With well over 13 million registrations, .cn is by far the largest country code, with the former holder of the mantle of most ccTLD registrations until earlier this year, .de (Germany), having as of today (15 November) 12,379,346 domain names registered.

In January 2008, .cn passed the ten millionth registration, in March the eleven millionth and the 12 millionth registration in June.

Of the .cn domain names, around two-thirds (8,358,557 at the end of October) of the registrations are .cn names while around one quarter (3,514,912) are com.cn names.

To check for the latest statistics on .cn registrations, go to www.cnnic.net.cn/en/index/

Parked domains

I chose domain names using terms from the content of websites like cnn.com, money.com and portals so that the terms were commercial and short i.e. premium domain names. I was surprised to find one quarter of them parked and probably missing out on significant potential revenue.

One in particular had a graphic that was, well, graphic! Eye.com shows a picture of an injection into a patient. Not the sort of thing to encourage potential patients to stick around and click.

On the other hand, a number of parked sites tried to cover all the potential search terms e.g. fashion.com. While it is nice to have passive income, I think any one of you who visits these parked domains will see how much potential revenue is being lost.

Active domains

Again, active sites (71/100) were domains that had something other than a parked page. Of these, 3 had placeholders including life.com, a forthcoming Life magazine photo archive.

Redirection

9 of these active domains or about 12% had redirection in place. Redirection can raise trust issues. If the address bar url is different from that typed in, then the potential customer may be less trusting. This can then affect conversion rates. What I noticed was that redirection was more common for major brands with established trust e.g. loans.com redirecting to Bank of America. I suppose with the recent issues in the banking world perhaps some of that trust has eroded.

Revenue models

Advertising

Revenue models are hard to determine by just visiting a website. About 30% had clearly marked advertising with a mix of text, graphic or video ads. About 20% of the ads were Adsense blocks and the remainder a mixed bag of direct ad sales or other PPC companies.

I noticed one website (which will remain nameless) was actually in violation of the Adsense program terms which only allows 3 ad blocks per page. This particular site had 4 ad blocks on its home page as well as a Google search box and other ads.

This certainly suggests that visitors were not finding what they wanted in that website’s content. A much better move might have been to adjust their content offerings to satisfy the visitors.

Subscriptions

About 7% sold subscriptions or membership such as office.com with free basic membership as a teaser. Fitness, diet, health and dating sites also favored subscriptions. Subscriptions are often one of the most profitable revenue streams for owners but also are perceived as being the most expensive by potential customers.

Underutilized websites and domains

I also found a few sites that are dinosaurs in this day and age. Tahiti.com has that wonderful patterned salmon colored background from back in the day and yes, frames! I was sure they were extinct by now. Also I tried clicking on their Photo of the month which revealed that “This photo was taken in October 2005 on a “Shark Feeding Excusion”.

So whats my point besides poking fun? This site cannot be capturing the revenue it should be getting. Travel is a competitive area and here is a prime name of a desirable exotic location. Here I think lies a significant opportunity that is often missed by domainers and website developers. Finding underutilized domains and revamping them to maximize their potential through tweaking parking pages or revamping their websites can allow you to get real bargains and significant income.

Study.com is another example. In this case, it is an honorable enterprise with volunteer teachers teaching languages and a text website to allow for quick load times especially in countries without broadband. The commercial nature of the study.com domain name is obviously not being taken advantage of and again, this probably can be purchased at a bargain price relative to its commercial potential.

Intelligent use of domains

I was particularly impressed with the use of tech.com by the University of Illinois. This site highlights their tech research and promotes the school to potential students. Someone there has a handle on the value of generic domains.

I think it is smart of Bank of America to pick up loans.com but why is wealth.com left parked? Big companies are still relying on traditional channels of branding and advertising and forgetting about generic domains.

Why wouldn’t a stockbroker or mutual fund company want to have wealth.com? Isn’t that the point of their business? Of course doubt sets in when I look at my stocks and mutual funds recently!

Summary

This small survey makes the following points in my view:

• premium generic domains are losing potential revenue
• big business hasn’t appreciated the value of generic domains yet
• there are bargain underutilized quality domains still available
• frames and awful backgrounds still live on the web!

Finally I should note that I do not own any of the sites surveyed nor have any affiliation to them. I have included the list of premium domains I surveyed as a PDF file. Domain review list 08

Method

I attempted to remove bias by using terms in the content of other websites such as cnn.com, money.com and other portals. Certain terms fell into the same category and so those categories are over-represented in this survey. This however reflected their over-representation on these widely read websites and thus tended to reflect the exposure of these terms to visitors.
A survey of only 100 domains cannot be taken to be representative of domains and the web as a whole.

For a variety of reasons, I think it’s important that domain buyers and sellers use contracts when moving forward with a domain sale. It’s probably more important for the buyer to have an agreement, but both buyers and seller should use one - even if the escrow service you choose to use has an agreement, as I don’t believe it covers anything related to the actual domain name.

Like many other domain investors I know, I sometimes am lazy about getting a domain agreement, especially on a lower value deal. When dealing with non-domain investors, submitting a contract for review can be a hurdle, as many people are leery of a contract, and some will want to have a legal review done by their attorney, which can take some additional time and add additional costs to one or both parties.

When dealing with domain names that might not be considered completely generic, I strong recommend using a domain contract to add an extra layer of protection. Any domain or contract attorney can probably provide one to you at little cost, which can be used as a template for all of your purchases and sales going forward.

Some things you may want included in the contract include:
Terms of Sale
No Legal Problems with Domain
Any Encumbrances on Domain
Non Disclosure Agreement

http://www.CurtHocker.com

http://www.AnNixonCooper.com

Curt Hocker is the golf phenom who was in the news for the past few weeks for sinking 4 holes-in-one in one week!  Ann Nixon Cooper is the 106 year old women that Barack Obama mentioned on election night in his acceptance speech.

For more info please visit the buy/sell page from WeValuer.com, http://wevaluer.com/domains.html