Domain Leasing?

[Mike]

NP'er rsequin posted a link to a company specializing in "renting out" domains.

Has anyone ever heard of them or done business with these folks?
They go under the name of LeaseThis.com.
I'm not sure if its truly newsworthy, or indeed really to be considered news at all. However, if this opens a chance to escape the ever fluctuating PPC model, i'm all for it.

Anyone have any knowledge about these guys?

Again, thanks to rsequin that pointed it out!

 

[Seabass]

My point was simply that if say, you make more or less $1000 a month on a particular domain parking it, and say if you want to make more on it by leasing it at, say $1,300 a month, you need to add the extra 40%, which is $520 to get your $1,300. So the advertisers bill is now $1,820.

Thats all fine and good, but will the $1,820.00 invoice to the advertiser pan out for him in the bottom line? It might not work too well for the advertisers at these prices. I believe it will for ultra-premium generic domains, but I'm not so sure about second rate domains that domainers are dying to optimize and have stuggled with to make money.

We all know that Google/Yahoo are taking about 50% of the pie so maybe there is enough play for it to work, but I believe the 40% is too high b/c with thousands upon thousands of domains they will be sitting on a lot of money and may ultimately hurt the market with that high percentage. We as domainers will obviously add that 40% in to cover ourselves and still make more than parking.

Also, based on personal experience, I have done redirect deals with advertisers and it seems to always go one of two directions - totally smashing success or horrid failure. It all comes down to the quality and targeting of the domain, and even more important what the advertiser does with the traffic once they get it. They should not buy the traffic before they have a winning formula for traffic conversion or they will be very sore when the deal is done.

 

[verbster]

I submitted several hundred domains a couple of days ago. Today, it looks like the approval process is in the works, as I see about 2/3 are now listed in the approved section of my account pages.

I haven't really taken this too seriously yet...I'll have to find out what happens next...if I have to do stuff for each domain or what.

Sure would be nice to hear from someone who actually leases a domain! Even $20 a month would be something to hear about.

 

[goodkarmaco]

Verbster,

Atlhough it is inspiring to see a name get picked up and the owner gets paid for leasing his name for $20.00, that in itself is not a award to the program. For the program to be successful to domain owners the percentage of names offered and the percentage of names actually leased or sold has to be fairly high.

We do not want to see another situation that occurs in the auction houses. That is four or five million names listed for sale and a very small percentage actually selling in any given day, week, month, or year.

For this program to fly its all about the marketing aspect of it. The window of oppourtunity will only capture domainers attention for a short while. So it all hinges on the sales force actually working its names and contacting end users, and converting that interest into leasing or actual domain sales.

This is not being done by others and is the deciding factor if the program will fly or not. If they do those things, ( contact end users) they will take a large part of the domain sales market.


My hope.. this is it folks.

 

[Damion]

For this program to fly its all about the marketing aspect of it. The window of oppourtunity will only capture domainers attention for a short while. So it all hinges on the sales force actually working its names and contacting end users, and converting that interest into leasing or actual domain sales.

I agree, unfortunately i have not a very positive feeling about this due to the fact of inactivity displayed by leaseThis.com in this thread - which should be monitored on daily basis to provide good interaction and feedback and to stay in touch with the overall opinions on LeaseThis.com.

In regards with feedback i also have not received a response from my inquiry to Kristine i mailed out on the 29th of January on advice from Jonathan.

I don't understand the philosophy displayed by so many businesses not to respond to inquiries at all or in a timely manor since this is mandatory for a successful or to be a more successful business let alone a startup in the making.

 

[leasethis]

Hello everyone,
Sorry for the absence our company was at Domain Fest last week, but we are back and will work up a response to the latest questions. Thanks Damion for your help in answering some of these questions. In regards to your email, I apologize about that. If you would like to email it to me at [email protected] I will ensure that it is taken care of personally.
Regards,
Travis Pearman
LeaseThis.com
Support

 

[cicerone]

i am hearing about this for the first time and a lot of information is provided. i will definitely try my hands on it. Thanks for all the members who contributed to this thread

 

[Damion]

Thank you Travis, i send you an email just now

 

[leasethis]

Some Answers

Question 1 - What details do we need to forward to you and to where? For ex. I have a domain name that PPC people will be interested in. Do i just forward the websites of these people or are any other details required? the thing is apart from the details that is available in the whois and in their website, i may not have any new contact info. About them. please let me know on this...

Answer - If you have leads you can send us the name of your website along with name, email, phone number of your potential lead. If you have more information feel free to include it as well.

Question 2 – - I informed them that my domains are showing a "page under construction" page. This page needs to be a parked page and offer the domain for lease/sale etc with a link to LeaseThis. At least that’s what I thought was going to happen if name servers were changed. Currently it does not and I'm told this is in the works. Name servers changed back to my original page.

Also, any sales of a domain through LeaseThis is not anywhere on their site as far as commission. This is also under works. I did find out that any lease earnings are spit 60/40 domain owner/LeaseThis.

So until they get it all straightened out, I wouldn’t change your name servers just yet.

