It's All In The Name: August 2018

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Domain Descriptions: Pro and Con

Imagine for a moment that you wander into a new car dealership. You look around and see several cars that appeal to you. Do you want to know more than simply the price of these cars? For example, are specifications, fuel efficiency, resale value, warranty, etc. of any interest? Most of the time car dealers are only too happy to place glossy brochures in your hands that will both help associate the model with positive emotional feelings and also answer questions that might arise when comparing the vehicle to those offered by competitors. In the domain world, the majority of sellers do not do a corresponding thing, rather taking the view that good domains sell themselves. I look at arguments on both sides of the question of whether you should include a description with your domain listing.

Pro Arguments

First, let's make an argument in favour of including descriptive information.

You have obviously thought and researched the domain name, and it is good to share some of this background to help inform and persuade the prospective buyer.
You may provide ideas regarding use of the domain name that the potential purchaser would not have considered. This may help turn those browsers into purchasers.
As a convenience to the potential buyer you provide key information (such as registration period and renewal cost) in one place.
It may be an opportunity to counter potential negatives with respect to your domain name (e.g. it is a plural, but in this case the plural is the more frequently used form).
An attractive presentation may engage and encourage people to spend more time browsing your domain names, and some will become purchasers.
It shows that you see value in the domain name, since it is worth the time to provide a detailed presentation.

Con Arguments

I believe the majority of domain investors generally are not in favour of including descriptive material. The thinking might be summarized as follow.

A good domain name speaks for itself. If you explain the virtues of the name, it is saying you don't really have confidence that it is truly a great name.
Any serious potential buyer will do her/his own background on the domain name, so there is no need for you to provide the information.
If you outline how the name might be used, and that is not consistent with the ideas that the prospective buyer has, that may limit how they view the name.
If you include a balanced view of the domain, it might bring up negative aspects that the purchaser had not considered, and their view of the domain name will go down.
By including some items (like automated appraisal values or advertiser data) it may turn off some potential purchasers that place no importance on such measures.
I have a huge portfolio. I don't have the time to put into a detailed description for each domain name.
I prefer the standard description provided, for example by Efty, since that has been researched and is better than anything I would write.

One More Advantage

There is one more advantage in providing a description. I show below a screen capture (click on image to see higher resolution view) of a domain search from my Efty Marketplace. I searched on the word CRISPR (a gene editing acronym important in health and agriculture fields). If I did not have any descriptive content, then it would only have yielded my domains that included the acronym CRISPR. However, with descriptions Efty the search engine includes all domains with the term in the title or the description. Therefore domain names like editDNA.co and medit.life appear.

This is an important advantage of descriptions, and you should write them accordingly, making sure that any keywords are included somehow in your descriptions.

What to Include

I think there are strong arguments against descriptions, as well as a convincing case for including them. If you do decide to include descriptions, what might you include. Note that not all of these are applicable to all domain names, and depending on your potential audience some of them are perhaps unwise to include. Nevertheless, here is a list of ideas you might consider.

Possible uses for the domain name.
If an acronym, some of the possible meanings.
Advantages (e.g. short, memorable, trending term, etc.).
Prior sales of similar words.
Period of current registration (particularly if already registered for extended period).
Automated estimates of worth, including commentary if necessary
Multiple language suitability if relevant.
Search and advertiser statistics for the domain name.
Commentary on the TLD extension.
Renewal cost.
Age of domain.
History in actual website use, if any, including backlinks information.
Possibly other related domain names (in case the potential purchaser does not quite like this one, but would be interested in one of those).

Discussion

There is no single correct answer regarding this question. Personally. I usually do include descriptions, but at the same time I understand why many others choose not to do so. As with most aspects of domaining, you should decide for yourself what works for you and you feel comfortable with. However, I would urge you to be informed on both sides of the argument, prior to making the choice.

I also would stress that this is not necessarily an all or nothing issue. It may make sense to include descriptions with some domain names or venues, and not others, and if you do include descriptions what to include in them depends on the domain name.

If you do decide on the description route, there are some practical points to make the task easier. The main one is to keep all of your descriptions in a text file in some organized (e.g., alphabetical) form so you can easily copy and paste when you list the name on a new marketplace. While I see advantages to the Efty approach of using a very short description along with additional bullet points, it is certainly easier to deal with the single text field of Undeveloped and other sites that allows a longer description.

One final point: always be honest and fair in your description. It is probably unwise to list a single high NameBio database comparator if multiple closer comparators are much lower in value. One difficulty of including automated appraisal information from GoValue is that these may change fairly dramatically from month to month in some cases. Therefore, you might want to include a disclaimer alerting the reader to that. Fortunately, it is easy for them to check this information without cost to them. Most of the time we only deal with any particular client in a single sale, but treat each as though you were building a long term relationship based on openness and honesty.

Even if you do decide on a comprehensive description, also be alert to the value of concise writing. Try to keep it informative and engaging, while also short! I look forward to reading your domain descriptions, or not!

Original post Aug 28, 2018.

Fine Print

This post is offered for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be considered domain name investment advice. While an attempt has been made to be accurate, there is no implied or explicit warranty, and you are responsible for verifying any information of importance to you. You also accept full responsibility for any domain investing decisions you may make that use data from this post.

I try to be fair, balanced and objective in my analysis. If you feel this post does not meet that standard, please express your concerns to me.

In a very few cases there may be affiliate links on my blog. This means I receive a small amount if users visit or make purchases via the link. You do not pay any additional charge due to using an affiliate link, and in some cases your cost will be below the normal price. I receive no identifying information about who clicks, or does not click, any link. I never accept compensation to provide favourable review of any particular service or product.

The text of this posting is ©R Hawkes, all rights reserved. However, you may, without permission, use reasonable length portions of the post as long as a link to this post is also provided. If you wish to use the complete contents of a post, please request permission. I am normally open to reprinting, but will consider each request individually.

The images used are either those associated with a product or service, my own images, or Pixabay images believed to be available for use without attribution. If you see any image that you believe is problematic, please let us know and we will immediately correct the situation.

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Neutrino Oscillation Domain

Well down the NameBio daily domain name sales report for August 1, 2018, the name NeutrinoOscillation.org attracted my attention. The domain sold for $240 Aug. 1, 2018 at DropCatch. So what is a neutrino oscillation, why would anyone want the domain name, and what is the history of the associated website?

Scientific Background

So what is with neutrino oscillations?

What we now call the neutrino was proposed by the great physicist Enrico Pauli in 1930 on the basis of theoretical arguments to explain observed radioactive beta decay. At that time he actually referred to it as the neutron, since it is electrically neutral. But when that name was claimed for the much more massive particle we now call the neutron, the name neutrino (means little neutral one) came to be used for the particle, which was experimentally proven in 1956. You can read more of the interesting history here.

The neutrino comes in multiple types, the electron, tau and muon neutrino. There are three corresponding antimatter particles, bringing the total number of types of neutrinos to six. Conservation laws prescribe the type of neutrino that a nuclear reaction will produce.

When scientists used the energy output of the sun to predict the rate of nuclear reactions taking place in the core, they could predict how many should be produced and it was trivial to calculate the neutrino flux here at Earth. The number is huge - during the past second something like 100 trillion neutrinos passed through your body.

While neutrinos are challenging to detect because they go right through most material without interaction, clever experimental physicists have figured out how to detect a neutrino, with several major facilities developed around the world, included SNO (Sudbury Neutrino Observatory) here in Canada. The early results indicated a substantially lower flux of the predicted type of neutrino than predicted. This was called the solar neutrino problem or paradox (see account here).

The puzzle might imply that the nuclear reactions in the core of the sun were at a lower rate, the sun had essentially slowed down for some reason. Since it takes a long period for energy produced in the core to reach the outer layers of the sun, this would be possible. Another possibility is that we simply misunderstand the nuclear reactions in some fundamental way.

