Your third prediction is definitely one to think about. Many of the search engines seem to just drop PPC and parked domains or at least put them way down in the results. This pattern of blurring the lines between a PPC landing page and an actively developed website should change things for CTR but will it also force the search engines to reconsider how they treat PPC and parking?

http://www.domainstate.com/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=85194

I’ll let the readers here respond to what they think.

Great commentary and just wanted to add a few other predictions:

1. I think we will see an uptick in valuations of two word generic names like babypictures.com. The overall market should at least slow down from the huge increases it has seen in the last 18 months. I still expect to see growth, just not at the same level we have seen.

2. I think late 2008, more domain owners will be looking at developing there domain names into fully functioning businesses that require a lot more involvement. I think a good example is funeralhomes.com

3. As a proud participant in the cheapest domain university (cowboys.com), I think the cowboys.com purchase will lay the foundation for more fractional shares ownership groups. As prices of high quality names get out of reach for the average investor, this will become more fundamental and widespread. I would love to work with a team of developers that could get domainunits.com off the ground quicker.

4. Typos will become even more risky and prices will continue to decline.

5. IDN’s will gain continued momentum in select markets and bring down the long term value of .com names pertinant in those specific geo regions.

6. SPECULATION in LLL.com will start to slow as investors start allocating their domain money to domain investments not driven by continued speculation.

7. We will see increased lawsuits from companies trying to steal names (WIPO) because they were asleep at the wheel the past 10 years.

8. Most importantly, I hope everyone will make more money, stay healthy, and have fun doing it.

Happy Holidays!

None of us have a crystal ball that is perfectly clear but yours seems to be pretty bright and clean these days. I predict you will continue to be one of the brightest stars in the Domain Space for 2008 and maybe even break out ahead of the crowd once again as you did in 2007 with all your creative and inovative new ideas.

Best of luck in 2008.

Chris

-I agree with domain liquidations for generics topping out for 2008 at domainer auctions. Been saying this for a while. Same people are driving up the prices consistently at every domainer auction. Where’s the end user at at these auctions? Once their bellies are full, evolution continues for the next big thing in domaining. Development…then sell offs as full businesses..etc..

-2008 will see an explosive growth in the Geo/local domains niche. We will see these domains rise in value faster than ever before and sell to END USERS. Additionally, we will see these once undervalued and much ignored domains turn into revenue generating machines as old school media moves online. While generics are nice to control a whole segment of a market, they do not meet the needs of consumers who demand essential information without having to go through several of levels to get to what they need. All consumers want is the easiest way to get their information

As an example, Homes.com is a great name to control a market, but poor for the person(s) looking for a home in Austin, Tx. The easiest way to get what they want without having to search through all the levels and annoying advertisements will be AustinHomes.com. Consumers want and need local content.

-Consumer navigation will evolve in 2008 as new technolgy makes it easier to meet their needs. Bottomline, Consumers are lazy, software will follow to make them lazier. Type-in traffic will start to level out as many have seen this year with many of their top domains(There are exceptions of course). Consumers are fed up with PPC pages and I forsee software being developed that tells them if a site is developed or just another parked paged with multiple ads before going to it. Consumers want content, and they will find alternative ways to get to it other than navigating to a page they have been to already with PPC.

-Yahoo and Google will develop new technologies to keep more advertising dollars in house than being shared with domainers thru PPC. Something potentially hazardous to domainers making a living off of PPC, Is if they create subdomains with homes.yahoo.com, austinhomes.yahoo.com, etc with revelant content directing and branding consumers to search their way. THis will hit a domainers wallet hard as some may see upto a 50% decrease in revenue. These 2 entities simply own most of the internet.

-I forsee registrars starting to venture into domain insurance to prevent names from being deleted and stolen for a premium. Credit cards expire and addresses change preventing charges from occuring. Additionally, I forsee some type of insurance being developed for law suits and legal fees to protect qualified domainers.

-In 2008 the evolution of affordable domain conferences will emerge. 90% of domainers are domaining part time and supplementing thier current income. The current conference schedules are simply to expensive for the 90% to attend preventing the industry from reaching its maximum potential. Focus has only been applied at the top end of the 10% full domainer niche. This is why there has been a very small growth rate in conference attendance each year. Domain business entitys do not have to conduct conferences at the most expensive locations in the United States to grow the industry. That 90% has alot to bring to the table, and it will show as the conferences emerge.

Godspeed,
Steve Morales

Domainers are mainly property owners, not developers. Owning does not make one a developer.