The old adage “There’s only one chance to make a good first impression” can certainly apply to domain name brokerages. Customer service is apparently a low priority for some brokerages, namely Afternic. Not good.

I recently sold a domain through Afternic that transferred into the buyer’s account over a week ago. Afternic is still waiting on the buyer’s “confirmation”. Of course, Afternic have already been informed that the domain is in the buyer’s possession, and a simple whois search shows this.

Sedo, on the other hand, has consistently performed well for me over the years. Consequently, I have both bought and sold domain names through Sedo’s brokerage, with complete satisfaction, including a few premium domains. And I have been very pleased with Sedo’s service in every transaction. As a matter of principle, I will not spend money with a company that fails to deliver acceptable customer service. So Sedo is in, and Afternic is out.

As a result of Afternic’s subpar response and assistance, there will be no purchases made by me through their brokerage. A first impression can open the door for future business. Blow that, and you lose customers. It’s a pretty simple concept: don’t aggravate your customers, or waste their time. Is that such a complicated lesson?

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The single best indicator of a top level domain’s growth is the sheer number of domain registrations and the conversion of those registered domain names into developed websites. After widespread proliferation of the com/net/org domain extensions in the 1990′s came the market introduction of dotINFO, dotBIZ, and dotUS in the early 2000′s.

These were labeled the “new domains” to connote their relative newness to the well-established com/net/org trio that rose to prominence with the internet’s global adoption. Afilias, who manage the .info web address, just released their annual dotINFO report for 2010.

The report highlights very substantial growth for the .info web address for year 2010. The domain space grew 30% in 2010 pushing total registrations for .info to over 6.8 million. DomainTools‘ report of current internet domain registration numbers puts .info at over 7.3 million as of 12/7/2010.

The Afilias annual study announced that dotINFO currently ranks # 7 among 270 top level domains available worldwide. dotINFO has over 1.3 million live, active websites available to internet users at the present time. 

Also continuing along the same path as .info are the .biz (business) and .US (United States) web addresses each of which have continued to increase their global registration numbers and be readily adopted by local, regional, national and global companies.

To browse premium quality .info domain names, visit: PremiumDomains.US

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Buying premium domain names for a particular business purpose involves at least two parties, a number of decisions, and a sequence of events.

Party number 1 – the Seller: First, there is the registrant/owner, or seller, of the domain name in question. He or she, at some earlier point in time, acquired the domain name most likely because it represented a good value or prudent investment opportunity.

This registrant/owner might be a group, an individual, or a company. Whatever the initial rationale for acquiring the domain, he or she did so with a longer range vision in mind … be it to develop the domain name into a revenue generating website, to lease it, to park it, or to resell it for a profit later on.

This registrant owner has already performed their own internal valuation of the domain name and typically has a “for sale” range in mind. The bottom of that range is the lowest price the owner would ever take. The top of that range is the best case scenario in which the domain name is simply perfect for a particular end user’s purpose and will command a premium price. Then there is the middle range which represents to the seller an acceptable profit, but perhaps lower than their best case scenario.

Party number 2 – the Buyer: Second in the buy a domain name formula is the buyer. The potential buyer is someone who has taken notice of the domain for sale and identified it as valuable for some purpose of their own. They too have a specific value assessment formula through which the domain name has been passed.

The buyer operates with a similar “price structure” in mind which represents the least amount he believes he could reasonably pay to acquire the domain, the highest price he would pay to obtain it, and then a general middle ground price that would represent a “good buy” or “fair deal”.

Potential Party number 3 – the Broker: Sometimes working in between the seller and buyer is a domain name broker. This person may actually represent either the buyer or the seller, or be positioned more as a neutral facilitator like you might find in an online brokerage like Sedo. The broker may be highly involved in the domain negotiation, or alternatively, have little to do with actual negotiations and merely oversee the transfer of funds and domain name ownership.

An active broker who has been shopping a domain on a commission arrangement will have a vested interest in the domain name property. So much so that the broker’s opinions and expectations may come into play as a third influence behind that of the buyer and seller.

Buying domain names is more art than science, and is dependent on the mix of many variables that exist between the seller and buyer. The more specific and well-defined the buyer’s need, the more easily he will be able to narrow down his domain name choices to a select few that meet his criteria and expectations.

If the seller has seriously considered their own price range comfort, then he or she will be better able to communicate with a potential buyer on the feasibility of negotiating a mutually acceptable price .

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Biltmore.US is now operational and serving a narrow niche in the luxury web address market. Most of the domain names featured there are one word generic domains or geo domains such as Manhattan.mobi.

The site will publish its own short blog pieces related to premium domains for sale, and will incorporate the blog feed from this site, PremiumDomains.biz.

Biltmore.US was designed with DevHub, and uses a somewhat larger default font size which is very easy to read. High profile domains have their own dedicated promo & information page.

In regard to the mobile internet market, the general consensus is that mobile web is and will remain very popular. It seems unlikely that handheld devices will offer a more satisfying experience than a desktop or laptop computer. The display screen is just not large enough.

However, geo domains in the mobile web market seem to have a special appeal given the locality-specific nature of mobile web computing. When .MOBI was released, Menius Enterprises (in partnership with another company) acquired several major destinations in the dotmobi web address.

These mobile sites underwent some light development at that time, but are in need presently of a significant upgrade. In addition to Manahattan.mobi, these premium mobile domain names include the likes of Tampa.mobi, Cincinnati.mobi, and ParisFrance.mobi.

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