One Year Anniversary!
Welp, I would have included this with my post earlier today, but I only realized it a few moments ago. TrendDomaining.com made it to one year! Barely…
On May 17th, 2008 I made my first post. I went and reread some of my earlier posts a few days back, and my goodness some were either awfully written or just plain awful. They sounded good at the time; perhaps I was still on a high on having a blog with a purpose and clear goal.
So thanks to everyone who took time to read, comment and even criticize.
I’ll even link and run, something I tried my best to rarely do. The Wall Street Journal recently posted a list of U.S. cities that younger people are flocking to, regardless of the economic conditions. Just thought it was a nice read and may interest some geodomainers.
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Could This Be The End?
It’s been a while. I’ll be moving into my new house in 2 weeks. This, among other things, has been keeping me from blogging.
About that. I’m not entirely sure I will bring the blog back once I have moved in. As most of you know, or have heard, keeping a blog isn’t exactly easy. I found it easy at first, but it got harder and harder. It’s also not easy keeping up with news and trends (How many times can you write about solar power or vinyl?). This stuff takes up a good deal of my time. Not that I don’t enjoy it- I do- it’s just that my real life priorities appear to be changing some.
I’ve thought about what to do with a blog like this.
- Close it down? Leave it up or wipe it out?
- Bring in another writer or two to write about trends? Would anyone actually be interested in writing those types of stories?
- Sell it? Is a blog like this even worth anything?
I’m not entirely sure what to do. So I guess I’m looking for advice from those who enjoyed the blog or at least got an idea or two from it.
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2009 Predictions From Various Domainers That You Can’t Live Without!
I had an idea to get the opinions of a bunch of domainers on what they feel were solid upcoming trends for 2009. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be much interest in participating, as only 11 of 29 replied. To those 11, many thanks and I appreciate your time. To the other 18… party poopers!
Anyways, I received a good variety of trend predictions for 2009. Many, including mine, seem to focus on technology. Part of that is because domainers tend to be tech savvy, the other part is that I think most people feel we’re in for a big exciting year in technology.
Reece over at LLLL.com posted his over on his blog, check them out here.
I will get things started with my own predictions:
- Portable/Mobile Computing/Tech. Not necessarily netbooks, but GPS, Google Phone, Android, PicoP and Kindle. I think Android can be absolutely monstrous. Netbooks will be big for a year perhaps, but will quickly lose popularity when people realize the one and only benefit is their smaller size. When they can’t multi-task or use those intense web apps, or get sick of the small keyboard/screen, they’ll go back to regular laptops. Throw in the disgustingly fast USB 3.0, and data transfer to these devices will be quick.
- Green IT and Solid-State Drives. Prices for just about anything related to the home PC have come down; RAM is sick cheap, dual core processors won’t be outdated as fast. About the only revolution we’re waiting for is getting these things to use less energy. SSD’s utilize the same technology that you find in USB flash drives, as opposed to the rotating platters of the now old-fashioned HDD. They made a big splash in the second half of 2008, and should be one of the top stories of 2009. Checking over at Newegg, you will see that they already have more than 50 SSD’s in their catalog. Some of the larger capacity SSD’s are still quite expensive, but you can get 30GB for under $100. These are ideal for OS installations since they are fast and silent.
- HTPC, Home Streaming and On-Demand Video. I think there will eventually be a home server or box in every household that will either store your movie library or give you access to one in the cloud. Home servers, or home theater PCs (HTPC) will become big keywords. Putting together an HTPC is not terribly expensive, especially now that storage is outrageously cheap.
- Retail Stores and Malls Will Close Up and Move Online. I think with the end of the Harry Potter series, book stores are doomed. May as well throw in video game and movie rental stores. With inexpensive mail rental options, these stores have no chance. I can see warehouses popping up where they store inventory, or perhaps mini-storefronts put on existing warehouses, where people can “manually” return their rentals/purchases to speed up the process. I think the only thing keeping toy stores alive is the simple fact that kids can touch and play with the toys. Otherwise, may as well buy them online. As for malls, I’m sure you live near one where only 30% of the spaces are being rented; these will start dropping like flies.
