Gregg McNair, Chairman, PPX International 

PPX International Chairman Gregg McNair, who was profiled in our October 2009 Cover Story, heads another domain industry conglomerate that has become a leader in domain sales, consulting and monetization. The inexhaustible Aussie is almost always on the road, tending to PPX's far flung enterprises, meeting clients and spreading the domain gospel. Here is Gregg's view of key events in 2011 and what may be coming in 2012. 

In many respects 2012 has begun with the same specter of economic uncertainty as 2011. This is likely to heighten the intensity of traffic owners to optimize returns and diversify the base and source of their earnings wherever possible.

In some instances we are seeing some significant industry players scaling back involvement and I expect those forces to intensify over the next year. Fortunately there are new and growing
publishers to take up the slack which should ensure that overall the domain space will grow and morph as it begins to embrace the reality of new GTLDs.

Portfolio and premium generic domain prices are likely to remain under pressure until we see some genuine economic light at the end of the tunnel. However good end user sales are expected to
continue as our industry continues on the road to maturity.The new year will doubtless bring challenges but we are excited at the emerging opportunities that result from continual growth and change.

Jan Barta, Elephant Orchestra 

For a European view we turned to the Czech Republic's wildly successful domain investor Jan Barta of Elephant Orchestra, who was the subject of our May 2011 Cover Story. In recent years Barta has expanded his interests far beyond the world of domains, diversifying into other businesses including feature film production, auto insurance, mobile marketing and many more that are giving him an ever growing financial footprint in Eastern Europe and beyond. Jan and the three experts that follow him on this page are all contributing to our annual State of the Industry report for the first time. Barta began his comments with a focus on the field that has provided so much fuel for his overall business success.  

As for the new year, to start off - from a macro perspective - if 2011 was the year of stabilization, 2012 should be the year of returning to growth, not explosive growth, but at least some kind of growth.

In monetization, I believe domain earnings should be stable to growing for domainers due to the three factors I mentioned above. A big trend I think we will see in 2012 is the commoditization of the PPC parking business, which will mean much smaller margins and hence profitability for parking companies - I think this will cause more trouble to the incumbents such as Sedo, DomainSponsor and Oversee. On the flipside - I think parking companies will finally be forced to innovate and undergo a transformation from mere feed syndicators to full blown monetization platforms, reaching out directly to advertisers, introducing new products etc, all to the benefit of the ultimate traffic owner - the domainer.

In the industry as a whole, a lot of the growth will come from the new GTLD craze with the application window now open. I believe there will certainly be a few success stories going forward, but my expectation - to contrary belief - is that most new GTLD strings will end up as failures, a huge amount of money (tens to hundreds of millions) being burnt in the process. As for the aftermarket in 2012, I do see growth in the the low to medium priced market but softness in the million dollar+ segment. The primary - registrar - market should continue growing fairly well. Overall, 2012 should be a decent year for the domaining industry as a whole.

Bill Sweetman, Tucows Domain Portfolio

Bill Sweetman was just promoted to Vice President of the Tucows Domain Portfolio this month, a position earned through his successful stewardship of the Portfolio's consumer-facing brand, YummyNames, which Bill continues to run. Based in Canada and doing business all over the world, Sweetman believes relatively untapped foreign markets will generate a lot of growth in 2012. But first thngs first - Bill starts out with some comments on the past year. 

Finally, the recent $1 million sale of dudu.com (brokered by Sedo in Q4 2011 but announced at the start of 2012) really stunned me and gave me pause for thought. Obviously this was a freaky, miracle exception of a sale. That being said, this sale really demonstrated the magic that can happen when a very motivated buyer meets a very skilled seller (or in this case, an exceptional broker). I think there's a lesson or two in here that we can all benefit from: remember the dudu!

The biggest challenge I face in 2012 is one that I think all of us in the domain aftermarket have faced for many years: Joe Public still doesn't realize that the domain name he wants but is already registered could still be available for purchase. This is the biggest and most frustrating disconnect in our industry, followed only by Joe Public not recognizing the value of a premium domain name. Sure, we have all made and seen progress in this regards over the last decade, but we still have a very long way to go. This is why some of the smartest minds in the industry holding the most fantastic domain portfolios struggle to sell even 2-3% of their inventory every year.

Jodi Chamberlain, Adviser for TeamLauncher.com and Producer of DomainingEurope.com

Jodi Chamberlain has an extensive background in both domain development and running major industry events. She produced  T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences in the U.S., Canada and Europe and is producing the Domaining Europe conference coming up April 26-28, 2012 in Valenica, Spain. Last year she headed off shoring specialist TeamLauncher.com and built the firm up to 60 employees and she continues to advise that company. Jodi began with some comments on a topic of key interest to domain investors - domain development. 

Not only is the online world under development, people are beginning to understand the fundamentals of it. Wordpress has made it ever so easy to put sites up and even has helped many lose the “I don’t know how to change this” phobia. Google is getting ready to educate the mass on how to use their services which means more and more will want to start an online business. Which at some point requires development. More tools will come onto the scene in the years to come that will help the common man develop at ease.

In 2011 the event scene was quieter than most years. Economy? Maybe. I believe there’s more to it. With the ROI’s being visible in the ad space many decision makers are looking at events and asking, where is my return? Why should I spend $1500 on a ticket (per person) or $10,000 on a sponsorship when I have no idea where my returns are going to be. They basically opt to snooze and lose!

Every success story comes from networking. I remember back in 2008 sitting at a restaurant in NYC with Monte Cahn and Rick Latona. Monte was telling Rick he brought the Moniker team to as many events as he could. This is how Moniker become a success. It was that simple.

There’s no denying domainers love to network. And sometimes their nights seem longer than the day. Everyone leaves an event a healthier person, well, a few with luminous. But for the most part the time spent an event is an enlightenment. Moving into 2012 events will be used not just for advertising products or brands, they'll be more of a meeting location for decision makers. They will arrange meetings months before the event starts and utilize the time within that space to nail out details or shake hands on the deals made.

Paul Goldstone, DomainIt.com and iGoldRush.com

Another significant trend in 2011 was the continued decline of pay-per-click parked pages as a viable revenue generator for domain owners.  This gradual decline turned into an avalanche when Google announced an algorithm change this past fall that began to remove parked pages from their results.  These changes caused many domainers to drop (not renew) their non-performing domains and refine their portfolios to the domains that make the most sense either from an investment or development standpoint.  It also forced others to shift their focus to a more active approach, by developing at least a few of their domains rather than pointing their entire portfolio to a single parking solution.

I am continuing in 2012 with a plan that I have found very successful through 2011, and that is to align myself with the best. You can't be a jack of all trades but if you partner with the jack of each trade you can do great things. This model proved successful with my most recent partnership with Morgan Linton, arguably the best educator in the industry, to provide informative domain videos on iGoldrush.  I have several other partnerships behind the scenes, and will be forging more relationships throughout the year.

Whatever path you choose for 2012, the most important thing is to do what you love and love what you do. Chances are you'll be successful, but if not, at least you'll enjoy trying!