|
emphasis
on domain sales, making aftermarket
platforms more important than ever. At the same time
that it
is getting more listings, the aftermarket sector is benefiting
from the continuing migration of so many mainstream
businesses to the web. With businesses new and old seeking
suitable brands for their online enterprises, domain
sales held up quite well in 2010 and helped many domain
owners offset the decline in their PPC revenues.
Along with improved sales
prospects, the dawn of 2011 finally brought some signs that
the general economy could be on the mend, though
it looks like a long road ahead and many are wary of a
relapse. To find out what key leaders in our industry think
about prospects for the domain business in the year
ahead (as well as what they viewed as the most important
developments in 2010) we once again called on an all-star
line up of top industry executives, investors, developers
and attorneys for their opinions.
|
|
To keep things fresh our roster of experts is evenly
divided between new contributors and veterans that
have
given us valuable insight in the past. This remarkable group
gives us a
great cross section of thought on where we have been
and more importantly where we are headed now. Even
though we brought together 19 different leaders from across
the industry (the most ever), each has a unique perspective
of their own resulting in very little overlap from one to
another.
That will make this an article you will benefit from
reading in its entirety, but to help
you quickly zero in on categories
|
|
Image:
Salvatore
Vuono/FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
| that you may be especially interested
in we have divided the experts into three groups, according
to their areas of special expertise, and featured them on
three separate pages: |
Page 1 (this page): Domain Sales & Monetization
(Company Executive Views) featuring Kelly
Conlin (CEO, NameMedia), Tim Schumacher (CEO,
Sedo), Monte Cahn (Co-Founder, Moniker), Michael
Ward (Director of Marketing, Parked.com), Gregg
McNair (Chairman, PPX International), Tessa Holcomb
(Group General Manager, PPX) and Kathy Nielsen
(Director of Sales, North America, Sedo).
Page 2:
Domain Sales & Monetization
(Domain Investor Views) Plus
Industry Attorneys on Key Legal Issues featuring Merlin
Kauffman, Larry Fischer, Rick Schwartz, Howard
Neu, Paul Keating and Ari Goldberger.
Page 3:
Domain
Developers featuring The Castello Brothers
(David and Michael, CCIN.com), Chad Folkening (Domain
Holdings), Andrew Miller (Internet Real Estate
Group), Morgan Linton (Linton Investments) and a
bonus guest who cuts across all three of our categories -
industry veteran Jothan Frakes.
We obviously have a lot of ground to cover, so without
further adieu, let's begin.
Domain
Sales & Monetization (Company Executive Views)
Kelly
Conlin, Chairman and CEO,
NameMedia
|
Kelly
Conlin, CEO, NameMedia |
I am especially pleased to be able to kick off our 2011
report with NameMedia
Chairman and CEO Kelly Conlin's first appearance in
our annual series. With his company involved in every
important aspect of the industry from developing great sites
on premier generic domains, to sales (through the AfternicDLS
and BuyDomains) to innovative monetization
initiatives like SmartName stores, few have their
finger as well placed on the industry pulse as Kelly
does. With the Internet well on its way to becoming the #1 advertising
medium in the world, Kelly's deep understanding
of both traditional media and the world of new media that
domains are such a central part of, gives him unique
insight into the historic shift we are
seeing from old media to new. He
has been a successful leader at CNN and the New
York Times and also served as President and CEO of
publishing powerhouses IDG and PrimeMedia. The
very fact that someone like Conlin decided to move from the
highest levels of traditional media to our industry can give
all of us a great deal of |
| confidence in
the track we are on.
Looking back at 2010, Conlin had no problem
identifying what he believes to be the most
important breakthrough of the year: |
"Domain investors have long believed that domains
represent a new asset class and analogize domains to
the real estate industry, or to financial securities. For
that to be true, however, the industry had to evolve
to have the infrastructure, transparency and liquidity that
those other, more mature asset classes enjoy. If I own a
share of stock, for example, there is a well established
mechanism for trading that stock--with the click of a
mouse—on trusted platforms that aggregate buyers and
sellers. In the domain world, those transactions have been
more cumbersome, marked by lack of trust and transparency.
