All The Good Domains Are Gone And Half Are Not Even Used!?, Rant & a little Rave... Options

[saschaeh]

Im finding it increasingly frustrating that people have bought up all these great domain names and never do anything with it. It also becomes next to impossible to obtain - if they are even for sale or who owns them and how much. One in particular has been dormant now for 4 years and they want $500 000 for it.

Is there not something unethical about buying lots of prime living land and leaving it to dust and wind. Does anyone here share my frustration!? A lot of those domains could be turned into great ventures or at least increase the potential of the venture...

This post has been edited by saschaeh: Sep 28 2007, 09:12 AM

[cre8pc]

I agree with you. I've ranted here myself about it.

I think it's one of the reasons we're seeing more made up words for new sites, because every word in the dictionary has already been sold.

This post has been edited by cre8pc: Sep 28 2007, 09:19 AM

[eKstreme]

It is a bit ridiculous, yes, but when there is a constraint, there is innovation. Why do you think a lot of Web 2.0 sites are so crappily named? Just go to the Techcrunch home page and look at the sites featured at this moment: Wamba, Jajah, and Zangku. Check.

Pierre

[saschaeh]

is there not some kind of petition we could start?

Create some law against just sitting on domains... I know there is Cyber Squatting but evidently its not very helpful and unrefined.

Even if we could create another .com it would takes months before everything was bought up and we sit in the same situation.

[Nadir]

I feel you sascha. Now you need imagination and patience to come up with a great domain name. This market should be regulated but I really don't know how.

[bobbb]

This market should be regulated

I disagree. There are enough regulation in this world. Who would have thought flickr or youtube was worth anything 5 years ago. Or myspace, mapquest, ebay, google.

When you check domain names at Godaddy they give you a whole bunch of variations to try. The my prefix is always one. Try space.com. Oh taken. Look my myspace.com is free. The rest is history.

ebay could have been eday, edays, ewear, eware, etube, ezube, e and anything in the dictionary of any language. ezube is free right now and is was 2 minutes of work to find. Tell me that is not a good name. No worse than ebay or myspace. How simple is craigslist? How many names are there in this world + list?

Here's more. In the same vein as flicker (flckr) try glitter (glitr). It's taken. Look at the suggestions: myglitr.com, theglitr and newglitr are free.

This post has been edited by bobbb: Sep 28 2007, 12:31 PM

[rynert]

Does anyone here share my frustration!?

Nope - it's just the way it is.

I think domain names are already over regulated. To me they should be no different to buying a car - you pay you money and it is yours for life.

This whole 'renting' thing and then the move to putting full contact details for public display!?!? And lets not go down the taking it away from you just because (GoDaddy...) line!

Nah, buy it - keep it private - do what you want with it.

That is the way I see it.

This post has been edited by rynert: Sep 28 2007, 12:08 PM

[EGOL]

I understand both sides of this one... I own a few domains in case I want to develop them in the future, but I've also been frustrated trying to buy a domain for a biz that I have owned for about ten years.

When I tried to register the MyDomain.com (generic term - can't be trademarked) it was already taken. So I registered My-Domain.com and started selling. Now I've developed a bit of a brand and decided to see if I could buy MyDomain.com. They want $50,000 - an absurd amount - and there is no justification for anyone to pay that much for that domain.

There is no financial justification for me to buy it but I worried that I am losing a lot of type-in traffic to them. So I used all of the KW research methods that I could find to learn the relative frequency that My-Domain.com and MyDomain.com are being typed into search engine query boxes... fortunately my URL is typed in about 14 times more than the URL without the hyphens. hah!

I am still not happy about not being able to get the domain that I want... but at least I have learned that a lot of people will remember to type the hypen in your URL. Thank you to them!

[cre8pc]

I have some domains I hang on to as well, thinking that someday I'll FINALLY have the time to work on the ideas I have that I wanted those domains for Some of them I've let go, because it feels greedy not to.

What kills me is when someone asks for a ton of money for a name, with no site behind it, or brand, or following or present proof that it generated any revenue.

or

as cases where there is a domain, no site for years and its obvious someone is sitting on it until the day when a situation comes along where they can ask for a million for it.

It's a freaking racket

So. How much is Cre8asiteforums .com worth???

[ccera]

So. How much is Cre8asiteforums .com worth???

You know it's priceless, Kim!

And lets not go down the taking it away from you just because (GoDaddy...) line!

