Interesting question posed today on Namepros that brought me back to a conversation from last week.
Last week a long time domainer who I had not spoken to or texted with in months, texted, “There are just too many people in this business.”
I replied, I think there are more coming, he replied back with “Oh f*ck!”
That was the end of that back and forth.
In a small sample so far 60% of voters think it’s good, while 40% think it’s bad.
Hawkeye has the most liked comment so far, he wrote the following:
In the long run – Bad.
Too many people are jumping in this, thinking this sounds like easy money and they’re gonna get rich too. They then reg crappy names, over price them, and then spam endusers to death with their over priced junk, that just ends up leaving a bad taste where endusers feel domain sellers are scammers (another growing group of newbies) etc. Also, as they hear that they should buy aftermarket domains at auctions, they see a name with bids on it and jump on to bid too (just because), thus raising mediocre names to stupid prices. They then are stuck with names that won’t sell for what they paid, drop them and domaining, and gripe about the whole process. Unfortunately there’s nothing that can be done, as they’ll keep coming, more and more, and the domaining waters will keep getting more and more muddier and sadly pricier. The only people really happy to see more people coming into domaining, are the registries and registrars. imo.
I think the last part of his comment is spot on, “the domaining waters will keep getting more and more muddier and sadly pricier. The only people really happy to see more people coming into domaining, are the registries and registrars. imo.”
DomainVP had a different take:
Most people quit after a few months when they realize it’s not the ‘get rich quick’ they thought it was.
The few that remain are the only added ‘competition’.
Think of it this way… when you go for a great domain name at auction how many people are really competing with you? I still pick up some fantastic domains for low $$$ and only been at the table with 2-3 other bidders.
If you follow Ricks tweets he is having a similar experience at auction, so I assume thats the same across the board.
Most premium (3L / Single Word) domains only have 200-300 people at the table (at best), watching and participating (NameJet).
So think about that…
7 Billion people on this rock, and only a few hundred actively buying domains on a daily basis.
The industry is good and is still very lucrative.
My take is there is no way to limit people coming into the business, low barrier to entry.
I agree with DomainVP many drop out after a short period of time. Others I know don’t consider the majority of domainers who call themselves domainers, actual domainers. They see them as hobbyists with limited budgets.
