The RickLatona.com domain name auction from the TRAFFIC Dublin show just ended with what I’m pretty sure is an all time low for a TRAFFIC show.
Just 12 domains sold for a total of 86,820 Euro’s or around $110K.
Two domains accounted for 85% of the total sales, ShortFilms.com sold for €58,000 and Italian.net €15,400.
Meaning that the other 10 domains sold accounted for only €13,420 in sales.
Poor
The poll we took on this domain foretold the results.
Not because people correctly picked the domains that would sell, (actually I didn’t even select those as choices for the poll) but it showed a huge lack of interest in the domaining community for the auction.
Only 44 people voted in the poll casting 77 votes (each voter could select up to 3 domains), in which we asked which domain would sell in this auction.
690 votes were cast over the 4 DomainFest polls in which we asked the same question.
Here are the other domains that sold:
Eqi.com €3000
Microphones.net €3,150.00
html.in €770.00
usk.com €3700
skills.us € 100
ShannonTourism.com €125
MobilePhone.bz €25
Talking.net €2000
PDFReader.net € 100
Party-Costumes.com € 450
Having an auction that starts at 10 am PST, and 7 am PST, for online American bidders (who the hell is up then???), was probably not the wisest choice either.
Results at domainfest NYC was poor as well if you take out the t-shirt domains.
Kevin
Or having a domain auction in Europe at all.
I mean has any one of those produced any meaningful sales?
Europeans can by domains basically on sale and haven’t stepped in a big way.
Not now when they get a 20% discount and not a year ago when they were getting a 40%+ discount
Two reasons for the failure, in my opinion:
(1) reserves set too high
(2) bidding in Euros; let’s face it, the US dollar is the currency of choice for most people; it’s going to add a 2% to 3% extra cost to many buyers, an inconvenience fee (and many of the sellers were from the USA, and would want to receive funds in US dollars too!)
If the reserves were lower, though, #2 is something folks would suffer through, to get the domain.
Wanna
Domainfest resulted in $530K in sales, if you take out the tshirt.com sale but first of all why would you take the sale out?
Those domains sold. They were in the auction and promoted as part of the auction. The seller just got an offer a few times above the reserve and took it.
Even still $530K maybe disappointing but $110K is disastrous
George
Using Euro’s those trading in dollars have an increase cost of 25%
George
Also its fine to ask for end user pricing but the auction house has to then go out and find the end users like the tshirts.com sale
The auction was a joke !
I wanted to, and did in fact bid on numerous domains, however there was absolutely no consistency or logic to the auction process.
One name, I would have paid the top boundary of its reserve price. I typed in a bid, it was the highest bid, auction passed.
One name I was bidding, the next increment was $100. Every other time this increment had been reduced to $50 had there not been a further bid. I waited for this increment change before putting in my bid.. but.. no.. it was sold – on this occasion they decided not to reduce the increment.
These two occurence made me think ‘screw this’ – I closed my browser and didnt bid on any of the other 8 domains in my watch list.
Way to lose 8 potential sales…
Mike: I assume folks bidding in Euros are converting things mentally to US dollars, and bidding the “correct” amount (i.e. if I’m bidding 100,000 Euros, I should know that that’s really 126,500 US dollars (according to XE.com today).
The 2% to 3% represents the exchange rate fees wasted at the bank to convert funds into Euros before sending a wire to Latonas.com for payment.
Why did this auction and DomainFest fail?
The affluent (and everyone) are saving much more.
They are keeping their hands in their pockets, because they are being bombarded, struck by reality, like these headlines…
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38826988/
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38832150
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38831550/
Wealth destruction is spreading like wildfire.
This was sad and I feel for Rick……
Me thinks too that reserves were set very high for the majority of the domains making those prices unrealistic.
taking the tshirt.com sale out of the total is like saying AP only got 50 yards rushing in a game if ya take out his 95-yard TD run 🙂
I tried to bid on html.in but with network lag time, the auction was over before I could.
