It is yet again another new year and by all accounts it will be a promising one. It will also be a very eventful one, either in a good way or a bad way.

Here in the United Kingdom, we will celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, which is her 60th year on the throne and we will have the Olympics and Paralympics games in London. The USA will hold their presidential elections later in the year, and of course the dramas have begun. The Mayans predicted that this is the year when the world will end. And the list goes on.

Well, it’s just another year to seize opportunities and nullify threats. There will be lots of opportunities and lots of threats.

2011 was a great year. Domain sales are on the rise, and so are the requests from end users. Domain name sales will continue to increase, thanks to the exposure that the industry has received from its forums, blogs, industry events and occasional mainstream news headlines.

However, things are changing for both domainer-to-domainer and end-user domain sales.

It would appear that the domain community is becoming more conscious about domain name quality, even if the sole purpose of a domain purchase is to monetize that domain name via domain parking. We have more quality domain names been sold, and for more realistic prices. Domain parking is still an unpredictable monetization strategy, and as such, people are more cautious about valuing domain names based on past or forecasted domain parking revenues.

This creates more reliance on the development potential of a domain name, and the likelihood that an end-user or domain developer would have interest in acquiring the domain name.

Where end-users are concerned, more and more developers are discovering that the mantra “it’s all in the domain name” is not really accurate. It is still of utmost importance to brand your ebusiness with a domain name that commands instant credibility. If you can manage to do that with a keyword-rich or category-killer domain name, then you are on the right track.

However, as a lot of people are now realising, branding goes much further beyond the remit of what a domain name has to offer. The domain name at best, will only contribute 10% to the overall branding strategy.

Developers, more so those from the domain community are realising that web development is hard work. Branding requires even more planning and strategising. It’s not just about launching a website. You have to get the right logo, the right colour schemes, content, and images. As much as SEO is important, the impact of social media cannot be ignored. Any brand these days will require a proactive social media agenda.

Every aspect of web development and branding is time consuming and costly, if it is to be done right. As such, those who are knowledgeable will clearly understand that if one is to turn a domain name into a successful brand, they should realistically only allocate 10% of their budget to the domain name acquisition. The rest goes into web development, content, SEO, marketing, social media networking and promotions.