Daily Domainer

Angelina Jolie has shown that she is not just an accomplished actress but also a savvy domainer.

The 33 year old superstar celebrated the birth of her and Brad Pitt's twins, Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon, by registering a total of 50 domain names (including 4 .mobis!), increasing her total number of domains owned to a respectable 258.

Domains registered by Angelina Jolie on July 12, 2008:

viviennemarchelinejoliepitt.biz, .com. .eu, .info, .mobi, .net, .org, .us
knoxleonjoliepitt.biz, .com. .eu, .info, .mobi, .net, .org, .us

viviennejoliepitt.biz, .com. .eu, .info, .mobi, .net, .org, .us
knoxjoliepitt.biz, .com. .eu, .info, .mobi, .net, .org, .us

viviennejolie.com, .net, .org
knoxjolie.com, .net, .org

viviennepitt.com, .net, .org
knoxpitt.com, .net, .org

knoxleon.com, .net, .org
viviennemarcheline.com, .net, .org

A number of domainers snapped up some of the remaining combinations that were left unregistered by Angelina:

knoxleonjolie.com, .net, .org
viviennemarchelinejolie.com, .net, .org

knoxleonpitt.com, .net, .org
viviennemarchelinepitt.com, .net, .org

viviennemarcheline.info, .mobi
knoxleon.info, .mobi

If you want to do your part to honor this month's most famous newborns, don't despair!

Still available (at the time of writing):

knoxjolie.biz, .eu, .info, .mobi, .us
viviennejolie.biz, .eu, .info, .mobi, .us

viviennepitt.biz, .eu, .info, .mobi, .us
knoxpitt.biz, .eu, .info, .mobi, .us

viviennemarchelinejolie.biz, .eu, .info, .mobi, .us
knoxleonjolie.biz, .eu, .info, .mobi, .us

viviennemarchelinepitt.biz, .eu, .info, .mobi, .us
knoxleonpitt.biz, .eu, .info, .mobi, .us

viviennemarcheline.biz, .eu, .us
knoxleon.biz, .eu, .us

If you or someone you know is expecting children in the near future, consider that there may be no better gift to set aside for your child than his or her own domain.

"It's too late to make big money in domaining… I wish I had been around in 1995, 2001 or 2005".

That's a very common complaint heard among today's domainers. Who wouldn't want to reach back through time and join the forefathers of domaining when they were just laying the foundation for their future domain empires?

In 1995, the Internet was just beginning to attract mainstream attention. In 2001, the dot com crash liberated tens of thousands of top domains. And as recently as late 2005, you could have registered tons of LLLL.com domains and sold them early this year for big bucks.

So, is it really too late?

Not at all. Just ask Michael B., a Bangkok-based Danish journalist, who snapped up the following LLL.com domains on Afternic last week:

ZLI.com - $500
PQT.com - $571
LLJ.com - $603
WJA.com - $735
RLU.com - $900

Michael paid a total of $3,309 for these domains. But their actual market value is in the mid five figures!

Who sold these domains at such a low price? iREIT, a "next-generation Internet media company that acquires, develops and monetizes high-quality domain names and web properties".

Last week, iREIT listed a small part (10,000+) of its portfolio on Afternic. NameBio reported on the fact this Monday, but by then most bargains were already gone.

Was iREIT aware of these LLL.com domains' market value? Probably not. Someone at iREIT for whatever reason made a decision to sell these domains (and quite a few others, such as say.org and gut.org) at a very low price.

That's not a one-time event. In fact, it happens all the time. Not everyone values their domains as much as domainers and potential end-users do. Many individuals, companies and even large corporations let valuable domains expire (or sell them for peanuts) simply because they no longer have any use for them.

As a domainer, you just have to be at the right place at the right time. That might be called "luck" by some, but in reality it boils down to hard work, actively working your market, keeping an eye on prices and trends, and having sufficient liquidity to make sure you can grab a bargain before someone else does.

It takes just a couple of deals like this to be able to retire. Michael could sell these five domains for $50,000 any day of the week. If he finds a few comparable deals in the future and keeps reinvesting his profits he'll be a domain millionaire in no time.

I'm continually amazed to see how many new domainers are joining the industry every month. Let's face it: Domaining is the perfect business, and word is spreading quickly around the world. There are no barriers to entry, there's a thriving wholesale and growing retail market, and you don't have to be a superstar to make a nice income.

