General Domain Information

My wife and I went on a quick vacation for the weekend for a wedding, and as always, it’s great to get away for a few days. I wanted to share some thoughts that I had while away.

I know a lot of professional domain investors don’t particularly like using Estibot for appraisals, and they are amused when a seller lists the Estibot value in a domain sales thread. However, one way to use Estibot’s very favorable values is when someone inquires to buy a domain name from you. Since the values seem more “end user-ish,” why not cite that valuation in your reply as a starting point for negotiations? Of course, you need to make sure the value is in line with your asking price.

I still don’t understand why a company like Ebay or Microsoft would want to buy a gTLD for its brand. It would seem that the   application fee as well as ongoing management costs (either internal or outsourced) wouldn’t justify the price when the .com domain name can seemingly do the same thing. Really, what’s the difference beetween something like cars.ebay versus cars.ebay.com when there are so many more costs associated with gTLDs?

I do happen to think gTLD domain names will be a game changer for our industry. I don’t really know many domain investors that are “fighting” gTLDs per se (although there are plenty that don’t really want them), but it will be important for all of us to embrace them upon introduction to hedge our .com bets, in the event that consumers quickly adopt them in market. Whatever happens, it’s going to be fun watching and participating when they are introduced and publicly available.

It’s fun to know so many city .com domain name owners when we go away and meet people that live all over the country. I met/saw people from Portland, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Nashville, Philadelphia, and a few other cities, and I always have the urge to say, “my buddy owns that city .com” but my wife doesn’t exactly like it when I do that 🙂

When I have the chance to do new things and try new activities, it helps stimulate ideas for domain names (new registrations and aftermarket acquisitions). I spent yesterday morning on a boat and was able to do some wakeboarding, so I now have some new ideas for domain inquiries.

I want to change things up a little bit today. Instead of writing a blog post right now, I want you to share something with me and the other people who read my blog. I’d like you to share your story about how you became a domain investor.

There are a number of public figures in our industry, many of whom have interesting stories about how they became domain investors and were the first pioneers of a relatively new industry. However, there are many interesting stories that haven’t really been shared yet, and I’d love to hear about them.

I am interested in learning how you came across the industry and what made you interested in domain investments. I am looking forward to seeing your replies… please don’t be shy!