I really think this is the key.. Are the auction companies that we are relying on to sell our assets doing their job (at a healthy 15%) to get end users in the door?

The answer is no.

Perhaps now that many of the big domainers may be finished buying like they have in the past, the auction companies will be motivated by profits to seek out new buyers and new avenues for sales.

Meanwhile, we have to do our part by stepping outside domain blogs and hitting blogs in our respective niches and start talking up domains when appropriate. You can also hit up your local paper, and business magazines and see if they want to do a story on your domain business.

In my case, I could hit it from the business opportunities of the stay-at-home mom angle. Because I am the mother of a teenage daughter I can explain why my domains follow emerging trends in mobile commerce and 3D and virtual worlds, for example. Or the reason I own clinical trial domains is because my Dad has Alzheimer’s. There is a huge chance that someone at Sprint (world headquarters here) or Kansas University Med Center (specializing in Alzheimer’s research) might read the article and give me a call.

At any rate, I am already working with a publication that wrote about me when I was actively inventing that seem to be interested in doing a follow-up on what I am up to these days. I think we all have opportunities like this if we look around. we just need to go after them and promote our industry.

And that is just names dropping in the next few weeks

That’s a lot of depression and suicide, don’t you think?

So much emphasis has been placed on these two figures, traffic and ppc revenue, that everyone loses sight of the true POTENTIAL of a given domain.
Even auction companies, choose domains for the auctions based on these outdated metrics. And interestingly enough, that’s what the buyers that are in the room are still looking at..

This is because the leaders in the industry do not know how to “sell” the concept to the end user. The auction companies who sell our assets are not getting them into the hands of the right buyers.
For years, the right buyers were other domainers still building portfolios, but that time is coming to an end.

We need some massive PR and marketing to boost attendence at domain auctions. It really should be the responsibility of the auction house as they are making the 15% commission. They certainly would end up the winners in the long run if they would take the initiative because 15% 0f $3,000,000 versus 15% of say $4,000,000 or $6,000,000 would pay for a nice campaign. (Hello, Owen Frager)

If there were end users at domain auctions, or the auctions went to more of the end users events like the Affiliate Summit, CAC etc…. we might swing things around.

Meanwhile, I am happy to pick up drops that others can’t see value in(!), and add to my portfolio… but I do hope that the day comes quickly that Mad Ave and the rest of the Ad world gets it.
With well over 2000 domains coming up for renewal just this year, I can’t afford to renew them for more than 2 years at a time… I am still domaining under the radar at my domain(!) – pun intended!

Don’t think any of those excuses are good enough.

If you move you change you mailing address to all the people that sent you bills and checks.

If you have a valuable asset you keep track of it and make sure you can be found.

Moreover you can renew the domains for 10 years at a time not each year.

If you no longer need the asset you can go on ebay to sell it.

How many crap items laying around the house are for sale on ebay? Hell ebay was founded on people selling stuff they have that they don’t use or want anymore.

The problem is that these people don’t regard their domain as a valuable asset.

Therefore they don’t take th few minutes it takes to renew it for 10 years, or change the contract info or sell it.