I’ve gone through the numbers, read the blogs, gone through lease reports and compiled a complete list of all the domains that have been leased so far in 2013. Here’s what I have.
Unfortunately that’s what I came up with. By no means does this mean that domain leasing doesn’t have it’s place. This was meant as a joke but also a little taste of reality. The fact of the matter is leasing has been around in business for a long time and domain leasing has been pushed for easily the last 5. LeaseThis was promoting over 500K domains for lease back in 2007 and it didn’t catch on. The difference this time is domains are only getting more expensive and as things get more expensive the more people “borrow” them. My question is how many people are going to lease domains. Rick Schwartz and all the others that have added leasing to their options are about to answer the question. I know it will take time but it’s not like this hasn’t had time. As I said, its been around for ever. This isn’t a reinvention of the wheel, it’s reminding everyone that there is a wheel and it can be rolled. The problem is nobody is pushing each other over to roll the wheel. At this point, they’re either buying the car, one with cheaper wheels, or walking. I hope I’m wrong on this one, I really do. I would love to see another regular source of income come into our space. If it does, Mr. Schwartz deserves the payback because he’s the driver. In the meantime I’ll be sharpening my pencil getting ready to add names to my updated “Domains That Were Leased this Week”
I’m surprised at the herd mentality on this movement. I’d rather let Rick S establish this as a viable option in the domain market rather than just put up a “for lease” sign on every domain sales website like people seem to be doing. Plus the domains I’m seeing offered for lease don’t seem to be even close to top tier. (Not Rick’s list specifically but in general on these other sites)
This will take time to take hold if it will at all.
Shane,
That was hilarious. I thought there was something wrong with my computer for a second before I read on. lol. IDK what this will bring. Maybe Rick can do it, if there is anyone out there he is the guy. I haven’t really been following it because I don’t own a $100k domain name that people would want to lease. I guess we will have to wait and see if that list gets bigger anytime soon.
Dave
Flat out sales are going to continue to be much more valuable and viable than leasing. Even with all of the (thousands) of new gtdls- the owners of the new names (gtdls) are going to want the .coms version. That will not change. Hang onto your valuable .coms. Sell them when you get a great offer. Thats the proven model and will continue to thrive. Sorry Rick, leasing will be a small niche business.
Everything has its time and place. Mini-sites in 1999 were getting great traffic. Not so now. Leasing was an option and may still be but I’ve found licensing has worked well over time like Acapulco.com
I can appreciate, Leasing might be a hard sell to a business as their primary site.
Example…they are cohensamsonbronsonllb.com
and you offer southchicagolawyer.com.
You and I would have little difficulty making a choice. BUT as history has proven THEY are uncertain, and will stick to the proven failure of their own comfort zone.
We should not be too complacent, they are busy being good lawyers (we hope) and we are still trying to tell the world about the
stunning value of intuative domains.
(We hope as well)……thanks for watching:
I can respect the movement Rick is trying to create, it is not a easy road, but it is the right road. Why not retain generic keywords as cash generating assets, that will continue to appreciate over time, if you believe .com will hold it’s value. The end game of selling domains, is a losing one, eventually your premium domains will be gone, and you will be left with a portfolio of subpar renwals making no parking income.
It will take a collective front, of domainers to say no, I am not going to sell my premium domains, but offer you an option. Could backfire, and companies may choose to lease, but you have to try at least. The argument of penny leads being sold to google to make money from, rather than lead generation directly to the end user seems like a win win for domain owner, and lease holder.
I personally leased at least 2 domains over 10 years ago so I know it is a viable option for some businesses and startups that want and need a certain domain but either dont have the money for an outright purchase or want to “test the waters” before fully committing to a significant spend or business idea.
As I recall, in both cases, the persons/businesses contacted me and initiated the idea about leasing instead of buying – they both suggested and got “options to buy” as well.
Hence, I believe there is demand for lease opportunities for “premium” domains especially if it is offered/marketed as an initial option to prospective buyers.
Again, I don’t think it that it is viable for “every” domain but I do believe that it is Very viable and Desirable for “premium” domains. 🙂
I purchased a domain name recently and I would like to tryto lease it out. How can I find a leasing company? I curious what Michael means by licensing?
ROFL
Agree 1000%.
I would be both a lessor, or a lessee, depending on the domain name. For instance, I will consider leasing 2013.com from anyone that owns it. I will not want to buy it, but would lease it. Including 2014 etc…
So, I’m sure many people have different needs, or reasons that influence their business decisions, and strategy.
