Domain Values

By Chuck Kisselbur, Director of ICANNWiki.org

With the increased focus on the importance of corporate social responsibility and green issues, businesses are reaping the rewards of maintaining a separate .org website alongside their commercial .com.

What better way to clearly differentiate charitable and social initiatives from commercial initiatives than by operating a .org to highlight a corporate foundation’s mission?

Just look at these leading companies for examples of the trend to utilize their .org for corporate foundations:

• WholeFoodsMarket.com runs the WholePlanetFoundation.org to provide “innovative assistance for entrepreneurship - including direct microcredit loans and tangible support for other community partnership projects…to create wealth and prosperity in emerging economies;” and

• Google.com operates Google.org, which “aspires to use the power of information and technology to address the global challenges of our age: climate change, poverty and emerging disease.”

“Google and Whole Foods are just two of the innovative corporations that are branding their green initiatives, philanthropic efforts and outreach activities behind the Trustmark of .org to gain more attention and traffic,” says Alexa Raad, CEO of .org, The Public Interest Registry.

Most organizations, who have a .org in conjunction with other TLDs, point their .org to their principle TLD to maximize the number of eyeballs to their core product. However, with ICANNWiki.org’s focus being “community”, many organizations miss a golden opportunity – the opportunity to enhance their brand and loyalty through highlighting their involvement with the community.

How does your business interact with the community? Utilizing a .org is the best way to highlight the community-minded aspect of your business!

Find a .org for your business now!

As countries like the US and the UK continue to suffer economic set-backs, the domain industry remains a steady and reliable investment in these markets. In fact, domain names that relate to the state of these economies are thriving. Sedo’s recent domain sales included onlinesavingsaccount.com (9,988 USD) and petrolprices.co.uk (8600 GBP). So how can your business utilize the secondary domain market to escape and even benefit from the current economic crisis? Below are a few things to keep mind as you move forward with domain investing.

PPC Proves to be Recession-Proof

While pressure to increase efficiency and curb spending is top priority in many businesses right now, savvy marketers continue to invest more money into their online resources, especially with Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising.

While print advertising may be languishing and TV advertising budgets are being trimmed back, PPC enjoys a continuing stream of business as one of the top-converting advertising media. As PPC targets direct points of sales it survives cutbacks over marketing “non-essentials” like branding campaigns, trade event planning/attendance and TV advertising, which are more indirect forms of marketing. As it’s convenient to track and more transparent than other media forms and highly cost effective, PPC is set not only to survive, but to thrive over the coming months.

The Domain Market Trumps the Housing Market

In certain areas of the world like the UK, domain prices have outperformed property as an investment. The sliding property values over the last few months have left many property developers and buy-to-let investors reeling. Had they diversified their holdings into online real estate, however, they may be in a better financial state today.

Direct Navigation Traffic = Internet Gold

Domains are stable investments which offer appreciating book values, the chance to capture customers early in the purchase consideration funnel, instant recognition (e.g. In Google searches) and better organic search engine placement. In fact,. The New York Times found that direct navigation is the “best kind of traffic” – with more than 70% of the total search volume being comprised of generic search terms! Companies like Intel and Barnes and Noble recognized this long ago and snapped up pc.com and books.com respectively. Other examples include Neurofen’s domain, painrelief.co.uk, Russian Standard’s vodka.com, T-Mobile’s telecom.com and Johnson & Johnson’s baby.com.

During these recessionary times, as price comparison sites boom and more people go online in search of better deals, businesses continue to abandon print and commercial media to secure their bid to capture market share.

The continuing move online is likely to ensure the continued success of the domain market as a highly lucrative investment opportunity and revenue stream for businesses. Domains have proven themselves as high performing, appreciating assets and with their sale prices remaining steady, even in some of the world’s most unstable markets, we at Sedo are confident that the domain name market will continue to be a wise investment.

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