Fill in the gaps: suggest missing answers for domain name survey.
It’s the end of the year, which means it’s almost time for the 4th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey.
Every year after the results are released, I am inevitably am contact by a company asking why it wasn’t listed as an option in a particular category. Starting last year I invited readers to “nominate” a company for each category, and I’m going to do the same thing this time.
Please read each of the categories below. If you feel a company, product, etc. is missing then post a comment and I’ll take it into consideration.
Domain Parking Services
Active Audience
Domain Hop
DomainSpa
DomainSponsor
Dotzup
Fabulous
GoDaddy Cash Parking
Goldkey
Google Adsense for Domains
HitFarm
HotKeys
NameDrive
Parked.com
Sedo/SedoPro
Skenzo
SmartName
TrafficZ
Domain Parking Alternatives
AEIOU
EvoLanding
Sendori
Site Graduate
WhyPark
Online Sales Venues for Buying/Selling
Afternic/Name Media
eBay
Forums
Sedo
SnapNames (non-expired domains)
TDNAM/GoDaddy
Which company is most innovative selling domains in the aftermarket?
Name Media (Afternic, BuyDomains)
Oversee.net (Moniker, SnapNames)
Sedo (Sedo, GreatDomains)
Thought Convergence (Aftermarket.com, DomainTools.com)
Go Daddy (TDNAM)
Escrow Services
Afternic
Escrow.com
EscrowDNS
Sedo
Moniker Escrow
Domain Forums
AcornDomains
DomainState
DNForum
NamePros
Expiring Domain Services
Afternic (Expired only)
NameJet
Pool
SnapNames
TDNAM/GoDaddy
Domain Conferences
Domain Roundtable
DOMAINfest
GEODomain Expo
T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Person with most influence in domain industry
Please make suggestions…otherwise I’ll take the top five vote getters from last year
Top News Story of 2008
Registrar Domain Warehousing (Standard Tactics, et al)
Parking Turmoil (Falling PPC, Google goes direct)
Domain Sales resilient in downturn compared to other assets
Domain company acquisitions (Oversee acquires Moniker, Thought Convergence acquires Name Intelligence)
If you have suggestions for other categories, please comment.
1. Domain Parking Alternative
http://DomainEmbarking.com (I am not affiliated with the company. I have used them and was happy overall.)
2. Company most innovative selling domains in the aftermarket… I don’t need to be mentioned but I do have a proprietary selling-to-end-users process posted at my site and I have had several sales recently directly to end users by using this process. (Note to Andrew – feel free to take out #2 if you want.)
3. Person with the most influence
Andrew Allemann and I’m not kidding. I want you to add your name to the list. DNW.com has really come alive this year and you should be considered for the recognition.
With all your investigative reporting this year, you have contributed substantially to our industry.
5. Your GoDaddy Standard Tactics should be nominated for top news story. I’ll have to see the other choices but your article should definitely be nominated.
I don’t see any categories relating to registrars. Given all the issues that were in the spotlight this year and how many of them involved registrars and their practices I think you should definitely have a category for registrars.
How about:
Domain Parking Services
Bodis.com
iMonetize.com
Domain Parking Alternatives
ParkingRevolution.com
(they are new kids on the block- I haven’t used them but know of them from Mark at DotSauce)
@ Jason – For practicality purposes, I use the top 10 registrars by size according to RegistrarStats that are “public facing” registrars. I also combine all of GoDaddy’s registrars into 1.
@ Patrick – thanks, I’ll add Bodis. For iMonetize I’ve decided to not include “aggregators” like this.
Additional forum to buy / sell domains:
forums.digitalpoint.com
sitepoint.com/forums
Is there room for another category (along the same lines as parking alternatives)? There are a number of domainer-oriented software programs available to speed up & better manage developed domains:
Domain Dashboard
HyperVRE
XSitePro
For that matter, could DIY parking scripts / software be included? DomainTrader (smartscript.net) and Money Maker Platinum (domainzaar.com) come to mind . . .
“If you have suggestions for other categories, please comment.”
Yes, I do.
Domain Resources
Examples:
Domain Tax Guide DomainTaxGuide .com)
DNZoom .com (Domain Portfolio Management)
DomainTools.com (various resources for domainers)
Under Top News Story of 2008, perhaps the new TLDs. {Nice update though on that subject on dnjournal.com right now–they may be delayed for quite some time now. I for one assumed ICANN got a clear green light from the DOC before they even breathed a word of new TLD plans. Clearly not. Yet another example where ICANN is clearly “off the ranch” and in need of strict adult supervision.}
Hey Andrew,
under Online Sales Venues for Buying/Selling,
maybe add Rick Latona’s Daily Domains Newsletter, as well as Eric Rice’s Domains For Sale newsletter..?
Don’t forget domain search as a category!
We shipped Domainr – http://domai.nr/ – about two months ago, and have seen several other domain hack/naming/search sites appear on the web since.
Cheers,
-Eric
My thoughts:
Top domain blogs (include yours).
Top registrars.
Worst/dumbest WIPO/UDRP decisions of ’08.
Most valuable domain money-making/saving idea/methods of ’08.
Best full development/build out companies (i.e. not mini or MFA sites).
Best geo domain sites.
Company with the most influence in the domain industry.
Man, woman, company, or entity of the year (ala Time’s Man of the Year).
Likely most important domain issues/developments of 2009/the new year.
I’d also consider listing all the “entrants” in non-alphabetic order, since studies show that those listed higher in a list tend to get more votes based only on their position.
Thanks everyone for your suggestions…I’m sifting through them.
@ Steve M – the selection of answers in the survey is randomized for each participant, so this takes the list position bias into account.
Person with most influence in domain industry:
dnw.com
Hi Andrew. I think that you should definitely add a category for Domain Tools, as it seems there are so many tools that provide tremendous added value to domainers. Some of the tools I use are Freshdrop.net, Domaintools.com, UrlMetrix, and Namebio.com. The site I get the most use out of is Freshdrop.net. I think that this category will be a welcome addition to this DNW survey.
Thanks