ngTLD Sales Apr 23 – May 22

Each month we take a look at "new" global TLD (ngTLD) domain sales reported in the Namebio database.  While the Namebio database certainly does not include all sales (see below), it is highly respected, updated daily, and includes statistical data, making it the best source for reports such as this.

This is the third monthly report we have done, and it has been a pretty great month for ngTLD sales.  The total value as well as the total number of domains sold (102 vs 27), number of major sales over $10,000, and number of different extensions represented in the sales, were all significantly up.  The average sales price did go down slightly, $3096 vs $4980 in the previous month.

During the monthly period ending May 22, 2018 there were

• 102 recorded ngTLD domain name sales;
• The average sales price was $3096, while the median price was $1000;
• 51 of the sales were for $1000 or more;
• In terms of major sales, 6 were for $10,000 or more;
• The highest price sales were my.bio for $61,002, go.exchange for $30,000, BroadwayTickets.nyc for $25,000 and my.tax for $22,500; 
• There were sales in 23 different TLD extensions during this period;
• Sedo (35), Jiangsu Bangning (30), Global Registry (14), Flippa (8), Alibaba (6) and Dynadot (3) recorded multiple sales during the period, while six other marketplaces had a single sale. 

This month saw sales in 23 different extensions (compared to 18 the previous month). There were significant increases in .top and .nyc sales, but there are reasons for both (see below). Several extensions saw their first significant sale this month. Here is the breakdown by number of domain sales reported in each extension.

• bingo 1
• bio 2
• casino 4
• city 2
• exchange 1
• global 14
• guru 2
• kitchen 1
• live 1
• lol 1
• london 1
• nyc 16
• pizza 2
• porn 1
• red 1
• science 1
• shoes 1
• tax 1
• tips 1
• top 42
• tours 1
• vip 1
• work 1
• xyz 4

During this month the .top registry shared over $3 million in sales with Namebio, a portion of which were sales from this time period. This accounted for the large jump in reported .top sales, but even if all .top and .nyc data were excluded, this would still have been a strong month. An auction in .nyc accounted for the increase in sales with that extension.

An interesting twist was that although there were 102 sales in this period, that was in only 101 different domain names.  A.pizza sold twice during the reporting period, both times on Flippa.

So far in 2018 there have been 401 Namebio reported ngTLD sales with an average sales price of $6411.  Note that this is as Namebio report sales dates. Both home.loans for $500,000 and The.club for $300,000 are listed as 2018 sales, since they were reported in 2018, even though the sales terms were completed in 2017. On the other hand, vacation.rentals that sold for $500,300 is not reported in 2018 in their database.

On a NamePros discussion regarding sources present in the Namebio database it was pointed out that most registries seem to have largely stopped reporting, and no doubt there are many registry sales not represented in the database. The Namebio database (or at least the portion publicly reported) does not include sales with value less than $100, nor sales from a number of venues such as Undeveloped or Efty (unless buyers or sellers report them individually), nor from most of the ngTLD registries, so it is difficult to estimate how complete a record this is of all  #ngTLD domain name sales. For example, there have been no .club sales this month or the preceding one, even though clearly a large number of sale in that extension have taken place.

One of the points that continues to surprise me is how, after a long period without significant sales, a high value sale suddenly takes place.  For example, prior to the sale of my.bio for $61,002 the highest reported .bio sale was $7000 (for the single letter i.bio domain name back in December 2015).  Namebio only had 5 recorded sales of any size in the .exchange extension prior to the $30,000 sale of go.exchange. This sale easily eclipsed the late 2017 sale of btc.exchange for $12,500. Past sales are not always a good predictor of future sales in the world of ngTLD!

Here are links to the preceding reports in case you want to do comparisons:

• Period ending April 22
• Period ending March 22

We will issue our next report in late June, and it will cover ngTLD sales for the period from May 23 through June 22.

Using All Of The Domain

Introduction

I find many domain owners do not take full advantage of the possibilities offered by subdomains. With most extensions your purchase the second level domain (e.g. if I own expertise.space the top level domain TLD is space, while I own the second level expertise with that TLD). However, I also own the right to use the third level.  Many assume the third level has to be www and that the only domain name they own is www.expertise.space, but that is just one possibility. I could just as well use Canadian.expertise.space if I wanted, for example.

What is a Subdomain

Most web hosting services allow you to have either a limited or unlimited number of subdomains associated with each hosted domain (this is one thing to check for when looking for a service). That means if for example planners.top is the domain being hosted, and you set up a subdomain named event, then when someone types in event.planners.top they will go to the website information you have placed in the subdomain. On your hosting panel your subdomain will be just like its own domain, and to the user event.planners.top seems like a different site from planners.top. You can read about subdomains here.

