Online social networking sites such as Twitter seems to be catching on like wildfire these days. We see recently where Twitter was used to effectively cover the protests in Iran, and even break the news about Michael Jackson’s death to many.

It would appear that everyone that can click a mouse is on Twitter.

However, a recent Harris Poll reports that only 5 percent of Americans are using Twitter so far. That means that there is only is 1 in every 20 Americans using Twitter.

The question is, where are the other 95%?  The 2008 population estimate for the United States is 304,059,724. That means that there are approximately 289 million American who are not using Twitter.

The Harris Poll also finds that although recent high-profile media coverage suggests that a large percentage of the US population participates in online social networking and microblogging, more than half of Americans (51%) do not use Twitter or participate in either of the two largest social networking sites - MySpace and Facebook.

The survey finds that just under half (48%) of US adults have either a MySpace or Facebook account, and that only 16% update their page at least once a day.

If, on the other hand, you prefer good news, this means that the upside for Twitter, the fastest-growing service in our time, hasn’t even begun to be realized.

Now lets compare this to the domain industry. I am not aware of any poll that researches the number of people who are aware of the domain industry, or the domain aftermarket in particular.

Judging by the number of members on the most popular forums, and by even adding an extra person for each member to represent the persons who are aware of the domain industry but chose not to participate in any domain forum, I would say that even 500,000 (half a million) people would be a generous figure.

Correct me if I’m wrong, as these are just wild estimates.

So, worldwide, less than a million people are unaware of the domain industry. Hey, there are 6 billion people in the world!

How do you view this? If you are a pessimist, then you would say that domaining is a complete waste of time.

If you are optimistic, and you should have all the rights to be if you are intelligent, then you would see nothing but pure opportunities.

We are the founders of what will be one of the greatest industries on planet earth!

I discovered the domain industry and domain aftermarket after reading an article, in which the author stated that, the buying and selling of domains is one of the very best ways to make money online.

It is not as easy as it sounds, but once you get the right formula and strategies, you may have the licence to print money, almost.

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We are now officially in the second half of the year. The 1st of July is the of the year time when I analyse my goals and objectives for the year to see how well things are going according to plan.

This gives me a chance to set new objectives, make adjustments or even adapt to ways of doing things and create new strategies altogether.

If you run an ebusiness, or plan to do one, the remainder of this year may be your very last chance to get your category-killer domain name at bargain prices. All domain marketplaces, big and small are now seeing an increase in demand for quality ebusiness domains.

I really can’t see how people can even begin to have the slightest doubt that domains will be increasingly in great demand. Everyone that does business on the Internet wants to stand out in the crowd. Whether it is a blog or full eCommerce website, everyone wants the perfect domain name.

Some may not realise as yet that they can in fact buy their desired or category killer domain name on the domain aftermarket, while some simply can’t afford it, as yet.

We are hearing more and more stories of people making huge sacrifices and taking big risks just to secure their perfect domain name. As they say “the early bird will catch the most worms”. Those who “get” domains before their competitors do, will reap the rewards.

If you are in the business of buying and selling domains, perhaps you could use the rest of 2009 to cleanse your portfolio. Get rid of domains that are a liability and invest in domains that will become assets and increase in value.

Some people learn just by listening, while some can only learn from experience, or from their mistakes.

Whatever your domain name strategies are, you really want to make quality domains the central theme of your domain game.

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Here in London, when people are looking to buy used cars or get a new place to rent, they use sites like GumTree.com or Loot.co.uk. These sites are extremely popular and are mostly advertised via word of mouth. At least that’s how I learnt about them, and I often tell friends about them.

I have also come across HotFrog.co.uk, which has an Alexa ranking of 10,573 at the time of writing.

These are not senseless directories that no one visits. Although you can post for free to some of these directories, or at least under some categories, they are not like the hideous and useless Free For All (FFA) directories.

These directories are used by millions of people on a daily basis to find cars, rooms, houses, furniture, jobs and just about anything for sale. Yet, the choices of domains are not the kind of domains that are category killer or even keyword-rich domains.

These directories are very rich in their content and user-functionalities. When a directory is useful its users will advertise it via word of mouth. If users believe that they can find what they are looking for via your directory, they will keep coming back.

It is no surprise that the popular directories that cover all categories and wide geographical areas all use concept/brandable domains. Simply, they need domains that will not focus too much on one sector (keyword) and end up making it hard to sell other service/product listings.

So, if you have pronounceable concept domains, you might want to try launching a directory. You can choose to start by covering just one category, such as houses or cars. You can also choose to start with a specific geographical location.

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We have now had six full months of domaining in 2009, and what a fantastic year it has been so far!

Times have been tough for many, but the domain machinery is still powering its way through the economic downturn.

In early December 2008, I made my predictions about the domain industry for 2009. You can read that blog post here.

I have just read the post again, and I was spot on with my predictions.

Prediction 1
” I can see more domain blogs coming online, more domainers developing their domains, and more domainers building brands.”

I have seen at least 4 new domain blogs coming on stream since January 1st. I won’t name them here, but am sure if you go back and check and start counting you may find up to 6 new domain blogs.

Domain development has been a central domaining topic each and every week since the year started.

I am not sure about the brand development aspect here, as some domainers quite frankly still don’t know what branding means or how it works. Developing minisites is not web development, and in the same breath, building a full blown website is not brand development.

Nonetheless, I have seen quite a few domain industry players taking bold and sometimes smart steps to enhance their brands, reputation or even recognition. So this prediction is still spot on.