But the answer that turned out to be right is that the neutrino, or some of them, can change from one type to another, and this is what explained the differences in flux observed. There is excellent coverage of the history and science of neutrino oscillations on Wikipedia.

The Nobel Prize in Physics in 2015 was awarded jointly to Takaaki Kajita of the
Super-Kamiokande Collaboration in Japan and Arthur B. McDonald of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Collaboration in Canada "for their key contributions to the experiments which demonstrated that neutrinos change identities." You can read the Nobel Prize citation here,

History of the Site

The domain name has been registered since 2001, and has been web active since 2002 (note that its first registration whois data do not show this, but the web archive does, so I presume that it formally expired and its time was reset.) The domain name has been used with a widely used and authoritative reference site with links to various articles, experiments, groups, etc. working in the neutrino oscillation field. For example, below is a screen capture of how the site looked in 2004, obtained courtesy of the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

It was maintained by a scientific researcher at Argonne National Lab. The site was widely used in the early years, even winning a hot pick award from Science Magazine back in 1998. The activity on the site waned somewhat for a period, but by 2017 it was still essentially serving the same role, but with a refreshed visual look, as shown in the archive capture from 2017.

Closing Thoughts

Up to the time of posting I was not able to get confirmation from those buying or selling the domain name regarding future plans. Since it sold on DropCatch, it is likely that the domain name was simply allowed to lapse, hopefully deliberately. The domain name does not currently resolve (as of late August 2018 at least). I think it has been held by someone other than the original owners for the past year. My guess is that the site had a sufficient number of backlinks that someone thought that at this price it would generate enough revenue through monetized parking to make the $240 purchase price sensible. I guess we will see if that turns out, although I personally would be doubtful with such a specialized term. Another possibility is that the new owner is associated with the scientific field, and has plans to re-establish a site in its historical tradition.

While the users of the site over many years will be disappointed by the end of an authoritative and useful reference site, most reference sites eventually come to the end of their life, either because those who maintained them have moved on to other things, or because demand for the service has diminished. Perhaps, now that the solar neutrino mystery has been largely solved, and a Nobel Prize awarded for the work, it was felt that this was a good time to move on to other efforts. Nevertheless, the scientific community should express thanks to those who maintained the site over so many years.

Like this post? You might also be interested in our examination of the sale of the BullAtomSci.org domain name.

Links:

Original post Aug 26, 2018.

Fine Print

This post is offered for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be considered domain name investment advice. While an attempt has been made to be accurate, there is no implied or explicit warranty, and you are responsible for verifying any information of importance to you.

I try to be fair, balanced and objective in my analysis. If you feel this post does not meet that standard, please express your concerns to me. As disclosure, I do have a domain portfolio that is predominantly ngTLD domain names, although I do also own a number of .com, .ca, .co and a few other country code extension domains..

In a few cases there may be affiliate links will on this blog. This means I receive a small amount if users visit or make purchases via the link. You do not pay any additional charge due to using an affiliate link, and in some cases below the normal price. I receive no identifying information about who clicks, or does not click, any link. I never accept compensation to provide favourable review of any particular service or product.

The text of this posting is ©R.L. Hawkes, all rights reserved. However, you may, without permission, use reasonable length portions of the post as long as a link to this post is also provided. If you wish to use the complete contents of a post, please request permission. I am normally open to reprinting, but will consider each request individually.

Saturday, August 25, 2018

Great Domain Investing Link Site

Through NamePros I learned about a fantastic one-stop starting point for domain name investors. Let me briefly lead you through some of the features, but it is so user friendly you may prefer to just directly head over to www.domlinks.com and see for yourself!

Sections

The image above shows the sections currently at the site, and they include the most visited resources for domain name investors. For example, there are links to most of the main registrars, marketplaces, backorder/expiring sites, statistics/analysis tools, brokerage and escrow services.

By clicking on the appropriate button at DomLinks you are taken to an expanded view of links for that topic. For example, I show the top part of the Marketplaces. I really liked the clean alphabetical listing and that he includes icons with each. That makes it easy to find a link if you are looking for something you already know. The marketplace list is pretty complete, although note that Tough Domains is listed under domain management (with Efty) although in my mind it should also be included as a marketplace.

The bottom part of the Marketplaces is a subsection of brandable sites, that those who invest in that niche will find very useful. Along with BrandBucket and Brandpa, it also lists Brandroot, DNBX and Namerific.

One of the most comprehensive and useful sections is Research Tools. Of course sites like NameBio, nTLDstats and ICANNWhois are listed, along with many others, some of which perhaps you, like I, had overlooked. Under Research Tools, certainly NameStat should be added. I would also have included the W3Techs site. A really nice feature in the Research Tools section is that a few words indicate what you find at each site (example: for DomComp it says 'Compare registration prices').

Remarks

I wish I had found this resource early in my domain investing career! Most experienced domain investors will have already started using many of these resources, but it is helpful to have them all attractively organized in one place. While there are other sites that do one or two of these topics, such as marketplace listings, I don't know of another site aa comprehensive as this one.

i found a couple of the sections not complete. For example the Hosting section does not include such major hosting services as GoDaddy, HostPapa and Namecheap (although the GoDaddy and Namecheap do list in registrars, of course, so thee is a link somewhere on the site for them). Somewhat surprisingly, when I reviewed the site although Estibot is listed in the Research Tools section GoDaddy GoValue is not.

While any list of domain blogs is of course subjective, I think an excellent selection is made in that section. New domain investors would be wise starting with the ones here. I have under development a future blog posts specifically on this topic.

I like the FreeLancer section at the bottom. Even though it currently has only 3 linked sites, they are the big ones in this developing area. I think many domain investors use some sort of additional related activity to even out the ups and downs of domain sales returns.

I realize that even the current DonLinks site is a lot of work, but it would be great to have a section dedicated to educational resources such as books, courses and educational videos. Another possible topic would be options for website security certificates, both the commercial alternatives and LetsEncrypt.

The contact page at the DomLinks site allows you to make suggestions for additions. I see that one I submitted via NamePros has already been added. It also states that there are no affiliate links directly on the site (of course a number of the linked sites have their own affiliate links). This truly is a generous contribution to the domain community by the site developer!

DomLinks is a great site that will save you time and introduce you to resources you might have missed. Go visit it! It even has a great domain name and logo!

Note:

I reviewed the site on Aug 24,2018. Quite likely it would have been further refined by the time you check it, so some of the proposed additions may well have already been implemented.

Thursday, August 23, 2018

New Domain Extension Sales July 23 – Aug 22, 2018

Each month I take a look at "new" global top level domain (ngTLD) sales reported in the NameBio database over the previous 30 days. The reporting period started slow, but picked up momentum in the past couple of weeks. While the average price ($2549) is down from the previous report ($3372), as is the median price, by every other metric this reporting period was substantially stronger than all previous reporting periods since I began this monthly series just over half a year ago. The number of sales (167) is substantially up from the previous period (102), as is the number of different extensions seeing at least one sale (37 vs 19 in previous report), and the total dollar value of sales ($425,600). There are also more high value ($10,000 or more) sales this month, with 12 versus 7 in the previous reporting period.

Summary

During the monthly period ending Aug 22, 2018 there were

167 NameBio recorded ngTLD domain name sales with $425,600 total value.
The average sales price was $2549, while the median price was $649.
In terms of major sales, 12 were for $10,000 or more (69 were for $1000 or more).
There were sales during the month in 37 different extensions, Although .top dominated again with 65 of the sales, the extensions .bid, .club, .global, .online and .webcam all saw 5 or more sales during the month.
The highest sale during the month was bg.top which sold for $51,187.
There were new extension sales during the month at 16 different venues, plus one private sale. Flippa was the location for 72 of the sales while 13 were at Sedo.
While the registries dominated high value sales (at least 6 of the top 12 sales), in total numbers there was a strong majority of non-registry sales.
So far in 2018 there have been 793 ngTLD sales in total listed on NameBio, with an average sales price of $5007, accounting for a total of $4.0 million.

