Invest in Domain names: Experts

Hyderabad, June 30 : The cyber experts have advised the investors to explore the option of investing in Domain names which might be more profitable compared to other investment tools.

They were addressing a free Seminar on Internet Generic Domains organised by eMerchant Digital and other organisations at FAPCCI Hall at Red Hills here on Sunday. The seminar was addressed by Shakir Ali, MD of e Merchant Digital, Sai Pola, a US returned Indian domain expert, M Vijay Kumar, Intellectual Property Analyst and several other Domain Experts.

Shakir Ali outlined general scenario, importance of going online, antomy of website etc and other. Sai Pola spoke about what is in internet domain name. Domain Valuations and secondary market. Generic Internet Domains as a best investment opportunity etc and other. Mr. M.Vijay Kumar spoke about Domain Name Law, Trade Marks and Domain Name Issues, disputes and few Indian disputes. He also threw light on many Internet Domain Legal Cases in India and in Hyderabad.

Sai Pola, who has invested in well over 500 generic domain names, said that an Ideal internet domain name would be simple, easy to remember and category killer, even if it is a small niche. It should clearly describe the product or service being offered like bookmyshow.com, makemytrip.com, duckeggs.com and indiapublicspeaking.com.

Sai Pola got into the duck egg business several years inadvertently after he bought the Internet Domain name duckeggs.com to prove a point that anything can be sold online with the right name. Since then he sold over a million of duckeggs sitting at Hyderabad and delivered them all over USA and Canada. The name is funny and proves that you can sell anything on the Internet, even duck eggs”, Pola said. “I saw a good value in the name and I wanted to educate people about generic internet names and their potential”. Now more than a 10,000 visitors a month navigate to duckeggs.com. And he does business worth a million. Sai’s duckeggs.com sold Dug Eggs worth Rs 1 million US Dollars in the last 7 years. I don’t own the ducks. Imagine how much money I must have spent on popularizing duckeggs.com, just “zero”. All it was possible due to generic doman, he explained.

There is no definite formula to choose a right generic domain, sai explained. He gave examples of some of the top domains sales reported. Tea.in was sold for $8,355; Poker.in – $60,000; Commodities.in – $3,200; Tshirts.in – $2,000; MobilePhones.in – $1,932; Mails.in – $24,000; Security.co.in – $3,000; Forum.co.in – $2,000; MarketPlace.in – $1,947; Webmaster.in – $1,400; SportsBook.in – $1,395 and LiveCricket.in for US $1,380.

He also cited examples of some generic domains which are available for sale and their cost. SolarFencing.com – $10,000; FlightTickets.in – $18,000; FashionStore.in – $2,000; HomeShopping.in – $2,000

Sai concluded that Domain is an asset. You can pass on to your kids and generations.

Shakir Ali said that almost 72 per cent users of the Google Search click on the first three results; 89 per cent hardly go beyond second page. If your business figures out of third page, people hardly visit your website.

Ten percent of Internet users directly navigate to Web Sites instead of using search engines. If your budget doesn’t allow you the luxury of creating awareness about your domain name, the best option available to you is to rely on keyword-rich words & phrases to get your website found in organic search results? said Shakir Ali. As long as you have a good internet domain name you can save a lot of money because you don’t need to pay for the advertising he said.

Investing in internet domain names has become an alternative investment opportunities after the volatile stock markets, fluctuating gold and silver prices, unstable real estate prices, he said. It has become a very serious business, Pola said.

There are about 5,000 investors in domains all over the world. In India we have about 200 of them and in twin cities about 10 investors. I am a full time investor in Internet Domains, said Sai Pola who traded over 2000 domains worth US $ 2 million so far and has any time a portfolio of 500 domains worth US $ 500,000. There are other investors in Hyderabad whose portfolio is more than 2,000 domains Sai Pola informed.

Choosing a domain name is one of the most important decisions you will make for your on-line business presence. Choosing a easy to remember name can help increase traffic to your site. Keep it easy to spell and pronounce. Keep it simple and relevant. Including keywords that describe your service or product will increase your organic ranking. If you register a domain name that is the same or similar to another company’s trademark, the company that owns that trademark may be able to force you to transfer or stop using the domain name. Madonna.com said Vijay, IP Analyst.

Internet has changed many aspects in our life, especially on the way we search for information or research something that we want to shop for, be it a product or a service. The brick and mortar shops are fast giving way to 24X7 online shops. Some people may still buy offline after searching, comparing, and short-listing products / services online.

Online presence and visibility are a necessity if you want to survive the generation that surfs on Smart-phones and shops on Tablets. And the best way to draw traffic to a website is through business-related generic domain name. INN