A problem with domainers

[theparamount]

DEVELOPMENT. The internet is for people to surf and love and find information. One thing about us who call ourselves domainers is actually using our premium names. Unfortunately a lot of great great domains that could be used and developed by a potential end user are permanently parked for cash flow only. Unwillingness to share is so widespread even in less than premium domains. I don't understand how many of the top domainers do not even think about leasing out or sharing their domain names. For example, if I want to build a page on www.email.com then the owner should at least entertain the idea that he could share his domain to a web developer for the good of the internet. Heck, maybe he'd make a huge profit.

There should be a site where users can look and search for a domain to put an idea of a site onto. So what, the domainer loses a couple bucks (usually less) a day in parking, the void of money should be replaced by the satisfaction of having a quality site on their domain. No matter what the domainer will always have the ability to change the nameservers since the ownership is in their hands.

The possibility of a spreading internet with new ideas and development is definitely slowed up by our selfishness and unwillingness to share. So I call out to the premium domain name owners and the people who get emails like "How much will you sell xxxxxxx.com for?" to send a reply that says "Can we work out a revenue share program and you can lease the domain?" or "Can you develop a quality site and if the site generates enough money the domain is yours?". I think if we can start sharing with developers than the internet will become a space where the little guy with less money but GREAT ideas can shine and we will not fall into the pitfall that former dot com millionaire Mark Cuban explains has already happened. (Link to Mark Cuban's Statement)


PS feel free to disagree and argue that parking revenue is more important or that your domain is much too valuable for a petty designer to put a crappy site on.

 

[Dave_Z]

I call these the "usual 2 challenges":

1. To weigh the risks and rewards, whichever is higher.

2. To work out the devil in the details.

Okay, there's actually a third that might or might no happen: how to deal with
those who seek to dispute what you're doing via any and all available means.

 

[CountRob]

theparamount - You're right, domain holders tend to ignore

theparamount - You're right, domain holders tend to ignore incredible opportunities to partner with startups by leasing names. Look at it this way, if they fail, you're still getting a ridiculous amount of backlinks and traffic. If I knew someone with a good idea was looking for a name, I'd gladly lease one of mine to them for a share in the company. How could anyone pass up the chance to have a stake in a hot new startup? And like I said, if it fails you still get huge publicity for the domain.

HOWEVER, this is actually happening. Last week there was a social network team looking for a domain. The owner of Photo.com chipped in that name for a stake in the company. It was pretty hot news, so just google it and you'll find the whole story.

Before Hurley registered it, YouTube probably wasn't worth very much. Let's say you had it instead, and he wanted to use it for his startup video site back in 2005. If you were to lease it to him for one tenth of one percent of the company, you'd have 1.6 million right now.

So there is far more to be made by leasing than just parking with a bunch of ads on a page. If you have a good domain and just park it, it's like owning an empty skyscraper and making money by putting billboards on it. You'd make a lot more if you rented the space inside.

 

[Ronald Regging]

I think if we can start sharing with developers than the internet will become a space where the little guy with less money but GREAT ideas can shine and we will not fall into the pitfall that former dot com millionaire Mark Cuban explains has already happened.

I think you seem to be confusing domainers with venture capitalists...

Those who have premium generics either got them early on or spent lots of money acquiring them. One thing they all probably have in common is that they see those domains as low-risk investments. Year after year these domains make them money with no real work or risk. The longer they sit on these names, the more money they make and at the same time, the more valuable the domain becomes.

What incentive do they have to risk their investment and jump into the role of venture capitalist? For the shear point of knowing they've created yet another site on the Internet?

You also seem to think that a quality product or site requires a premium generic domain in order to be beneficial to people. Look around you, this is not the case.
Would it be neat to have a free email service, or even a paid email service on email.com? Maybe... But it's really not needed. Theres a plethora of free email services that work perfectly fine.

If the free exchange of ideas and development is so superficial as to require a premium generic domain in order to operate, than we have much bigger problems as a society.

And I for one find the prospect of telling others how they should use their property or ostracizing them based on this point to be far greater a detriment to the progression of society than the lack of a developed website.

