NameSilo

discuss What is happening to domaining? Is it in crisis?

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This is an observation based on the low activity I see in the domain forums and other venues. For instance, lately, I have visited other domain forums and there are instances where you can see zero or only a handful of registered members connected. Even here on NamePros, the level of activity seems to have decreased.

On Clubhouse, for example, there used to be a lot of activity, with auctions where participants could count on at least a few sales per week (wholesale price).

But that is no longer the case. I know the economic crisis has deeply impacted the business, of course, but I ask myself if there are many domain investors who have given up and moved on? What do you think?
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
I think from the standpoint of domaining as an activity, not businesses buying domain names. The industry has changed greatly and it did not start this year. A couple years ago I started checking in on people who I had not seen here, worrying something happened to them. In every case thankfully they were ok and said it was either they tired of the nonsense. That domain investors don't want to buy from other domain investors they would rather give their money to GoDaddy or DropCatch.com or NameJet. One told me that the level of real discussion, interesting discussion has gone down big time.

Others told me they are on Twitter. I asked too prominent domainers about doing interviews the past month, we have done interviews in the past. And they told me not right now I like to hangout on Twitter and talk there. One of the reasons you can control the narrative, you can block trolls or people you don't like.

And Domainer Twitter is a real thing, there are things shared there, as far as sales, interesting commentary that never come to the forums. In the past they would always be on the forums at least in the second hand.

Others have just formed their own private little groups they message one another in a group text or are on whatsapp or Telegram.

I mean if you are coming to a forum you want interesting conversation, and for a lot of people you want to make sales. One of my best friends in the business told me last week he realized there was no money on Namepros, "I am in domaining for money, nothing else, I reply to buy wanted threads and they offer me lower than their stated budget, or the budget is a joke, one word .com with a $500 budget!!! come on!!!"

The business has changed in a big way and like @phaethon mentioned he does not report sales, I think more are adopting that.

Someone showed me close to $30,000 in new gtld sales completed in May, I asked why they did not post on Namepros? Their reply, "And get the Swetha treatment? F-THAT."

There is very little new in this business IMO creativity is at an all time low. But that's just my opinion I could be wrong.
 
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I think many of us learn not to waste our time anymore. I still visit daily, scan the new threads then I'm out of here. Do I really want to get involved in some nonsensical domain appraisal ?? Or a newcomers request that has repeated a dozen times before. And of course that's only after you've bypassed a few dozen (or more) mind-numbing Sales hypes, reposts.

Thanks but I'd rather spend my time on my own domains. Either that or online shopping my other favourite pastime.

Over the years NamePros has moved from a good domain discussion group, to more of a Newbies first port-of-call, hence most of the posts and replies reflect this. So hardly for the seasoned domainer anymore.
 
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The other thing about domaining that's tricky, is people use the same metrics applied to other business segments or markets. It's understandable but not really possible.

If we all own the S&P 500 ETF we all have the same exposure, the same gains or losses. If you own 5000 shares of Alphabet and I own 10 we still at least own the same stock. We are both up or down on the year on that investment.

Domaining is wildly different, everyone comes together to talk about domain names and micro and macro trends. But we are talking Apples and Oranges and Coconuts.

The person who owns LL.com and LLL.com and premium one word .coms like say a @GeorgeK they are operating on a different level from me who owns zero LL.com and LLL.com and only a couple one word .coms but certainly not at the level of School.com or Leap.com. Then you have someone who owns a bunch of geoservice .com names and their perception of the domain market. Then there is someone who hoped they could be the Swetha of .link and not finding success.

Multiply that by 1000's of different portfolio profiles. For some this year sucks, others it's been great, because it's all relevant if you made two high five figure sales in 2023 when you never have before than 2023 is great. Those who were selling a ton of names during the pandemic in the sweet spot of $4 to $6 thousand a year might have seen the volume dry up, not making as many sales so 2023 sucks.

It's always hard to have a consensus because we all might be domain investors but the portfolio qualities and quantities are all over the place.
 
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Thanks for starting a discussion on an important topic, @infosec3 .

