Last week, in part one of What The Domain World Needs, the following were covered:
Better Data for Better Decisions
Several commented on the need for better analytical information based on real visits and measures of interest. While many marketplaces provide some information, there are differences in how effectively bots are screened, and not all marketplaces separate direct from marketplace referrals. Some marketplaces allow integration of Google Analytics, but not all do.
It would be valuable to have comparative data. How well does this domain rank in visits and likes compared to similarly priced and structure domains on that marketplace?
Marketplace performance data would help people choose where to list and point landers. For example, how many domain names are listed at this marketplace, how many names have DNS pointed there, how many sales were there, what was the computed sell-through rate, and a breakdown of the sales prices. All of this could be disclosed without revealing specific sale prices for individual names.
Better Ways To Monetize Domain Names
@NameJi made a number of suggestions, one of which was better ways of monetizing domain names as a service.
Currently the primary avenue is one of the parking services. While there are differences in parking offerings, they are all pretty similar. What about a service that includes simple parking, when evidence indicates that is the best alternative for a certain name, but also provides other possibilities such as creation of mini-sites, renting redirection, or more significant monetized development.
There is an existing service, ParkLogic, that does optimize revenue by automatically choosing the highest paying advertiser for a particular domain name.
Record Keeping Help
The record keeping associated with a large portfolio is significant. Busy Father suggested a service that would keep all your records and receipts.
Make It Simpler
Several expressed frustration with the complex set of different procedures that has evolved. Transfer a name to a new registrar, sometimes there is a new 60-day lock imposed by the registrar, sometimes not. Even if no registrar lock, for certain TLDs there is a registry or backend provider lock.
Locks are in place as a deterrent to domain theft, but as @NameFather pointed out, locks should be shorter than 60 days.
ICANN has over the past number of months been considering a proposal that would change the lock period to 30 days, but it would require all registrars to lock for this period for gTLDs. The proposal also includes procedural changes that some argue will make hijacking of domain names easier.
And then the issue of premium renewals. Some TLDs have no premium renewals, a few have first year only premiums, and others have premium renewals. Registries can change premium status when names expire, and a few seem to reclassify even without expiry. This has created a complex landscape that discourages end user investment in a name. @Ariff BD argued that there should be no premium renewals.
While the new extension registries depend on premium renewals as part of their financial feasibility, I wonder of the number of extra registrations that would accompany dropping premium renewals, both among investors and end users, might not make up. Certainly right now the system is too complex with respect to both locks and premium renewals.
Retail Focus Domain Auctions
Auctions without reserve, or with modest reserves, offer one way to achieve domain name liquidity. While there are numerous regular and special auctions, that are open to retail or wholesale buyers, existing auctions seem to be dominated by wholesale transactions,
What about a new auction platform that was specifically geared to the retail side? To be effective it would need high visibility within the startup community.
A retail-focus domain name auction service would need careful curation for it to be successful. Significant advertising and promotion would be needed for the idea to take off.
Fractional Ownership and Bid2Earn
DigiNames proposed two ideas:
One of them was fractional domain ownership. While this has been tried with a few individual names, see Fractional Ownership and Domain Names As An Asset Class, it is not widely available. As I understand it, Dan set up their system to support fractional ownership.
There are cases of domain investors who have an agreement to co-own a name or portfolio. While fractional ownership is not without difficulties, if done carefully fractional ownership does offer a new way to hold higher quality names with distributed risk and reward.
The other idea, Bid2Earn uses smart contracts to reward bidding on an undervalued name which is later bid up by someone else. Of course, it would be essential to have strong safeguards against abuse.
Means To Pitch High Worth Domain Names
A couple of the ideas proposed by @NameJi involved venues to pitch high net worth domain names to venture capital investors or the startup community. There are probably various ways to achieve this. The more the availability of quality names is obvious to those who could make good use of them, the better for both communities.
NameFencing
@Eyedomainous introduced a term I had not previously encountered. He starts by pointing out that most domain names do not currently sell, and we need a new model. He sees parallels between the impact of web giants on the radio and TV market, airspace, and the domain market.
