I am the guy that decided to drop thousands of domains with General Top Level Domains (gTLDs) such as .biz and .cc over the past year alone.

I would not say that I have been burnt, as my domain portfolio had made much more than 10 times in profits than what I invested each year. Of course some domains made a lot of money, while some made nothing.

I simply took the decision to drop domains that were not monetizing well, and/or didn’t have any likelihood of selling within the next 24 months.

So I am not carrying any grudges. I haven’t made any losses in any of my years of domain investing, but instead made significant profits. The culling exercise that I have just finished undertaking with my domain portfolio is purely a business move to ensure further profitability and less exposure to risks.

Every day I wake up feeling exciting about the domain industry. Almost every day that goes by my web developers (who are located all over the world) have different projects working on that will enhance my businesses and help reposition them for growth, further profitability and success.

Some projects will not benefit us today, tomorrow, next week or even next year. This is the problem that I believe a lot of domainers have. They want success now. God said that he could have created the earth in one day, but he chose to do it in 6, resting on the seventh.

The domain race is not for the swift, but for those who can endure it to the end.

With the Internet, you have to understand that patience is a virtue that you will need in order to survive. Yes, with Pay Per Click and domain parking you may earn instant profits. However, as we have seen, the domain parking model is not sustainable as a business model and is rigged with the lack of transparency.

With the domain industry you can strike it lucky, but this is a business sector that is best suited for people who believe in getting ready for the main event.

We witnessed or heard of the Dot Com bubble bursting in the early 90’s. We saw the domain industry grow out of the ashes and flourish. We are now approaching the end of another decade and here we are been faced with uncertainties all over again.

Things work in cycle. That’s why we have seasons.

Something is coming. It is big. The ones who will laugh all the way to the bank are those who took the time to get prepared, instead of whining and moaning all day.

Is you domain business ready for showers of blessings? Those who prepare themselves will have an abundance of wealth.

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I am still a little light-headed after having too many drinks last night on a boat cruise on the River Thames. Partying on a boat till midnight then finishing up in a night club is surely one good recipe for hangovers. It was worth it though, as it was a friend’s 30th birthday party.

For me it was a little bit scary. No, I’m not talking about the boat ride, but rather the thought of me turning 30, next month. I personally do not have the time to organise any lavish parties, so I decided to book a luxury Caribbean vacation to Barbados instead.

Despite much travelling over the past few months, this will be my first break for 2009. It is well deserved given the amount of work that I have been doing over the past few months.

It will be the perfect time to take a break, re-energise and take the competition by storm throughout the rest of 2009!

Happy domaining days ahead!

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I often get asked by friends or people that I meet, “what do you do?” This is a very simply question, but can be hard to answer depending on who you are speaking with.

As I do a lot of things, including real estate investing, stock market, foreign currency, affiliate marketing, domaining and being an accountant, it can be hard to answer this question.

As my main profession is in accounting, and I have been trained and working in the accounting profession since I was 16, I just normally tend to simply say that I’m an accountant. It’s not my favourite pastime or my main income steam, but rather my most recognisable profession.

Some weeks ago, at a party being held in a wine bar, I thought I would try something else. I responded saying that I’m an Internet Marketer. Wrong answer! I ended up spending the next 30 minutes trying to explain how affiliate marketing works. The average age of the people I was speaking to was about 30, not 75.

How hard can it be, to understand that you market other people’s products and services, and if you are successful in making a sale, you get a commission, which is simply a percentage of the sale or a fixed payment.

Now I have never told anyone that I’m a domainer. I simply don’t have time for that warfare. If people can’t understand the simple logic of affiliate marketing, then why should I give myself a headache trying to let them understand what domaining is?

I came across a blog post recently that gave me some quiet reassurance that I am indeed saving myself from wasting time. Even “experts” don’t seem to understand what domaining is.

In a blog post on InternetBusiness.co.uk, the author, Brian Turner writes:
” domaining is the process of buying nice sounding domain names, slapping a landing page filled with ads on, and then waiting to generate revenues from people clicking on the ads after typing the sites URL - or else from selling the domain at an inflated price when someone actually wants to develop a useful website on it.”