- Mashups Explode in Popularity. A mashup is a web application that provides it’s own content/data as well as content/data from other sources into one cohesive service. Examples of mashups are Zillow, WikiCrimes, SkiBonk, Big Contacts, and WiiNearby.
- Small Business and Freelance Explosion. Ok, I’m cheating with a 6th. With the recession on, unemployment is going to continue to rise. Some expect it to hit double digits nationwide. Think about that. What will all those unemployed people do? They will have no choice but to freelance or start their own business. This helps feed the local trend.
Andrew Allemann
Domain Name Wire
- De-leveraging . The trend toward unwinding debt, and all of the bad repercussions, will continue.
- Keeping Down with the Joneses. It used to be that people “kept up with the Joneses” by buying more stuff on credit and leasing cars. It will become fashionable to live within your means.
- Prefab Homes. I’ve been on this trend for a while and think it will take off when real estate rebounds. May not be until 2010-2011.
- Mistrust. Mistrust of government, mistrust of companies. Think extended due-diligence in the wake of Madoff. No more “Jeff is involved, so it must be good.”
- Tiny gadgets. Explosion in purchases of Flip camcorders, GPS units, etc.
James
Namecake.com
- More domainers start developing names - but this isn’t necessarily a positive move for them or the web as a whole. As the majority will be built with poor quality content and they will also find it very difficult to monetize them. People who just focus on one or two projects will also realize it’s a very tough job to build a site into a popular destination.
- SEO and SEM companies will experience a boom as companies, individuals realise this is a much more coste effective way to reach customers. Many people will get ripped off in this area as they search for the magic SEM campaign and company, when all they need is quality content and good links.
- Domains will continue to fall in value. There will be the odd big sale, but they will be few and far between. Now this doesn’t need to be negative as i think the new tld’s are nothing to worry about - they will in fact bring more people to the industry and lay the foundation for a boom in future years.
- Google will grab even more of the search market, but instead of acting with arrogance towards their customers and domainers - i feel they will try to work with us, as we are worth a lot of money to them in Ad revenues.
- The general economy will continue to deteriorate and domainers in need of cash will let go of some superb names very cheap. 2009 will be the year of the bargain. After meeting with various Hedge fund managers (the few remaining) quite a few are bullish on Q4 09, as the various economic stimulatory packages finally filter through to the economy - how long this will last is anyone’s guess as the the fundamental issues still remain and the average man in the street is short of savings and up to his neck in debt.
Jamie Parks
Domain Developer and Live Domainer
- Masses of unemployed and self-employed people all across the world will start seriously questioning all aspects of their lives. Governments, Gods, and what it means to truly do ‘Good’ will be intensely re-examined.
- Socialism will rise via Social Capital Investing. The movement currently driving the Semantic, Social and Mobile webs will expand at an unprecedented rate. Going ‘local’ will continue to foster the ‘green’ energy revolution. RFID, BioMetric, NANO and Ai technologies will be used in various widespread commercial applications.
- Hollywood will be dismantled. Famous people will denounce their ‘fame’ in droves and embrace the Internet despite their contractual agreements. Lots of major chain stores will go out of business and be bought up by realestate speculators.
- The SEC will be investigated. All bailouts will fail. New currencies and monetary systems will be explored. The structure of the American Tax system will be radically re-designed to distribute the national wealth more fairly, starting with health care.
- The citizens of the world will continue to revolt until the illegal occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan ends. Veterans of all wars will use the web to speak out and share their experiences and opinions. Ideas of the devolution of WAR will be mentioned in the mainstream traditional medias. The U.S. Military will re-define it’s foreign policy. The Revolution will continue to be televised. Truth + Transparency + Accountability + Action = REAL CHANGE. Quite simple really…
Stephen Douglas
Vice President of Business Development
WhyPark.com - “Domain Content Development Leader”
President
Successclick.com
“Successful Domain Management™”
- The focus on building content and customization on domains in order to get them indexed on search engines.
