Also as you mentioned they are assets. Domain names are getting longer as all the short ones get registered so it you have a good name it may be worth something in the future.
Because they may be my competition! ;)
You're essentially preventing someone who can add value to the Web.
If someone is going to be prevented from starting a site because of the unavailability of a particular name... I sincerely suspect they lack the motivation to make the site work anyways.
my 2 cents. :)
seriously though, yeah, I get frustrated when i go looking for names, only to find the ones I want are all registered but not active.... but there are still plenty of options out there if you get even a little bit creative.
there is one name I really really want... it has been showing a 404 for the past 4 years.
Someday it SHALL be mine!
I review my names once every six months, if I see a name that I really don't need then I let it expire in its due course.
But for the hundreds of names I choose to keep they are general good sounding names. One day they will all have happy little webpage, but until that day they will stay under my control. They were all registered for a purpose, and that purpose hasn't gone away. So they will patiently sit there. There is three ways a domain can leave me. I sell it, I dump it, I die. But I will never let a domain expire because of lack of payment while I am alive.
Also, a domains portfolio has a lot of weight when you need favors. I have one client who has followed my footsteps when purchasing domains. Well, my advice to him 6 years ago has had its rewards. Not long ago, he was able to trade 4 of his not so competitive domain names for a $20,000 piece of equipment.
Domains are similar to real estate. When the value of the property diminishes, you sell it or you leave it and foreclose. ;)
I too had a portfolio of 100s of domains a few years back, glad to sat that I am now down to about 40 of the top .co.uk domains around.
All have been bought with projects in mind.
Time is the only thing stopping me :(
Shak
I'm searching for a name at the moment and nearly all of the ones I checked are registered but most are unused. The fact that so many are unused suggests that the demand for these names is low and that most people prefer to find their own unique domain name and get it for a reasonable price.
I know there are the odd stories where someone made a fortune selling cooldomain.com but domain names aren't like real estate - as long they keep introducing new domain suffixes (like .us and .tv) there is plenty of room for everyone.
Look at Macromedia and Google - both PR 10 and they are companyname.com, not coolgenericname.com. My 2 cents worth...
aus-dave,
The reason they are like realestate is they go up and down in value depending on the neighborhod, your proximity to large markets and your proximity to specific markets.
If I am trying to reach a market in Germany I will reg a .DE ..simply because .DE can only be included in some german SE's and .DE will rank higher in other SE's (German SE's)that allow a mix of extensions.
Kids.US will be released this summer.. thats going to be lucrative real-estate.You will in essence have a "captive" market; in that in the Bill the President just signed ..with in 30 days of Kids.US being available for registration ... the Name HAS to (by US LAW) be promoted to school systems, Parents AND children!
.com isnt going to get you in that door!(market)
I have been studying the the rate of registratiosn and usage ccTLDs compared to Gtlds and the trend is ccTLDS are growing at an astounding rate..
those registering only gTLDS will slowly discovered they are being refused entrance into hundreds of Markets world wide.
And above all generics in any extension will always be more valuable simply from a true "type-in" stance. If I dont have to pay for traffic because my domain gets most of it's traffic from being a generic top tier domain then I'm already ahead of the competition.
Branding is fine..but branding = expenses ..a constant recurring expense.
you dont have to "brand" Cars.com
Generic domains may bring in some random traffic through the type-in factor. If the site doesn't have great content though this advantage is wasted. Even if it does, relevance to the individual is still the main criteria for 'stickability'. cars.com may be a great site to those of you in the US but it talks about cars I don't know about in currency I don't have - I looked at it and left real quick!
If it's books or CDs it might be different but local relevance is important for a lot of users. In many cases the companies that own the generic domains had to buy them for big bucks anyway, so they still had branding expenses (they just chose generic rather than build their own brand).
My old-fashioned view on business names - many long-standing businesses use the founder's name. If your business is any good you should be proud to put your name to it ;).
Why don't you guys rent your domain names?
Why don't you guys rent your domain names?
Hehehe, been thinking of this for quite some time. If you've got some generic domains that are of high value, go ahead and lease them for a specific period with a lease/option to buy clause. If I'm not mistaken, there are quite a few popular generic domains that have been through the leasing stages.
The second actually had the bid on this domain - I was shot down with a generic answer of 'Im not interested' which made me sad because its a good domain :P heheh i dont think he liked my 20.00 offer :P
