Are .NET.AU’s Worthless?
There has been a lot of discussion over the past few days over the quality of .AU domain names being listed for sale at the various .AU marketplaces. The .NET.AU extension has particularly been slated on online blogs, forums and even the aftermarkets themselves.
I tend to disagree with the comments being generated on these sites, especially in regards to the .NET.AU extensions. I believe that ALL domain names are valuable and worth something to someone, you just have to find the right buyer for it.
Obviously LLLL (letter-letter-letter-letter) domains are worth more than say LLLL-LL or whatever combination you want to put together, however that does not at all mean that the domain with the hyphen in it isn’t not worth something to someone, and should not be listed for a sale due to its type and quality.
To a domainer a domain name with a hyphen in it may not be worth anything – however not all domain names that are listed for sale are going to be brought by domainers. I think a lot of these domainers think that their entire domain portfolio is only going to be purchased by a fellow domainer.
The real and intended reason for a domain name is not for resell purposes. The purpose of a domain name is to identify that domain name with a particular company, business or brand – whether it is a .com.au or .net.au.
I have always been of the belief that a domain name is only worth what something is willing to pay for it, no matter what the extension. The domain name can be anything, with any extension and if a particular person or business finds that a particular domain name represents their need then they are a potential buyer.
Therefore I tend to think that any domain name listed for sale has the potential to be sold. It does not have to be a premium domain name, although they are worth more, that generates some interest. If a domain name identifies itself with someone’s need then it may be worth them spending some money to acquire it, whether it has a hyphen, letter, number or whatever.
The .AU marketplace is only still very young and I think these marketplaces cannot afford to be too particular in only listing domain names that have the ability to sell for the big bucks as they are only going to turn new users away from listing their names for sale.
Do you think .NET.AU names are worthless? Do you think all names have the potential of being sold?
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All domains are potentially worth something to someone, but the lesser used extensions are going to generate less interest, lower prices, and possibly no interest at all, add in obscure words or a hyphen and interest again decreases.
Its all well and good to hope that maybe one day one of these domains ignored by domainers will appeal to an end user, but thats not a real business model, its just as likely you’ll be paying reg fees and never getting a return.
Domaining involves risk, the risk of never seeing a return exists with every domain, this risk increases with .net.au
There are over 1million .com.au names registered, and only 100k .net.au names, corporate Australia chooses .com.au, the likelihood of anyone desperately wanting your .net.au is slim to none, if it happens its a miracle, and one likely not to be repeated in volume.
The value of a domain has a lot to do with its uniqueness, which is why LL does so well in .com, if you want that combination there is no alternative, likewise if you want a certain 1 word domain. If you start getting down into lowly used extensions and then adding in a hyphen, its less unique and ultimately attractive to a tiny or non existant audience.
If you advertise a .net.au domain on tv the .com.au will likely get 15-25% of the traffic for free, cost for the ad campaign could easily be 6 figures, its not worth the lost traffic to buy the cheaper domain.
The problem with the .au marketplace is the vast majority of domain holders with high expectations and little understanding behind the domain industry and what makes a domain valuable.
I agree with all of your points – however I don’t think some aftermarkets should be deleting domain names that users wish to sell due to the quality of the domain or extension.
I agree, all domains deserve the opportunity to be listed, although as a buyer I find it frustrating to sift through all the lower quality names some of the aftermarker sites are listing, but that has more to do with the way some of these sites have categorised and sorted their names.
It all depends on why your buying it. There’s way too much focus on domain name trading when valuing .net.au’s.