If reserves are set for end users but the only folks who know about the auction are domainers & some developers, what would you expect to happen?
A dozen or two dozen names selling from a catalog of hundreds or even 500+ is really poor no matter what the total is from a few big sales that save the day.
Many of these live big time auctions that happen every few month’s are hit or miss as of late… But once again, the reserves are definitely too high and is the results anything to be surprised about? Nope.
So, who to blame…. Lets see… Who but the auctioneers? They screwed themselves even before the auction started, lol 🙁
My 2c worth anyways.
Very sad indeed.
There actually were a few great domains in the mix – but the reserves were pretty high.
The “auctioneer”… and I put auctioneer in quotes intentionally, really didn’t do a good job either.
I wash shocked when I pulled up the auction and heard how it was conducted.
Hopefully, Rick can learn from this disasterous auction and bounce back
(or maybe sell a few of the domains post-auction).
PS: Brian, good job of working Adrian Peterson into the discussion. 🙂
Aron
i agree wanna… reserves that are set too high and the quality of the domains are the two biggest factors… all of the other issues just add to the poor outcomes
@Aron… LOL, thanks 😉
How many attendees (minus exhibitors) are attending the Dublin T.R.A.F.F.I.C show ?
Approx. how many bidders were there “Live” in the auction room today ?
Why did be pick Dublin Ireland the population is ony 7 million and you can not buy and sell .ie names, Very stupid decision Rick i seen this comming from a mile away. Your very lucky to have a job like yours make the most out of it.
So many reasons for failure, start times, euro’s, reserves, auctioneer the economy as a whole etc. Its not easy to place blame but the confrence auctions are starting to reflect the real world markets more and more. Losing Moniker was also a huge blow imo, you cannot replace Monte, period.
Very disappointing results, but there’s another European auction coming up (the Domainvermarkterforum, partnered with Moniker) Sept 2-3 that I think will generate more sales. There are only a few semi-premium names (in German), but a great deal of names in the 500-10,000 EUR range that will probably sell.
Latona strikes out again. Seems he has had a number of lame auctions in the recent past that salvaged a small measure of respectability by sellin one or two gooders and including sales in the final results for which the reserves were not met. Time to start selling watches full time Rick. The other losers are Schwartz and Neu because there is no way Latona is going to renew his licensing agreement with them to operate the TRAFFIC conferences, no way in the world. Its so unlikely that the Vegas odds makers have taken that proposition “off the board”
I really like Monte. And, I consider Monte one of the best salesman
in the industry. However, it is a major mistake to think a person or
company can not be replaced.
8-9 yrs ago, everyone thought Yahoo would always be #1.
@Meyer, while most of us are easily replaced, you have to choose someone who can do so. Im sorry but Monte is focused on our industry, he isnt a fly by night. He can be replaced but the question remains by who. We see more and more by whom not.
hi morning Sir MostWantedDomains
>> Using Euro’s those trading in dollars have an increase cost of 25%
could u detail it a little bit ??
cheers , thanks , 2w
It was fairly obvious when Latona spammed every 5 minutes on domaining.com each new domain that would be up for auction, and the various businesses that could be based on the domain, that the auction would be an utter failure.
People aren’t that stupid. If you have to speculate what could be done with a domain than the domain ain’t that great. Good domains speak for themselves and don’t need a carnival barker to hype them.
This should really be a lessoned learned. Hopefully Latona will do some more due dillegence and less spamming.
For the industry, I hate seeing this as well as FOR the TRAFFIC brand!
Several great points are brought up in the comments above, like you do have to go out and find end users. I’m sure Rick L does this but I’m not 100% sure.
I have nothing against Rick L but I stopped paying attention with all the “watches” emails when I signed up for domains.
I truly didn’t even know his auction was today.
They need to decide if the auctions are geared towards domainers or end user sale. Seems they are stuck in the middle, huge difference in valuation. Cars at auction are sold much differently than ones on the lot.
