Why is that Chinese domain forums are not active in discussions? Or is it just because I have not found the right one? For example, yesterday I came across an interesting thread on the long-running Domain.cn forum. The original poster, an apparently experienced investor who joined the forum ten years ago, presented eleven points essential for domain investment.
The content would immediately trigger a lively discussion if it were posted on an English forum such as Namepros. But, in China it’s different. Seven comments have been posted, but none of them carry more than ten characters — meaning they have no value at all. Nevertheless, I think the content is good and so I want to share with you, as follows;
1.
Avoid registration of low quality extensions, which includes net, org, info, biz, cc, co, hk, and tw.
2.
Avoid registration of expensive extensions, which includes org, info, biz, cc, co, hk, and tw.
3.
Avoid registration of domain names with no end user value, which includes Chinese IDN, 6N, letters mixed with numbers, 3-pin and 4-pin, even if they are on the .com extension. Alibaba is the only company able to spend tens of million dollars to promote its 4-pin name.
4.
Are end users of your domain name inside or outside China? Domain names of 2-pin are limited to Chinese communities but single-word domain names are accepted all over the world.
5.
If a domain name has daily visitors, parking is recommended so that you can make some money. A for-sale landing page just wastes all the traffic.
6.
Avoid impulsive registering of domain names and be prepared to wait for 2 or 3 years to see whether it is a good name.
7.
Short domain names have investment values. They are limited in quantity and easy to input, helping end users to build brands. Most Chinese buyers like short domain names.
8.
The purpose of a domain name is getting sold. The more it is liked, the more it is visited, and its price will rise. Invest and be willing to wait for the harvest time to come.
9.
There are only two ways to make money: small-margin-high-volume or high-margin-low-volume. Currently, the first option is not working, and the only option is the high-margin-low-volume approach.
10.
The quality of the name and the quality of the extension in a domain name are the two major factors that determine the investment risk and return. For example, say there are three investors: investor A focuses on .com, investor B on .net, and investor C on .org. After several years, they all are likely to have some returns. But, investor A’s domain names will receive higher offers.
11.
International domain names are cheapest to acquire outside China and Chinese domain names are cheapest to acquired inside China. Opportunities can be found inside and outside China.
Overall, I like the arguments but there are few points which I don’t agree. For example, I think short 3-pin names are fine and in fact there are many Chinese companies using such names. Also, LLLN (where LLL is a single word) are affordable and can be developed by end users as unique brands.
The original text can be found at http://club.domain.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2695893&extra=page%3D1.
Mike says
They could stop spamming me every day with their lowball LLLL offers. I’m not selling to china.
christopher brennan says
8 The purpose of a domain name is getting sold.
the purpose of a domain name is to be the internet address of a web site.
the problem with investors is that they thing only of making money, not the actual quality of a business model.
a foolish fish sees a worm, blinded by greed the hook is ignored.
fernando says
I am huge fan of tldinvestors.com and I read this blog regularly. But this article is not upto the mark. Most of the them are just basic tips that even a novice domainer is aware of and its not specifically for chinese market. Also, I can see a lot of 3 pin names getting developed in china now. So write posts that can educate domainers.
Raymond Hackney says
Hello Fernando,
thanks for the comment I don’t want to speak for Kassey, but I think he felt these were good tips especially for those newer Chinese investors. If you are experienced some things won’t be as interesting to you which I can understand.
fernando says
Hello Raymond,
Thanks for the comment. I am not going to speak against you, I just want to point out that these are just basic tips that every ordinary domainer knows and it has nothing to do with chinese market specifically. I am not a experienced domainer and I am literally learning everyday bcos this industry teaches you something everyday..Thanks..