Grrrr to domain hoarders (mini-rant)

[suzyvirtual]

I am soooo sick of seeing that really moneytizable domains (like bluewidgets.com when there are really good affiliate programs for selling blue widgets) have been bought up by the larger domain hoarders and are being sent to their generic search results. It just wish "somebody" was making money, doesn't have to be me :)
I know the would want some giant amount of money to sell the domains, yet are probably not making much of anything off of them because of poor use! Grrrrrr!

[pmkpmk]

We have company.nationaltld for some 8 years now. A totally unrelated company has company.com for some 10 years now.

Recently, they were bought. Since then, neither www.company.com nor email to company.com works anymore. I contacted them numerous times, but they aren't interested in selling the domain, but they don't intend to use it either.

We are often mistaken for company.com and even some of our own distributors set up links to company.com instead of company.nationaltld

*sigh*

[freshfish]

I have had the same problem recently and wanted to post at thread to that effect. I have been developing a project that I want to release soon. It’s actually a network of 3-4 related sites each serving a different purpose. One of them was a directory and it was gobbled up by someone who has not developed it and probably won’t be as it is not a very lucrative niche.

So I tried coming up with variations and I got REALLY frustrated when I found that all the variations I came up with all had the .com’s registered (by different people). But they were ALL undeveloped.

My question to the more experienced of you out there…which would you do in my situation
a)Try to buy the domain name I initially had in mind?
b)Register the .net or .org version and develop the site?

Don’t you risk losing traffic if you go with the NET or ORG version since people are so accustomed to typing .com?

Thanks

[suzyvirtual]

freshfish. Yes! you will lose ALOT of traffic by not getting a .com. not only that, but the lost traffic will be going to those underdeveloping hoarders who will notice the value (amount of traffic) of their domains is increasing and if you even DO decide to try and buy the dot com, they will ask alot more for it, due to all your traffic that is getting sent there.

[chicagohh]

It just wish "somebody" was making money, doesn't have to be me

The domain owners *are* making money. They may not be making as much as what a good affiliate site or a retail site would make, but they are still turning a profit.

Currently, it takes more time and money to play the domain game than it did a few years ago, but there is still good money to be made.

Why not join them if you can't beat them?

[Webwork]

It sometimes feels good to get things off of your chest, but still, that doesn't change the fact that I own all those domains you want just kidding soooooo, watcha gonna do about it that's actually going to produce a result that produces money and makes your business plan work better?

Having had your moment and well all have them, me too I suggest you use the collective intelligence of this forum to work on a productive strategic domain plan.

There's some very well informed domainers that show up here every so often. Be nice and they just might help you.

Of course, it's a big world so there's probably some domainers that will only help you if you abuse them. There's this guy named jcoronella or something like that who comes to mind ;-P.

[suzyvirtual]

Thank you for listening to my rant, and point taken. I do own a couple nice type in domains, although that isn't my big area of business.
I would never "join them" because i use each and every domain i have to the best of it's money making ability (or at least i like to think i do) as opposed to sending valuable targeted traffic to generic hit or miss search results.
I just sometimes feel like sending the people an email saying, "hey, if you point xyz.com to the xyz you could really make more money than by putting abc search results up"

[freshfish]

I'm glad Webwork chimed in...he's got one of my domains...grrrr :o) But seriously though, its disheartening to come up with a great idea and a plan and you have the perfect name for it. You do a domain search and its taken. So you get excited and check out the domain to see what someone has done with it...and boom, nothing. My problem is that I came up with the next obvious choices and found those registered as well...but undeveloped too. So, I had to come up with yet another variation that seems forced because the obvious choice was taken,

Webwork...you actually had a domain which was my first choice and thought of taking the .net or the .org - What do you think about the .net and .orgs of undeveloped dot coms? Would I end up losing traffic to the .com?

[chicagohh]

freshfish,

If you want the domain make the owner an offer - a good one. All they can do is ignore you or turn you down. If you don't have an idea of the wholesale/retail value of the domain go to a forum that allows appraisals. You can often receive good advice and should at least come away with an idea of where to start.

PM me if you don't know of any forums to ask such advice.

What do you think about the .net and .orgs of undeveloped dot coms? Would I end up losing traffic to the .com?

<sneaking my opinion into the question for Webwork>

You *will* lose traffic to the .com. How much is anyones guess, but .com is typically the first extension that pops into peoples minds - it was the .com bubble that burst, not the .net.

[stever]

What do you think about the .net and .orgs of undeveloped dot coms? Would I end up losing traffic to the .com?

I think webwork quite demonstrably believes in the power of .org ...

[Webwork]

Where the domain "is the industry" (tourism, trade, investing, manufacturing, etc.) a dot org domain is likely to benefit from PIR's efforts to raise public awareness about the role of the dot org domain. It then becomes a matter of what is built upon that foundation. I'm in agreement with PIR's approach and envision the development of my dot org domains consistent with PIR's views.

My directory domains are overwhelmingly dot com because, in essence, they are commercial. I hold a few dot org directory domains but they are in very specific realms for very specific purposes. It could be argued that you send a different message by presenting yourself as BusinessDirectory.com versus BusinessDirectory.org, PhoneDirectory.com versus PhoneDirectory.org. It depends on your mission and what you want to project in every case.

With the exception of certain keyword network related domains (intranets, extranets, etc) I've stayed away from dot nets. The proliferation of industry specific TLDs may lead semantic search engines to apply filters that elevate the importance of the TLD for industry/business search. Dot net was always meant to relate to network services so, as more TLDs become available, the argument for a search bias increases IMHO. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but I've always planned far ahead of that time span. I started working in earnest on this project in 1998-99, and even then I was behind the curve by about 2-4 years.

[Leosghost]

I registered 8 domains in just one hour yesterday .. names that I will develope very soon ( but I wanted to get them while they were still available ) and 4 others with the hyphens in between the words ( just in case )...

Plus an hour later ...another 6 for customers who like most "non net people" ...thought that no-one except themselves could register their own name legally ....

today ...4 more ...

I own about 70%.coms ...20%.nets ...10%.orgs

( won't touch info's bizzes etc ..just too spammy looking )

"dear webwork" ....do I have a problem ;)?

[freshfish]

there is no doubt that a .org or .net would do well. However, my issue, which is being reinforced by many, is that if the .com is not developed but regsitered, then a succesful .net or .org would end up sending x% to the .com unintentionally. That will wake the sleeping giant so to speak :)

oh and chicagohh, i'd be more than willing to make an offer for the domain, but its not a very lucrative niche.

[freshfish]

Webwork…I’m glad you weighed in. Your insights are as usual…well, insightful!
What is PIR that you refer to? And my aim is to create a directory that will earn just enough money to make running it worthwhile…I’m not in it to make a profit. But could you justify a .org if you have 1000 listings and each are paying you $2/m? You are essentially making a profit due to the high margins

The point webwork brings up about the .net is very interesting and would have never thought of that.

[gpmgroup]

PIR = Public Interest Registry

PIR is a not-for-profit corporation created by the Internet Society (ISOC).