There’s a lot of doom and gloom on line this week. I’ve read a number of articles and threads about falling domain sales prices, fear of the new gTLDs killing domaining completely, and less people getting in and more people getting out the industry. So is it time to get out? No, of course not. And here’s why:
Firstly it’s a slow economy right now, everyone is feeling the pinch; there’s less liquidity and people are apprehensive about investment. A knock-on effect of an uncertain economy is uncertain pricing; people aren’t sure what they should be paying for web property, or real estate for that matter. And when you don’t know you err on the side of caution and usually stay put. It isn’t like we haven’t seen these cycles before. It can’t be chocolate cake all the way, and occasionally you have to settle for a piece of Victoria Sponge.
Another major factor is the lack of worthy purchase domains dropping, which has been noticeable over the last couple of months. But let’s not forget there was a period prior to that where things were hot for a while – again, cycles, swings and roundabouts, natural economic shifting. Admittedly, the pool is a little dry right now which is discouraging new domainers and scarring those who, for a good while now, have relied on dropping as a sole source of domains. That doesn’t mean there aren’t good domains dropping, domains that could be flipped for $500 profit or more, but traditionally domaining has been about huge margins, and if we’re honest we’re all guilty of becoming hooked on big returns rather than steady gains. So for a while at least it’s time to change strategy.
Website flipping has fallen off somewhat, which was to be expected. There is only so long you can sell websites with no value except a diluted keyword somewhere in the title. Registering practically worthless domains, adding a theme to the site, generating some black hat traffic and selling it as a business is heavily flawed in the new web era. Exact match domains have less weight in Google, let alone diluted ones. This was a short term game for fickle Internet Marketers who’ve quickly moved onto the next best thing. If you’re looking for a way to make fast money online, it isn’t here right now.
Where the new gTLDs are concerned, let’s get a grip. Okay, so there is the inevitability that Google and other big players will offer free web addresses ending in dot lol, dot freebie and whatever else, but come on, dot com isn’t going anywhere for the next 10 years. It’s too heavily engrained in user psyche to vanish; hell, I still see people type stuff like “bored.com” on their Facebook status, a sure sign that for the large majority dot.com represents the web. Moreover, millions of businesses who’ve built their empires on the back of a great dot com domain aren’t going to suddenly ditch it and run in the arrival of some extortion scheme by ICAAN. Dot com is the web, let’s not forget that.
If you want out it’s cool. Less eaters means more cake (2 cake references in one post..awesome). So if you’re leaving, close the door on your way out. I’ll be here, for the long haul.
P.S. I’ll take some of those domains off your hands too if you’re selling at panic prices. J
