The DEATH of "domaining" as we know it..

[mjnels]

I think its possible traditional domaining is going to die..or at least come to a slow crawl and take a lonnnnng nap. No, probably not in legacy TLD's like .COM, .ORG or popular ccTLD's. Although I think those prices are done going up for the most part. They're likely gonna level off, especially mediocre ones and longtail.

I'm mostly talking about newish gTLD's where people on this forum register them in hopes to sell them for more money than they paid with zero development, even Top-Tier words/phrases. There is so much choice now and the business model has changed to a Top-Down type of thing. The registries and registrars are the new domainers. With some exceptions - it probably isn't going to be like it used to or even close.

I include "older gTLD" like .INFO in this too... I guess I haven't been following sales prices lately, but I cant see "traditional domainers" making money off top-tier words in gTLD like they used to. Beyond the hype not being able to sustain itself and prices being spread too thin across the board, the number of choices offered will result in MUCH lower prices than when just 1 or 2 new gTLD (or re-purposed ccTLD like .co) were released every year.

The flood is coming.. it may seem like its already here but just wait until renewal time..and next renewal time, and the next one. Although, isn't that somewhat the point of the new gTLD? To give people that are actually going to use them more choice (and line ICANN's pockets..) Well, you can argue "we don't need the choice" but that is irrelevant because its here now regardless of the reason. Prices are gonna drop farther than they already have. Once the registrars/registries have sold the "good stuff" during the hype phase a good portion of them will likely start whoring them out at cheaper prices.

I'm talking "single letter" domains for at or under $100. You betcha. A lot of the reserved and ICANN restricted domains are not even out yet.. like the ones on the "name collision list." And yes, I am aware "single letter" isn't what it used to mean when the TLD itself is 12 characters long, but still..

I'm not saying gTLD wont eventually get used by businesses. I believe they overwhelmingly WILL be in the future. Too many cool intuitive phrases for it not to happen and now they're featured on the front page of every registrar. Its da future and the common person will know they exist now. But they're not going to be forced to buy top tier words from traditional domainers as much as they used to be... unless there is an influx of 100x as many "domainers" as there are now.

So all you people trying to "get in early" on the next big thing... become a registry or registrar with a good angle. Otherwise what you have here is mostly likely an expensive hobby/obsession/tax write off.

 

[iowadawg]

True.

 

[-EM-]

All the single character domains that were available all this time were at $250 reg fee. (all based on my own experience with over 100 domains in different TLDs that I've checked)

 

[En]

Also when they start flooding the market with unlimited amounts of virtual currencies, BitCoin will be worthless. No matter how much time and money has been put into marketing BitCoin as the no. 1, as with .com //sarcasm.

 

[mjnels]

Also when they start flooding the market with unlimited amounts of virtual currencies, BitCoin will be worthless. No matter how much time and money has been put into marketing BitCoin as the no. 1, as with .com //sarcasm.

it sounds like you only read the topic of my post and then commented.

but yes, .COM has probably seen its high point years ago. it aint going to continue to go up in value forever.

 

[The New Guy]

To put it simply, with the new gtld's, the left and right side of the dot must work together.

archery.com = valuable.
archery.condos = not valuable
miami.condos = valuable

Anyone expecting a generic word or phrase in a gtld that doesn't work to hold significant value will be in for a rude awakening.

 

[The New Guy]

but yes, .COM has probably seen its high point years ago. it aint going to continue to go up in value forever.

The problem is 'it' is not a monolith. .com is like a stock market where only one person can own a particular company at a time. Sectors can get hot, words and phrases that were meaningless a year ago can be sold for tens of thousands, and once hot phrases cool off and people who bought at the peak will lose their shirts.

gtld's will have their valuable matches, and new broad generics like .xyz will likely fade out fast as people realize they can own the same domain in one of dozens of generics for less, so that part of the market will eat itself.

