market sucks...

[websaway]

I think this is an important statement from your thread.



"I'm less and less involved in the domain game "



Are you are losing focus ? and and if so, can you expect others to retain that focus for you.

Good luck with your winding down but you haven't chosen the optimum time to do it, though I don't think there is ever a right time.

Quality generic brandable domains will keep an inherent value to the end user market. Other domains remain more of a gamble.

I'm of the school that thinks you should not register a sequence of letters just because someone registered them before and have let them drop. The two sides to the domain game are knowing what to register or buy and then knowing what to do with them. Nothing has changed in that respect and I still see a massive number of vans going around and companies on the internet and though they still don't know, are crying out for logo type generic brandable domains.

 

[rob]

I'm of the school that thinks you should not register a sequence of letters just because someone registered them before and have let them drop.

Thats a decent and amusing point!

"Oooh, someone has paid renewals on this several times therefore its GOT TO BE WORTH MONEY"

or

"Oooh, someone has paid renewals on this several times and finally thought not again and let it expire"

Domainers often choose one over the other though!

Lower quality names can often be lottery ticket style names as they are referred to on here, I had one last week, paid £50 for it in a group of other 'rubbish' and its currently with MarkMonitor (not a TM or anything like that!) who paid £2k out of the blue.

I would possibly hoover up the OP's set if the price was right, but as Foz says, if its not right then move on as there are loads like that out there to buy at great prices.

 

[Edwin]

I think the other issue, which has also been addressed in this thread, is that currently the "domainer to domainer" market "sucks".

End users continue to buy solid domains at decent end-userish prices, but domainers can no longer count on "filler" sales to other established domainers and/or industry Johnny-come-latelies.

For one thing, most established domainers are sitting on more domains than they can sell to end users in half a century, and for another there are fewer and fewer people coming into the industry as the drops have dried up while simultaneously becoming more competitive, and the work required to "start from scratch" has gone up and up (not a good thing if the initial lure of the domain industry was reading one of the many flawed "get rich quick" articles about it).

So those with a steady stream of end-user enquiries are thinking "what's the problem? Business is great!" and those who relied historically on the "quick flip" from regfee/catchfee to £xx or low-£xxx with domainers as counterparts are finding things very tough.

Frankly, I don't see that trend reversing, either. More and more names are getting dumped onto the market, and therefore the quality you can get for your £xx or £xxx is going up, and consequently marginal names are going to get less and less attention. Which will force many portfolio holders to start pumping out their better names cheap just to raise funds, which perpetuates the viscious circle...

 

[PoshTiger]

Is the problem that these are all brandable domains - not EMDs?

If I see a EMD .co.uk with good exacts and CPCs then I'll be interested..

Brandable domains - not so...

 

[websaway]

I think the other issue, which has also been addressed in this thread, is that currently the "domainer to domainer" market "sucks".

End users continue to buy solid domains at decent end-userish prices, but domainers can no longer count on "filler" sales to other established domainers and/or industry Johnny-come-latelies.

For one thing, most established domainers are sitting on more domains than they can sell to end users in half a century, and for another there are fewer and fewer people coming into the industry as the drops have dried up while simultaneously becoming more competitive, and the work required to "start from scratch" has gone up and up (not a good thing if the initial lure of the domain industry was reading one of the many flawed "get rich quick" articles about it).

So those with a steady stream of end-user enquiries are thinking "what's the problem? Business is great!" and those who relied historically on the "quick flip" from regfee/catchfee to £xx or low-£xxx with domainers as counterparts are finding things very tough.

Frankly, I don't see that trend reversing, either. More and more names are getting dumped onto the market, and therefore the quality you can get for your £xx or £xxx is going up, and consequently marginal names are going to get less and less attention. Which will force many portfolio holders to start pumping out their better names cheap just to raise funds, which perpetuates the viscious circle...

Or will portfolio owners look more aggressively at other ways to monetize the names.

 

[Edwin]

Or will portfolio owners look more aggressively at other ways to monetize the names.

I'm sure individually SOME portfolio holders will find SOME ways to monetize SOME names, but there's no silver bullet that gets around the need for "real work" to build a website (or, heaven forbid, an actual business) around a domain name.

There have been a lot of deep-pocketed attempts by parking service providers to develop "automated" websites, with videos, social media aspects, forums, news feeds and all kinds of bells and whistles, but none has gained any long-term traction in the market as Google has played "whack-a-mole" as soon as it detected their "footprint" and bang, there goes all the traffic again. Collectively I'd guess the industry has spent over US$100,000,000 on trying to crack this problem (if you look at all the huge US-based players who've had a go at it) and nobody's come up with a viable substitute for "real work". Nor would I expect to see one come along in the future - the more you automate, the more you commoditise, and the more "disposable" your website therefore becomes.

 

[GreyWing]

Edwin is right, which is why I hang back from things like Fresh Store burst thingy. It only has two outcomes, 1 it is a success and lots of people use it, which results in search engines banning it because it sees it as lazy which means you are back to square one. Or two, it's a failure and search engines ignore it.