Rynert, I know you said you let's not go there, but expired domains held hostage by GoDaddy burn me up a lot more than domains that are purchased and left empty.

This post has been edited by ccera: Sep 28 2007, 01:22 PM

[Jozian]

re: Kims 'It's a freaking racket'

I agree with the freaking part, but it more of an economy than a racket. Those less than admirable folks are mostly speculators, but you get speculators in most new fast growing markets.

We could write some laws, where undeveloped URLs could be reclaimed by the state, somewhat similar to eminent domain laws. But that would just cost money, waste time, and create a whole slew of new issues.

I have to say I have never once been unable to find a suitable URL for a site I wanted to develop. Expand your imagination and/or your URL search skills before you cry foul.

And don't discount longer domains - most business and marketing models can be tweaked such that customers don't need to often/ever type it in to reach you. With bookmarks, search and auto-complete, how often have I typed in Cre8asiteforums.com? Maybe twice.

Is the credit repair market too hot? And all of the good names gone? Possibly, but I found this for a friend a couple days ago, when he made a similar complaint: WipeYourCreditClean.com. 3 and 4 word combos are out there and available.

Nonsense words too, as others have pointed out. Additional value using a nonsense word: you don't worry about accidental copyright infringement, and the youth market actually likes to misspell and shorten and abbreviate and obfuscate.

-Jeff

This post has been edited by Jozian: Sep 28 2007, 02:31 PM

[iamlost]

Domain names are virtual real estate. The pioneers get first dibs. There is a large but finite amount. The greater the demand the greater the value. Surprise! Not. Property in New York is generally more costly than in Muncie. Surprise! Not.

It may be simplier to think generic, i.e. auction.tld, but building a brand, i.e. ebay.tld, is obviously a viable option.

Also, stop being English-centric, there be gold in them thar foreign URLs...

Being leasehold rather than freehold means that many come back on the market daily. That is a whole 'nother claim staking rush...

And finally, yes, there is money in the bare property but the greatest return is from maximising site development - ask any real estate developer.

[saschaeh]

Firstly; Don’t only take it from the point of view that we are all online gurus who has a good online business idea that they want to start. Take me for example. I had two business and part of the strategy was to go online. Their names are not related to the industry. I was creative with
their name prior to going fully online or even opening my business doors. Choosing the names to be non-generic is for better branding helps people distinguish you from other companies - one of you already pointed this out.

Point is for both my companies the domain names have been bought and are not in use for years now. Both companies can appeal to an international market so ,com is ideal. So I cant get the .com. So lets try for others like .uk .net .us .whateverdecentthingyoucanthinkof and it has been bought up and not used. Even if I add a ’–‘ between the words. Bought but no used...

When people or companies buy up 100's of domains and dont use it is very frustrating. I agree that we can all think of clever words or longer names but why should we if there are perfectly good names out there that have been dormant for years and what do we do if we already have a company name?

I have even found that most acronyms have been bought up. So your company is called:”Cat On Call” coc.com is used.

Its an open market sure but the period at which these domain sit dormant for and at the ridicules prices they are being sold at make me think the domain market needs to mature. With the Internet growing at the rate it soon we will be buying domains that are very very strange indeed.

Another and better comparison is registering your business with your countries business registrar. So you want to start company and want to call it “Cats On Site” I go government or business registra to get the company listed and receive all the documentation and so on. Now imagine there where people/companies that bought up 100's and 100's of companies because their names where catchy and then selling them to people who wanted to register their company at ridicules prices? This does not happen in South Africa and would be surprised if it happens anywhere else?

Secondly; If we are going to compare it to property it should be worth noting that this would be commercial property - property that is on a high street of some kind but left empty for years. Like buying a shop on Oxford street London and leaving it empty for 4 - 10 years because you waiting for the right price... Anyone who selling property for more than a year should know they are asking the wrong price for it - unlike real property its not like the neighborhood will increase in value.

This post has been edited by saschaeh: Sep 30 2007, 12:14 PM

[Autocrat]

Well, ideas are welcome for some form of regulation...
http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/forums/inde...c=54183&hl=


I appreciate the prospecting and harvesting ide... but I really do feel that there should be some "limitation" to it.

So, please, even if you don't agree with the regulation idea, post - I'd love to see what people come up with as "fair" and what problems can be foreseen.

[saschaeh]

Thanks Autocrat! Nice kick off there! Everyone who reads this go to this thread for a more comprehensive look at the topic http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/forums/inde...c=54183&hl=