What's with all the subterfuge?

[ddfenton]

What's with all the "anonymous" greyed out man-shaped avitars and nothing-close-to-real-name-handles?
Is this indigenous to domaining or is it just internet caution on public forums? Is this because there's no filters for profile safety? Curious 'cause other professional forums I've operated in aren't like that.

 

[ddfenton]

Yeah, I get that but with all the defaults, it gives the impression of a lack of concern for crafting a profile and given that domaining is tied into branding, these forums for professional seems pretty generic. Unless it's a really small population of insiders,

 

[ddfenton]

Domain investing is a profession for few and a hobby for most. Nobody cares about who is sharing the information, as long as you are learning something. Domain investing is probably one of the more open industries, and it is a good thing that it isn't a profession yet, because Uncle Sam will swoop in to take his cut on that day...with more licensing fees, taxes, regulation etc...

But I think domaining is a very serious profession for some. Thing is, the design of the business, the registry houses being also the sellers, venue providers and sources of information are all by construct, conflicts of interest, which is why the market crashed when deregulations allowed banks to own other banks and be investment houses and insurance companies, etc, etc, simultaneously. Called monopoly and can kill free enterprise which I see still exists in domaining, which is great. It's a thin line between what Uncle Sam vs Corp America controls, with the latter, I think, having the upper hand.

 

[Silentptnr]

I think most successful domain investors sell on large marketplaces. There are, of course, commissions on those sales. Some also have their own websites, use sales landers, etc.

NP is more of a resource for all kinds of information. One of the best I've found. If you leverage it properly based on your own objectives it can be a great part of domaining.

People actually are pretty professional here in this forum. At least most that I have had the pleasure of meeting.

As far as Ebay, I think it's pretty saturated.

 

[Silentptnr]

you can sell names almost anywhere but yeah you need patience sometimes ;]

I agree....and by the way...nice domain (loqq)

 

[ddfenton]

Hi @ddfenton (at least I know what you look like, if that is really you, and then again, does it matter?)

I guess everyone is different. Personally, I just always thought, hey! thats my name, that what I look like, why not use it? Nothing to fear, nothing to hide.

That is me but I blurred it and it was taken from far away .... not that it matters

 

[Mark White]

I think i look good in gray..lol

 

[J.R.]

Domain investing is a profession for few and a hobby for most. Nobody cares about who is sharing the information, as long as you are learning something. Domain investing is probably one of the more open industries, and it is a good thing that it isn't a profession yet, because Uncle Sam will swoop in to take his cut on that day...with more licensing fees, taxes, regulation etc...

 

[ddfenton]

I didn't know you could sell anything on Linkedin, everyone is peddling their own wares. .
Does anybody really sell names on Ebay? Some of them are ridiculously high and most are pathetically low.

 

[ddfenton]

Do you just list them and hope for the best?

 

[Silentptnr]

It depends. It the domain is valuable enough you might invest some in marketing it.

You can also do auctions on sites like GoDaddy.

 

[ddfenton]

None of those have worked for me but I haven't been diligent and patient which is why I want out .

 

[Silentptnr]

I bet you have hundreds of domain names.

 

[forge]

"I believe I can fly"

I'm dumb. What does this mean?

 

[DomainVP]

Yeah, I get that but with all the defaults, it gives the impression of a lack of concern for crafting a profile and given that domaining is tied into branding

What's branding?

But seriously... I think for most people the 'anonymity' is a great way to keep a separation of opinions and professionalism.

It's okay to be a little un-filtered within reason here, in some areas that kind of speech is frowned upon.

 

[ddfenton]

First off domaining is not like the stock market, there is liquidity in the stock market, there is little to no liquidity in domaining. Short valuable names like 2,3 and 4 letter/number .coms are where the liquidity is, many here and other places have held a domain for years, never gotten an offer and then sold the name for $25,000. Sometimes people have listed names here where there is no reserve and gotten no bites only to sell the name for four or five figures. If there was liquidity for all names that would not happen.

You can make some analogies to real estate although I do not subscribe to as many similarities as others do. There are enough similarities where the comparison does work.

As far as the deregulation or conflicts of interest.

The players:

ICANN oversees all things domains, they approve new tlds and get a piece of every gtld that is sold. .18 on every .com

Verisign runs the .com registry, they have the contract for .com and .net and make $7.85 for each .com domain

Registrars - GoDaddy is the largest, GoDaddy does also compete with domainers with their NameFind.com, they buy portfolios and sell names to end users. They also own the aftermarket Afternic and they make quite a bit from GoDaddy auctions where expired domains at GoDaddy are sold to the highest bidder.

Aftermarkets - Sedo,Afternic,Flippa, Uniregistry Market, BrandBucket etc... These sites all have different policies and commission rates.

Registries - Donuts, Uniregistry, Radix, Minds & Machines and many more. These companies paid the rights to run certain new gtlds like .store,.sexy,.app and about 1000 more.

Parking Providers - Voodoo, GoDaddy CashParking, Bodis, you can change the nameservers and they host a page for you which shows ads and you earn ppc, you share that revenue with the parking company and Google.

Domain Investors - Some make millions, some loses thousands, most are in the middle, well probably most are in lower middle.

Domain Blogs and Forums - News, editorial,comics, advertising, chat and a little mental masturbation.

Aftermarkets do not provide any data but their own, you do not have to deal with any of them, you can run your own site, use a third party escrow company to handle the payments. Do not use Paypal for anyone you don't know and trust.

You don't have to deal with anyone you don't want to except for the registrar and registry provider, all the rest is who you think best fits your business model.

Thank you. Great overview and sorry to wax poetic when generalizing. You're right, no liquidity and thoughtless analogy on my part. I think I was referring to a law of randomness along with the luck of the draw. I don't mean to belittle the strategy and expertise of pros and the above is duly noted .

 

[ddfenton]

What's branding?

But seriously... I think for most people the 'anonymity' is a great way to keep a separation of opinions and professionalism.

It's okay to be a little un-filtered within reason here, in some areas that kind of speech is frowned upon.

I did deliberately restrict this to the newbie section because, well, I am one and I wasn't going ask the same old same old. PLUS I've just discovered there 'ain't no turning back with re--editing.

 

[ddfenton]

Were you really asking what branding is or just being glib? Thanks.

 

[168]

Thank you. That is what I suspected. And it shows the newness of the industry. There isn't a business round that isn't subject to underhanded dealings using sensitive information to gain competitive edge. Thus all the hacker paranoia. I think (maybe) the disconnect I'm not getting here is the extent to which there really is a free market and the extent to which the auction houses (I don't know what to call SEDO, GoDaddy and the likes) control the stats and values of stuff that pretends to be kinda sorta like intangible real estate (or IP) but is more like the stock market. To a degree, people like me who register names for their own use, or dapple in the market like using slot machines in Vegas, are important to keep in the mix because we help push the product on the "wholesaler?" level and keep the ball in the air by giving GoDaddy steady income and the industry as a whole, movement. And I don’t know how much information is coming from those invested in keeping everyone in the game. Anyway, I'm kind of rambling here and I get the need for caution. THANKS SO MUCH for your answer!!!!

succinct
For a long time it's been like Woodstock
More recently it's developed more like the MJ industry. (Big player positioning)
Domainers are multi dimensional ia's from a wide range of industries. Crafting a single profile would stifle the creativity
Yes, It may be a good idea to stop if you want immediate results without much effort or interaction.
Cheers

 

[4better]

I've come to realize I have no patience

Been in a virtual world? At last, back to reality.