Of course, if you really go for it, the sky is the limit and you could become the next domain millionaire with his own blog, after just a few years of hard work. (Just kidding about the blog. )

All things put together, achieving success in domaining might be even easier today than it used to be thanks to the massive growth, increased liquidity and widespread recognition the market is experiencing.

Growth? Liquidity? Recognition? Aren't some domain bloggers musing about a perceived slowdown or even plateau the domain market is supposed to have reached after two recent domain auctions (at DomainFest and T.R.A.F.F.I.C.) produced "only" $10 million in sales?

Well, it's obviously true that some domain sellers are asking for way too much money to readily find a buyer. That's what happens when we're told over and over again by our industry leaders how valuable our domains are and that we shouldn't sell them for less than their real value.

However, look at how far we have come. Prices for the most premium domains have increased ten-fold over the past few years. And while there are natural consolidation periods, many new domainers have been entering the market. Some are already well-funded while others work their way up from LLLL domains to LLL domains to traffic domains and generics.

Actually, there seems to be something about February. Last year, there was talk of the domain market being due for an "asset repricing". Many domainers believed that the sky was falling. It never happened, even though PPC revenues have continued to slowly decline.

What did happen was an increase in sales volume as well as average prices. According to Ron Jackson of DNJournal, reported domain sales grew from $71 million in 2006 to $121 million in 2007 (a 70.42% increase). Q1/2008 is expected to finish at around $25 million - a jump of almost 20% over Q1/2007. Additionally, the Daily Domainer's analysis of 2007 sales data showed that the top 100 median sales price increased from $124,000 in 2006 to $197,500 in 2007, an upsurge of 59.27%.

Finally, last month the domain market as entered a new era of mainstream recognition with CNN's $750,000 purchase of iReport.com from Rick Schwartz.

So does the domaining industry of early 2008 experience growth, liquidity and recognition? Yes, it does. Is there a temporary stalemate between some buyers and some sellers? Absolutely. But if it costs you only $7 a year to hold an asset, many sellers figure that they can wait until they really do achieve the highest possible price for their domains.

Eventually, sellers will give in and lower their prices, or buyers will offer more. It almost always happens that way, so let's enjoy the ride and allow the free market to work things out.

Domain forums are filled with heated discussions about LLLL domains.

Some domainers say that LLLL domains are a wonderful opportunity to make money, while others claim they are merely a fad that won't last.

What are LLLL domains?

LLLL stands for any four-letter combination, such as LOVE, HWII or XQZV.

There are 456,976 possible four letter combinations (26*26*26*26) and in the .com extension, all LLLL domains are taken. The last available LLLL .com domain was registered on November 2, 2007.

Are they worth anything?

The prices of LLLL .com domains have increased very quickly, but obviously, some LLLL domains are more valuable than others.

4letternoob reports in the latest LLLL.com price guide that even the "worst" LLLL .com domains are now selling for at least $52 on the wholesale market. If you registered any below-average LLLL .com domain for $7 in October 2007, you could now sell it for at least $52… that's a nice 643% return in less than four months.

Just a year ago, at the beginning of 2007, more than 60,000 LLLL.com domains were still available. Domainers with sufficient capital and foresight were certainly able to make a lot of money.

What determines the value of a LLLL.com domain?

Obviously, LLLL domains that constitute a real word, such as LOVE, RARE or BLUE are most valuable. For all the other domains, general consensus among domainers as well as letter frequency statistics indicate that there are premium letters, average letters and bad letters.

• Premium letters: a b c d e f g h i l m n o p r s t
• Average letters: j k u v w
• Bad letters: q x y z

An LLLL domain that contains only premium letters (e.g. defi.com) will be considered more valuable than a domain that contains one average letter (anwe.com), two average letters (ivew.com) or even a bad letter (qefu.com).

Another aspect considered by domainers is the distribution of vowels and consonants, which is expressed by the most valuable CVCV (consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel, e.g. baka.com), followed by VCVC (vowel-consonant-vowel-consonant, e.g. ofam.com), CVVC (consonant-vowel-vowel-consonant, e.g. geat.com) and VCCV (vowel-consonant-consonant-vowel, e.g. opke.com).

Interestingly, several of the so-called average and bad letters are popular in other languages. For example, j, k, q, x and z are frequently used in Pinyin Chinese, while v, w and z are relatively common (more so than j or p) in German.

Demonstrating the English-language bias in the mainstream LLLL domain valuation model, Adam Dicker, the owner of DNForum, reports that he sold zwas.com and zzzq.com for more than 5 figures each.

Do LLLL domains have a future?

