julian

yeah i think your generally right now - i just spent 10 hours fishing on a beach, was tired didnt really read your post properly

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landlord

I saw another interesting point on the forum that I want to cover off under this post...

Someone said why havent prices generally risen for domain names in-line with such sales as these....

I think we all contemplate whether we are just a few mad people with an obesession for names.....to some degree you do indeed need to have an obessession to become extremely successful but good business people will keep calculating the viability......

Personally I think we have too much choice....it is very very very easy for a NEW business or person to find an alternative name....despite millions of domain names registered new businesses will seek out a name that costs only £5...this doesnt mean you cant sell your prime name for £000's it just makes it harder. The higher the price the equation gets more difficult for the business....the business has to thinik.....shall i take myplumbershop.co.uk for £5 or buy plumbingsupplies.co.uk for £10,000 or plumbers.co.uk for £100,000.....until this new business makes incredible wealth from being remarkable on the web it is likely that this business will opt for the £5.....they will probably upgrade later (the price will obviously move upwards by then)

The trend I see is the early adopters of the internet (when i say early adopters in this sense I mean those who started an online business or servive such as moneysupermarket) making enormous wealth......these companies will spend enormous amounts of money to keep the growth upwards....part of this spending will be on things like domain names....they will act almost desperately and will pay high prices being hopeful that such prices will somehow equate into high growth rates.....the real winner at this point is the domain name holder BUT

as i said before remarkable products and services are few and far between and therefore high prices will only be achieved in low numbers.....domain name prices will of course grow at a faster rate than other asssets as the internet is still growing remarkably but the disparity between normal prices and remarkable prices will remain.....it will remain a game of luck....

Luck is however made......the more you have the more chance you have

Lee

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julian

your example is based around small businesses getting online and I think you have a good point about choice. Most plumbers arnt going to splash out 10k on plumbers .co.uk istead will go for the im-a-plumber-london .co.uk etc.

whats interesting is that they can't afford the best name and even if they could only one plumber can own plumbers .co.uk anyway! also all us domainser probably own the better names that they may have wanted should it have been available e.g. londonplumbers .co.uk etc. So the problem as I see it is three issues.

A. the plumber sees londonplumbers .co.uk is reg'd and thinks oh well i go for £6 reg fee crap it will do, dont really care.

B. the plumber sees londonplumbers .co.uk is reg'd, puts an offer in via sedo etc it gets refused and thinks oh well i go for £6 reg fee crap it will do.

C. the plumber sees londonplumbers .co.uk is reg'd, puts an offer in via sedo etc it gets accepted and gets a better domain - (everyone happy? ).




so would it be fair to assume that good generic names & geo names mobiles .co.uk, london .co.uk etc can be safe in the knowledge that they are less susceptible to reg'fee duplication becuase if I build a business around london .co.uk it should have more cred than my-london-web-guide.me.uk, however, ironically - if my-london-web0guide.me.uk is a good site, does good in serps getting loads of traffic etc people using wont care if it was a 1ook name or £6 name...

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landlord

very good Julian and I agree.....some will eventually upgrade but until then you are reliant on the remarkable web companies wanting your specific name but it also dangerous for them....why would one dilute a brand by setting up a new website under a more generic name......conflicting sides will make bigs sales few and far between.....that is to say the number of big sales in proportion to the number of domain names registered......too much choice and the buyer of money.co.uk had no need to chase such a name when many other choices were available

Lee

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julian

so we have a middle market 'domainers' conundrum or is it just greed?

domain name market awareness to your average joe is practically zero. Most small biz owners just want a website and email address that works and like you say will go the £6 route.

Do you think we are riding on a kind of never ending exponential liner curve of upward domain value?

e.g as a domainer im sat on my (regfee) londonplumbers .co.uk waiting for the big offer:

1. in 2006: I think I want a £750 someone offers me £250 no sale.

2. in 2008: I think I now want a £1000 someone offers me £500 no sale.

3. in 2010: I think I now want a £1250 someone offers me £750 no sale.

or is there a celing on these figures for certain domains? The the offer in 2006 might be the only offer a domainer gets - may never get an offer like that again what are the chances - good domains always sell?

The amount of sales ive turned down like example 1. and its now 2008 ive never had a better offer or maybe its just round the corner!

I reached the conclusion that most of the time I am effectively gambling with the names that im buying and not developing - nothing more nothing less. But there are things I can put in my favour such as mini sites etc.

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landlord

Julian thats very true....we are moving our expectations up as we move up the curve.....everyone wants the big one....wii is a prime example thats says any name can be a big one.....maybe the biggest fear is that a domain name sold at the 'average todays price' could be the big one of next year or later......so domainers merely wait and see.....this principle only crashes if the domain name system crashes or you are unable to afford the renewal fees and end up in a forced sale situation and under such forced sale situations you are unlikely to get that price you rejected only weeks earlier.....lol

Lee

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dougs

1. in 2006: I think I want a £750 someone offers me £250 no sale.

2. in 2008: I think I now want a £1000 someone offers me £500 no sale.

3. in 2010: I think I now want a £1250 someone offers me £750 no sale.


I see this happen all the time.........we flick domains all the time as soon as we get an ok/decent offer.

Doug

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julian

dougy baby - I think you been a bit SILLY! recently though

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DJ8000

Wow, this is great for the .co.uk market!

speculatrix

I see quite a few internet noobs who don't understand the difference between google search and the location bar, so just wack a keyword into the location bar and hope something turns up, and I also see them put the URL into the google search box and hit return.

so, owning loans.com for example would be very valuable because someone might put loans into their location bar, hit return and the browser guesses Bank of America | Loans | Loans and Home Buying

as far as I know, very few people add additional search terms into their browser so will not automatically find, say, bloggs.co.uk

so, if I wanted a generic brand/domain I'd definitely go for a .com