Extension Breakdown

Here is the breakdown by number of domain sales reported in each extension during this monthly reporting period.

app 2
bid 6
bio 1
cash 1
center 1
club 9
cricket 1
dance 1
date 2
download 1
fun 4
fund 1
fit 1
global 5
gold 1
life 3
loan 3
media 1
men 3
news 1
one 1
online 10
party 2
place 2
review 4
science 2
site 2
space 3
style 1
stream 2
tech 4
top 65
trade 3
webcam 5
website 3
win 3
xyz 3

The Highest Sales

Here is a list of the major sales for the reporting period.

bg.top $51,187
bl.top $46,847
coin.store $26,705
Mr.global $20,000
AirConditioning.online $19,500
token.xyz $14,999
xyz.top $10,910
caijing.top $10,183
win.tech $10,000
origin.tech $10,000
ado.tech $10,000
bot.app $9,999

We included the $9,999 .app sale even though it was $1 under our formal barrier for inclusion. If we look at the top sales for 2018 YTD only bg.top would make the top 10 (in 10th place). The package deal of .news domain names would have placed in this list, actually dominating the numbers if listed individually. Although they were announced in this period, the actual sales date was 2017 (or possibly earlier as I discuss).

Names That Span Dot Effectively

Some of the domain names from this reporting period that I personally feel make excellent use of the extension as congruent with the domain name include win.tech, pure.gold, live.fit, link.global, Mr.global, coin.store, food.style, mail.place, reset.top, shares.place, growth.online and counselling.online, among many others this month. While I understand why some shorter names, and those with high value keywords, sold for higher prices, I think these names do a great job of 'spanning the dot' to effectively take advantage of the new extensions. It will be interesting to see the websites that develop on these names. Why not look through the entire list and pick your own favourites? I wrote a previous report on one of these domain names, A Domain Name That Is Pure Gold, speculating on who might find value in the domain name.

Year to Date

So far in 2018 there have been 793 NameBio reported ngTLD sales with an average sales price of $5007. Note that this is as NameBio report sales dates with both home.loans for $500,000 and The.club for $300,000 listed as 2018 sales, since they were reported in 2018, even though the sales agreements were completed in 2017. On the other hand, vacation.rentals that sold for $500,300 is not reported in 2018 in their database.

The total value of 2018 reported ngTLD sales up to the day of writing (Aug 23, 2018) is $4.0 million. In terms of number of ngTLD sales, the rate is slightly up from that recorded in 2017, although the total value of ngTLD sales, if it continues at current rate through the rest of the year, will be somewhat higher than last year that saw $5.2 million in total new extension sales.

I have stressed the importance of scaling in any domain name analysis. Yes, .com dominates, but the vast majority of domains for sale are also .com. If you take the sum of .net plus .org, together their registration numbers (about 14.1 and 10.3 million) are just under 25 million, just slightly more than all ngTLDs combined. I therefore thought it would be interesting to compare the dollar value (as of Aug 23, 2018) of 2018 YTD (on NameBio). For .net it is $1.6 million and for .org $2.0 million, for a total of $3.6 million, very comparable to the $4.0 million in ngTLD sales YTD. In number of sales, however, .net and .org are much higher (1617 and 2560 respectively vs only 793 YTD ngTLD sales).

Discussion

I find it a really encouraging trend that so many new extensions now have recorded sales on the major after market venues, and that the value end (typically hundreds of dollars) is well represented in this report. I am not sure why, but Flippa has only recently emerged as a major venue for sales in that price range for the new extensions. These do not appear to be registry sales, and I am not clear why the sudden change. If you have information please share it with me.

Generally we who concentrate on the new extensions have urged domain investors to mainly consider only single word names which match well with the extension. While I still think that is good advice, it must be said that multiple word domains have sold in the new extensions in this report, sometimes for good amounts (e.g., AirConditioning.online for $19,500, MyWorld.online for $2699, SoftwareDestiny.download for $650). A number of the value end sales this month were multiple words as well.

Many extensions saw their first NameBio recorded domain name sale in this report. For example the relatively new .fun extension had never had a NameBio recorded sale, and now they have four! There was other good news for that extension lately as Ron Jackson has reported. There are still many new extensions without a single NameBio recorded sale, of course. I discuss the extensions seeing new sales at value end, and why I regard it as so positive, in this post. The drop of the average sales price is simply an indication that the high premium sales are being balanced by a large number of sales at the low end.

This was a solid month for .club, and in addition as their CEO reports there are many sales happening that are not reported here. That extension just released a promising financial report showing strong company growth.

The former Famous Four extensions, now under new management, seem already to be gaining respect, as a number of their extensions saw their first or early NameBio recorded resales in this report. The sales appear, for the most part, to be regular domain names and not premium ones, with the majority of sales prices less than $250 and words with local meaning or multiple word domains. I have discussed this in more detail here.

Some may be surprised that the median price ($649) is not higher. Many overlook the fact that median prices in almost any extension are routinely much less than the average price. For example, on the day I am writing this (Aug 23, 2018) the median sales price in .com for the day is $249 and in .org it is $172, even though the average prices for the same day are $953 (.com) and $242 (.org). If you excluded the registry sales, the new extensions in this report would probably have a median in the $400 range, which is a a reasonable value. Some experts in the field point out that NameBio sales figures are biased down, since many of the end user sales are not included, while many domainer to domainer sales, especially from GoDaddy, play a big role in the database. I think this is a logical argument, probably influencing all extensions.

The .top extension continues to lead, in registrations, sales and high value reported sales. Because of when they report, frequently .top sales miss the NameBio daily domain report, even though they get in the NameBio database and most make this monthly report. Just examining the NameBio Daily Report can bias your perceptions of sales in some extensions.

There are other encouraging signs for the new extension domain world which I have commented on previously. One of them is that while it used to be the case that some days had zero ngTLD sales, there has not been such a day for the last 31 days (July 24 through Aug 23, 2018).

It is still prudent to be cautious with investing in these extensions, and still true that overall the return on investment seems better in .com. The difference is narrowing, however, and if the comparison is with other legacy extensions, or country code extensions, the case for new extensions could be made (although is still arguable).

Notes

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 Afternic, 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. Sometimes sales are posted on NameBio after their recorded sales date and therefore never appear on the daily report although they do appear in the NameBio database.

Previous Reports

Here are links to the three previous reports in case you want to do monthly comparisons:

Next Report and Other News

We will issue our next report in late September, and it will cover ngTLD sales for the period from Aug 23 through Sept 22. This monthly update on publicly reported ngTLD sales is offered as a service to the domain community. While we strive to be accurate, no implied guarantee or warranty is associated with this report, and readers should independently verify information before using it in any domain investment decisions. As always we welcome comments and corrections. We report regularly on domain name news, with a special emphasis on the new extensions, on our Twitter feed. Why not join the more than 1400 domain investors, venture capitalists, tech experts, startup owners and other great people that already follow us @AGreatName? If we can be of assistance in helping you find a domain name at a value price, or using a domain name phrase in a marketing campaign, don't hesitate to contact us through our website (or via direct message at Twitter).

Links:

NameBio database
Previous monthly ngTLD sales report (July 2018)
Hopeful Week for New Extensions
New management at former Famous Four extensions (Domain Incite)
Colin Campbell of CLUB (Domain Name Wire)
DNJournal look at the Radix .fun extension
Scaling Data for Different Extensions
News Package Sales Prices
Website use and trends for different extensions
Are You Missing the Top?
Why would anyone want a new domain extension?
Our site NamesThat.win - thanks for visiting
Permanent link to this blog post

Original post Aug 23, 2018.