Are the recent price developments sustainable and can LLLL .com domains still be considered a good investment at this stage? After all, there are as many as 456,976 LLLL .com domains and if only a relatively small percentage of owners were to put their portfolios on the market, prices would undoubtedly go down. Another potential roadblock is the fact that many LLLL domains will never sell to an end user because out of more than 450,000 possible combinations, there will be some that simply aren't used as an acronym anywhere in the world.

I personally missed out on the LLLL craze, so take my opinion with a grain of salt: If the history of LLL (three letter) .com prices (up, up and up), the incredible enthusiasm on domain forums, and the rapidly growing number of active domainers are any indication, LLLL domains will indeed have an impressive future. In a very short time, they have become collectibles that do not necessarily need an end user to be considered a valuable asset.

Just like numismatic gold coins, which have collectible value and trade for much more than their gold content would suggest, or rare used stamps, which are worth a lot more than the paper they're printed on, but do not have any "real" usability value, LLLL domains meet all the requirements of being valuable collectibles:

• They're rare (all 456,976 domains have been registered and they're not making any new ones).
• Their owners are very enthusiastic about them.
• There's a large and constantly growing number of speculators and wholesalers that bring liquidity to the market.
• There is increasing demand among end users, particularly among companies that use four-letter acronyms.
• Last not least, many LLLL domains even have natural traffic and generate income through pay-per-click advertising.

As you can tell, I'm cautiously bullish on LLLL domains and I'll be buying more on the inevitable price dips we'll see over the coming months and years.

Finally, there's always .net…

Out of 456,976 LLLL .net domains, all all-premium domains are taken, but more than 215,000 domains are still available as of today, Feb. 23, 2008. Each of these available domains contains at least one average or bad letter. Before you whip out your credit card, consider that you probably won't see any profits until all LLLL .net domains have been registered (which could take more than a year), and that .net domains typically sell for only 10% to 20% of their .com counterpart.

Premium domain names continue to be an outstanding investment. This is nothing new to domain investors, and now the numbers confirm what many of us have known for several years.

Looking at DNJournal's List of Top 100 Reported Sales this year (2007) and last year (2006), the top 100 median sales price has increased from $124,000 in 2006 to $197,500 in 2007.

That's an upsurge of 59.27%, which is a pretty good representation of this year's bull market in premium domains.

Owners of LLL (three letter) domains have seen the values of their domains increase by at least this percentage over the course of 2007, and the same applies to many top generic domains whose sales either remained private or simply did not meet the $100,000 threshold to be included in this year's top 100 list.

Is there a drawback to this continuing boom?

Fears of the domain market overheating have shown to be been unfounded so far. The real concern may be that with domain values shooting up so rapidly, very few domain owners are devoting any of their resources to actually developing their domains.

After all, there is simply no point in developing a domain you just bought if you can resell it a few months later at a significant profit. Broadly declining PPC (pay per click) revenues do not seem to affect this situation at all, at least for the time being.

How severe is the situation?

Let's look at the numbers:

Of the 105 highest priced domains sold in 2007, only 33 domains (31%) have been developed or redirect to a developed site, 3 are affiliate sites, and 10 are either abandoned or appear to be under development. 4 domains don't resolve at all and a massive 55 domains (52.58%) display PPC ads.

While we can safely assume that many retail sales (from domainer to end users, or among end users) go unreported and therefore do not show up in domain sales charts, I'd love to see some examples of premium domains being developed into a profitable business not just by large companies but above all by domainers and up-start companies.

Such domains could serve as shining examples to truly reinforce the monetary value and marketing power of generic domains to potential mainstream buyers, who are - for the most part - still sitting on the sidelines.

It's getting more and more difficult to do any kind of domain research without running the risk of losing your domain ideas to unscrupulous domain tasters.

Back in February, we described the problem as follows:

• A perfect domain name pops into your mind.
• A quick check at your favorite domain registrar reveals that the domain is still available.
• For some reason, you put off the actual registration for a few days.
• And when you come back to finally register the domain, it's taken by someone else!

Back then, it took domain tasters "a few days" to intercept, analyze and register the domains that you came up with.

Now, it takes them less than 2 minutes.

Last week an associate of mine was bulk-checking 200+ generic typo domains through a software that shall remain unnamed for now. All of the domains were available. But less than 2 minutes later, more than 50 of the domains had been registered by a number of different offshore companies from the Bahamas.

