Are we just big dreamers and that is it

[tas38]

I think many people put personal feelings into domain names, and then price domains based on that as well. Like some one wants to start a online shop, may come up with a domain name they like. Or come across one then just have to have it, there by rising the value to them many times it's real worth.

When you see a domain name, it makes you think of some thing that normally has feelings about it then. like when you see love.com, it does not feel the same as sex.com. These feelings can be seen driving, the lower end of the domain market much more. Where people pay higher prices for names, then most other people would.

I'm sure it also in the highest end of the market, like sex.com bring $14 million had more to do with feels. Then what the domain is really worth, who ever got it felt they just had to have it based on them feelings. So in a domain market, that must be taking into account as well I think.

 

[Ed30]

After doing research on forums such as this you should get a good idea of what is good and what is not. Buy the best names you can at the budget you have at the time. Resist the temptation to buy the ones you're not sure about. Also, think long term. Don't second guess what other people might want to buy from you. Buy what YOU like and what you feel comfortable with - if you do that there's a good chance someone else will like it also - which makes it saleable.

 

[daddypi]

why? thats a lot more work for the same amount of rev.

Ever heard the expression, "Don't put all of your eggs in one basket"?

 

[Duckinla]

I believe there is a serious misconception about brands that has been perpetuated for the last 10 years. People tend to believe that strong brands become good companies. This is completely backwards. Good companies become strong brands. In the right hands, Barnes and Noble is every bit as "brandable" as BookKingdom. Nordstrom is every bit as brandable as PantsPalace. Starbucks is every bit as brandable as CoffeeHouse. Heck, people don't even go to get a coffee anymore, they go to get a Starbucks.

Another thing I wonder about with the development movement is just how many developed sites does the market need? In the DotCom boom I often said there will be a reckoning because nobody has stopped to ask the customer if they really need 50,000 new businesses and services available to them. My friends mostly thought I was being naive. I think the same question is important with development. How many free arcade sites can the market support? How many Myspace page generators, how many forums and enthusiast clubs before we reach a saturation point?

Don't mean to be overly negative, trust when I say I'm in this as much as the rest of you. I just think that honest analysis of the future is the best way to be prepared for it.

 

[dvestors]

Ever heard the expression, "Don't put all of your eggs in one basket"?

Behold, the fool saith, 'Put not all thine eggs in the one basket' — which is but a manner of saying, 'Scatter your money and your attention;' but the wise man saith, 'Put all your eggs in the one basket and — WATCH THAT BASKET.'
-Mark Twain

 

[chumba]

why? thats a lot more work for the same amount of rev.

On the surface, yeah. It would appear it's more work ... and on the front end, it is. And yes, renewal costs are more for sure. BUT ... once those 'mini-site' templates are set up, they'll perk along with little or no maintenance needed. Upload some content from time to time to keep it fresh, and that's it. Basically a glorified PPC template - but with more options. Again, this is simply one plan.

As I stated, to each his own. Some of us would rather watch several 'baskets' and spend a little time on each, than to get bogged down on one or two sites and get bored.

 

[carlton]

... But the future looks good for anyone owning a decent 2-3 word domain.

Definitely. Sometimes the 2-3 worders are the best way to describe the topic or service. Adds needed specificity as in "LosAngelesApartments".

 

[WhoDatDog]

A guy named Bill Gates put all of his eggs into one basket.....so did Tiger Woods, Hugh Hefner and many others. If they would have spread out their risk you wouldn't even know their names. It all depends on what you want to accomplish...if you want to be great at something then you must be dedicated and strive to be the best at what you do. Once you know how to make a living you can take a shot if you like.....because you know you can do it all over again if you fall down.

 

[wrdekle]

There's no sense fishing where the big fish just got caught. Face it, 5-day catch and release has completely destroyed the value of prospecting for unregged ascii domains. The big boys are away feasting on their natural traffic lunch and you guys are sitting around hungry for scraps.

I empathize. I regged a hundred ascii domains before I discovered IDN's. Now I think back to what it was like prospecting in English and I just laugh. After all, in my current portfolio of 750 IDN domains, I own "software.com" in Thai and "Dog.com" in Hindi and in Japanese I own "snowboarding.jp" and "worldcup.jp" and let's not forget "sex.tv"

I feel for you but what is really sad is that your self-pity occurs now when there is still so much opportunity left in domaining. Sure English domaining is dead, everyone can see that clear as day. But the real revolution is happening now, thousands of premium generics being regged everyday in over 100 different languages. The owner of DNForum has joined the bandwagon recently buying a huge portfolio of IDNs and you should too. Or in a couple of years you will still be sitting around bemoaning that you missed two huge opportunities in a row.

 

[Duckinla]

Good point but I don't think it has to exclude the english language. There is more fishing to be done it the dotcom and english language pool. You just have to be fishing into the future rather than the past.

But to make your point, I recently got the bright idea to look for names in what I think will be the upcoming home default/repo home sales boom. The first 25 names I could think of had all been registered for at least 5 years. Apparently I need to look further upstream.

 

[wrdekle]

You are right, clearly there is the occasional opportunity to reg something that is very up and coming in ascii. But if one takes all that research time and ingenuity and just google a foreign language online dictionary - you would be regging single word generic IDNs tonight instead of sad domains like "solarenergyindahouse.com". Forget ASCII. Catch and release has gobbled up any ASCII domain with viable traffic.

 

[Duckinla]

Sorry you don't like my solarenergyindahouse.com idea. Wish I had known before I got past the 4 day drop period.
I'm sure you're right. But using the online dictionary I would be scared that I am registering something very different from what I think I am getting. Or because they are available I would register all the words that are bad luck to say, write, spell, type or think in Mandarin (I think there are about 5000 of those).

 

[none]

I like Duckinla's method of gaming future trends, but I find it incredibly difficult, and when I do think I have something and look at it objectively, it's not all the great. For instance, when new potential 'planets' were discovered last year, I ran through the roman gods and registered all the planet+roman god names I could muster.

Should one of them be named Persepine, I might come out a winner -- but that name won't even be close to the homeruns available in IDN.

The best terms are all but gone in Japanese, Chinese and Russian, however, as wrdekle pointed out, there is still ample opportunity in the other >100 languages, including some majors.

I picked up **ck in Thai and it receives 800 uniques (all from Thailand) a month. I've looked at my logs and IE7 and FF make up <1% of browsers. What's the multiplier for traffic apres IE7? 50x? 100x?

 

[Greg-J]

I'm still astounded that people can make so much money on just domains. I couldn't imagine not developing domains in to cash cows...

Now if I ended up with something like cellphones.com...

 

[commandercody]

I do a lot of future trends, things like
telomerestherapy New Research, Lengthening telomeres to extend life, possible cancer cure...
cytogerontology New Research, Studing ageing at the celuar level
microchipdosing New technology, inserting dosing regulators into patients
holographicdrive New technology, hard drive capable of storing terabites, technology may also be used to create 3D monitors with no screen, ect..
There's many more too but you get the point. There's really no great domains left and very few good for that matter, the only place to have any "big sell" with low investment is future trends(in my opinion). I would be happy with enough PPC revenue per year to renew the domains in to the future where they may be worth something.

 

[tas38]

You got the right thinking, but if they trade mark the stuff. You would have to watch, any trade mark problems for sure I would think.

 

[commandercody]

But the real revolution is happening now, thousands of premium generics being regged everyday in over 100 different languages. QUOTE]

I believe the revolution thing, but don't you have to be from these countries, eg citizen in order to apply for these domains? I tried applying for a couple and I had to fill out paper work saying what part of the county in question I was from... Um I'm from the U.S.