I really don’t know what others are working on but I do know some of the stuff we are working on, and there’s no doubt domaining in then next couple of years will evolve tremendously. Some areas to keep an eye on:
Around domains: Looking at Real Estate much money is being made around the asset, not the asset itself. Think financing, advice (tax, finance, legal, etc), brokerage, marketing, and more. Yes, for some you may find some services already but 1. there will be much progress in most existing categories and 2. More importantly, there are categories which do not yet exist in the domain world, but do in comparable categories. I expect those to be introduced and claim their rightful share of the market.
Mini site development: While few companies are trying it out now, from our experience they are not yet scratching the surface. Automated solutions should create thousands of pages interlinking with one another and the world. Data should be pulled from outside (feeds, spidering), user generated content, as well as exclusive content. There’s an opportunity to create a company which takes all this into consideration and uses economies of scale to make sense of it. Upsale opportunities once someone buys the basic package are exclusive content, SEO tools (unique ip’s, SEO analysis/services), SEM, premium listings, and more. Directories fall well into such a model as well as information driven sites.
Auctions: As we continue to work on Bido we learn what works, what doesn’t. As portfolio owners we know what we have right now does not work for us. Auctions must insist on accurate pricing or they will continue and lose buyers. Worse, inaccurate pricing is a major responsible factor of our inability to grow the market. If we are to trade domains as other liquid assets, buyers must feel secure trading (ability to sell for same or about price in a relatively short time after purchasing).
Parking: Transparency is inevitable. DNZoom and others will lead the way here. Parking and CPA networks will work from the same panels. As revenue continue to plummet parking companies will start integrating more options in order to keep customers, maximize returns.
Registrars: Many more portfolio owners will own their own. Existing registrars must evolve to offer more services than selling domains.
Consolidation: Again, inevitable. Some will either sell/merge, or perish. Times are tough out there and not all will make it.
And what can you do to evolve, stay ahead of the curve? Make sure liquidity exists in the market, build alternative revenue streams, and be patient. Rome was not built in a day, and your financial security won’t either.
Have a great day!
Sahar
Nice post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Niche directories have a bright future IMO. We expect domains in our portfolio like FindaCollegeLoan.com,ForeclosureAnnouncements and PublicCompanyNews.com to be successful because they will offer consumers convenient access to multiple sources of news and information of interest to a specific audience. And at the same time they are attractive to advertisers with products or services that are of interest to consumers in that niche
Onlien Diectories that serve a sizeable and specific niche as well GEO domains both have bright futures for their owners as print media sources wane or go out of business all together
Good read and well said.
Great Post Sahar!
A really good read!
Thanks for sharing this information - I know it takes time to work on these posts and I want to thank you for supplying this information to the Domaining Community.
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Thanks Rob. Yes, it is time consuming. The way I look at it is really simple: The best way to learn is by teaching, as when you teach, you must break things into fundamentals to explain them better. Essentially, while others benefit, I benefit as well.
Cheers
Sahar
“Automated solutions should create thousands of pages interlinking with one another and the world. Data should be pulled from outside (feeds, spidering), user generated content, as well as exclusive content”
I have about 200 sites (with some client sites) and that’s my plan here in a mostly manual operation. The Geo sites have area content and advertising to boost traffic to any other appropriate sites.
Sites are linked (or will be) via the banner exchanges and other mechanisms. Internal Network exclusive content will be reused as appropriate. Etc.
We have two servers mirrored to each other that are a CDN for images right now (and other plans down the road) with round robin DNS. Three diverse DNS servers. And two boxes that spider and mirror our sites locally.
I figure another two years to get it all built since this is a sparetime operation. There’s a lot to do but what I’ve done so far is showing me the way.
Hi Sahar –
Great post, thank you for sharing. I certainly agree with what you are saying and am acting on those concepts now, as you and others are. Providing the ‘picks and shovels’ to an industry has always been an attractive proposition and the time to do this in Domaining is now.
Randy Charach
Sahar –
Excellent post! I think your comments about liquidity in the domain industry are spot on and I think Bido is in a great position to achieve this. However, I have to admit that I don’t think Bido is there yet.
In the future, I would love to see Bido move from a one domain auction per day platform to become a platform that many can access and take advantage of.
One idea is for Bido to offer memberships to domainers who want to use the platform to sell their domains. Then, instead of selling one domain per day, Bido can bre in the business of providing a place where hundreds or thousands of domains can be sold every day. This will provide much better liquidity in the market as well as a bigger pay day for Bido.
Can you have this done by the end of the month?
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Hi Lou, and thanks for the feedback, it is much appreciated!
Bido will be an open platform, not by end of month though, but sometime by end of year. Takes time to put the pieces together and there’s much more to it than getting a few extra servers for the load. To give you some ideas, dealing with expert commentary for one domain a day is one thing, but hundreds or thousands of domains per day is completely different. Dealing with payments or transfers for one domain vs. thousands is different. In term of user interface, ours in the current system is very rough and technical as we understand all but to make it to every day folks is completely different. From tech perspective running one vs. thousands is a major expense. And there’s much more here I’m not disclosing, including modules that are in the works and will be introduced soon to make the platform even better.
So the short answer is we’re in full agreement. We’re not there yet but will be soon. As far as memberships go, it’s an idea..
Cheers
Sahar