In terms of domain investing overall, I would say that the current time is probably more challenging than the last few years, for a few reasons, but mainly the state of the economy and business confidence. The domains in demand continue to change to some degree, and the domain sales rate is probably down, although it is difficult to say that with certainty with so many unreported sales. Rising auction prices, rising renewal fees, and higher interest rates are all challenges for domain investors. BTW thanks so much for the very illuminating data on venture capital by quarter, @Lox.

In terms of forums, as others noted, activity probably has some seasonal variation. I have not been on NamePros as long as many, but it seems to me it is a natural state that new investors are very active for awhile, then many drift away, while a few stay on long term.

Social media, particularly Twitter, has deflected some activity. I have always found it a little inconsistent that domain investors who (correctly) point out to potential buyers how important it is to own and use your own domain name, themselves invest so much time in a platform that is outside their control, and, increasingly of late, seems to change procedures on a whim. Anyway, just an observation, and something I felt long before the change in ownership.

I am surprised, and pleased, that NamePros remains so incredibly active. Other than a few general purpose discussion platforms, I literally cannot think of any forum in any other area that is nearly as big and active as NamePros. Hats off to those who maintained the technical strength of site over the years, the difficult balance of how much moderation, and in particular to each member who make this a worthwhile place to come to daily because of the quality information and points of view that are shared here every hour of every day.

So I don't think we are in crisis.

Thanks for the contributions in this discussion, everyone.

-Bob
 
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There was a time, ~1999 - 2001, when folks shared a bit more.

As time passed those who did realized there were a fair number of folks who also "knew stuff" but kept such info to themselves. This caused many to question sharing useful insights, often insights that had a "learning cost" of time and money. This lead to "why give it away for free" thinking.

Then there was the time of STFU messaging, that is, "your sharing will kill the goose that is laying the golden eggs". Think: exact match domains. People keep talking about them. Google says "Enough already!" and changes their algo.

Then, as economies move up and down, folks also realize they have better things to do than "be chatty".

Then came wave after wave of folks want to make a name for themselves, to stand out from the crowd, and so much of the volume of content was just about the incessant need to publish. No significant value. Much parroting of one another. Etc.

Somewhere along the way domaining, competitive SEO of websites, etc. became global and the entire process became more competitive / challenging and, as a result, there was less time to kill chatting or even less desire to share.

FWIW, I learned a long time ago that once people began publicly chatting about ~keys to success those keys rarely held any advantage. Those who work hard on carving out or creating an advantage would usually already be 2 or 3 steps ahead of what the "public experts" were touting. (Heck, 20 years ago I learned that if any "secret" was so good at making money NOBODY - at least in their right mind - would be sharing that secret, even at a paid monthly fee rate).

FWIW, odds are you have no idea how others who are making coin domaining are doing. It invariably comes down to the quality of the domains that you hold and how rational your pricing is . . and how patient you can afford to be . . and what your personal cash flow is and how good you are at cash flow management . . which ties into patience. In other words, can you afford to be patient.

I see very little opportunity in the current market. I see the same old same old "shilling" of new TLDs. Anyone rememeber the hype about .mobi domains? Ditto .info for informational websites? The folks that buy the hype rarely have success in reselling the hype.

There's still the market for those attemtping to acquire a winning lottery ticket by crafting catchy or creative domains. As far as I can see that's just like the lottery: you can spend a lot of money on those lottery tickets and NEVER win or win back a small percentage of what you have laid out.

I wish everyone all the luck in the world but, AFAIC or AFAICanSee, the odds of success as a domainer in 2023 are more challenging than ever.

Lastly, I don't publcly report my sales, but I've had a few in 2023 so - after ~25 years - I'm still in the game . . but . . meh . . in some respects domaining is a bit more of a PITA than it was in 2007 or '08 or '13 or '15.

I wistfully remember the days when domain parking revenue could support a LARGE portfolio's renewal costs and still provide a nice net-revenue stream. Now? Meh.