And that has held back the industry from realizing the
benefits that more liquidity would bring. In 2010, however,
the industry took a giant leap forward in changing
that." Conlin said.
| "Many of the industry’s leaders like Network
Solutions, Register.com, eNom, Moniker
and Name.com made the decision to join a single
marketplace for secondary market domain transactions.
This changes the game for the secondary market. These
registrars have built trust with consumers—they manage
tens of millions of domains on behalf of their
customers—and by allowing those consumers to opt-in to a
sales system that places the name for sale in the purchase
path across all participating registrars we reached the tipping
point for a unified market for secondary market domains.
This is a significant development for domain investors."
"To
go back to our financial asset analogy: you can go to Fidelity,
Schwab, eTrade or any other trading platform
and see available inventory of stocks and their prices, and you can instantly buy any stock you choose, with
the Nasdaq or other clearing operation providing the |
| unified infrastructure. Now, the same network has been built
for domains, where the leading domain
registrars—the aggregation point for consumer demand for
domains—have access to the same inventory of names listed
for sale, and the Afternic Domain Listing Service
provides the unifying infrastructure." |
 |
"A consumer can select a secondary market domain at
these leading registrars, place it in their shopping basket,
and within seconds have ownership of that secondary market
name in their account," Conlin noted. "Buyers
accustomed to immediate fulfillment on e-purchases now have
this for domains, overcoming the friction and clumsiness of
the legacy domain marketplaces. The vision behind this
network is: List Once, Sell Everywhere and, as Andrew
Allemann noted at Domain Name Wire: “Although many
companies have tried, NameMedia’s Afternic has made the
most inroads into creating a unified listing service for
selling domain names.”
Looking ahead to the year in front of us Conlin said,
"Key themes for 2011 include globalization, diversification
and development."
"It’s not news that more people, across more of the
globe, are leveraging the Internet to conduct business and
share their social experience: fully 42% of the
Chinese population now has access, and worldwide
penetration rates grew nearly 450% from 2000 to 2010.
What will make news in 2011 with respect to this
globalization is the growth in the infrastructure supporting
this expansion and diversification."
|
Image: Idea
go/FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
"Reseller platforms and registrars will work to
accommodate the dramatic expansion in new ccTLDs and
the advent of gTLDs; however, the current patchwork of
regulations and ccTLD-specific requirements has created
barriers to domain investment and will stifle aftermarket
sales if not clarified. The domain industry is in need of regulatory
standardization across the various ccTLDs and must be
thoughtful in protecting domain owners’ rights in an
increasingly complex and litigious legal environment."
"Domain
resellers must also improve inventory delivery tools
employed to minimize friction, and facilitate smooth
transactions in the context of an increasingly complex
marketplace. |
| Further expansion of a “Unified
Marketplace” in 2011 will help expand the market and
increase the value of domain portfolios. Complementing
the added exposure—and increased liquidity—that a
Unified Marketplace brings to domain investors will be the
innovation and investment in tools to scale domain
development, such as those from SmartName chronicled here. |
Tim
Schumacher, CEO & Co-Founder,
Sedo.com
While we add new contributors to our State of the
Industry report every year, there are some who play such a
key role in the industry that I call on them year and year
out. Tim Schumacher, the CEO & Co-Founder of
aftermarket and PPC powerhouse Sedo.com
is one of those people.
|
Tim
told us, "Our main focus in 2010 was making buying and
selling domains as easy as registering a domain. The
re-launch of our website at the end of 2009 was one of the
main steps, since our marketplace is now much more end
user friendly. Compared to 2009, we increased domain
sales by 25% in 2010, which is really great! We have
been putting most of our efforts into improving our tools
and services helping you to fix price domains, increasing
our SedoMLS network of Registrars, as well as
improving our domain search together with our friends from DomainsBot.
