An email conversation with Sedo's director of business development, Mark Klein, who discusses the content of his Monday morning presentation at next week's HostingCon event.
By Anastasia Tubanos, theWHIR.com
In advance of HostingCon 2008, we're contacting some of the speakers presenting at the event and asking them about the content of their sessions in an effort to give readers a sense of what to expect from HostingCon, and perhaps help them choose which sessions to attend.
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July 24, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- As the domain name market matures, finding a unique unregistered domain name becomes more difficult. And although several new top-level domains have surfaced over the past year, like .mobi, .asia and .me, in many cases, they may not satisfy customer requirements for reaching a mainstream audience, says domain online marketplace Sedo (sedo.com).
In a session titled "Tapping the Exploding Secondary Domain Market: How It Can Increase Your Revenue and Customer Loyalty," Mark Klein, director of business development with Sedo, will discuss the growth of the secondary domain market and how web hosts and domain registrars can tap into this market to increase customer loyalty and revenue.
Sedo says attendees will learn, through real-life examples and empirical research, strategies for integrating the secondary domain market into their businesses to boost revenue - and how to monetize their existing domain portfolio. Klein will also get into the dynamics of growth in the secondary domain market versus the primary market and how companies can adjust their offerings to be in line with TLD trends that are currently rising in the industry.
"Tapping the Exploding Secondary Domain Market: How It Can Increase Your Revenue and Customer Loyalty" will take place on Monday, July 28 at 11:15 a.m. in room 327.
What are the main themes you'll be discussing in your presentation on Monday?
MK: The main themes that I wanted to highlight in the presentation were that the secondary market has grown rapidly over the past couple of years and is definitely here to stay. Every service provider has its own set of values and ethics so I wanted to point out as many ways to integrate as possible while at the same time showing which methods can actually improve customer loyalty.
Who's the target audience for this session?
MK: The target audience for this presentation is web hosting companies, registrars and service providers. Fundamentally, anyone who controls the user experience on the Internet or sells or uses domains names as part of an offering is who this session was created for.
Why do you think it's important for people to start paying closer attention to the secondary domain market, especially now?
MK: Service providers can no longer ignore the potential revenue streams that can be generated by leveraging the secondary market. It is also important to note that public awareness is growing and the space is maturing, this in turn allows for a greater acceptance of secondary market initiatives. It would be safe to say that a service provider does not want its customer or a potential customer to go a competitor's website in order to get access to an offering and potentially lose that customer.
How has the emergence of new TLDs like .asia or .me or .pro (which isn't new, but has recently expanded its paramaters) been affecting the domain name market in general?
MK: When a new TLD is launched or if domains are released by a registry there is always a large marketing effort which usually highlights the value of owning good domain names. This is in turn draws attention to the secondary market as people start thinking of new ideas around domains and soon realize that nearly all good .com's, for example, are taken. Memorable, descriptive domains regardless of TLD can draw significant value so the launch of new TLDs opens up new opportunities while also driving premium value of the best .coms that are already owned.
In the session description, it says you'll be showing attendees how they can tap into the secondary domain market to increase customer loyalty and revenue. How will they be able to integrate this into their businesses?
MK: I will be showing some examples of integrations already done by registrars, web hosting companies and service providers with the secondary domain market. In short, they will be able to see what has been done by their competition, so that should be of great interest as this space is extremely competitive.
What's the main message you want attendees to take away from this discussion?
MK: The main message that I want this session to convey is that service providers that don't recognize the opportunity and value of the secondary domain market are leaving money on the table and potentially losing customers.
