In my opinion, the best way to improve your business is to learn how others are achieving success and to learn from mistakes. I’ve learned quite a bit this past year, and I reached out to a number of domain industry colleagues to ask if they’d share one thing that they learned.

Several people responded with in-depth answers, and I hope their knowledge will help you with your business. Please post something you learned in 2011 that might be beneficial to others who read this article.

Charlotte Gilbert, Dobhran Development  –  I work 60 + hours a week on several domain development projects, and I’m sure most developers work that hard or even harder. Some developers may put in more hours, some may put in a few less.  But I don’t really think of it as work because I enjoy what I do. I really have a passion for it. If you’re not passionate about what you do, stop right now and think about what you really want to do.

After going out on my own as an independent web site developer,  I learned it is harder to gain customers than initially thought.  One of the most important things to remember when I was trying to establish my development business is I must always be looking for clients and ways to get them to work with me.  I have also learned not to sell myself or what I do, short. I worked very hard to become educated in this field  and I have over 12 years of experience.

One of the largest mistakes I made was keeping  my fees low so I would  attract a wider audience. I ended up with clients who complained all the time. The end result was working myself to the bone trying to please them (and using up all my profits in the process).  By charging a premium price it establishes the seriousness of my stance as a web site developer, It cut the mediocrity of the client base and I continued to provide excellent customer service without sacrificing my standards.

Warren Royal, Bobbleheads.com – The most important thing I have learned is that development should not be the objective of the domain investment life-cycle; rather, it is just an early step in the process. Many of us have purchased a great ecommerce name, and developed a great site, and then waited confidently for the world to beat a path to our door. And then we have been surprised and disappointed when that didn’t happen. I have done this many times myself.

I didn’t understand that the huge majority of the work which is required to build a successful business (especially an ecommerce one) comes AFTER development. In fact, I’ve learned this: You may spend 5% of your time researching and purchasing a domain, 10% developing the site, and 85% building the business.

There are hundreds of things which you must do to source and/or develop products, identify prospects, develop infrastructure and operations capabilities, hire and train staff, develop distribution channels, warehouse your products, develop vendor relationships, market your business, finance your inventory, sell your products, and deliver them to customers. I think it is important to understand this and to plan and allocate time and resources for these critical tasks.

In my experience, these are the things that determine success or failure in an ecommerce business. Of course, having a great name and building a great site are important – but development should not be the end-game. If success is to be achieved, domain development is an important, but early, step in  the process.

Toby Clements,  TobyClements.com  –  The one thing I will remember about 2011 is the feeling that everything leveled back out again. Since 2009 things have been a little sluggish, but  this year has been very consistant. There are normally peaks and valleys with sales, but I found myself closing deals on such a regular basis that  it’s just an expected part of my day.

Paul Goldstone,  iGoldrush –  After 15 years in the business I learned the same in 2011 as I learned in every year prior – expect change!  The most  significant change in the domain industry over the past year was of course the dramatic loss of parking revenue and the switching of gears to  web site development.  Change is progress, change is opportunity, and change is inevitable, so my advice is to expect it, accept it, and roll with  it.  In some cases change can be devastating to a company which is why I have always considered diversification an important factor in a well  balanced business plan.  There’s a lot to be said about being focused but it’s important to have multiple fires burning because you never know  when someone might walk up and pee on one of your fires.

Bill Sweetman,  YummyNames – I learned that “development” — even so-called mass development solutions —  can be a huge distraction from (and impediment to) domain sales efforts as  well as a massive time suck. If you have a large portfolio you may be better  off just parking everything.

Brian Gilbert,  Innovation HQ  –  One thing we’ve learned in 2011 is that development definitely works if  you’ve got the right plan, resources, and PATIENCE.  Our developed domains  have increased by huge percentage points across the board.  This not only  increases their value, it keeps us at lower risk since we don’t have all of  our eggs in one basket (parking).  A major part of our 2012 plan is to  continue development.

The Honorable Neil Brown QC,  UDRP Arbitrator and Mediator –  I have learned, although I knew it  before, that in the arbitration of    domain    name disputes, cases are won on the  evidence. Assertions of what  happened are not enough; what is needed is evidence of what happened and its  significance. The UDRP makes it clear that the issues that the Complainant has  to prove are factual, that they must be  proved if the Complainant is to be  successful and that they can only be proved by evidence.