We are glad that most domain sellers have well understood
how important it is to set fixed prices for a domain
to make it easy and fast for end users to buy a domain name.
The number of sold fix priced domains has increased every
quarter."
"Another
very significant event for Sedo was, as you already might
assume, the sale of Sex.com (for an all-time record $13
million). It was a great opportunity and a great
challenge to find an appropriate buyer within a 3 month
period, which our team in a joint effort succeeded in doing. As a
consequence, we have seen in 2010 that more and more domain
sellers turn to us to sell their domain
|
Tim
Schumacher
Sedo Co-Founder and CEO |
| names, and we aim at
ramping up sales further and getting the best prices
possible for domain owners by selling to end-users (that’s
also why we lately had to increase commissions for brokerage
transactions to 15%, because we’d rather invest 5%
extra to increase prices and sales another 20-30%
than accept stagnation!", Schumacher said. |
Looking
ahead to to the new year Schumacher said, "A challenge
and at the same time a great opportunity will happen
with ICANN in 2011: They need to show that they are
ready for the new gTLD process; we are especially
looking forward to seeing more IDN domains coming to the
market and see how they develop in 2011."
"When
it comes to domain parking, we don’t expect
fundamental changes in 2011 – earnings will remain stable.
Keywords, like behavioral targeting and retargeting, will be the focus of the parking industry. We have a big product
pipeline filled as well with optimizations and improvements
of our domain parking tools and services, and we hope that
you continue to appreciate our effort in this space."
|
Image: graur
razvan ionut/FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
"There’s one challenge for
the whole industry I’d specifically like to
outline: We need to make sure that people don’t forget to
use their domains as their primary address and marketing
tools. A simple fact, but it’s often lost in the current
social media hype: Sure it is easy and cheap to build a Facebook
fan page, have a Twitter page, run an App, but
being your own landlord with your own domain
portfolio will become more and more important in the future.
Here's the problem: While it's smart and trendy to use all
of the above channels as additional means of advertising and
building customer loyalty, it's inherently wrong and even |
| dangerous to use them as a means of navigation. Why?
Because all the power is being put in the hands of the
providers," Schumacher pointed out.
|
"When people begin using these
different channels to navigate, what occurs is an inherent
loss of control, causing potentially massive costs that can
go as far as wiping out an entire company's profits. In all
four examples -- Facebook, Twitter, Google and the iPhone --
businesses put their entire fate into the control of
each of those providers. As a result, the following three
things can then happen:
1) Providers can kick any business
or even an entire industry out of its network, with
or without reason.
2) Providers can go out of
business, and there is no regulative environment in
place;
3) Providers can and will maximize
profits, once lock-in is sufficiently big, and profitability
goals will follow growth goals.
All of the above threats are very
real, yet still seem to be very much ignored amidst all
of the current hype.
|
Facebook, Twitter, Google's Ad
Network and iPhone Apps are proprietary walled-garden
approaches, which are not what the Internet needs,
and inherently present a danger for any business
relying on these channels for navigation and domain
addressing mechanisms,' Schumacher said.
"Building an online business
on top of Facebook, Twitter, Google or iPhone Apps is like
building a house on rented ground, with the landlord being
in complete control. Like many renters, one day you
might hear your fees have just skyrocketed in a matter of
seconds. Don't let that happen to you. Otherwise, you
can only
|
Image: jscreationzs/FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
| hope that history repeats itself and that
innovative newcomers will continue to challenge the position
of those walled gardens."
|
"While Facebook and Twitter
are excellent networking tools that can have a tremendously
positive effect on your business, they should not be the central
hub of your communications efforts. In order to put the
control back in your hands and eliminate any potential
threats to your business, your domain should be the
one location to which all other channels should link,"
Schumacher concluded.
