If you’re a soccer/football fan you will be aware of the current debate about FIFA and the corruption that seems to be endemic throughout the FIFA organisation. In my opinion when it comes to domain names, ICANN aren’t that far behind. 

I’m relatively new to domain brokering but I’ve been buying and selling domains for almost 10 years now. Early on I formed a low opinion of ICANN and that initial opinion has steadily become more and more negative. From the Registerfly.com debacIe (that only Parsons, ICANN and Kevin Medina seemed to do very well out of) to the new gtlds, ICANN continues to seem to be only in it to maximise their returns ~ an odd strategy for a non profit organisation. ICANN already have a history of rolling out as many extensions as possible (and most have failed miserably) so now I guess they figure, hell lets add as many extensions as possible.

Like FIFA, ICANN are in my opinion milking their monopoly to the nth degree. What do they care about the impact - if any - of these new tlds? Seems to me all they give a damn about is the inevitable MASSIVE cash injection that they will receive, and on an ongoing basis. My take is the vast majority of these new tlds will be that they will in the main be vanity purchases by exisiting entities that can afford to waste massive amounts on running their own extension. Most of the ones which will be commercialised will be hyped, or more accurately pumped and dumped.

I think com will hardly be impacted at all but I do believe pretty much every other existing gtld and many cctlds will be. Does the Internet need limitless gtlds? ~ Nope! Does ICANN? ~ I think I know why they are so keen on it. Does anyone know who can veto any of ICANN’s rulings? Because from here it looks like they’re a law unto themselves and highly profitable for a non-profit organisation. But of course plenty of those mega profits are paid out to their head honchos ~ see link below for what they currently pay themselves.  

What ICANN claims to be on their website ICANN.org

ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers.

ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet.

Anyone any idea how much the board of Directors at ICANN earn each year? Here are the head honchos of ICANN http://www.icann.org/en/general/board.html

More importantly here are their official accounts and legal documents http://www.icann.org/en/documents/

For anyone with plenty of time to spare it’s well worth checking out the Financials!

There will be 100s of millions more dollars flying around ICANN soon, I wonder how these funds will be spent.

Who are ICANN answerable to? Who are ICANN in it for? I know what I think, how about you.

If you have even more spare time Google "ICANN corruption" as it seems there are plenty more folks wondering about ICANN and whether or not they have any integrity (including one of the original board members of ICANN)

GEO Auctions closing soon

NewYork.net ~ TajMahal.com ~ Gibraltar.com ~ Xian.com and many more 

To view or bid please visit http://upmarketdns.com/2011/06/13/calling-all-geo-domain-owners/

Please note that any opinions expressed here are just that, opinions. There is no statement of fact. Any opinion expressed here is the opinion of Andy Kelly only. 

thanks for reading,

Andy Kelly

C.O.O Namecake

C.E.O UpMarketDNs

We all know domain thieves abound. Oftentimes they do it via something as simple as a run of the mill keylogger. Other times it’s malicious code sent via email. There are many techniques but the results are the same. Compromised systems mean eventually names will be stolen.

 As a broker I have to do due diligence. If I get approached to broker I can’t afford to be lazy. Stolen names are often sent to brokers as it’s an easy route to launder dirty names. These guys aren’t dumb. Hell they steal names. What better avenue to offload than via a broker, someone who has exisiting contacts that may well buy on "trust" from a "trusted broker"

Well some jerk approached me recently on skype with a "good deal" The names he offered were Luxor.net , Luxor.org , Egypte.net , Sinai.net , Zamalek.net , Zamalek.org and the guy selling was going under the skype username of ursinho88.

He was trying to offload all these strong Egyptian geos for $22 k. Watch out for this guy, he clearly likes the privacy of skype to try and offload his wares. Too smart for the forums clearly.

He approached me as he knows we are running a geo auction on Bido, which starts tomorrow. He wasn’t interested in submitting names (now I fully understand why) His strategy was to get me to contact my clients. This stuff happens pretty regularly, especially with fake ppc sellers.

Many thanks to Amr for help regarding this issue. Amr is also known as Amr 100 on Namepros.

