The Great Domain Name Boom Ahead

Email arrives:

""The Domain Distribution Network (DDN), managed by Fabulous.com, has been running aftermarket domains distribution via the registrar channel for a month now.  We are pleased to announce that there has been proof of concept for this new paradigm in domain sales.  The program has had strong sales and is showing promising results.  It is fully expected that aftermarket domain sales via registrars will become a major part of the market, with registrars becoming the natural home for the bulk of aftermarket sales.

Previously, the market was in need of resolving some glaring problems that traditional [sales] portals failed to remedy:

· Slow Transfers - Domains sales could take anywhere from weeks to months to settle and transfer to the new owner – as it primarily remained a manual process.

· Lost Clients - legacy domain sale portals required their clients to be passed away from the registrars to the portal to complete a sale.  This breaks the registrar’s relationship with their client in the process.

· No Prices – The vast majority of domains only had “make offer” pricing without any fixed price options.   Due to this registrars couldn’t process the sale.  They had to pass their relationship on to the portals.

· Poor Quality – Domains that are misspelled, have trademark or brand issues, or were poorly formed were all included for sale.  This left registrars at great risk of brand erosion.

· Unknown Ownership – Domain fraud commonly occurred, and if caught usually only is found at the end of the sales process.

· No Authority – Even if a registrar sold a domain that was listed for sale, the domain owner could always cancel the sale or block transfer.

In comparison the Domain Distribution Network enables:

· Instant Settlement – Once a sale is made the transaction settlement happens in seconds.

· Registrars Maintain Relationships – the registrar maintains the relationship with their clients during the entire sales process, and then have the opportunity to offer additional services like web hosting and privacy protection.  These additional services are the core of every retail registrars business – not the registration.

· Committed Pricing – through fixed and/or negotiable pricing registrars can negotiate and complete the deal without owner contact.  Domain owners set their own pricing, commissions and guidelines, for each domain before the domain is listed.  This allows the registrar to close the transaction in real time – followed by instant transfer. 

· High Quality Control – every domain is subjected to qualitative tests to ensure correct spelling and vetting of brand and trademark issues.

· Validated Ownership – registrars are a natural home for aftermarket domain sales as they are the only entity that can guarantee that the person selling the domain actually owns it.  They are the only entity that can take a binding agreement from the registrant to sell and transfer the domain.

· Pre-authorized Transactions - Registrars that are certified for the Domain Distribution Network effectively guarantees that each domain in the network is owned by the person trying to sell it, that it can be instantly transferred, and the terms by which the owner is selling the domains are valid (owner offer).

Domain Distribution Network Registrar Certification

The Domain Distribution Network enables: offer, acceptance, consideration, and delivery in one instant package.  In order for the market to reach this level of efficiency it requires that only domains from registrars with DDN Certification are distributed.""

_______________________________________________________

Okay,  I do not work for Fabulous.. and could care less who the winner of the "War for control of the sales platform" turns out to be.. but I have privately heard some astounding numbers from these guys down-under, so my bet is on them. There is going to be a huge explosion of domain sales via the Fabulous.com global distribution model with ICANN accredited registrars ("not" traditional sales portals) carrying the lead and controlling the sales process in the future... Power is about to dramatically and irrevocably shift to "registrars" and "name holders". Third party loose-inventory brokers are going to be hearing a huge sucking sound. It turns out the best people to sell premium names are not seperate marketplaces, but the registrar "Brands" themselves.

The registrars control the inventory and they control the shoppers. Registrars are the first and last spot people go to look up who owns a domain name (honorable mention to popular third-party WHOIS providers who are in a similar position and can 'build' retail rars).

What makes this Fabulous.com system so interesting is the speed with which you can close a sale transaction and the amount of sales traffic it can drive by daisy-chaining all the registrars together..  A registrar who has "priced" names, plugged into the Fab system can enable a secure, rate-limited protocol to allow for names to pass instantly to a gaining (purchasing) registrar..  Payment gets cleared automatically behind the curtain, electronically like a NASDAQ market. Name sales are done without people, at pre-set prices. The deals flow as surely as the sun rises. We are talking about selling names which get whois lookups but which draw no traffic and no clicks from a PPC perspective..  Yes, there is a difference and many of those types of names are still "out there" because traditional "domain tasting", which is based on traffic, has not yet revealed them.