Disclosure: I am not associated with NameBio, but would like to acknowledge their incredible database and their generosity to make it available to the domain community. My portfolio of domain names is mainly ngTLDs, as well as a number of .co, .com and .ca (and a few other country codes).

Fine Print

This post is offered for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be considered domain name investment advice. While an attempt has been made to be accurate, there is no implied or explicit warranty, and you are responsible for verifying any information of importance to you. You also accept full responsibility for any domain investing decisions you may make that use data from this post.

I try to be fair, balanced and objective in my analysis. If you feel this post does not meet that standard, please express your concerns to me.

In a very few cases there may be affiliate links on this blog. This means I receive a small amount if users visit or make purchases via the link. You do not pay any additional charge due to using an affiliate link, and in some cases your cost will be below the normal price. I receive no identifying information about who clicks, or does not click, any link. I never accept compensation to provide favourable review of any particular service or product.

The text of this posting is ©R Hawkes, all rights reserved. However, you may, without permission, use reasonable length portions of the post as long as a link to this post is also provided. If you wish to use the complete contents of a post, please request permission. I am normally open to reprinting, but will consider each request individually.

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Hopeful Week for New Extensions

Proponents of new domain extensions have waited a long time for much good news. Yes, occasionally there were big sales announcements such as The.club and Home.loans sales, and some of the registries have reported a string of good value premium sales. However, the domain after market in new extensions has been slow throughout and almost non-existent for some extensions. While one should never place too much emphasis on any single day or even one week or month, I wonder if August 2018 might be viewed as when things changed for the new extensions.

The August 21 Daily Report

The August 21 NameBio daily report includes 16 new extension domain sales, with sales in 12 different extensions. There were two sales in each of the .bid, .club, .date and .space extensions, and a single sale each in 8 other extensions. I can't remember a day during the past year when so many different new extensions sold in a single day. To put it in perspective, on this day there were more new extension sales than .net, .info, .co and .io combined! Yes, critics will point out that most of these sales were at modest prices (average price was $254) and that it is just one day. For me, however, the more significant point is that this does not seem to be one isolated day, but rather an upturn in new extension sales during the past few weeks as I explain below.

The Last Week

NameBio allows you to easily search for data from a certain time period and extension class, so I searched for sales in new domain extensions (ngTLDs) for the past week (ending Aug 21, 2018). It shows that there were 44 sales in 23 different extensions, with an average price of $1809. That is more different new extensions than sell in most months.

Here is the breakdown by extension for the week long period ending Aug 21, 2018.

app 1
bid 2
club 3
cricket 1
date 2
fun 2
life 1
loan 1
men 2
online 3
party 1
place 2
review 2
science 2
space 3
stream 1
top 8
trade 2
webcam 1
win 1
world 1
xyz 2

While some of these, such as .club, .online and .xyz have sales regularly, for a number of the extensions the sales reported this week are among the first. For example, these are the first two .fun sales ever (at least in the NameBio database), while for .space these 3 sales represent almost 40% of all sales in the database (there are of course many others not in that database, either because of venue or dollar value). The only two NameBio recorded sales ever of .webcam have been in August, and this is the first recorded .stream sale in the database. This week saw the second and third highest sales of all time in the .place extension. The sales in .review, .trade, .loan and .men, while not the first in those extensions, are among only a handful of prior sales.

It would appear that the new managers of the former Famous Four extensions are already having a positive impact on acceptance of the extensions. Many of their extensions, including .bid, .date, .loan, .men, .party, .review, .science, .stream, trade and .win, saw sales in this week. Spamhaus measured abuse is already way down in some (not all, for example .men and .date still have high levels of abuse) of the former Famous Four extensions - e.g. .science went from being among the worst just over a year ago to being broadly comparable in abuse to major extensions now (its score of 1.45 is a bit worse than .net and .com but much better than .us and .biz, for example).

It is important to realize that the average price was influenced by some high end registry .top sales, and any week, no matter how encouraging, could just be a statistical outlier. Nevertheless the news is encouraging (see also the section Other Promising Signs below).

Why Does The Value End Of Market Matter?

While high end sales (along with actual use) play a significant role in giving respect to new domain name extensions, I think healthy new extensions also depend on a substantial number of aftermarket sales at the value end (which I interpret in the low to mid hundreds of dollars per sale). Even in legacy extensions, many of the sales are at modest amounts, typical median prices of a few hundred dollars. Critics argue that end user sales are typically higher than this, claiming that NameBio data is biased by sales between domainers at venues such as GoDaddy Auctions. They argue that end user sales at venues not reporting to NameBio, or private sales, are usually at higher prices. I see logic in this argument, although without evidence it is difficult to be sure. No matter whether biased with respect to average price data, NameBio data clearly indicates that many sales do take place in the few hundred dollar range.

I don't think that it is healthy to have the only sales in an extension at the high premium end. The sales noted here, of many different extensions, sales that are for the most part not registry premium names, and across multiple venues, gives hope that the sputtering new extension aftermarket may finally be finding traction. The natural pattern is that if extensions become accepted through a multitude of sales in the $100 to $400 range that later values will go up for the better names.

A big part of the potential domain market is currently not purchasing, in any extensions, domain names. If new extensions play an important role in serving these end users it would be positive for the entire domain market. I am encouraged that there are other recent promising signs for the new extensions as outlined below.

Other Promising Signs

There were other recent promising signals for new extension proponents. I list a few below.

There has been at least one ngTLD sale each day for the last 30 days (starting July 24), with an average of 4.1 NameBio reported new extension sales per day.
The .club extension reported generally promising financial numbers. This interview with Colin Campbell of CLUB and DomainNameWire has insights on the overall picture as well as insights on the strength of premium domain sales in the Asian market and the success of selling premium domains with extended payment plans on Namecheap in particular.
A major investor and personality in the domain name field announced a major sale of a new extension when Andrew Rosener announced on Twitter the $15,000 sale of token.xyz on Sedo. Andrew is a well known and highly respected individual who usually deals in legacy extensions, so I think this sale will influence others.
The .fun extension announced strength in real world use, which coupled with the first after market sales seen here is encouraging news of the health of the extension which recently reached 100,000 registrations as well.
The .app extension seems off to a reasonable start in terms of aftermarket sales. with 6 sales in the first few months since general availability and an average sales price of $4426.
With 24 major sales of new extensions (on NameBio) of $25,000 or more so far in 2018, the high end seems very strong currently.
Both the introductions of .app and .icu seem to have been successful when compared with previous new extension introductions.
As I pointed out, while the new extensions still represent a tiny amount of major website use, they are growing in use faster than legacy extensions.
While the difference will not be large, 2018 seems on track to have the highest total dollar value in new extension sales ever.

Conclusions

I realize that this could be a statistical blip, and we may return next month to a small number of new extension sales per week dominated by a few extensions. I am hopeful, however, that this is an early sign of a brighter future. I see inherent worth in the new domain extensions when a high value word is combined with an extension that meaningfully matches that word. Some of the extensions that saw movement this week have good potential in my opinion. For example, .fun and .win are both ideal keywords to use as part of a domain name phrase. Extensions like .club, .online, .space and .xyz have already achieved reasonable actual use, and it is good to see them also being traded in the after market. App has a clearly defined role, emphasizes the importance of a secure environment, and will no doubt continue to grow in sales. Most of the new extensions are intended not as broad extensions, but for uses in specific niches. As such it is important that we see sales at a range of prices in a variety of different extensions. How bright is the future for new domain extensions? Only time will tell, but this has indeed been a good week!

Links:

NameBio Daily Report Aug 21, 2018.
NameBio database
Previous monthly ngTLD sales report (July 2018)
New management at former Famous Four extensions (Domain Incite)
Colin Campbell of CLUB (Domain Name Wire)
My look at the global domain market and needs
DNJournal look at the Radix .fun extension
Spamhaus TLD scores
Website use and trends for different extensions
Domain name phrases
Our site NamesThat.win - thanks for visiting
Permanent link to this blog post

Original post Aug 22, 2018.