BIG Hint, secure your PC and laptop

~Make sure you run windows updates regularly ~ assuming you are a windows user.
~Keep your anti virus software upto date and run tests regularly
~Be careful what you download off the net
~Be careful what sites you visit ~ drive by malware is rife on the net
~Check your firewall settings ~ assuming you have one! If you don’t get one!
~Download anti malware software Spybot s&d, malwarebytes, lavasoft adaware etc and update and run tests regularly
~Never store your passwords on your pc
~Change your passwords regularly and make them hard to hack
~Don’t use the same passwords for different sites
~Whichever email address you use change your password regularly

check out www.FileHippo.com for free anti malware downloads

Bookmark this site for more info on stolen names ~ http://www.domaintheft.org/

Check out a link on namepros for more info on the above domains. http://www.namepros.com/warnings-and-alerts/679441-stolen-domains-egypt-net-turkey-net.html

Feel free to check out our non stolen domain Geo auction ~  http://www.bido.com/profile/andyk

thanks for reading,

Andy Kelly

C.O.O Namecake

C.E.O UpMarketDNs

I read with interest Rick Latona’s recent post which stated more or less that he’s had it with domains and is investing in other areas. His main reasoning was "It is our opinion that the market won’t recover any time soon, if it recovers at all. We feel that domains just aren’t worth that much anymore and the only way to sell one for a significant amount is to get a little lucky"

I wish Rick luck with all his new ventures but let’s look at this statement again more closely. The domain aftersales market continues to thrive, sure folks aren’t throwing money around quite as crazily as they did just a few years ago but believe me there is still massive demand for the right domains.

The middle and lower end domain markets are definitely struggling to some degree but there still seem to be plenty of sales in the aftermarket for domains in the $2 k to $10 k range, the top end market is doing just fine in my opinion. As long as there are browsers that require domain names to take Internet users to companies websites there will always be a market for the best of domain names. That market will dip, it will rise and it will dip again ad infinitum but the prestige and Business benefits that come with true premiums will always remain, and there will always be buyers who "totally get that" 

My own domain brokerage firm is currently awaiting 3 domain sales to clear in escrow (all 3 have had buyers send payments but are awaiting transfers to be completed) These three deals amount to $170k, $80k and $42.5k. All in all an exceptional week for us. Hopefully we can inform Ron of all of these sales.

In fact we at UpMarketDNs haven’t made any big sales announcements for a number of months. That doesn’t mean we haven’t been brokering as all our previous 5 big sales were subject to N.D.a’s

Ask my good friend Andrew Rosener from MediaOptions if there is no longer any money in domains, he’s having an amazing year, ask Mike Mann, ask Michael Berkens, they’ll all say the same thing, I imagine "Business is booming!". A colleague of mine - who I won’t mention as he likes to fly under the radar - has with his biz partner just spent $500 k on a portfolio of 1000 domains. Within two weeks he’s got almost 50% of his investment back and only sold a fraction of those 1000 names. There’s always money to be made in domaining. 

A few updates for you.

Months ago we announced that Namecake.com itself is due a major overhaul, that’s very much still on track but majorly delayed.

The UpMarketURLs.com brokerage service is now officially running as www.UpMarketDNs.com. We now have UpMarketDNs as our main focal point for our online presence. It’s long overdue and many thanks to Nick Hoffmann and his crew for designing and setting up that site for us. Nick is a great guy and he and his partners have a BIG domain related project in the works which will run on Auzzy.com, I wish him and his team all the best and I’m sure they will make Auzzy a BIG hit. If you need any design work drop Nick an email nick@auzzy.com I’m not an affiliate I just like to help out folks who do a good job as it saves everyone a lot of grief.

UpMarketDNs is running a featured GEO auction on Bido which will be live June 18th - 22nd. Inventory includes such gems as NewYork.net ~ Gibraltar.com ~ Philadelphia.org ~ British.org and some very interesting GEO hacks such as Kreml.in and Seneg.al  To see more or to prebid on any of these geos please visit www.URLBrokers.co.uk

thanks for reading,

Andy Kelly

C.O.O Namecake

C.E.O UpMarketDNs

How much are Premium Domain owners leaving on the table? Development is the way to go, especially for certain domains. I’m not talking about - now dead in the water - mini sites but strategically built out sites that offer pertinent and in demand info.

