Domaining.org.uk

I thought now would be a good time to highlight a few of the most interesting posts that I have seen over the past month…………..

Perhaps the most important event this month was ICANN’s decison to relax the rules about naming domain name extensions. Now anyone with enough cash can buy their own domain extension. So we could easily see new top level domains like .sex, .london and .eBay. Is this a disaster waiting to happen or will this open up the pool of available domains. See what expert domainer Elliot Silver has to say on this development  and see what other people are saying about ICANN’s decision in this post on TheDomains.com blog.  

Meanwhile, the Self Made Minds blog has a post that offers some tips for domainers thinking of leasing rather than selling their domains. Once you have read this, read this post about domain leasing agreements and then look at leaseadomain.co.uk/. This is all very early in the development of this market, and I would recommend that you get yourself a good lawyer before taking the plunge in this highly speculative area. This is one area novice domainers should avoid completely.

Next, here is a short introduction in how to use the Wordpress blogging platform to build sites that actually look like sites, rather than blogs. This will be especially useful for domainers who want to develop domains into minisites, for example.

Many domainers are taking their best domains and developing them into fully fledged websites. These new internet entrepreneurs have learned how they can make a decent income by either selling their domain with its established website for good money or by developing their domains and enjoying good regular incomes. I like reading about successful internet entrepreneurs and this article How I Built A Six Figure Internet Income about the income potential of blogs, from the Financial Hack blog, is quite inspiring.

Finally, this post about domain name appraisals on the Domain Junkie blog is well worth reading. It compares domain name appraisals from Moniker and Sedo and recommends obtaining appraisals from two trusted sources before negotiating a price for a domain.

I was having a discussion about domain names with a friend who is a computer programmer, a few days ago and he asked me why I continue to look for unregistered domains when the best domains are taken already.

Its a very interesting question because I wonder the same thing myself, sometimes!

It is certainly the case that many, many quality domain names have been registered for a long time and exchange hands for thousands, if not millions of dollars. However, in my opinion there are many good names out there - it is just that finding them is a lot more difficult than it was even five years ago. 

New words and terms are being developed and are emerging all the time. Technological developments, for example, constantly introduce new words and terms into common usage. Social and cultural changes are rich sources of new words. The business sector is constantly innovating and naming new business practices. Fortunately, this gives domainers plenty of  opportunities to buy/ register potentially valuable domains.

A wide range of websites follow business, cultural and technological trends and are useful guides to what might be hot in the future. There is even a website dedicated to what is called Predictive Domaining. Predictive Domaining discusses techniques for finding good domain names that have the potential to become valuable in the future.

That is why I have created a page on this blog listing all trend related sites that I can find, and I plan to update as often as possible. These sites reflect trends in technology as well as business and commercial trends.

Remember, trends come and go. Fashions will develop then fade, never to be heard of again. Products and services emerge and it is often unclear what the future holds for them. Technology changes all the time. So domainers need to be aware that this is a particularly speculative field and that great care is required. Inevitably, not all domainers are going to see success in this area.

Find out more by visiting my list of trend related sites - Trend watching and innovations sites for domainers

Do you know of any sites that I should add to my list? Do you use trend watching sites to find new domains? Why not tell me what you think below.