Some big sales/brokerage houses such as Fabulous have presumably done whois tasting where they troll the whois lookups checking for repeats or patterns and then registered the stand-out names. Many undiscovered, longer tail versions must surely lie fallow and there-in lies opportunity for you and I.

As of today the majority of all registrars are plugged in to this new Fabulous.com system.. Registrars are the only ones who can authoritatively say if somebody controls a domain because they have the registrant account and credit card information which matches each name. They can act as a title office permitting sales to pass, confirming good-title and facilitating transfer through Fab's instant protocol. The Fabulous system allows the registrar conduit that procured the buyer to retain that sales lead and upsell ancilliary services.. and because all registrar's whois boxes are effectively polling the system, it breathes life into longtail portfolios of traditionally "impaired names" (without traffic) and creates value, shining light where there was dark.

Now you can take 50,000 names which make less than $6.00 a year on PPC, plug them into this system and generate more than $15,000 a day in domain name sales, based purely on whois look-ups ..  This is on names which make no money via traffic!! The registrar who brought the lead continues to control the client for product upsells and there is no freerider bleed-off where potential buyers type the name into the address bar to find the registrant's parked "for sale" page, offering the name for less money. Fabulous's system is designed to protect the Registrar who brought the lead.

Folks, this is a game-changer. Ask your registrar, if they are opted into this system..  Or better yet,  get your own registrar..  Because based on what I'm seeing here, nothing is going to expire anymore in future and your names are going to become much more valuable  -- Heck .. many of your best names are probably still sitting in the available pool right now, unregistered!! Go!

What sells?

Screen names:  ie. matt85.com <<-- how many guys named Matt were born in 1985? What are the most popular facebook/myspace style screennames? Do this with every name/year.. but do this smartly.

.Net and Org, .us , info versions:  of strong .coms do better than 'web', 'net', 'shop'  add-ons  Go up to 2/3 word phrases with high OV (over 2k)

Two and three word phrases:  hotsaleslead.com, eshoppingguide.com, shoppingbutler.com

Any product or service with cityname: Delawarehomedecoration.com, toledoplasticsurgery.com, fargoplumbers.com, losangelestrashremoval.com (this style of regional name is the hottest seller)

Back up the truck folks ..  this is a moment in time to secure the best of the most obvious long-tails..  In the past the renewals would have crushed you,  but if you do it smartly and scale it briskly, you can create opportunity for yourself. Smart people should be able to comb Google for a list of the 100 biggest US cities and add the most popular yellow-page listings..  get to work and your heirs will thank you. Be cerebral..  think about what 'you' would want to run there..  put yourself in the business shoes..  It's counterintuitive to buying names for media/PPC.  I figure there is about a one year window till the best of the remaining long-tail is mined..  if that. 

If the readers of my blog are as smart as I think they are, this should be my worst 'pageview' day ever, because if I was you, I would read this post and leave for a week..  It's time to work.

Go!

Comments

[D Ocean]

Will the Fabulous DDN come with a sales support staff to educate clueless consumers on why premium domain prices are higher than an $8 reg fee? Will prices be negotiable on this network as they are at the vast majority of other marketplaces? There are some pluses here but this is not as big a deal as everyone is making it out to be. Think from an uneducated consumer prospective and not as a domainer and you will see.

[Dan]

Frank another great article! Thanks to the members here "commenting"...very nice of you to share your great ideas and information.

Onward and upward!

Peace,
dan

[tony]

Great read Frank!!

Thanks!

what about names like internationalhomerecipes.com
americanhomerecipes.com
koreanhomerecipes.com
japanesehomerecipes.com...etc...??

[DP]

Regarding this:

"I would submit the plural, miamigolfcourses.com or atlantalawfirms.com, is more intuitive and much more valuable from a PPC and directory model than the"

That's why you pick the right keywords. Which is better, AtlantaRoofs.com or AtlantaRoof.com? Neither, the name to go for there is "AtlantaRoofing.com" - can be either a single business or a directory. "AtlantaRoof.com" sounds like someone's roof up and built their own homepage. AtlantaRoofs.com just doesn't round right.

