What's your opinion - How much and in what ways has the economy hurt domainers?

[jacal1]

I have a relatively "diverse" portfolio including parked domains, developed sites, semi developed sites, and blogs. I also stay busy selling domains to both end users and domainers.

IMO, the economy has probably hurt PPC revenue by about 33%, parking revenue by about 50%, and domainer sales by 75% (What action there is is very low price, and I've seen a lot of serial buyers become sellers!).

End user sales seem to be least affected in the price you can get, but very affected in the chances of of sales.

What do you think?

 

[BinderGang]

Personally, I think we're about to see things pick up in the domain name industry.

More people are going to come online with their business. Think about the industries that boom when people's wallets are hurting and people aren't going out. More people are going to be coming online to shop, entertain themselves, etc.

Right now, the industry is hurting because we're not at what I mentioned above, at full scale, quite yet.

 

[goodkarmaco]

I heard something the other night on my fav rock station that I find alarming. They were telling the audience to not buy anything online as that hurts the local economy. Every dollar spent online is a dollar taken from families who own businesses locally they said.

Well I say they are hypocrites as every ten minutes they are selling something from a marketing company outside my immediate area. They do alot of plugs for national brands so why the hell do they want to say online purchases are different.

This mentality is contagious and not a good thing for online growth. Even so I think you are right and more and more transactions are going to take place via the lightnening speed of the net. When people are "saying cash is trash", they will want to invest in other things than bank deposits, so this may play out to be a boost for domainers.

 

[Corey]

the exchange rate

 

[MicroGuy]

It's dilution more than the economy.

As long as they keep churning out new TLDs, prices will continue to fall as supply exceeds demand. In addition, global Internet traffic, while increasing overall will continue to fracture and diffuse across the newly introduced domains thus reducing traffic on individual domains. IMO.

 

[Andrei P.]

I can't compare with 2-3-4 years ago time, but I can compare last 6 months with previous 6 months. what I see is exactly what topicstarter mentioned:

- PPC revenue by about 20% (Sedo)
- parking revenue by about 35% (Sedo)
- number and quality of end-user sales -20-30% (number of sold domains stayed the same or even increased but considering that I own 2 times more domains than in first 6 months - it dropped). But this is difficult to measure of course. The only thing that I noted for sure number of non-payments and greed from end-users via Sedo increased during last 2 months greatly!

Domainers are mainly in wait-and-see state now. Once they see obvious and steady positive trend they will start buying domains again IMHO.

 

[Mark]

I don't think we've seen anything yet honestly ...

I'm not going to start screaming "The sky is falling" or anything , But this entire Industry is based on advertising. Consumer confidence is the lowest ever probably and Companies are dropping like flies around us. Will advertising save any of these failing companies ? If it hasn't yet ... Probably not. Ads will never replace a Good Business Plan and Good Products. Throwing money at (Bailing out) Bad businesses will not change anything, The companies in trouble can not change things with only enough money to keep them afloat for a few more months at which point they will show up for another handout.

I'm not going to stop buying/reg'ing Domains by any means ... But I am going to be a lot more selective when doing so

Have a nice Day :wave:

 

[onewordonly]

Living here in Australia I have seen the currency fall here dramatically which is a good thing for me as most of my income comes from the USA. So for example if I would have made 100 a few months ago, now I could get 140 roughly. So you can see how that could mean quite significant gains in income. Athough income is also less due to people not spending in the USA. Other things I notice lately is less shoppers in retail shops here, less people dining out. The fuel is very cheap here now, down to 0.90c a ltr compared to $1.60 a few months ago. On the flip side, domains now cost a lot more as well as hosting and any products I want to buy online from the USA.

 

[Jasonn]

I used to get end users contacting me every week. That has seemed to die out. Thats the biggest thing I've noticed.

 

[andreyknure]

I think the global crisis will have no negative impact on domainers at all!

 

[jacal1]

Maybe like all recessions it won't be a bad thing after all - the "weak" may be weeded out, like what happens in a bad economy to businesses and industries. Weak exts, weak trends (e.g., IMO LLLLLs, "brandables", etc.), weak registrars, weak ideas like endless extensions because comapnies may think twice about speculating on them, and weak domainers who register anything and everything and just park it all.

In the end, maybe the industry is stronger for it. Many people think that recessions are the foundation for subsequent economic booms, and maybe that's the case with us too(?)

 

[d0main]

Well let's see. A End User just pulled out of a deal because he found out he was getting laid off by Citi.

 

[-REECE-]

I've had a few of those, 1 from an enduser, several from domainers... Times are tough.

Well let's see. A End User just pulled out of a deal because he found out he was getting laid off by Citi.

 

[goodkarmaco]

Nothing will be the same soon

The media, Paulson, Bush, and Ben Bernenke have been and are going to continue to lie to us. They want us to think this is going to be a recession. Yeah right, a few weeks ago they announced a 750 billion bailout. The public said oh, ok I guess. Now all the money they have put into the system overnight is 50% more money supply.

Now the liars and morons are not just dumping gas on the raging fire that is already out of control they are in the process of pouring more fuel on the flames by helicopters. Here is what is going to be the defining moment for the worst economic collapse the world has ever seen.

