Domaining in 2009: What Did You Learn?

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Ceres

New Member
It's nearly 2010... So what did you learn either about Indian domains or domaining in general in 2009? I'll start:

(1) I've noticed that it's still possible for Indian businesses to register brand-new Indian domains that match their business name. Recent examples: (i) a fitness centre in Gurgaon called "Sculpt" registered Sculpt.co.in; (ii) a playschool in Bangalore called "JollyKids" registered both JollyKids.co.in and JollyKids.in.

(2) So far in 2009, there have been more than 40 INDRP cases. In 2008, it was approximately half this amount.

(3) I've noticed more end user sales.

(4) I've come across many premium Indian domains that are parked.

(5) The Indian domain market still has a few more years to go before it reaches its potential.

(6) I've learned that to park and optimise a whole bunch of domains is surprisingly very time-consuming!

What did you learn about domaining in 2009? Please share your observations.
 
Ceres, thanks for sharing the lessons learned. Yours are more mature than mine because as a newbie, I committed the cardinal sin of buying too many domains too soon - thanks to ongoing discounts from Mitsu and others. So here are some lessons learnt (and heart burns!).

- If you are new to domaining, take it real, real easy. Don't buy domains too many too soon. How many depends on you. May be just as many as you can remember (15-20?)

- Go after keyword domains instead of imagining that an abbreviation or crazy combination of alphabets and numbers will make sense to anyone but you.

- As Ceres has mentioned, India is still such a nascent market that, may be 5-6 years after the landrush tonnes of domains are readily available. (So any crazy domain will be hard to sell.)

- Adsense revenue on parked Indian domains is painfully low to be a worthwhile profitable strategy - that's just my experience.

- Buying a domain which 'you' can develop and generate revenue is better than hoping to sell to a bigger fool for your babies (domains).

- Due to the nascent market, no matter what platforms (forums, auctions etc.) you use for selling your domains, its difficult to realize a meaningful return.

- Sites like this (Expiring Domains - Daily updated Indian domains expiring list) have helped find better domains than those I thought-up...but at the same time I helped myself to more meaningless domains. So like the stock market, when somebody is selling or their domains have expired, be wary of the reasons for the same.

- Minisites that I got developed by 3rd party has bombed and given me nothing more than cents for every $100 (you read it right!) spent.

And this is just me being me - my investment in Indian stocks have clocked 100% returns or better in the last 1 year while my spend on domains has returned nearly negative 100%, meaning, money out the door without a penny in return. So, my strategy for 2010 is to sell at least 80-90% of my domains portfolio and focus on a few I can develop and generate revenue.

So, all in all, 2009 was an year of 'experience' in the domaining world which I hope not repeat. Like my wife says, if I had spent the same on family vacations we could have toured the world!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all. Looking forward to a super successful 2010!
 
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- Adsense revenue on parked Indian domains is painfully low to be a worthwhile profitable strategy - that's just my experience.

What about other INForum members? Has anyone had a good year with regard to their parked Indian domains? (I only have .ca domains that are parked).

- Minisites that I got developed by 3rd party has bombed and given me nothing more than cents for every $100 (you read it right!) spent.

That sucks. Do these sites rank well on the search engines? Also, how long ago were they developed?

Like my wife says, if I had spent the same on family vacations we could have toured the world!

;) Yes but remind your wife of this quote: We don't grow unless we take risks. Any successful company is riddled with failures.

msdomains, I've only managed to avoid making a lot of the mistakes you've made because I've learned a lot directly from my husband (;) he's the domain expert in the family). You're self-taught which, although it can be harder, is supposed to be one of the best ways to learn!

Looking forward to a super successful 2010!

Ditto. :)
 
The minisites were developed in Jun 09, but hardly make pennies even now in Dec.

"Any successful company is riddled with failures." - Nice to hear it...so difficult to be the one going thru it!

Good luck to you too.
 
When someone is trying to be something, it boils down to one's willingness to go through the 'Learning Curve'.

Aspiring to become a Successful Domainer (the prefix to the word 'Domainer' is what the focus is on) is no different!

The following are some of the things I learned ('am still learning and will continue to learn for a long time to come :)) along with a few opinions based on what I learned in 2009:

- many 2-word and 3-word generic names, and, even a handful of last few premium 2-word names are definitely still available

- (thanks to the valuable posts in this forum) the reseller sales and end-user sales are definitely encouraging and are having a positive trend

-
about 4 to 6 years is probably what it would take for .in names to reach potential

-
optimizing and parking names is the least of the tasks that need to be done to showcase and present our names to any visitor who takes conscious effort and spends valuable time to see our names (no matter how small the reason may be)

- how many domains one can buy is dependent solely upon how much and how far one can stretch - both financially and creatively! I thought the latter is relatively more unlikely to happen than the former!! Identifying a partner/investor to build few high-value names/renew top 30 - 40% names from the 2nd year onwards is exactly when one will figure out how potent is their capacity to influence and attract people who would buy their radical new-age idea!

-
Most if not all the generic keyword names will be a sure-shot winner (low to mid xxxx) sooner if not later. The same, however, probably can’t be said about the abbreviations and alpha-numeric combo names

-
Direct Navigation to .in generic names are few and far between right now but could pick up during the next few dozen months to come

-
Mini-sites cannot and should not be seen only as 'Cents for Clicks' sites but also (not necessarily in equal measure) as a valuable and meaningful show-case for decent generic names and its potential for prospective buyers, especially end-users

-
Broadband connections in India only 7.4 million as of Oct. 2009. The times of real potential of .in names will probably start when the number is somewhere between 200-350 million!

- Lastly but never the least, one must be willing to take (a fairly well-informed) risks that are worthy of their life, to accomplish something which leaves a blazing trail!

Cheers!
 
Premium keyword domains are always a better investment than lots of crap n triple premiums etc..
 
One more lesson to my list - When you list your domain for Sale on Sedo (or any site), set your 'Minimum offer' on to a low or realistic sum. I just realized that I had set some early ones to $10K . Needless to say I have till date not received any offers on them :) (I have already changed them to realistic minimums.)
 

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