Thoughts please on an idea.

[Ashton]

I am considering creating a website for domain management and trading. It would be a registered charity or co-op and would solely exist to improve the state of domaining. Below are some of the features it would have:

Portfolio Management
- You can create a list of all your domains in the management panel
- The site will auto find all the expiry dates and you can list your domains accordingly and have full access to all your portfolio and domain information in 1 central location
- You can organise this list by any number of factors and even post fixed prices on the domains.

'Interested in' section
- Here you can list any domain that you would like, that is not currently available.
- The site will auto find the expiry date and alert you when any of the domains in your interest list are close to expiry or are suspended.
- If the domain your interested is in another members portfolio, you can choose to send a message to them (you will not know who they are).

Trade section
- Straight from your portfolio section you can add a sale price and you can choose whether or not they are listed publicly (and open to offers or not)
- The trade section will provide a clean business front for domainers and aim
to improve end user trust and recognition.


The idea would be to build up a body of reputable domainers to cast a much better light on the UK domaining industry.

I dont intend it to have any forums or discussion boards really (maybe commenting system) It would just be a 1 stop domaining toolkit.

To ensure the highest quality of domainer on board, I think their would be an application to join and the application could be reviewed by the current members.

I want your opinions, any thoughts you might have are appreciated.

 

[WigWam]

sounds good did think of doing something simular to that one my site domainers.me.uk

btw portfoliocare.co.uk is for sale

WigWam

 

[Aaron Clifford]

It would involve a lot of work, and obviously you would have to get some big guns on board to support the site. My only concern is, wouldn't people rather just have there own blogs like they do at the moment? Giving them full control over everything.

 

[Retired_member41]

Member reviewed applications by, so called reputable domainers?

Its failed already.

Would be a great tool/website though and would be in the favourites next to domaintools.com

 

[Ashton]

It wouldn't replace blogs or forums, for domainers it would provide a lot of useful tools and domain management. For end users it would provide a trustable source of lots of domains.

Caz, please suggest an alternative... need some way of ensuring quality and reputable members, otherwise scamming could ensue?

 

[Retired_member41]

idea

pm on way........

 

[WigWam]

pm on way........

 

[Leeroy]

I cant see a site like this taking off to be honest. I have been in domain names a long time, and really never have a problem with end users. If there ever is a problem its generally the "is this a scam" type reply. In these cases i simple transfer the name first. I cant see how a site like your talking about would help in these cases as it could easy be part of the scam etc.

If you offered these people a sack of spuds they would think it was a scam, its not domain names its the internet and people from Africa that are the problem spamming and scamming daily.

Good luck though mate if you go for it!

LH

 

[accelerator]

Is the Portfolio Management supposed to remind people when to renew their domains? I could see this possibly being a bit risky from a legal point of view if people rely on your service for their domain renewal and something goes wrong, although I guess they would get reminders from other sources too.

If you are doing this purely for revenue reasons, then other models are probably better ideas, e.g. dropcatching, auctions.

Rgds

 

[Ashton]

I think your overlooking the whole idea.

In regards to Leeroy's comment about trust, its not just about that. Domain portfolio's are scattered all over, through blogs, sites, and sedo. If we could unite most of the UK domains under 1 site where end users can see and choose the actual domain they want (which means they are more likely to actually buy something)

Not quite accelerator, that responsibility is down to the domainer and the registrar really. The portfolio management section is for:
- Listing the domains on the for sale section (if wanted)
- Seeing all your domains in 1 place in an organisable, easy to modify area
- Being able to record notes on all the domains
- See any offers on the domains
- Viewing the domains history
- Having a proper domain information structure
- And probably some more bits as I make it.

Its not about 'managing' the domains as such, that isn't the greatest choice of words. Its more about having a structured interface on which to record all your domain information.

 

[crabfoot]

If you offered these people a sack of spuds they would think it was a scam
LH

Once upon a hard time I took to wandering about the city's wholesale veg market around 5am - 6am, looking for leftovers. And one day I found a 25lb bag of coal lying in the road - but it was a long way back home.
Whatever, I threw it over my shoulder and set off. After half a mile, I heard a car approaching, and decided to take a "tactical rest". I set the sack down and sat on a low wall beside it, looking as casual as I could under the circumstances.

The (panda) car drew level in seconds, paused to shout out "at least you can say THAT fell off the back of a lorry", and drove off. Laugh? I didn't stop, all the way home ...

 

[jasman]

I think your overlooking the whole idea.

In regards to Leeroy's comment about trust, its not just about that. Domain portfolio's are scattered all over, through blogs, sites, and sedo. If we could unite most of the UK domains under 1 site where end users can see and choose the actual domain they want (which means they are more likely to actually buy something)

I would have thought that if a portfolio is for sale, you would keep it in just one or two places, your own site (which may be a blog or may not be) and/ or Sedo or equivalent. That doesn't seem a problem to me.

Portfolio management tools/ expiry reminders etc would add value to some but I would think most domainers have already devised their own system for this. Also, not everyone would feel comfortable having their not-for-sale domain lists stored on another members' server. And the for sale list I am sure they would want on their own site and Sedo as well!

The idea would be to build up a body of reputable domainers to cast a much better light on the UK domaining industry.