Monte
Cahn, Co-Founder,
Moniker.com,
(Soon to Announce New Venture)
As the Co-Founder and former President of Moniker.com
(the pioneering registrar and domain auction service that
was later acquired by Oversee.net) and the broker of
some of the biggest domain sales on record Monte Cahn has
been a key industry figure for more than a decade now. 2010
was a momentous year for him as it ended with his
resignation from Moniker and Oversee.net. Cahn will be
remaining in the domain industry though and will soon be
announcing a new venture.
|
Monte
Cahn |
"Having led and participated in
several 7-figure and many more 6-figure transactions in
2010, I would say that the domain economic turnaround
is one of the most significant trends in the domain name
industry," Cahn began. "Unlike in past history,
the super majority of buyers of these domains were corporate
and end users which to me is a good indication for market
stability and growth going forward. This year felt
like 2007.....except value added buyers were at the end of
these transactions."
"Another key trend / event was the
lack of progress by ICANN to approve the process in
which new TLDs can come to be, launch and co-exist
with existing gTLD's, ccTLD's and sTLD's. Tens of
millions of dollars have now been invested (and put at risk)
by companies, individuals and investors thinking that they
would be well into sunrise and land rush release of these
extensions by now. Rumor has it that we are still
months away from final
|
| approval of the process for this to
happen....with the exception of .xxx which is likely
to be approved much sooner." |
"The complete meltdown in
domain parking revenue compared to years past and the
resurgence and pioneering of domain development
alternatives is a significant indicator of how fast our
industry can react to change. I was very impressed
with how many companies there are from micro development to
full fledged deep domain development and the various
monetization alternatives being invented and implemented.
I think that this is a very good sign of how
our industry is maturing and in turn, reacting to industry
trends and challenges. Companies such as DomainHoldings.com,
which was only a concept a year ago (and winner of DomainFest's Pitchfest), have broken new ground in ways to
develop, monetize and increase the value of domains. There
are other companies such as Blueglass, PPX, Epik,
WhyPark and DomainAdvertising all making good
headway in this area as well."
"Another significant event which I
think really helped the industry in a different way was the
successful rebranding and release of the .CO extension
(Colombia's country code). The .CO folks (Juan
Calle, Lori Anne Wardi and crew) did the
most outstanding job of international positioning,
marketing, and asset value building, (not only as a country
code, but as an alternative extension) that I have seen in
this business since its inception."
| "There are many
things to be learned by the way they successfully launched
that extension and the continued efforts they are putting
behind its success. This entrepreneurial spirit is
what drives our industry in so many ways. Overstock
has been using O.CO in their holiday and after
holiday advertising and have been hinting to rebrand many
parts of their business onto this domain. Twitter
has plans to use T.CO and of course GoDaddy
uses X.CO as a URL Shortener site. i.CO
is probably the most valuable of them all and I am
personally working on this one in my venture along with
Moniker to make sure it ends up in the right hands,"
Cahn said. |
|
Looking ahead to the new year Cahn
added, "2011 should be an interesting year. Many
domain industry pioneers and sales leaders, such as myself,
have decided to move on to other ventures, change
jobs/roles, or take a break. There is once again increased
competition in domain monetization, brokerage, auctions,
development, etc.....it can get overwhelming and confusing
for end user customers and domainers by not knowing what
direction to go."
"I know there will be quite a few new
start ups and new companies to assist with this dilemma
as well as work with the large industry driver companies to
address the needs of a diversified customer and end user
base. I predict In 2011 we will get our first taste in
a while of a NEW domain extension - .XXX which
has the potential to change and enhance an entire industry
segment. By the end of the year, there will be some
headway made for the new TLD approval process and we will
get our first idea on what exciting TLDs will be available
in the future (.Law, .Shop, . Green, .Web, . Gay, .Site,
.Hotel, .Music, etc)."