Disclosure: I am not associated with NameBio, but would like to acknowledge their incredible database and their generosity to make it available to the domain community. My portfolio of domain names is mainly ngTLDs, as well as a number of .co, .com and .ca (and a few other country codes).

Fine Print

This post is offered for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be considered domain name investment advice. While an attempt has been made to be accurate, there is no implied or explicit warranty, and you are responsible for verifying any information of importance to you. You also accept full responsibility for any domain investing decisions you may make that use data from this post.

I try to be fair, balanced and objective in my analysis. If you feel this post does not meet that standard, please express your concerns to me.

In a very few cases there may be affiliate links on this blog. This means I receive a small amount if users visit or make purchases via the link. You do not pay any additional charge due to using an affiliate link, and in some cases your cost will be below the normal price. I receive no identifying information about who clicks, or does not click, any link. I never accept compensation to provide favourable review of any particular service or product.

The text of this posting is ©R Hawkes, all rights reserved. However, you may, without permission, use reasonable length portions of the post as long as a link to this post is also provided. If you wish to use the complete contents of a post, please request permission. I am normally open to reprinting, but will consider each request individually.

The Long Term View

Over the past week I spent some time evaluating my domain portfolio, and deciding which names I wanted to invest in for a longer time horizon. My main reason for doing that is I expected a significant and irreversible price increase in a few of the extensions in my portfolio based on this information from Kevin Murphy. I had alerted others through NamePros to the anticipated price increase in case they wanted to register new names or extend registrations. My main registrar (Namecheap) had for some time offered great 5 year renewal rates on a number of extensions, although as of Aug 20, 2018 they are gone due to changes in the management of the former Famous Four registries.

Why Register for Multiple Years

I think it is accurate to say that many domain investors generally only register domains one year at a time. Naturally, being optimistic, most hope to sell their names quickly, and registering a domain name for multiple years could be seen as either negative thinking (It won't sell in year one) or wasteful (I sold it so those extra years were of no value for me). I don't agree. Let us consider some of the reasons you should consider multiple-year renewals on domain names in your portfolio.

You lock in future costs at known rates.
You take advantage of promotions and savings.
With the luxury of future years registrations prepaid, you will be more confident in asking good prices.
The additional years will make your domain names more valuable to potential end users, and give them more confidence about long term costs.
Deciding which names warrant renewal for multiple years will force you to critically evaluate your portfolio and emphasize quality over quantity.
The long term approach saves you time that can be put into other domain portfolio priorities.

While reasons (1) and (2) were the dominant ones for my recent renewals (and a couple of new multi-year registrations), really all of these factors played a role. My pricing is always value oriented, but I now feel more confident asking reasonable prices for quality domains (3). I think uncertainty in future renewal prices has made some end users leery of new domain extensions, and purchasing a domain name with multiple future years of registration prepaid does add value for the new owner (4). It is a good feeling that I have a longer term window to set up attractive sales pages for the domains, and to facilitate getting offers.

It was also a good exercise for me over the past week to literally look at almost every domain name I hold and rank them in categories of definitely hold for multiple years, possibly hold for an extended period, or definitely keep only a single year if no interest. For a few domain names I am currently undecided, and that prioritizes where future research is needed. As I limit my entire domain liability, I had specified a total amount I had available to spend, and the exercise of forced me to prioritize which domain names to focus on.

Concluding Remarks

I offer the following points in conclusion.

Following authoritative news from the domain field will be financially beneficial at times. Had I not read Kevin's posts, I would not have known about the impending price increases, as my registrar did not inform me. This is one reason to be on social media and to read NamePros regularly.
Your domain portfolio business plan should have at least a several year time horizon both for both costs and projected revenue. Renewal costs are a major part of the overall plan.
It is better to focus on fewer names of higher quality, and over extended periods, rather than a lot of domains you only plan to hold one year.
Note I am not saying you should always register for multiple years. It is often a good move to test drive a domain name for a year, see if you get any inquiries, and then review whether you want to keep it.
I wish that registrars and registries more frequently offered multi-year discounts. I think the stability would be good both for the industry and for domain name investors. I was encouraged to see this week that Namecheap now has a 3 years of the .online extension promotion (see if it is still on should it be of interest to you).
Always shop around for the best renewal prices using a tool like TLD-list. Remember that it may not show all multiple year discounts though, so also do your research and be alert to time limited promotions. If your main registrars have blogs read them, and use social media and online domain communities to stay up to date.
Your business plan and personal branding statement should make it clear which domain names are congruent with your operation and you should make sure that your long term acquisitions in particular are a good fit.

Many of the points mentioned here are congruent with the overall advice to domain investors I offered in an earlier post. One good place to learn about promotions is NamePros - if not already a member, you should be!

By having some of your domains registered for five years in the future, it will help you keep going during down times, knowing that you are in this for the long run. I guess that is me!

PS

In case you are wondering what I decided to renew for 5 additional years, most were science extension single words and acronyms that I think will be more important in a few years compared to now. I also have registered for 5 to 10 years a few that I have development plans, including my main domain website NamesThat.win. I forget who told me this, but it is good advice to focus on those domain names that you would develop if you had time. This tells you two things: it is a topic with current interest (so development is worthwhile) and that you have expertise in that niche (we sell best what we know best).

Links:

Famous Four Restructuring (updated column from Kevin Murphy)
TLD-list (find the best registration, transfer and renewal prices)
Namecheap
Advice to domain name investors
Namecheap Online Promotion (limited time)
NamePros
Our site NamesThat.win - thanks for visiting
Permanent link to this blog post

Original post Aug 21, 2018.

Disclosure: I have no association with any of the companies or individuals mentioned in this post, except that I have a number (somewhat over 50% currently) of my portfolio of domain names registered at Namecheap, and I am a member of their affiliate program. I also have domain names registered at Alpnames, NameSilo, CanReg, GoDaddy and Web Hosting Canada.

Fine Print

This post is offered for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be considered domain name investment advice. While an attempt has been made to be accurate, there is no implied or explicit warranty, and you are responsible for verifying any information of importance to you. You also accept full responsibility for any domain investing decisions you may make that use data from this post.

I try to be fair, balanced and objective in my analysis. If you feel this post does not meet that standard, please express your concerns to me.

In a very few cases there may be affiliate links on this blog. This means I receive a small amount if users visit or make purchases via the link. You do not pay any additional charge due to using an affiliate link, and in some cases your cost will be below the normal price. I receive no identifying information about who clicks, or does not click, any link. I never accept compensation to provide favourable review of any particular service or product.

The text of this posting is ©R Hawkes, all rights reserved. However, you may, without permission, use reasonable length portions of the post as long as a link to this post is also provided. If you wish to use the complete contents of a post, please request permission. I am normally open to reprinting, but will consider each request individually.

Friday, August 17, 2018

Advice to Domain Investors

The other day on NamePros someone asked what advice would domainers have with respect to their first attempted or realized domain sale. I decided to answer the question more generally than only the first sale attempt. Here is my advice, expanded considerably from my original reply on NamePros. I have put some of the key phrases in the figure below, but please read the entire list for the complete set of suggestions.