Domain
Its more than that.
End users aren’t going to just show up.
There is a lot of work involved promoting, finding and contacting end users.
Who Does Latona got working for him who does that?
I mean David is Gone, Jody is Gone, Rick Silver is gone and it wasn’t a very large shop to begin with.
Makes the recent .co auctions seem more impressive.
“David is Gone, Jody is Gone, Rick Silver is gone”
and soon, Latona will be gone too. The smart money ain’t shopping at his store, end of story
Regarding taking tshirts.com out wasn’t this sold days before the auction? I think that would be the argument behind not including it in the auction tally.
Snoopy
TShirts.com was sold the night before the auction and was in the catalog
How many attendees (minus exhibitors) are attending the Dublin T.R.A.F.F.I.C domainshow ?
Approximately how many bidders were there “Live” in the auction room today ?
I’m turning my sales mostly to Flippa.com from now on. Seems to be a much more realistic business model that attracts potential end users. Flippa’s alexa ranking is also higher than sedo, afternic and even higher than sitepoint.com. It looks like the domain game is finally up! If you can’t attract end user buyers why bother. I must admit Monte was legend!
Probably a combination of high reserves, auction time, and small European country. There were a lot of nice names on the list. Also, we are in the last two weeks of summer, many people are off on vacation with their families to get some fun time in before school starts. I’d say to do these shows after mid-Sept. I didn’t really know there was even an auction today. As for the overall economy, the indicators seem to go up and down week by week, and this week they’ve been down. Even in a down economy, the internet and e-commerce will do better than most.
I don’t know Latona, never met him. I recall posting something on his site a while back that was not offensive, giving my opinion, and it was promptly removed.
I also recall Latona giving a challenge to the industry that he could sell any domain and to bring it on. So someone stepped up to the plate and gave him domains.com to broker. He arrogantly posted “domains.com, that’s right, domains.com”
Haven’t heard anything since he accepted the challenge. Everything out of Latona seems to be talk talk talk with nothing backing it up.
He might have built a brand within a small group of people, but outside of that group he appears to be a pompous, arrogant failure. At least as far as TRAFFIC and domain brokering goes.
If you put yourself out there like he does, than he has to be man enough to accept the criticism.
Nuff said
Could be a case of “too many chefs spoil the broth”.
The buzz was more exciting a couple of years ago when there were less BIG events to follow, seems like there’s way more auctions going on lately and registers are becoming more like auction houses each day, .me, .co and .everything else thats coming.
I must admit I am getting a dose of auction fatigue myself 🙂
The high reserve prices and poor quality of some domains affected the results. Some of the domains would have sold had they been more reasonably priced. The Irish domains were, apart from dublin.net and dublinguide.com, were poor quality. Ireland’s ccTLD is .ie and it is almost expected that any new business in Ireland would have its own .ie domain. The .com is also popular but anything beyond those two is a third choice or worse registration. The .eu is, as in most EU countries, less than 10% of the Irish domain market. Most European countries also have very strong (stronger than .com in their local market) ccTLDs. This means that the price a .com would command at auction in the US are is higher than what the same domain would command in an auction aimed at European bidders. It is 2010. The domain market has moved on but the prices of these domains seemed to be caught in 2007.
“If you can’t attract end user buyers why bother.”
It is not really how the game works. The occasional enduser will go to an auction but it is mainly a domainer event. It is a wholesale market. Auction houses have tried in the past to attract people outside the industry but it has never become sustainable. Probably because the 10% commission from one or two extra sales doesn’t come close to covering the advertising expenditure.
If domainers want prices way above what other domainers will pay they’ll need to do the hard work themselves, it will cost a lot more in time and money than 10%.