- New niche technologies that have yet to be defined in the popular vernacular - pay attention and nab the generic descriptive domains for big payouts!
- Parking services expanding to include multiple revenue resources and features beyond simple PPC links from Google and Yahoo.
- More involvement from end user buyers, based on increased domainers’ efforts to educate the ad and marketing industry on domain name value.
- The dedicated and smart domainers surviving, and the “want to be rich quick” domain investors disappearing. Serious domainers will rise to great profits based on smart thinking, education, evaluation of opportunities, and understanding the total concept of a domain’s assets.
thevirtual
Member of DNForum
- Alternative energy
- Mobile internet
- GPS
- Wifi
- Space travel
Krossat
Krossat’s Blog
- Wireless Technology / IT
- Fashion & Lifestyle
- Loans and Mortgages (wrt 2009)
- Tourism & Travel (New locations)
- Alternative Energy / Green Solutions
Neal R. Voron
FractionalDomainingBlog.com
- Social Net Marketing. I expect the growth of Twitter and other social media to accelerate as the Internet marketing community becomes more knowledgeable about it and gets involved. More and more Twitter applications and Twitter-like sites (such as Musebin.com) seem to be launching recently… I see opportunities involving “Social Net Optimization” and social net applications.
- Personal Social Community Building. More people will be developing ongoing interactive communities on Twitter, etc. based upon their ability to personally connect with people… BTW, the key to effectively utilizing social communities like Twitter is to make meaningful connections with people — not just building a high number of followers, according to Warren Whitlock (@WarrenWhitlock), co-author of “Twitter Revolution”. Personal interaction and offering value is important.
- Tagging. When did online tags start being used? It doesn’t seem that long ago, and the practice accelerated in 2008. I expect the trend to explode in 2009 as Internet marketers and others see opportunities in philanthropic tag, reciprocal tagging, blog-tag, and many aspects that have not been addressed yet. (I’ve got some great tagging-related domains if anyone has grand visions of addressing this area!)
- Generic Personal Branding. When people do not know you by name, it’s often easier to attract attention to yourself and your niche by using a name like “Mr. Positive” (MrPositive.com), or more recently, “Girl In Your Shirt” (GirlInYourShirt.com). I expect this trend to continue in 2009 as more people seek ways to make a statement, stand out, and draw targeted attention to themselves.
- Investment Scrutiny. In the aftermath of government bailouts of various companies and sectors in 2008, as well the Madoff investment scheme scandal, it’s perhaps more evident than ever how important investment scrutiny is, and it’s a trend that will surely get a lot more media attention throughout 2009.
Owen Frager
Frager Factor
- To compete for consumer dollars, hardware manufacturers will have to contend with the new kid on the block: cloud computing. Under this model, consumers “rent” storage space through a service provider, such as Amazon’s (Nasdaq: AMZN) Elastic Compute Cloud or Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) MobileMe service. Earlier this year, EMC (NYSE: EMC) heralded its intentions to enter the consumer cloud computing space when it acquired Pi, a developer of personal information management software.
- Even in a down market, the need for storage continues to rise. Think of all the resumes and virtual home tours being posted right now. Longer-term investors who take the time to research which companies are best able to capitalize on this trend may find some bargains at today’s price levels.
Sammy Ashouri
Fka200
- Bigger Economic Crisis. I just don’t see the mess we’re in ending. I think parts of 2009 are going to be bad considering that it’s harder to find a job and gas prices are slowly going back up.
- Some new revolutionary Apple product. Not exactly sure what it might do/be, but I think Apple might release some cool tech this year.
- The Large Hadron Collider. I think that we’re going to see something REALLY interesting with this once it’s operated.
- Americans will be a bit more united. I’m not exactly sure why, but I have this belief (or small hope?) that we as Americans will just unify in some way. There’s been a lot of separation amongst different groups, but seriously… with all the events going on around us, I think Americans will realize that we need to support one another to remain the strongest nation in the world.