James Stafford (the Namecake owner) has just returned from Washington. His baby is OilPrice.com and all his hard work on developing out this domain to it’s current glory resulted in James being directly contacted by a leading figure in the Global Intelligence Industry. This lead James into various JVs with various strategic partners in that lucrative vertical.That’s why James has just got back from Washington, James is a busy guy, VERY! For a little more information as to what he was up to in Washington take a look at the wired article: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/blackwater-datamining-vets-want-to-save-big-business/

James is a serious Domainer too, in fact I originally began brokering exclusively for James before taking on other clients too. James took time out of domaining full time to develop OilPrice.com, he kept his hand in with domains, buying here, selling there but his main priority was very much developing out OP to it’s true potential. OilPrice is essentially a global energy market portal highlighting and detailing all aspects of the crucial energy Industry. OP is not just limited to Oil specifically, the site covers virtually every aspect of the energy market.

After much hard work his efforts have begun to seriously pay off. OilPrice is booming, don’t excuse the pun. The paid advertiser uptake has gone through the roof. Just goes to show that the correct development of prime domain names really does pay off. OP now receives just over 9000 uniques daily.That level is increasing massively daily (mainly due to the site’s widgets - but more of that later) The Google page rank is 5 currently though James is confident the next round will take that upto up to 6/7.There are now over 12,000 subscribers to the OP newsletter. Over 70% of OP visitors are from USA, 12% Canada and 8% UK and Australia.

OP is James’s first major site development so as he readily admits he was pretty clueless on monetisation at first, it didn’t make anything in its first year in fact! Now however revenues are strong as James not only sells advertising space but also uses lead generation affiliation to drive the sites main revenue, OP sells leads to financial publishers and financial services, which I’ve been told knocks the socks off standard banner deals.

To extend the model the whole OP site is being re-designed by an excellent team based in England. After the redesign James will be adding another lucrative revenue stream, resource company PR! James figures OP will then have the ability to work with an unlimited number of advertisers (he didn’t go into too much detail, but the new site will reveal all.)

A feature of OilPrice I particularly like are the interactive widgets, they really are a superb feature of the site. Unique and extremely clever they allow users to reproduce them on their own sites whilst at the same time promoting the OilPrice.com site too!. These widgets cover most energy sectors, metals, finance and debt. Take a look at their widget page to see what I mean: http://oilprice.com/free-widgets.html

Let me stress that although I am partnering James with Namecake (we will be introducing a brand new site on Namecake imminently) I am not involved at any level with his OilPrice project, unfortunately lol.

On another note entirely ~

Short And Sweet ~ Calling All Two Letter Com Vendors

We have a client actively buying two letter coms. If you have any for sale currently please contact me with details (the domain/s and your asking price) Our client is a serious buyer and has funds allocated to spend - for the right deals.

While I’m talking about short domains check out our SHORT DOMAIN AUCTION ~ Inventory includes MAJ.COM, 74.CO.UK,  BUG.NET,  JK.DE,  PLO.NET ~ There are 50 auctions in total and all close tomorrow!

thanks for reading,

Andy Kelly

C.O.O Namecake

C.E.O UpMarketURLs

Dress it up however you like, Domainers are natural born gamblers. If polls were taken on the typical personality profile of the "average" Domainer I’d say that most would show that a Domainer has a propensity to gamble. Life’s a gamble and that’s fine, unless the house usually wins. It’s a numbers game and if the numbers aren’t in your favour/favor right now that can change in the blink of an eye, with one good sale! Maybe the numbers will never change! If so time to get back to the drawing board.

You might want to call yourself a Domain Investor, that’s cool as it sounds way more professional. But you’re still a professional gambler. Some Domainers like to minimise the odds, they play safe. They stick to what they know. They might just buy high google search volume domains, three letter coms, product domains, domains that have loads of google ad buyers for the exact domain, dictionary words only etc etc. Nothing wrong with any of this! If you have criteria for your doman purchases/investments then you’re movng away from being an out and out gambler working on instinct to being much more scientific about your approach.

