months worth of food and utility bills. The problem is, buyers have become cheapos for the same reason related to Recession/Economic Downturn. So you end up with sellers asking for the moon, and buyers contented with lowballing. Result= No Sale.

2) The Domaining "Industry" has been invaded heavily by big pocket entrepreneurs the past years, who hoard hundreds upon thousands of nice domains in their prison cells. They are like large vacuum cleaners, siphoning domains leaving you with nothing but dirtbag cheapos you couldn't sell for 60 bucks at SEDO because of minimum commission cost. Even Andrew Reberry is busy vacuum cleaning the drop pool garbage dumps. So the mortal domainers are left regging .INFOs and .MOBIs instead and spamming the "end-users" (who turn out to be fellow domainers as well) and begging them to buy their domains because they "sound similar to yours".

3) And then lastly, Domaining follows the business model of a Pyramid Scheme. The ones who came in early, get to sit on the throne. The latecomers end up fighting for crumbs. And when the pyramid becomes saturated, the Pharaoh known as ICANN, creates a new set of pyramids to restart the money-making racket all over again.

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Nice summary of what happened :lol:

I've noticed the same thing. The economy definitely has an impact on the way people spend their money but it's a combination of factors that's causing this slow period.

I agree with nearly all the above. In particular flipping has become a lot harder these days. 4-5 years ago it was still relatively easy to make a bit of spare change flipping domains for double investment but alas so many reluctant buyers these days.

Development is where it's at. Trouble is also having a full-time job makes this difficult as I find myself saying every weekend I will create a minisite or two and usually something comes up. :\

It's a combination of the down economy, plus lack of new domainers. Lots of international growth is happening though.

Think Asia, Africa, etc. USA markets are saturated unless you have really good domains. Only 2% of my domains get frequent offers. Development is the key, but it doesn't have to be a huge site.

I am starting to prune my domains, and really ramp up the buying. I am in it for the long run. Go hard or go home

There's also a lot of junk out there with those hundreds of millions of domain names. There are not enough businesses out there who want to buy your names and most people are still content without owning a domain name.

I remember first buying and registering names last year thinking, "this is awesome, one word, or 'highly brandable" without asking, 'would anyone actually buy this thing for development or investment. Renewal comes up and I am out on my money.

I have been posting less and less since I first registered last September and have focused on my development. It has been the only consistent thing online to make me money, far more than domains themselves. It's not making me rich, but it is a great supplemental income with lots of other benefits including improving my reading, writing, research, marketing and communication skills.

rmg said:

What seems to me is that only the newbies are participating in the domain forums. The pros do not open their mouths... :o

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I was just thinking that the other day. A few years ago the "Pros" didnt want to flip the domains for $XX because they were making $xxx to $xxxx on flips so they shared enough knowledge to allow others to parttake in the "crumbs". Now that the sales are as often they themselves are back to flipping for smaller money with less of the pie to go around.

Now I never did domaing full time but I have always make significant money every year from doing it as a part time hobby. Back in 2007, 2008 and 2009 I prolly averaged at least $xx,xxx in extra income. 2010 and 2011 fell to less than have of that and 2012 looks to be around the same as the last two.

As with any business you find niches, then niches die. As for the question:

What has happened to domaining?
Nothing... domaining is still domaining, just people spending less money, which equates to less sales which means people spending less time and effort in the trade. Domaining is essentially still the same, people need domains and domains still maintain and present value to companies and individuals..

I would compare it a bit to what happened to real estate. Alot of people made alot of easy money then the market crashed. You can still make good money in real estate just takes more time and effort..

There is more competition too, also at the drops. It's not rare to pay end user price for a domain, if you are bidding against other members and want the domain. That leaves less margin for profit.

The sales to end users are still taking place (with ups and downs) but domainers seem to be broke and the D2D market is flat.

Actually, because the brick & mortar economy is sluggish, the online spend is up in virtually all sectors, including namespace... because operational costs are so much lower.

Product retailers are moving sales online. Corporate services are taking to the cloud. And online 'new media' ad spend continues to shutter traditional biz ad mediums.

The private namespace / domain market is being decimated by the supply of 'Free' Page Platforms. FaceBook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr and so on.

No one need pay for a private domain when you can get a turnkey webpage for free, with more features than one could build or pay for.

This includes businesses that now spend 'domain money' on FaceBook & Twitter page social network marketing campaigns.

Also, domainers have not adapted to the changing market. Most are still homesteaders in the wilderness trying to eke it out on their own.

many dumb endusers think that facebook is the go ? I recently heard one insurance company tell people to google when searching for them ??

Pity they didn't think about all the paid ads above their name !

Things that I think haven't yet been said.

There are less people on forums including Namepros today thanks to FaceBook and Twitter.

Some people are losing interest in some domains due to the thousands of new extensions being introduced.

Yes. All these new extensions are one of the main reason for this lull. I hope that it will be temporary. If not - thats the end of the game.

Well gee, with the amount of depression lurking in this thread, it's no wonder we're all in a funk! haha

My two cents. Or maybe three.

The private namespace / domain market is being decimated by the supply of 'Free' Page Platforms. FaceBook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr and so on.

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The economy. People don't have as much disposable income as they used to. This also creates a lack of liquidity.

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These are probably the two largest factors above anything else. The "illusion" that it's not necessary to invest in a quality domain name, in order to succeed online has NEVER been as great as today. Combine that illusion with the worst economy in history, and naturally people will opt for "free" options when it comes to what they believe is "smart" marketing.

All of that being said, it's probably equally important to note that everything tends to happen in cycles. There's a strong possibility that the domain industry will experience an inevitable upswing should a "paradigm shift" ever take place. No one knows for sure what shift that might be, however it will happen, and the industry will adjust itself accordingly, just like any other industry. Perhaps that shift could indeed occur as a result of the future GTLD market. Perhaps, then people will realize the importance and value of a quality dot com domain, when suddenly people are faced with hundreds, if not thousands, of confusing domain choices.

Or, perhaps a huge meteor slams earth on December 21st and every domain is dropped. I'm kinda hoping for the first scenario.

evirtual1 said:

many dumb endusers think that facebook is the go ? I recently heard one insurance company telly people to google when searching for them ??

Pity they didn't think about all the paid ads above their name !

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evirtual1 said:

many dumb endusers think that facebook is the go ? I recently heard one insurance company telly people to google when searching for them ??

Pity they didn't think about all the paid ads above their name !

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Companies that spend that much on advertising will make sure they are listed at the top of Google searches for all variations of their brand name.

The Rover said:

There's a strong possibility that the domain industry will experience an inevitable upswing should a "paradigm shift" ever take place

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It will happen, it is a matter of 'when' rather than 'if'. When, though, could be months or 3-5 years down the line.