IT.COM

Sadly domaining is real negative versus its hey-days, imo. Do you agree?

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IMO the domain market is becoming more and more diverse with .com slowly but surely losing stature as time goes by, except for a few .com categories such as single word product and company names like Ring.com Brew,com and others, and important 2 word com's such as creditcards.con for example. In those categories .com is by far the king.

Starting in 2015 and getting much worse by 2016 my own sales and inquiries dropped big time. In fact, my sale inquiries are down over 90% in past few years, which portfolio consists of most all .com and .org names. That 90% plus decline is in spite of my sales techniques being significantly improved and better vs a few years ago.

Actually my wife first talked about this subject a few years ago when she looked at a GoDaddy reg page saying to me why would a buyer ask about your name when it is mid 3 min offer and they see dozens of low cost options recommended on the GD screen, including lots of unreg'd new extensions.

She went on saying stuff like why would anyone offer you $xxx and pay maybe $x,xxx when they can buy the unreg'd dot-net or .org for $14.95 or a host of new extensions for prices ranging down to under $10.

Then her statement quickly hit home hard as I lost several big sales to new extensions sold at lower cost vs my .com or org. For example, a mid-size bank wanted to buy their EMD acronym name but after lots of time and negotiations in mid 4-fig range they ended up reg'ing a .new bank ext instead. After that I lost a few more to other extensions which the buyers likely found on the GD page, mostly new ext but even to a .biz. Most losses went unexplained but upon digging it was sometimes discovered why they did not buy.

Think about it, if you are new in business, a ma and pa store or low on funds why make a 3 figure offer and get a counter-offer in 5 figures when there's dozens of low cost options on Godaddy page available for immediate buying with no negotiations and much lower prices?

You can make a website just as easily on a non-com and I am fairly sure Google will rank you based on your SEO ability, not based on your domain extension. Later on if you become successful you can then try to buy the preferred dot-com For decades type-in traffic was said to be a main reason for dot-com but truth is type-ins are down significantly over past several years so that's no longer a major reason for owning the .com

All that paints a poor picture and bad outlook for many domainers, myself included, and a reason I am sadly bearish on this business now. Even website traffic seems way down except to the huge amazon-like websites, for various reasons, I will not cover at this time, not to mention PPC parking revenue being down a truly staggering 95% over past 8 years or so! In fact, ppc is so bad I don't bother to park my domains anymore except for a few.
 
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None of that is relevant when one want's a particular domain.
Does not matter if it's a .com or a gTLD, in the end the only thing that matters is if someone wants it badly enough to pay for it.

Perception, market trend, everything baseless, when a business has a particular name in mind they will eventually come to you. They may start with a lower priced domain but if business is good they will eventually invest in their first choice of domains.
 
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.........
...All that paints a poor picture and bad outlook for many domainers, myself included, and a reason I am sadly bearish on this business now. Even website traffic seems way down except to the huge amazon-like websites, for various reasons, I will not cover at this time, not to mention PPC parking revenue being down a truly staggering 95% over past 8 years or so!


None of that is relevant when one want's a particular domain.
Does not matter if it's a .com or a gTLD, in the end the only thing that matters is if someone wants it badly enough to pay for it.

Perception, market trend, everything baseless, when a business has a particular name in mind they will eventually come to you. They may start with a lower priced domain but if business is good they will eventually invest in their first choice of domains.


IMO, @namemarket did a high-quality job of describing a poor picture and bad outlook for many (not all) domainers...

@MapleDots made a convincing case for some patient and well-funded domainers to still do well "eventually".


ATTN: "Concerned" domain brokers:
Do you know "bargain priced assets" related to crypto/ altcoins do not require a renewal fee to hold on?
:)
 
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Does not matter if it's a .com or a gTLD, in the end the only thing that matters is if someone wants it badly enough to pay for it.

fyi dot com is also a gTLD, I guess you are referring to new gTLDs
 
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IMO the domain market is becoming more and more diverse with .com slowly but surely losing stature as time goes by, except for a few .com categories such as single word product and company names like Ring.com Brew,com and others, and important 2 word com's such as creditcards.con for example. In those categories .com is by far the king.

