Written by Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing sections of a research paper I wrote about the buying, monetizing and selling of domain names. It is targeted at my viewers that may be very new to domain names but I hope that you will all be able to learn a little about it.
PART I
Google.com, ESPN.com and Facebook.com are all types of domains and the internet is growing exponentially with more than 100,000 domains registered each day. There are 94 million .COM domain names registered to day (Registrarstats.com). There are hundreds of variations called TLDs or Top-Level Domains and that is just .COM! It is becoming imperative for individuals and businesses alike to register their own name, if nothing else, for trademark purposes. With the explosion of the internet, a new form of business was created and it was called domaining. Domaining is the buying and selling of domain names and it has become a very profitable business through various ways of flipping, parking, developing and advertising.
Domaining is a relatively new business. The first domain name ever registered was symbolics.com. It was registered on March 15, 1985, by Symbolics Computer Corp. They later sold the domain in 2009 to XF.com Investments for an undisclosed amount of money according to an article written by Ron Jackson of DNJournal.com. Most people would think that IBM or AT&T would have been the first to register their domains. At that time the internet was nowhere near the size that it has become. Since that date, over 200 million domains have been registered. Now it is extremely rare to find a large company that does not own their “name”.com.
Most domaining professionals began speculating with domains just prior or just after the “dot-com bust” of 2000. In the late 90’s, many investors banked on the hopes of internet business and the .COM TLD. When the internet sector of Wall Street crashed in 2000, many companies did not find it necessary to keep their websites or domain names. They simply let them expire or “drop.” That is when a new type of investor came into the market and began registering these dropping domains. The top domain industry pros have only been in the business an average of five to eight years. Many have done very well for themselves by registering domains and then turning around and selling them to interested buyers.
Domaining is not a well-known industry to the general public. People know of the internet and websites and they know that they need to go to a .COM to see a site they want. What people do not understand is the backend business of the internet. They do not know how much that .COM they visit may be worth. This makes domaining such a profitable business because most users of the internet will purchase domains at a premium price from domainers if they cannot find the name they want from a domain registrar.
Next week I will talk more about where you can register domains and the benefits of registering domains. I welcome any comments below. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @Showtimedomains.
