Whats next?

discdrome · Jul 5, 2006

Since I have been in this business I have seen a few trends, just interested to see what we think is next?

I have noticed that somebody has a good idea, creates a site sells it, then hundreds of people get on the band wagon and create copy sites.

At the moment its "Proxy" sites, all using free or low cost script, with a few exceptions the sites are created in 10 minutes, submitted to proxy link sites, keep for month or two then try and sell of here for $xxx . Dont get me wrong it works, I did it to, but just as an experiment, but there are loads of them always for sale on here..

The same happened with Amazon affiliate sites before this.

So back to my question whats the next trend?

WhoDatDog · Jul 5, 2006

The next big thing is the realization that most people let some great names go by that could have changed their lives forever. Within the next 24 months you won't be able to get any of the life-changers for under 100K.

People will be haunted each time they look back at top DN Journal sales. Instead of wishing that they would have been in the domain business in the mid-90's, they will now be saying they wished they would have bought a few great names when they could be had for 10K or so.

Another big thing will be the realization that if you cannot spell it or pronounce it it is better off not being registered....I hope.

discdrome · Jul 5, 2006

Interesting points. 1st one I agree with just not too sure about the 2 year timescale, may take a bit longer for those life changing figures, but they will come.

Point 2 I do agree with completely!! I have been offloading and expiring some of the poor names I have bought in the past. I would now rather have 1 quality domain name rather than 100 poor ones!

I also see companies and individuals will be acquiring Ltd companies, or companies in administration that own online domain name assets, just to acquire the names, it will be a bonus if they also get any physical assets such as stock, computers etc.

Ian · Jul 5, 2006

interesting thoughts. But still there is a lot of potential in domain monetization, I don`t see any big or sudden change in the near future. The concepts will remain the same only the players might change.

namestrands · Jul 5, 2006

If anyone could predict the next big thing we would not be here discussing it for all to see.

The fact is that we can not predict the "little kid effect" scenario.

But I can with confidence see a huge shake up in the domain parking industry, many countries are now trying to ban domain parking of their country specific domain extensions.

Parking is becoming so wide spread that it is now taking up a huge percentage of websites, I am sure you will all agree that you will come across at least 2 parked domains in your daily surfing.

Big Parking companies are registering or renewing expired domain in the tens of thousands every day for the sole purpose of parking them.

It has no benefit to the internet user whatsoever. Search engines are also now more than ever delisting parked domains.

Companies like SEDO and Fabulous will not be around in its current form; if at all within the next 6 years, these companies are being seen in the same light as spammers.

Domain sales will still be a big thing for years to come especially pronouncable short .coms

If I was to offer any advice to the community is I would flush any domain that makes less than reg fee a year and concentrate on developing a few good names. The rewards will be more sustainable than parking.

3ntrepreneur · Jul 5, 2006

I would have to agree with you about flushing any domain that doesnt make more than reg fee.

mistermouse63 · Jul 5, 2006

Internet is a great thing... far greater than anything people have created so far. One of the best things about it is its unpredictability. We can more or less imagine near future but anything beyond it is like predicting weather.

dotNetKing · Jul 5, 2006

If there was an easy way for me to select-acquire names that were being flushed because they didn't earn reg fee in a year, I would be interested in paying reg fee to $15 to the current owner, maybe more.

This is hypothetical though, as I have no easy way to make such selections and there is no easy way to process the payment/transfer for such low amounts.

Sorry for being hypothetical.

I do however believe that I won't be flushing my own domains that make less than reg fee, unless I'm sure that they have little prospect of making sufficient money in the future.

Trends?

One trend is that many of those names that people see as candidates for flushing at the moment will have recognised value in a couple of years time, whether for income or for selling. Maybe not high values, but some value considerably above reg fee.

My 2p's worth.

namestrands · Jul 5, 2006

I do however believe that I won't be flushing my own domains that make less than reg fee, unless I'm sure that they have little prospect of making sufficient money in the future.

Thats a given. And would have to be on a domain by domain basis.

I would not expect some who owned BAT.com to drop it if it earned less than reg fee.

The comments made were based on domains such as bubbleme.com and domains that have no inherent brand value. Trends are harder to predict, so it is a case of sometimes cutting your losses

Explorer · Jul 5, 2006

The next big thing will be a release of IE7 with people around the world discovering they could type in domains in their native languages.

ColdGin · Jul 5, 2006

I can see also another trend....If you look to the results from the most regular searches in Google, you could found high percentage of adsense websites that - for my own opinion - Google will found a way to neutralize this kind of websites...that are each day increasing giving not so good info....

