Raiding the time capsule vault, Circa 2007. Thought you all would enjoy an old post of mine that is truer now than ever.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
" The Most Valuable, Premium Domain Names "
With all the headlines, and news coverage, about the record sales prices being paid, for generic domain names. One might think, these traffic favorites are the most valuable of all, the classes of domain names. In actuality though, the sales prices of the most valuable top domain names ever sold have been secretly withheld from the public. The fact is, many of the most valuable domain names never reach public auctions.
So why are we, the public, not privy to the highest prices being paid for these premium domain names? Actually it is because of a little known fact, that many of the largest corporate investors, prefer to make their purchases, of premium domain names, in strictly private transactions. These private transactions are used, to deliberately hide prices being paid for domain names. For this reason, many of the largest dollar values being paid for premium domain names, never hit the headlines, and are never reported!
Why is this so? Why do these corporate buyers and speculators not want it publicized, how truly valuable, some top domain names are? In a nutshell, they know increased competition, will inflate the market prices they pay for the names they covet. They do not want to draw any more attention to domain names, and their values, than necessary.
The last thing they want to do is compete for names they truly want and then possibly lose them to higher bidders. To avoid this they choose to operate in closed non public transactions, that are far removed from the public eye. In this cloak of secrecy, these corporate buyers, do not have to competitively bid for a rapidly disappearing pool of top domain names. This explains why they are clearly absent from most public auctions where sales prices are competitively bid and disclosed to the press and public.
In this controlled market place these professional buyers look for unique names that stand out in the crowd and signify an image that differentiates their company from the rest of the pack. They also search for names that are short, that are easy to spell and remember and at the same time describe their particular market niche with Clarity and professionalism. In short, they look for a name that makes a statement, about them and their company.
Most of the qualities these professional buyers look for in a top name can be clarified by understanding, what a premium domain name is. So lets take a look at, the actual definition, of a premium domain name. "Premium domain names are often valuable, and have particular characterizations: The names are short and memorable, may contain words that are regularly searched on search engines or keywords that help the name gain a higher ranking on search engines. They may contain generic words, so the word has more than one meaning, and they may contain typos". An excellent example of a Top premium domain name, is UseBiz.com. It fits the definition of a premium domain name perfectly, makes a statement, and in many experts opinion is truly a most unique and valuable six letter domain name.
Another good example of a previously undiscovered and unknown gem is Android.com. Google bought this name in the secondary market, from a previous owner. This name is now being developed as their flagship address, for an open source software Alliance, for the wireless industry. Now that this name, is under Googles development, we would really have a tough time valuing it, as its sales price was not revealed to the public. But we are sure its market value would be in the millions of dollars. The competition for good quality names, such as these, are increasing at a frenetic pace.
Due to this growing competition, there is an ever increasing demand for premium domain names. The catalyst, that is driving this demand, is the explosive growth of new business start ups, on the internet. This growth has been breath taking, to say the least. So much so, that the worlds one billionth website, is already in place. It took 36 years to reach this water mark! Amazingly enough, the number of web sites are expected to double, again in the next 8 years!, to two billion!
With all this expansion, the worlds major corporations, are in competition with thousands of new start up companies, who are feverishly positioning themselves to master, this thing they call e-Biz! It's no wonder that as a result of all this expansion. There is a huge pent up demand, being created for well branded, easy to spell, and remember domain names. This highly competitive market place has created an exponential increase in the values of good domain names. In fact, some premium domain names are commanding six and seven figure price tags!
The most encouraging aspect of this business, is that there are many undiscovered names that are destined to become internet powerhouses!, that are still available!, in the secondary market!. This is what makes investing in the domain name business, so exciting!. There quite simply is no glass ceiling here, and the sky truly is the limit. Now more than ever, the visionary leaders who keep their focus on investing in premium domain names, will be a part of the futures most successful investors!
For all these reasons and more the secondary market place for domain names is the fastest growing investors asset class on the planet! Our advice for any interested investors, is to start collecting and controlling the letters of the alphabet today!. One word of advice though. Look for hidden values within the secondary market and do not bother with any other extension, other than the .com extension, it's the Predominant choice for most of the worlds top corporations. That is where the real money is!.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
