I managed to get in touch (via instant messaging) with a very busy Bill Sweetman in Hollywood, California early this morning. He’s taking in the sights and sounds of DOMAINfest 2008 He gave me a bit of a rundown on what’s happened so far, as well a what to expect in the coming days.

Bill has also been talking with some of the domain industry heavyweights about where the industry is, where it’s headed, and specifically in terms of the growing domain name aftermarket.

The DOMAINfest venue — larger than life just like the domain industry, and some of its players. Photo by Bill Sweetman

Bill reports that attendance is up this year with over 600 people attending versus about 400 that were at last year’s show. Those attendees represent more then 25 countries, providing proof of the worldwide marketplace for domains. Bill says there’s a good mix of both what he calls “mom and pop domainers” alongside the big guys. For reference, 28% of domainers at DOMAINfest report owning over 1,000 domains.

On the subject of the growing aftermarket for domains, Bill had a chance to speak with Tom Murphy from BuyDomains.com. Tom tells Bill that 82% of the domain names BuyDomains sells are to new business owners, vs. domainers, who end up using the domains for their corporate sites — the aftermarket is clearly more than a place for domainers to trade around names.

Tom also says that aftermarket domain names that are appraised are ten times more likely to sell than those without an appraisal. I found that interesting, given Rick Schwartz’s comments just yesterday in which he questioned the value of domain name appraisals.

Bill also tracked down Dan Warner of Fabulous.com who tells Bill that half of the aftermarket domains that Fabulous sells are made up of three words or more, as opposed to “short and sweet” names.

And, if more was required in terms of proving that the aftermarket for domain names is flourishing, Bill tells me that Register.com says they now have 300 people in Nova Scotia, Canada, handling inbound queries regarding aftermarket domains they sell.

Tucows offers aftermarket domain names from both BuyDomains and Fabulous as part of our Premium Domains service.

Later today the first of two live auctions take place. Bill confirmed that two domains from the Tucows portfolio have been selected for inclusion in the live auctions. 110,000 domains were submitted for consideration, with 400 chosen for the two-day live auction event. Proceeds from a selection of domains will benefit Grassroots.org.

We’ll have more from Bill on DOMAINfest, probably next week, when he’s back in Toronto.

Posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 8:30 pm by James Koole.
Filed under: Conference Coverage, Domain Names.
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