Starting in 2015 and getting much worse by 2016 my own sales and inquiries dropped big time. In fact, my sale inquiries are down over 90% in past few years, which portfolio consists of most all .com and .org names. That 90% plus decline is in spite of my sales techniques being significantly improved and better vs a few years ago.

Actually my wife first talked about this subject a few years ago when she looked at a GoDaddy reg page saying to me why would a buyer ask about your name when it is mid 3 min offer and they see dozens of low cost options recommended on the GD screen, including lots of unreg'd new extensions.

She went on saying stuff like why would anyone offer you $xxx and pay maybe $x,xxx when they can buy the unreg'd dot-net or .org for $14.95 or a host of new extensions for prices ranging down to under $10.

Then her statement quickly hit home hard as I lost several 4 figure sales to new extensions sold at lower cost vs my .com or org. For example, a mid-size bank wanted to buy their EMD acronym name but after lots of time and negotiations in mid 5-fig range they ended up reg'ing a .new bank ext instead. After that I lost a few more to other extensions which the buyers likely found on the GD page, mostly new ext but even to a .biz. Most losses went unexplained but upon digging it was sometimes discovered why they did not buy.

Think about it, if you are new in business, a ma and pa store or low on funds why make a 3 figure offer and get a counter-offer in 5 figures when there's dozens of low cost options on Godaddy page available for immediate buying with no negotiations and much lower prices?

You can make a website just as easily on a non-com and I am fairly sure Google will rank you based on your SEO ability, not based on your domain extension. Later on if you become successful you can then try to buy the preferred dot-com For decades type-in traffic was said to be a main reason for dot-com but truth is type-ins are down significantly over past several years so that's no longer a major reason for owning the .com

All that paints a poor picture and bad outlook for many domainers, myself included, and a reason I am sadly bearish on this business now. Even website traffic seems way down except to the huge amazon-like websites, for various reasons, I will not cover at this time, not to mention PPC parking revenue being down a truly staggering 95% over past 8 years or so! In fact, ppc is so bad I don't bother to park my domains anymore except for a few.
Words of wisdom in above post from someone who is not afraid to see reality as it is.

I wrote it many times already, but lot of people simply can not accept the reality - great 1 word .com names like Beer or Ring will command amazing prices for years to come. There is no doubt about it, while most of people here do not own such names. When it comes to names which are 1 level lower (good 2 worder .com combinations), names which majority of poeple hold here, there are under direct competition from all those new domain extensions (new GTLDs). And registrars are supporting that very much, almost every registrar now is instanly offering new gTLD alternatives when you search for your .com name.

As described by OP post above, end users can offer good money for such combos to domain investor, but if the price is too high, they can now easily opt for new gTLD alternatives. This was not possible before, but now it is possible, and I believe lot of investors with traditional 2 word .com names will feel it, or are already feeling it. Of course only few will publicly admitt it.

So how to make domaining profitable again? My opinion is, go only for high quality names, be it in .com, ccTLD or new gTLDs, where not lot of alternatives exist.

The lack of alternatives is very important - if end users have good alternatives, our ability as domain investors to ask for high prices is very limited. So instead of handregging hundreds of crappy names, I think the way to go is to buy a few good ones from fellow domain investors and take it from there. Also think longterm. This of course means you need to know what is a good name, and that is not so easy, particularly when it comes to new gTLD names.

Or, one can go to crazy rat race of flipping quickly domain names for few bucks - it is lot of work, and you are not building any value in your portfolio, but it pays bills for some members here, and they have it as their main job. But it is more cashflow thing imo, as they can realitically make more money in McDonnalds in many cases :)
 
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Then her statement quickly hit home hard as I lost several big sales to new extensions sold at lower cost vs my .com or org. For example, a mid-size bank wanted to buy their EMD acronym name but after lots of time and negotiations in mid 4-fig range they ended up reg'ing a .new bank ext instead.
IMO the decision maker is naive to think they made the better choice with a non-.com, even in 2018. If you had said 5 figures, I wouldn't be so critical of their decision. So what you are saying is relevant, and it does seem to be a different ballgame out there where end-users are concerned.

