Digital RealEstate

Digital realestate refers to any online or internet-based property that can be bought, sold, or rented. Similar to physical real estate, digital real estate can appreciate in value over time and generate a passive income stream. I will discussing owning domain names and websites as digital assets.

Sectors considered as Digital RealEstate investments.

Domain Names

Buying a domain name is an important first step when starting a new website or online business. A domain name is essentially the address of your website on the internet, and having a strong domain name can be crucial for building your brand and attracting visitors. It pays to check a domain names availability before choosing a business name, then off to the trademark or ipo portal to check for similar brand names in your industry and region.

Domain Name Buyers Guide 

The first step in buying a domain name is to choose a registrar, a company that manages domain name registrations. There are many registrars to choose from, such as GoDaddy, Namecheap, and Google Domains. Research the different options and choose one that offers good pricing, customer service, and user-friendly tools. Go to social platforms, here you can find feedback and gauge the level of customer satisfaction in the community, Twitter is a good place to start looking, @DNAccess are very good to follow.

Choosing

The most common domain name extension is .com, but there are many other options available such as .org, .net, and .co. Consider what type of website or business you have and what extension would work best for you. Does your domain name refer to the nature of your business, this is a good question to ask as it will take time energy and money to educate the public on what your brand is introducing. ie McDonalds and KFC.

The dot com tag is an interesting scenario where by using a brand name without a dot com address as a hashtag would be advertising the dot com version of the brand to some extent.

The emergence of new technologies like IoT can create opportunities for savvy domain name investors. By staying abreast of the latest trends and technologies, they can register domain names that are relevant and valuable to potential buyers, keeping in mind that some words or phrases may become evergreen and continue to hold relevance over time, while others may be more trendy or fad based and lose relevance over time.

Register Your Domain Name

After you have chosen your domain name and extension, it's time to register it. This involves providing your contact information and paying the registration fee. Most registrars offer different registration periods, typically ranging from one to ten years. Choose the period that works best for you. Google domains is a very attractive offer with free email alias, and expedites setup of your domain with Google Sites free website service (which I am using here).

Consider Additional Services

Many registrars offer additional services and you may be better choosing a bundle that includes email and website and domain name privacy protection. Consider whether any of these additional services would be useful to you and if they are offered at a reasonable or discounted price. 

Renewal

Once your domain name is registered, it's important to keep it active by renewing it before it expires. Most registrars will send you a reminder before your registration period ends, but it's still a good idea to keep track of when your registration is due for renewal.  Renewal prices have been creeping up, it may be wise to maintain a 10 year registration to curb expenditure.

A Domain names value

can be difficult to discover however one way to get a data point for the elusive "domain name valuation exercise" is determining the cost per click for that keyword on Google Ads.

You will need to verify this for yourself.

“Insurance” $54.91 Cost Per Click (or pay per click PPC).

and

“Credit” $36.06 PPC.

"Gas" and “Electricity” $54.62 PPC.

Generic domain names for example

RealEstate.com

when you search "realestate" there will be advertising, which adds to the overall desirability of the domain name and can also be looked at as a data point when estimating its value.

You could also calculate ratio between the value of the industry and the sale price also for a retrospective analysis.

Sex.com sold in 2005 for $14 million USD. Godaddy (21.6m in todays money)

Chat GPT "online porn industry's revenues were estimated to be around $2.5 to $3 billion in 2005."

That gives us a ratio of 0.0056

So if you times 0.0056 by an Industries value do you necessarily have a valuation?  No, in an industry where sales figures are not always published and valuation can be an enormous task to undertake and it still also depends on what someone is willing to pay for the name. On the other hand for a 1 man lawn mower business the domain name ideally limits itself to a location for a lawn mowing business, however which could limit the value proposition of the domain name for resale.

If a big company owns the domain name negotiating is an entirely different proposition again, and it is reasonable to expect a higher price compared to an individual, unless they don't want to sell which then means that you would have to buy the company.

Although many might suggest type in traffic is a way to value a domain name, this relies on people typing the domain name directly into a browser bar and would refer to those who only have a domain name parking page instead of a website, which isn't something I pay alot of attention to because click numbers can easily be bought, just Google "buy website clicks".