The morons are preparing not to infuse more billions, now the plan is TRILLIONS of dollars for bailouts!.

Its now not going to be a recession folks.

Inflation is always a result of excess money creation. With just the money they have created overnight out of thin air in the last three months, prices will double for most items we purchase. After they pump trillions into the economy as they are going to do now, its over, done, gone.. bye bye USA dollar.

Soon the mantra will be, "the dollar is trash". Will domaining be the same? Hardly.

 

[snoop]

Would say PPC revenue is down by about 40%-50%, domains values down probably an average 50%-60% (I think some types of domains have done better and some worse than that). Enduser sales I suspect are down a fair bit, I'm not sure how much exactly. Personally I think we will see another year of poor market conditions.

Maybe like all recessions it won't be a bad thing after all - the "weak" may be weeded out, like what happens in a bad economy to businesses and industries. Weak exts, weak trends (e.g., IMO LLLLLs, "brandables", etc.), weak registrars, weak ideas like endless extensions because comapnies may think twice about speculating on them, and weak domainers who register anything and everything and just park it all.

In the end, maybe the industry is stronger for it. Many people think that recessions are the foundation for subsequent economic booms, and maybe that's the case with us too(?)

Agree. To be completely honest the industry did need a clean out and a focus back to fundamentals. Whilst it is a painful process things are brought back to more rational, sustainable, levels.

 

[Aggro]

As usual, cut & paste complete BS from 'gold bug' sites.

I seriously doubt you have a rudimentary grasp of economics - other than layperson and all the chit you read from the net.

The point that nearly everyone misses is that printing money is only inflationary if it gets into the system ie lent out by banks.
Guess what - banks for the most part are instead using the money to shore up their balance sheets and de-leveraging.
Plus who would they lend to - everyone is already maxed out + losing jobs left and right.

How's that gold doing?
With all the money they've printed (inflationary theory) since 1980, you'd think gold would be much higher than today @ $815.
Yet it's not even beat the high in 1980 before OR after inflation. Great "investment"
And with the 'safe haven' rep, given the recent turmoil in the markets, it's gone nowhere.

Anyway thanks for the laugh - there's always a joker on every board. :imho:

The media, Paulson, Bush, and Ben Bernenke have been and are going to continue to lie to us. They want us to think this is going to be a recession. Yeah right, a few weeks ago they announced a 750 billion bailout. The public said oh, ok I guess. Now all the money they have put into the system overnight is 50% more money supply.

Now the liars and morons are not just dumping gas on the raging fire that is already out of control they are in the process of pouring more fuel on the flames by helicopters. Here is what is going to be the defining moment for the worst economic collapse the world has ever seen.

The morons are preparing not to infuse more billions, now the plan is TRILLIONS of dollars for bailouts!.

Its now not going to be a recession folks.

Inflation is always a result of excess money creation. With just the money they have created overnight out of thin air in the last three months, prices will double for most items we purchase. After they pump trillions into the economy as they are going to do now, its over, done, gone.. bye bye USA dollar.

Soon the mantra will be, "the dollar is trash". Will domaining be the same? Hardy.

 

[Weber]

As usual, cut & paste complete BS from 'gold bug' sites.

I seriously doubt you have a rudimentary grasp of economics - other than layperson and all the chit you read from the net.

The point that nearly everyone misses is that printing money is only inflationary if it gets into the system ie lent out by banks.
Guess what - banks for the most part are instead using the money to shore up their balance sheets and de-leveraging.
Plus who would they lend to - everyone is already maxed out + losing jobs left and right.

How's that gold doing?
With all the money they've printed (inflationary theory) since 1980, you'd think gold would be much higher than today @ $815.
Yet it's not even beat the high in 1980 before OR after inflation. Great "investment"
And with the 'safe haven' rep, given the recent turmoil in the markets, it's gone nowhere.

Anyway thanks for the laugh - there's always a joker on every board. :imho:

On average you would have done much better in gold than with stocks the last ten years. Regardless, gold should primarily be looked at as a hedge to the loss of value in "ceasar's" money. The value of gold has been highly manipulated for who knows how long and it's true inflation-adjusted dollar value is probably five figures per ounce. Any knowledgeable person will keep some gold as a precaution.

Since the world's currency is not backed by gold, why does virtually every country (including the IMF) keep huge reserves of this mysterious element?

Bernanke and friends were hired because they were expected to have a "rudimentary grasp of economics". How is that working for us right now? On the verge of a total financial meltdown. Years of stock market gains wiped out in a few months. And it's not over.

As for gold bashers, the end to the long term gold rally will probably start when they give in and start buying.


Copyright 2008 Weber

 

[James]

It's great in a way, the exchange rate for my country is dropping and I'm getting $1.40 for every $1usd I get.

A sale now and then is great. I may not get many but it all helps. :]

 

[DomainTalker]

But, just horrible to buy names with that exchange rate....

.

 

[DNProperty.com]

Rising .com renewal cost, falling CPM and drop in domain sales should be hurting domainer budgets.

So I wouldn't be surprised if domainers are reducing their domain inventory drastically, holding on to their core domains and getting rid of the rest.