Start slowly. Resist urges to go out and quickly hand register or drop catch or bid on a bunch of domains. I know it is natural to be excited about gems you have found, but a slow start is something almost all experienced domain investors recommend to newcomers. I would set limits for yourself on number and dollar value of domain names you will acquire in your first six months.
Be realistic. While it is human nature to focus on the big success stories in the domain name business, hand registered or cheaply acquired domain names that a few months later sell for five figures, those are the exceptions. Even in a portfolio of solid names, not much more than 1% of the portfolio will sell in any one year. Also, the median sales price, the one you are most likely to encounter especially in domain names recently acquired at modest cost, is only a few hundred dollars even for those names that sell.
Emphasize quality over quantity. Almost all of us register too many domain names, especially in our first year, and impulsively purchase some that we later realize lack enough quality. The advice that most experts give to emphasize quality over quantity of domain names in your portfolio is indeed wise.
Join NamePros. Basic memberships in NamePros are free, although with restrictions. The one million plus membership of NamePros has a wealth of accumulated expertise. From trends and news, to help with technical problems, this is a lively and valuable site. That being said, there are some opinionated views not supported by evidence found from time to time on such a large and diverse community. Therefore be sure to take responsibility for your own informed decisions, but definitely join, learn from, and contribute to NamePros. Did I also mention that it is fun and satisfying to be part of such a vibrant global domain name community? It will also help you not get discouraged during lows, and share your excitement with successes you find in the industry.
Price your domain names correctly. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking your 'almost as good' domain as one that sold for a huge price will also command a high price. Small differences like plural vs singular, the extension, etc. make a big difference. Do your research on what has sold. Lots of domain names are listed for sale with completely unrealistic prices, and don't let those sway you into what your prices should be. As part of that, see the next item.
Even if sceptical of their worth, learn to use automated appraisals, but know limitations. By far the most well known automated domain name worth tools are Estibot and GoValue. While you can use them simply (enter the domain name and press return!) to obtain an automated estimate of domain worth, they each provide much more than this. You should know the limitations - Estibot sometimes splits words incorrectly, and as a result values them as <$100. While they don't relate their algorithm for obvious reasons, the checked extension availability in Estibot seems outdated. Estibot give you search and advertiser cost per click (CPC) information. This is valuable information, so note it for each domain name including how CPC has varied over time. Estibot gives search and CPC stats for both the exact and broad term. For example if your term was 'duck' the exact search is for those who did searches for just that term, while the broad one would also include searches like 'lone duck' or 'black duck'. You are permitted two free Estibot searches per day, and they have plans for those needing additional features, like lead generation, as well as larger numbers of searches. GoDaddy GoValue has only been around about a year, but because it is freely available and GoDaddy has such great brand recognition, it is already well known and used. Estibot does not handle brandables effectively and will value most at <$100 (this is because of their emphasis on search and online advertising). GoValue overall may provide in my opinion slightly better estimates, but with new extensions they rate almost all extensions at the same value, which clearly makes no sense. This means that you need to interpret their estimates by applying a correction for how well the name and extension match. Estibot does attempt to meaningfully differentiate extensions, although to me it seems to have extension biases lacking clear evidence. One important point is that GoValue estimates of worth change almost daily, sometimes by a factor of 2 or even more. At least on the names that I checked, Estibot values seem to stay constant over long periods, although others have reported that after sales of a name are publicly reported the worth in Estibot is adjusted to that value, or very near it. GoValue provide many comparator sales that do not show up in NameBio, and this is one of the most valuable features of the service. In most (not all) cases the automated appraisals will be more than you can likely get for your domain name. Also, in some cases they will be wildly wrong in either direction. Because potential purchasers may well use these automated estimators, you need to know about them, even if you are personally sceptical of their quality.
Really learn to use NameBio fully. With more than 610,000 domain name sales recorded, and a cumulated sales totalling more than $1.6 billion, NameBio is a treasure chest of information both on what has sold and at what price and the venue. By learn to use fully, I mean learn how to do searches for domain names that start or end with a certain word, or are exact, or that contain a certain pattern of numbers or letters, or are from a certain category. Do pay attention to the date sold information when you look at results. Results can be ordered by ascending or descending date sold or price. You can obtain statistics such as average sales price and number of sales for any search.
Get your names listed. The most important mistake that I made when I started was to sit on domain names without them being listed anywhere. At first I was waiting for the 60 day ICANN transfer period to lapse, but even after that I sat waiting to decide how best to sell the names. Don't procrastinate, and get your names in front of potential buyers. That brings us to the issue of marketplaces covered in the next point.
Learn the marketplaces. You have many options for listing your names - Afternic, Flippa, GoDaddy Auctions, NameJet, Sedo, SnapNames, ToughDomains, Undeveloped and many others. Don't overlook the registrar marketplaces at sites like Namecheap and NameSilo that are easy to use and can be ideal for domain names being sold at value prices. Depending on your type of domain name, there may be specialized places to sell (e.g. the various sites to sell brandable names). By learn the marketplaces, I mean do read their terms especially all fees and commissions, as well as restrictions, if any, on whether you can list the domain names elsewhere. I review a number of marketplace options in this posting.
Consider Efty. Although you can set up a personal marketplace on Efty, it is a different type of service than the marketplaces. You pay a subscription fee, but in return any domains sold on Efty do not have commissions. You can have secure landers for your domains and can opt into a secure setting for your marketplace as well. There are a host of customizations for each landing page. Efty also offers incredibly powerful portfolio management services to provide insights on your domains, offers, sales, etc. Especially if you do not have a web hosting service, Efty may be a good option for you. Read more in my review here.
BIN once, offer everywhere else. If you do use buy it now (BIN) prices make sure that you list a BIN price only once, with all other listings of your domain name being "Make Offer." The reason is that you don't want any possibility of two simultaneous sales of your domain name. That would be unfair to the purchaser, and also would probably get you in trouble with the marketplaces. Once you do get an offer, take down the name from the BIN location, so there is no chance of a double sale. Yes, it is true that the odds of two sales the same day are slight, but it does happen, as the archives of NamePros shows.
When selling at auction, first disable other listings. I know some people leave active offer listings while an auction is on for a domain name, but I don't think this is fair. An auction means it can go to the highest bidder, assuming the reserve, if any, is met. I feel it is deceptive to allow someone else to make an offer knowing they don't have priority on the domain name.
Consider parking pages, landing pages and mini-sites. This is a topic that deserves a post all to itself, but over-simplifying here is a brief rundown. A parking page is a page that a user goes to when entering your domain name into a browser, and at that page there are a set of links to (hopefully related) websites, as well as normally a link to a for sale page for the domain name. In the past domain investors could get significant revenue from parking, and it seems that a few are still doing so, although returns from parking has decreased over the years due to differences in how Google search operates and users find content. A landing page is in some ways similar to a parking page (a user that types your domain name goes to the page), but the focus is on promoting the sale of the domain name, rather than on monetized links. There are of course hybrid options that are mainly landing but with one or more monetized links as well. A mini-site is used much more rarely, but in it you set up a small website, possibly only one page, containing authentic content related to the topic of the domain name. You show somewhere that the name is also for sale (if it is) and obtain revenue from Google Adsense or similar monetized ads. If you have an unrestricted web hosting plan, particularly if you intend to hold the domain name for an extended period, this makes sense in my opinion.
Before you acquire a domain name focus on who might want the name and how they would use it. Actually make lists of potential uses and purchasers. A good domain investment is one that you can sell for more than you bought it for. Period. Any domain name will not sell if it is not deemed valuable by at least one purchaser, and it will not sell unless you manage to connect the name with at least once potential purchaser. Don't let your own views that a name is cool sway you to pick it up if you can't also identify potential users. I call this topic The List, and I regard it as the single most important advice in the entire post. Never acquire a domain name before considering who might want it!
Be prepared for hard work. Too many enter domain name investing thinking it is just a matter of registering a name you think is valuable, and then waiting for a big offer a few months later. I think it is fair to say that most successful domain investors work really hard and have excellent skills at selecting and promoting domain names, as well as the ability to negotiate a good price. You must be willing to work hard on all aspects of domain investing just to break even in this business. At times, even the most skilled, will get discouraged. As I write this I have not had a sale for about 40 days, and no active queries. It is discouraging at times, and be mentally prepared for that. When you don't have active queries, have the self-discipline to still work on things like finding potential leads, improving presentation and exposure of your names, working on related side gigs, etc.
Interact professionally. Be honest, open, polite and professional. Always. There is a difference of opinion on whether you should always respond to an offer, even if it is very low. It is my opinion that you should. Don't get emotional when someone makes an offer that you think is insulting. Respond as promptly as reasonable as well. Some say it is better to delay responding to not appear too eager.
Establish a personal brand as a domain investor. Someone should in one sentence be able to describe what makes your work in domaining a bit different from others. You will find it useful in coming up with such a branding statement, and reviewing it every year. Don't be scared to evolve your personal brand over time - perhaps you started with an interest in the investment domain niche but gradually evolved into shopping related domain names. If you don't know your personal brand, no one else will.
Consider both history and the future. While it is always important to look at what has sold in the past and for what price using NameBio, balance this with seeking new ways to use domain names. Be creative and forward looking. Domain investing in future trends carries considerable risk, but can be highly rewarding when you get it right. In January I forecast some topics that I thought had growth potential.
Figure out how much domain investing risk you can handle and take that much, but not more! This is so important. I think too many edge into more risk than they are comfortable with. Your level of risk will be related to various factors including your overall financial situation, whether you have a secure other job, your age, and your personality. It is possible you will never sell a domain name. How much are you really prepared to lose? On the other side of the argument, if you are looking to make domain investing your only job, taking into account typical sales to domains held ratios, you will need a considerable initial investment.
Be alert to domainer addiction. I don't think that domainer addiction is a recognized psychological disorder, but I do think it is real. It is too easy to get trapped into spending too much money and time in domain investing. Don't spend all of your time looking for gems or discussing domain names on NamePros. Keep balance in your life. Set limits on how many domain names you will acquire (e.g., some set a limit on their total number of domains, they must sell one before they acquire a new one), or the amount you have invested in domain names (don't buy more until some sales with profits have happened).
