3 Key Domain Industry Trends I Saw At NameCon This Year

namescon-2017-lasvegas

One of the things I really enjoy about going to a conference like NamesCon is getting a pulse on what other domain investors are seeing, doing, and most importantly, changing about their investment strategy. It’s the reason why I’ve said many times before that any blog post, book, video, or anything else you read about domain investing should come with an expiry date. This industry changes a lot from year-to-year and if you take advice from a year or two ago, you’ll likely be playing a losing game.

I had the chance to catch-up with a lot of fellow domain investors at NamesCon this year and here’s three trends that came through pretty clearly, at least to me that I think are worth paying attention to.

  1. 4L .COMs just aren’t as hot as they used to be – I heard a number of people say, “I’m glad I sold my chips at the top of the market,” and many others talk about the fact that we probably aren’t going to see the highs we saw in 2015 ever again. That being said, I didn’t find anyone selling their 4L .COMs in a fire sale, but most people were more comfortable holding than selling now for a lot less than they would get a little over a year ago.
  2. Some people are making money with new gTLDs – while I still feel very strongly about focusing on .COM and it’s clear just about every investor feels the same way, I did talk to quite a few people that had seen some nice ROI with new gTLDs. I don’t know anyone that has diverted away from .COM but it doesn’t seem too unusual for investors to now chisel out 5% – 10% of their portfolio for new G’s. The key trend I saw with people who were actually making sales is that you had to own a super premium name, think of a word that would sell for six-figures in .COM.
  3. Nobody is talking about parking – when I went to my first domain conference back in 2010 parking was still a hot topic, sure it had died down quite a bit since its heyday but it was still on the radar. This year I honestly don’t think I heard a single person talk about parking, and when I talked to some of the folks that I know who used to make a killing in parking, they no longer are. Heck – look at the sponsors on the archway above, only one of them is a parking company, oh how things have changed.
Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton