Is The Domain Buying Game All "Sizzle" and No "Steak"?
 

Not to take a shot at Rick Latona, I respect him greatly. But the big buzz right now in adult and mainstream is domain name buying and I for one think that we might be in a big bubble for this kind of business.

I read this article a few weeks ago in Business 2.0 and thought "damn this market is going to fall out very quickly!"
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/busin...4591/index.htm

What are your guys thoughts on this matter? Are domains that are purchased now going to appreciate greatly and be worth a lot more later on or is it all just "sizzle" and no "steak"? Is this a big pump and dump?

DH

"moose steaks" are THE next big thing...beleive me. no one listened to me when i said bison burgers would be huge and now look...

buy moose meat stock and you will all be rich like canadians:2 cents:

i think any adult domain that had 2 words or less will be worth money in the next few years,a lot of new webmasters are buying domains so we are getting short

Supply and demand

http://www.tomthinks.com/risd/moosehead.jpg

O R'LY!!!!???

DH

It goes through its cycles. It died off abit, and now its getting better.

i think they're good investments if you can find good deals, just like most other things.

I think so long as the PPC market is doing well, the domain market will follow as there is a correlation (not direct, albeit a correlation) between the two.
WG

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm Steak

http://turbomirage.phpwebhosting.com...omer_drool.gif

It could be in a bubble, but you have to look at it in a way that it is still young and growing, and has alot of potential to grow bigger.

12345678

Hit me up on ICQ and I'll explain my thoughts. I'm not going to educate the whole board.

That's what I was thinking. I'm hungry :(

Anything they are not making more of turns it into a product that is in demand.

Domains are exactly like real estate except with higher margins that matures faster.

The only thing that will make "the bubble" burst is if there becomes a new standard for finding websites. Ya never know, it could happen.

The only thing that makes it seem a bit shaky is the typein traffic. They sell it to search engines but i doubt many people over the age of twelve type stuff in. The conversion rates are not what people claim. I own some really small type ins and over time it adds up but nothing like people think.

it's not one market.. some domains are bought on pure speculation others return income as soon as you set them up.

I thought this in 1997, a few people are really laughing all the way to the bank these days. I would not throw out $5million, or even $1million these days, but god bless Rick and others. I am just very conservative with my funds. Hard to make millions, very easy to lose them.

Could someone explain to me how buying .com is a big risk? As long as .net or something like it become the new thing. People would always type in for .com

I see it lasting since some people register a name that later becomes a corporate name or slogan or product and they get quite a few pennies for it.

thats my 2ct's

WIPO, NAF, lawuit? Those mean anything to you?

How many sites do you go to like men.com or miniblinds.com? So few names like that turn into real sites.

very true..

Steak baby.

Steak???

More like Filet Mignon and Lobster!

Out of all my online business friends, I'd say the wealthiest ones by far are the guys that have invested their money in building huge portfolios of mainstream and adult domains.

Domains are just like owning prime real estate, pure and simple.

http://pages.frederick.com/dining/carriage5.JPG

Now that's a surf and turf! I forgot what we were even talking about in this thread, lol.

WG

You don't necessarily need real sites to make money with domains.

:1orglaugh

Yes I believe some domains will appreciate. But it depends what you're buying & why. I buy domains to develop, but if I have too much on the backburner or someone is interested in the domain, I'll consider any serious offer. I'm still buying and selling, but I'm not moving in the same direction as the PPC/Traffic part of the industry. I focus on brandable domains with or without traffic. Companies/Startups are still buying brandable domains from me and traffic hasn't been a factor/dealbreaker. Even though I have negotiated with some of the large PPC buyers who only care about traffic and are offering 3x-8x+ revenues, I've been able to sell a few domains this year for substantial cash up front (5 & 6 figure deals) + % of revenue (ad &/or sales) AND received equity stakes in the newly formed companies (10%-49%). FYI, I had to fight for these type of deals, the negotiations were drawn out, but it made sense to all parties involved in the end.

But right now there are probably new domain speculators buying countless domains who are mortgaging their houses and taking huge gambles on a market they haven't taken the proper time to study... so a crash will surely come... and of course the strong will survive as always.

But the bottom line for me, if a domain's value doesn't appreciate, no big deal, I bought it to develop into a site and build value into the name/brand that way. I'd rather flip domains than flip burgers, but I'd rather flip companies then flip domains. (and imo, it's much more fun)

either way, good luck.

.

:1orglaugh so true.

So will domains become like houses, you fix them up and flip them hehe??!! Will we have domain renovations shows coming in the future on TLC? ;)

DH

I have no clue, but I also don't have the money to buy single word domains, so I haven't given it much thought hehe

I do think it's a very different game than Real Estate and so that analogy can only go so far.

You need somebody to market the domain right for it to be worth anything. But good domains name will be worth a ton... because they are there in very limited ammount and the internet is very vast. I just don't see it dropping in prices anytime soon.

OMG fuck you I'm so hungry now !!1 gimmie some of this .

I wanted to stop myself from eating anymore at 3:30 am but fuck it... I'ma cook a steak ! brb

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

I think its just something where you have to be careful and really know your shit.

Rick for example really knows his shit

It already is like this. but they're called "road shows" :winkwink:

My thoughts too :thumbsup

That's very true...and for those of us who know the industry and market, will prosper in the end! Bring on the change! lol
Hey, with all your new ventures, in need of more traffic? Let me know!
Cheers!

One other point I always make to my friends in other businesses when they ask me why they should pony up big dollars for a premium domain instead of into advertising a lesser quality name is because of a ppc example.

Lets say you own lofts.com and a competitor owns myloftbuy.com etc or any other variation of a hard to remember name, you both have adwords campaigns running for the keyword "lofts" he visits both sites by clicking on our text ads. He likes both sites and the content they have but is at work and needs to show his wife a few properties that he thinks would be a good fit for them. He returns home from work and they sit in front of the computer trying to remember the urls of the two sites he visited. Well most likely he will remember my name lofts.com and then do another search on google to find the other site, click again and incur more ppc costs to that competitor.

Think about that case on high traffic domains and keywords. You are always going to remember the short category killer domain.

I've spent the last 3 years building up a 1500 strong-domain portfolio and make good $$$ monthly just from PPC. The market is growing strong and prices are as high as i can remember. There will probably be a levelling-off effect at some point but if you look at sales over the past 24 months they are still climbing and climbing fast.

If you have no spare cash to invest in domains then don't. I see domains and PPC very much like buying property and renting it out. Your domain value always increases. Sometimes large increases and sometimes small. The rent keeps you going :-)

This is time for investment in domains. Not sure how long it will last. That's anybody's guess. If you have some good domain names and don't need to sell them on then you cannot lose.

Terry