Say what you will about how domain names are of little importance. With all the current attention from the Justice Department, new attention is being paid to the humble domain name. There's even resurrection of talk that a new top-level extension could be in the works. While nobody is paying a million dollars for a domain name webmasters still sell them, especially ones that have preexisting traffic and search engine placement.
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"It's hit a plateau since the nineties but there's still money to be made from and with domain names." |
A new trend that's come about in the last couple of years is the domain name watch where buyers can track soon-to-expire website addresses. Large sponsors buy domains for their ever-expanding base of paysites. Individuals still open new pages and still need to register names that work for their intentions.
So is the domain name rush over? Has it mutated into more of a steady flow? How many domains are too many? How many are just enough? Let's answer these questions one by one:
Is the domain rush over?
Pretty much, yeah. Truth is all the really good dot coms are taken. We in adult aren't supposed to touch dot gov, dot edu, and commercial pages have no place on dot org. That leaves us with dot net and dot com. Sure there's dot biz and dot tv but those are like dot net, you register them to keep the squatters off your dot com.
Chances are if you think up a cool, new domain you'll find someone else has already registered it. You could rework the name so it still looks similar but that's pretty cheezy and you'll probably get spanked. If it ever happens that ICANN issues a dot sex or dot xxx top-level extension, there could be a new gold rush among adult webmasters. Dot sex implies a whole new pentameter to the mix. If we're required by law to host our sites from dot sex extensions the results could be a registration frenzy.
Is the market steady?
In a way, yes. As said, domain name sales have mutated into a wiser format. Now people sell domains they've worked on and marketed. Adult webmasters create new sites practically every hour of the day and a good many of them are on paid hosting, particularly among AVS creators. They are always shopping for a good dot com or dot net. A domain for sale with SE placement and existing traffic is a smart buy. If they also get pre-made graphics and content as part of the sale, even better. Also because of the previous gold rush, there are tons of domains that expire. There is software and services obtainable, which will search for soon-to-be expired domains.
The domain selling/buying business is coming along just fine. It's hit a plateau since the nineties but there's still money to be made from and with domain names.
How many domains are too many?
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The fee to register a domain name is cheaper than it's ever been. You can buy a ten-year registration for practically the same price it cost to buy just one when they were first made available to the public. Just remember that if you want to keep your domain you have to continue to re-register it.
Add up the cost of re-registering all your domains. Can you afford it? Is it worth the cost? Are you ever really going to use them? How about those domains you bought with the intent to sell? Have you sold them? Are you asking too much? Take inventory of your domain name collection. Are there some just not worth the annual ten-twenty bucks?
How many are just enough?
Everyone prefers dot com but you also want to purchase any other permutations of your domain in order to prevent cyber-squatting. Naturally you want to buy the dot net version and it's probably a good idea to snag up dot biz and dot tv as well. Dot org is not such a good idea since ICANN gave control over that top-level extension to the Public Interest Registry. They have stated that they are going to review all the dot org domains.
Since most adult sites defy the non-profit intentions of the extension it's possible your dot org porn page could get deleted in the future. With Mr. Ashcroft and company targeting "misleading" domain names, it might be advantageous to dump URLs like storytimebooty.com.
When it comes to owning domain names you want what covers your already existing efforts and additionally what you can afford to keep around for the future. It's a great time to get rid of domain names because of auction sites and sales services. Registration is cheap and parking is usually free but when you add them up, are they worth it?
Some adult webmasters own tens of domain names. Paysite sponsors have hundreds and hundreds. Virtually none of us can make a living just buying and selling domains and we should only get what we can handle.