[Zaoris]

Read this article from digg, I really thought it should be read by most of you.
link

[freelancr]

Domain names should be more regulated. If you aren't using it, and someone else wants it, you should have to give it up. Advertising isn't a good enough reason imho.

[SMILEdotCROSS]

If you come up with a name and someone else is using it, your idea isn't original.

</snooty kid>

[datahound]

www.everygooddomain.com is available.

[Blue Ire]

Such a load of crap. I've only bumped into names I wanted having already been registered a few times, certainly not the majority.

[brooks]

ooh, that reminds me, a certain domain name i want expires today, how long til i can try purchase it from a simple domain register website if it's not renewed?

edit: fag, it's been renewed and they've not even put a site up after 2 years yet...

[Zaoris]

Ow well, there's always a big change to use someone else's idea.
Nowadays, most free domains are funny ones or something non-related to 'serious' category.

[pgo]

Originally Posted by freelancr

Domain names should be more regulated. If you aren't using it, and someone else wants it, you should have to give it up. Advertising isn't a good enough reason imho.

Fair point and I agree with you, but who's going to regulate that? The honor system? What if I register a domain that I know I won't use for a few years? Etc. That regulation just doesn't seem practical to me.

[Bill Posters]

Seconded.
I've a growing number of domains registered with future projects in mind, but I'm aware that I probably won't get round to setting up sites for more than 1 or 2 of them in the next 12 months.
(I registered 4 more a couple of days ago, though all are variations on one theme. I was a little surprised to find them available.)

I do appreciate the general notion that domains shouldn't simply be bought and then mothballed (or turned over to Sedo-type ad pages), but… so many ideas, so little time.

(Bear in mind that some companies register domains simply for the email, so the domain is in use. It simply has no website associated with it.)

[Limbo]

I have hundreds - many are an investment. When you buy land you don't have to build a house...

[cam]

Limbo you fucking squatter!

[Limbo]

ya.

(I do have to pay for them though )

[Sanehouse]

The reason why good domain names are taken is because they're good... and because of domain squatters.

[Agricola]

there have been plenty of names that would have been perfect, but problem is they have already been bought by some domain trading company. Although I love a domain name I would not pay out £1000 for one. £100 if i were desperate but nothing more. How much would you pay for a domain name?

Problem is people still think we live in the dot com boom and think every domain can be sold for like 5,000+

[Bill Posters]

The right company/project name (and domain name) is more important than the £1000 it might cost to secure the matching domain name. A serious business would be stupid to a less ideal name simply because someone was asking £1000 for the matching domain name.
Of course, depending on the projected success of the business, £1000 could be a p**s in the proverbial ocean.

It all depends on the scale of the project. £1000 is not a huge (additional) amount in terms of investment once you step beyond the small world of small businesses, sole traders and bedroom freelancers and the like.

I don't doubt that there are some domains out there, hooked up to sites like Sedo, which turn in thousands in PPC revenue.
It's not a question of whether any domain is worth that much, clearly some are*. It's whether the one being offered for £1000 is realistically potentially worth that - the majority of which aren't.
Still, as long as they pay for themselves in PPC, resellers are willing to hang onto them until someone comes along for whom that domain is worth the asking price.


* On a side-note…
It probably says alot about the state of western society that 7 of the top 11 most expensive (and by implication, most profitable) domain names are aimed at the unholy trinity of popular vices - gambling, sex and booze.

[freelancr]

I would never buy a domain name from a squatter, don't feed the trolls. Couldnt give a fuck if the business plan was set to earn millions, the name doesn't make a business successful alone.

[Limbo]

Perhaps some of you maybe misunderstand the real value of domains.

Cyber squatting typically involved a domain registrar taking a TLD from under the noses of a registered business and ransoming it's value against the companies perceived wallet. It's a nasty trade and has more or less disappeared as people became wise, more or less.

Each domain has a value, but that value should not just be read as 'how much someone is willing to pay for it'. Recognising the benefits of local search, redirect value and 'type in' URL's etc... will see rewards that far in exceed the figures mentioned above.

I have grazed the surface from a few and I am seeing very positive results - Those who look deeper could happen across domains with enormous marketing potential.

I know someone who would quite happily pay $10,000 for a one word .info.

Money.info was recently sold for more than double that.

I can't really see that domain purchasing as simply cyber squatting these days. Domain sales is an industry in it's own right.

I am not targeting registered companies, but marketable assets, or in other words I believe I am buying investments, much like property or stock. You take a risk based on predictions in market. If you get it right, you get rich.

[stealthcow]

number plates are another similar thing you could hoard, buy a few, wait for demand to increase, sell em off

simple supply and demand

[Bill Posters]

Originally Posted by freelancr

I would never buy a domain name from a squatter, don't feed the trolls. Couldnt give a fuck if the business plan was set to earn millions, the name doesn't make a business successful alone.

True, but it can certainly pay for itself by being that much easier to remember, guess or chance upon.
I understand you're coming from a point of principle and that's admirable, but good domains names, even those bought expensively from a reseller business, can still work out cheaper than plowing more money into promoting a less effective or less intuitive name.

Yes, it sucks to put money into the hands of resellers who exploit the 'first come, first serve' basis of domain name registration*, but sometimes it's better to put ethics of the situation on the backseat and pay the asking price if the domain name in question is likely to pay its way - and make life simpler for your users and give them better access to the company - once you deploy it in your own project.

Of course, some won't be happy to put ethics on the backseat. Ethics are generally a good thing, but they do have a habit of making life more expensive.


(* I do still consider it squatting, though it's probably closer to ticket scalping. At least squatters have the intention of putting the places they occupy to (something akin to) proper use while they're there.)