With the most recent TRAFFIC auction not performing up to my expectations considering the quality of the domain names at auction, I think the premium domain sales market is taking a temporary breather. Sellers still have high expectations for their domain names and buyers are reluctant to pay those prices, causing a stalemate. While there are still areas of growth persevering in niche markets, the overall market is resting.

Previously, domain owners could expect their premium domain names would sell for anywhere from wholesale to end-user prices at an industry conference live auction, but that hasn’t been the case for the past two main industry events. In many cases, buyers aren’t willing to pay the premium asking prices right now, and the sellers are reluctant to lower their reserve prices, causing a stalemate in the market. While this might be a cause for concern for those who are heavily invested in domain names, it could develop into a good buying opportunity, so liquidity is important.

While $10 million in domain sales Read More »

It’s always neat when I wake up and there’s an article of relevance to me in the New York Times. Page One of this morning’s New York Times Business Section features an article about the domain industry, focusing on the growth of the industry while many other industries (especially physical real estate) are stagnant or losing value. The article comes on the heels of DomainFest in Los Angeles, which featured live and silent auctions ending with somewhere around $4 million in domain sales.
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I returned from Hollywood late last night, and I have nothing but positive things to say about DomainFest. From catching up with friends to meeting people for the first time, it’s great to see so many people excited about the domain business. I don’t know of many other industries where the tradeshows and conferences are filled with the brightest industry leaders walking the floors, making connections, and talking about ways to advance the industry, and that alone was worth the price of admission.

I am still in shock, but I would like to thank my readers for voting my blog the Best Domainer Blog in the Domainers Choice Awards. There are so many great domain blogs now, and I still can’t believe my blog was chosen… WOW! As I said while accepting the award, I can’t believe how lucky I am to be able to wake up every morning, doing what I love - and being able to write about it. Speaking of the DCA, I have to mention that Donna and Sally were absolutely glowing, and their husbands, Mahony and Barry, looked very “Hollywood” in their tuxedos. It was a popular event, and I am sure it will remain popular, as it’s the only industry achievement awards where domainers can choose.

If you’ve never been to a domain conference, I highly recommend it to anyone in the industry or on the industry’s peripheral.  Whether its Domain Roundtable, TRAFFIC or DomainFest, you really can’t go wrong. When the audience was polled at one of the panels, close to half were attending their first domain conference. I would bet that almost all of them were happy they attended the conference. Whether the goal is socializing, networking, learning or dealmaking, DomainFest had it all. I hope to write more about the conference, but I have to run to an appointment.  More to come later…

At today’s Snapnames Live Auction at Domainfest, Lonnie Borck was the winning bidder for Bookmarks.com, purchasing it for $310,000. This is a fantastic domain name, and it is a great purchase to incorporate with his netRocket.com website, a bookmark scheduling service.

Bookmarks.com is the category killer domain name for netRocket’s vertical, and it was a smart purchase. Not only will this help drive targeted traffic to netRocket, it is also a nice defensive purchase, as it prevents another upstart company from owning the category.

It’s official. I just booked my trip to Hollywood for DomainFest. I will be headed out to California after my meeting on Tuesday and will be there until Thursday.

Hope to see you there!

The best direct marketing tactic for a live domain auction I’ve seen didn’t come from an auction house. Nope - it wasn’t from one of the major companies actually hosting the auction. Today I received an email from someone who has a domain name listed for sale in the upcoming DomainFest Snapnames Live Auction.

“To Whom It May Concern:

Wu.net will attend the Domainfest auction (in person and also online) from Jan. 22, with reserved price of only US$ 10,000.

If you are interested, please visit their website as soon as possible, and make all the necessary preparations:

https://www.snapnames.com/liveAuctions.do

Thank you and good luck!

Meken”

I’ve seen many complaints from people who have names in various live auctions, and many of them are related to the auction house not doing a good enough job of bringing potential buyers to the auction. This seller isn’t going to simply rely on the auction house to bring a buyer for his name. He is going through his past emails, finding people who have inquired about this name in the past, and encouraging them to sign up and bid. I had sent him an email in October of 2006 when I was in the market for a 2 letter .net domain name.

I applaud Meken for not relying on Snapnames to bring potential bidders to the auction for WU.net (although with their fantastic auction inventory, I don’t think it will be a problem). I also happen to think he has a reasonable reserve price of just $10,000 for this nice domain name. I would bet that WU.net will have a new owner in a couple of weeks.

For those of you who are unable to attend DomainFest, I am organizing a Domainer Dinner in New York City on Monday, January 21 at Dos Caminos in Manhattan. If you are interested in attending, please drop me a note ASAP. We have several people commited so far, and I need to confirm the reservation by this Thursday.

According to this just distributed press release, Oversee.net has acquired domain registrar Moniker. I assume this is the news to which Rick Schwartz was referring this morning. More information about this can be found on Moniker’s homepage.

It will be interesting to see what will happen with the two major domain conferences (DomainFest and TRAFFIC) and their live auctions. Domain Sponsor (an Oversee.net company) is a founding partner of DomainFest, which features the SnapNames Live Auction from January 22-23, and TRAFFIC features the Moniker Live Auction on February 20 in Las Vegas.

I am sure we will soon learn more about how this news will impact the industry.

According to a post on DomainNameNews.com and a post on NamePros, Sedo will be repeating the recent .mobi auction. In an email to clients, Sedo and the .mobi MTLD decided that the results of the recent auction would be null and void after some technical glitches occurred. As reported here, the initial auction set a sales record for total value of .mobi names sold ($1.5 million) and for the highest sales price for a .mobi name - $616,000 for Music.mobi.

.mobi MTLD and Sedo announced that they will will conduct a new auction at Sedo.com beginning on January 23rd, 2008. Coincidentally, this falls on the same day as the Snapnames/DomainFest live auction in Hollywood, California.

I would like to thank my colleagues in the domain industry who casted their votes for me in the first round of the Domainers Choice Awards voting. Because of you, I am listed among some of the domain industry greats in the “Best Domainers Blog” category and the “Domainers Rising Star” category in the final round of voting.

I post in my blog every day because I love discussing everything related to domain names. I have learned so much along the way, and I love to share what I have learned. Every new endeavor is a learning experience, and I am happy to give a helping hand. Many people feel isolated in the domain industry, and the more we communicate, the greater the chance of growth within the industry.

I sincerely appreciate your casting your votes for me in the first round. It means alot to me.