In this week's Top Topics, we have two featured polls. Firstly, Raymond Hackney asks domainers to share whether they're more optimistic or less optimistic about domaining today. Secondly, Bob Hawkes asks for domainers to showcase some portfolio outliers.
Elsewhere, investors share their opinion of Afternic's new domain landing pages, and a founder shares his journey to amassing a sizable "hobby" portfolio.
Poll: Are You More or Less Optimistic About Domaining Today?
This poll comes courtesy of Raymond Hackney (@equity78). So far, the year has generally been challenging, to say the least. However, there’s anecdotal evidence from many investors declaring that 2020 has been their best year ever for sales and revenue in the domain industry.
The poll expands on this and asks specifically whether you feel more or less optimistic about domain investing today than when you started. Generally, it looks as though investors seem to be optimistic.
Topic by: @equity78
What Do You Think of Afternic’s New Landing Page Design?
This week, a few investors have noticed that the popular GoDaddy-owned marketplace Afternic has been testing some new sales landing pages. Compared with the older Afternic landing pages, this new design looks sleeker, easier to navigate, and it has the trusted GoDaddy logo emblazoned at the top of the page.
In this discussion, domain investors are sharing their opinions on the new landing pages. Paul Nicks (@Paul Nicks), the VP of GoDaddy’s aftermarket, shares that the new design is being tested, with promising early results.
Topic by: @premkumar
My Multi-Million Dollar Domain Hobby
Adam Doppelt is one of the founders of Fresh Chalk, a recommendations service that has raised $2 million in seed funding to date. Adam, as it happens, is also heavily invested in domain names. What started as a three-week hobby in 2018 mushroomed into a domain portfolio that Adam values at over $1 million.
Here, Adam shares a long article that he’s written about his short journey to building a sizable portfolio of .IO and .AI domains. He also describes some interesting tidbits, such as when he accidentally DOS’d the island of Anguilla.
Topic by: @gurgeous
Someone Screwed Up and Let PAA.com Expire
Up until a few days ago, the valuable PAA.com domain was in the hands of the New York-based conglomerate General Electric. Then, the name expired. Although PAA.com was protected by CSC, a specialty corporate domain management company, the name was allowed to expire.
Fortunately for DropCatch, they caught the name, and an auction ensued. According to this discussion, the name quickly had a $60,000 bid. As of writing, the auction has closed, with NameBio listing the sales price as $75,050.
Topic by: @equity78
Poll: What Extensions Do You Own a Single Domain Name in That TLD?
For the majority of domain investors, you may have a portfolio largely consisting of one extension such as .COM, chosen due to experience, domain data, or just an affinity with that TLD. You may have a few outliers in your portfolio, though.
Bob Hawkes is looking for investors to share those outliers with him. Does your portfolio contain only a single domain name in an extension? Many investors have shared so far. The vast majority of names showcased seem to be new gTLDs, over ccTLDs, for example.
Topic by: @Bob Hawkes
Top Topics of the Week is a blog series featuring the most popular discussions and content within the domain community. Tune in weekly to see what’s trending
Elsewhere, investors share their opinion of Afternic's new domain landing pages, and a founder shares his journey to amassing a sizable "hobby" portfolio.
Poll: Are You More or Less Optimistic About Domaining Today?
This poll comes courtesy of Raymond Hackney (@equity78). So far, the year has generally been challenging, to say the least. However, there’s anecdotal evidence from many investors declaring that 2020 has been their best year ever for sales and revenue in the domain industry.
The poll expands on this and asks specifically whether you feel more or less optimistic about domain investing today than when you started. Generally, it looks as though investors seem to be optimistic.
Topic by: @equity78
What Do You Think of Afternic’s New Landing Page Design?
This week, a few investors have noticed that the popular GoDaddy-owned marketplace Afternic has been testing some new sales landing pages. Compared with the older Afternic landing pages, this new design looks sleeker, easier to navigate, and it has the trusted GoDaddy logo emblazoned at the top of the page.
In this discussion, domain investors are sharing their opinions on the new landing pages. Paul Nicks (@Paul Nicks), the VP of GoDaddy’s aftermarket, shares that the new design is being tested, with promising early results.
Topic by: @premkumar
My Multi-Million Dollar Domain Hobby
Adam Doppelt is one of the founders of Fresh Chalk, a recommendations service that has raised $2 million in seed funding to date. Adam, as it happens, is also heavily invested in domain names. What started as a three-week hobby in 2018 mushroomed into a domain portfolio that Adam values at over $1 million.
Here, Adam shares a long article that he’s written about his short journey to building a sizable portfolio of .IO and .AI domains. He also describes some interesting tidbits, such as when he accidentally DOS’d the island of Anguilla.
Topic by: @gurgeous
Someone Screwed Up and Let PAA.com Expire
Up until a few days ago, the valuable PAA.com domain was in the hands of the New York-based conglomerate General Electric. Then, the name expired. Although PAA.com was protected by CSC, a specialty corporate domain management company, the name was allowed to expire.
Fortunately for DropCatch, they caught the name, and an auction ensued. According to this discussion, the name quickly had a $60,000 bid. As of writing, the auction has closed, with NameBio listing the sales price as $75,050.
Topic by: @equity78
Poll: What Extensions Do You Own a Single Domain Name in That TLD?
For the majority of domain investors, you may have a portfolio largely consisting of one extension such as .COM, chosen due to experience, domain data, or just an affinity with that TLD. You may have a few outliers in your portfolio, though.
Bob Hawkes is looking for investors to share those outliers with him. Does your portfolio contain only a single domain name in an extension? Many investors have shared so far. The vast majority of names showcased seem to be new gTLDs, over ccTLDs, for example.
Topic by: @Bob Hawkes
Top Topics of the Week is a blog series featuring the most popular discussions and content within the domain community. Tune in weekly to see what’s trending
