Buying and Selling Domains in 2016 and Beyond

With more website owners sprouting up every day, the business of buying and selling domains has become tougher. It is often said that all four-letter English words have been registered as [dot]com domain names, and while there are still some five-letter words available, the great ones have already been acquired.

Daunted yet?

You may even be more daunted when you go and try two-word combinations in the hope of grabbing some nice [dot]com domain names, only to discover that the first fifty you try are already taken. It’s a good thing that the process of domain name registration now includes recommendations based on your search. So you will see that instead of your search, you will mostly get as suggestions ‘your combinations’ [dot] ‘other extensions’ like [dot]kiwi, [dot]nz, [dot]net, and so on, which aren’t as profitable as [dot]com domains.

This does not mean that there aren’t many good domain names yet to be discovered. It only implies that discovering them has become difficult and will be even more difficult after 2016.

The key is actually all about how creative you can get. It’s very possible that with more time, creativity, and a software you can come up with a five-letter [dot]com domain that can go on and make you seven figures in a few years’ time.

The truth, however, is that it will only get worse for those into the buying and selling of domains. Apart from the fact that they are running out of great [dot]com domains, new TLDs that may redefine the way people perceive domains are being introduced.

For instance, the introduction of over five hundred new domain extensions since 2013 was followed by eleven million domain registrations between that time and 2015. Plus, more top level domains are expected to emerge in 2016, with WordPress announcing that [dot]blog will soon be included in the range of extensions their subscribers can choose from.

What does this mean for the buying and selling of domain names?

• People looking to open a website will have more options once the 2016 batch of top level domains arrives. This will in turn translate to fewer interests in [dot]com, which is mostly where domainers thrive.

For instance, bloggers might become inclined to start using [dot]blog; transportation companies [dot]travel; hotels [dot]hotel. And so on. It would in fact make sense and, perhaps, create a bit of an order in the chaotic pool of domains.

Jess Sass from [dot]Club Domains actually supports this hypothesis, saying, “No brand has yet truly stepped up and embraced their [dot]brand web address. I will stick my neck out and predict that in 2016, we will finally see that happen.”

• The amount of funds or efforts needed for one to be successful in the trading of domain names will scare a lot of people away from the business. Why? Because when bloggers finally embrace [dot]blog and other ventures embrace extensions unique to their industries, the demand for each previously-minor extension will significantly increase while that of major extensions (.com, .net,) will fall.

And, with a wide range of extensions available to every name a domainer can come up with, many TLDs—not just the usual [dot]com, [dot]org, [dot]net—will become as important a factor as SLDs (or even more important) in determining the viability of a domain name, making it more difficult to predict what will sell and what won’t. And unless you are psychic, you may have to spend a lot of money purchasing various TLD versions of the same name simply to ensure that the name sells.

Take the word ‘automation’ for instance. A domainer might need to register it along with the major TLDs of the various industries where the word ‘automation’ is applicable. So instead of merely registering Automation.com, a domainer would also need to register automation[dot]moto/technology/tech/systems/ads/auto/autos/security/etc. With over eight hundred domain extensions plus the oncoming 2016 batch, the domainer would have to register as many tech-related TLDs in order to increase his or her chances of selling the name ‘automation’.

But there is hope.

As of the end of 2015, around 299 million domains have been registered worldwide. Weigh that against 40% of the 7.4 billion people in the world—that’s the percentage of the world’s population with access to the internet—and you begin to see that as a domainer, you still have a wide pool of internet users to sell your domains to.