- Year of the Green. I’ve been noticing a lot more “go green” advertisements/companies following along. I think 2009 is going to be a huge year for this “new trend” of being environmentally friendly. And I’m not saying just like somewhat noticeable, I’m really thinking some big explosion where all of a sudden it’s extremely cool to be “green”.
Kevin Jackson
eBusinessDomains
- Increased Demand Geo Domains. As more and more local newspapers shut down their operations due to increased cost and decreasing revenues, the focus will shift to an online presence. Locals will turn to websites serving their own communities, with news, products and services. This will result in an increased demand for geo domains.
- Web Development Will Be More Popular. With the demise of domain parking revenues, domainers will seek to find alternatives to domain parking. This will result in the development of more full scale websites, as well as mini sites, for those with huge domain portfolios.
- Domain Aftermarket Will Still Flourish. Domains will continue to be in high demand. However, we will see more domains selling in the low $x,xxx than in the high $xx,xxx, as this demand will be from Small Business Enterprises or home business entrepreneurs.
- Domain Auctions. Domain auctions will continue to be a very popular way of marketing and selling domain names. As more domainers seek liquidity than profits, we will see more great domain names being offered at zero-reserve.
Special thanks to you guys for taking the time to participate.
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New Addition To The Site
Recently I sat and pondered whether I should update my Wordpress version to the new 2.7. I was sitting at 2.5.2 (I think) and never had the balls to update it. I’ve done some small tweaks here and there and was sure that updating would either delete them or completely mess up the site.
So I decided to buck up and do the update. Luckily my wonderful webhost, Lunarpages, has Fantastico in their CPanel (of which I used to originally install this site). I disabled all of my plugins and updated it with a single click (after testing it on a couple other meaningless sites I have). It worked! I reactivated my plugins and updated them as well. And like that, it was done.
To think I was fretting all this time. The tweaks ended up being in the template code, which was untouched by the updates.
I wasn’t sure about the admin area of the new Wordpress, but it has already grown on me. I like it.
On to the update.
You may have noticed the new link in the primary navigation bar at the top, called Trend Feeds.
I have put together a great set of RSS feeds that I personally use to watch trends and set them up in a nice little aggregator to make for a one-stop page for watching trends.
As of now, I am showing:
Trendhunter
MSN
Reddit
Google
Digg
Newsvine
Yahoo
Twitturly
Small Business Trends
AOL Hot Searches
Trendbird
Trendwatching
Buzzfeed
TechMeme
PSFK
Springwise
Trend Central
Mashable
BoingBoing
EcoGeek
More will be coming soon.
If you can spare a moment, I would appreciate your thoughts on a couple things. Is it too bulky or slow? Is it too long to navigate?
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TrendDomaining.com Is 6 Months Old Today, Answers: What Is Trend Domaining?
Today marks six months since my first post. It went by so damn fast! September and October weren’t my best months, but I can attribute most of that to Ike, Dead Space and some writers block. After all, there are only so many trends one can write about, ya know? Eventually you get to things that don’t really warrant a full post; as I’m trying to avoid small 100 word “editorials.” It’s kind of hard writing a full interesting article about the resurgence of sockmonkeys, despite their racist beginnings.
What is Trend Domaining?
Earlier this month, Elliot Silver wrote a post on his blog about trend domaining. There are some excellent comments and I recommend you check them out. I feel Elliot writes some of the best posts in the domain industry. You just don’t get any BS from him, at least that’s how I feel. He stated that though he does some trend domaining himself, it’s a flawed strategy. This sparked more than a dozen comments both agreeing and disagreeing with his opinion.
Now, I feel they were discussing a more extreme way of trend domaining; something that doesn’t fully represent what this strategy is.
So…
What is trend domaining?
In short: it’s the strategy of identifying future or fresh trends and registering the best related domains. But it’s a bit more complex than that. Identifying future trends takes a lot work and time to do the research. Spotting surging trends and registering the best related domains for them also requires a good deal of work and time spent. Both ways require an element of luck, as well as a knack for choosing the right successful trends over simple fads.