 

[mjnels]

To put it simply, with the new gtld's, the left and right side of the dot must work together.

archery.com = valuable.
archery.condos = not valuable
miami.condos = valuable

Anyone expecting a generic word or phrase in a gtld that doesn't work to hold significant value will be in for a rude awakening.

what you're saying is true. however, years ago it was common that "mega keywords" in any TLD had some value above reg fee.

still, with the amount of choice available these days and to come in the future, miami.condos wont have the liquid value it would have had in 2008 if it was released by itself for example. when .condo, .home, .homes, .housing, .apartments .realestate, .realty, exist you may be able to buy miami.condos for $150 reg fee. its not out of the realm of possibility, in fact i'd say its pretty likely.

 

[mjnels]

The problem is 'it' is not a monolith. .com is like a stock market where only one person can own a particular company at a time. Sectors can get hot, words and phrases that were meaningless a year ago can be sold for tens of thousands, and once hot phrases cool off and people who bought at the peak will lose their shirts.

gtld's will have their valuable matches, and new broad generics like .xyz will likely fade out fast as people realize they can own the same domain in one of dozens of generics for less, so that part of the market will eat itself.

you're right but now that you can put words with a dot in the middle and form intuitive phrases you'll be able to create some of those new terms in that way too. there is only, what, 1,000some being released at the moment but its possible someday 10,000 or more will exist when/if ICANN lowers the app fee. for registries in operation with 500 TLD's the cost of adding a few more to their inventory will become much cheaper, they'll just keep tacking them on.

broad generics like .xyz are going against the grain.. dumb idea i say.

 

[The New Guy]

still, with the amount of choice available these days and to come in the future, miami.condos wont have the liquid value it would have had in 2008 if it was released by itself for example. when .condo, .home, .homes, .housing, .apartments .realestate, .realty, exist you may be able to buy miami.condos for $150 reg fee. its not out of the realm of possibility, in fact i'd say its pretty likely.

it depends on adoption and recognition by the public. something like .condos has a different meaning to most people than .apartments, .realestate, .housing, etc - it's specific to a style of housing that people look for.

If the public can get acclimated to the right side of the dot being a specific word that mean's it's a web site, then there will be a market for it. If the world still thinks miami.condos is a typo in 5 years, then it's not going to go so well.

 

[biggie]

And yes, I am aware "single letter" isn't what it used to mean when the TLD itself is 12 characters long,

and that is the fallacy of value .... in a nutshell

imo...

 

[Chris Wright]

Some of this commentary treats domains like trading cards.
There will be new speculators creating artificial spikes in value. There will be corrections.

In the end all domains that one can build a business around will be valuable. As always.
All domains that drive customer acquisition will be sought for.
Those that are less meaningful, memorable, have poor syntax, etc... will be less desirable. As always.

Miners pull more gold from the ground EVERY day.
Consumers and industries absorb that supply handily.
When you correct for currency supply, gold prices are quite stable.

Domains are like cyber gold. Nothing is dead.

 

[Kate]

So is this the 'death' of domaining ? I can live with it. Personally I don't care about new TLDs. End users don't either for the most part. It's not where the action is at the moment.

 

[mjnels]

So is this the 'death' of domaining ? I can live with it. Personally I don't care about new TLDs. End users don't either for the most part. It's not where the action is at the moment.

yeah but used to be, you could flip top keywords to domainers for more than you paid. easier than you can now. that seems to be over for the most part...

 

[Radeh]

So is this the 'death' of domaining ? I can live with it. Personally I don't care about new TLDs. End users don't either for the most part. It's not where the action is at the moment.

I think until the end user starts believing clients will "get" the new domains, they won't be interested. I think a few of the generic ones might be the exception. Often when I check a keyword in terms of .com/.net/.org/.co and they are all taken, the only new extension also taken is either .xyz or (maybe) .club. Club makes sense I guess, and .xyz because it's so generic, people might like it because of that (I do).

 

[buyselldoms]

I think until the end user starts believing clients will "get" the new domains, they won't be interested. I think a few of the generic ones might be the exception. Often when I check a keyword in terms of .com/.net/.org/.co and they are all taken, the only new extension also taken is either .xyz or (maybe) .club. Club makes sense I guess, and .xyz because it's so generic, people might like it because of that (I do).

