I’ve heard about a lot of top producing domain names being moved to InternetTraffic.com in the last couple of weeks, and I’ve read reports and heard from others who say that the revenue increase is pretty astounding. I’ve also heard from others that believe there’s a good chance smart pricing will lower some of those initial great results.
Should the revenue stay steady for those who are parking their names there, and even if they see a slight drop in revenue, I predict we are going to see a nice uptick in the domain aftermarket in the second half of 2011.
My business first blossomed back in 2006-07. That’s when I started focusing on buying and selling higher end domain names, and while I sold mostly to domain investors, the sales were solid. PPC was strong, and people used the proceeds from their earnings to re-invest in quality domain names. The PPC bubble started bursting in 2008 and bottomed out in 2009, and the domain aftermarket deflated along with much of the economy.
If InternetTraffic.com continues to produce higher revenues, domain investors will likely start looking for good quality investments in the domain space. Physical real estate can be a pain in the ass to deal with, and that market is still reeling. I am sure many are going to build up a solid cash reserve because they know its importance, but once that is done, I think people will begin reinvesting in domain name assets, as they did before.
I think NameJet is going to be one of the primary beneficiaries of this new income, since many of these names produce revenue right off the bat. I predict we’ll begin seeing a trend of higher sales and greater sales volume as people at the top of the chain begin taking chances on names they weren’t willing to touch in the past 18-24 months.
I also believe we are going to see higher end user sales. One of the main reasons we began to see a concerted effort to sell top quality domain names owned by the most successful domain investors was that they were using it as a steady revenue stream. Some great names don’t make much PPC revenue, so it makes sense to sell them if the price was right at the time, and it could help offset PPC losses. With PPC gains, there’s less motivation to sell, and consequently, higher asking prices.
It’s very difficult to predict future behavior of domain investors. I could be way off base, and these investors will simply keep the extra cash as a security blanket in the event of another PPC crash. Smart pricing could hurt the revenue these names are generating and the excitement could be deflated. I really don’t know for sure.
I am inclined to believe that if revenue is returning to where it once was, we will begin to see some nice acquisitions and a general lift in the domain aftermarket.