Afaic, parking is ancient history. In 2019 I will abandon parking in favor of better sales landers, or shame on me. By the way, Google is most blame-worthy for blowing up the parking lot.
 
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And...I really feel you @namemarket , as I also lost potentially very nice deal related to one of my new gTLD names few weeks ago to.. alternative in .APP! :) I could not believe when that person has choosen instead nice keyword in .app, and simply went away. That is why everytime you purchase a domain name, try to think about how much alternatives are there for it, and how much those alternatives cost....
 
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@namemarket and @lolwarrior are spot on with their assessments.

IMO the domain market is becoming more and more diverse with .com slowly but surely losing stature as time goes by

Agreed. The internet is gradually evolving, and .com is absolutely less necessary than ever.

None of that is relevant when one want's a particular domain.
Does not matter if it's a .com or a gTLD, in the end the only thing that matters is if someone wants it badly enough to pay for it.

I think the point is that there are far more options now than in the past. More options naturally results in a lower chance of someone wanting your specific domain - and even if they do home in on your domain as their "ideal" option, it's now easier than ever for them to walk away.

All this is good for the internet as a whole, but bad for the majority of domainers.... hence the pushback we see here from the traditionalists/those heavily invested in .com.

Is .com "on its last legs"? No, but its dominance is certainly waning. One day, .com will probably even be considered ugly! But we're likely talking 10-20 years from now for it to reach that level.
 
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In the precious metals market the two main choices are gold and silver. For comparison, consider .com to be gold and all other extensions to be silver.

Gold sells for many times the price of silver. Some bullion investors only dabble in gold, some only in silver, and some in both.

Regardless of personal choices and opinions there remains a market in both.
 
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Will add to list:

The domain gravy train has passed
https://www.namepros.com/threads/the-domain-gravy-train-has-passed.1097136/#post-6908274

THE DOWNFALL OF DOMAINING?
https://www.namepros.com/threads/the-downfall-of-domaining.952379/

I had my best year ever. Is it harder now than in the past, yes. But people are still making good money, people are doing this for a living.

Afaic, parking is ancient history. In 2019 I will abandon parking in favor of better sales landers, or shame on me. By the way, Google is most blame-worthy for blowing up the parking lot.

That's what I've done over the last couple of months and it seems so obvious that I should have done it earlier. I used to have parking pages with ads, with a link to somewhere else to make an offer. I think a page full of ads probably confused some people. Now it's all landing pages with This Domain For Sale, Make Offer or Buy Now. No confusion what the page is about. So I expect 2019 to be even better.
 
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That's what I've done over the last couple of months and it seems so obvious that I should have done it earlier. I used to have parking pages with ads, with a link to somewhere else to make an offer. I think a page full of ads probably confused some people. Now it's all landing pages with This Domain For Sale, Make Offer or Buy Now. No confusion what the page is about. So I expect 2019 to be even better.

@JB Lions said it perfectly, I could not agree more (y)
 
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Will add to list:

The domain gravy train has passed
https://www.namepros.com/threads/the-domain-gravy-train-has-passed.1097136/#post-6908274

THE DOWNFALL OF DOMAINING?
https://www.namepros.com/threads/the-downfall-of-domaining.952379/

I had my best year ever. Is it harder now than in the past, yes. But people are still making good money, people are doing this for a living.