I left a comment to the article a few days ago, stating that I find the definition of domaining to be quite misleading. I copied the Wikipedia’s definition of domaining in the comment and suggested to the author that he attends one of the many domain conferences so that he may be properly educated about domaining. The comment is still not published, but I’m not surprised.

The domain name InternetBusiness.co.uk is a superb domain name, and the website has some well-written articles. The site is well maintained and gets a large amount of traffic. Brian Turner writes most, if not all of the posts. So I’m a bit disappointed that Brian would rather define domaining in such a negative way.

Now, in a nutshell, his definition is actually right. What I have a problem with, is how it could be misinterpreted.

Domaining, in general, as seen by the general public has more negatives than positive. Domaining squatting, trademark infringement, click fraud, domain theft, appraisal scams, domain tasting, unethical practices surround expired domains etc are just a few of the things that leave a bad taste in the mouth when it comes to domaining.

It would seem as if Brian Turner does not know or understand that domain parking and monetization is big business that is legitimately conducted by reputable companies that are traded on stock exchanges.

He also does not seem to have any respect or appreciation for the domain name aftermarket.

Now, I may be wrong or may have misinterpreted his post. I would love to hear what he thinks, and what you think.

Buying and selling domain names, despite the many malpractices undertaken by a few, is a very legitimate business activity. Domain parking, though currently under severe threat, is responsible for putting millions of dollars on the balance sheet of companies such as Google and Yahoo.

So then, how can we explain domaining to our friends, families and other contacts in a positive and dignified way?

Job losses are unavoidable in the reality of the current economic climate. More and more companies are advising of layoffs, and with these layoffs, government will earn less revenue. This points to the magnitude of the challenge affecting us, so it is important to prepare.

What people need is a map, a plan for when they get their walking papers. Some workers will be prepared for the redundancy and job loss, while others will be like the five foolish virgins. The world is not waiting on us; it is changing. No one is immune to what’s going on.

What we need is a change of mindset to deal with the problem. We need to be resolved to see opportunities instead of doom and gloom. We have choices. We can choose to find solutions to our problems instead of focusing on the problems.

Redundancies are not the end of the world if we change how we currently see things. There are opportunities if we just look for them, but if we only look in familiar places, we will miss the boat.

This is exciting time for domaining. End-users will be seeking out quality domains to start their ebusinesses, and domain investors have an orgy of domain deals to contend with.

We need get the right mental attitude. By this I mean, a pre-programmed visualisation or mind-set of a desired outcome to the exclusion of all other probabilities.

The appropriate mental attitude requires you to be able to suppress your conscious mind, where all the negatives and obstacles dwell and allow your sub-conscious mind to transport you to a vivid image of yourself overcoming all obstacles and performing at your peak. It is based on the principle that the mind controls the body and not the other way around.

To reach the level of mind-set I am talking about, one has to work hard. First, one has to overcome the technical deficiencies or knowledge gaps in the activity in which one is engaged; increase self-confidence; increase motivation; and keep focused on your objectives.

If you want to make money by domaining, whereas you may learn a lot from reading domain blogs and forums, you will not find a get-rich-quick secret that will make you rich overnight.

Do not be like Wall Street, hoping to get rich with virtual money. The money being spent in the domaining world is real cash. This means that if you want to earn real cash, you will need to offer real substance, whether it is quality traffic to advertisers or quality domains to domain buyers.

Think of domaining as a business. Think of what you are offering your customers. Think about what you would spend you money on if you were a domain investor or advertiser.

Don’t waste money living in a world of fantasies. You can still earn great money from the Internet. However, you have to work both hard and smartly.

For the Chinese it was the year of the Rat, and the year they hosted one of the best Olympics ever.

In domaining, China has seen significant growth in its ccTLD, the dot CN. This emerging superpower is pulling out all the stops to be dominant in almost every sector.

As for the Western world, Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister summed it up when he said the “world spun on its axis”. Of course he was referring the financial crisis.

We have seen the world’s most powerful economies plunging into recession, banking giants begging for mercy, record job losses, real estate prices plummeting, and the list just goes on.

