$2.86M for a domain registered this decade?
Many domainers that got in early like to scoff at people who register freely available domain names. “If it’s available, it can’t be worth anything,” they say.
Wiki.com is just once example of why that’s incorrect. The domain, first registered in 2001, sold for nearly $3M last month. When the first domain name gold rush occurred in the mid 90s, no one had even heard of a wiki. I don’t even think the term existed, much like the term blog didn’t exist.
Herein lies the opportunity to register new domains that will have value. But a couple key points:
1. You can’t think up random domains related to, say, “mortgage”, and expect to register good domains.
2. You have to sit on these highly speculative domains for them to pay.
It’s speculative, but the payoff can be huge.
If you want to register the next hot keyword you need to pay attention to the news. Not the mainstream news, but scientific and academic news. Read academic journals about the lastest discoveries. Read future-oriented publications like Wired. Whenever you see a new term, do a little research and then pay the $7/year to register the name.
Most of these domains will never be worth anything — but you might end up registering a wiki.com.
mike says
I think you’re right on the nail here. For example, imagine you had registered MyRSS or XPath, etc., a few years back. And there’s so many possibilities still available! I currently don’t think buying an already registered name (unless it’s for a specific purpose) is worth a risk of more than a few quid.