Morning Folks!!
Yesterday was not a good day for Domainers but many don't know why. In 2004 WADND filed a lawsuit to stop Verisign from raising their prices 7% a year regardless that their costs are going down, not up. When we ran out of money ($56,000) and there was no support from the industry the lawsuit was combined with that of CFIT. That suit lasted from 2005 until yesterday. Howard gave hundreds of hours to the cause “Pro Bono” as did others. It would have cost several million to carry on this suit and with little support, game over.
So for every 100,000 domains in your portfolio, you are about to spend $50k more a YEAR in fees the first year. Another $50k the second year and another $50k+++ for every year in the future. So in 10 years from now with compounding increases, 100,000 names will cost you about $300,000 MORE than they do today. That will destroy some of the models out there. Turn them from an asset into a liability and therefore will be dropped. MILLIONS of domains will fit in this category.
So Verisign is your new partner. The $$$ they take are right off the top. PROFITS!
My mindset had a hard time ever playing the quantity game because at $100 a pop, you have to make decisions of what to get and what to leave. That sucked. But that was the reality. That was what I had to deal with. Maybe a blessing in disguise as my portfolio is among the smallest not the biggest.
When domains went down to $6, it changed the way some viewed things. With payouts strong, they bought and bought. But there is always a tipping point. A point you just don’t want to get to. But when you are aggressive, that is the pitfall you always have in front of us. We push the envelope until the envelope pushes back.
Ok, the envelope is pushing back. What to do? Well if you are surprised, then you may also be in trouble or at least have a problem. These are the stormy waters I have been speaking of as early as 2007 and 2008. You could see it back then. The event started back then but would take years to manifest themselves. Well, consider things manifested and there is more to come.
If you have been paying attention to what I have been saying you are way ahead of things and life is on top of the rapids. Slow, serene, peaceful. You get to enjoy the days. Even if it is cloudy or raining or cold.
Now the other folks are still in the Rapids. They are having a hell of a time keeping the raft upright. They are still dealing with those other elements just not in the serene way others are.
See the difference? When you see it coming you can build that financial bunker to see you thru. When not, scrambling day and night to keep it together. Been there, done that. No fun.
But now that you know, you have an opportunity to size it down and benefit from what you have learned. Like traffic on a domain does mean something regardless of the naysayers.
When I started I knew nothing. I still don’t know much. But when you own a great domain name you have the luxury of time to figure it out and you got those folks that dream that say “If I only had SuchandSuch.com I could do this and that. That's the time!
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
DR.VEGAS
If domain prices are rising…then so is my resolve to get”my number” on a sale.
Mike
LOL….good point Dr. Vegas.
Aftermarket domain sales prices will just go up.
TLD
How many people have 100,000 domains in their portfolio? Yes, it sucks to drop $50k today extra from what you were paying yesterday… but if it forces some of the handful of people who own a ton of domains to drop some, it opens the door for the majority of small guys to pick some domains up.
UFO
Its good news in my opinion as it forces the whole market down which makes it more affordable for REAL DEVELOPERS of the internet to get along with a name that matches their idea.
For too long they have been held ransom because someone just bought the name and sat there like a racketeer.
While Rick you liken domain owners to property developers, domain owners mostly do nothing because they cannot physically improve the land and make it more productive. They just sit there with parking pages.
I believe it should cost $50-$100 a year to maintain a registration which would force the large holders to develop or bogg off. The only issue I have is why is Verisign picking up all the cash, its like a government has some vested interest in allowing them to have a monopolised position, it would have been far better to have a US based ICANN type entity that got the uplifts and used it to develop domain security etc etc.. I.e. net activities. Like these spam issues.
David
To UFO:
You are correct.
In fact, to take your brilliant, broad-minded, and selfless logic to its conclusion, ALL forms of investment should be banned or taxed into extinction: real estate, gold, silver, commodities, mutual funds, 401Ks, savings accounts, antiques, vintage cars, aircraft, domains, and old coins, just to name a few.
No possession should be allowed to sit without either the owner, or a better-meaning, selfless person such as yourself, putting it to good and productive use for the greater good. Moreover, no person should be allowed to simply save anything, including money if you have any left over after you pay your taxes and monthly expenses. You should be forced to give it to your neighbors, even if they too have money left over.