"Of course social networking
will become an even stronger vehicle in communication,
marketing, and connecting, however, this will in turn show
even more importance on how valuable brand related domains
will be. With Facebook's multimillion dollar purchase
of FB.com and
other 7 and even 8 figure transactions coming, domains will
prove to be a great and necessary investment by
many......many who looked at domains as commodities in the
past."
|
Image: Filomena
Scalise/FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
"I had many write me last year
after quoting them domain prices, responding with sayings
like "Good Luck, its not 2007 anymore." I
found those to be so funny as 2010 was a banner year in
domain sales and in some ways better than 2007. I
think 2011 will be a year of growth and excitement for our
industry from new extensions, to re-branding of existing
ones, to new innovative companies introducing fresh
product ideas, to the well established flagship companies
adapting to challenges, competition and change. I also
predict 2011 will be a big year for a couple of industry IPOs, roll ups and companies selling (larger companies
buying smaller ones or outright mergers of industry
leaders).
|
| Companies will have to grow through acquisition or
sale as well as address customer needs and future
trends." |
"I plan on playing a major part
in all this in my new life after Moniker!" Cahn
concluded.
Michael
Ward, Executive Director, Domainer
Mardi Gras 2010 and Director of Marketing, Parked.com
Michael Ward is another new contributor we are
happy to welcome this year as he brings a wealth of
experience from multiple corners of the industry. Michael is
a former marketing director for PIR (the .org
registry), is currently Director of Marketing for Parked.com
and also served as Executive Director of the 2010 Domain
Mardi Gras conference in New Orleans. Here is
what Michael had to say:
|
"The most significant event that took place in 2010
was the launch of .CO. After the .CM
fiasco, I would imagine there were some skeptics out there
who questioned whether .CO would have any success in an
already ‘crowded’ market. There are still
individuals who question the long term viability of .CO.
Thus far, the team behind .CO has done a great job in the
initial marketing of the ccTLD and I believe they are just
getting started. As everyone knows, the first true test
will be renewals. However, with the steady
growth that we are seeing in .CO registrations, combined
with greater visibility the extension will potentially
receive in an upcoming Super Bowl ad, the future
looks bright for .CO. The .CO launch one was one of
the first domain launches in recent memory that got it
right. Expect to see new TLDs try to emulate the
.CO formula," Ward predicted.
Looking ahead Ward said, "I say this every year and
I will say it again - the domain industry is still
very young and in the early growth stages. I am
amazed when I look back at 2010 and reflect on all the new
people I met at conferences for the first time who are shaping
the future of the industry. Many industries
have collapsed over the past few
|
Michael
Ward
Parked.com |
| years but the domain
industry overall has remained steady and many industry
players have continued to experience success in a seemingly
never ending ‘down’ economy. Government bailouts
in the domain space simply are not needed. Sure many
domain companies experienced challenges in 2010 but we are
still in one of the most exciting lucrative industries I can
think of."
|
"I
have spent the past nine years on the service side of the
domain industry including having worked for a registrar, a
registry, a monetization company, running an industry show
and now providing services for a registrar once again!
Through my time in this industry I have witnessed quite a
bit but I firmly believe the industry is just getting
started. 2011 will be the year that we see the new gTLD
process finalized. As early as Q3 2011, we may
even witness the first new gTLD launched. .Com
will still be king but domain investors, registrars,
registries, auction companies, ICANN, industry bloggers and
even newcomers to the industry can potentially all benefit
financially in some shape or form with the launch of new
gTLDs. Jobs will even be created with the introduction
of new gTLDs which can’t be a bad thing! The
question of ‘will the economic benefits outweigh the
costs’ has been debated for far too long. Put it
to rest. The market will ultimately decide the
answer to that question, as it should. Forces are
definitely colliding in 2011 and I am looking forward to
what I believe will be one of the more interesting years in
this young industry," Ward said in closing.
Gregg
McNair, Chairman,
PPX.com
PPX International Chairman Gregg McNair,
who was profiled in our October 2009 Cover
Story), is coming off a big year in 2010. His
domain monetization company (one of the first to move its
focus from PPC to other means of monetization) had a nice
growth spurt and Gregg personally won T.R.A.F.F.I.C.'s
prestigious Domainer of the Year Award.
|
McNair started by noting, "I
predicted in these columns last year that 2010 was a year of
opportunity for businesses resourced to take advantage of a
global economy trying to emerge from recession. In some
respects without wishing to sound political, governments
have added many months, perhaps years, to the desired
recovery due to support for ongoing corporate basket
cases!"