Especially in early sales, don't be greedy. If you have an acceptable return on investment (ROI) with the sale and an offer is approximately at the level you had in mind when you acquired the domain name, don't try to squeeze out more and maybe lose the deal. Trust me, that first sale will feel good. Even if in dollar values it is not that significant, the fact that you chose a domain name, and someone else liked it enough to pay more than you had invested in the name, is a good feeling. I still remember the day I got my first sale email from a marketplace!
Keep a written domain diary. I don't just mean for the tax man, although that is important, but also so you can look back at what your thinking was in 6 months or 2 years time. Keep a domain diary where you note ideas, what the pros and cons were, your thoughts re possible uses, etc. Also keep track of queries, if any, on each domain name, since that will help guide which names you want to renew. For queries that did not result in sales, write down reflections on why you think the name did not sell. Periodically reflect on new ideas for a domain, or how technological or societal changes may have expanded or contracted demand for a domain name.
Grow as a domain investor. You should be a better domain investor each year, more discerning and accurate in predicting value, more logical in your domain investing choices, more quantitative in your business plan estimates. Ask yourself each year what have I done in the past year to make my knowledge of the industry more complete, and to improve my skills related to domain investing. I find it helpful each January to indicate a few things you plan to do in the coming year for your domain name professional development..
Educate yourself. I believe in the value of education, formal and informal. Within the domain community we are fortunate that Domain Name Academy provides a sound education in many aspects of of the domain name business. It is directed by respected domain industry guru Michael Cyger who brings a wealth of business and analysis expertise from both outside and inside domain investing into the program. Michael is a domain name hall of fame multiple recipient in several categories including blogger, goodwill ambassador and investor. In the program you learn how to select and value domain names, elements of purchasing and selling, and how to set up your business, among other topics. The program also comes with discounts to certain services and access to an online community. Note, I have not personally taken the course yet, but hope to some day. You can get a taste of the program through their YouTube channel- see bottom of this post. Beyond the Domain Name Academy program, there are opportunities to expand your knowledge in related areas such as business plans, startups, technology, branding and marketing through the wealth of courses offered on the large MOOC sites such as Udemy, Coursera, and EdX, among others. Your local college probably offers part-time courses in these programs as well, and sometimes the public library system will also include options.
Be organized. Keep track of expiration dates, prices, where stuff is listed, etc. Don''t be the one that sells a domain and then leaves it up on another market. I suggest using spreadsheets for tracking things if you are not using a service like Efty. You can't be informed about how you are doing without complete and accurate records.
Use evidence and data and don't fall into (too many of) the traps in deceptive logic such as survivorship bias. Make a reasonable projection of acquisition, holding and selling costs, and your likelihood of sale and price, to predict quantitatively if a domain name makes sense. I plan a future blog post on exactly this topic, including examples.
Costs matter. Use tools like TLD-list (there are others) to find the best registration, transfer and renew cost. Look out for short term promotions to save on what you are already planning to do. Also be alert to other costs on related items such as web hosting .
Learn all laws and regulations. While you are not a lawyer, you need to know the regulations regarding both domain names and operating a domain selling operation. Learn the advantages and disadvantages of different types of business organization such as a sole-propietorship, a registered business, or a limited liability corporation. Learn about trademarks and how to do basic trademark searches yourself. Look at UDRP cases and in particular what the requirements are to prove a UDRP case. If you invest in domain names that have residency requirements, know those.
Be authentic and open. It is natural, especially in the sometimes cruel online world, to want to hide behind privacy, and i do understand that. However, those who are considering a major domain purchase from you will want to know, especially for direct domain sales not being handled by a third party, who you are. Some marketplaces encourage real identity more than others. One feature I like of Undeveloped is that they encourage, but do not require, real identity by sellers.
Prioritize your time. There will always be more time that could be devoted to managing your portfolio than you will have available. This means you need to establish priorities. Is it better to look at today's drops, list your domains at more auctions, research new possible niches, contribute to a NamePros discussion, improve your personal website, find some leads for outbound queries, etc.? If you have expiring domain names, inquiries from potential purchasers, or new sales that need domains transferred, those should always be at the top of your list. Also, remember to keep balance in your overall life for your own mental health and the well-being of those you love.
If you do outbound at all, make it professional and personal. Never send out a standard query to a bunch of organizations in the off chance that it will appeal to one out of that long list. It is far better to send 3 carefully researched, personalized, meaningful queries to organizations you honestly believe could benefit significantly from your domain name than it is to send 50 form type notifications. Quality over quantity refers to queries and leads as much as it does to domain names!
Don't just interact with domainers. As fun as it is to spend time on NamePros or to have a social media account with mainly other domain investors, most end use sales will not be within the community. Therefore stay active with business owners, venture capitalists, non-governmental organizations, startups, experts in your fields of expertise, etc.
Prepare a selling case for each domain name whether you share it or not. I am surprised that the vast majority of domains listed on marketplaces have no descriptive information beyond standardized bullet points established by that marketplace. If you really believe in the value of this particular domain name, doesn't it deserve something specific to that name? I realize not all domain name investors agree and I will discuss the pros and cons in a future posting. Even if you have no intention to give your promotional sheet to a buyer, you should have a sales information sheet for every domain name in your portfolio. It could include things like possible uses for the domain, what similar domains have sold for, search and advertiser statistics for the name, language considerations, brandable opportunities, changing trends that favour the domain name, possibly other domain names you have that might interest the potential purchaser, automated or human third party estimates of worth of the domain name, the registrar and registration period, purchase options (such as which marketplaces it could be purchased from and if you offer distributed payments), any restrictions, registration period, etc.
Have an exit strategy for each domain name. It is good advice in stock investing to have an exit strategy. Some even have this coded in their discount brokerage that the stock will be sold automatically when the price reaches upper and/or lower bounds. For each domain you own, prior to contacting any potential purchasers and prior to actually acquiring the domain, decide on the minimum price you would accept as well as the price you feel the name could reasonably sell at. In addition, if you get no queries over the first year, will you renew and hold for a second year?
Be smart about renewals. I think that some domain investors too often have a default renew decision. You should do the numbers each year to make sure that is wise for those names that have generated no interest, or that are in topics trending downward. It may well make sense to renew, but not always. On the other hand, I think some new extension domain investors default to the opposite, never renew any domain name, even if it has significant value. When you do renew, be alert to what are the best rates using sites such as TLD-list.
Keep up with the domain news. Things happen in this business. Trends in what is selling change. But also ownership changes at registries or changes in rules (e.g. many country codes that were reserved are now open) can have impacts. That being said, part of being a smart news reader is to not over-react or think you need to respond to each new idea you hear.
Do a few things well. We all have strengths in this business. Think about what are yours, and make the most of them. This means deciding what you will do, but also what you will stay away from. For example, I have trouble really understanding the brandable market, and coupled with my generally risk averse nature, I therefore stick away from most brandable domain names. I also don't find numbered domain names personally interesting, so even while I know they can be profitable and are among the most liquid domain assets, I have never invested in them. I also don't invest in domains in areas that are contrary to my personal belief system, such as adult names.
Be active (but not over-concentrated) on social media. It can help you get known, and perhaps even indirectly sell your domain names, if you are active on LinkedIn, Twitter or FaceBook, among others. I do see value in these, but like many things, keep it in balance. Never use social media as ways to spam your own domain names. Also, don't put all of your effort into social media.
When you sell a domain name finish the job. If you have your domain name listed on multiple sites take the name down immediately everywhere. If you have it listed on your own website or Efty take it off. If you have personally interacted with the buyer, send a brief thank you note expressing your appreciation and wishing them all the best with the domain name and their business or organization. Only if the purchaser wants it, publicly congratulate the new buyer on social media and/or your website. Update your records (e.g. spreadsheet and/or Efty), and make sure you have documentation for tax purposes. In your domain diary write some brief notes about the transaction.
A little money is better than nothing. Not all domain name investors will agree (and I totally accept there are arguments against this strategy), but if you have made a firm decision to drop a domain name, why not try to pick up at least enough money to cover your initial costs by offering it at low price to other domainers? The Bargain section of NamePros is an ideal location for such sales, as well as their auction site if you set the initial price and increment both to low value. The registrar marketeplaces are also suitable for this purpose. Personally, I find it satisfying to at least get back the amount I have invested when I give up on a domain name. Some others never sell for low prices, and would rather have the name expire, and I do understand that view as well.
Consider side gigs. Many who are seriously into domain investing, I think most, make at least some money from associated activities such as writing about the domain industry (either for domainers or a broader audience), consulting, domain appraisal services, monetized blogging, teaching or speaking, etc. One big advantage of this is that a portion of your income is more steady than domain sales will be.
When you do have a big sale, be disciplined. It is natural in the elation of a big sale to rush out and either use the money personally or to invest it quickly in domain digital assets. Don't rush into either, remembering that it may be a considerable time before your next big sale.
Be clear if you are in this as a job. There are many in domain investing that do it as a part time job, others as a full time career, and many as a hobby or pasttime. You should be clear on which you are. If you are in it as a job, your returns must not only cover reasonable gain on your invested funds treated as passive investments, but also enough to cover your costs including a reasonable salary. If it is more a pastime, as long as you don't lose money you may be happy.
Hang around domain smart people. You may not be able to physically hang around with smart domain people, but it is easy through blog postings, NamePros, Twitter, etc. to benefit from the expertise shared by others. I am sure I am leaving out some, but among those who have a lot valuable to share are Aandrew Allemann (DomainNameWire), John Berryhill (domain and IP law), Kate Buckley (Buckley Media), Michael Cyger, DomainGang, Domain Shane (DSAD), DomainSherpa, Raymond Hackney (TLD Investors), James Iles (who writes on NamePros), Gerald M Levine (IPLegalCorner), Morgan Linton, Ron Jackson (DNJournal). Darryl Lopes, Kevin Murphy (DomainIncite), Barbara Neu, Kathy Nielsen (Digital Strategies Marketing), Jen Sale (Evergreen), Elliot Silver (DomainInvesting), Jamie Zoch (DotWeekly) and Konstantinos Zournas (Online Domain). Twitter is an excellent way to follow these and other experts in the domain industry. I could have added many other names, and probably missed some that definitely should be on your first priority list.
While listening to others, be you. We mentioned personal brand earlier. If you look back on your domain involvement, say ten years in the future, what do you want to be able to say? We each, in this and every aspect of life, can make a positive difference in the world. How will you do it?
Be positive and help others. No explanation needed!