I figure most of us use our gut for many of our Investments. I know I do. Does the name in question get you excited? Does it get the adrenalin going? Do you figure it’s priced to sell? Do you figure it’s got an inbuilt margin which would make it easy to flip? Or do you figure it’s a long term hold, something to put on the backburner until the right buyer comes along.

Instinct plays a massive part in a Domainer becoming successful. That’s something you can’t buy, it’s natural or it’s not. You have it or you don’t. Doesn’t go to say that if you haven’t got it you will get nowhere. Those of a conservative disposition have and continue to do very well in this Business. Those that do their homework, ponder over things, weigh up the odds etc. Like I said before there’s nothing wrong with being scientific about domains.

At The End Of The Day We’re Just Gamblers, only difference is some folks weigh up the odds way more!

As long as you win more than you lose you’re doing ok.

There’s another factor too! Luck, anyone can get lucky in this biz. For some it’s just like the lottery. Unbelievable the price some folks get for junk domains that only one person on earth thinks it’s a good idea to part with BIG money so they can buy it.

Fancy a punt / gamble / wager?

We’re running a Short Domain Auction and it starts this Saturday May 14th, ends May18th

Inventory includes ~ Maj.com - Bug.net - 74.co.uk - ddd.net and many more!

thanks for reading,

Andy Kelly

C.O.O Namecake

C.E.O UpMarketURLs

N.D.A’s (Non Disclosure Agreements) prevent a broker making public sales they have closed. Last week we closed exactly $65.5 k in brokered sales but we can’t report any of them. Any broker of any repute wants people to know sales he has secured. All brokers are natural self publicists, it comes with the territory. If you haven’t got an innate desire to put yourself (and more importantly your clients names) out there then what’s the point? Sure you can work behind the scenes and sometimes that’s exactly what is required as sometimes you have to be discreet, more often you have to let as many potential buyers know that this is more than likely their one and only opportunity to BUY! and to buy at a specified price point.

When a broker lands a sale the first thing he should clarify with buyer and seller is if it is ok to publicize the sale. For obvious reasons some sellers (but many more buyers) do not want the sale mentioned anywhere. That makes sense, perfect sense, especially if they have plans to resell in the future. Once a sale is made public (ie via DNJournal.com etc) it’s there forever. It’s a permanent record, a permanent reference point.

As frustrating as it is for folks like me I totally respect a client if they wish to maintain an N.D.A. It would be totally unprofessional of me not to. My policy is not only not to make it public but also not to mention details to peers etc, as word invariably gets around, it’s human nature.

Ron Jackson as we all know does a superb job of chronicling high end sales (and lower end sales) for our Industry. Ron was awake to the importance of this task way before anyone else and for that he has to be applauded.

Without DNJournal our Industry would be far less established. Ron was the first to put word out there, to Investors, CEOs, Startups etc etc. His work has been vital, and long may he continue to let potential end users know how crucial it is to own the best of domains, should they have any hope of thriving online. More than anyone else Ron has raised awareness of not only domains but the true value of domains!

But just like Ron (no doubt) and the rest of us, I can’t help wonder how much more established our Industry would be if ALL sales were reported! I get the feeling that published sales are just the tip of the iceberg in this Industry of ours.

If you like short domains check out this link.

We are running a short online domain auction and it starts this friday!

thanks for reading,

Andy Kelly

C.O.O Namecake

C.E.O UpMarketURLs

As a broker I regularly ask potential (and existing) clients to "get real" with their pricings. In this post I will explore the flip side to that argument. If you consistently pitch your names low you will never get a good price. I’m not talking about countering $5 million to an inital offer of $50 every chance you get but trying to get what could be considered a reasonable return on a domain name you own. For illustrative purposes I would consider a profit in the $1k to $5k range to be reasonable per sale.

Let’s assume you have an average quality portfolio of say 400 domains none of which contain any domains of obvious value to other domainers (ie 3 letter coms etc) although they have no clear market value these 400 names are still good names including brandable coms / product names etc.

