Why do I blog? God only knows. Anyway, as I have stated before, I blog to draw attention to my domain marketplace and to help build my brand.

I believe this blog has earned this website enormous exposure, and even a few domain sales. We are not currently accepting advertising requests, but it also brought a few clients as well in the early days.

eBusinessDomains.com has now been live online for a year now. Before launching the domain marketplace, I showcased my portfolio via Exdon.com.

I didn’t frequent/use forums, or read a single domain blog. The only domain publication that I read was the DN Journal monthly cover story. I really enjoyed (and still do) reading those stories.

However, after a year, we are now regularly receiving serious partnership requests here at eBusinessDomains.com from some very big domain industry players. I am truly humbled by some of these requests. There will be numerous major announcements in the near future.

So, as I was saying, the only publication that I followed was DN Journal. I believe it is still the best out there. I also liked reading Ron Jackson’s roundup of domain conferences. It is amazing how all of these scenes have changed. They are still all fascinating stories, but we have now entered into a new chapter in domaining.

The domain veterans of tomorrow will not be those who can amass large domain portfolios, but rather those who can successfully develop powerful brands that sell everyday (non-domaining) products and services.

Speaking of developing brands, Mike at the TheDomains published an article about the reported sale of GetARoom.com.

Simply put, this is one of the most interesting stories that I have read in the domain space for a very long time. This story is fascinating mostly for personal reasons. However, this transaction has a lot of lessons in it for domainers. The lessons to be learnt are even more powerful than what the sale of Candy.com ($3M+) had to offer.

A lot of people are trying to find out who the seller was, how long the negotiation lasted for, could the domain name have been sold for more etc., etc.

However, none of that really matters. Period. Here is what matters.

The people who bought GetARoom.com for $30,000 are multi-millionaires. They are the said people who founded Hotels.com, built it into a powerhouse brand and then sold it later.

This means that the buyer:
1. “Gets” domains
2. Has intimate knowledge of branding and has experience with established super brands
3. Knows how important it is to have the right domain name (Hotels.com)
4. Could have afforded to spend a lot more for a better domain name
5. Is an end-user

I won’t bore you here. So to get the message read my blog post “How I Would Invest $100,000 In Domains Today”.

You see, the point is, a lot of domainers think that the fully loaded end-users that “get” domains will dump boatloads of cash to get the “perfect” domain name.

But in reality, it was never, has never been, or will ever be all about the domain name. It was always about BRANDING!!!!!

When an end-user buys a domain name, he is not buying a piece of art to look at. He is interested in building a brand. You secure an appropriate brandable domain name for the minimal price, and then spend the “MILLIONS” building the brand online, on radio, on TV and in print.

Don’t worry if you don’t get it. But if you do get it, then you will realise that your ultra premium domain name will never find a buyer. Why? No one will pay you the price that you think it is worth. To you (as a domainer) the domain name is everything. To the end-user, it is only a means to an end.

If you want to realise the full monetary potential of your domain name, the only thing you can do is to develop it, into a BRAND.

I am sure most of you will disagree…

Never mind, I will rename these posts Weekend Musings Of A Fool .