Frank Schilling just sent out a letter for the new year, 2014, as related to domain names:
Dear friends and colleagues,
Frank Schilling of Domain Name Sales
2013 was one of the most eventful years in the domain name business in a long time.
We at DomainNameSales.com continued to extend our sales platform to give domain name owners the liquidity they need to sustain portfolios in the face of an eroding traffic monetization landscape.
Name sales were robust in 2013 and our secondary marketplace sales far and away eclipsed previous record in spite of the long shadow cast by the coming new GTLDs.
As pivotal as 2013 was, 2014 will be even more tumultuous with hundreds of viable new G’s coming to market.
SLD Domain Names will rain aplenty, like pennies from heaven and the smart registrants and folks on this email list will see this as a significant opportunity to expand their footprints and hedge their bets.
We plan to roll out some significant evolutionary developments in traffic monetization in 2014 with the help of our upstream partners and we hope this will increase payouts over 2013 levels. The upstream ad marketplaces understand the value of this traffic and keeping it close to their fold – I expect they will facilitate higher payouts. You will see it first in your traffic revenues as we do not change or shape the payouts you receive based on the way our upstream partners perform. Your revenues get meted out pro-rata based on the upstream performance.
That’s a fancy way of saying we do not game your payouts.
If the upstreams pay more, you’ll earn more in 2014, and based on the realities of the marketplace for your traffic, we expect they will try to pay more at some point in 2014. They have a bunch of marketplace changes coming which should help induce lift.
Most importantly I’m excited by new TLDs.
Domain Names are once again going to take center stage on the Internet stage in 2014 and 2015. Anytime people talk about domain names that is good for our industry. Starting in March you will have names being pushed from all corners of the Web. Money will get spent and ads will get taken and fun will be had. One or more of these extensions will likely turn into the global chuckle of the day.
Bringing more diamonds out of the ground does not make the price of diamonds go down. If you have good keyword weight and brandable name inventory the wind will be at your back in 2014.
If you have not done so please take the opportunity TODAY to join the DNS platform.
We are going to begin combining our offerings in ways that are highly beneficial to our clients in 2014. If you are not using us or are partially using our services, you will be leaving money on the table and doing your business a dis-service in 2014. Loyal partners will be rewarded and remembered here in the coming year.
If ever there was a time to get familiar with our sales platform and parking services that time is now friends.
Thanks so very sincerely for all your support in 2013. There has never been a year quite like it in naming and it was merely a mild foreshock compared to the earthquake of change coming to naming and monetization in 2014.
Bless you all and happy holidays from me and all the fine men and women who work to deliver our products to you each day.
Warmest regards,
Frank Schilling
This post is 100% true!