Still, if you hold a number of decent domains, you can cover renewals fees . . up to the point where the registrars or central registry keeps jacking up prices . . and then, as you drop domains to conserve cash flow . . you watch . . sometimes painfully . . as noobs or machines pick up your droppings in hopes of better days. :-/ #SMH #Sigh
 
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This is an observation based on the low activity I see in the domain forums and other venues. For instance, lately, I have visited other domain forums and there are instances where you can see zero or only a handful of registered members connected. Even here on NamePros, the level of activity seems to have decreased.

On Clubhouse, for example, there used to be a lot of activity, with auctions where participants could count on at least a few sales per week (wholesale price).

But that is no longer the case. I know the economic crisis has deeply impacted the business, of course, but I ask myself if there are many domain investors who have given up and moved on? What do you think?
I been in domaining since 1998 and this has been the slowest time I can remember. Let's see how things go after summer
 
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Brother @AbdulBasit.com pls we would like to hear your opinion as experinced domainer in this field !

.
I've seen obvious slowness in sales. Around 50% of my sales have been dropped considering I've doubled the portfolio since 2020. But I'm making some big adjustments in the pricing to turn things around and I'm pretty sure the sales will happen in the coming months.
Thanks!
 
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Will you renew everything if sales remain slow or drop some names?
I rarely drop any more domains and even if the sales remain slow, I won't be dropping any of my domains due to slowness in sales. Dropping my domains is always based on the poor quality of domain.

Also I buy domains keeping in mind that I will never drop it.
 
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Too many crap names listing on forums so there is not much activities but the sale is still going from market places from quality names.
New members spent a couple of dollars to resister nonsense name expecting to make a fortune.
The sale is still going good with good names - not here or any forum.
 
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Domaining is well and alive. Speaking about other forums - some were dead long time ago, and/or were acquired. What can one expect? Resurrection? Highly unlikely.

Also, there were a lot of traps in recent years. Some folks invested in new GTLDs nobody needs or wants. Only the most persistent are still around trying to defend their investments.
https://www.namepros.com/threads/explosive-claim-about-xyz-and-swetha.1303659/

Or, an old thread of 2016:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/hu...50-of-expiring-domains-at-godaddy-com.988898/
Many customers were overpaying (knowingly or unknowingly), some participated in that thread but were still overpaying. Again, a lot of thread participants can nowhere be found today in 2023.
So, why did GoDaddy acquire dnacademy recently? What if they need more amateur bidders?

The last but not the least, what can one expect to see (publicly) if the industry is in fact powered by non-disclosure agreements, on many levels? A newcomer (without money) is doomed to fail. A newcomer (with money) will need to survive, mission (almost) impossible nowadays.
 
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Another observation. Many domainers recently switched their landers to afternic BIN pages. By doing so, registrants actually opted to "decreased commission + decreased sales" scheme. Why decreased sales? Because the visitors arrive to godaddy-hosted pages, and godaddy does not allow search engines to index sales pages:

https://www.godaddy.com/robots.txt
it says: Disallow: /forsale/

SE traffic was always important, and still is. So, decreased sales in affected protfolios, at least partially, are the result of this change.
 
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[off-topic]
@Zouniact ,
why on earth your post got downvoted?

Seriously, I'm seeing this trend lately with posts getting randomly downvoted. Am I missing something in what the up and down arrows are there for?
 
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sales are still so-so , not great, but i have seen worse. the industry is making small to medium corrections. it will pick back up as usual.
 
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I am a bit surprised at the number of good posts in this thread.
A bit refreshing from kiddie stuff I have been reading.

Yes, a bunch of NDA sales hide much. It is growing.

But I do want everyone to take a broader perspective that I'm sure you will understand well if you have been doing this 15+ years.

Since the .com bubble early this century, there was a inrush of need for domains as everyone got a slot on the www. At about the 2010 level, it had really tapered off in volume. It was a general slope that has stayed with us for the last dozen years, despite spikes we have seen along the way.

Those spikes are often the result of the "wealth effect" we can normally see in the stock market.
But that only describes scale domain investors. That is if you have been watching who or even if those charted sales are being used 6 month to a year afterwards.

So this leaves with mostly new startups that need a domain. Some have budgets and some do not.
Will you be able to tell the way you have it listed ? How bad do you want a sale ?