DNS Redirects

You can achieve almost the same thing by using domain name server (DNS) redirects.  These are instructions where your domain is registered that tell all the domain name servers in the world where to go when various URLs are use. That is I could put DNS redirects where I have the domain name planners.top registered, and direct event.planners.top to one web location, and wedding.planners.top to another.  This does not even need to be a website I host - I could point it to my Facebook page, LinkedIn account, or somewhere else if I wanted.
     DNS redirects are somewhat easier to implement than setting up a subdomain, and have certain advantages (such as you can either mask it or not - when masked it means the URL at the top will show wedding.planners.top rather than the real URL of the site). It depends on your application whether the subdomain or DNS redirect is the better option.  DNS redirects can be used with any registered domain name, while you will need a hosting service to enact subdomains.

Why Is This Important?

This means that when you own the rights to a single domain, you own also the rights to all the three part combinations with that domain name.  For example, I have (or at least did when I wrote this - it is currently for sale) the domain planners.top.  That is a pretty memorable one word domain name in a well known extension by itself, but the real strength of the name is when used with subdomains (or DNS redirects) to make any of the following (I have not implemented them, but could have them all go different places):

• Canadian.planners.top
• career.planners.top
• daily.planners.top
• event.planners.top
• financial.planners.top
• site.planners.top
• urban.planners.top
• wedding.planners.top

Another domain that I currently have for sale is tweets.today.  I like the domain a lot - short, memorable, and high impact.  But it becomes even more versatile if you also consider it used with subdomains where many sites could operate in parallel using the one second level domain. Here are a few possibilities, although the list is endless.

• best.tweets.today
• funny.tweets.today
• golf.tweets.today
• inspirational.tweets.today
• science.tweets.today
• top.tweets.today

Domain Name Phrases

One use for subdomains or DNS redirecting is in domain name phrases (see our website for some examples, or more about domain name phrases here).  One of the leading companies in domain name phrases is Names.of.London - check out possibilities with this search box.

Another domain that I own is kindness.top.  I admit that, although memorable and a highly searched English word, by itself the domain name maybe feels a little strange.  However, when combined with an additional word like make.kindness.top it becomes a great call to action domain phrase.  If, for example, on Twitter someone enters exactly that phrase with the periods, it becomes a link to the associated location.

With DNS you can readily direct it different places according to the third level word.  To demonstrate this I have directed make.kindness.top to our site page describing domain name phrases, while I directed kindness.top and www.kindness.top to the landing page where we have it available for sale. Check it out with the above links (or type the URLs into your browser)!

Want to see another one?  I have directed curlers.win and www.curlers.win to the page (on Namecheap Marketplace) where the domain is for sale, while I directed the domain name phrases all.curlers.win and young.curlers.win to a page on my website where I talk about that particular domain phrase.  Note that I used DNS masking, so it looks like the website URL is all.curlers.win, even though the website you really are at is a page on my NamesThat.win site .

A Touch of Distinction

A simple use you might want to make of this idea is to add the word the instead of www  as the third level of the domain.  For example direct people to the.photonics.site (instead of www.photonics.site or just photonics.site), or if you had a biotechnology newsletter or review called The CRISPR Review it might be cool to call your website the.CRISPR.review.

Summary

1. You can use DNS redirects or subdomains with your hosting provider to make various third level domains with the second level domain that you own.
2. DNS redirects can be done in just a few minutes using the control panel where your domain is registered.  They can be masked or not.
3. Subdomains are created using the control panel where your domain name is hosted (this might or might not be the same place as where the domain is registered). You add subdomain web content exactly like it was an independent website.
4. Many web hosting plans permit an unlimited number of subdomains.
5. These techniques can be used to operate sites in parallel with a single domain - e.g. financial.planners.top could operate separately from event.planners.top. 
6. You can make a domain name into domain name phrase using the same techniques.  For example, the domain name kindness.top can become make.kindness.top.  That expression becomes clickable in social media like Twitter.
7. If desired you can precede your website with something other than www (but remember that some people may assume it is www, just like some assume the TLD is com).

Disclosures:
At the time of writing I had for sale the domain names mentioned here: planners.top, tweets.today, curlers.win, photonics.site, CRISPR.review and kindness.top (if the links no longer go to a landing page, it means the domain is no longer for sale, and we have no association with the new owner). At our website www.NamesThat.win we sell domain names for domain name phrases. We also have an affiliate relationship with Names.of.London.

Namecheap Marketplace for Domain Sellers

I recently noticed that the Namecheap (NC) Marketplace (NCM) now allow BIN as low as $1 (used to be $5, the maximum remains at $1000).  I have found the NCM a good place to sell value domains at low prices, and this change makes it even more flexible in trying to get a few dollars for domains about to expire (or otherwise). I thought this might be a good time to explain the main features, and to give some tips for domain name sellers.