MiamiGolfCourse or MiamiGolfCourses.com? If you want to form a directory or go for PPC the plural. If you're a golf course owner, having the singular gives the impression of owning *THE* golf course in Miami. Someone types Miamigolfcourse into their browser and there you are.

So much potential here. Right now you can only add domains at Fabulous to the DDN. Can't wait until it is rolled out fully.

[Hooper]

Great I regged austinflowers.mobi few months ago and was doubting the purchase but this is good to see. Austin being one of the largest cities...cool post

[Dan]

For the "screen names" domain idea:

Top 10 First Names for 2006

Male Names:

1 Jacob
2 Michael
3 Joshua
4 Ethan
5 Matthew
6 Daniel
7 Christopher
8 Andrew
9 Anthony
10 William

Female names:

1 Emily
2 Emma
3 Madison
4 Isabella
5 Ava
6 Abigail
7 Olivia
8 Hannah
9 Sophia
10 Samantha

Since everyone with these names are only 5 months to 1 years old...you may want to go back to like 1995 etc... for peoples names that are becoming internet users and using screen names for the first time or will be. http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/

Peace,
Dan

[DP]

After going through this exercise I was amazed at some of the names available. Presumably they don't get much traffic or tasters would have had them, but they have to be worth 3 or 4 figures to a local business owner if only they get under their nose. DDN will facilitate that.

What do you think Frank/others? Be honest, if they suck I need to stop before going back for a second dip. Small sample of 200 or so regs today:

NewarkLasik.com
LincolnChildCare.com
LexingtonLawns.com
RaleighDoors.com
ToledoBrides.com
LexingtonTherapy.com
NorfolkBridal.com
FremontHeating.com
SpokaneTaxis.com
DetroitInspections.com
SFLawns.com (while looking up Sanfrancisco I noticed many local businesses us SF).
SFSiding.com
MesaCabinets.com
ArlingtonBridal.com

Etc, Etc.

Even without sales, these could easily be turned into cookie-cutter local directory/review sites and would rank well because of the names. Searches for most of these terms bring up generic portals like local.com - I know if I was in Mesa looking for new cabinets I'd click on 'MesaCabinets' before I'd click on 'local.com' and hope to navigate to the right place.

***FS*** I think those are great.. really. You have good instincts.

[dpari]

just like NewOrleansPlumbers.com for $1,200 I searched for HawaiiSportsNews.com and IdahoSportsNews.com and they are both listed at godaddy for $500.00 each.

I thought well, if HawaiiSportNews.com is worth $500, I will go ahead and register a couple in the Pacific Northwest.

Not bad for $19

Good luck everyone

[Jason]

From the drop on May 28th, all the domains that fit the pattern are reg'd. Here are the good ones that are now gone :(

baltimoretanningsalon.com
bostonmovingcrate.net
coloradospringssalon.com
coloradospringstaxi.com
detroittanningsalon.com
kansascityhomesinspection.com
kansascitysalon.com
milwaukee-directory.com
oklahomacitysalon.com
phoenixwhirlpools.com
sanantoniorealestateagency.com
wichitasalon.com

[Edwin Hayward]

The more I think about the numbers, the better they're looking. If the math is "50,000 names without enough traffic to make $6 a year apiece, but chosen intelligently, produce $15,000 in sales a day at $1,000 each" then that's close to $5.5 million a year or over $5 million once renewals are out of the picture.

In other words, that's 15 years worth of renewal fees a year that the domains are throwing off! Even if the sales start to slow down, you're going to be way ahead of the game for a long, long time.

If this pans out on a large scale, the vacuuming sound as the big players take every possible combination of domain name is going to be deafening.

Exciting times ahead!