An auction event should be about realistic sellers who just want to sell for what the name is worth in the wholesale market – ie a clearance, not an opportunity to get try and get some amazing price. A auction should be seeing 50-60%+ clearance rates, some of the stuff lately where 10% sells is just absurd, needs a major rethink about what they are accepting. The number of good quality but obviously overpriced names probably need to be limited to one or two names, eg taking rankings.com and homeschooling.com with reserves over 100k euro, what were they thinking?
“It is not really how the game works. The occasional enduser will go to an auction but it is mainly a domainer event. ”
The fact is this… the domain auction institution has had several years now to scale up and attract end users, but have failed miserably. I agree Art at auction generally sells to big art dealers who then re-sell through their galleries. However the domain market is an entirely different ball game. this industry really needs to review its entire business plan. There are over 150 million domains registered out there and its very naive to think only a handful of domainers are going to keep this industry going forever, especially when they “wholesale buyers” do not generally re-sell to the end user market place. It’s pure economics! What should have happened is Domain Fest and TRAFFIC should launch conferences specifically marketed to attract end user business managers and marketing executives. That is a long term worthwhile investment. If that had been the focus over the last 3yrs for instance, things could be very different now. You need to educate business managers, seo’s and ad agencies and marketing executives over a period of time as to why domain names are indeed a good investment. In the absence of that, all we have is a highly speculative instrument churling around in the hands of a few buyers who are mainly domainers with no other outlet to re-sell. Some people here have critisized flippa.com, but if you take a closer look, I bet you venture capital would think flippa is by far a more sustainable business model and the media in general will concede. there is no point flogging a dead horse… it’s time to change direction. So I urge Sedo, Afternic and Traffic to take a closer look at Flippa.com’s model and scale up while the sun is still shinning. Perhaps they could all do a merger of sorts, put money together and launch conferences directed at the business end user. It’ll take some time to evolve, but it would be worth it over the long term. Right now, its all domain speculation.
“What should have happened is Domain Fest and TRAFFIC should launch conferences specifically marketed to attract end user business managers and marketing executives. That is a long term worthwhile investment.”
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So are you willing to put up money to stage a conference about domains not aimed at domainers? Personally I wouldn’t invest a dollar in something like that and I doubt any domain conference organizer would either.
Why would you try and reinvent the wheel when the obvious market is in front of you? The people who are interested in domains are primarily domainers. Business owners have a far lower interest level. We’ve seen a taste of this from all the industry focused domain auctions Moniker held at non domain conferences. The idea has been largely a flop from what I can see of i, most of these people wouldn’t pay anywhere near even what domainers would pay and ardly anyone even turned up at the auctions.
When you say “long term worthwhile investment” that sounds to me like something that is going to lose money. Off course the payoff is always some uncertain date down the track and it involves “teaching people” about how much they *should* like domains.
Personally I think domainers need to accept the market for what it is, domain auction venues have little interest in promoting to endusers, they have tried it and it rarely works. If you think differently start your own auction with your own money and see how you go.
Snoopy you made some good points. Where do you see domains as an asset class ?
The other point with all the talk, Why doesn’t somebody start something else. Its not easy but not the hardest business to get up and going. Especially when so many espouse that it should be easy for SEDO.
@Snoopy
You sound like a perpetual optimist! Basically what you have just confirmed is that domain names are simply casino widgets and not investments. You are basically asserting that end users can never pay those prices and only domainers are prepared to buy at those prices. So my question is… who is going to buy from the domainers then?? Or perhaps you’re saying domainers must continue to inflate their own assets forever…hmmm that sounds like a great ponzi scheme!! You are in serious denial!! There’s no point saying oh go an start your own auction, that is a silly statement. Constructive criticism is good for the industry. If brand business users read you’re comment, they will now have no incentive to buy because you have just devalued your own assets! The other point you made about it has been tried at other events is not good enough. Those were periphery events. What needs to happen is a TRAFFIC or DomainFest event for business execs and marketing professionals. It needs to be consistent and will begin to educate and evangelize over time, with media marketing. How do you suppose Apple or Macromedia for instance were able to be so successful over several years? They held large events directed at end business users and converted a lot of PC users as they went along. You have just confirmed this is a ponzi scheme! I certainly hope a lot of people here don’t agree with your assesment otherwise that’s a big problem…DENIAL!!
