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?

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