I am learning still almost every day. Therefore, I am sure that I have left out some important points. I hope, nevertheless, that this will be helpful whether you are just starting out or part way along your domain name journey. Please feel free to comment and make suggestions for improvements. As I refine this I will keep a list of the changes below, so you can readily see if anything has been added since you last accessed this page.

A Few Last (Important) Things

The good folks at NamePros have put together a superb collection of resources for those new to the domain name business. The directory is at this link. There are sections for everything from the terms used in domain investing to I Use This Tool on the various tools and resources used to help analyze domain name information. I really like Joe Nichols six lessons for beginners from a beginner.

Another incredible resource as you start in domain name investing is the DNAcademy YouTube channel. Here you will find such topics as return on investment to where to list your domain names.

Original post Aug 17, 2018.
Aug 18, 2018 Permalink fixed and last section re other resources for domain beginners added. Also addition of last sentence in "Who will buy this domain?" section.

Disclosure: I do not regard myself as expert in domain investing, but hopefully some of the points in this posting will be helpful to you. It is probably fair to ask what my experience and expertise is in domain investing. I have owned one domain since 2001, and a couple of others since about 2006. Most of my domain name investing has been in the last two years. As of the date of writing I have sold 31 domain names, with 26 of them during the past year. None have been sold for large amounts. In semi-retirement I am risk averse, so personally have a modest amount invested in domain names at any one time. I believe in a diversified domain portfolio, and do handle .com, .net, .co, .me, .ca, .pw along with a host of ngTLD domain names. The majority of my portfolio is in new extensions. You can see bout 97% of my portfolio at this link. I have graduate degrees in science, and have done quantitative analysis for more than three decades and have authored more than a hundred research reports and scientific papers, as well as books and chapters. With this background, I have particular interests in science and technology. Use of domains in marketing phrases is another niche for me, as well as domain names suitable for non-commercial organizations.

Fine Print

This post is offered for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be considered domain name investment advice. While an attempt has been made to be accurate, there is no implied or explicit warranty, and you are responsible for verifying any information of importance to you. You also accept full responsibility for any domain investing decisions you may make that use data from this post.

I try to be fair, balanced and objective in my analysis. If you feel this post does not meet that standard, please express your concerns to me.

In a very few cases there may be affiliate links on this blog. This means I receive a small amount if users visit or make purchases via the link. You do not pay any additional charge due to using an affiliate link, and in some cases your cost will be below the normal price. I receive no identifying information about who clicks, or does not click, any link. I never accept compensation to provide favourable review of any particular service or product.

The text of this posting is ©R Hawkes, all rights reserved. However, you may, without permission, use reasonable length portions of the post as long as a link to this post is also provided. If you wish to use the complete contents of a post, please request permission. I am normally open to reprinting, but will consider each request individually.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Pro Arguments

Con Arguments

One More Advantage

What to Include

Discussion

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Scientific Background

History of the Site

Closing Thoughts

Links:

Saturday, August 25, 2018

Sections

Remarks

Note:

Links:

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Summary

Extension Breakdown

The Highest Sales

Names That Span Dot Effectively

Year to Date

Discussion

Notes

Previous Reports

Next Report and Other News

Links:

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

The August 21 Daily Report

The Last Week

Why Does The Value End Of Market Matter?

Other Promising Signs

Conclusions

Links:

Why Register for Multiple Years

Concluding Remarks

PS

Links:

Friday, August 17, 2018

A Few Last (Important) Things

Links:

Featured Posts

Our Website

About Me

Search This Blog

Total Pageviews