***FS*** Agree.. it's not going to be easy.

[Edwin Hayward]

And just in case it's dropped off anyone's radar screen in the scramble for "big city names", there are also 50 states :)

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
Washington DC
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

[Roy]

Yes, I'm the one that let coloradospringslawfirm.com go.. I did not get any clickage out of it. Little did I know what was around the corner :) -- I knew these names had to have value (I've got tons of similar ones) but in cleaning out my portfolio I let that one go :(. Oh well, lesson learned. Anyways, I hope I made up for that mistake by nabbing these today:

chandlerplasticsurgery.com
elcajonplasticsurgery.com
escondidoplasticsurgery.com
lagunaniguelplasticsurgery.com
lascrucesplasticsurgery.com
ranchocucamongaplasticsurgery.com
redondobeachplasticsurgery.com
sanmarcosplasticsurgery.com
santamariaplasticsurgery.com
vistaplasticsurgery.com
dalycityplumbing.com
pembrokepinesplumbing.com
westvalleycityplumbing.com
bossiercityplumbing.com
chinoplumbing.com
eastorangeplumbing.com
iowacityplumbing.com
johnsoncityplumbing.com
jonesboroplumbing.com
mercedplumbing.com
missouricityplumbing.com
rentonplumbing.com
westlandplumbing.com
wilmingtonplumbing.com
somervilleattorneys.com
dearbornheightsattorneys.com
deerfieldbeachattorneys.com
bowieattorneys.com
westhavenlawyers.com
maldenlawyers.com
dearbornheightslawyers.com
shorelinelawyers.com
baldwinparkrestaurants.com
bolingbrookrestaurants.com
bossiercityrestaurants.com
cicerorestaurants.com
hempsteadrestaurants.com
lacrosserestaurants.com
leessummitrestaurants.com
midwestcityrestaurants.com
paramountrestaurants.com
stclairshoresrestaurants.com
westvalleycityrestaurants.com
brokenarrowinsurance.com
yorbalindainsurance.com
odessainsurance.com
springfieldgeneralcontractors.com
greenvillegeneralcontractors.com
jacksongeneralcontractors.com
lancastergeneralcontractors.com
fremontgeneralcontractors.com
bakersfieldgeneralcontractors.com
madisongeneralcontractors.com
stocktongeneralcontractors.com
amarillogeneralcontractors.com
lubbockgeneralcontractors.com
coloradospringsgeneralcontractors.com
longbeachgeneralcontractors.com
aurorageneralcontractors.com
vancouvergeneralcontractors.com
ranchocucamongageneralcontractors.com
mesageneralcontractors.com
chinolandscaping.com
westpalmbeachlandscaping.com
rosevillelandscaping.com
ranchocucamongalandscaping.com
fortmyerslandscaping.com
springfieldconcrete.com
ranchocucamongaconcrete.com
pasadenaconcrete.com
fremontconcrete.com
torranceconcrete.com
ranchocucamongacatering.com
chinocatering.com
mariettacontractors.com
danvilledentists.com
greenvilleelectricians.com
knoxvilleelectricians.com
lubbockelectricians.com
boiseelectricians.com
ranchocucamongaelectricians.com
torranceelectricians.com
venturaelectricians.com
chinoroofing.com
berkeleyroofing.com
lancasterroofing.com
ranchocucamongaroofing.com
torranceroofing.com
wilmingtonroofing.com
greenvillefuneralhomes.com
torrancefuneralhomes.com
bocaratonfuneralhomes.com
naplesfuneralhomes.com
wilmingtonfuneralhomes.com
ranchocucamongafuneralhomes.com
coronafuneralhomes.com
chicofuneralhomes.com
venturafuneralhomes.com
augustafuneralhomes.com
rosevillefuneralhomes.com
chinofuneralhomes.com
chinofurniture.com
tacomaheating.com
auroraheating.com
greenvilleheating.com
virginiabeachheating.com
knoxvilleheating.com
saltlakecityheating.com
vancouverheating.com
wilmingtonheating.com
renoheating.com
louisvilleheating.com
flushingheating.com
coronainternet.com
torranceinternet.com
westpalmbeachinternet.com
mariettainternet.com
amarillointernet.com
ranchocucamongainternet.com
lancasterpizza.com
ranchocucamongapizza.com
troypizza.com
decaturpizza.com
westpalmbeachpestcontrol.com
lakewoodweddings.com
haywardweddings.com
chinoweddings.com
berkeleyweddings.com
ranchocucamongaweddings.com
mariettastorage.com
chinostorage.com
ranchocucamongastorage.com
troystorage.com
southfieldstorage.com

What do you think guys? Frank? Have I redeemed myself yet!?!?! I knew I shoulda kept that lawfirm name. Doh!