Here in the domaining world, we at first started boasting how domain names were recession proof. However, as an accountant, it is only too clear to me that profitability and liquidity are two different things. A business could be very profitable, but could still go bankrupt if its cash flow is not properly managed.

With a severe shortage of cash in the economy, it was just inevitable for the domain industry to start feeling the pinch. Some great deals appeared out of nowhere. Domains that would sell for high $xx,xxx were sold for low or mid $x,xxx.

In reality, some domain names were overpriced to start with. And am not including the ridiculous priced rubbish domain names. This credit crunch, if it did any good, corrected a lot of things. Debt was simply out of control, housing prices were going through the roof, and well, some domain names changed hands for some ridiculous amounts.

Sometimes you really had to wonder if a transaction really took place, as the domain name and the sale price just did not add up.

Domain parking also saw some very dark days. Personally, I have made a decent fortune with domain parking, but am not a big fan. I just simply hate the lack of transparency. Despite the increases in online advertising, domain parking service providers are seemingly gradually reducing the percentage they pay to domainers.

This has caused a lot of domainers to breathe a sigh of relief when Google opened up its Adsense channel directly to domainers. Some questioned if this is Google trying to cut out domain parking service providers, while some said it is Google trying to “clean up” the domain PPC Channel.

This is indeed a bold and definitive move by Google. People will inevitably come up with all sorts of conspiracy theories in the absence of an official reason or intent from Google.

Some have used this new development to preach the gospel of fear as a doomsday for domaining on a whole.

In my opinion, from an accounting/business perspective, this move by Google is nothing more than a mere safeguard against the exposure to the risk of loss of income.

There are some domain parking companies that control a lot of domain names, and subsequently a lot of traffic. These parking companies churn out hundreds of millions of dollars each year in revenues.

Now although some have claimed that the domaining channel only represents a small percentage of Google’s PPC revenue, the loss of some of this revenue could have very adverse effects on Google’s financial statements.

If one parking company decides to switch its entire portfolio of domain names to another search provider, such as Yahoo, then this could mean a significant loss of revenue for Google, in the region of hundreds of millions. Google’s profits would take a hit, their balance sheet devalued, and even the price of their stock could fall.

By opening the Adsense channel to domainers, Google has some sort of fail-proof safeguard. Should any domain parking company switch alliance; Google would just simply have to sweeten the deal with domainers to entice them to have direct accounts with Google. This deal sweetener could be in the form of bigger payouts, better parking templates, improved customer services, and even some search engine incentives.

The ball is now in Google’s court.

The proposed deal between Yahoo and Google as we know did not go ahead. This means that these 2 powerhouses are still competitors. Yahoo, in my opinion, is like the Titanic. It saw the iceberg (competition from Google) too late, and due to its size and inflexibility, Yahoo could not reposition itself fast enough to be a more robust competitor. Google has taken full advantage of the situation, and has been relentless in its efforts to be the dominant player in the online advertisement markets.

Domain development was a very hot topic in 2008. With the demise of domain parking, domainers will be forced to be more creative and innovative.

2008 was a great year for domain auctions. We saw quite a few new domain auction providers popping up, and most of them seemed to have done very well. Domain auctions going forward will be a very popular method of marketing and selling domain names.

The domain aftermarket remained strong, despite deplorable economic conditions. Here are the top 10 reported domain sales for 2008 (Source: DNJournal.com):

1. Fund.com - $9,999,950
2. DataRecovery.com - $1,659,000
3. Kredit.de - $1,169,175
4. Cruises.co.uk - $1,099,798
5. Invest.com - $1,015,000
6. SkiResorts.com - $850,000
7. Printer.com - $800,000
8. iReport.com - $750,000
9. Casino.de - $625,000
10. Jobs.ca - $600,000

The top ten domain sales for 2008 grossed $18,567,923, which represents an average of $1,856,792 per domain name.

Domains will continue to sell and will be in even greater demand in 2009. People and businesses will inevitable have to realise that the future of any business will depend on a strong internet presence. This ebusiness success will start with a quality domain name.

eBusinessDomains.com was launched in 2008. We are aiming to take domaining to whole new levels in 2009 and beyond.