Also, if you, UFO, develop a website, and you are not making a profit with it, then you should have the domain, web pages, database, and real-world inventory stripped from your possession, and given to someone who has proven record of making money on-line. You should also be banned from creating another web business for five years. Surely you must agree.
Government should be used as an agency of force to mold the lives of people to fit your will for them, and to satisfy your personal desires. We should be stripped of all our money and possessions which we are not putting to use, or are not making the correct amount of contribution to ourselves and the tax roles. The criteria for appropriate use and success would be determined by you or your government agents.
You selflessness is touching.
Johnny
Hi Rick,
No offense, but it’s business as usual:
Who’s in the strongest position, sets the price.
Taking the risk to be stuck if people don’t like the price.
Business and Emotions usually don’t go together.
Fairness is something in between the ears.
Life is Life.
It is the product owner or service supplier that determines what something costs.
Unless it is regulated, of course (off course, of curse …).
Some people should stop crying about life isn’t fair.
It’s Life and it’s By The Book.
The book of People vs. Chaos.
Just my 2cts (eurocents).
Johnny.
Domain Lords
500K words or so in top English diction OED
Very small amount relevant to business
Maybe 20 to 30 BILLION BUCK industry keywords
insurance
real estate
lawyer
attorney
doctor
casino
cars
autos
travel
hotels
news
sports
advertising
etc
so if you put your money where the MONEY is, you can never have 100K domains, never
we did like 1K in 1990’s when it was 100 bucks a pop
you focused on big industry terms, then it was mostly prefixes, since the real keywords were gone by 1995
late 1990’s you snapped up some geo combos
along the way, you found some natural keywords worth buying
no one has much of the real ‘quality’ keywords worth huge amounts, NO ONE
if you focus on MONEY terms, the words that billion buck + industries are defined as, every keyword .com for those huge industries was and is a 1 billion buck plus asset
so the big mega corps will now start to acquire companies that somehow ended up with billion buck industry keywords
case in point, INSURANCE.com
a steal at 35M by a cartel of internet marketing gurus
why?
eventually it has to end up in the asset portfolio of one of a few of the few biggest insurance companies around
the reason, it can be used to control sem and seo on google for a term that 50 million people search for every month
with geo auto/car insurance cpc now hitting over 100 bucks in many major markets
having an asset to get reduced cpc rates alone makes insurance.com worth hundreds of millions
the reason a mega insurance corp didn’t swallow it up, they guys running the big corp’s still have NO CLUE about how the net works
so there’s still some great BIG MONEY plays to make in domains, but the minor bump in reg fees, so what, no one should own over 10K domains
in fact without geo’s on major biz terms, I doubt anyone needs to speculate on more than 100
however, development, you can develop hundreds if not thousands of niche terms, but none are really prime for speculation, which the whole ‘domainer’ game really is
you have to be able to monetize portfolios now with some development, and that development shouldn’t have anything to do with ppc and parking
quality cpc terms are now in demand by BUSINESS
so if you own high valued cpc terms, you can do minor development that benefits a business owner
that development on even a local level lands you 500 to 25K a month in residual income
so you don’t need a plethora of end user clients on developed domains to pay for a portfolio
A 5K a month client using geolawyer or doctor can pay for how many yearly renewals?