Suppose this portfolio is made up of 100 one word coms and nets (but nothing spectacular) and the other 300 are two word coms. Lets also assume that all 400 are hand regs and none have been bought on the aftermarket, not even via snapnames or namejet. Let’s also suppose that all names have been paid for without using a credit card so that there is no cost (other than inflation) for the initial investment of $3.6 k. Economists amongst you will also say that there is a tangible "opportunity cost"** which put simply means an attempt to factor in the cost to you of investing $3.6 k elsewhere, ie in a stock or by keeping the funds in your bank account and thus receiving interest etc.

Clearly your total registration fees will be the cost of registration (lets assume $9 each) x 400  = $3600

Lets now assume all these domains are parked and that the total annual parking revenue is $300. Already your break even point is down to $3.3 k discounting any "opportunity costs etc"

You might break even in your first year with a few respectable sales or even have a reasonable profit or at best a relatively good profit, but say you don’t what will you do? Of the 400 how many will you renew? Let’s now assume that you renew 100 of these names. Even if you haven’t broken even in your first year you shouldn’t have faired too badly. Unless you can’t spell or you totally suck at picking names.

Of your original 400 the total costs are $3600 (first years reg fees) + $9 x $100 = $900 renewal fees so total costs are now $4500 less your parking revenue for 2 yrs (assume $375 in total, $300 year one for 400 dns and $75 year two for 100 dns) = $4125

So put simply the very worst you can do (assuming you haven’t sold anything in yr1) is begin year two with a deficit of $4125. This would quickly turn into a profit with a sale of one of your names for $5k. 

This route is one taken by the vast majority of new domainers. Most don’t start out with a mega budget. Other domainers would say to hell with hand registering speculative names. They would invest their initial $3.6k in a couple of names which have perceived value ie 3 letter nets. The "putting all your eggs in one basket" approach can prove very profitable but it too is high risk as what happens if you buy at the top end of the 3 letter net resellers market and then the market crashes!  

Personally I feel that if you are not making money out of domain names there is something seriously wrong. Gone are the days when a chimp randomly typing letters into a domain availability checker could come up with a domain that sells. For obvious reasons people are much more cautious about buying anything that moves. That mentality will return I am sure, but it won’t be for a good few years yet.

thanks for reading,

Andy Kelly

C.O.O Namecake

C.E.O UpMarketURLs

* Bear in mind that it’s widely accepted that Rick started out in late 1995 with just $1800. Detractors will say that if they could have started over in 95 with that same amount of cash they too would have made millions, but I figure most wouldn’t have, as most wouldn’t have had the nerve. I also do feel strongly that some beginning their domaining career today can become highly successful. I also believe that many so called average domainers, who have been around for years, can break into the big league at any stage. All it takes is either a few lucky breaks and/or some extremely astute buys.

** Opportunity cost is the cost of any activity measured in terms of the best alternative forgone. It is the sacrifice related to the second best choice available to someone who has picked among several mutually exclusive choices. It is a key concept in economics.

The World doesn’t owe any of us a living, in fact it doesn’t owe us anything! Anyone with half a brain knows too well that human history is littered with injustices and that the World we live in isn’t fair, the distribution of wealth in this World is grossly unfair, the rich get richer blah blah blah, toast falls butter side down yada yada yada. Bad things happen to good people and not enough bad things seem to happen to bad people. Accept it, it’s the way it is. 

Some folks inherit fortunes and others with ability don’t get a look in, don’t get a chance. Well if the later sounds like you and you figure it’s not even worth trying you better quit whining and get working. What would you rather do? Not play the game, take your ball home and refuse to play?  Life is life, It is what it is, so accept it for what it is and if it bothers you enough make enough money so that you can help begin to reddress the balance of the Worlds myriad injustices whilst looking after yourself and your family too, as charity does and should begin at home.

THE INTERNET IS A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD, I REPEAT THE INTERNET IS A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD ~ Sure plenty of folks have got a great head start but whats stopping you starting playing catch up.

Domaining is a tough Business, unless you get lucky you’re going to have to earn every $ you make. It’s also no Business for quitters. Sometimes though you have to lose to win, thats one of lifes paradoxs. What’s the point pursuing a losing hand when everybody knows your cards stink. If we can learn from our mistakes we stand to gain. If we can harness all our frustration, anger and disappointments and our lessons learnt and apply them to a winning formula and most importantly work like crazy then success is inevitable.