There’s no easy answers. I am watching to see if Schwartz brings the idea to a new dimension. Leasing may have been tried before; so is domain conferences, but only Schwartz is able to charge close to $1500 or more, and pull it off year after year, even in recessionary times…
Let’s keep watching.
“Sorry Rick, leasing will be a small niche business.”
Absolutely! Only certain domains can be leased. Smart domainers target those type of domains. So the niche itself may be small but that is only because the pool of leasable domains is small. Less than 15% of my own portfolio. You can’t lease crap. That model won’t work.
But the money can be staggering when you KNOW how to construct a viable, long term deal that suits all parties.
Shane…..cute,
2 things.
1. As for JointVentures.com, we don’t even go into lease mode until February 1 when this first phase is over. So please repost the list at the end of May when we will have some results to show. Things do take time. You don’t do an undertaking of this magnitude and think it happens overnight.
Maybe your graphic should list 3 new companies that went into leasing this week alone. Kevin Ham, Nokta and others. Not exactly rookies in the space. Many others will be announcing in the following weeks.
AND….That does not count all the individual domainers doing it as well. This is a movement and it is a movement because the TIME is right. But the domain must be right too and THAT is the challenge. Finding domains WORTHY of leasing. You can’t lease crap. So domainers with portfolios of crap have to watch this game from the grandstand.
There is definitely a place for leasing, especially if there is a purchase option which gives the lessee to have the confidence in the system (they can build goodwill with the name and not have to give it back to the owner).
Rent-to-own has been more popular however. It’s a lot easier and less messy. If we could report the deals we did last year (counting the purchase option price as the domain price) we would have taken spots #1, #12, #53, and #99 in top sales of 2012 (http://dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2012/2012-top-100-sales-charts.htm).
It works for buyers and sellers. And you’ll see a lot more of us in 2013, we actually plan on marketing this time around.
Shane For the record we leased the domain name PhillyRealEstate.com to an end user for what can wind up to be a $75,000 deal over 10 years and we keep the domain at the end (lessee has option to renew each year)
we did announced this in the past week on our FB & Twitter feed on MWD
We currently have around 10 domains under lease, some have options to buy and some do not. We have been leasing domains for several years not a new concept, doing on a large scale is.
We also finance domain purchases with or without escrow
Thanks Michael for the info. I missed it. I only read your blog and didn’t see it there. If you’re offering it to all your buyers and have been for a while isn’t that large scale? I need to start reading Facebook posts more often. Not only would I be able to find out what my 7th grade girlfriend is up to but I can find out good info like this. 🙂
Very interesting post. This might be something to seriously consider for my company in the near future (as a buyer). Hopefully the process is simple and straight forward. My question is, how do you determine the Lease price? Michael or Rick can you give some examples? Are you basing the price solely on type-in traffic?
Weve leased a domain for 3 years now at $150 per month, and I think this is a niche market that really is just about giving potential customers a different option, but the key is finding the right domains and customers, keep up the great work.
I think Rick has a good point here. Ive been a gold miner for many years and leasing of mining claims is common.
sometimes with a lease option to buy.
meaning monthly lease payments in some cases can be applied to the purchase price of the claims/domain.
New companies can start-up with very limited capital and many cases in the long run make enough in gold/cash to buy the claims/domain over time.
or at least generate a profitable income in the mean time.
@Michael Castello,
What exactly do you mean by licensing?
@ Ohad and Garry:
I’m typing this out on my iphone at 4am so bare with me.
In the case of a geo, there are other businesses that can license sections like the golf or real estate sections for example. They want to use our brand to further their business.
They pay us to control these sections. With leasing you give away control of the name while still owning it., With licensing, you are protecting the brand and those that license the sections make agreements and arrangments that they must abide by.
Lets say you’re a business that wants to license the music section of Nashville.com. It maybe a three year deal for a certain amount of money and I might want them to promote some of my own music from time to time. The deal can be be whatever you want as long as you both are making money. We’ve had some licensing agreements that have lasted over 10 years.
I can even see licensing for email or sub-domains in the future.
You can only achieve this with a premium domain name. The licensee and public must see value in your brand for it to work and be successful..
@ Ohad and Garry
I wrote a long reply at 4am last night from my iPhone. I hope it went through. Did it send Shane?
Not here. Let me dig deeper UPDATE: Found it in the spam folder (for some reason) and posted it
Thank you for the response back Michael. And Shane thank you as well for checking into this.
Thanks Michael for the explanation.