Consider refraining from pricing your new G at extraordinary prices. They have not yet earned the same authoritative appeal or trust that their brother-in-arms, dot-com, has, and it may yet take some years before they do. By giving your new gTLD a 50k price tag the minute you register it, actually just cheapens it, not to mention makes the rest of us investors look like fools.
Being newcomers to the domain name world, most new gTLDs have to work their way to value. I think by creating a proven track record is the only road to success in the domain market. Although sometimes its compared to real estate, or even panning for gold, where one may be lucky and pick up an instantly valuable name, web estate doesn't really work that way. Usually a domain must change hands a few times, reworked and re-marketed before its recognized as valuable. Although that gold nugget or diamond in the rough may have initially been found by a savvy investor, investors are not always the right people whom determine its worth.
Letting a few beauties sit and percolate for a few years while we determine the final price tag, either by multiple offers throughout the years, demand in the extension, or related keyword sales, is all fine and dandy, and to each investors prerogative; however for the most part I think it is essential to understand that all new gTLD's DO NOT have instant value, and we shouldn't be pricing them as such. We doing ourselves a disservice and only hurting future growth and stability by thinking that it is OK to add a 5k, 10k, 50k or 1m price tag to our mediocre names.
Substance vs Hype?
If we think hyping up an extension we're heavily vested in or a single domain name we wish to add instant value to is the same as substance, think again. There will always be efforts to hype up something we wish to see sell or grow, but unless we want to invite ridicule, be prepared to add some quality substance to our method of exposure. Some examples would be sales data, barring that, real world usage scenarios or common sense applications for said names. Semantics also matter, it plays a part in bridging the gap between content and the exact-match new gTLD.
Giving reasons for why we have invested in what we did opens positive discussion and learning on both sides of the playing field. Giving substance to a marketing effort or to a thread here on NP takes away from the hype. I generally avoid threads that have an empty topic start and leave the rest of us wondering what exactly the intent was. Same as avoiding flashy banners or sites that are all shine but no substance. Adding substance invites quality feedback, and helps keep out the hype which is just a balloon waiting to pop, and ends up disappointing a lot of people in the end. And then this will just keep people away in the future from substantial discussions. We are just hurting ourselves.
Instant Value?
Granted, there are definitely new G names that have instant value. But they are few and far between. Don't we all wish we carried them in our portfolio? Not gonna happen, not now not never. For the most part they are either priced for end-users by the registries themselves whom are also now domainers, or they are already snapped up by someone. These are the perfect EMDs. Just one look at them and it tells you. Similar to super-premium .coms, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the value.
But lets not make the same mistake that thousands of investors make in the .com, and that is giving instant value to a name that has none, or at least very little. And now the market is burgeoning with these types of names. Because this is the road we are headed down with new Gs, the exact same story. And then the market will be so saturated with worthless, yet high-priced new G's that the ONLY names that will carry any credibility will be those perfect EMDs solely sold by the registrar. And then where does that leave the rest of investors?
Perfect emds are not the only quality names out there, many of us have amazing names that have been crafted that fit just fine together, left to right of the dot. We have to consider that most these names should be sold less than 1k, and perhaps between 1-5k on very special, high-quality names. How to judge the value of your name? Leave that up to you, but a couple of indicators are fresh regs and renewal pricing and has the name changed hands in the past, where its built up value. We forget that sometimes having attractive pricing, along with the right name, albeit sacrificing potential greater profits, is the best exposure we can give a name. Not an instant 50k price tag. By allowing most our new G's to change hands a few times or an end user to build on, creates the exposure they need to better allow for the nuggets in our portfolio hit their true worth.
What are we up against?
This, right here:
https://premium.domains/
When I first discovered this site, I thought to myself, holy crap THIS IS HOW ITS DONE! What domain investor is this?? This is someone who know what they're doing. And not just the quality of names, but the layout and presentation of the site is fabulous. Well, some further quick digging, turns it is owned by a registry, and the site is dedicated to selling their new G's! Completely bypassing traditional methods, ie via a registrar. What else does this bypass? Us. Sure they mention domain investors are welcome to their names. This is what we're up against, and let me tell you, most of the names you and I carry DO NOT have the instant value that is immediately evident upon visiting this veritable gold mine. That place scares me. Excites me too though, I mean seriously a kick-ass site.
