Domain Leasing

[mirrorcube]

How big do you think domain leasing will get in the next 5-10 Years?

 

[fonzie_007]

Contracting issues make domain leases very difficult to pull off. I've had three potential domain leases all fall through at the last minute because of contract concerns. I'd expect domain leases to become slightly more popular in the next 10 years as the the supply of domains continues to be pinched.

 

[Mike]

Much like leasing/renting out farm land, which i believe is the most closely related comparison, domains will also start to get rented/leased out. GoDaddy has a set up where a domain owner can grant someone access to a domain that the owner holds in their account. The person with access has rights to the domain, up to the level of administrative rights, while at the same time, they cannot change the who-is information and/or transfer/unlock, etc. the domain.
Seems to me that this is something that will pick up momentum, as Fonzie already said, with good names being gone, this will be something to look out for. It's going to take one milestone in renting, where a large company does it this way, or some press release starts making waves, and we're right at it.

 

[WeBuyThe.Com]

I still can't figure out why anyone would want to spend time and money promoting a site they will only have for a limited time. In the past 5 years we did two deals this way. One deal involved a large lump sum down payment and 60 monthly payments, at the 60th payment (which will be this year) the domain transfers to new owner. Reg fee was extended to cover 5 years. Lease to buy makes sense. Lease to give back does not.

 

[Spade]

I still can't figure out why anyone would want to spend time and money promoting a site they will only have for a limited time. In the past 5 years we did two deals this way. One deal involved a large lump sum down payment and 60 monthly payments, at the 60th payment (which will be this year) the domain transfers to new owner. Reg fee was extended to cover 5 years. Lease to buy makes sense. Lease to give back does not.

I couldnt agree more. I find it difficult to think that someone would develop a domain name, only to give it back. If there is the option to buy at the end of the term, it can make sense for a company to pursue this kind of "ownership". Beyond that, only a fool would sign a contract.

Justin

 

[shockie]

I find it difficult to think that someone would develop a domain name, only to give it back.

i dont think the purpose of leasing a domain is to really develop it. it would make sense to lease a domain, say, cars.com for a short term just to redirect/promote your real website, like hybridcars.com.

 

[Spade]

i dont think the purpose of leasing a domain is to really develop it. it would make sense to lease a domain, say, cars.com for a short term just to redirect/promote your real website, like hybridcars.com.

But your trying to market and brand a domain name that is not going to be yours after the lease term. Your not only paying the owner for the right to use the domain name, but your also building traffic for him when you have to give it back.

 

[shockie]

well you wouldnt be marketing or branding cars.com. you're just going to use its type-ins and whatnot to redirect and promote your hybridcars.com. you wouldnt be spending any money in promoting the leased domain name, you are using the popularity of the leased domain to increase your website's popularity.

 

[Spade]

well you wouldnt be marketing or branding cars.com. you're just going to use its type-ins and whatnot to redirect and promote your hybridcars.com. you wouldnt be spending any money in promoting the leased domain name, you are using the popularity of the leased domain to increase your website's popularity.

Alright, so there is potential in keyword domain names with lots of natural traffic. But beyond that - would it make sense?

 

[Mike]

Alright, so there is potential in keyword domain names with lots of natural traffic. But beyond that - would it make sense?

Probably not. But if the person that is sitting on a strong keyword domain would rather rent it out, i think it would make sense overall. Of course, no on in their right mind would want to rent a domain, build traffic, SEO, etc. just to be returning the domain and leaving the owner with the traffic. The rent option would apply for something like strong domains only. If i had such a domain and i know that i can rely on the traffic numbers, if i don't need the cash, i'd rent it out and watch it increase in value. Rent amount = amount x times the $ revenue the domain generates as parked page or mini site. :imho:

 

[verbster]

Short-term promotion of events and such might be a good reason to lease, especially when in conjunction with other advertising strategies...like a site for the upcoming superbowl that will be outdated or not visited later on...

The other obvious reason is that people don't want to spend $xx,xxx when they can rent for a few months or a year for a tenth of the cost. Then, as someone mentioned, all the visitors could bookmark a different site that the leased name pointed to.

 

[cache]

renting TVs and funiture use to be popular, but when the price dropped, the renting business did not make much sense.

So I think the higher price of the domain, the more likely a leasing would make sense.

 

[tjoseph]

Renting furniture still exists. I used to travel a lot on business. For some extended projects we would rent an "executive apartment" that they would furnish with rented furniture. I would fly out on Sunday night or Monday morning and fly home on Friday and stay there during the week. It was pretty nice furniture too.

However, I agree that leasing a domain would make the most sense for expensive ones. There was a thread on here recently about wiki.com where the guy leased it for six months at $10,000 per month with an option to buy it for $2.7 million. He just recently shut the site down because it wasn't taking off.

Tom

 

[jehnidiah]

Yeah, it makes total sense for an investor because it's less risk upfront. If you assume you can do a job - or the management you hire can do a good job - but it turns out it's not working out, you're only out a percentage of the money you would've been had you put all that money upfront. During this leasing time, you might be paying a little more, but you're lowering your risk, which is worth it to many people.

 

[Peter]

I think personally that leasing out domain names can be a very costly venture. While the person has control over the name what is to stop them using it for spamming purposes or fraudulent purposes.

By the time the activity had been found it is too late and you are stuck with a potentially valuable name thats name has been ruined because of the activities. It may also cause problems when trying to get off of blacklists. The main information people use to verify the domain has changed hands (whois) has not changed at all. Sure you can show them the lease contract but anyone can knock 1 up and claim they leased out their domain.

 

[DomainBuyerBroker]

Just signed up for http://LeaseThis.com .

Supposedly has good founders and backing.

 

[cache]

I have a potential end user for lease. I asked him to buy the domain, he thinks it is
too expensive, so I offered him for lease.

Now the difficult part: what if during the lease period I got another good offer to
buy the domain?

 

[Spade]

I have a potential end user for lease. I asked him to buy the domain, he thinks it is
too expensive, so I offered him for lease.

Now the difficult part: what if during the lease period I got another good offer to
buy the domain?

Thats just it though - you have to specifiy in the lease what the situation is and abide by it. You could of course sell the domain name, but I would imagine the new owner would have to abide by the terms of the lease (much as it would in a housing rental agreement).

Justin