Prediction 2
” Geo domains will take off like crazy. This will be seen in increased registration, aftermarket sales, and development. More domainers will depend less on PPC revenue, and start building ebusinesses based on local advertising revenues.”

We are now seeing Geo domain reclaiming the spotlight. There have been a few noticeable geo domain aftermarket sales. There was at least one geo domain conference, and a few announcements recently about some major geo domain portfolio development. There were even some recent reports about some major alliances been formed between some top domainers.

I didn’t have the time to do the necessary research to get you the right links etc to prove these points, but if you have them ready, please post them in the comments section.

Prediction 3
” Web designers and developers who can efficiently build mini-sites at economical costs to domainers will flourish. However, the mini-site phenomena may be short-lived when domainers realise that simply building mini-sites does not mean automatic riches.”

Oh yes, this is the exciting one. Mini sites have taken off so much that there is even now a literal war going on between the companies offering those services. Most domainers seem to be doing their own minisite development. This is sensible if one has got time, as minisites are absolutely easy to put together.

Here at eBusinessDomains.com, we have now built a robust technology that will develop a minisite on any of our domains with just one click of a mouse. The minisite will take less than 10 seconds to go live, if the domain is already pointing to our nameservers.  We hope to have most of our domains switched to this new platform within the next week, or two latest. This will help us greatly in our domaining strategies.

I did say we were going to take domaining to a whole ‘nother level in 2009. So far we have re-designed our marketplace, developed numerous domains, and we are continuously rolling out new projects and technologies that will enhance our brands and help improve and reap more success in our domaining strategies.

Prediction 4
” Domainers will continue to suffer at the mercies of unscrupulous registrars and parking service providers. There will be increased scams, frauds, and malicious activities aimed especially at newbies. The “experts” will continue to misdirect those who desperately seek information while they drain the newbies of their cash.”

If I expand on that prediction I will inevitably upset a lot of people. But this is another prediction that is spot on.

Prediction 5
”Domains in my opinion will continue to sell. However, more domainers will inevitably have to focus on quality, and not quantity. There could be an exodus of domainers dropping rubbish domains.”

Yes domains are still selling, and there have been some fantastic sales report so far. Candy.com sold for $3m and Ad.com sold for $1.4m. Here are the top five published/reported sales for 2009 at the time writing:

Toys.com - $5,100,000
Candy.com - $3,000,000
Fly.com - $1,760,000
Auction.com - $1,700,000
Webcam.com - $1,020,000
Source: DN Journal

Recession, what recession?

We have had our fair share of decent domain sales as well. Nothing in the millions (as yet), but close.

With regards to quality over quantity, I believe all sectors of the domain industry are now getting this. Quite a few domainers are culling their portfolios without remorse.

Prediction 6
” Domain auctions will become the preferred method of domain acquisition, as the market price of a domain name will be set by the forces of supply and demand.”

Although a few of the domain auctions were not as successful as they could have been, there have been numerous domain auctions since the start of the year. There was a fair share of live auctions as well, with all of them having an extended online version.

Did I leave anything out? What predictions did you make?

NB: If you put a link in your comment our anti-spam filters will hold the comment for moderation. All other comments should be published straight away.

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This is really not a full or specific blog post. I think starting this Saturday (today) I will just post random domaining meditations in one blog post and then go and enjoy the weekend.

After all, the sun is shining these days in London, and the temperature is now hitting as high as 26 degrees Celsius.

This was another great week here at eBusinessDomains.com with domain inquiries, sales and a lot of development plans taking shape. It was a successful run, and I had a lot accomplished.

Elsewhere the top 3 reported domain sales for this week were:
BottledWater.com - $45,000
GetARoom.com - $30,000
Black-Jack.com - $25,500
(Source DN Journal)

Those were great domains at decent prices. BottledWater.com is a winner, as the water industry is growing each and every year, and I would assume it is now a multi-billion dollar industry.

I’m not too keen on GetARoom.com, but it is a highly brandable call-to-action domain name that could be used for a hotel/motel bookings website.

Black-Jack.com has a hyphen, and I’m not a fan of hyphenated domains. Nonetheless, if developed correctly, this domain name could pay for itself within months.

There is still a lot of unease in the domain industry between domainers or industry players. I don’t know why people want to pretend that this domain industry is friendlier than any other. We seem to forget that behind every blog, brand, or company there are human beings. These humans will behave like humans in that they are subjected to their emotions, jealousy, insecurity, ego, ignorance, pride etc.

We need more business-focused people here in domainer land and less insecurities flying about. People feel threatened by some domain marketplaces (hmmm, pause for a moment), while some feel that another decent blogger joining the domain scene will spell disaster for their blog ads or pay-per post income. There are some who just seem to have issues.

Speaking of pay-per-post, yes, do not be fooled by all the accolades flying about. Pay a guy some bucks, he will write you up as if you are the best thing since slice bread. I think it is called PR, so well, why not do it if you can trick the masses. Definitely not fooling me.

As with preachers, not all of them are anointed. They may know the bible, but they do not necessarily have a personal relationship with God. With some domain bloggers, how many of them are successful domainers? How many are really practising what they preach? Easier said than done, so start a blog and pretend to be an expert.

I am not targeting anyone here. So enjoy the weekend and play hard.

Michael Jackson is dead! How did that happen? Why do all legends die young? Bob Marley, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson…

Michael Jackson is not the type of legend that you get in a decade, or a century, or even a lifetime. You only get a Michael Jackson once.

The news of his death nearly crashed the Internet. How could we go about drawing just 10% of such media attention to the domain industry? Hmmm, food for thought.

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