So, we must price accordingly! Build trust. Invite turnover or development with realistic value.
Being newcomers to the domain name world, most new gTLDs have to work their way to value. I think by creating a proven track record is the only road to success in the domain market. Although sometimes its compared to real estate, or even panning for gold, where one may be lucky and pick up an instantly valuable name, web estate doesn't really work that way. Usually a domain must change hands a few times, reworked and re-marketed before its recognized as valuable. Although that gold nugget or diamond in the rough may have initially been found by a savvy investor, investors are not always the right people whom determine its worth.
Letting a few beauties sit and percolate for a few years while we determine the final price tag, either by multiple offers throughout the years, demand in the extension, or related keyword sales, is all fine and dandy, and to each investors prerogative; however for the most part I think it is essential to understand that all new gTLD's DO NOT have instant value, and we shouldn't be pricing them as such. We doing ourselves a disservice and only hurting future growth and stability by thinking that it is OK to add a 5k, 10k, 50k or 1m price tag to our mediocre names.
Substance vs Hype?
If we think hyping up an extension we're heavily vested in or a single domain name we wish to add instant value to is the same as substance, think again. There will always be efforts to hype up something we wish to see sell or grow, but unless we want to invite ridicule, be prepared to add some quality substance to our method of exposure. Some examples would be sales data, barring that, real world usage scenarios or common sense applications for said names. Semantics also matter, it plays a part in bridging the gap between content and the exact-match new gTLD.
Giving reasons for why we have invested in what we did opens positive discussion and learning on both sides of the playing field. Giving substance to a marketing effort or to a thread here on NP takes away from the hype. I generally avoid threads that have an empty topic start and leave the rest of us wondering what exactly the intent was. Same as avoiding flashy banners or sites that are all shine but no substance. Adding substance invites quality feedback, and helps keep out the hype which is just a balloon waiting to pop, and ends up disappointing a lot of people in the end. And then this will just keep people away in the future from substantial discussions. We are just hurting ourselves.
Instant Value?
Granted, there are definitely new G names that have instant value. But they are few and far between. Don't we all wish we carried them in our portfolio? Not gonna happen, not now not never. For the most part they are either priced for end-users by the registries themselves whom are also now domainers, or they are already snapped up by someone. These are the perfect EMDs. Just one look at them and it tells you. Similar to super-premium .coms, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the value.
But lets not make the same mistake that thousands of investors make in the .com, and that is giving instant value to a name that has none, or at least very little. And now the market is burgeoning with these types of names. Because this is the road we are headed down with new Gs, the exact same story. And then the market will be so saturated with worthless, yet high-priced new G's that the ONLY names that will carry any credibility will be those perfect EMDs solely sold by the registrar. And then where does that leave the rest of investors?
Perfect emds are not the only quality names out there, many of us have amazing names that have been crafted that fit just fine together, left to right of the dot. We have to consider that most these names should be sold less than 1k, and perhaps between 1-5k on very special, high-quality names. How to judge the value of your name? Leave that up to you, but a couple of indicators are fresh regs and renewal pricing and has the name changed hands in the past, where its built up value. We forget that sometimes having attractive pricing, along with the right name, albeit sacrificing potential greater profits, is the best exposure we can give a name. Not an instant 50k price tag. By allowing most our new G's to change hands a few times or an end user to build on, creates the exposure they need to better allow for the nuggets in our portfolio hit their true worth.
What are we up against?
This, right here:
https://premium.domains/
When I first discovered this site, I thought to myself, holy crap THIS IS HOW ITS DONE! What domain investor is this?? This is someone who know what they're doing. And not just the quality of names, but the layout and presentation of the site is fabulous. Well, some further quick digging, turns it is owned by a registry, and the site is dedicated to selling their new G's! Completely bypassing traditional methods, ie via a registrar. What else does this bypass? Us. Sure they mention domain investors are welcome to their names. This is what we're up against, and let me tell you, most of the names you and I carry DO NOT have the instant value that is immediately evident upon visiting this veritable gold mine. That place scares me. Excites me too though, I mean seriously a kick-ass site.
So, we must price accordingly! Build trust. Invite turnover or development with realistic value.