Success is relative. For one man it’s millions in the bank for another it’s keeping on keeping on, providing for his family and doing a dreadful job for a poor wage and feeding his family week in week out, year after year. He’s as much a winner to me as the guy who has millions in the bank but I know which of those two I’d rather be.

Todays loser can be tomorrows winner. Use your God given abilities, get smart, focus, identify a niche, a gap in the market and work work work. Work till your head aches, your brain hurts, get a few hours sleep and start all over again. Keep working until you start to get rewards, use the buzz you get from these rewards and attract more good fortune through working even harder.

They say God loves a trier, well maybe I’ve had too little sleep, too much caffeine but there are far too many folks in this Industry who spend all day crying into their cappuchinos. Losing hurts, but giving up is unforgiveable. There are opportunities out there. They rarely come to us of their own volition but if we are prepared to work hard enough those very same opportunities will present themselves as if by magic.

There are some amazing people in domaining as well, smart folks, very smart folks and some of the best people you will ever meet (or not meet, at least face to face lol) There are plenty of sharks too but Business is Business to a great extent, what I mean by that is that there are plenty of traders who will use most tricks in the book to get the deal they want no matter what the cost is to their reputation and a man’s reputation is everything, no one wants to deal with someone with a bad rep unless they have to.

There are complete career criminals in this Business too, liars, thieves, folks with no scruples, folks who will never have scruples and wouldn’t even know how to spell it. My late Father used to say "There’s one born every minute and two born to catch him" well my advice is don’t get caught.

My Father - Jack Kelly - came to England (from Ireland) in his early twenties with literally nothing in his pocket. Within 5 years he was the owner of a large construction company employing 600 men and was dining with the then Chairman and Manager of Manchester United football club, Martin Edwards and Tommy Docherty respectively. My Father didn’t leave this world bankrupt but he did lose most of his fortune mainly due to numerous recessions in the UK which greatly impacted the Construction Industry.

He never once gave up though and I admire, miss and respect him as much today (16 years since he passed) than the day he died. He used to say that when life kicks you in the bollocks, dust yourself down and get back up and keep fighting. He practiced what he preached as he bravely fought cancer for three years - as well as three major downturns in his Business! The Doctors had given him 3 months with the aggressive cancer he had and he lasted almost 36 and kept working every day until three weeks before his passing. Mind over matter indeed.

As such I didn’t inherit cash to burn - unlike a lot of people- but I’m not crying about it, that’s the way it goes. I had to try and make my own money and learn from my own mistakes and as the song goes "Mistakes, I’ve made a few!"

For me money isn’t my God, it never was and I hope it never will be but I have nothing against money, far from it. There are so many things more important than money but like the old saying goes "Money can’t buy you happiness but I’d rather be miserable and rich then miserable and poor"

On a personal level I am nowhere near where I want to be, any success I’ve had thus far is nowhere near the success I aim to have. If it came easy I wouldn’t value it. I enjoy the challenge, the daily grind. I love engaging my brain, I try my best to move on. Not to waste too much time on "If onlys"

In the last 12 months I’ve lost count of the brokered deals I’ve had that have fallen through, but off the top of my head it must be circa $800 000 or so. Why waste time crying over it? Especially when there are other deals to pursue.

thanks for reading,

Andy Kelly

C.O.O Namecake

C.E.O UpMarketURLs

Many domainers consider three letter coms to be the "Gold Standard" of the domain industry. A barometer to measure the overall state of the domain climate, generally speaking.

So how are they fairing lately? Looking at archived sales pages on DNJournal over the last few months they’re not doing too badly at all!  Most of us know of the recent SOB.com sale for $45k, a steal in many peoples opinion, mine included. TRT.com recently sold for $45k too! I know which one of those two I would prefer at that price. Another notable 3 letter com sale so far this year was ZUM.com for $28k and IAS.com which reached slightly less @ $27k. The most surprising three letter sale so far this year has undoubtedly been All.biz which went for a mammoth $61,750!