At least there are decent ones still out there (for now)!

Out of all the names I went for today, I missed one... lexingtonheating.com... taken just a few seconds before I tried to get it!

THESE ARE GOING FAST!

Back to work I go...

Roy
DNS Research Inc.

***FS*** Fine names Roy..

[Patrick Kerr]

i think i get it, not sure about stuff being used as directories, but i was thinking if i owned an apartment building in phoenix i guess apartmentphoenixaz.com is pretty good w/ 9000+ ov or if i owned a hotel in st petersburg fl---stpetersburgflhotel.com is probably a good one to have -or if i sold voip for offices voipofficephones.com seems alright-------cerebral or dumb-dumb?

[Mike Williams]

Tis is great and I understand it but how would one get thier name to come up as a premium for sale name, like vancouverbikes.com does for example at godaddy? I dont get that part?

[David]

Further to the $15,000 a day in sales. I came up with my own calcs.

Fabulous has a domain portfolio of roughly 500,000 (probably more) and in their last quarter they raised $333,000 or annualised $1,332,000 from domain sales. Therefore for a portfolio of 50,000 names this would give an annualised amount of $133,200 which is far short of $15,000 per day. ($ are Aus, 1 us$ is about Aus$0.83)

You must be a lot better at sales than them.

PS - love your blog

***FS*** The number is right :) and thanks.

[David]

woops $ were actually US$

[Steve Morsa]

Oh, poop, Frank...now look what you've gone and done... :-)

Now you've got a great post to send all the newbies asking you how to get started and what to buy...

...and it looks like June may turn out to be a great hand reg month for the registrars...they all 'ought to send ya' a piece of the action...

Super post...and great info from your other readers, too.

A blog at its very best.

[Adam]

I think a lot of newer guys are missing something here. There's a huge difference between the generic intent/direct nav/search style of domain and the type of domain that an average Joe end user is going to buy. You can't use the same old overture or keyword search lists to mine these sorts of names imho. They require an eye and some savvy into what people want to buy and what people name their businesses (or whois search data). A company that owns a hotel in Toledo isn't likely going to even try and register ToledoHotel.com at this point in the game. They probably are trying to come up with a catchy name for themselves rather than a generic intent type of name. Another thing to think about is ego and pride. People are more likely to name their company after themselves rather than a city. Somethings for people to think about when they go down the path of registering names to flip. It's a whole 'nother world than what is typically discussed here and in general with regard to domains.

[Patrick Kerr]

maybe so but if i owned a hotel in toledo i would absolutely want toledohotel.com the ego(or brand) namers call themselves whatever ps check out ricks blog on hotels.com etc

[Dan]

The world is a big place...heres a pretty handy resource about all the countrys and cities of the world.

http://population.mongabay.com/

Enjoy,
Dan

[David Bleaman]

Each of these are available as of my typing right now... Thanks Frank for this great post!

David

AlbuquerquePetSitting.com
BatonRougePetSitting.com
BirminghamPetSitting.com
CincinnatiPetSitting.com
DesMoinesPetSitting.com
HartfordPetSitting.com
IndianapolisPetSitting.com
JacksonvillePetSitting.com
KansasCityPetSitting.com
LouisvillePetSitting.com
MadisonPetSitting.com
MilwaukeePetSitting.com
OklahomaCityPetSitting.com
OmahaPetSitting.com
PittsburghPetSitting.com
ProvidencePetSitting.com
RenoPetSitting.com
SanAntonioPetSitting.com
ToledoPetSitting.com
TucsonPetSitting.com
TulsaPetSitting.com

[David Bleaman]

Frank, Here are a few more names for your readers (or you) to register should they (or you) choose to do so. Happy Domaining!