Moreover, as these  proceedings are civil proceedings they must be won on the balance of  probabilities. That in itself means there must be  evidence of factual matters  that tilts the scales one way or the other so that tribunal can conclude that  one version of the  facts is probably what happened. So practitioners should  always remember , whether they are acting for a complainant  or a respondent  that their case will be won- or lost- depending on the evidence, the quality of  the evidence and how it  can help the tribunal to come to one conclusion or  another.

Eric Borgos,  Impulse Communications, Inc.  –  I learned that it takes a lot of work nowadays to buy a big domain name and develop it into a site that gets ranked well in Google. Instead, I can  make the same amount of money buying a domain and flipping it, and that involves very little work. So, I plan to decrease my domain  development and increase my domain speculation.

Josh Metnick, Chicago.com –  Domains that people identify with–  fishing.com,  Boston.com, etc.– are going to become worth orders of magnitude compared to the way we used  to look at domain development.

Larry Erlich – DomainRegistry.com Inc. – All those spam emails that we all get from China and elsewhere? Well this year was the year that I took them seriously and actually made money by not leaving any stone unturned. In addition to selling them domains which they inquired about I have sold other domains by responding with a short email with some other names that I have available. I never did this in the past feeling that I could always identify the “real” buyers.

By the way by spam emails I don’t mean ones that are inquiring about a single domain and hiding an identity. I mean ones that are mailing out to every owner of a 3 letter or 4 letter domain. (So I get multiple ones frequently.) They are buyers. Ok so not end user pricing but still pricing I would accept. Like Glenn Gary, always be “selling”. Every inquiry is an opportunity to sell something. The premium domain they inquire about that they will never buy because of the price? Find a domain that they will buy instead.

The other thing I realized in 2011 was the following: We all get annoyed with people who “waste our time” with inquiries and don’t turn out to be the buyers that will pay the big dollars. We’ve all had these. Someone from a medium or big company that makes an inquiry that we feel could result in big dollars. They then write back and say the amount is way to high and have a nice day (or don’t write back at all). So we get pissed off.

I finally realized that in this case that we are not mad at them we are just disappointed that we got our hopes up that we could be making big dollars and that didn’t happen. Because every email we get could be the big one. And when it’s not the big one we tend to react negatively to the person sending the email as if it’s their fault that they aren’t clued into our way of thinking. We take our anger out on them when we are really made at ourselves for getting our hopes up.

Braden Pollock,  Legal Brand Marketing  –  We’re far too dependent on Google, in a variety of ways.

Mike Mann,  DomainMarket.com  /  Phone.com  /  Grassroots.org  /  MikeMann.com  –  Still lots of money to be made with adequate work and research and helpers.

Elliot Noss, CEO  Tucows  –  2011 reinforced for me the importance of pricing. So many people overprice, but just as many underprice. There is no price elasticity in domain  names. It is all about finding the right buyer at the right time which means the focus need be on distribution and pricing “properly” which is art not  science. Maximize total revenue, not average revenue!

Karen J. Bernstein,  Law Offices of Karen J. Bernstein, LLC  –  I’ve learned in 2011 that the Anticybersquatting Protection Act and the federal trademark laws need to be changed  to make it harder for unscrupulous companies to sue unwitting domainers.  The standard needs to be raised for  granting injunctions in ACPA and trademark infringement cases when domain names are involved.  Indeed, if  domainers don’t have the money to defend themselves they may face a default judgment attaching their homes and  other large investments or just be financially run into the ground and bankrupt because the plaintiff companies will  litigate them to death.

Large portfolio domainers can be sued by any company that has the money to bring them  to court no matter how frivolous the lawsuit can be.  In 2011, my firm successfully defended a large portfolio  domainer that was the subject of a restraining order by a company for being an apparel counterfeiter when indeed  the domainer had never been in the apparel business.  All the company wanted was the domain name and they  counted on the domainer defaulting on the judgment.  It didn’t happen.  The case has since been dismissed and a  motion for sanctions has been filed on behalf of the domainer asking for the company to pay $96,000 in attorneys’  fees.  That motion is still pending.

Juan Diego Calle, Founder  .CO Registry  /  Straat Investments    –  A community of evangelists is 100x more powerful than your total marketing budget.

Kathy Nielsen,  Sedo  (These are Kathy’s personal views, not necessarily Sedo’s)  –  I learned that buyers by far prefer to buy domains that are priced.  The Buy Now (Fix Priced) domain sales continue to grow at a  very strong pace on Sedo’s network and feedback from buyers supports this buying preference.  They want to buy things now,  not 1 month from now.  They don’t want to haggle in negotiations that make no sense to them or reflect their normal buying  practices.  They are used to registering a domain, and want to buy a premium domain as easily as registering a new domain.  Price  will always be a factor, but the chances of someone buying that domain are  greatly  reduced if the domains don’t have a price.

Fred Mercaldo,  Cities Planet  – Everything takes twice as long as you think it will, and revenue is half as much as you expect!!!

I don’t really enjoy making predictions for the new year, so I thought I would get off easy this year and do the asking this time. I asked a number of domain industry colleagues and professionals if they would be willing to share a prediction (or a few) for 2012, and many people were kind enough to offer their insight. Hopefully, this will be helpful to you as you close out the year.

I invite you to post your domain industry predictions in the comment section and/or provide feedback about some of these predictions as well.

2012 Domain Industry Predictions:

Paul Goldstone, iGoldrush – My prediction for 2012 in the domain business is a substantial increase in education and public awareness about domain names. Over the past year the business world has heard more about domain names than any other period in time. They learned about the possibility of new domain extensions, they heard from those for and against the new extensions, they heard examples of new extensions, and they heard about some of the players. With all this talk of domain names, what they have still yet to hear much about is how domain names can actually be of measurable value to their companies outside of a virtual street address.

Whether their opinions of domains, the players, and the potential of new extensions are positive or negative, once thing is for sure – we have their attention. I believe that 2012 is going to be a significant year where smart domain companies will join us in our mission since 1996, by educating the business world as to the value of using domain names to improve their bottom line. This newfound understanding and public awareness will in turn increase the overall value of domain names, a win-win situation.

Bill Sweetman, YummyNames – There is going to be an increase in the number of domains sold to buyers in Asia, especially China. The Chinese market is huge and rapidly-growing, and I see a bright future for domain sales into this market.

The Honorable Neil Brown QC, UDRP Arbitrator and Mediator – My prediction is that there will be more applications for new gTLDs than has been anticipated. There has been a widely held view that many companies will hold back and just keep an eye on other applications and see if there are any that affect them. So it has been thought that there may not be many applications. I am inclined to think that more than expected will actually apply, irrespective of what others do. Obviously the fees and costs of making an application will be quite high, but those involved will be well-heeled, so the costs will not deter them and consequently many will apply for gTLDs, no matter what the cost.

The reasons why they will apply are, first, the reasons already advanced and talked about and there is no need to repeat them. But I think there will also be quite a few applications for the additional reason that the “old” TLDs no longer mean as much as they did or as they were supposed to be understood. A .com domain name could indicate anything at all today and the new gTLD creates an opportunity to make it clear to the user and the potential customer just what is covered by a domain name under that TLD and what will be found on its website.

The consumer will therefore be more likely to go to a website where it is clear what it stands for, rather than any other website. Companies will have worked that out and realized that it is a great marketing tool. They will also know and it will be a fact sooner or later that the potential customer, the user of the internet, will think the security at the website at the new gTLD will be greater, as a well known company is standing behind it, guaranteeing its reputation and ensuring that it is safe as it can be and that there are no risks in the consumer using it. So the new gTLD will inspire confidence on the part of the consumer; companies will know this and will want to avail themselves of the advantage that can be gained by having a domain name and website that announces to the world that it is the company’s own, that the company stands behind it.

There is a lot of concern among ordinary people about computer and online fraud and having a new gTLD will reduce at least some of this concern .There are also other obvious benefits of having a new gTLD and, for whatever reason, I think the new gTLDs will do well. I have heard of quite a few applicants who are getting ready to lodge their applications, which they will do early and probably not wait to see what other potential applicants are doing. The other prediction I make in this area is that there will be disputes, but that the range of dispute resolution systems created by ICANN are so extensive and so good that they will prove very effective in resolving those disputes or encouraging a settlement.

Fred Mercaldo, Cities Planet – We will see, finally, major media getting involved with pure geo City.com brands.