The reason why .xyz and .club go quite quickly, is they are cheap to register. The more expensive ones... less people take a chance on them. Some good generics are still available for many of the more expensive extensions... but its either at or over the value of the domain.

 

[Radeh]

The reason why .xyz and .club go quite quickly, is they are cheap to register. The more expensive ones... less people take a chance on them. Some good generics are still available for many of the more expensive extensions... but its either at or over the value of the domain.

I think it also depends on the length of the domain. I think if it's longer than 3 (maybe 4) letters, a lot of people will be hesitant.

If you're a company, .com is definitely still king. If you run an affiliate site that just requires a few keywords and not a brand name, some of the shorter alternatives might be attractive.

For example: I just bought rivercruises [dot] xyz and malloftheworld [dot] xyz. Both are fairly easy to develop and have a pretty clear target market. I don't have a company or my own brand, so really only wanted something as short and memorable as possible. If I have the choice between rivercruises [dot] xyz or rivercruises4cheap.com, I kinda prefer the shorter option. The xyz extension just seems easier to remember.

To early to tell if it'll take off though, so I'm aware that this is a total gamble. I'd rather take a cheap gamble on .xyz than some of the more expensive longer extensions though.

 

[D. Wells]

I think it also depends on the length of the domain. I think if it's longer than 3 (maybe 4) letters, a lot of people will be hesitant.

If you're a company, .com is definitely still king. If you run an affiliate site that just requires a few keywords and not a brand name, some of the shorter alternatives might be attractive.

For example: I just bought rivercruises [dot] xyz and malloftheworld [dot] xyz. Both are fairly easy to develop and have a pretty clear target market. I don't have a company or my own brand, so really only wanted something as short and memorable as possible. If I have the choice between rivercruises [dot] xyz or rivercruises4cheap.com, I kinda prefer the shorter option. The xyz extension just seems easier to remember.

To early to tell if it'll take off though, so I'm aware that this is a total gamble. I'd rather take a cheap gamble on .xyz than some of the more expensive longer extensions though.

Joined today and your first post is pumping .xyz..... ?

 

[Radeh]

Joined yesterday and your first post is pumping .xyz..... ?

Been snooping for years...just never bothered to make an account. It's not the first domains I bought...just the first "new" extensions

 

[Kate]

yeah but used to be, you could flip top keywords to domainers for more than you paid. easier than you can now. that seems to be over for the most part...

The reseller market has crashed years ago (I would it started to tank around 2008), well before the new TLDs were released.

 

[RogueWriter]

Eh, domainers should be thinking beyond domaining, anyway. Some of the new tlds offer a chance to register great keywords that they can, at the very least, develop into affiliate sites. So what if the annual registration fee for an amazing domain is 25 bucks or 75 bucks? If you can't make 10 times that with an affiliate site, you aren't trying very hard.

Domaining can be a hit/miss proposition, generating some monthly income with a few affiliate sites can be downright handy in a cold stretch.

Now, the caveat here is, and always has been, how you define a great keyword. Many of the domains being registered in the newer tlds are going to need an act of mercy in order to be resold, they are terrible. And, some of the extensions are just awful. But selectively choosing a great keyword with an extension that is intuitive for that keyword offers an opportunity for long term monthly income if you just build it out.

 

[mjnels]

The reseller market has crashed years ago (I would it started to tank around 2008), well before the new TLDs were released.

yep, domainer trading cards are a thing of the past. they were a big big part of it for a period of time. gTLD or no gTLD... the LLL.com trading card threads were especially hilarious. but not as funny as LLL.mobi trading cards

 

[En]

yep, domainer trading cards are a thing of the past. the LLL.com trading card threads were especially hilarious.

Yes because now companies that go by 3 letter acronym global brand names can get the one letter .ccTLD like for example I.BM instead, or IBM.computing, making LLL.coms worthless, despite the amount of brands using LLL.coms vs LLL.anything else.

 

[En]

When you flood a market with unproven junk, it changes everything.

 

[buyselldoms]

Its probably a good time to quit, focusing on developing websites instead. (Proper websites, not just a few pages to increase a bad domains worth ever so slightly, with wordpress or other basic template sites.)