“The old grey mule she ain’t what she used to be, ain’t what she used to be”…..oh..
Who in there right US minds buys domain in euros?
Nice vacation. But in my years I’ve never seen Europe conferences do that well.
At TRAFFIC Vancouver, noticed that many domains were bid at under reserve. There were dozens at TRAFFIC Dublin that were bid on, but passed. Maybe auctions now are venues where sellers put hopeful reserves, and buyers always bid under, in hopes of getting a more favorable price! So many deals are left on the table, yet to be made.
It’s the economy.
“. You are basically asserting that end users can never pay those prices and only domainers are prepared to buy at those prices. ”
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That is not what I am asserting.
I’m saying when you go to a conference and try to sell to endusers they are very unlikely to even pay what domainers will pay. These aren’t motivated buyers, they don’t particularly want your domain. If you really want those high enduser sales that domainers dream about either wait, potentially for many many years/decades or target people who have a reasonable chance of being interested, eg people in the top positions on adwords, people who have a strong interest in the exact keyword and can make a good ROI from the purchase, people whose business revolves around your term, even then it will be only a small % that will likely sell.
“There’s no point saying oh go an start your own auction, that is a silly statement. Constructive criticism is good for the industry.”
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Saying “get enduser to auctions” isn’t constructive criticism, it is just a comment about something that has already been tried by everyone running live auctions. Domainers keep saying it but the people who actually have to pay for all that promotion aren’t interested, they’ve been there, done that.
“Snoopy you made some good points. Where do you see domains as an asset class ?”
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I don’t quite follow the question, are you talking about risk levels? type of asset it is comparable to?
“The other point with all the talk, Why doesn’t somebody start something else. Its not easy but not the hardest business to get up and going. Especially when so many espouse that it should be easy for SEDO.”
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I think it is incredibility hard, it needs a lot of money, a lot of time spent promoting to the industry, writing software to integrate live bidding with internet bidding, hiring venues, hiring live auctioneers. I personally don’t think it is a particularly good business. I think it was a good business when the sales totals were $5-$8million etc a few years ago. Nowdays you do all that and sell 80k worth of names. That is a big loss maker.
@snoopy
“Saying “get enduser to auctions” isn’t constructive criticism, it is just a comment about something that has already been tried by everyone running live auctions. Domainers keep saying it but the people who actually have to pay for all that promotion aren’t interested, they’ve been there, done that.”
At least we both seem to care about what direction things could take in the domain aftermarket, we just have different perspectives. but as I quoted you above… implies that a lot of domainers may be getting increasingly frustrated at attending these conferences and not quite realizing a ROI. Your comment implied domainers do want to see more end user participation and that makes perfect sense albeit the hard work. I agree it is hard like most things and businesses are, but here is what I openly suggest could be the methodology:
Instead of trying to auction domains at SEO and Affiliate Conferences where the primary focus of the attendees is not to buy domain names, but to learn about SEO or whatever it is they came for, TRAFFIC, SEDO and AFTERNIC should mechanise a marketing plan to contact HR of fortune 5000 companies, or the marketing executives at these companies. Now, that direct approach inviting them to come and learn how domain assets create scale for their marketing will grab more attention. They can then budget for their biz or marketing execs to attend these conferences and they will pay for it. it becomes an annual event held by the BIG 3 ( sedo, traffic and afternic). Marketing execs will attend because they will realize their competitors are attending and may loose out. They will pay for attendance seminars etc… Then they will also understand the pertinence of the domain auction and compete against each other. they will come more prepared and do this year after year! I worked in HR as the Stock option Analyst at macromedia and I know how we send our employees to various events as long as the expense is justified. For the Big 3, they will make money holding these events and other added value, plus a broader sponsorship from big brands. Until something like this is done, the domainer market will continue to shrink year after year. Even Rick Schwartz is concerned about the domainer market shrinking if you read his blog. One final thing… Rick shwartz has clearly demonstrated his ability to sell directly to the business end user e.g ireport.com, roomdivider.com and so on. Plus Funds.com was bought for $10M by an investment media company…again an end user, business.com and so on..