Has Rob

Answer – At this point in time don’t change your name server until a lease has been made. In our production release we will have this available.

Question 3 - It would be nice to see that a link on a parking page would point to leaseThis.com and a notice that the domain can be leased.
I guess this is something where TrafficZ will jump in sooner or later.

Answer - Actually this is something we are working with TrafficZ on.

Question 5 - I finished importing the domains. But it doesn’t allow me to segregate them into different categories. Can that be done after all the domains are approved?

Answer - We will have an edit feature up soon. We appreciate all your patience.

Ill be checking back to see if there are any more questions that need answered. Once again thanks for all your feedback, input, and questions.

Regards,
Travis Pearman
LeaseThis.com
Support

 

[domaindevelopers]

not able to open the website right now - trying from past 30 mins. anyone else facing prob?

 

[Mike]

No problem with the site, but with the navigation.

example: there are hundreds of domains listed in each section yet i cannot jump from screen to screen to browse through the available domains. Maybe it's just me or is there no "next and previous" button?

also, accessing each domain and editing it's settings is getting a bit much, and that's just from my perspective, with a very small amount of domains listed. I don't even wanna know how someone with hundreds of domains deals with it. Is there a check box function anywhere to check off a set of domains that will be running under the same circumstances? example: domain # 1,2,8... etc. are all going to be $20, billboard, For Sale: Yes, Price: $200...

it would streamline the entire operation and make it a lot easier for the domain owner.

 

[Charley]

I listed my domains 4-5 days ago. Still it is in the pending phase.

Why is it taking so long?

 

[domainica]

This sounds like one heckuva good idea! I mean, think about it. Instead of the static, let's-sit-back-and-wait-for-people-to-come-to-us model of PPC, LeaseThis actually has a sales staff ACTIVELY looking for advertisers.

 

[duceman]

I listed my domains 4-5 days ago. Still it is in the pending phase.

Why is it taking so long?

I imagine they got about 500,000 names uploaded after the DNJ article. It looks like they are running about 6-7 days behind, give em a chance to catch up.

 

[leusmith]

Is it worth leasing my domain names......I have a few about 10 jun domains. I also checked out digipawn.com I applied there and got no replies from them

 

[goodkarmaco]

It is not worth listing junk domains. To make money they should be domains that will be seen as giving the client a image in their marketplace that will allow them to compete with established sites that have good names. That takes a prestigious name.

 

[Carlton]

It is not worth listing junk domains. To make money they should be domains that will be seen as giving the client a image in their marketplace that will allow them to compete with established sites that have good names. That takes a prestigious name.

This is a relevent suggestion for all domain leasing, sales sites. Typically within weeks of any new launch, sites get jammed with thousands and thousands of junk domains which creates a perception of low quality when visitors (customers) finally arrive.

 

[Mike]

Customers are price shopping. Most business have a budget set aside, that applies to online avenues as well. If a company is going to shop in the $20/mth area or $1000/mth area is going to show a significant increase in domain quality. Also, if LeaseThis.com does their homework and their CS department is attending to their clients, they will sort through the domains and offer the most valid, useful and competitively priced ones to their clients. Ultimately, even though their may be a quite some junk lurking around, they are just not going to get rented. Selection by quality, cause they most likely have the quantity.

 

[Carlton]

Also, if LeaseThis.com does their homework and their CS department is attending to their clients

What you're suggesting will likely work for select clients whose needs are known by LeaseThis staff. But, if someone is browsing a category (which occurs often) and they have to scroll through 200 names to find a good fit, then they may have the patience to stick with their search. But, if they must scroll through 5000 junk names, they're more likely to give up the effort and conclude it's a site full of undesireable domains.

So I'm thinking that LeaseThis will have a more successful business if they are quite selective in which names get added to their database. I'm already beginning to see below reg-fee junk added in bulk that no one will ever lease.

 

[goodkarmaco]

I think lease this has the right plan and even if buyers they have to sort through a big category of names and in that category are a bunch of less than desirable names that will not matter. Remember that most of Americas small business owners have no concept of one, how to get a domain name and two, what is a good domain name.

Names that are weak that you or I may not be interested in are perfect candidates for a small company that wants a online site and if that lease per month is low, such as $20.00 per month those names will get picked up.

I am also sure that the better caliber names will be sought after.

The other alternative we have now is to import our names into the long dark halls of the auction houses where literally millions of names are stored. You know and I know that for most of us it is a very long wait to get a bid on a name in those auction houses, and mostly that bid never comes. The reason, no marketing plan exists, thus very little end user traffic.

Those auction houses do not have the kind of marketing plan that Leasethis has. They are not going after end users. The auction houses simply hope someone may come to the auction house.

In my opinion seeing a FEW names hit the reader board at Dnj each month is not getting you or me any buyers. So I personally welcome this new innovative approach to marketing domains. Names that are weak to seasoned domainers are going to be leased.

Just watch and see.

 

[Broker]

Well they now have a spreadsheet or program you have to download in order to add a domain to your account. I wrote them an email and told them to email me back when they go back to the more user friendly way. The last thing I want is another program on my computer.