60K a year in income and 7 or 8 buck renewals
10K domains almost
so even one minor end user client allows you to break even on almost 10K yearly renewals
the cost of domain renewals should never be an obstacle IF you have quality domains that BUSINESSES can use to get benefit
as soon as a business owner learns how a keyword, even a geo keyword can get them a ton of new leads, and save ppc costs, they all want to be on the name
what business owner doesn’t want to use something that makes them first view of google for their keyword and gets them to the head of the line buying ppc cheaper than all their clients
the trick is having high response ratio content on keywords
so if you own 1K or 10K domains, you just need one solid professional geo .com to have the whole portfolio paid for with one client using that term
you know how cheap you can buy geoprofessionalkeyword.com’s still for today
you get a few, and learn how to hit page one with them, you learn how to make high response content
then you have the professionals in that geo lining up to get their phone number and email on the keyword
you don’t ‘sell’ as ‘domainers’ are prewired to believe is the only business model
YOU DEVELOP AND RENT
not a landlord but a DOMAIN LORD
I don’t care what the profession is, GEO doctor, lawyer, attorney, plastic surgeon, new cars, used cars, insurance, etc
all are high cpc terms
it’s not too hard to stick these terms organic page one
it’s easier to stick them on a map first view
the only hard part, understanding how high response pages work
when you learn the trade, you end up with this
ok mr professional here’s your stats this month
you bought 100 ppc clicks at 50% cheaper than everyone else, your map got 200 clicks, so 300 clicks, here’s the 100 calls we told you that you would see
google got 40.00 per click or 4K
we get X per month for use and Y% to manage the ppc from google
so your net cost per call is Z
once you understand the formula and info above
you understand the value of domains
you understand ONE CLIENT can pay for 10K renewals
so what’s the problem
you’re worried about pennies
and you’re missing the dollars
one minor geo professional term developed can carry a 10K domain portfolio as far as renewals go for a year
now how many of you ever saw a ‘keyword’ throwing off 60K a year in parking
NONE
or very few
yet you can buy right now for minor amounts Grade A geos with huge cpc terms
so 100K domains, never was realistic
too much junk
10K okay maybe
1K names sure all day
anyway, now you know the best way to pay for renewals, do a real development job on one term a local doctor, plastic surgeon or lawyer can make money on
you got 60K a year EASY
the internet is easily the greatest marketing tool EVER designed for commercial use
what local businesses are now paying 20, 40, 60 and even 100+ PER CLICK?
professionals
and the guys spending that all have ‘sem gurus’ and the first thing we explain to businesses, you shut down every thing but google search, no partners and no content
so then there’s very little fraud, and the net result, you have targeted traffic looking for exactly what that business does
and 300 clicks may be HIGH as to how many legit visits most geo professionals can really get from REAL LOOKERS
not crap visits
quality if the key, quality lookers for local professionals = 50K+ a year in income easily
some markets way more
so that’s the ONLY WAY I’ve seen recently that makes sense as to doing development that converts into nice residual long term income
and even ONE professional client can carry the weight of a 10K domain portfolio for a whole year
so what’s the problem bro’s and sis’s
learn how to really monetize professional geo .com’s, and you have huge income streams
parking?
not a ‘model’ today really
type in’s
why?
the money is on local professional cpc terms
just look at google, GEO lawyer, how many pages of lawyers you see in every city lining up to BUY a nice cpc term?
hundreds
now you don’t think all those lawyers would want GEO lawyer .com on a monthly basis if you can GUARANTEE page one for
a. maps or organic
b. wholesale ppc rates
You think when you send 100 or 300 people to that geo, and can show how many converted to CALLS the owner won’t keep paying you every month?
So there’s an easy way for all of you to monetize a large portfolio off of ONE DEVELOPED DOMAIN
So we are all looking at ‘asset’s that the cost to keep 10K domains is equal to income from ONE ASSET
Is any of this making sense to ‘domainers’ brain washed by low revenue models from parking and whatever?
My 3 cents
UFO
David, your small mammalian brain might not actually have crawled out of the sea yet, but in comparative terms domainers have got a bloody cheek.
Are you completely stupid or just an average parasitic blood sucking domainer?
Let’s deconstruct your stupidity.
“In fact, to take your brilliant, broad-minded, and selfless logic to its conclusion, ALL forms of investment should be banned or taxed into extinction: real estate, gold, silver, commodities, mutual funds, 401Ks, savings accounts, antiques, vintage cars, aircraft, domains, and old coins, just to name a few.”
No. None of these things are very pivotal to conducting commerce the way the internet has become. Also, domainers want to avoid all the obligations that IP owners have to meet, as well as the costs because they think they have some divine righteousness. If domains (.com’s) had to be attached to trademarks then you’d all have to scamper off. Leaving the .com (commerce/commercial) Tld for those that shouldn’t be basically racketeered into paying exorbitant amounts for what is essentially a short term license to use a URL administered by ICANN. A trademark costs roughly a couple of hundred $ to maintain per annum so domains .com shouldn’t be too far off that.
Use a domain like .org with your non profit ideas; use a .net for your hosting etc etc… Just like it was intended.
.com should be for those that want to conduct real commerce and bring real products and services to market and not a bunch of squatters whose only interest is to get in the way of this and extort supernormal profits.
.com $150 a year is what I would ICANN look to achieve, and have all the rest at $8.
PETE
have to agree with UFO
Dave Wrixon
No but there are 100,000’s whose entire portfolio’s are complete junk. But then if you have never been to Namepros, you will not have seen it.