There is no way this could be a coincidence. And if you read the more recent comments in the above mentioned article, it's clearer than ever before that there are severe leaks somewhere that allow domain tasters to compromise your domain searches and steal your domain ideas.

Brad writes:

Yesterday, I did a search on both estibot and whois.sc.. About 4 different names with each of them. I used estibot to check the overture traffic, and those on whois.sc I wasn't concerned about the overture. Anyway, 6 out of the 8 ( 3 i had checked on estibot and 3 on whois.sc ) Were registered less than 1 minute and 30 seconds later by

BelgiumDomains
501 NE 1st. Ave. Suite #201
Miami, FL 33132
347-214-0249

The evidence is overwhelming that they were using illegal data sniffing to steal these domains. I have already contacted a very experienced attorney on the matter and I will update when I get further along.

However, in the meantime, I suggest not using whois.sc or estibot.com at all.

Josh, the author of Estibot, responds:

Thank you for reporting this problem also via e-mail. I appreciate that. I'm the programmer of EstiBot and this causes great concern. I can tell you for sure that the searches on EstiBot are not given to any third party. [...]

What is happening here is that Belgium Domains is sniffing the whois services, not EstiBot itself. EstiBot performs a whois search for the appraised domains, because it's an important part of the valuation.

The culprit in this case seems to be Network Solutions. Their whois seems to be compromised. I will try to find an alternative whois service. Any help is appreciated, if you have suggestions please let me know, you will find my contact details on the site. I am willing to pay for a reliable whois service.

Finally I'd like to remind everyone that every time you do a whois search with any service, you run a risk of losing your domain.

Have you had a similar experience? Share it below, providing as many details as possible, and maybe we can do something about it.

Paraguayan domainer Chris Chena is in the news again, this time for having acquired 80% of the popular Paraguayan TV channel Canal 13. It looks like he is putting the millions of dollars he made by selling some of his top domains to Marchex and Fox Latinoamerica to good use by laying the foundation for a future national media empire.

Chris remains in the domain business, with gems like viajes.com (trips), clasificados.com (classifieds), amistad.com (friendship), paraguay.com and animation.com still in his possession.

Here's a quick translation of the official announcement which was released earlier today (Oct 18):

Acquisition of 80% of the Shares of Canal 13

This communication serves to inform the press and general public of a commercial relationship that was initiated on October 15 2007 with Teledifusora Paraguaya S.A. (Canal 13):

1. On the mentioned date, Christian Chena acquired 80% of the shares of Teledifusora Paraguaya S.A. (Canal 13, Radio Cardinal AM y FM)
2. One of the primary reasons of this acquisition is to make sure that this important medium of communications and source of work for local media professionals remains in Paraguayan hands, with the goal of improve all parts of the company and increasing its national production.
3. This communication is issued with the goal of guaranteeing the peace of mind of all TV viewers, employees and clients of Canal 13.
4. The remaining 20% of shares remains in possession of the family López Moreira, which is represented by Jorge Santiago López Moreira.

INFORMATION ABOUT CHRISTIAN CHENA

Christian Chena Núñez, a 29 year old Paraguayan entrepreneur, is one of the Internet pioneers in Paraguay. Founder and owner of Chena Ventures S.A. (Paraguay) and Chena Ventures, Inc. (USA), he looks back on a successful international career and wide experience in the e-business world, in particular in the development of e-commerce niches. Dedicated to the development of innovative business projects, his companies offer services in the areas of communications, technology, education and commerce, with vast experience in interactive media and online audiences.

Over the past few years, he has developed vertical portals and hispanic online channels, such as Juegos.com and a network of Spanish online games domains. Several of his popular portals were acquired this year for millions of dollars by large companies such as Marchex (USA), Fox Latinoamerica (USA) and Spill Group (Holland).

Even though Chena Ventures's specialty lies in Internet business and monetization of online traffic, the company has also developed business models that allow it monetize any kind of traffic. Owning the most popular websites in Paraguay as well as various sites that produce the largest number of worldwide sales and subscriptions in South America, Chena Ventures is recognized worldwide for its acquisitions of premium generic domains (juegos.com, viajes.com, clasificados.com, and dozens more), which were obtained thanks to notable financial investments, which are a fruit of the independent ambition that has characterized Chris Chena since his early youth.

Many of the most popular generic Spanish .com domains are today owned by Chena Ventures S.A. The businesses that were developed by its founder Christian Chena have been in the news in various publications in Germany, Japan, USA, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Spain and Paraguay.

Read more about Chris Chena at Chena.com or in DNJournal's July 2005 cover story.