The night I left town Josh sent me this link which focuses on an interesting observation.

  While $4+ million worth of domain names just sold at the Las Vegas TRAFFIC auction, the real story is that actual bidding totalled more than $30 million..  I bid at least a million dollars for names that I didn’t win.. Others did too.  All-tolled there was more than $20 million of unrequited love, bids never to matter, a desire to own domain names that would not be satiated.

Again for impact, more than 20 million dollars of cash-money was bid in about a day (8 hours over two days) by a handful of people who wanted to own just a smattering of domain names.  Some of these names were good, many were just average, few would have blown the average man-on-the-strip’s hair back.  The would-be suitors were there with cash in hand, and many (like yours truly) went home empty handed..  or nearly empty handed.

All this happened during a week in which markets corrected, new credit/banking problems came to light, mortgage rates inched higher, inflation made headlines and other generally bad stuff happened or was foreshadowed to happen in the broader economy. It happened with less than 600 would be bidders worldwide in attendance!  How can that be?  Several reasons..

–1–  Because for the most-part, domain names are un-leveraged..  they have no debt on them..  and sellers can afford to tell you how they really feel by declining what you view as a generous overture. There is no incentive to “sell now” when your cost of carrying the investment is nil to low.

–2–  Because the shift of offline publishing to online is only getting warmed up.  Much promoted but under-delivered, just 7% of advertisers are online vs. 93% offline..  Domain registrants who understand the significance of their investment are sitting on the sidelines whispering “come to Papa” under their breath, knowing that you are not the first (or last) guy to try to wrest a name away with the siren call of cold hard cash.

–3–  Because a good domain name is like a storefront..  and you can’t buy a decent storefront for 50,100, 200 thousand dollars these days. You can’t buy a bad storefront in Rachel Nevada for that, you can’t even buy the bathroom fixtures in a storefront on the fabled Vegas strip for that. Not good ones..  not a bad ones.. Not any-ones.  Only about 7% of all domain names registered (11 million names worldwide) mean anything to anyone at all..  The rest are pretty much speculative crap that somebody has convinced themselves are good.. a virtual boulevard of broken dreams – or breadcrumbs of back-fill massaged into the meat of good portfolios; painstakingly built by smart investors like you. 

Those truly good domain names are what constitute the entire “visited” Internet. The “Internet that matters” exists on the domain names which matter to anyone other than you.. More on that another time.

If there’s one thing I know for-sure folks,  it’s that Las Vegas is not the only home of lonely hearts and unrequited love. What happened in Vegas the other day, happens all around the world each and every day..  Hundreds of millions - billions each year are offered for domain names which will never sell.

What’s a domain lover to do?!?  Sigh..  Perhaps I’ll have more luck at the Affiliate Summit Domain Auction at the Rio Suites this coming week.

What a world we live in..  and what a great deal a man (or woman) can learn in a month away from the blog-sphere.. Deals announced, partnerships strategized and all roads lead to the ability to reach our fellow-man.   I’ve been traveling for family issues (nothing serious folks) over the past month –  I’ve been home and away from home. It will be great to reflect on the industry and vent some thoughts about the way things are ..  and the way they might go in the coming few weeks (go easy on me.. I’m traveling here).

Some thoughts for you to consider..  This blog has been inactive for 30 days and has somehow managed to add 400 subscribers since I took a posting sebatical.  In that time it attracted 1200+ spam posts..  It’s all about the eyeballs folks. 

In a world where people still operate 800/900 numbers to capture users “phoning in” common numbers (Good work folks) – In a world where new billboards are appearing on the LA skyline month to month –  In a world where those Sunset Blvd billboards generate more revenue than the buildings they are emblazoned on; what are your unique domain-name visitors worth?  The battle to reach (and win) the hearts/minds of our fellow man has been raging since Gutenberg invented the printing press. How much greater is a medium’s value when that ability to connect can be quantified and judged against its peer group?  Is a unique visitor the same as a phone-in, a qualified lead or paid introduction? 

Stay tuned folks. You live in exciting times.

We can all feel the changes reverberate across the Web..  Domain names registered by small registrants and large aggregators who create content and take eyeballs/market share away from established media/content co’s are the ultimate disruptive technology. It’s a great time to be in this industry..  I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens.