"If Only I Had Been Around in 2008"
The word is out: The domaining bubble has finally burst. Many domainers are short on cash and prices are falling across the board. What created the bubble, how did it end, and is there a way to profit from the slowing economy and financial crisis?
The Components of a Seductive Bubble
A significant percentage of the domaining bubble was funded by the monetary expansion that started immediately after the dot com crash in the early 2000s but did not gain full speed until 2005. There was lots of easy money out there seeking investments; some companies in the domain industry obtained huge lines of credit to enlarge their domain portfolio, while individual domainers mortgaged their homes so they could acquire yet another valuable domain. Other domaining companies were even funded by venture capitalists who at the time thought that domains would be the next big thing.
Another part of the domaining bubble was built upon rapidly increasing enthusiasm on the reseller market. Many domainers believed that prices would only go up and that if they bought a certain domain today they would just have to wait a month or two before they could sell it at a significant profit. For several years in a row that assumption was true, and as word spread it attracted new domainers and reinforced the bubble.
Accepting Reality Means Attracting Profits
It is increasingly obvious that reality has set in. The easy money that characterized the last decade is gone. The get rich quick domainers who entered the market in 2006 and 2007 have either gotten rich or given up. And most domain prices have come down to an entirely reasonable level where it's good to be a buyer again.
A Unique Window of Opportunity
The best years in history to get into domaining would have been 1994 and 1995. Domains were virtually unknown and a few visionaries who refused to sell out early eventually made a killing. Another major opportunity opened up in 2001 and 2002. "Dot com" had become a dirty word and most people wanted nothing to do with Internet-related investments.
2008 and 2009 will be another two of those years where everyone believes the sky is falling while the visionaries of today are constructing the empires of tomorrow. Take this chance because the next window of opportunity might not come around until 2015/2016.
How To Start With Nothing
It's not easy to start with nothing. If you're low on cash and your friendly bank won't loan you other people's money so you can speculate in domains, you will have to start small, learn everything you can, observe those who are successful, then work hard and bootstrap your way up.
Start with a couple of domains, sell them at a profit and immediately reinvest your profits. Domain development is another option, but do not get sidetracked with this unless you decide it will be an essential part of your business strategy.
The opportunities are out there. A few years from now you can be the next domaining mogul, or you might be one of those people who will say, "If only I had been around in 2008. Things were different back then".
Will you take action or have you already given up?
[...] read a great post on Daily Domainer yesterday entitled "If Only I Had Been Around in 2008". The article talks about how the mid nineties was the best time to buy a domain as the [...]
The margin of profit of these domaining companies is so huge, they literally can (and will) snap every single dropping domain in the market and simply charge them as a fraction of their operating costs.
Even those with ridiculous names with no possible marketing value and just a year old, are snapped and regged by the software of these domaining companies. If the domain market is an ocean, these domaining companies are like a huge fishing vessel that throws a kilometer wide fishing net that drags the entire sea floor that will catch every seaweed and useless fish that moves. There is really no more brain scanning SEO involved today. Why spend time doing SEO work, when you can just rake everything up and just wait for the buyers (any buyers) to come to you for the fish?
The moral of the story, is that these price drops from domains will only benefit the domaining companies even more. They have little effect on the individual Joe out there. And just in case you were able to snap a good domain in the wild, you were just lucky. You were able to beat a machine.
As per current Market Situation, all the top domains are already registered and it is almost impossible for an individual to register a good domain even to develop a small business website. Although Every thing is cheaper with respect to 1990's, profit margin is almost dropped to nil for an individual.
Only big Fishes can Happily swim in such Domain Pool.
So you mean to say, it is best to get domains now? Will things be worse if we wait?
Ya, it is a time of competition. Its right time to buy domains.
There goes my idea to start making money flipping domains! LOL well, i guess i will have to move on to another business plan
Look at it this way, you spend $8.95 for a domain and sell it for $20 within a year. That is still a doubling of your investment. You really can't go wrong with domains, especially if you build a site on them and monetize them.
The financial markets cannot be trusted, as well as the banks and regulators of our investments.
My financial strategy. Buy a premium IDN for $10000.00
Add 10 years to the Expiration Date.
Wake up in 2018 and sell for a million dollars/pounds/euros.
Whatever the prevailing currency of the time.
s
I think its better to get domains now than waiting things got worse in the markets..
[...] (Now the only thing that's missing is for those geniuses who brought us the 2007 bubble to start talking down premium domains and tell us that the sky is falling so they can scoop up our assets for pennies on the dollar. Then the cycle will be complete and we'll be back in 2001, as predicted here.) [...]
[...] (Now the only thing that's missing is for those geniuses who brought us the 2007 bubble to start talking down premium domains and tell us that the sky is falling so they can scoop up our assets for pennies on the dollar. Then the cycle will be complete and we'll be back in 2001, as predicted here.) [...]