That's what I've done over the last couple of months and it seems so obvious that I should have done it earlier. I used to have parking pages with ads, with a link to somewhere else to make an offer. I think a page full of ads probably confused some people. Now it's all landing pages with This Domain For Sale, Make Offer or Buy Now. No confusion what the page is about. So I expect 2019 to be even better.
Those efty landing pages are looking good, especially the cannabis theme, very nice :)
 
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I just searched a name at godaddy thats listed on afternic with minimum offer 200$
Right above the fold in a nice green, they offered me the .ca for only $1.98
If your a local or community based business in Kamloops, wouldn't the .ca look good, like the guy next door?
KamloopsHeating is an example of what I am talking about
 
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The problem I see in domaining is that you can not sell a domain name twice. I've read some domainers writing wash, rinse, repeat. Repeat what, when even two domains can never be equal?
I think the right way to go is put more efforts on private marketplace instead of struggling for exposure in congested marketplaces with registrars proposing cheaper alternatives. I've gone this way a long time and I still find domaining highly profitable. This year: 8% sales of portfolio of 200 - that's great result for me, considering my limited experience and devotion to domaining.
 
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I had more inquires and sales than ever this year, however one person's sales is not a reflection of the market as a whole (either mine or the OP).

I will say it is very hard now in general as end user demand in my view is about the same, but re-seller prices at popular auction venues have gone way up. The margins as an investor generally don't make sense at the current auction prices.

Brad
 
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I have had 35 sales this year with average sale price of over $4K with an average portfolio size of around 1200 .coms for the year or almost 3% sell through.

It is a profitable business if you know what you are doing. My IRR for the year is around 70%.
 
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The Namejet Auction at Namescon should be a barometer of wholesale values if they meet reserve, or remain unsold, increase or decrease. Looks like something is going on like a portfolio liquidation as there are some really nice one word names this year.
 
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My story: i join domaining last year and was 30 domains in my portfolio and not received single one inquiry after few month i decided to build a good reasonable portfolio and now 250 domains in my portfolio and last 3 month i'm receiving reasonable inquiries.
You should check the trend and more importantly domain is a patient game.
 
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I've been doing this for many years...some years fantastic, some painfully slow and worse than break even. It depends on name quality, marketing skills/knowledge (from seller and buyer), parking choice and sometimes a bit of luck.

My current preferred method of sales is outdated...meaning the landing page does not resolve properly on phones or tablets. It has served me well for the last couple of years but two potential buyers let me know the unprofessional and difficult nature of the sale page made them check other name options.

I will spend time building my own marketplace unless I can find an existing provider that serves my needs.
 
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I wasnt around in the hay days. But I can speak about the last few years. I completely disagree that .com is losing stature. I think if anything the market has become more scarce. There's a lot more heading going on now then a few years back and I think more offers are coming in now then a few years ago. .COM IS HOT and selling like hot cakes. One thing that has changed for older domainers is that whois has changed and if email inquires is something that you depended on for sales you might as well throw in the towel. I dont see .com loosing any steam just picking up. All these other extentions are like overly produced baseball cards
 
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...One thing that has changed for older domainers is that whois has changed and if email inquires is something that you depended on for sales you might as well throw in the towel.......

That's an excellent point I did not think much about until now and has no doubt contributed a lot to far fewer sale inquiries. Years ago I believe the majority of my inquiries by both email and phone came from Whois data lookups.

That trend started fading away several years ago when Whois Privacy became popular and even more common due to it being free at places like UNI and others. The public did not know they can email the privacy email and it will be delivered to owner. And recently due to the new lack of published Whois data it has become basically worthless for direct sale inquiries.
 
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That's an excellent point I did not think much about until now and has no doubt contributed a lot to far fewer sale inquiries. Years ago I believe the majority of my inquiries by both email and phone came from Whois data lookups.

That trend started fading away several years ago when Whois Privacy became popular and even more common due to it being free at places like UNI and others. The public did not know they can email the privacy email and it will be delivered to owner. And recently due to the new lack of published Whois data it has become basically worthless for direct sale inquiries.

Let me ask you this where are you pointing your domains?
 
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Let me ask you this where are you pointing your domains?

Still in the process of moving 97% to my own landing pages (non-parking).
 
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