Now, I’m not trying to fool anyone. This is not a super secret strategy. And it’s certainly nothing I made up on my own. Domainers have been doing this since the beginning. After all, almost the entire point of purchasing a domain is that, one day, it will be valuable. This holds true whether you intend on flipping it, developing it or whatever. You are banking on the fact that one day someone will either want the domain, or the related content/product that’s attached to it.
You’ve all purchased domain names with the hope that a surging trend will increase it’s value. That’s the whole idea!
Now, like anything else in the world, this is a good strategy in moderation. It is ideal to get the category killer domain name of any given trend. Examples of category killer trend domains that I have registered in the past few months:
MicroTheaters.com
IPatriotAct.com
HyperlocalDating.com
These aren’t premium domains. But they are the absolute best domains you can get for their given subject, which makes them category killers.
For some trends, it is worth acquiring second tier domain names. For example: let’s take the trend of coworking; the idea of independent workers of like-minded values or goals who gather socially at sites like coffee houses or even home offices. I got in late and was unable to register the category killer of Coworking.com. But being that this is a local trend, I was able to pick up a decent second tier domain in LocalCoworking.com.
Will these pan out for me? Who knows. Time will tell. But, I feel they were certainly worth registration fees.
Again, this is a good strategy… in moderation. What Elliot, and some commenters of his post, were concerned about were people who dumped a lot of money into acquiring large quantities of domains related to a single, or even multiple trends in hopes of making a quick buck. The best example I can give of this are domains related to the U.S. Presidential Election where Obama, McCain, Biden and Palin domains were registered by the thousands.
And we’re talking absolutely horrible domains like DougTheBarber.com, JoeThePlumberDotCom.com and McCain–Palin.info (actual names listed on eBay). These terrible domains were listed for hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars. They were registered in large quantities by domainers hoping to make a quick buck on a trend. Their strategy is that perhaps one or two of them will sell for good money, thus making up for their other crap registrations.
This is an extreme strategy and not representative of everything trend domaining is. It’s akin to acquiring 2000 LLLL.com’s with the hope that some company named Quinn’s Water And Valves will bust down your door and throw money at you for your QWAV.com domain name.
And I will be the first one to tell you that this strategy is not a get-rich-quick scheme. In fact, it is the direct opposite. The idea is to acquire domains before a trend or early on in a trends life. You hold it and then sell, or develop it, when the time is right. That will not get you rich quickly. There may be exceptions, but not many.
Using this strategy in moderation also means that your portfolio should not be 90% trend domains. Anyone in any industry will tell you to diversify, and it absolutely applies here as well.
I think there may be a misconception that trend domaining involves hand registering only. Not true; and this is what makes trend domaining a valuable strategy for both novice and veteran domainers alike. Everyone can get in on hand registering domains. It can be fun even: Kevin of BigTicketDomains says that it’s “much like the excitement from the early days of domaining when treasures could still be found each day at reg fee costs“
But veterans, or those who have the funds, can purchase the category killers of future trends that have been registered for years. Examples would be:
WindTurbines.com
ElectricCars.com
NaturalGas.com
CarbonCredits.com
VirtualWorlds.com
These are just a handful of domains that you simply can’t argue against their future value. Novice domainers can’t touch these. But there are plenty of domainers out there that would be able to afford them. And they would be buying them with the expectations that these trends will keep on rising, making these domains more valuable next year, and the year after, and so on.
That is trend domaining.
Review of Trends Reported here on TrendDomaining.com
I’ve written about dozens of trends. I’d like to touch base on some of them now and share with you just where these trends sit today. In no particular order:
Aug 7th - Oil Bubble
The original post stated that the bubble was about to burst, which wasn’t a ground breaking statement by any means. However, in my September 1st Labor Day Recap I stated that the burst would show in October. Though this article is being published in mid-November, this particular section was written October 31st, where I paid $1.98 for a gallon of gas in Houston; less than half of what I paid earlier in the summer (Note: on Nov 5th I paid $1.89 a gallon and Nov 14th I paid $1.67 in Freeport, TX). In the original post, I also stated that everyone will move on to alternative energy. Well, as my bailout post points out, the government cemented my comment and this trend.
