ICA Experts Demolish Nine Persistent Myths About Domain Investors and the Aftermarket in a New Must Read Article

The business of domain investing has been around for almost 30 years now and as much as the industry has changed, one thing never seems to change. When someone can't get a great domain name cheap it is always domain investors who are to blame! Of course, you never hear that said about real estate investors who bought up all of the beachfront property and prime locations that later spawned booming commercial and residential development. In fact it is just 

the opposite for them - they were smart, visionary investors who spotted opportunities that everyone else missed! For some reason, the same people who praise real estate investors believe that if domain investors (many of whom started putting their money at risk back in the 90s) had just left the good domains sitting there, they would still be available for people to get for a $10 registration fee in 2021,  or, at most, whatever amount they deem a "reasonable price" to be)!

Despite being utterly illogical, the myths about domain investors and the domain aftermarket (also referred to as the secondary market) have only grown over the years. However, now two of the most knowledgeable people in this business, Internet Commerce Association Legal Counsel Zak Muscovitch and ICA Board Member Nat Cohen, who is also one of the most successful investors in industry history, have had enough of the unwarranted character assassination. 

Zak Muscovitch (left) and Nat Cohen

Zak and Nat have risen to the defense of domain investors countless times before in their roles with the ICA, the non-profit organization that fights for domain registrant's rise, but this time they poured their energy into an extraordinary in-depth article - Busting Domain Name Secondary Market Myths, published on CircleID Thursday, that should put an end to the double standard domain investors are held to. In the article, they debunk these nine prominent myths about domain investors, one by one:

1. Myth: Domainers are the Secondary Market
2. Myth: Domainers Provide No Value to the Domain Name Ecosystem
3. Myth: Domain Name Investing is Easy
4. Myth: Domainers Control the Price of Domain Names
5. Myth: All the Good Domain Names are Taken by Domainers
6. Myth: If Domainers Didn't Own Domain Names, They Would be Available from the Registry
7. Myth: Raising Registration Fees Would Free Up Domain Names for the Rest of Us
8. Myth: Domain Name Investors are Cybersquatters
9. Myth: Domain Name Should be "Use it or Lose it"

The term "must read article" gets thrown around a lot and while this one truly fits the description, it is much more than that. Yes, every single person who buys and sells domains should read it, but you should also bookmark it and share it with everyone you encounter in your business dealings who doesn't understand that the secondary domain market operates in the same way that secondary markets for almost all valuable goods operate. Buyers and sellers come together and transactions are made when the two sides arrive at a mutually agreeable price.  If either side doesn't like what is being offered, a deal doesn't happen - just like everywhere else in the business world. However, the fact is thousands of deals are closed in the domain aftermarket every single month and both sides go away happy to get what they needed when the deal was done (otherwise the transaction never would have happened in the first place). 

It's time to trade fiction about the domain market for the facts and thanks to Zak and Nat, those are available to all in a single comprehensive document that we can all call on whenever the occasion calls for it.

(Posted February 19, 2021)  

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