Are you noticing a trend on DNF?

[ColdGin]

So it´s not a DNF trend, it´s a whole trend in the domain market. Maybe this is slowing to the right point after reaching levels where everything you post you sold. If that is what we are talking about...the market is taking the right step.

 

[DomainFatigue]

I started buying domains in '99. It was a great ride in resales until 2004 for me. After that my mid and high x,xxx sales disappeared and most that I have sold since then have been in the low xxx range. Lately, I find it difficult to sell many in the low and mid xx range. Admittedly, I always relied upon branding potential as my sales pitch and didn't start learning about traffic until joining here last year. So I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. I fell behind in the trends...

When it comes to brandable domains however, I suspect that the lists of alternative available domains now offered by all the major registrars when one checks for one and finds it taken might have something to do with it. I remember when you had to come up with your own alternatives and some people simply weren't that creative... I enjoy this as a hobby, but am spending less and less time doing it because it isn't worth my time. Putting endless hours into xx and xxx sales is losing money for me compared with my day job.

I'm trying to get into development, but need to find someone who offers 3-5 page minisites for a fair price and start consolidating my hosting accounts...

 

[Beachie]

I started buying domains in '99. It was a great ride in resales until 2004 for me. After that my mid and high x,xxx sales disappeared and most that I have sold since then have been in the low xxx range. Lately, I find it difficult to sell many in the low and mid xx range. Admittedly, I always relied upon branding potential as my sales pitch and didn't start learning about traffic until joining here last year. So I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. I fell behind in the trends...

When it comes to brandable domains however, I suspect that the lists of alternative available domains now offered by all the major registrars when one checks for one and finds it taken might have something to do with it. I remember when you had to come up with your own alternatives and some people simply weren't that creative... I enjoy this as a hobby, but am spending less and less time doing it because it isn't worth my time. Putting endless hours into xx and xxx sales is losing money for me compared with my day job.

I'm trying to get into development, but need to find someone who offers 3-5 page minisites for a fair price and start consolidating my hosting accounts...

Just out of curiousity, do you think the quality of the domains you are currently selling is lower than those you were selling for $xxxx?

I've regretted a lot of the sales I made a few years ago - stuff like television.org, fitness.org, diary.org, cure.net, actress.org - development is the way to go, because it's just getting too hard to find quality domains to keep reselling..

 

[DomainFatigue]

Just out of curiousity, do you think the quality of the domains you are currently selling is lower than those you were selling for $xxxx?

Nice domains you had there...

Absolutely, I do. I am finding it increasingly harder to come up with decent names. Some that I let drop years ago are now being listed for xx,xxx by their new owners... Even those that I did well with pre-2004, like ac**free .com, ne**developments .com, di**bility income .com, etc., might have made me more today through parking or development. Still, there were names I sold in the low to mid x,xxx back then like re**ortit .com or is**lls .com (early SolutionHome sale - I believe they became Moniker) that I don't think I could have stretched xxx out of in today's market.

I have to develop at this point. Domaining alone is not cost-effective for me.

(Edit to prevent search-engine pick up of sales)

 

[David G]

This year I have had much better success newly registering domains than I had buying good ones at reasonable prices at forums or places like Sedo. Occasionally I get a name for only a reg fee which has really surprising steady typein traffic, even more than if I paid for it here for say 5k or 20k.

I have always been a buyer and not a seller. When I first joined forums in the late 90's (thru roughly 2003) good names with steady typein traffic were being resold here for prices as low as $50 or so. Now you rarely see them in a good category for 100 times that amount, or even more.

The next benefit at the forums was getting lots of knowledge from reading posts from many experienced members. Now it appears many of them have left the forums for good, or rarely post anymore but there is still good knowledge, just less of it. Many of the experts here still post but seems more like once a week instead of daily as they did a few years ago.

Still another reason for a possible decline in activity here is the fact there is much more competition now than several years ago, including other domain boards and other popular venues for sales which are much more popular now than in the past.

One more issue is that many domainers now have large portfolios of 1,000's of names and networks which are basically complete as far as size goes and now they are working on monetizing them or making websites with products and services for sale. Thus less time for domain forums. I am also in that category.

Still another issue which is overlooked could be the large domainers are worried about ICANN eventually approving letting the registry charge whatever they want for renewals. Even if they 'only' double or triple the renewals to say roughly $20/yr it would force many large holders to dump possibly half their portfolios or more since so many domains appears to earn between current reg fee and say $20 or so, meaning all those names would go be in the red in the future. I know I am very conservative buying or reg'ing new names lately as I believe the open-end renewals could easily be approved in the near future.

 

[Togoodhlth]

As someone mentioned it's almost not worth even checking the "for sale" forums here. I didnt really think about it until now but I used to check them at least once per day as there were deals to be had. Now I dont think I have been there in a couple of months.
Last time I went there I was selling and had no inquiries.

As far as the industry. I have been here since 2002 and was buying/selling long before that.
Similar to DomainFatigue I have not sold as many big dollar names this year as I have in the past.
Even last year I had 2 mid $xxxx sales and a lot of $xxx- low $xxxx sales but this year my highest sale is $2500 and only a very few others.

Of my $xxxx sales over the past few years there are really only 2 domains I would not have let go for the same price today (Hgh dot org and i-pods dot com).

I have been receiving offers though. I have always asked high enduser prices for my best names. Im happy about that now as most are worth far more to me now. The offers are not bad but still not where I want them to be. Many I receive now I would have accepted in a heartbeat 2-3 years ago and in turn I would be kicking myself now.

