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The Lowdown
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March 17, 2009 Post
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Here's the The
Lowdown from DNJournal.com! Updated
daily to fill you in on the latest buzz going
around the domain name industry!
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Compiled
by Ron Jackson
(DN Journal Editor/Publisher) |
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Like
everyone else
I was shocked when then President Bush
announced last September that the nation's financial
system might completely collapse without an immediate
government bailout of various Wall Street firms
and tottering banks. That was six months ago and though
things are still extremely dicey, a funny thing
happened on the way to the poorhouse. My domain
sales business has been setting one monthly record after
another and this month will almost certainly be the best
ever with 11 decent sales (most in the low
four-figure range) on the books barely halfway through
the month. |
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Today I
exchanged notes with Pete Lamson, the Senior VP
and General Manager of NameMedia's Domain
Marketplace (including both the AfternicDLS
and BuyDomains)
and he told me they have also seen a noticeable
uptick in sales since the middle of February. Lamson
opined that some of the millions of people who have lost
their jobs are taking the entrepreneurial route and
buying domains to start businesses of their own (one of
the few options people have with job prospects so weak
in this recession).
I told Pete
I also believed the same force was at work and some of
my buyers have confirmed that was their reason for
purchasing a domain. Like NameMedia, my focus is almost
entirely on the small to medium sized business (SMB)
end user market, a segment of the domain
aftermarket that has held up better than any |
Peter
Lamson, Senior VP and GM
of NameMedia's Domain
Marketplace |
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other. These newly minted
entrepreneurs typically start out as a small enterprise
with limited capital to work with so they naturally
gravitate to the low to middle end of the domain market.
This situation, fueled by a
bad economy, has produced one wave that has broken in my
favor after years of waiting. When I entered the
business in 2002 I picked up a lot of good keyword
domains and 3-letter acronyms in alternate extensions,
primarily .us, .biz and .info. Over
the next few years that portion of the portfolio eked
out a profit but nothing compared to the returns owners
of respectable .com domains were enjoying. |
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I always
thought the alt extensions had good potential because I
felt they would eventually start paying off as the
diminishing pool of .com options forced SMB buyers to
consider other extensions. I had gotten pretty tired of
waiting for that day to come but in 2008 the alt TLDs
really began picking up steam for me and the momentum
is increasing here in 2009.
This month
I have sold names like Bulldozers.us, CheapInsurance.us
and CreditCardDeals.info to small businesses, as
well as a trio of 3-letter domains (a .us, a .biz and a
.info) and a pair of domains to the State of
Washington's Department of Transportation (GoodToGo.us
and GoodToGo.info - names they have started
redirecting to their existing .gov site that
promotes Washington's electronic toll collection
system).
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Part
of a local Ford dealer's four-page
newspaper spread this morning - note
their .biz web address at the bottom. |
Most importantly,
though it is a long way from being commonplace,
I am seeing more alt extensions being advertised
which helps build public recognition. This
morning a large local Ford dealership had a
four-page spread in the local community
newspaper that prominently promoted the name HeritageFord.biz
(another Ford dealer in California has HeritageFord.us).
In many cases (including these two), the alt
extension domain is used as a redirect to an
existing .com site with a clunkier address, but
the fact that the public is beginning to see
more alt extensions in every day advertising
should help them immensely as time goes on. |
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Now,
make no mistake - .com is still king and all of
the alt TLDs put together (excluding
major country code domains) are still a minor
force in the marketplace, but it has become
enough of a force to make me happy I placed
those bets several years ago.
My
experience over the past year is just one
person's observation so it has to be considered
anecdotal and not statistical evidence of any
kind of major shift happening. Depending on the
kind of keywords and phrases you hold in alt
extensions, your results may be much better or
much worse than mine. However, six months after
it looked like the financial world was ending,
what I am seeing leaves me feeling much better
about the ability of domain names to continue
providing a solid financial foundation in what
are exceptionally scary times in the financial
world at large. |
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One other note
today, the folks at Bido.com
rolled out a new option for domain sellers
today. In the past they would only accept
domains with no reserve for their auction
platform. That severely limited the quality of
domains submitted to them so they have adapted
with a new program. If you want to list a name
with a reserve you specify you can |
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now do so,
but a small cost will be involved if the domain
does not sell. A name selected for auction will
pay a listing fee of 3% of the
Reserve Price, but you only pay if the name
fails to sell. If it does sell Bido will take
the 3% fee off the 8% commission they
charge for selling a domain. I think it is a smart
move that should lead to more exciting
offerings on the Bido platform.
(Posted
March
17, 2009) |
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