If you ever registered a domain name and tried to re-sell it, you will know the agony of making a successful, profitable sale.

The domain name game is not easy, and in fact it is quite challenging to any beginner. Many domain name investors are coming to the conclusion that the market is flooded with domain names, and there is just way more sellers than there is buyers. Now this may seem dreadful, but it’s not time to take a slap in the face just yet.You see, the truth is that the market is flooded with “worthless” names that domain rookies registered and are trying to resell. Inexperienced domain name investors do not buy from other re-sellers; they just stick to registering domains at the lowest possible fee. What we begin to see is masses of worthless domains, and no buyers.

The only one who is making money off this is domain name registration companies. Now, lets explore why the experienced domain name investor is unaffected by this “flood” of worthless domains.

First of all, knowledgeable domain name investors buy domains from other investors. If they see a good domain being auctioned off extremely under priced, they go for the kill. They know that they have a good domain name on their hands and they hold on to it, even if it takes several years to make a sale. You must be able to sort the “gold” from the “dirt”.

Rookie domain name investors cannot wait more that one year; they usually seek a quick buck and register domains that are not worth anything causing a flood on the market. Since the average domain which has some value to it takes approximately 12 months to sell, the investor who does not know the true value of his domain will end up letting the domain name expire at the end of the year. This causes the flood to “evaporate” and only the good domains are left behind in the hands of serious investors.

The experienced investor is not affected by the mass of domains available on the market since they will all disappear very soon. Good domains are always selling, and bad ones are just left to expire and written off as a loss. If the domains would not expire, but would be left to sit on the market forever, we would have a huge problem on our hands. So there is actually a benefit to the yearly fee that we all have to pay in order to participate in this exciting investment revolution. The domain name market is no where near collapsing since the internet growing exponentially. Millions of new internet users are joining the world network each year, generating more traffic and more revenue onto the virtual marketplace.

Be wise. Don’t fall for the “quick buck” scheme. The flooded domain market only shows us that there are huge numbers of people trying to get rich without putting in much effort. These folks are heading for a sad downfall since the opportunity which they are looking for today already past us more than ten years ago when the market was first emerging. If you take your time and keep your cool when engaging on the marketplace, you will make money.

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I’m certain all the recent hype surrounding .ASIA has hit you too. The question that first popped in my head, and probably yours too is - Is there actually as much potential in this new sponsored TLD? - let the stats that I dug up do all the talking.

The Asian continent has an estimate of over half a billion Internet users, compared to 350 million in Europe and only 240 million in all of North America. Internet traffic from Asia has also outpaced all other markets. The stats suggest that, more visitors originate from Asia (38%) than from Europe (26%) or North America (18%).

With over 60% of the world’s population and an Internet usage growth of over 350%, Asia is a region that is experiencing tremendous economic and technical growth. The .ASIA top-level domain provides value that complements local country-code domains and other generic domains. Drawing up an excellent analogy from the media industry, some of the most powerful global media channels, like CNN and BBC to name a few, have created regional channels focused exclusively towards catering only to the Asian audience. Each has its space and value. “.ASIA” endeavors to serve this niche regional audience and market. Niche market would however be an understatement considering the statistics mentioned above. Now calculate the colossal number of global and regional enterprises targeting the Asian market, it is clear that the .ASIA value will grow at an exponential pace.

The goal behind introducing .ASIA was to provide an alternative to the “.com” extension for the millions of individuals and businesses in Asia. More than 130 economies and countries around the world participated in the .Asia Sunrise. Seeing the results of the .ASIA Sunrise phase, which concluded with a success rate of over 90% (which is 40% higher than previous Domain Registry launches), I could say they have more than achieved their intended goal. Also, based on registry information, the volume of registrations received during the Sunrise applications was more than double the level for all other gTLD Sunrises except for .INFO.

Now that the Landrush is about to begin (20th Feb), we started accepting applications for the available .Asia Domain Names. During the Landrush, anyone around the world can apply for any available .ASIA Domain. The Domains receiving more than one application during the Landrush will be auctioned between the applicants in an equitable process post the Landrush. Popular “keyword” domains, such as names consisting of common terms are expected to generate the most intense bidding.

Targeting an entire region like Asia often tends to be not only difficult, but also expensive due to stringent local presence requirements. So, A unified Asian TLD could potentially be an extremely valuable and cost effective tool for businesses that are looking at reaching the entire region via a single domain registration instead of registering domains in each individual Asian country.

*Source for Internet stats from internetworldstats.com (11th Feb. 2008).
*Source on .ASIA domain registry stats from dotasia.org.

Tags: ASIA, business, country code domains, domain, Domain Names, domain registration, domain registry, domains, DotAsia, generic domains, landrush, registering domain, Registry, TLD, top level domain