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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Yes, every domainer seem to have finally realise that the domainer-to-domainer aftermarket is just not sustainable. Everyone is now preaching the gospel of marketing to end-users.

I remember in my very early blogging days I wrote in one post that selling domains to fellow domainers is nothing more than a grand and luxurious way of wasting precious time.

People get away with it, but as with all pyramid schemes that are successful for a while, they all collapse in the end. No, I’m not disrespecting the domain aftermarket by calling it a pyramid scheme, but when you look at what is going on very closely, it works almost in a similar fashion.

People register any rubbish domain, hype it up with a few senseless stats, sell it on forums, and then the buyer goes around doing the same exact thing. This circular movement goes on and on for as long as the domain industry can attract the less-knowledgeable newbies.

Domain parking was or is still a brilliant way to monetize domains. That’s a fact. However, as I have said before, it created for many, a lazy lifestyle that caused the masses to forget the real purposes of domain names.

Domain names are the gateway to the Internet. They are like the address to your home. It makes it easy to find your home. In the case of domains, they make it easy to find a website that is assigned to an IP address/server.

Domains are like plots of land. Imagine what would happen if real estate brokers only focused on flipping plots of land rather than selling to developers? The city would be one giant empty space without any buildings  – houses, offices, warehouses etc.

When you stop looking at domains as plots of land and start envisaging the buildings that could be constructed on those said plots of land, you will start getting the true meaning of domains.

Now, domainers are so alienated from the end-user market that whenever they refer to end-users they seem to believe that end-users are ignorant and stupid.

Yes, some end-users may not understand fully the workings of the domain aftermarket, but they are far more clued up about branding and the need for the right domain name, than you could ever imagine.

All of my end-user domain sales are from people or businesses that approach me regarding domains that I own. As a matter of fact I have never approached anyone, whether an end-user or another domainer in a bid to try and sell a domain name. I believe that domains are supposed to sell themselves. If they can’t, then they are not worth having.

When end-users approach me, they don’t come to waste my time. They come to do business. Give them a fair deal and the business is done. They know about domains, they know that they want the domain name that you own, and they want to pay a reasonable price. Don’t waste their time, and they won’t waste yours.

The synergy between end-users and domains are always missed because people simply do not understand how branding works. I am not going to explain it here.

If you want to market domains to end-users it is imperative that you think about costs versus benefits. We all want to make huge profits, but if you are stupid, end-users aren’t. End-users won’t invest in your crappy domain name, as they will immediately see the reasons why your domain name would be useless to their business and/or marketing plan.

If people want to really sell domains these days, then it would be more fruitful for the whole domain industry if we simply educate the world about the existence and legitimacy of the domain aftermarket. The world knows about domain registration, but not necessarily about the domain aftermarket.

When the world realises that although the premium domains are already registered, it is still possible to buy and assume full ownership of them via an aftermarket, the end-users will come knocking at your door in droves.

I’m totally against people preaching about approaching/cold-calling end-users. Why? Because those that find it necessary to approach end-users are usually those that have crappy domains.

When the domain masses start bombarding end-users with crappy domains at ridiculous prices, the end result can only be disastrous for the domain industry.

We do need end-users, but we can’t afford to bring the domain industry into disrepute with our methods of trying to attract them.

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In every industry there are fanatics. There are people are you fanatical about aeroplanes (airplanes), some about cars, some about bikes, some about software development, some about travelling, and the list goes on.

Domaining is no exception. The good thing about domaining is that people can make serious money while treating domaining as a hobby instead of a business. Of course, if one is not careful though, domaining could cost a fortune, rather than creating riches.

When you read certain blogs today, you will know the ones making pennies from their domaining efforts by how much they moan and criticise others. Some people have a “grand” way of preaching the doom “factor”.

There are still people who do not accept that the buying and selling of domain names is a legitimate business. People seem to think it is wrong to buy and hoard domain names for the sole purpose of selling them for a profit.

I am not going to argue much here as to what people think, as people are free to think whatever they want. Sometimes people’s opinions are influenced by blatant ignorance.

Some of those who think that domainers are all squatters will never bring themselves to the state of mind where they will buy a premium domain name on the domain aftermarket. These are the people that you see whining on forums about how they wanted some domain name to use for a project only to realise that a “squatter” had already registered it.

There are people who pour their life-savings into dodgy investment and pyramid schemes. They were sucked in by the promise of very high return. Sometimes greed got the better part of them, while sometimes it is their sheer ignorance. Any second thoughts should have caused alarm bells to go off.

Well, it is the same thing with domain names. Either you get domains or you don’t. Your level of education will determine whether or not you get domains. Period. Those that don’t get it, or those who are bitter because they were not the lucky ones to register certain premium domains will try to portray domaining as a disgusting and immoral habit.