Right now I am buying more names than last year. Mainly I am getting them on the drop. Im spending good money for good names however I think it is money well spent and as long as I am financially able I will continue to spend $500 - $1000/ month on new names.

Since I make my living from my developed domains I continue to go that route. SInce I have a full plate with my current projects and my programmers cant handle anymore I will simply park any of my purchases and hopefully build my parked names rev. up to another full time income or at least that is my goal.

Gl

 

[GT Web]

I would agree that the market has really dried up lately. I was never really a bulk buyer, but I always looked around the for sale section and once in a while made a buy if I found a particularly good deal. Those are basically gone now - luckily I have a few great development projects going, but I think the whole "domain flipping" market is pretty much dead...

 

[B.King]

I would disagree that the market is slowing down. If theses is a good domain available at a decent price its immediately sold, However the market is not more educated so its unlikely some one will pay big bucks for a mediocore domain.
Over the last couple of months ive aquired the following 5 domains all in the xx,xxx range. however i wouldnt even pay $10 for a midicore domain that i know is going to lie uselessly in my account.

 

[Jacksplat]

Did I not predict this last November, and was laughed at and even poked with a stick ? These trends are almost as easy to calculate as grade 4 math. By this time next year it's gonna be twice the price to place where you wanna place, or twice the work. Getting domains for what would be considered 'fair market value' is but a memory (unless you have a lucky day).

 

[mistermouse63]

ccTLDs offer lots of unexplored space. perhaps national domain markets will never be as hot as the .com market, however, there is also a lot less competition. i've been gathering traffic ccTLDs in various countries with lots of success for the last 5 months. it is not only possible to get great traffic names from people who have no clue about domaining, but to simply reg them too. moreover, entire countries are out there just waiting to be typosquated. imagine that you went back into the past by 3-5 years or even more - things that you would have done are possible to do now... just elsewhere. besides ccTLD offer security against changes proposed by ICANN. if one country decides to screw up domain ownership or pricing rules, there's a lot of other countries left. negative changes can't spread that easily.

the beat doesn't stop. it just beats elsewhere.

 

[SouthernTn]

develop... develop... develop

 

[David G]

develop... develop... develop

Agree development is the way to go. However, a concern is once the registry sees it's a developed site (with traffic) instead of possibly increasing the renewal fee (if allowed in their next contract) to say $20. they may increase it to say $100 or more.

Even with renewals going up to $20 it would in effect put an estimated 1/2 or even more of domainer portfolios now profitable in the red as ppc income appears to be not increasing but instead currently on the decline.

I feel that issue is a little publicized reason for some declines in the business. I have reduced new registrations, buying and development sharply due to the issue.

 

[falco85]

It has come the time for me to develop all the domain names I own rather than plain parking. Though I will accept purchase offers when they will come

 

[TheOwner]

I agree with warnerms 100%

 

[B.King]

Anyone complaining here of not getting a good price for their genric domains can pm me, I pay more than fair market value

 

[mindzero]

Well, im new to the domain biz and for now im pretty much looking into drop catching then developing or selling at an ok price. Not looking to get rich, just an hobby I guess.

 

[TheOwner]

develop, develop, everyone screams...
but all I really see for the most part are sites with some copied BS content and a bunch of adsense ads on them. Not to mention most of the domains the "developed" sites are on are cruddy domain names.

I would like to see some NICE names truely developed.

 

[hugegrowth]

I think it's an overall trend. In the spring of 2005 it seemed like the domain market came back to life, and more people realized the value of domains. In the past year a lot of big portfolios have been bought up, and the great and good names are all gone now unless you want to pay enduser type prices. Quality is harder to get at a 'fair' price. More people are chasing fewer good domains. More competition at the drops. More people know about overture scores and value of keywords.

I think the domain market is just entering an equilibrium phase, where the buyers and sellers now have the same knowledge and information available to them. Sellers either want to hold onto their best names, or they want a good dollar value for their names that resellers won't pay.

Judging from the weekly dnjournal sales reports, there are still a lot of names being bought and sold for xxx,xxx and xx,xxx every week. Domains are still great real estate and will continue to be for the forseeable future. I've had more interest in my names this year than ever before. If you are starting out now trying to build a portfolio through hand regs or buying cheap domains at auction, it's a tough go. But I'm still confident the domain market will endure, and usually there is a shake up every once in a while that gets this forum going (like most recently the .mobi landrush with all the pro and con discussion has been great).

 

[Duckinla]

develop, develop, everyone screams...
but all I really see for the most part are sites with some copied BS content and a bunch of adsense ads on them. Not to mention most of the domains the "developed" sites are on are cruddy domain names.

I would like to see some NICE names truely developed.

Good point. I used to be under the impression that development actually took time, energy and creativity. Seems the internet is now about 5% content and 95% commercials.

 

[hugegrowth]

Judging from today's weekly domain sales report, the domain business is alive and well. Some of the domains that sold for five figures don't even look that great, and aren't even .coms

"Every domain on our new Top 20 Chart hit at least five figures and the #1 domain went for $350,000 in one of the 12 biggest sales reported so far this year. The action was hot and heavy on the Global Contenders and Country Codes charts as well. The first .mobi sales reports are in and 11 of those hit four figures (with four of them making our GC Top 20). Among the ccTLDs, .co.uk has another big week, racking up 3 of the top 5 sales on our Country Code list, including the #1 domain that went for over $25,000.

http://www.dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm