Monkeying around.

[NorthernMonkey]

Hi All,

I've recently joined, looking forward to extending my knowledge of the domain industry, buying and selling some names.

I'm interested in buying names for development, particularly those with web app potential. Sales wise, I've got a few useful names that I will try and post from time to time.

As a seller or developer, I have a couple of valuable (low $xx,xxx) domain names, that I'm in the process of developing. My investment in them makes me nervous of the impending gTLD's and hence I shall be watching conversations regarding this topic with great interest.

As a potential buyer, I'm equally fascinated by just how long people choose to hang on to "good" names waiting for THE buyer. I see prices being quoted to buy names, that just don't make any sense. I appreciate everything has it's price to any given person, depending on many factors, not least the supply/demand equation, but if you consider what yield that name must produce in terms of parked, traffic or affiliate revenues against a given price, too often it just doesn't compute! It intrigues me how many people must be sitting on great names, that really only have a handful or less of viable potential buyers, certainly at some of the more speculative prices being quoted. It certainly doesn't make for a particularly liquid market! Surely a new model needs to be developed, beyond parking, that taps into the thousands of highly skilled developers out there that could monetise some of the really quality domain name "brands" sitting gathering dust on sedo!

That said, I may end up being my own worst hypocrite when it comes to selling from my own stable - we all want to make some money don't we! Let's see!

Regards to all...

 

[JamesBooth]

Welcome to DNF mate

 

[katherine]

Welcome to the forum

 

[hotspur]

Welcome aboard!

 

[angel69]

Hey, NorthernMonkey guy, good to have you on DNF, you're already off to a quick start....great intro piece ! very thoughtful....As to holding on too long to names we value (we often overvalue them, and by a lot), I'm guilty 100%, we all live trying to avoid selling to quickly or making a rush decision to sell possibly to somebody not offering top dollar, and we constantly overlook the fact that if a domain isn't making much revenue then that adds to any potential "losses", or at least there's an opportunity cost of not selling when we could have (add to that renewal fees, etc) Time to dust off some of those Sedo relics and get sellin' ! lol ....at any decent price we may get, there is a lot of speculation in domaining, absolutely, but normally only a pro can do that right most of the time...

Domaining is pretty confined to a group, there may be 250,000+ active domainers out there ("active" being the operative word) and that IS a lot of people but not all of those buy/sell/handreg regularly, even fewer are into developing or even monetizing properly.... and a highly illiquid market it is, you sure got that part right, and while it's not as risky as owning a painting you can't resell quick if you need the money, it is still a risky trade to be in (market downturns, gluts of particular domain classes due to too many getting dumped at marketplaces around the same time, general economies the world over, etc)

Stick to the main extensions (com, net, org) and you're a Brit, so maybe you're own ccTLD (.co.uk usually is a pretty safe investment).... don't fall for the newer boutique extensions no matter how many expensive ads Go Daddy and others throw at you, and research marketplaces, overpaying for names is just about the worst thing anybody can do (worse than selling your domains too cheap or failing to buy a domain when it's perceived to be cheap) so watch the price trends, if it sounds nuts to buy a name at X price at a given time... then it probably is....

...... As a potential buyer, I'm equally fascinated by just how long people choose to hang on to "good" names waiting for THE buyer. I see prices being quoted to buy names, that just don't make any sense. I appreciate everything has it's price to any given person, depending on many factors, not least the supply/demand equation, but if you consider what yield that name must produce in terms of parked, traffic or affiliate revenues against a given price, too often it just doesn't compute! It intrigues me how many people must be sitting on great names, that really only have a handful or less of viable potential buyers, certainly at some of the more speculative prices being quoted. It certainly doesn't make for a particularly liquid market! Surely a new model needs to be developed, beyond parking, that taps into the thousands of highly skilled developers out there that could monetise some of the really quality domain name "brands" sitting gathering dust on sedo!...

 

[Shane]

Welcome to DNF!

 

[ninjadomain]

Welcome!