- Impact
- 241
I have been thinking for a while that for domaining to move out of the woods and become more mainstream as an investment opportunity or be seen as actual assets then registrars can do a lot more to attract business for themselves as well as streamline domain investing with actual figures and help the industry grow. I am talking about building a similar analytical system that Google Adwords has in providing data for various campaigns and getting a registrar or registrars to apply similar analytical information and provide information with a few clicks. I personally believe that the industry lacks a lot of innovation and is very closed up and until it opens up it will not reach the
Basically I am talking about basic analytical features that they can offer to domain investors which would include the following:
- A domain valuation process where each domain is valued and a total portfolio valuation can be given at any point. I mean it cannot be that difficult to assemble sales data to give an idea of this to domain investors. Obviously it can never be 100% accurate but it should be able to get to about 70% accuracy rate. Godaddy seems to be doing something along these lines and I understand that it can never be 100% accurate but we need to start somewhere.
- The option to show you total sped over 2 years or 10 years with a few clicks. Or to show you how much you have spent on one domain since it has moved into your account. This would help domainers manage their accounts a lot better and also help them with decision making and pricing.
- Domain Control that Enables Parking or disables Parking with a few clicks (some domains may want to earn from their domains too)
- Clear domain visitor information
- Automatic domain logo system for domains that are listed for sale, so if these websites have millions of domains why do they not have a basic logo service that enables domains to make put a logo for each of their domain on their platform? It really is not that hard I think. This would encourage more buyers and make life easier for sellers.
- Transparent negotiations, I find it hard to understand why platforms withhold buyer information. If you have fair fees then people will still use your platform for the transaction as no one wants to take a chance, neither the buyer nor the seller want to be scammed so a platform you will not lose any business by letting people negotiate freely, except you will encourage more business. The reason there will be an increase in business and profits is because the domainer will be able to assess each buyer and research on each buyer. A certain company or individual can afford the 30k price tag for a domain that the domain investor has hand registered. However a small business cannot, so they will want to pay 3k instead. Now it is up to the domain owner to decide what they want to do, they may decide to accept the cheap offer because they make good money or charge a lot and make a lot of profit. But at the moment a lot of sales are not happening for the simple reason that no one trusts any one, some people are requesting a lot of money from someone who cannot afford it while others are giving their domains away for peanuts to businesses or individuals that can afford a lot more.
- A Domain Exchange similar to the stock exchange, where you put the domain up for sale and the software decides its sale price. The seller cannot input their own prices if they wanted to if they decide to participate in the domain exchange platform. The ownership of the domain might have to be transferred to the domain exchange, probably on some type of a lease agreement and if it does not sell on the exchange then you can transfer it back into your domain holding account where the whois information would update accordingly again. Similar to what happens on a crypto exchange. For the period that the domain is on the exchange no alterations can be made to e.g. nameservers. This would enable the domain to change ownership about 20 times in one day without any complications and the seller loads up the cash they intend to buy and sell onto the platform. This would enable speculators to go in and trade lose money and win money. Notably this would work better with .com and short letter domains up to 6 letters I would have thought but I cannot see why it would not work with any domain.
I understand that some of these exist, but they do not exist in one place and I think if there was a one stop shop for domain investors with all these features then domaining would become more mainstream. Some of the ideas are basic while others are more complex but I think it all needs to come together at some point. A lot of what I have mentioned some experienced domainers are doing anyway in some way or another but the industry does not grow with just the 1% I feel and with the available technology a lot more can be done.
Basically I am talking about basic analytical features that they can offer to domain investors which would include the following:
- A domain valuation process where each domain is valued and a total portfolio valuation can be given at any point. I mean it cannot be that difficult to assemble sales data to give an idea of this to domain investors. Obviously it can never be 100% accurate but it should be able to get to about 70% accuracy rate. Godaddy seems to be doing something along these lines and I understand that it can never be 100% accurate but we need to start somewhere.
- The option to show you total sped over 2 years or 10 years with a few clicks. Or to show you how much you have spent on one domain since it has moved into your account. This would help domainers manage their accounts a lot better and also help them with decision making and pricing.
- Domain Control that Enables Parking or disables Parking with a few clicks (some domains may want to earn from their domains too)
- Clear domain visitor information
- Automatic domain logo system for domains that are listed for sale, so if these websites have millions of domains why do they not have a basic logo service that enables domains to make put a logo for each of their domain on their platform? It really is not that hard I think. This would encourage more buyers and make life easier for sellers.
- Transparent negotiations, I find it hard to understand why platforms withhold buyer information. If you have fair fees then people will still use your platform for the transaction as no one wants to take a chance, neither the buyer nor the seller want to be scammed so a platform you will not lose any business by letting people negotiate freely, except you will encourage more business. The reason there will be an increase in business and profits is because the domainer will be able to assess each buyer and research on each buyer. A certain company or individual can afford the 30k price tag for a domain that the domain investor has hand registered. However a small business cannot, so they will want to pay 3k instead. Now it is up to the domain owner to decide what they want to do, they may decide to accept the cheap offer because they make good money or charge a lot and make a lot of profit. But at the moment a lot of sales are not happening for the simple reason that no one trusts any one, some people are requesting a lot of money from someone who cannot afford it while others are giving their domains away for peanuts to businesses or individuals that can afford a lot more.
- A Domain Exchange similar to the stock exchange, where you put the domain up for sale and the software decides its sale price. The seller cannot input their own prices if they wanted to if they decide to participate in the domain exchange platform. The ownership of the domain might have to be transferred to the domain exchange, probably on some type of a lease agreement and if it does not sell on the exchange then you can transfer it back into your domain holding account where the whois information would update accordingly again. Similar to what happens on a crypto exchange. For the period that the domain is on the exchange no alterations can be made to e.g. nameservers. This would enable the domain to change ownership about 20 times in one day without any complications and the seller loads up the cash they intend to buy and sell onto the platform. This would enable speculators to go in and trade lose money and win money. Notably this would work better with .com and short letter domains up to 6 letters I would have thought but I cannot see why it would not work with any domain.
I understand that some of these exist, but they do not exist in one place and I think if there was a one stop shop for domain investors with all these features then domaining would become more mainstream. Some of the ideas are basic while others are more complex but I think it all needs to come together at some point. A lot of what I have mentioned some experienced domainers are doing anyway in some way or another but the industry does not grow with just the 1% I feel and with the available technology a lot more can be done.