Developed websites will always sell better than undeveloped domains. Unique content is the way to go (I've stopped taking new customers on, so not being biased). I watch my customers on that.co.uk and their websites flying in the serps and making a crap load everyday. Compared to those who try to do the short cut methods and their is little comparison to doing the job right.

You don't have to be a fantastic html expert, a wordpress or joomla site will do just fine. Add a bit of content and away you go.... Then sell the site with traffic.

 

[Alien]

Developed websites will always sell better than undeveloped domains. Unique content is the way to go (I've stopped taking new customers on, so not being biased).

Definitely. Content, content, content. There are no short cuts here.

Yes, I'm biased, but that's my personal opinion too, lol.

 

[GreyWing]

Definitely. Content, content, content. There are no short cuts here.

Yes, I'm biased, but that's my personal opinion too, lol.

(ok now being biased ) The new system I have on that.co.uk now called Page Space is crying out for websites that are ranked. Just doing some end trials now to it with some existing site members before it goes live to the public. But from talks I have had with link embedded content buyers there is a shortage of sites they can put their stuff on.

So I guess at the moment the real reason prices are suffering is because monetising them is becoming harder and less rewards, let's see if we can't put a bit of dent into it though.

 

[rob]

Is the problem that these are all brandable domains - not EMDs?

If I see a EMD .co.uk with good exacts and CPCs then I'll be interested..

Brandable domains - not so...

....whereas I am not that fussed on EMDs, I wouldn't trust my biz on relying on black box figures and ranking from a private company.

 

[Blossom]

But from talks I have had with link embedded content buyers there is a shortage of sites they can put their stuff on.

I don't think it's a shortage, I think it's a lack of input. I have a list of 100+ quality websites that accept that kind of stuff, and that's without considering the thousands of guest posting opportunities out there.

 

[bens]

Part of the problem may be your parking pages/lack of.

I have to say that January has been our busiest month ever for domain enquires with 3 sales so far.

Ok, some of the offers are a little on the low side but I’ve been really surprised by the interest. Maybe people looking to start a website/business as a new year’s resolution.

A big part of this has been creating our own sales pages. (example. still unfinished) On pretty much the same 600 (very average) domain portfolio I had 2 enquiries in 2 years listing and parking with SEDO. I’ve easily averaged 2-3 enquires a week with these pages.

 

[cc976a]

I don't think it's a shortage, I think it's a lack of input. I have a list of 100+ quality websites that accept that kind of stuff, and that's without considering the thousands of guest posting opportunities out there.

My experience is also a shortage of sites accepting links (exchange or paid for).

I have contacted lots of site owners (and i'm talking about one man band sites with good established content, and good SERPs - rather than big companies) but time and time again I get back - no sorry we don't really do adverts, or no reply at all - and I'm offering cash for this not a bog standard link exchange (go figure!)

If more top 5 or top 10 sites in niche EM keywords offered to advertise or promote sites (related rather than competition) it would make this linkbuilding and rewards that went with it much easier!

 

[Brassneck]

Definitely difficult in the reseller market for average domains. Based on selling a few hundred domains both to resellers and end-users my sales value was down by one-third in 2011 and is now back to 2009 levels. My sales outweigh renewal fees by about 4 to 1 at the moment so definitely still making money, but most of my cash is now coming from developing.

Stephen.

 

[Blossom]

I've had a couple of PMs based on my previous post in this thread, I will get back to you guys at some point tonight - not ignoring you, just super busy!

 

[Jamie101]

My experience is also a shortage of sites accepting links (exchange or paid for).

I have contacted lots of site owners (and i'm talking about one man band sites with good established content, and good SERPs - rather than big companies) but time and time again I get back - no sorry we don't really do adverts, or no reply at all - and I'm offering cash for this not a bog standard link exchange (go figure!)

If more top 5 or top 10 sites in niche EM keywords offered to advertise or promote sites (related rather than competition) it would make this linkbuilding and rewards that went with it much easier!

About links, did you see my thread? Have a few sites that I'm looking to put a few links on.

Thanks.

 

[doodlebug]

Budgetgifts and preventspam are the ones I would go with, I can't comment on the end user market as I suffer from cbatious when it comes to selling my domains but I have noticed that llls seem to have dropped in price a lot in the reseller market.

 

[cc976a]

About links, did you see my thread? Have a few sites that I'm looking to put a few links on.

Thanks.

Haven't I bought off you already?

 

[Jamie101]

Haven't I bought off you already?

Just realised that after posting but forgot to edit. Oops!

 

[wb]

Pretty much agree with points that have already been said.

There's definitely still plenty of opportunities in domains though, even for newbies, it just takes some knowledge and thought. Knowledge can be gained from this forum for starters, as I've come across plenty of little nuggets of information since joining.

I've had a couple of PMs based on my previous post in this thread, I will get back to you guys at some point tonight - not ignoring you, just super busy!

If it's relating to the list of 100+ quality posting opportunities and it's able to be shared, would love to see it too!