 

[theparamount]

You guys are just misunderstading the point of this post. I KNOW that no domain owners with GREAT premium names are going to lease their domains which I'm sure make tons of money parking. I would leave it parked to... because I do like money. The fact is there are tons of useless domains that people can help put adsense and content on. Why isn't there a want for domainers to lease out those crappy to mediocre domain names.

No one and I mean no one has the right to say that their hand regged domain that someone else wants is "too big an investment" to allow someone else to throw content on there.

Finally @Regging... it happens all the time that people tell others what to do. Its called constructive criticism (sometimes) and generally helps progress society rather than hurt it. If your statement was true, then any disagreement with society and property would be grounds for social regression which is just not true.

So finally again, I throw out the idea that maybe we can think about this in terms of the three word and crappy extension domains and maybe there will be a site at some time where a willing domainer who would like to show some decent content rather than some crappy parking page can easily contact a quality web developer and get a revenue share program worked out. I don't expect Mr. Domainer who owns 555 one word dictionary parked .com's to come out of the wood work and join the movement. But to me, less parked pages and more content is not a regression but a progression in the internet movement.

 

[Ronald Regging]

No one and I mean no one has the right to say that their hand regged domain that someone else wants is "too big an investment" to allow someone else to throw content on there.

Why not? I own it, you do not. I have the right to do whatever I want with it, assuming it doesn't infringe on someone else's rights. When you scoff at the investment value of a hand regged domain, you don't seem to consider the extra time, cost, and risk that is involved with allowing someone to develop a domain that you own. All of these factors will be present in the need to create a contract and enforce it if necessary. So, do I not have a right to control my time, cost and risk?

Finally @Regging... it happens all the time that people tell others what to do. Its called constructive criticism (sometimes) and generally helps progress society rather than hurt it. If your statement was true, then any disagreement with society and property would be grounds for social regression which is just not true.

Well, fortunately we aren't living in 18th century France. We're not all being ruled by a monarch in the form of Absolutism. And our disagreements over property won't come to a head in the form of a revolution. However, most of the known world does subscribe to the concepts of democracy and capitalism. Therefore I would have to say that unless you're goal is Socialism, disagreements over property and the rights therein can only serve to promote social regression. Even if your goal is Socialism, you're essentially attacking the "working class" domainers with your statement about reg fee domains.

 

[Dave_Z]

Why isn't there a want for domainers to lease out those crappy to mediocre domain names.

Maybe 'cause those crappy and mediocare domain names might bring crappy
and mediocre results with high risks. Who knows?

It's fine for people to tell others how to run their business. And it's also fine to
tell those people, "Get lost", or better yet ignore them.

After all, those holders will ultimately be the final judge what to do with them.

 

[equity78]

You are 100 % correct Ronald and I always love these posts when someone tries to come in and tell others what to do with their property. And telling someone what to do with their property is not constructive criticism, secondly you have no authority to tell anyone what to do with their property and lastly you are no one in the domainer community of any stature for your words to carry any weight. Again IMO

 

[Dave_Z]

And telling someone what to do with their property is not constructive criticism

Easy there. It's a fact of life that someone will tell you how to do X with Y,
although you don't have to do a thing they expect.

But to impose that against your will, now that's gonna get me guns ablazin'.

 

[equity78]

I was taking it way easy, just clearing up definitions I think your quote about just ignoring the people who make these statements was right on. And why would anyone be interested in someone elses junk three word .coms when they could just reg one themself? Oh they don't like seeing Parked pages, I don't like seeing starving children or people without homes or people that cannot read. World has much bigger issues than parked pages. WOW

 

[chenzen]

I was taking it way easy, just clearing up definitions I think your quote about just ignoring the people who make these statements was right on. And why would anyone be interested in someone elses junk three word .coms when they could just reg one themself? Oh they don't like seeing Parked pages, I don't like seeing starving children or people without homes or people that cannot read. World has much bigger issues than parked pages. WOW

i wouldn't mind to say parked pages and starving will be related one day

 

[equity78]

That is probably the most ridiculous statement ever made in the history of domain forums WOW

 

[goodkarmaco]

It really is a waste of energy here to be even discussing this, The crappy three letter names are a dime a dozen, visit the Bazaar on Afternic and buy a handful of them for the average selling price of a big fat $5.00!