"Hallmark progress for the PPX
Group was in the amazing increase in the CPA
and direct marketing divisions of the domain division
validating the 2009 decision to begin to reduce our
dependence on the industry masters Google and Yahoo!
Whilst we have good indirect relationships with the up
stream partners of our PPC providers, we now have attained a
level of healthy separation that reduces the
vulnerability espoused by our industry generally for many
years."
"The former PPX Canada
business was assumed by DomainManager
during 2010 and is currently rolling out a all encompassing
domain management system self administered by the domain
owner as a totally free service."
|
Gregg
McNair
Chairman, PPX International |
"The former Strata Services,
Hong Kong business was renamed DM Pro and has
almost doubled over the past year to become a major
force in the large portfolio full management service area of
the industry. This is largely due to the integration of a
bunch of separate functions and revenue sources across
portfolios once regarded as too populated as to warrant
individual domain level optimization. Virtually every DMPro
client is seeing a revenue increase of at least 20%
in a market place bleating continually about serious revenue
declines, especially from PPCs," McNair said.
"In other areas of the Group
activity we have seen tangible progress towards IPOs
in two instances and the successful launch of two new
businesses. The industry related expansion
that excites us most currently is DomainAdvisors,
which is providing the last missing piece of our service
package to our client base. You will hear much more about
DomainAdvisors in coming weeks as we roll out our future
program."
"To those who keep telling me that
we always get it right, I am prepared to admit that one of
our start ups has failed and that another of our nine
businesses is struggling but more than most we are enjoying
incredible blessing which comes from recognizing and
rewarding the right team members and treating them like
gold. In this regard, newly appointed Group General Manager Tessa
Holcomb has made her mark and in 2011 will oversee the
integration and growth of the existing and emerging domain
divisions and resource them with the best people that befit
the culture and objectives of the Group."
|
|
"Having a focus not always on
business, our Philanthropy division supported The
Water School heavily this past year along with
many others in the domain space. The personal highlight for
me was to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro with
26 other domainers and to raise almost $200,000
for the WS in the process. In March 2011 another climb will
take place and we encourage anyone interested to contact [email protected]
for further information."
"At the public launch of Water
School USA in New York last month I was pleased
to commit on behalf of the PPX Group partners and team in
excess of $1 million to cover all marketing and
administration costs for the year 2011. This
|
| enables the WS
to apply 100% of all other donations to be used in
the actual work of saving lives in Africa and Haiti
from the scourge of preventable water borne
disease."
|
"So what is our outlook for the
year ahead? Further consolidation in most
industries will take place but certainly in the domain and
internet space. It is surely going to present opportunities
but a challenge is being able to predict the trends and the
slow but ever evolving changes within the framework of ICANN
policies and the impact of them combined with the commercial
agendas of the entrenched moguls in control. For our Group
we literally continue to search the world for niche
opportunities with champion managers and help them
generate optimal profits…they are definitely out
there!!" McNair declared.
Tessa
Holcomb, Group General Manager,
PPX.com
PPX
International's Group General Manager
Tessa
Holcomb,
who came to PPX from Sedo where she was a top broker, is one
of several bright young female executives who are rising
to the top in what has been a male dominated business in
the past. I invited several from that impressive group to
share their opinions for this article. Here is Tessa's take on
2010 and her predictions for 2011:
|
"As the economy rebounded
we saw the level of maturity in our marketplace rise in 2010
as well," Ms. Holcomb noted. "While there are a
countless number of trends stemming from this maturing
industry, I’d have to say that, expectations, across the
board, are higher than ever. As clients transform
from a seasoned group of domain experts, traders and
investors to developers, fund managers and corporate buyers,
expectations change significantly. Sure, clients still like
and even expect to be schmoozed at a exclusive event or
treated to a lavish meal; but when it really comes down to
it, they need to feel that the company or individual they
choose to work with is trustworthy, looking out for their
best interests, and consistently providing a high level of
service."