Josh Metnick, Chicago.com – After some stagnation, the values of Geodomains will skyrocket with the final realization of marrying the academic concept of place-identity with those domains. Lawyer@chicago.com is probably worth 50k or more to the right person. Emails will be treated more like domain names, they are digital assets.

Brian Gilbert, Innovation HQ – With the Presidential election coming up we’ll see major candidates putting tons of effort and marketing dollars towards social networks. New ways to reach their audience effectively will evolve. Focusing campaign efforts towards social media will continue to raise awareness of the massive online community advertisers can reach. Marketers will be watching the campaign strategies closely and probably learn from their methods and make attempts to mimic those methods. Some advertisers/marketers will be smart enough to go after related domain names and be ready to pay.

Karen J. Bernstein, Law Offices of Karen J. Bernstein, LLC – I predict that in 2012 there will be substantial problems with the majority of Generic, Geographic and IDN gTLD applicants being approved by virtue of the complexities of the applicant proving it has the financial capacity in answering the ICANN gTLD Guidebook Questions 45-50. It is by far the most difficult part of the application process.

The ICANN gTLD Guidebook Questions require extremely detailed predictions and ICANN provides no benchmarks for what is an acceptable financial model going out three years in advance, which is akin to working in the dark. I believe that based on the laborious financial review process the timeline for ICANN to publish approvals of applications will be delayed by virtue of the financial complexities ICANN has created for companies seeking to become a gTLD registry. Brand gTLDs will most likely have little difficulty since their registry is “closed” to the public.

Tim Chen, CEO, DomainTools (These views are Tim’s and do not necessarily represent the views of DomainTools) – Increased competition in the registrar space: This may be stating the obvious. No disrespect to our regsitrar friends out there but to the general public this has been a one horse race for the last 5 years. There are good companies out there than can compete with GoDaddy today, and others that should. The recent uptick in 1&1 advertising is a harbinger. Web.com is circling the wagons with Register and Netsol. Enom has deep resources and a strong team, as does Tucows. Expect a lot more consolidation in this space in 2012, likely led by GoDaddy and the motivation and funds provided by their new private equity investors.

Brain Drain – This is both a positive and a negative. ICANN, Verisign, Oversee and Sedo turned over their CEOs this year (Rod Beckstrom in process). There were others as well. RIck Schwartz closed his blog and implied he may turn his attention to other industries. It hurts to lose experienced leaders from our industry. But the good news is it will allow for new energy and insight from a new generation of industry leaders. Given the talented, driven and now wealthy entrepreneurs that created this industry, I expect many more will move on to new challenges in 2012. It is worth noting guys like Frank Shilling and Mike Berkens who are iterating into adjacent businesses but sticking to domains. I’m rooting for them and hope others are as well.

Co-opetiion. I hate that word but it seems appropriate. It’s not too many years ago when it seemed we had domainers, registrars, parking companies, and drop/sales platforms. Now everyone is bleeding into each others’ business. We’re all trying to grow our businesses and leverage our installed asset base. It makes sense and happens in all industries. But that person you are catching up with over cocktails at DomainFest is very likely a competitor as well, much more so today than a few years ago.

Kathy Nielsen, Sedo (These are Kathy’s personal views, not necessarily Sedo’s) – I am really looking forward to 2012 and the changes may be in store in the domain world. There are so many interesting things going on. I have been amazed this year at how the mainstream media picked up such sustained coverage of the new gTLD potentials and launches. ICANN/.XXX/AMA, etc have brought the topic of domains to the general population. Even my 80 year old father asks me about the latest happenings at ICANN, yet he cannot tell you what I do for a living. This is an awareness that we’ve never seen before on this scale. I think it will translate into positive things for the industry. Bringing awareness of domains to the general population can do a lot of good things!

*Raise awareness that the market for premium domains exists (premium = registered) and has value
*Sets the stage for new gTLDs and potentially an openness or awareness to the population that they will very likely see something to the right of the dot besides .com.
*Finally, companies of all sizes are getting educated on the value of domains and what they mean for their organizations. This may not mean that they are going to run out and apply for a new gTLD, but it is forcing many of them to assess what they have, and see that there is value.

I think with the hype, marketing and excitement that surely many big brands will try to create with their new TLDs (hoping to see some launch in 2012?), this general discussion of domains, even beyond the brands, will keep this topic in the news, and in front of the average Joe. This in my opinion can only be a good thing for the domain industry. I think there are some amazing ideas out there for new TLDs and that we will definitely see some success stories in the years to come!

Charlotte Gilbert,  Dobhran Development  –  Bing will sell another chunk off oft the chinese or Google will invest a significant amount of dollars to salvage their competition (much like Microsoft did with Apple years ago).  Google will demand more out of website development with them releasing another serious Panda update..Mobile advertising will flood the market and users will continue to have adsense blindness forcing site/domain owners to be more creative with site monetization and design

Elliot Noss, CEO Tucows – In 2012 we will see continued efficiency come to the secondary market for domain names in two ways.

We will see existing distribution channels improve, primarily through more registrars and resellers integrating premium names into their results.

More importantly, we will see a significant increase in participation by large companies. Premium domains are moving from the legal department to the marketing department which is to the benefit of the whole market.

Braden Pollock, Legal Brand Marketing – With the launch of new TLD’s and domaining going a bit more mainstream, we’re going to see more players in the game and a lot more speculation of names. 2012 will be the year of the Registries and Registrars.

With parking revenues at an all-time low, new technologies will emerge that will breathe new life into parking and domain portfolios. (Hopefully, my new company will be leading the way)

Howard Neu C.O.O. and co-Founder, T.R.A.F.F.I.C. – I predict that the world will end, according to Mayan tradition on 12/12/12, so sell all your domains as soon as possible!

Juan Diego Calle, Founder .CO Registry / Straat Investments – .CO will continue a fast growth trajectory with a booming startup community building websites on .CO domains. The new TLD program will continue full speed ahead, helping us draw consumer awareness of the fact that legacy domain extensions are not the only option to build credible websites. Only a handful of TLDs will launch during the year (some brands & communities), but it will be step in the right direction.

Mike Mann, Founder, DomainMarket.com / Phone.com / SEO.com / Grassroots.org / MikeMann.com – .com will still be king.

Thies Lindenthal, IDNX (These are Thies’ personal views, not necessarily Sedo’s) – Bill Clinton’s wisdom “It’s the economy, stupid” holds absolutely true with domains. Predicting next year’s domain trends is as tricky as predicting next year’s economy. Domain markets are efficient, despite all randomness at the individual domain level. I do not claim that each domain is efficiently priced (yet), but general price trends for domains clearly follow the IT and advertising industry indicators.

I happened to come across a domain name owned by a company called MicroStrategy, Inc. On the home page, there was a note about the company, and below that, there was a message that said, “Please contact [email]@microstrategy.com for domain availability inquires.” With a note like that, I assumed the company owned additional domain names, and I was correct.

I grabbed the sentence from the home page and searched for it in Google using quotes around the term to get the exact match results. There were quite a few great domain names / websites listed. Among the company’s domain names I found:

• Hope.com
• Mike.com
• William.com
• Glory.com
• iDream.com
• Frank.com

At a Traffic conference in New York several years ago, Trafficz gave out I “heart” Domains t-shirts. That was probably the only domain related giveaway I’ve ever really kept, with the exception of various flash drives and pens.

A few days ago, someone emailed me a link to some domain-related goods on Zazzle and I want to share some of them with you in case you want to broadcast that you’re a domain investor. I don’t think I know the creators of these items/designs, and I have not bought any of them (these aren’t affiliate links either).

• .com Stamps ($.44 US stamps)
• Domainer by Day t-shirt
• .net shoes
• Domain Broker advice t-shirt
• Domain Auction Mystery t-shirt
• www . Coffee mug
• Girls are like domain names t-shirt
• It’s all about the coms t-shirt

‘Tis the season to give thanks, and I think there is a group of people within our industry that especially deserve kudos and thanks. Forum moderation is one of those jobs that doesn’t usually pay well (if anything), can be stressful, and can cause friction for the moderators.

While forum moderators aren’t always the most appreciated people when they are doing their job, they perform a necessary function that keeps the domain forums running smoothly. Without them, I think many of the forums would be full of spammers and scammers, and it would make doing business much more difficult.

Thank you to those who moderate the domain forums in which most of us conduct business. While we may not always agree with decisions that are made, the job that forum moderators do is critical to the management and effectiveness of forums. Thanks for your commitment and time.