Domaining - How mainstream is it?

Just looking for opinions on domaining in general and thoughts on how mainstream it is. I live in the UK which would be considered (but maybe not after next year!) a prospering first world nation but domaining wouldn't be a topic of conversation for people or when mentioned most probably would need it explained to them (or worse...they would assume that it is cybersquatting/illegal in all cases).

I guess I thought that by now kids/teenagers would be picking up domains like we collected stickers or whatever! I suppose any chance of that is killed by the price of .coms but you can get other domains like .info's etc cheaply. I suppose not having something tangible or at least to show off to your friends is a factor in that but theres a lot of budding entrepreneurs out there who you'd expect to be showing interest.

Maybe most aren't aware of the possibilities but I guess I expected it to be more high profile by this stage.

M88

 

I think the problem is that the vast majority of people don't need a domain name and will never buy one.
They are usually bought for business purposes.
People don't need domain names to use the Internet.

Of course, anybody can (and should) buy one's own domain name for a blog or vanity E-mail, yet the majority of people use 'free' services like FB or Gmail. IMO people are not only cheap, they lack the technical skills or inclination, and they don't see the point of it.
There is an assumption that the services they use today will be around forever, but that is wrong.
I use my own domain names for security and privacy, control (whitelisting etc), and also not to to be tied to a third party like Google or an ISP. Most people don't think about it.

TL;DR version: people hardly have a clue about domain names as mere end users, so investments in domain names is not a natural thought - but something they would rather discover by accident (reading about big sales in a magazine).

 

Totally agree - my hope was that tech savvy youngsters would show more interest but I suppose the cost is prohibitive and its not widely publicised in mainstream news/articles so maybe my hopes were unrealistic. Many clearly know how to buy domain names but seem to limit this to their own blogs or for a specific purpose only, as you say.

M88

 

Not remotely mainstream yet FB and such is the road-block. Something similar to social network, where individual blogs can connect and interact with each other as facebook pages do need to gain popularity. Once this idea happens more people will build and monetize their own sites.

 

I agree with everyone that it is not very mainstream,mainly because many do not view they need a domain name for reasons @Kate gave.

To become more mainstream there needs to be more discussion of domains in the media, domain names need to become part of business school curricula, and we really need a few high profile proponents who spread (e.g. with keynotes and TEDx talks or popular book) a positive message about innovative ways to use domain names.

The amount of advertising that GoDaddy does certainly has raised the profile of domain names somewhat.

I think we all need to do our part to positively promote domain names. Thanks for the thread @Maestro88.

 

You can promote domain names all you want. They still need a reason to buy one. Owning / investing in a domain name isn't reason enough for 99.99% people. You need to promote the use of WEBSITES. However, telling them to make your own website/blog isn't enough. You can explain the potential of this up and down, they won't be interested. I've tried helping many people offering to help them for a blog for free. They don't see the need, even if they clearly have a need for one (someone writing a book, for example)! Very few website are successful in making any money. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Websites needs to just go viral. I said above, it will be personal blogs that are connected by some type of social networking method, so that it works similar to facebook. Even though that's not a 'need', if it's easy enough, and 'cool', then people will do it for status or w/e. There's no other way that I see.

 

Notice how godaddy promotes website builder on tv. They are promoting for business use. Serious businesses are going to get a website professionally made. Amateurs will try, but probably fail. They won't like the results, as impressive results take years of practice. There needs to be promotion of personal pages. Your life story or blog, something, or all of the above. There needs to be packages where this theme / plugins are just click and go, a myriad of tools to build your social networking site with all kinds of features you might like, like simple instant messenger between friends, sharing, likes, blog posts, picture uploads, voice chat, resumes, local classifieds, etsy like store whatever, just things they can access and contribute to from within their own site. Right now, you have to search and tinker with these plugins. It is not easy to build at all. Make it easy.

 

There's already a name for that: Medium.com. And you don't need a domain name to start a blog there (even though you can still go the domain route with them).

My main problem with these fenced garden platforms is the fact you don't really own your content. Your content is simply there to enhance their brand.

However, starting out is hard. Why spend the time and money it would take to develop a domain and build an audience, when social media offers you all that for 'free'? Hence, the reason why these platforms are popular to begin with.

 

Yea I know it exists. FB too...I said that one. I could list 100 probably. None are based on your own domain/website that you own and monetize yourself. At least none good enough with all the features + more of these other sites. Things are near, like wordpress itself has a networking ability to some extent.

There's blogger for example, has some functions of a blog. Still not helping people make their own sites for full control and in turn encouraging domaining.

Not talking about the sites that are there to promote their own content and keep you within the ecosystem. Instead, a way to promote domain names via personal websites that function similarly.