You can read about GeoFencing here. @Eyedomainous points out that the GeoFencing market is expected to grow more than 5x over the next ten years.
Lines of Credit
@J.R. suggested that large registrars should offer credit lines anchored to high quality domain investors. He explained the system this way:
He suggested that the credit line would be secured by the portfolio, and might take into account the following:
At least previously, Epik offered domain loans based on quality domains held at the registrar. I am not sure if that still exists, or if other registrars offer something similar.
Inform Me If…
One of the ideas proposed by @comRaid was the following:
Trade Domains
While there are a few ways to trade, as opposed to sell, domain names, there are not many options. @Satsdifference.com suggested that if we had an easy domain trading platform it would make the domain world more lively and interesting.
More Brokerage Options
There are a number of brokers that mainly operate in the $20,000 and up domain name market. But it is hard to find someone that will represent a name in the $2500 to $20,000 retail price range.
While it would not be productive to swamp the world with outbound sales pitches, there may well be a role for a brokerage service, perhaps operating on a fee-basis instead of a percentage, to represent a selection of quality names priced below $20,000.
Price Management Through CMS
We covered in part one various ideas to make domain marketplace listing and price changes easier, including both a registrar based single-point model, and a third-party product to coordinate listings and prices. @VadimK suggested a somewhat different approach, using a content management system as a channel manager, that might be simpler to implement.
Final Thoughts
@Karmaco expressed the opinion that additional paid services are not needed,
I hope that some of the proposed ideas will find implementation in the not so distant future. Thank you to all who contributed.
Feel free to discuss any of these, or other, ideas below.
Sincere thanks to all who proposed ideas, whether included in the two-part compilation or not. Many interesting ideas were presented by members of our community.
- Registrar-based single-source marketplace listings.
- Retail Buy Request Marketplace.
- Domain Broker Certification.
- Smart Contract Escrow.
- Smarter Interactive Marketplace Search.
- Bridges to Advertising Agencies.
Better Data for Better Decisions
Several commented on the need for better analytical information based on real visits and measures of interest. While many marketplaces provide some information, there are differences in how effectively bots are screened, and not all marketplaces separate direct from marketplace referrals. Some marketplaces allow integration of Google Analytics, but not all do.
It would be valuable to have comparative data. How well does this domain rank in visits and likes compared to similarly priced and structure domains on that marketplace?
Marketplace performance data would help people choose where to list and point landers. For example, how many domain names are listed at this marketplace, how many names have DNS pointed there, how many sales were there, what was the computed sell-through rate, and a breakdown of the sales prices. All of this could be disclosed without revealing specific sale prices for individual names.
Better Ways To Monetize Domain Names
@NameJi made a number of suggestions, one of which was better ways of monetizing domain names as a service.
Currently the primary avenue is one of the parking services. While there are differences in parking offerings, they are all pretty similar. What about a service that includes simple parking, when evidence indicates that is the best alternative for a certain name, but also provides other possibilities such as creation of mini-sites, renting redirection, or more significant monetized development.
There is an existing service, ParkLogic, that does optimize revenue by automatically choosing the highest paying advertiser for a particular domain name.
Record Keeping Help
The record keeping associated with a large portfolio is significant. Busy Father suggested a service that would keep all your records and receipts.
Make It Simpler
Several expressed frustration with the complex set of different procedures that has evolved. Transfer a name to a new registrar, sometimes there is a new 60-day lock imposed by the registrar, sometimes not. Even if no registrar lock, for certain TLDs there is a registry or backend provider lock.
Locks are in place as a deterrent to domain theft, but as @NameFather pointed out, locks should be shorter than 60 days.
ICANN has over the past number of months been considering a proposal that would change the lock period to 30 days, but it would require all registrars to lock for this period for gTLDs. The proposal also includes procedural changes that some argue will make hijacking of domain names easier.
And then the issue of premium renewals. Some TLDs have no premium renewals, a few have first year only premiums, and others have premium renewals. Registries can change premium status when names expire, and a few seem to reclassify even without expiry. This has created a complex landscape that discourages end user investment in a name. @Ariff BD argued that there should be no premium renewals.
