.au direct renewals

[Andrew Wright]

I would suspect that there's a few domainers with a sizeable list of .au domains to renew this month.

What are peoples thoughts - Hold or Renew? Is there a market for selling these to other domainers at low prices eg $50 or less?

Thoughts?

 

[trellian]

Hi Andrew,

Anyone that invested in .au domains in bulk should have been aware that this was a long term play. A new extension does not get traction overnight and it will take years for the .au market to mature and see pricing increase and increase.

So if you have nice generic names, and if you can afford the holding costs for a a few years, my belief is that you will see your returns back increase with every year.

I know that a number of clients have been able to sell a number of their .au already, which is rather promising and .au is just about 25% of the .com.au name space. After just 1 year that is an impressive result.

 

[Scott7]

I've sold a couple and will be holding.

 

[Andrew Wright]

Don't get me wrong, I've had .au sales, and have thrown in the .au domain as a value add in negotiations.

But recently in the drops, I've seen the .com.au versions of .au's drop right through without being picked up - the registrants get to be quite familiar.

I suspect quite a few domainers got caught up in the irrational exuberance and will be looking to trim their .au direct portfolio - or maybe at a pinch, wait it out another year.

Like many others in the space, I will be looking to see how many .au registrations drop in October. If I was a betting man, I'd be comfortable to say the overall total number of .au registrations will drop. By how much is the question though...

 

[snoopy]

The names would have to be worth a significant amount in .com.au to be worth much in .au.

For new tlds the first couple of years is typically the best as people initially scramble, I would factor in a sales declines if people are running the maths.

 

[Horshack]

I think that this is a bit different to the random generic tlds that have been released over the years. Using .au seems far better and more convenient than using .com.au but it's hard to reverse 20 years of thinking and use overnight. People never like change.

 

[trellian]

I view .au as a minimum 5 year strategy to get to pricing where .au is decent in comparison to .com.au pricing.

If you picked up good names early, many Drop clients have been able to make a decent profit if not recoup much of their initial investment. Those that registered volumes over quality would in my theory be looking at a long term strategy over the quick gain that new gtlds come with.

Keep in mind that there are still .com.au investors that are holding onto .com.au names now for over 15 years. Their strategy was the same, to buy volume/inventory and hold till pricing is right.

 

[Andrew Wright]

I view .au as a minimum 5 year strategy to get to pricing where .au is decent in comparison to .com.au pricing.

If you picked up good names early, many Drop clients have been able to make a decent profit if not recoup much of their initial investment. Those that registered volumes over quality would in my theory be looking at a long term strategy over the quick gain that new gtlds come with.

Keep in mind that there are still .com.au investors that are holding onto .com.au names now for over 15 years. Their strategy was the same, to buy volume/inventory and hold till pricing is right.

So... forget defensive registrations?

 

[trellian]

Why would you forget that?

 

[snoopy]

I think that this is a bit different to the random generic tlds that have been released over the years. Using .au seems far better and more convenient than using .com.au but it's hard to reverse 20 years of thinking and use overnight. People never like change.

People say this about every new tld that comes out. It is different to what came before and somehow special until it becomes obvious that it isn't, then people move on.

This is a poo extension, it is better than .com.au is the same way that .cm is better than .com.

 

[Horshack]

Are you letting your regs go if you think it's poo Snoopy?

 

[trellian]

unlike other newGTLDS which many will fail, and a number have already....
.au has a real chance of taking over .com.au

if the policies remain as is, .au is a far better choice of a domain to register.
I do not have to worry about an active ACN/ABN, or worry about losing my domain when I decide I no longer need my entity, which I have no idea that I still need it to keep my domain that I use. Eligibility issues goes away with .au domains.

So while .com.au are so restrictive, I can see .au taking over .com.au domains eventually. Definitely not in the next 5 years but I would not be surprised that in 10 years, .au and .com.au number will be comparable.

.au is making a big dint into .org.au, net.au, asn.au, id.au domains. Many of these will continue to convert to .au names, which will further strengthen .au numbers.

 

[snoopy]

Are you letting your regs go if you think it's poo Snoopy?

Only have one, will sell it eventually rather than paying the renewal.

 

[Horshack]

I would suspect that there's a few domainers with a sizeable list of .au domains to renew this month.

What are peoples thoughts - Hold or Renew? Is there a market for selling these to other domainers at low prices eg $50 or less?

Thoughts?

There's quite a few dropping now.

 

[JDSaward]

I have quite a few to re-register in the next few months. So far they go nowhere. I considered just letting them drop, considered - on expert advice - to trim the portfolio. I'm stubborn. This week i decided to keep them all. Next week i might change my mind. As I consider it as a five year plan (thx trellian), i look at my finances and think, maybe that is possible. This year should be. It keeps me interested, when other things make me bored.

 

[Andrew Wright]

Still debating whe

I have quite a few to re-register in the next few months. So far they go nowhere. I considered just letting them drop, considered - on expert advice - to trim the portfolio. I'm stubborn. This week i decided to keep them all. Next week i might change my mind. As I consider it as a five year plan (thx trellian), i look at my finances and think, maybe that is possible. This year should be. It keeps me interested, when other things make me bored.

I will be trimming our portfolio. I'm probably going to keep the .au directs for our higher value .com.au domains as a defensive/added value and dump the rest.

I went through our expiring list and emailed everyone that had the equivalent .net.au, or a hyphenated .com.au and sold a couple at the $100-$150 region - that for me is where the market is at right now $100-$150.

.au is largely for ppl who can't afford the .com.au.

 

[Horshack]

There's been a lot of 3 letter .com.au domain names dropping lately too.

 

[Joel]

Given the low holding cost, it's worth the bet to hold premium .au domains on the off-chance you'll get a buyer in the next 10 years. I wouldn't bother with holding anything other than premium unless it's an exact match of a .com.au that you already own. I personally see little value in using .au unless you own the .com.au as well.

There are literally thousands of direct .au domain names dropping every day this week, many that I'm sure you would all happily own in the .com.au version.

 

[Andrew Wright]

Seeing some major portfolio owners cull their direct.au registrations over the last few days.

 

[Horshack]

Nothing really good yet