Don't worry about that. It is a reputable industry. Just because one person complained over the weekend about some people being abusive on the phone, and the odd negative article appears in the mainstream press (read by people who don't buy domains anyway!), doesn't mean the industry has a bad reputation in reality. There are plenty of dodgy estate agents out there but it doesn't put people off buying houses. We have nothing to worry about.

 

[Edwin]

Sedo has 20 million listings, and a decent sales track record, and despite that many of the UK domainers don't list with them. So a brand new site starting from scratch is going to need an almighty "hook" to reel domainers in.

The only way I can see this working (even in theory) is if this hypothetical new domain sales platform has a strong, and very public, track record of sales. I'm talking about much-stronger-than-Sedo levels of sales performance across comparable domain qualities. In other words, if it can do a better job of selling domains than any of the existing solutions, and better than simply pointing a domain to a "this domain is for sale" page.

And to achieve THAT, the site would absolutely have to have a pro-active brokering approach that actually reaches out and goes and finds customers for domains. Anything "reactive" (i.e. that relies on those potential customers finding the site) is doomed to fail from the start, since that's no better than the current status quo.

You can set up all the fancy tools in the world, with all the bells and whistles, but by now most people have fairly well established routines for managing their names, and they do just fine without a central toolkit. It's on the sales side of things (as I outlined above) that any new site would have to make a real difference!

 

[GreyWing]

You will probably find that you actually end up peeing people off mate, seriously. Because you'll find that you will have to say to people that their names are not good enough to join or their portfolio isn't good enough. Then they will come on here and slag you off (rightly or wrongly).

I just think it's a massive task mate and it will be a thankless one.

 

[Sound]

You will probably find that you actually end up peeing people off mate, seriously. Because you'll find that you will have to say to people that their names are not good enough to join or their portfolio isn't good enough. Then they will come on here and slag you off (rightly or wrongly).

I just think it's a massive task mate and it will be a thankless one.

I agree with GreyWing type domain sales into Goggle and you will find endless pages of worthless overpriced portfolios for sale by their owners all of which will want to join up or pick a fight with you when you reject them from your website because the names are substandard ......

 

[willbon]

As an end user, I want a site I can go to that shows me all the domain names available for sale...

Sedo seems to be this at the moment but it does miss out so many privately 'for sale' domains because their charges are too high.. and returns often negligible.

I nearly started a similar thread to this so here's my idea.... (apologies for partial hijack)

Go with the idea of 'all' domains.... make it easy to list for domainers (£30 per 100 / year?) , have the link for the sale of the domain pointed to the individuals site... (so removing sales function from the site...) or send to Sedo if you're that way inclined.

Simple, easy to use, easy to find and hopefully if it's cheap enough and easy to maintain then the domaining fraternity would subscribe?

Yay or Nay?

 

[Ashton]

Good points guys and I appreciate all the input!

I have changed my mind about the registration, it hadn't been thought through thoroughly enough. It would be totally open registration with the option to report a domain in the for sale section if you thought it was placed badly. (user moderated sales)


@Jasman, I appreciate the point about the privacy concern... I would never look into the database but I would need a way of proving that to my users. I guess trust builds up over time, we all know the admin here wouldn't look at our pm's but that doesn't mean he couldn't.

As for the domain portfolio point, look at it from an end users perspective... the end user doesn't want to trawl through lists on 70 different websites... what if s/he could just find what s/he wanted in an easy way under 1 roof.

As for the management of domains Edwin, I feel the most people could be doing at the moment (and most probably aren't) is having some sort of organised excel document and notepad files for keeping notes on the domains (offers, interest, etc) this is far from a perfect method.

Edwin, in regards to actually finding customers for the domains... I could offer users ways to get in touch with end users at a cost... for example if I took your idea about printing the domain on the envelope and offered that on a cost per letter basis, and I (or an employee) managed printing the envelope, posting, etc. And of courses a whole load of other methods. How would you respond to something like that?

@Wilbon, I would have this an option straight within the 'for sale' page options, it could just open a new window on their portfolio site, this would be free imo.

 

[Bailey]

It all sounds very ambitious to me Ashton, I don't doubt your sincerity but, if your that keen to enter the 'domain management' field - You'll get further coming up with a single idea/tool/service that domainers would be willing to buy into, the development road may then open-up.

 

[GreyWing]

Edwin, in regards to actually finding customers for the domains... I could offer users ways to get in touch with end users at a cost... for example if I took your idea about printing the domain on the envelope and offered that on a cost per letter basis, and I (or an employee) managed printing the envelope, posting, etc. And of courses a whole load of other methods. How would you respond to something like that?

Trouble is nobody is going to pay upfront, I have been here for years and I know that unless you have a history of brokering top class sales under your belt, people won't pay first.

And if you were that good at brokering names I suggest you find sellers, ask how much they wanted for their names, then hunted a buyer down for it and become the middle man keeping the difference without ever actually owning the name. You'll probably find you'll make a lot of money.

 

[Ashton]

Ok, well thanks everyone for your input.

What I am going to do, which takes advice into account, is design and code the front end, and see what it looks like and what people think about it. Then if people like it, think it is good, ill hire a ruby developer to code its backend. (That way it doesn't cost me anything until its got demand)