While the new extension registries depend on premium renewals as part of their financial feasibility, I wonder of the number of extra registrations that would accompany dropping premium renewals, both among investors and end users, might not make up. Certainly right now the system is too complex with respect to both locks and premium renewals.
Retail Focus Domain Auctions
Auctions without reserve, or with modest reserves, offer one way to achieve domain name liquidity. While there are numerous regular and special auctions, that are open to retail or wholesale buyers, existing auctions seem to be dominated by wholesale transactions,
What about a new auction platform that was specifically geared to the retail side? To be effective it would need high visibility within the startup community.
A retail-focus domain name auction service would need careful curation for it to be successful. Significant advertising and promotion would be needed for the idea to take off.
Fractional Ownership and Bid2Earn
DigiNames proposed two ideas:
One of them was fractional domain ownership. While this has been tried with a few individual names, see Fractional Ownership and Domain Names As An Asset Class, it is not widely available. As I understand it, Dan set up their system to support fractional ownership.
There are cases of domain investors who have an agreement to co-own a name or portfolio. While fractional ownership is not without difficulties, if done carefully fractional ownership does offer a new way to hold higher quality names with distributed risk and reward.
The other idea, Bid2Earn uses smart contracts to reward bidding on an undervalued name which is later bid up by someone else. Of course, it would be essential to have strong safeguards against abuse.
Means To Pitch High Worth Domain Names
A couple of the ideas proposed by @NameJi involved venues to pitch high net worth domain names to venture capital investors or the startup community. There are probably various ways to achieve this. The more the availability of quality names is obvious to those who could make good use of them, the better for both communities.
NameFencing
@Eyedomainous introduced a term I had not previously encountered. He starts by pointing out that most domain names do not currently sell, and we need a new model. He sees parallels between the impact of web giants on the radio and TV market, airspace, and the domain market.
You can read about GeoFencing here. @Eyedomainous points out that the GeoFencing market is expected to grow more than 5x over the next ten years.
Lines of Credit
@J.R. suggested that large registrars should offer credit lines anchored to high quality domain investors. He explained the system this way:
He suggested that the credit line would be secured by the portfolio, and might take into account the following:
- Amount based on in-house appraisal value as a percentage.
- Available to customers with a proven track record of sales and paid for purchases.
- Limit credit line purchases to domains registered or sold on the platform.
- The portfolio is security against non-repayment.
- The higher the credit line, the more manual the valuation needed for approval.
At least previously, Epik offered domain loans based on quality domains held at the registrar. I am not sure if that still exists, or if other registrars offer something similar.
Inform Me If…
One of the ideas proposed by @comRaid was the following:
Trade Domains
While there are a few ways to trade, as opposed to sell, domain names, there are not many options. @Satsdifference.com suggested that if we had an easy domain trading platform it would make the domain world more lively and interesting.
NamePros might be well suited to be the platform for domain trades.
More Brokerage Options
There are a number of brokers that mainly operate in the $20,000 and up domain name market. But it is hard to find someone that will represent a name in the $2500 to $20,000 retail price range.
While it would not be productive to swamp the world with outbound sales pitches, there may well be a role for a brokerage service, perhaps operating on a fee-basis instead of a percentage, to represent a selection of quality names priced below $20,000.
Price Management Through CMS
We covered in part one various ideas to make domain marketplace listing and price changes easier, including both a registrar based single-point model, and a third-party product to coordinate listings and prices. @VadimK suggested a somewhat different approach, using a content management system as a channel manager, that might be simpler to implement.
Final Thoughts
@Karmaco expressed the opinion that additional paid services are not needed,
Perhaps this two-part series has identified a few practical ways to have more end users, and to help identify good names.
I hope that some of the proposed ideas will find implementation in the not so distant future. Thank you to all who contributed.
Feel free to discuss any of these, or other, ideas below.
Sincere thanks to all who proposed ideas, whether included in the two-part compilation or not. Many interesting ideas were presented by members of our community.