"Expectations are also
higher when it comes to the sales process and what an
owner expects from their broker. It’s no longer enough to
just post a “for sale” sign on a parked page or list a
name in a marketplace. As they should, owners expect to see
lead lists, marketing collateral and weekly updates. On the
flip side, buyers expect prices to be
|
Tessa
Holcomb
Group General Manager, PPX Int'l |
| substantiated and
a good broker should be ready to do this. Portfolio buyers
are looking for longer traffic history and revenue reports.
I believe that serious sellers will have to provide
significantly more information going forward to secure
optimal prices." |
"Along these lines, we’re
seeing more and more corporate buyers and savvy
investors who are no longer accepting the arbitrary
“extreme” pricing with no basis or support. The recent
push towards standardized pricing and the increase in sales
resulting from fixed / buy it now pricing vs. offer counter
offer systems is a sure sign that buyers are becoming more
conservative and less likely to make purchases based on
emotions. We’ve seen the increased popularity of online
appraisal services and have recently heard Mike Fiol
of DomainConsultant.com
refer to their pricing system, DCV. I agree wholeheartedly
with Mike that a system offering justifiable means to price
and value domains is necessary for the greater health of the
industry moving forward and I look forward to speaking with
Mike more about this at DOMAINfest
in Santa Monica next month."
|
Image: renjith
krishnan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
"What does this mean moving
forward? While the market rebound may come with bigger
budgets, it also comes with the birth of more competition.
Companies will be expected to provide higher rev shares,
maintain competitive commissions and still maintain superior
service. Companies serious about achieving these goals are
going to have to work smarter and harder to lower overhead
and make their systems more efficient, offering alternatives
to what their competitors are providing. Offering a higher
level of service, at a lower cost, is going to be the key to
success for 2011 and beyond," Ms. Holcomb said. |
"Competition vs.
Cooperation: It’s now more important than ever for
companies to differentiate themselves and their
offerings. However, when providing overlapping services,
it’s imperative to build strategic alliances and put clear
guidelines in place as to how you can work together to reach
those same goals that much faster. Companies need to realize
that unabated competition can not only result in loss of
sales but it also reflects poorly to clients. While
competition may result in a big win vs. lose situation, cooperation
will always result in a win-win situation. This is the
year to decide which scenario is best for you," Tessa
concluded.
Kathy
Nielsen,
Director of Sales (North America),
Sedo.com
Sedo.com
has
been an absolute sales juggernaut for years now and Kathy
Nielsen, the company's Director of Sales for North
America, has played a key role for the aftermarket
powerhouse.
|
With
respect to the year just past, Kathy said, "We saw a strong
increase in sales to end users. We saw that the education
of end users and the publicity of some very high
value domain sales (Sex.com) really brought awareness
to end users who started to look into our industry in stronger
numbers than we’ve ever seen before. It’s great to
see that the market for .com and the major ccTLD’s are
strong and growing, with values rising on the most premium.
However, there are some very good alternatives out
there especially for SMB’s or those looking for SEO
value to complement existing properties or pure online
marketing." "What this
means is that in general, prices for the average .com remain
competitive. However, whenever there are affordable
and quality alternatives, it’s hard to demand a super
premium price just because it’s a .com. We’ve made
investments in education of end users around the world and
have really seen the buyer group evolve quite a bit over the
past year." Looking
ahead to 2011 Kathy added, "We see very strong opportunity
in sales through our distribution
channels. Our ‘fixed price/buy it
now’ inventory has grown significantly
and |
Kathy
Nielsen
Sedo Director of Sales (North America) |
| pricing in this
category have a much higher sales
velocity. The ability to get these names in
front of end users at registrar’s all over
the world for fast purchase and transfer will greatly increase the rate of
sales for domain owners. We’re excited about
the worldwide network we’ve built and
definitely see a very nice opportunity in this
area for 2011 and beyond." |
|
