Daily Poll

Yesterday, the UK edition of Wired published an article about new gTLD domain names: Forget dot com, 2019 will finally be the year of weird domain names. The article cited the increasing registration numbers of new gTLD extensions and the increasing usage of them.

I am not sure if the increasing registration numbers is a good way to look at things because of the very low pricing promotions that are out there. I presume if Verisign lowered the cost to buy .com domain names to $.99 or even $2.00 across the board, there would be a very big increase in registration volume. On the other hand, I do agree that the new gTLD domain names are being used more widely these days and I would say by a varying audience.

Have a look at the Wired article and then vote – will 2019 be “the year of weird domain names“?

Just about every domain broker requires a domain name owner to commit to a period of exclusivity where they are the only broker that can represent the domain name. In addition, I believe most brokers require a domain owner to pay a commission, regardless of where or how the domain name was sold, if the domain name is sold during this exclusivity period.

Although some brokers and brokerages may allow the domain owner to negotiate the exclusivity period, some brokers may be more firm. From a broker’s perspective, they don’t want to spend time, effort, and possibly money on outreach to sell a domain name and find out that the owner sold it shortly thereafter. They need to protect their own personal investment into the sale of the domain name.

I thought it would be good to know what readers think is a fair period of exclusivity for a domain broker working on marketing a domain name. Fair is the chosen word because it should be fair for both the broker and the domain owner. Vote in the poll below and feel free to share additional thoughts in the comment section:

Over the last two plus years, I believe quite a bit of money shifted from domain name investments to cryptocurrency. Several domain investors I know spent more time focusing on investing in the crypto space because of the potential for much higher returns than with domain names.

As you likely know, many cryptocurrencies are down considerably from their all-time highs as well as from where they were tracking earlier this year. With the new year almost upon us, I am curious what you think has more upside in 2019 – cryptocurrencies or domain names. Obviously, there could be some coins that do better than others, just like some extensions could do better than others. I am asking more on a macro-view of each business.

Chicago.com was sold a couple of years ago, and George Kirikos found an IRS filing that seems to indicate it was bought for $1 million. Assuming the million dollar figure is accurate, this sale would be one of the largest reported geodomain name sales.

Chicago is one of the largest cities in the US, and it is one of the most visited cities as well. I have been several times (mostly for work when I had a corporate job), and I had a great time visiting friends in Chicago a few Summers ago.

Assuming the purchase price was $1 million, how would you describe this sale?

On Friday afternoon, I wrote about the introduction of Evergreen’s one word domain name newsletter. Later on Friday, Doron Vermaat, founder of Efty and DNGeek, announced an email newsletter with “a curated list of hand-picked brandable domain names” that are coming up for auction. I signed up for both of these newsletters.

In addition to these new newsletters, I receive email newsletters from several domain brokers, marketplaces, registrar, and other industry companies. I probably subscribe to a dozen newsletters in total. Some, like the NameJet and GoDaddy newsletters, are sent daily. Others are sent weekly or monthly. Not only do these newsletters keep me apprised of what domain names are on the market, but some provide additional insight about the domain investment business that has been helpful.

I am interested in knowing what percentage of people who read this blog subscribe to industry newsletters:

Translate.com sold via auction on Flippa for $853,000, as reported on NamePros. This was not simply a domain name sale. I believe the deal includes the revenue generating website as well. Since the Flippa auction just ended, I doubt the deal has closed yet.

Assuming the deal closes without issue, I thought it would be interesting to hear what you guys have to say about the purchase price. You can see the reported revenue and profit on the Flippa listing and in the NamePros thread.

Do you think this was a good deal for the buyer, a good deal for the seller, or a fair deal for both parties?