My biggest surprise about domaining over the past decade and more

Going back 17 years when I first really got into domaining the reports were all about 'sales', but there would be the occasional story pop up on DNJournal and other places of a domain name being 'leased'. To me it seemed that this is surely the way the industry would be heading, no not for the most part but that a substantial section of the industry would go along this path, after all with brick and mortar properties the leasing of premises is seen as a legitimate part of that industry, indeed businesses lease vehicles, machinery, etc., so why wouldn't the same apply to domains?

So now jump forward 17 years and the domain industry still by and large does not seem to have gone down this route. Yes there are well known domainers who enter into such arrangements, perhaps the best known of course is Rick Schwartz who all but champions such deals, but although there have over the years been numerous attempts by individuals to develop this market niche generally it still does not seem to be an accepted norm within the industry. (Indeed here on NP there is not even a section dedicated to 'names for leasing'.)

This lack of development of a market niche is my biggest surprise over the last two decades so I would be interested in finding out what other domainers 'surprises' are and specifically things that have NOT occurred that you expected would have occurred.

 

nice thought. I like to see people understand what is a domain same like as a website.

 

I totally agree with you. I’m totally new to domaining so it’s weird to me that some options don’t exist yet or aren’t well developed enough. As far as domain leasing is concerned, however, DAN has introduced it and it certainly benefits from it. At least I hope so because DAN as someone who deals with this in their free time for only 6 months is the simplest marketplace and they have by far the best customer service. Let's say I'm surprised that apart from DNacademy there are no other websites where you can learn more about domaining. It also surprising to me that the best marketplaces don’t have a well enough developed part with brandable domains. Not to those who own the key word but totally fictitious names or the names of the people after whom the brand was named like "Adidas", "Gillette", "Cadillac", "Lego", "Nutella", "Xerox", "Aspirin", "Splunk" etc ... Why would I put a domain with the name "bioxatin" on the marketplaces for brandables and pay 30% fi from the sale if they accept maybe one of the twentyl, and I had to write to them what "Bioxatin" should mean. Only one which is lets say ok is "BrandPa" but there you have to pay in advance if they decide to show your domain. It will have a logo and be one among ten thousand others. Why would I do that when everyone on Sedo can type words that start with "Bio" if he or she is interested in that area ??? However totally non dictionary words without meaning are nowhere well accompanied if they have more than 5 letters. It also surprise me that these brandable markeplaces are very poorly made. In my opinion the only one that has solid functionality is BrandPa.
Good luck. Bye.

 

Hi

leasing of domains was being discussed 16 years ago

Has anyone leased out a domain name? - NamePros

but for me, there haven't been many surprises,
as i try to either anticipate them or not view them as surprising.

imo....

 

We currently have 9 domain names on lease-to-own at Dan.com with all payments being made in a timely manner.

Dan.com also offers a renting option. We currently do not have any names on any such rental agreement.

 

Currently have one brandbale on lease .Direct contact and purchased name for just $13 .Leasing began 9 months after purchase and has netted me $600 so far .They pay every 3 months.

Looking forward to doing this on a much larger scale if all agreements are met and all I need to do is change nameservers and know that the name is used for legitimate business.

 

cant agree more

• I once had the same question, why can't domain name rent.Until now, no good solution has been found
  

 

I started mucking around with websites in the mid-nineties.

Who would have even expected there would be an industry devoted to domain investment and flipping?

 

Well as a fairly well established member I can say that I have never seen this particular forum listing before. It's lack of popularity and general lack of knowledge of seems to be implied as there is only three (3) threads on the forum listed as 'lease'. We shall have to see if that can now be remedied, but perhaps making a dedicated 'domains for rent or lease acquisition' section could well do more to bring this sector of the market to the fore.

 

I honestly feel like we are already leasing the domains we "own". Technically we don't own anything because if we did, then we wouldn't have to pay yearly registration fees. So in all actuality, if you were to go down the "leasing" road, it would be considered a sublease.

Why would I want to sublease a domain name when I could just lease one myself, making sure that all fees are handled with no worries about the original leaser not paying the fees on time?
The person leasing the domain isn't anything but a middle man. Sometimes middlemen don't come through. I don't have time to build my business in the hopes that you are going to pay the necessary fees for the domain to remain intact.

But please if someone can deliver a more clear perspective to me I would love to see/hear it.