So, if you were starting an ebusiness tomorrow, would you feel comfortable in buying a premium domain name on the aftermarket? Would you think it is the right thing to do? Would you consider it as a waste of money?

To get started with an ebusiness could be as little as $15, or even less. Just register a domain name for $8 and then pay for your first month’s web hosting. You could easily put a website together for yourself, cost-free. You are in business!

However, as they say, nothing in, nothing out. If it cost you nothing to go in business, it won’t even cost you a second thought to quit when you hit the first hurdle.

People who are aiming for success will ensure that they start their ebusiness with the perfect domain name, no matter what the cost is.

Of course, depending on your ebusiness niche, you may be able to find some very decent domains that are still available for registration. If you do, by all means register them. Yes, I said “them”. You want to secure as many domains as possible to protect your niche.

However, as most top quality domains are already taken, you may be better off searching the domain aftermarket for the perfect premium domain, buying it, and then register similar domains to protect your future brand.

Here are some other useful resources you may find interesting, if you are new to domains:

Learn the domain basics
Registering, buying and transferring domains
What is a premium domain?
Tips and choosing the right domain name
Tips on selling a domain name on the domain aftermarket

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Over the past few weeks I have openly expressed my quantum of solace with a few domain extensions. I have cited my belief that 90% of domains in some extensions are just not brandable.

Apart from dot COM, the only domain extension that I would attempt to brand would be the dot TV domain extension. However, some Country-Code Yop Level Domains (ccTLD’s) have huge potential, as the Internet penetration rates of the countries are quite high.

The United Kingdom, where I live, is one such country. However, like the dot CO.UK domain extension, the United Kingdom’s ccTLD, a lot of ccTLD’s fail to succeed heavily in the domain aftermarket.

This is due to a wide range of issues including the registration and ownership of ccTLD’s being limited to people with residency/local business connections; tedious, manual and costly domain transfer processes and the risk of limited market reach for ebusinesses that are branded on ccTLD’s.

If a company’s target market does not go beyond the shores or national boundaries, then it is definitely worthwhile to brand a business using a ccTLD. Here in the UK for example, I can think of 2 building societies that run all their ebusiness and Internet banking platforms on dot CO.UK domains. These Nationwide and Halifax. Someone else, despite the enormous wealth of these companies, owns the dot COM extensions of these domains.

Nonetheless, these two companies have very dominant and successful ebusiness platforms, and would in no way loose business or customers to their dot COM counterparts.

There are countless websites that are using the dot CO.UK domain extension. Most of these website owners, often very huge multi-million/billion pound corporations, don’t even own the dot COM extensions.

What I’m trying to prove here is that not only is there great demand for ccTLD’s, but there is also widespread usage. This excites me, as I’m a great fan of branding. Perhaps if an accurate survey could be done, maybe it would reveal that more brands are build on ccTLD’s, than on the dot COM extension.

So the question is then: Why are we not seeing more ccTLD’s being brokered on the domain aftermarket?

I will answer the question, based solely on my experience with the dot CO.UK ccTLD.

The main reason is that not everyone qualifies to register and own certain ccTLD’s. You have to live in the country, have a registered business in the country, or meet some other strict criteria that are designed to ensure that you are somehow connected with that country.

I think one of the most liberated CCTLD is the dot TV. As many will tend to believe at first glance, dot TV does not really stand for television, but rather, the dot TV is the CCTLD for a not so popular country called Tuvalu.

However due to some agreement reached with Verisign, the dot TV domain extension can be registered by anyone. The dot TV has gained popularity, thanks to the worldwide usage of the TV as an acronym for television, and the influx of video content on the Internet (Youtube, etc.).

With regards to the United Kingdom’s ccTLD, there was a very tedious and costly process involved with the transfer of ownership. Even changing basic details such as your address and telephone number was often a nightmare.

Due to this, domainers like myself didn’t deal much with dot CO.UK domain extension in the domain aftermarket, unless it was a sizeable transaction.

In the past, I have received countless offers on various dot CO.UK domains. I used to just ignore these offers or reply with ridiculously high counter-offers. Some bidders would come back crying, some screaming and some would run for their lives. How I saw it was simply, “if I had to go through with the tedious and costly process, it had to be worth my time”.

Hence, despite being a UK domainer, I didn’t really invest heavily in the UK’s ccTLD. My UK ccTLD portfolio peaked at 200 domains.

I was so fed up with the UK ccTLD and its tedious and costly transfer process that I literally turned away from that side of domaining, only choosing to renew expiring domains. This caused me to miss the fact that big changes had taken place at Nominet.

Nominet, the registry that handles the dot CO.UK domain registration had seemingly listened, did their homework and had made significant steps to automate the process. There is no longer the need to sign and send forms and wait days before a domain can be transferred to a new owner.

