I appreciate your comments!

Yes, there is no doubt that domaining has turned into a huge industry. It amazes me to see just how large this industry has become!

Based on what I have been hearing, however, it appears that much of the ROI a domainer receives is through parking their domains. True, the majority of parked pages may result in revenue that basically covers the cost of a domain’s respective annual registration fee. However, in listening to trends in the various sessions, the best way to obtain funding through parked pages is based upon ranking within search engines. If search engines are looking at placing a lower value (rank-wise) on purely parked pages, and placing a higher value on sites that change, provide value for the end user to where the end user comes back, then this form of “buildout” seems to be the trend for domainers to follow. Parking companies may be able to assist domainers with this next level of “buildout”.

With that said, there are many in the Domainer community who are doing just that and I can see where others will follow.

With domains that are “builtout”, to what ever degree, that are beneficial to people who land on those sites, they will, and, in my opinion, should carry greater value. This is where I see the larger corporations getting more interested in acquiring/expanding their own portfolios as they will see such “buildouts” can only increase their visibility in the world. Also, with corporate backing, what value can they bring to the global Internet community with their “buildout” potential? While initially it may be a greater expense for such corporations, I see it as a way of diversifying, thus maintaining a healthier financial base for such corporations while at the same time creating a more robust information and/or retail market for users of the Internet.

Also, if domainers properly develop or build out their sites, then corporations purchasing such domain names, or sites, are seen more like a business acquisition instead of purchasing domains. After all, when dealing with developed domains, you really are dealing with a business. With that said I sense businesses understand the concept/value of business acquisition more so than domain acquisition.

We are always looking to legitamize domain names, whether that is to resale them to endusers, park them to see what internet users are recognizing the domain terms as essential prodserv terms, or developing them, which we call “buildouts”.

I can’t speak about the DRT 2008, although I produced the DRT 2007. However, I can say that DOT’s are mostly not “pirates, crooks, cybersquatters” but people who believe in this “new media” product - Domain Names. It’s proven that domain names are valuable for direct navigation and branding. It’s up to the public and business sector to understand it.

The most important effort for the domain industry, as I’ve said for over two years now, is to form a coalition of industry experts and companies to set forth a public relations marketing plan, (I advise going through the ICA) and place TV and magazine ads in business mags and late night infocommercials to talk about the realities of owning domain names — across the many ranges of uses of these domain names. There are are a variety of factors for domain name usage, and each has to be explained clearly, and every marketing director and business owner MUST understand this to succeed with their business online.

This must be the goal of domainers now, beyond their own personal domain monetization efforts, because that monetization effort won’t mean diddly squat if the rest of the world doesn’t understand what we know.

Nice article, Chuck.