I hope the Big 3 can come together, put some resources together and they will be the biggest winners over the long term. Sorry for any typos.
Robert, after reading all that there are many reasons why this will never happen,
Why would three auction house get together to run a conference, when was the last time you saw competitors do something like that? Too many cooks, cooks who want the others business. Would you start hatching business plans with competitors? I wouldn’t.
Moniker has reached out to try and get endusers to conferences before, I don’t think it resulted in them buying “whatever domains were on offer”. Domainers window shop, endusers don’t.
“One final thing… Rick shwartz has clearly demonstrated his ability to sell directly to the business end user e.g ireport.com, roomdivider.com and so on. Plus Funds.com was bought for $10M by an investment media company…again an end user, business.com and so on..”
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Those are sales that occur when someone wants that exact domain you have. They contact you via whois or use a broker. They don’t need to go to a conference to buy a domain they specifically want.
@snoopy
So what exactly is your solution then? Even Yahoo and Microsoft collaborate, Apple and Microsoft collaborate and there are several more industrial collaborations. We are going to be in a deep recession for several years, so what do you propose?
So what exactly is your solution then? Even Yahoo and Microsoft collaborate, Apple and Microsoft collaborate and there are several more industrial collaborations. We are going to be in a deep recession for several years, so what do you propose?
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Market to domainers which is what live auctions are doing now.
The days of auctions are over… Going to actually run it like a business and work for it now. End-users if you want sales volume.
On the topic of marketing domains to end users, I think we should tell ICANN to add $.10/yr to all .coms and .nets, the funds from which are dedicated to a third party marketing company whose sole purpose is to market the power of great domain names to end users.
I’m talking weekly TV commercials, web ads, etc….yes, we all know we’re sitting on valuable assets, but I don’t think anyone would complain about the value of our assets sky-rocketing. And the only way that’s going to happen is if domain names become a major part of mainstream marketing and a popular topic for society in general.
Snoopy said “Those are sales that occur when someone wants that exact domain you have. They contact you via whois or use a broker. They don’t need to go to a conference to buy a domain they specifically want.”
That’s so valid and the reason you rarely see end-users at tha conferences. An exception is the Dallas Cowboys but do we want buyers who only want to pay $275 for Cowboys.com
I believe the conferences are mostly social gatherings of domainers.
The problem has existed since the beginning of domain conference domain auctions. First, a lot of domains changed hands between domainers. Very few domains were sold to end users.
In 2005, I started LAMENTING about the fact that end users weren’t being contacted by the auction sites. Sending out a few PRweb news releases and emails to their domain clients isn’t “MARKETING” to end users.
Marketing Associations, New Media focus, and several other organizations need to be EDUCATED about domain values to the companies that need relevant prodserv domains to cover their butts.
I doubt that ANY domain auction site spends more than $50,000 in PR to announce their category-specific domains to the demographics needed to get results. This is because most auction houses are frightened to spend that much capital to actually receive results from their auctions.
As domainers, we can all pay big bucks to attend a domain conference, just to see the same old crap, people still talking about PPC (really?), and then are we going to drop $100k to pick up a domain when we already have 100 domains that are worth as much or more?
Nope.
It’s END USER TIME. And I know the Domain King will agree with me on this one. I said it five years ago, and every year since then — a domain is only worth what it sells for to the END USER.
This means domain auction houses have to learn Standard & Poor, ThomasNet, and other company/marketing directories to seriously pound them with advertising that educates the people who control what a company’s online advertising is going to be, and where that money is going to go.
