DN Journal's annual State of the Industry Cover Story has just been published. After 4 years of robust growth the domain business hit stormy weather in 2008. To make sense of what happened last year and get a forecast on where we are headed in 2009 we called on 15 top industry leaders for their insight. Our panel of experts includes key company founders, CEOs, developers, investors and attorneys. You will find the full story here:
http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2009/january.htm
I just read that "Cover Story" and saw the same gang of suspects magnanimously conceding that things are down now, but domains remain a viable investment, and, hey, maybe we should stop all the PPC scheming and develop the damn names instead.
Just remember to really listen to what they say, but follow the whois. That will tell you what they are really doing, and where they are hedging their bets (i.e. porn). Now, there's nothing wrong making some extra moolah purveying in porn, a guy's got make a buck, ya' know? But I don't think I remember reading in the dnjournal.com "Cover Story" about the porn angle. Heck, it's just an oversight, right?
Oh, and I forgot, here's a good quote from one of "The 15 ...":
"...The point is there is so much room to improve selling on the Internet that it could take many years for retailers and wholesalers to understand the art and science of making a sale on the net."
Duh! For many years retailers and wholesalers couldn't get a decent domain at a reasonable price because domainer monetizers and speculators were hoarding most decent names, including TMs with some "generic" value (winkitty wink, know what I mean?) For many years retailers and wholesalers had to watch intuitive, potentially-usefull names, in the hands of those of the same ilk as "The 15", used for little more than providing abysmal search results while the monitizers and speculators sat on their asses making lots of money off of sucker advertisers paying a few cents to a few bucks for each pipe-dream potential customer.
Contrary to what some of "The 15" may think, the retailers and wholesalers understand the the first rule of the "science of making a sale on the net": GET A GOOD, INTUITIVE DOMAIN! The problem is, groups like "The 15" own or control most of those names.