Olney · Jul 5, 2006

As no surprise I believe it will be IDN Domains.
Many people invested in sometimes costly cctlds & try to put in various common sought after english words. They have value to us as Americans or English speakers but do you think that Loan.de is really a sought after term for Germans?

IDNs will start a new domaining market equal to what is present in the ASCII world. This will not be an overnight thing but it will be developing progressively with various international markets. Those who may have secondary language skills, ties with Asian markets, or just want to invest for long term are those who may be interested in the IDN market.

Japan currently doesn't have a domain aftermarket established. I pretty much helped establish the IDN afttermarket in English & will progress to establish a domaining community in Japan for Japanese...

namestrands · Jul 5, 2006

I dont know.. I am not convinced at the IDN market. No disrespect but the advertising revenue is the mighty dollar/euro/sterling and its universal.

IDN is for all intents are niche regional markets. I do not doubt that it will be a success for some, but it will never compare to the .com market. The gTLDs will continue to overshadow the domain industry.

Explorer · Jul 5, 2006

namestrands said:
I dont know.. I am not convinced at the IDN market. No disrespect but the advertising revenue is the mighty dollar/euro/sterling and its universal.

IDN is for all intents are niche regional markets. I do not doubt that it will be a success for some, but it will never compare to the .com market. The gTLDs will continue to overshadow the domain industry.

IDNs are .coms and they are not niche markets.

It's very pizzling that folks are not upto speed on the IDN market yet, as they could pick up real bargains like camera.com or hair.com for low x,xxx.

Olney · Jul 5, 2006

No disrespect taken.
We can't say if one niche market will surpass the ASCII market but eventually combined there is multiple domaining communities that will develop. My point is 20 languages where markets will develop total it should surpass the ASCII market (combined). Only because good ASCII coms are getting more expensive, & they don't exactly have merit for Japan, China, Russia, India, Germany etc...

But I understand your point. So far only the Chinese domaining community can surpass the English domaining community.

What's not seen is usually taken for granted.
This Chinese domaining community already has 32,000 Chinese members.
http://www.eachnic.com/club/

& it's still growing...

namestrands said:
I dont know.. I am not convinced at the IDN market. No disrespect but the advertising revenue is the mighty dollar/euro/sterling and its universal.

IDN is for all intents are niche regional markets. I do not doubt that it will be a success for some, but it will never compare to the .com market. The gTLDs will continue to overshadow the domain industry.

namestrands · Jul 5, 2006

Explorer said:
IDNs are .coms and they are not niche markets.

It's very pizzling that folks are not upto speed on the IDN market yet, as they could pick up real bargains like camera.com or hair.com for low x,xxx.

I did mean ascii TLDs

IDN market is going to open up a flood of lawsuits, any domain you register is much more likely to breach anothers trademark. Granted the domains you mentioned are parked domains so not much of an issue.

Its an accident waiting to happen.

Explorer · Jul 5, 2006

namestrands said:
I did mean ascii TLDs

IDN market is going to open up a flood of lawsuits, any domain you register is much more likely to breach anothers trademark. Granted the domains you mentioned are parked domains so not much of an issue.

Its an accident waiting to happen.

I guess iREIT folks are in trouble for purchasing cellphones.com

A generic domain like camera.com can not be taken away from you solely based on trademark violation.

namestrands · Jul 5, 2006

if the owner of the IDN camera.com was using the domain to confuse and mislead the users into thinking it was the non IDN camera.com then that is a violation of ICANN regulations and trademark law.

camera.com is a bad example as its a parked domain.

I can show you 100s of examples where GENERIC domains have been taken away from the owners.

Take a look at Game.co.uk for an example.

Olney · Jul 5, 2006

May I ask what trademarks?
There is Anime.com in English I own Anime the Japanese form in dot com.. Trademarks don't cover another countries native language. IDNs are not about registering company brands names etc. It's finding useful domains useful to that country. That's it.

In Japaneese I own Diamond.jp, Kyoto.com, Sale.com, AdultVideo.com, PCGames.jp, Platinum.jp & 600 more generics..

These are generics... IDN buyers are not trying to infringe on others.

People who own a term in English "that's generic" have no claim to owning it every language. That's like saying you own car.com & are entitled to every translation for car..

But I may be wrong as to where you expect lawsuits to come in place.

====================================================

OK I just saw your post.
Those buying & develoiping IDNS have no intention of them being confused for English sites...
That's a guarantee...

I own my Anime domain to make a site for Japanese only. No confusion there...

Explorer · Jul 5, 2006

Come to think of it, the more general public stays out of the IDN market, the more chances we have to build great IDN portfolios with thousand of names. So, while people are arguing and speculating on lawsuits, usage, stats, generic nature, we keep regging and regging....