When is the last time you seen a long established company just now get on the internet and acquire a domain?
We hit saturation with domains about 7 years ago and you really can't chart that because nobody isolates investor buys in the numbers. You have to do you own record keeping and it's tedious.

I can say with confidence that it's very hard to track the current state of sales and you need to be careful to what you contrast that to. More and more you need to do your own tracking for details.
 
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I don’t want to put anyone on blast here, but if you’re that fed up with GoDaddy in general (and to be a domainer at any point in history is to be fed up with GoDaddy), or the behavior of the Afternic sales team, vote with your feet. Set all listings to BIN only, and/or set your sales landers to Sedo. People respond to losing commissions a lot more than they respond to forum posts.
 
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"And get the Swetha treatment? F-THAT."

OneWord dot xyz was sold for $230K > F-AKE
Acquired by tech giant > Yeah! Sure > You work for xyz

OneWord dot ai was sold for $230K > COOL
Acquired by tech giant > AMAZING

OneWord dot io was sold for $230K > COOL
Acquired by tech giant > AMAZING

OneWord dot tech was sold for $230K > COOL
Acquired by tech giant > AMAZING

OneWord dot id was sold for $230K > WoW
Acquired by tech giant > Well ... underpriced (reasoning process) ...

Regards
 
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I don't really see the domain field in crisis.

A lot of this might simply come down to small sample size and/or unrealistic expectations.

The activity on expired auctions is still very strong.

If anything, there is more of a reversion to mean after the COVID bump.

This happened in many fields. Capital was cheap and there was more reckless spending.

The money is still there for quality domains. I just sold one today for $5,400.

Brad
 
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Is Clubhouse still alive? 😅 Didn't heard about it since pandemic panic times, ha.
It's also summer in most economical active places now, vacation time for many others, keep it in mind.
 
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Maybe they got better things to do and keep their business to them/our selves
This invisible up/down vote is hurting da pros too.
Namepros was a place to socialize but looking at people I follow, some havent been on 5-6 years.
Forums are for grade 1-4
I am working on getting my grade 10

IMG_7761.jpeg
 
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My core business parking is a disaster this year.
Sales are going down.
Prices for new acquisitions are high.
It's a terrible mix: I'm looking for another job!
 
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You do know there is a method for clearing that out of search engines don't you ?
Sure. End user/business is happy to spend a very precious time communicating w Mr.Google robot, Barracuda, etc or arguing over the phone, achieving nothing more than ... submit form and wait ...

Or do you allow someone to depress the price of your names because of it ?
Every unused -for sale- domain need to be free from any "bad use/ history". Prospect don't want to pay 5+fig for poisoned domain name. End of story. Only naive, unconscious of ____ buyer would puke 4fig on fu***up domain name and later on rebrand to something better / healthier.

I don't buy or re-register domains w dirty trails. Zero. I don't use drop catch or auctions. Hunting unused domains is what I do . I care about the future of clients and my network-ing. Direct recommendations are worth more than any aftermarket place.
Lessons can be learned everyday if you allow.

Everyday lessons are: research, collect and analyse projects + potential rebrands, acquire or register turnkey domains, follow / monitor and wait for the right moment - time - to sell ... when user base or $ funding is big enough ... without thinking too much, the buyer will cash out to get that uplifting name.)


Regards
 
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My sales are still chugging along.

In the last week I sold -

- A GEO+Service.com for $2K.
- A random LLL.us for $3,500
- A medical related keyword .ORG for $5,950.

At the same time I reinvested about $2K of that buying -

- (4) 2 word .COM for $99 - $200 each.
- (1) Geo+Service.com for $99.
- (2) Geo+Service.com handregs.
- (1) Real Estate related .COM for $350.
- (4) .ORG for $110 - $299 each.
- (2) .NET for $110 and $250.

I have never really flipped domains or sold much to other investors.

Brad
 
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Back to normal -before corona

+capital allocation - VCs opens a new arms, branches & investment goes to Africa, EU, Mid-east, Arabia, South Asia

vc.png



Cross-Border Venture Capital Investments (Download PDF)
 
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