Following trends is something that many Domainers do, and while in many cases you can end-up buying a bunch of junk, just like mining for gold, sometimes you get lucky. Trend Domaining isn’t a major part of my personal strategies but I have had my share of trend Domain flips enough to know that there is opportunity if you get a trend early.
Back in 2008 I was able to do very well with the huge amount of traffic around the government Stimulus Check. In Q4 of last year I sold NearfieldCommunications.org, a domain I had hand-registered and a trend I still think is hot. My point is, don’t base your whole business on trend domains, but there’s nothing wrong with investing in them…if you can get the right name.
Of course with every keyword there are a zillion terrible domain combinations that can be made. If you’re going after a trend you really have to be in early enough to get one of the good domains within the space. If you find yourself buying more than ten domains you’re probably already going too far.
Okay, now that I’ve said all of that, let me tell you five trends that I think Domainers will be rallying around this year:
- Cloud – this trend is still in and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, nothing replacing the cloud, it’s just getting more well-known!
- Nearfield Communications (NFC) – I picked this trend last year and still think this is a trend that is in its infancy, lots of room for growth here.
- HD Tablets – it seems like HD Tablets are going to be the next new craze layered on top of the existing tablet craze.
- Elections – election domains could get hot and then very cold very quickly, I’d stay away from this trend plus most of the election names, including all of those with “2012” in them have been gone for quite a while now.
- App – there’s an app for just about everything and that means that Domainers have gone nuts buying names with the word App before or after another word. While apps are a trend you’re really playing the lottery with this one, still that being said, like any trend domain, you could get lucky and find someone who really wants your app name…but something tells me you’ll be trying to unload the whole portfolio a year or two from now.
These are the trends that I think Domainers will rally around, but what the heck do I know? Let me know if you agree that the trends above will be hot in the Domaining community or share your own. As always comment and let your voice be heard!