June 6th - Untooning
Inspired by the post made here on TrendDomaining.com, The Little Devil Media Team has put together Untoons.com. This site is exactly what I had in mind when I posted about the new art form. “Untooned” is now getting ~880 searches a month, according to Google’s keyword tool. It’s not a show stopper, but a nifty niche nonetheless. And one that, if you follow trends, you could have acquired the category killer.
July 28th - Nichepapers
This article shows the certain death of newspapers, but perhaps the birth of a new genre where magazines and newspapers merge into one: nichepapers. One commenter said “Do you mean magazines?” In a way, yes, but this goes much deeper than people realize. TrendBird threw support in my prediction by posting an article on the rise of nichepapers. This will get bigger, and there are billions of niches out there for you to be the first to offer a printed nichepaper.
July 17th - Virtual Worlds
At the time of the original post, companies had pumped $395m into virtual words. In Q3, they pumped an additional $148m, according to TrendBird. That’s a total of $543m so far this year. To put that into perspective, $543 million is:
- $16m MORE than the domestic gross of The Dark Knight as of October 26th, 2008.
- About equal to the value of a 204 year old Spanish Navy treasure discovered earlier this year.
- Just $57m shy of buying the same data center Google just bought.
- $145m more than a bridge to nowhere.
- The price tag of about 32 hours of warfare in Iraq.
In other words: it’s a hell of a lot of money. You think MMO’s are big now? Just wait… 2009 and 2010 are going to get slammed by them.
On top of that, in a move that didn’t make any big headlines, Google is now doing adsense for INSIDE virtual worlds.
June 7th - Zeppelins
No no, not the led kind; the flying kind! Even though this predicted trend wasn’t panning out for me, I still feel I was on to something. Well, Airship Ventures launched recently in California, as reported by Boing Boing. It’s just the beginning. I think this has great potential for a healthy market.
Sept 3rd - Coworking
The post was actually about Edopter.com, a social trendcasting site. While browsing the site, I discovered new trends such as Coworking. Recently, “coworking business” was listed by Mashable as a business idea that will thrive in a down economy. Fortunately for me, I picked up localcoworking.com just in time for the trend to get big.
Aug 13th - Carbon Trading
I declared that the next big green trend will be carbon trading. On October 9th, the House revealed their plan to implement a carbon cap and trade system. Make sure you check out the best keywords in my original post, they’ll help you pad your portfolio with valuable domains.
Nov 7th - DNA
June 28th - Robotics
These two posts may as well be merged, as many of these trends fall under both. Just days after my post, Time named the Retail DNA Kit the #1 invention of 2008. On the transhuman note, the first commercial bionic hand was 14th on Time’s list. The synthetic organism was 21st. Or should that be under robots? Bionic Contacts were 24th. The mobile, dexterous, social robot was named the 17th best invention of 2008 by Time.
What’s next, artificial hearts? We’re getting closer and closer to being bionic!
Outside of that, there are dozens upon dozens of advances involving DNA that are hitting the news nonstop. One of the more interesting, and important, pieces of news was a glimmer of hope for AIDS patients.
Aug 30th - Body Art
This trend is huge. Every single day I am seeing articles on social sites about piercings, tattoos, paint, mutilation and anything else you can creatively express with your body. I’m also getting loads of organic traffic looking for all kinds of body art.
Aug 11th - Vinyl Wall Art
My 3rd most popular post; all due to organic traffic. This is because there is a huge demand, and not nearly the supply to meet it.
June 10th - Lego
All I really need to say is that this is my second most popular post of all time. It wasn’t popular at the time of posting, but through organic traffic it gets tons of hits; 10-20 a day for lego related terms. And this isn’t even a lego site. I still feel you could make money with a good Lego affiliate site.
June 8th - The ’80s
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/04/25/cassette_mp3_player/
June 4th - Virtual Fitting Rooms
These have a great future! They’re popping up everywhere.
June 1st - Space
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was named the 3rd best invention of 2008 by Time. The Mars Rover was 18th.
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