With a little about a day and a half left in its auction at Sedo, Dollars.com currently has a high bid of $385,990. This domain name changed hands in July of 2007 for $650,000. This is a strong domain name, and I predict it will close near the previous amount at which it sold.
DomainFest Auction Wasn’t All Bad
I think we can all agree that the Moniker live auction at DomainFest was pretty much a bomb, but I don’t really think this is a bad thing for the industry. There weren’t many bargains in the live auction, which shows that domain owners aren’t necessarily losing faith in their investments and selling their domain names for whatever the market will yield as a consequence. This shows that there is strength in domain assets, especially those that are of high value.
For the most part, it seemed that the high priced domain names that were listed were priced far too high for other domain investors to purchase. Sure, they may be worth the amount to someone with a solid business plan, but most domain investors don’t have business plans for names they plan to buy. Many have them for names they own, but it can be fruitless to build a business plan around a name that isn’t owned by us. This coupled with just a short amount of time between the final list publication and the auction, it’s not very likely that a plan can even be built.
Also, many of the names up for sale at auction have either been listed at other auction(s) recently or had been privately marketed recently. There were a couple of names I made private offers on in the last couple of months, and I decided against bidding on both (even though my offers would have equaled or superseded the reserve). Personally, I don’t like to buy at public auction, and I’ve only done so once. With a market in flux, I didn’t want to be the price setter – especially in a public auction.
So how can live auctions be improved? Mike and his readers have some good suggestions. I’ve also made a few additional suggestions in the past, mostly related to end user education. I still think it would be wise for a domain ambassador to attend a non-domain tradeshow and run small group sessions discussing the importance of generic domain names. Every single industry has tradeshows, and most tradeshows have opportunities for educational seminars. Why hasn’t any company made in-roads with end users yet (with the exception of when an end user already knows that he wants to buy a particular domain name)?
Over the past several years, it always seemed that live domain auctions would yield seven figures no matter what. Well, this isn’t really a reality any more. Domain owners are more picky about what they buy in this tight market, and without domain owners continuing to be speculators, it is much more difficult to produce eye popping auction results with domain investors being the primary target audience.
Times are changing, but I don’t think this is a bad thing for our maturing industry.
DomainInvesting.com a “Top Drop”
I just updated my picks for “Top Drops” on Snapnames. One name that might be of particular interest to domain owners in the name DomainInvesting.com. Although DomainInvesting.com does not appear to be a standard dropping domain name, it is certainly one that could be used by a domain investor in a variety of ways. It’s in auction through February 3, and the current auction price is just $240.
***UPDATE***
Bidding is now up to $675.
You Need to Attend a Domain Conference
For those of you who are involved in the domain industry as an investor, developer, or other service provider, I again strongly urge you to attend a domain conference. The one complaint I heard and have to a agree with is that there are so many good shows now, it’s difficult and expensive to attend them all. Well, with shows being held across the United States and the world, I suggest you pick at least one close to you and do your best to attend.
Here is a list of some upcoming shows:
Domainer Mardi Gras – February 19-21 in New Orleans, LA
GeoDomain Expo – April 24-25 in San Diego, CA
Traffic – Silicon Valley – April 27-30 in Silicon Valley, CA
Traffic – Amsterdam – June 1-4 in Amsterdam
Domain Roundtable – June 14-17 in Washington, DC
Traffic – New York – October 26-29 in New York, NY
I am still undecided about which shows will attend. As I did last summer, I have several weddings to attend this spring and summer as well in Michigan, Massachusetts, New York and California. I am fairly certain I will attend Traffic NY because it’s practically in my backyard (if Brooklyn was my backyard). I also really want to attend my first Domain Roundtable, especially because it’s on the east coast. Of course I want to visit Amsterdam and I should really attend the GeoDomain Expo. Clearly I am still up in the air and need to figure some of this out!
Here are a couple of money savings tips if you want to attend the show and save some cash:
1) If you book a flight with JetBlue (not sure about other airlines), keep checking on the price of your flight after booking. In the past, 90% of airfare prices increased. These days, they are decreasing as it gets closer to the day of departure. JetBlue will give you credit for the difference between your booking price and the lower price if it goes down. Just keep monitoring the price and call if you see it go lower.
2) Check with your service providers to see if they offer customer discounts. Chances are good that you would have received an offer if they do have discounts, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. I don’t make enough PPC money or have enough domain names in my portfolio to qualify for any company discounts, but perhaps your service providers can hook you up.
3) Share a room with someone you know in the industry. Ask friends on the domain forums and maybe you’ll find someone who will be willing to share a room. Most of the time is spent socializing and you won’t be in your room much anyway. I wouldn’t directly ask someone to share a room though because it could put them in an awkward position if they don’t feel comfortable with it.
4) Stay in a hotel close to the conference but not at the conference. Again, you are going to spend little time in the hotel anyway.
5) Share rides to/from the airport and don’t rent a car. Frequently the valet parking or parking garage at a conference hotel is sky high.
Marchex Layoffs Announced
Although they don’t consider themselves domainers, Marchex owns thousands of domain names, and the company is one of the few publicly traded domain-related companies. This morning, Marchex announced that the company is laying off 15 employees, about 4% of its workforce.
They also announced a couple of senior management changes, naming Peter Christothoulou Chief Operating Officer and Matthew Berk Executive Vice President of Product Engineering. In November, Mike Berkens blogged about Marchex and how it’s market cap was just slightly more than the total amount they paid for Yun Yee’s portfolio. While the stock price has increased since Mike’s post, the economy is still taking a toll on the company.