Main Points:

For those unfamiliar with the NC Marketplace;

1. The NCM is only for domains registered with NC.
2. Listing process on NCM is easy (can list price, term, categories, text description). To list a domain log into your account, select Domain List and then Manage (for the domain you want to list).  Then scroll to near the bottom, and click on the Sell Domain. Fill in the information, and your domain is up and for sale immediately.
3. They charge 10% commission with no minimum or other charges.
4. NC act as effective escrow on NCM transactions, taking buyer payment, then automatically transferring the name and changing contact information (purchaser must have NC account but they are free).
5. NC essentially push the domain to new owner, so there is not an automatic need to add a year registration.
6. You accumulate funds in your account, which you can transfer in any amount to be used to purchase NC domains (or I presume other services like web hosting).  If you want to withdraw them to your PayPal as money, need to have $100 minimum. Although NC do not add any fees for a PayPal payout, depending on your country, PayPal may add 0.5 to 2.0% fees on the money transfer.
7. Purchasers can buy you domain by putting it in the NC cart and use any of their standard payment options that include credit cards, Paypal and Bitcoin (as well as others).
8. You do NOT need to wait for the 60 day ICANN period, since the sale is essentially a push to the new owner.
9. It is not an auction site - you set a BIN price and the purchaser has only that option.  Also, there is no direct route for potential purchasers to interact with you.
10. When you click on the name of a domain name for sale on NCM it will show you both the day the current for sale listing expires, and the expiration date for the registration of the domain name.  Don't confuse the two!

    I have both bought and sold domains there, and have found the process smooth and fast (longest wait was a few hours). I have found NC support very responsive, when it is needed.

Search Notes:

One important point to note is that in general domains registered on the NC Marketplace do NOT show up in the general NC domain search (the one used for hand registrations).  To see listings on the NC marketplace you need to go to Domains tab, and then down to Marketplace.  The search is slow though.  You can turn off options by price or category on the left but response is slow. 

     Some names on NCM DO show up in the general NC search.  I have not figured out which ones get there, but I think that the name must be listed for some small multiple (or more) of registration cost for that extension, and be listed, and not expired for an extended period.  If anyone knows more precisely, please add in comments.

Tips:

A few tips for those selling domain names through the NCM:

• Although you can list up to 5 categories for each domain (e.g. technology, business, advertising, computers, etc.), only the first two alphabetically get listed beside the domain name.
• You can re-list a domain name that has not sold.  I sometimes use longer periods (simpler), but I sometimes use the shorter duration listing and re-list, since many of the sales seem to come when the domain listing is about to end when the name will be near the top of their list.
• I find that to be very successful you need your own website or social media presence to post to your listings.  People will in general not find your domains through the NCM.
• I find some who list on NCM do not realize how easy it is to have a single link which always shows your updated NCM listings.  Simply find one of your listings, then click on your username (in blue on left - mine is fundybob), and then get the URL from that page.  As an example, here is mine:  https://www.namecheap.com/store/domains/marketplace/buy-domains?seller=fundybob 
• If desired, you can also link to any particular domain name.  To do that find the domain name in NCM, then copy the URL.  Note that when the listing period expires and you re-list you will need to change the link.  An example: https://www.namecheap.com/store/domains/marketplace/listing/56000093
• You can use that along with a DNS redirect to make the NCM listing a landing page. For example, if you click the link expertise.space you will see this set up for one of my domain names.  One advantage of using NCM as your lander, is that the potential purchaser is immediately in an environment where they can instantly purchase the domain name and implement it with a hosting package.
• I use both types of links on my website.  On my main page https://NamesThat.win/ (see second line of icons), I link to all my NCM listings, while on the following page you will see links to individual NCM entries (these I need to update by hand). https://namesthat.win/domains.html
• While you can't change a price once the domain name is listed, you can delete it and then re-list it right away, so that is how to edit the NCM price if you made a mistake or have second thoughts. To delete your listing, log in to NC, go to Domain List, select the name, then click on Manage.  At the bottom right, where it tells you it is for sale, click on Cancel and enter your password again.   

Final Thoughts

     The NCM can be one option to easily and inexpensively sell domain names.  Because there is no minimum commission, it is particularly good for low cost domain names (I recently sold one for just $2.00 there, and the commission charged was only $0.20).  While most of my buyers seem to first find my domain names through my website (or social media, perhaps), many prefer to purchase them through NCM.  

     One big advantage of the NCM in my opinion is that NC generally have cost competitive renewal rates for most  extensions, and also excellent value in shared web hosting.  The new Stellar Plus shared hosting with unlimited domains and storage is an especially good deal. Therefore, if your end user has plans to use the domain they are buying to set up a first website, it is fast and easy.  The new owner can literally have their website up the day they purchase the domain from you.  

     While other registrar marketplaces exist and are great (Namesilo comes to mind), I like NCM a lot.  If you decide to list there, I wish you all the best.

Happy Domain Investing,

Bob

ps While I won't be able to edit this one, I am planning to post a version that I will update on my blog at this link: https://agreatnameforyou.blogspot.ca/

pps Disclosure:  I have no association with NC, other than as a user and an affiliate account, and was not compensated or encouraged to create this post.