It’s kinda sad to see that that “easy money” status is gone, and domain auction sites will now have to invest some of their profits into EDUCATING THE MARKETING WORLD.
Don’t attack me, I’m not a millionaire who can do this by myself. But there at least 10 domain companies who can embark on a marketing education program that will enhance aftermarket domain purchases. (Wait, I said this in 2006).
Stephen is 100% accurate… It is like any other commodity. You have to have value in the name and it has to be something that will generate income for someone. It takes planning, marketing and project management to sell to end users. I do it every day and it is work… which it should be.
Want end user prices, work at it… want domain wholesale prices, keep sitting on the couch.
Stephen
I agree with you as well.
However as far as this one goes:
“It’s kinda sad to see that that “easy money” status is gone, and domain auction sites will now have to invest some of their profits into EDUCATING THE MARKETING WORLD”
Not sure if Latonas has any “profits” to invest since I’m pretty sure he has lost money at each of the shows.
However he still needs to invest, not only in PR but in staff to do the work required to get end users to the table and sales people to SELL.
some of the above is crossing over from an auction service and into a brokering service…
I still don’t think the auction houses should exclusively bear the burden of marketing domains. There are now hundreds of millions of registered domains, right?
As I mentioned before, why can’t we just allocate a small slice of reg fees toward marketing and creating general awareness? For domainers, this actually works out incredibly well: even though our bottom line is impacted slightly, the benefits of such a program will be highly skewed in our favor.
I have to believe this discussion has already been raised many times…but I’m not surprised it’s gone nowhere…we’re still a very fragmented industry.
“I still don’t think the auction houses should exclusively bear the burden of marketing domains. There are now hundreds of millions of registered domains, right?”
David… good idea, however the onus is on the auction houses to make this and end game to end users. The cat is out of the bag now and most domainers by the look of things are now calling for end user sales. I’ve pointed out my suggestions above. let’s hope something happens.
Robert
I’ll agree with you also here, in that auction houses should not be the only ones to bear the cost or olbigation of promoting domains in the auction, the owner of the domain should also in their own best interest let potential end users know about the auction.
After all the owner of the domain has the most to gain from the sale of his domain.
@Stephen Douglas_Successclick.com
Hey stephen! Remember we discussed all this and shared ideas on Domain Name Wire about 3 years ago? Well we’re still here flogging these ideas. Methinks it’s time for INCEPTION!! Just went to see the flick last night…wow! Come on guys let’s do this… there has to be an end user game… lol! This is reality…WAKE UP!
@ Bruce
I think it is best and more appropriate Not to refer to domain names as commodities…. There is only One domain name in each extention…the Uninqeness & rarity of a domain name is among the most meaningful and influential facests of a domains value…….
One of the most prevelant definitions of the word commodity is: ” A good or service whose wide availability typically leads to smaller profit margins and diminishes the importance of factors (as brand name) other than price” ….another is —-> “Mass-produced unspecialized product” ….sure there are some commodities that more valuable commodities than others ie: gold and plattinum
There are many domain names registered out there, however, each one is unique and different… even if it is just a .Com, .Net, .Org, .US .De …..etc, differentiating same word or same phrase domains.
When domain names are “deemend” as just commodities… by the public or mass media…..that’s not really a good thing overall.
@ Rob H 2 T,
Yeah, I remember. I also remember screaming about this in 2005. I tried to work with Yahoo. I tried to work with the Domain King. I tried to work with companies I was working with. In 2007 when I produced the DRT 2007 in Seattle, my main focus was “supposed” to be about SELLING TO THE END USER. Issues prevented that from happening.
Why is it that these auction houses aren’t able to reach Marketing Associations and lay out a red carpet and some yummy benefits to get these people into a big room and pitch domains?
