co.uk Demand

[charlie]

Does anyone have any idea of the normal demand for domains on a monthly basis?

My perception is that there seems to be a lot of "reggers" and not too many buyers? Personally my portfolio (lovingly refered to as my moneypit) gets bigger on a daily basis (depending on the weather ) and i may get 2 or 3 offers a month of which most are speculative £110 which i'm sure are generated by sedo most of the time to keep me interested. In the last year i may have had 4 or 5 legitimate buisness offers. (you can always spot them as them come in at minimum £300)

In the long term is there enough demand to sustain the market or are we all going to be sitting on domains waiting for something to happen?

as a collective should we not all be promoting the co.uk domain extension?

the problem is sedo and its advertisers wont let you promote domains for obvious reasons but on the other hand the long term value will depend on domain name visibility? Some how we need search engines to spider parked or for sale domains - this aint going to happen because they'd just end up with cr*p search engine results. Again i'm back to the service sedo has provided by providing a one stop shop for domains this is good for us. We need some kind of listing site to showcase all UK domains available, perhaps seperate from the parking programs.

Anyone got any thoughts?

 

[bb99]

Some good points above. While Sedo is great for domain sales, it's very very difficult to see the good domains because they're surrounded by so many crap ones.

I think there would indeed be some merit in having a non-parking site dedicated to marketing "decent" .uk domain names.

How do you define "decent"? Well maybe every listed domain has to be approved by at least three out of five domain people involved with the site.

Not sure really - it's certainly worth considering.

 

[Nigel]

You're right Charlie - the market seems quiet at the moment. I think the answer is to invest in domains that give a return. That way you're not dependant on sales. If a domain pays for itself (and a bit more) then you cannot lose.

From time to time when we've sold a domain we re-invested in a better earning domain. PPC income is much better now but we've never really cashed in on our sales. I suppose you have to decide whether .co.uk and .coms are around for the medium/long term. If they are then you're onto a winner. If not then you have one big portfolio and an angry bank manager!

I can't see .co.uk domains being replaced as the flagship for british businesses in the next 5 or 10 years. Nominet recently firmly rejected a members bid to have the .co.uk market joined by .uk and I cannot see British businesses who have invested millions in their domain names ever standing for that. Nominet chose the .co.uk, .org.uk system and it is now well established and working well.

With more ppc companies coming into the market and online advertising replacing conventional marketing methods, I think the future is rosy for those who choose their domains well.

 

[charlie]

when searching on sedo - i always order by views and previous offer count gives you a better idea about whats in demand for a keyword you're not so sure about.
another + for sedo.

i'm biggin up sedo not for its parking revenue but for is marketing and accessibility. This is not comparable to namedrive as they dont advertise these features - which aint a bad thing!

 

[charlie]

so has anyone had a good sales run in the last 12 months?

I know parking is great for us at the moment but I cant help but think that if there's no movement then the industry might go funny?? Of course it could be even better for us as domains run dry they'll be forced to buy - lets hope the governing bodies dont step in and do compulsary purchase orders for domain sitters!!

I've been watching the sedo sales but this doesn't account for the professionals who actively market their portfolio. Has anyone got more info for sales in the last 12 months?

 

[charlie]

3 mails to my own post - sad :?

admin - do the old boys still play here? I know edwin, revs are members, wheres invincible, - he always spoke a lot of sense? ? grant?

by looking at de****ed/forum i would have thought you have a market share now? are we speaking as the majority do you think?

 

[Admin]

That is my impression but people do seem to come and go - I think this all gets too much at times and can take your life over so people go for a chill out session!

Not aware of any other UK specific forums of note.

 

[singlefile]

I've had my best year since 2000 [the year I sold a £25k name].

Have sold >5 .co.uk's for £500+ each, so far. Recently sold one [subjected to a confidentiality agreement] for £4,500 It was a name that I regged a long time ago [1999] and then sat on ... from little acorns ...

Without Sedo, I'd be in profit this year. WITH Sedo too, I'm doing fine and can afford to buy a lot of dud names without going into -ve territory. Domaining seems a guaranteed win at the moment.

 

[charlie]

nice to hear SF well done mate.

just as a comparison, for the 5 you've sold over the same period you owned them how many do you think you've regged?

I know i've reged about 250 this year and sold 1 but still running in +ve from last years sales (just)

 

[Edwin]

You're in a reasonable position if you can make enough sales each year to more than cover renewal fees on the rest of your collection (your domains should not be a drain on your pocketbook any more than necessary!)

You're in a very solid position if you can generate enough income from your domains to more than cover renewal fees. This should be a solid mid-term goal to aim for, with more and more revenue being the ultimate goal.

 

[singlefile]

About 150 regs this year ... thus far! On average, it's probably around 250 regs per year and at least £2,000 p.a. from sales. Then on top of that, there's the PPC...

 

[Edwin]

To expand on my previous post a bit, if you have e.g. 1,000 domains and they cost an average of £3.50 per year to maintain, then you only have to sell £3,500 worth of names in a year to cover your costs.

That's less than one really good sale, or 2-4 medium sales. If you can't even generate that many sales in a year across 1,000 domains, that says a great deal about the (lack of) quality of your portfolio...

 

[charlie]

About 150 regs this year ... thus far! On average, it's probably around 250 regs per year and at least £2,000 p.a. from sales. Then on top of that, there's the PPC...

same as me but the avg £2k aint enough for me, the turn over is really slow this should give others the realistic view that in general you'll still need a job!!

between us both thats an avg any one else ahead of us?

 

[Edwin]

It will take me a while to check, but I'm guessing I'll have regged 300-400 domains this year.

Once you get to the point that parking > renewals then any sales are pure gravy!

 

[Brassneck]

I've got about 400-500 names at the moment and have parking revenue in excess of £500 per month, i.e. covering the reg fees in about 4 months. On top of that I have sold about 7 individual names via Sedo and also a number of traffic names privately mainly in bulk. All my names are middle of the road traffic names - nothing too fancy.

Still have to do the day job though!!

Stephen.

 

[charlie]

I've got about 400-500 names at the moment and have parking revenue in excess of £500 per month All my names are middle of the road traffic names - nothing too fancy.

Still have to do the day job though!!

Stephen.

you got me well beat there i have about the same number but have never broken the the £200 a month parking revenue - whats your secret!

 

[Brassneck]

Only buy expired names with good backlinks!

Stephen.

 

[Edwin]

Or strong generics with built-in traffic :grin:

 

[keys]

Registered thousands, bought a few - sold hundreds.

Not making a fortune but the return is good for the time, effort and money invested.

The market is fairly stable and definitely getting stronger. We have found some seasonally quiet times around New Year and August. Other than that demand is closely related to pricing.

Lower prices = more sales, or higher prices = fewer sales. The ideal ground is enough income, from fewer sales.

 

[retired_member27]

I've got about 750 mostly crap .co.uk domains (£50 - £400 in value, only one is worth a couple of thousand) but I sell enough to cover all my cost.

Where I make my money is the buying and selling of .com's, on average I buy a .com every month for about £2000 and sell it on within a couple of months for about £4000, I ALWAYS make a profit. The trick is to try and pick the domain that you think will be in demand and with a high Overture, and I always buy privately never from Sedo, Afternic, etc.

My most expensive .co.uk that I've sold to date is £3000, and .com is £8500. I never buy any other extensions as I think they are a waste of time.

I hope I haven't given too much information away.