AkronCustomHomes.com
BatonRougeCustomHomes.com
BirminghamCustomHomes.com
DurhamCustomHomes.com
EugeneCustomHomes.com
HartfordCustomHomes.com
LittleRockCustomHomes.com
SaltLakeCityCustomHomes.com
SanFranciscoCustomHomes.com
TacomaCustomHomes.com
ToledoCustomHomes.com
BatonRougePodiatrist.com
BoisePodiatrist.com
BuffaloPodiatrist.com
CharlottePodiatrist.com
ColumbusPodiatrist.com
DurhamPodiatrist.com
EugenePodiatrist.com
IndianapolisPodiatrist.com
LittleRockPodiatrist.com
NewOrleansPodiatrist.com
ProvidencePodiatrist.com
SaltLakeCityPodiatrist.com
TacomaPodiatrist.com
WichitaPodiatrist.com

[tommy butler]

Hi Frank I agree with you on that
one best markets is to buy city name followed with the catagory been doing it for years and and what makes it sweet is now that local business are starting to know about domain names it also means you can cut out likes of google and PPC and go for direct advertising with local business. who will pay a monthly fee just to get banner on your site.and to me thats what most domainers want to get is monly fees for there names.

[Bob Luther]

The Domain Distribution Network sounds great, but I would use caution in speculatively buying names in anticipation of demand.
I've been in the business of selling web services to small-to-medium sized businesses since 1996, and have a sales force on the street, visiting local businesses every day.
Yes, we all agree that it would be so logical for these business owners to want to have these 'logical' geo-generic domains...not necessarilly to use as their business name, but as a valuable extra marketing tool. But that concept....and reality...can be far different. The percentage of business owners that 'get it' is small. You can offer them a killer generic name and they will often have no interest whatsoever (or at least nowhere near enough interest to cut you a check). I'm not saying they won't sell....just suggesting that this is a big 'numbers game'. It may be that for every hundred situations (or domains in this case) that seem like they make perfect sense, only one purchaser will step up and purchase; as opposed to all one hundred of them, or any number close to that.

It might be worth it to do a test yourself. I saw one name mentioned in the comments here that was (smalltown)lasik.com. In a medium sized town, there might be five doctors who do lasik eye surgery. So, go do a quick visit to the office of each one, or ring them on the phone. Ask if they would be interested in the domain (theirtown)lasik.com. You might be surprised at the responses.

For the holder who has 100,000 names and already has the PPC income to profitably carry his portfolio, the probability of sales from DDN is going to add some nice cash flow for him. On the other hand, the guy who goes out on a limb (using credit cards to buy domains, and anticipating cash flow to pay back the credit card, the interest and the eventual domain renewals) and buys 1000 names may find that there are far fewer sales then he anticipated; and the reg fees could actually be overwhelming to the plan.
I think the Domain Distribution Network is going to be a terrific platform, but I would be careful in terms of expectations of results.

[David Bleaman]

Everyone loves a clean, shiny car.. Enjoy..

AlbuquerqueDetailing.com
BaltimoreDetailing.com
BatonRougeDetailing.com
BirminghamDetailing.com
BoiseDetailing.com
BuffaloDetailing.com
ChattanoogaDetailing.com
ClevelandDetailing.com
ColumbusDetailing.com
DesMoinesDetailing.com
DurhamDetailing.com
ElPasoDetailing.com
EugeneDetailing.com
HartfordDetailing.com
IndianapolisDetailing.com
JacksonvilleDetailing.com
KansasCityDetailing.com
LittleRockDetailing.com
LouisvilleDetailing.com
MadisonDetailing.com
MemphisDetailing.com
MilwaukeeDetailing.com
MinneapolisDetailing.com
NashvilleDetailing.com
NewOrleansDetailing.com
OklahomaCityDetailing.com
OmahaDetailing.com
PittsburghDetailing.com
PortlandDetailing.com
ProvidenceDetailing.com
RaleighDetailing.com
RenoDetailing.com
SaltLakeCityDetailing.com
SpokaneDetailing.com
StLouisDetailing.com
TacomaDetailing.com
TulsaDetailing.com
WichitaDetailing.com