To have any overtones that are promoted to make a person feel guilty for parking a lousy domain is shameful and suggesting those names need to be given away is getting into someone else's business..

I am not saying everyone who is in agreement with this concept makes those suggestions, but I say if it even makes a tiny start, we would do well to stand up to it as free enterprize is a concept that needs defending just as much as this country does.

So if you are wanting to help others out, run to the Bazaar and pay $5.00 and buy one of those names and make your personal contribution. I and many of us will keep our names, thank you very much.

Really the concept can be done without making a "public" display out of making a contribution of a persons domain name. Just register $1.99 .info names and start giving them away. My hope is if a person does this, to do the polite thing, and make it your contribution, I don't need to know about it.

 

[gazzip]

Maybe it is more of a problem with developers, do you know of any that would do all the work up front for free in return for a percentage of any money the website makes ?

I have loads of domains I would love to see fully developed with good content/photos, affiliate links and sponsored advertising but I don't have the money to invest further in them (at this moment in time).

Whenever I try and develop a full site it ends up taking me at least 3 months + !

It definitely does seem to be a niche service that is missing.



.

 

[goodkarmaco]

Maybe a developers time is worth more than spending alot of effort developing a poor grade domain? Is it better for the internet to have a bunch more developed web sites for lousy names? How is that better than parking them?

Parking lame names is the best solution today.

 

[-REECE-]

I get at least 50% of my research off Wikipedia nowadays... Should 50% of domains not exist :blink:

Really, 99% of sites out there are absolutely useless... Chances are I'm going to trust PC World or Cnet anyday for tech information over your startup, that I'll use Google over any search engine you come up with, that I'll reg my domains at Godaddy rather than your startup, that I'll get my photos at iStockPhoto or Photobucket, etc.

Really, how many sites out there are actually needed? Do we really need Youtube copycats? I seem to find all the videos I need right there, thank you very much.

For the most part, the Internet is oversaturated with content. The only real content we still need is information in highly specialized fields or information at post-graduate levels. Other than that, a few new ideas here and there succeed.

But in all honesty, is your average website any more useful than a parked page? I sure haven't found it to be so. And if that parked page leads me to an authoritative site, I'd say it was a good resource in it's own right. :imho:

 

[dnk]

I get at least 50% of my research off Wikipedia nowadays... Should 50% of domains not exist :blink:

For the most part, the Internet is oversaturated with content. The only real content we still need is information in highly specialized fields or information at post-graduate levels. Other than that, a few new ideas here and there succeed.

I disagree, I find there is hardly any useful content on the Internet. For domains, web design, etc , there is plenty of content, but for most other subjects , you will not find any useful information. My interests may differ but I feel there is a lot of scope for adding useful info online.

 

[theparamount]

I get at least 50% of my research off Wikipedia nowadays... Should 50% of domains not exist :blink:

Really, 99% of sites out there are absolutely useless... Chances are I'm going to trust PC World or Cnet anyday for tech information over your startup, that I'll use Google over any search engine you come up with, that I'll reg my domains at Godaddy rather than your startup, that I'll get my photos at iStockPhoto or Photobucket, etc.

Really, how many sites out there are actually needed? Do we really need Youtube copycats? I seem to find all the videos I need right there, thank you very much.

For the most part, the Internet is oversaturated with content. The only real content we still need is information in highly specialized fields or information at post-graduate levels. Other than that, a few new ideas here and there succeed.

But in all honesty, is your average website any more useful than a parked page? I sure haven't found it to be so. And if that parked page leads me to an authoritative site, I'd say it was a good resource in it's own right. :imho:

Hence no movement in any direction in the online world. Congrats Google, Facebook, Myspace, Wikipedia, and PC World... you are the internet's end.

@ Regging... socialism... right. Better check our political map in your head. If disagreements over property and rights lead to social regression then the civil rights movement as well as the woman's rights movements sure killed America (we must've been socialist then).


I have nothing further to say on this topic as much of it has been diverted away from the true goal of this post to ignorance. Enjoy your domains and your parked pages. I'll be working on ways to never look at one ever again.