The auction houses should sell by CATEGORY for each auction. Period. They should contact the marketing directors from the demographics of that CATEGORY. Educate them. Done deal. More sales, happier domainers, happier companies, and maybe a “HOT RUN LAND RUSH” for generic prodserv domains would start.
oooohhhh… I’m soooo tired of saying this. I have no confidence anymore with ANY domain auction site. They’ve got MILLIONS of domains, and nothing to do with them other than LIST THEM. So they’ve become, in reality, a LISTING SERVICE, and charging 15-20% commission. Shameful.
I’m trying one more project in this area, and we’ll see how it fairs. After that, I’m going ballistic.
😉
@Stephen could not agree more… The auction platform has seen it run. Direct marketing to businesses works… Doing your homework to ensure you are talking to a decision maker is key.
Good look with your project…
@netjohn… They are like any other bulk item. They are traded in bulk and they are products that we sell… There is nothing unique about domain names other than a niche. I buuy to sell myself…
Like most of us, I have been saying for a long time we need
enduser business.
BuyDomains has been selling to endusers for a long time.
What we might not realize is that there are probably a number
of domainers (domain companies) selling directly to endusers
and we don’t know anything about it. And, they are not going
to tell the domain community about their niche.
All we know about are the sales announced.
@ Meyer,
That’s the most astute comment I’ve ever read in my 11 years of domain investing. Why? I’ve never thought of it. I have been focusing on the fact that GoDaddy spends millions yearly, demeaning powerful women in a man’s world, but never participating in generally “educating” the public on why they should buy aftermarket domains.
To GD, marketing domains is tantamount to getting titillated from a Danica Patrick vid clip in the shower.
Meyer, not sure I know you, but I wish I did. Excellent.
I am still in a state of disbelief how unsuccessful Latona’s Dublic auction was what with the extremely dismal overall results. In addition to the slow market it must also caused by too many auction events and venues, imo.
Em-Bee,
Just noticed this quote from you:
“Not sure if Latona has any “profits” to invest since I’m pretty sure he has lost money at each of the shows.”
I don’t have a record of Latona’s live auction success, but I think he had four auctions in a row end in catastrophe, then his development service AEIOU.com suddenly wasn’t something he wanted to do anymore.
If someone has a “timeline” and reviews of Latona domain auction success since 2007, it would be interesting to see just for the purpose of studying what “not” to do and what TO do in selling domain names.
Looks like the Domain King once again had near perfect timing when he sold the Traffic venue to Rick Latona, with domain king getting out near the peak of that now seriously over-saturated market, I assume with a subtantial sales profit too. Rick S must have a crystal ball.
David
The “domain king” did not sell TRAFFIC.
He gave Latona a license to use the TRAFFIC domain to run certain shows, but they did not sell TRAFFIC.
For example, the South Florida show going to be run by the Domain King and Howard Neu who I guess is the “Domain Prince”
OK, thanks for correcting me. I was not aware it was a license and not a sale but now I am. You can delete that post of you wish.
@ Bruce
Still have to repectfully disagree …. Domains are not fungible commodities as I explained above….particularly premium & high value domain names….each one is different and non-identical…Sooooo many domains out there have different values and attributes…at least in the secondary market.
Homes are also bought & sold every day but they are not really commodities in the “full” or fungible sense…. just about each one is unique and/or different (not including some identical appartments/condos and clone homes by new builders/developers )
I am definitely not just winging this stuff either. I am a licensed (with the CFTC & NFA) the Commodity Futures Trading Advisor (“CTA”) for over 15 years….In this regard, since my last post also polled a few experienced & Savvy Commodity/Futures professionals and the consistant consensus is that Domain Names in the secondary market are NOT commodities by the “full” definition of the word.
Also, this is coming from a guy who owns both DomainFutures.com & DomainNameFutures.com ….if I develop those domains it won’t be for commodity futures contracts…..but perhaps “Futures” vehicles more akin to sports & election betting/wagering Futures. This terminology is currently even more prevelant in sportsbooks and betting parlors in Europe moreso than the US.