A mighty step above 3 letter coms await 2 letter coms. Recent sales include a sale brokered by my good friend Andrew Rosener who recently sold HX.com for $125k on behalf of his client. Another fantastic sale of a two letter this year is TS.com for $186k. TS was undoubtedly an end user sale, looking at the site it seems the new owners will be launching this excellent domain as a fully fledged website very soon. Even the two letter cctlds have been getting in on the act this year, JO.de went for $17,400 and there has also been a superb sale of a single letter cctld recently too ~ 3.ly for $14,241. Another short domain type N1.de (a LN.de cctld) fetched  $12,330

Notable short numeric sales so far this year have included 06.com at $91,888, 2.de at $40,310. The prime 4 number sale of the year is 1717.com at a very impressive $36,714. 888.be fetched $16,200 recently too!

Clearly short domains have fantastic appeal. Any Business that would prefer a domain such as BelgianCarDealerships.com over the short equivalent of bcd.com shouldn’t be in Business!

If you are interested in submitting short domains you own to our upcoming Short Domain Auction please visit ~

http://upmarketurls.blogspot.com/2011/04/short-domain-auction-of-decade.html

*** UPDATE ***

Since I wrote this post Ron Jackson has released details of more short domain sales which certainly add credence to my assessment that short domains are doing very well in the current market. Ron just released details of the sales of CEN.com for $90,000 and B3.com for $25,500 and Top.org @ $14,000 in his latest Domain sales roundup

thanks for reading,

Andy Kelly

C.O.O Namecake

C.E.O UpMarketURLs

We are all selling something, and if we’re not we’re in trouble! If you’re a Car mechanic you’re selling your car repair skills. If a Teacher you’re selling your knowledge and if you’re a Domainer you are selling your domain names (hopefully)

Ever since Mankind started to evolve from the primordial ooze we have traded. Neighbouring tribes would have traded excess meat, animal skins, salt etc etc. When the Iron age finally arrived trading significantly increased. Suddenly the human animal could hunt and defend itself much more effectively. Suddenly the market for hunting weapons made a quantum leap. Pretty much the same occured with domain names. Generally speaking there is still great demand for certain names but in my opinion the price points for most sellers have to be revised significantly and downwards in the main. If you can brave the storm and hold out for the inevitable upturn go for it! I wish you luck.

As a broker I get bombarded with emails every day from owners of domains who are seeking buyers. I try to reply to every email even the ones asking me to sell NoOneWillEverBuyThis.tel for $50 k. Thankfully sellers of great names also contact me too or otherwise I would be totally wasting my time, and I hate wasting my time. Of all the names presented to me I only take on circa 5% and of that 5% I can realistically expect to successfully broker around 2%-5% of them - in this market!

Unless you hadn’t noticed it’s a "buyers market" out there. Of course there are exceptions, of course there are buyers who will pay what they want to pay and not what they consider to be the current market value, but these kind of buyers are very very rare. As James Stafford (the owner of Namecake) mentioned to me a couple of years back - as the initial recession hit home. "Most domainers still want top dollar for their domains without realising that the game has changed"

You know, he was right then and he is right now. The World economy is far from recovered. There are serious issues ahead, we’re far from being through the worst of it. Sure the current "correction process" will find an equilibrium, it always does. But if you ask me there are some serious bumps to come. The downturn is far from over.

If you do want crazy money for your domain property good luck to you. It’s your call, they’re your domains. All I can say is I hope you can afford the luxury of not selling. If you can afford not to sell then why sell short? If you can’t afford not to sell then try seriously revising your MO.

Afterall are we Domain Collectors or Domain traders? Not much point having unsold (though excellent) names in your inventory if you can’t afford to pay your bills. As much as I love domains I am a pragmatist. I figured out a long time ago that my real aim with domain names is to make money. For me the money is much more important than having the domain.

Hardball sellers will argue that if you never hold out for big money you will never get big money. I hear them, but my counter argument is are we talking big money or crazy money? Big money is relative but crazy money is almost totally unobtainable.

$5000 for a name is a small fortune to one domainer but chump change to another. If you need sales my advice is to figure out what a "good price" for your domain is rather than a "crazy price" As a sale will be much more attainable.

thanks for reading,

Andy Kelly

C.O.O Namecake

C.E.O UpMarketURLs