Today, I did my first dot CO.UK domain transfer in years. I was a bit shocked to realise how simple the process had become. It is fully computerised and automated. No need to send any paperwork, speak with anyone, or even wait days for a reply. The whole process was done within minutes.

I was very impressed. I can now work with this new Nominet. I don’t know what took them this long, but they have finally caught up with the modern Internet technologies.

I will now be investing heavily in dot CO.UK domains. This is definitely now one of the domain extensions to watch. With over 65 million people living in the UK and almost every home having Internet access, this is definitely a market poised for growth.

If the potential that I see could materialise, chances are, the dot CO.UK domain extension could end up having more potential than the dot COM extension.

Before you scream at me, what I mean is that you will be able to find better dot CO.UK domain deals to buy, hold or flip, than in the dot COM space. I think I will stop writing now. Didn’t expect to write this much.

The New James Bond Movie: Quantum of Solace

Don’t have a heart attack, this post is about domaining!

Last night I went to London’s prestigious O2 Arena to watch the latest James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, which was released here in the UK on Friday October 31st.

The weather was cold and wet, but that is typical of the British weather. Once we got inside, we quickly forgot about the gloomy outdoors and were ready to be thrilled and entertained.

We were not disappointed. Quite often movies are over-rated, but this Bond movie over-delivered. It was like being “entertained to death” in contrast to being “bored to death”.

I don’t know when it will be released in your “neck of the woods”, but you should definitely see it if you are a fan of Bond films. This film has fewer gadgets and does not even have any of the infamous Bond sex scenes. It is full of raw action, but it is the most realistic Bond film yet. The scenes really looked like stuff that could happen in real life, if you know what I mean.

The new Bond film has broken box office records on its opening day in the UK taking £4.9m, beating the record previously held by Harry Potter.

So what is the Quantum of Solace then, or what does it mean? Well, this is what Daniel Craig, the actor who played James Bond in the film said in response to the question in an interview with the BBC:

”It’s that moment in a relationship that if you tried all else, and you tried to save your relationship, and if you have lost the “quantum of solace” then there is nothing left, so you should walk away”.

I wonder how many domainers are having a Quantum of Solace moment now in the domain industry? The atmosphere in the domaining arena is changing daily. Some question the viability of the PPC revenue model and even the domain aftermarket.

Some domainers may have already disappeared off the scene, without even leaving a note behind. The revenue streams in the industry are flowing in a different direction, and the vibrant domainer-to-domainer trading of rubbish domains is loosing steam real fast.

But should we find this surprising?

I get a feeling of disbelief when I read some of the analogies and methods with which some domainers value domains. The most common will be something like: PPC revenue times “X” amount of months, plus a special bonus depending on the domain extension, add another sweetner for the domain age and don’t forget the milk if the domain name is registered till “X” date, etc., etc. and etc.

Such utter rubbish!

Any potential customer who enquires about PPC revenues when seeking to buy one of my domain names will either get a very nasty response or no response at all. It would be a clear sign that the potential buyer is not an end-user, but just another domain loser. Am sure many will disagree. Feel free to post your comments.

What happened to the good old “intrinsic value” and the branding potential of a domain name?

Unless domainers start seeing domains as the foundation for online/offline branding, and not a method of earning easy pennies, we are most likely going to witness an exodus of domainers experiencing the Quantum of Solace.

Sometimes I can’t help thinking that its actually domainers who are either killing the domain industry or hindering it’s growth.

There are hundreds of millions, if not billions of domains registered in every domain extensions. By a very rough, but generous estimate, only 10% of these are brandable or will become brands.

Do you realise who the winners are? The domain registrars and registries. Imagine if domainers had spent less on rubbish domainers and spend more time and money developing brands or selling their skills and/or products/services via a catchy dot COM?

If you have read some of my recent blog posts, you would have by now realised that I am indeed having a Quantum of Solace moment with a lot of domain extensions. It just does not make any sense whatsoever to invest or maintain any interest in some of these domain extensions.

With regards to rubbish domains, it is quite clear that not all domainers get it, by the rubbish domains that they try to sell, and especially by the prices that they trying to sell them for.

Surely, you can create a fancy logo for any domain. Put it on a website and you’ve got something going. But how successful will it be?

To end, there are simply two ways to approach online branding.

Firstly, you could register any domain, regardless of length, extension, spelling or meaning; create a logo, spend loads of money employing SEO experts and PR specialists and then promote the website via every possible advertising channels. Chances are, if you are offering something that people really want, you will be a hit, after the massive and costly promotions.

The second option would be approach the branding from an advantageous perspective, by carefully selecting a domain name that would be an instant hit with search engines and customers. This will cost you upfront to acquire such the premium domain name, but your promotional and advertising costs will be much, much lower over time.

Jackson, Kevin Jackson