In some sectors heated competition puts upward pressure on prices and as a result, there may be many businesses vying for similar domain names making it more difficult to find a unique and memorable dot com domain name that is not already in use.

Some dot com domain names are more desirable than others, and this can make them more difficult to obtain. For example, domain names that are short, easy to remember, and include relevant keywords may be more sought after and therefore more difficult to obtain.

Many people use a Domain Name valuation tool which is not recommended. If you want to test the valuation tool I like to enter a domain name whose sale price has been advertised and then compare it to the result.


Why "tm"?

| ℹ | ™ | Ⓜ | Emoji

| i | tm | m | Code


The above table shows emoji at top, and below is their Latin code which is the code needed in order for the Domain Name System to be able to read the emoji domain. As these three emoji already represent Latin letters it was deemed that a special Latin code would not be necessary.

example

Visitorsⓘ.com

normally resolves to 

visitorsi.com

The code

While three emoji do not require code to date, every other emoji or foreign character does.

To register the Black Cat emoji as a username at Tumblr, Blogger, Shopify or Wix you need to use the punycode

xn–5i9807m, likewise when the DNS (domain name system) sees the blackcat emoji in the browser bar, it converts the emoji into the code,

xn--w5i9807m

This is what a typical code for an emoji domain or international domain name always starts with, 

xn–-

and then combined with a special designation of numbers and or letters.

ICANN, the regulatory body for the Domain Name System has since disallowed the registration of emoji domains using the code xn–-, which leaves the three emoji above as exceptions to this rule.

If you register a domain name for a business, it may be an idea to also register the name adding the letters "tm" as well, as a way of better protecting your brand name or even as a way to better manage a larger website more easily and may add an additional layer of protection for a trademark holder, that is why brand managers register their brand name in various domain name extensions, they could also register the TM dot com version of their domain name, even if the generic word itself cannot be trademarked officially, it could be a corporate page with perhaps a news section that can be more easily edited on a daily basis without a webmaster for example.

Generic vs Creative

Using you imagination to get a cool domain, I liked Palette Painting and Decorating as a business name because there is a nice emoji of a Palette, and I can use it in an extra cool link from a social media post as well eg.

🎨.PaintersTM.com or even #🎨Painters™️

This is our "House Painters" emoji domain name.

www.🏠🎨.ws

Animating domains using typography is a very creative idea. This domain is for a tumblr account that is mostly sharing the Tumblr platform communities black cat pictures also has a cool Social Media username for Tumblr in, 🐈‍⬛ (dot) Tumblr (dot) com.

Animating a domain name by forwarding 1 similar looking domain name to another.

www.ⓘ八ⓘ.com

turns into⬇️

www.0八0.com

Domain name quickly flips over to appear animated.

Also, as a side note, interestingly a Google search on desktop for "0八0" returns 25,200,000,000 results on Google, as it is the number "8" in Japanese and Chinese "八". This may or may not be a data point when trying to understand a domain names value, however very interesting and noteworthy.

Creativity with emoji usernames on platforms are a very fun idea, where before you would to simply upgrade to a custom domain name and forget about the username, now it can be used as a mobile marketing tool, or even a conversation starter or just a cool techy twist.

🅰️.Blogspot.com

instead of

A.Blogspot.com

If you have a foreign domain name then it can be accessed via the emoji username which I think is a good idea. When there a hundred million people using a platform its pretty hard to find a short username why not use an emoji creative as well, some platforms allow multiple accounts like Tumblr and Blogger. A pet business might still be able to register "Pets🐾" for example is a great choice, especially if you have a difficult domain name to remember then at least you have the option there too, with a new hashtag #Pets🐾Tumblr

If your brand can be represented by a Unicode approved symbol / emoji it makes the emoji as a username a very cool way to advertise your brand and better discoverability.

♻️.Tumblr.com

resolves to

RecycleTM.com

Currently only Twitter supports emoji domains as working links in posts in time this is expected to change. To date you can register an emoji code as a username at Amazon, Shopify, Wix, Blogger and Tumblr. On Wordpress you can only register the Three emoji that do not use the special code.

If you like this idea try use an emoji that doesn't have alot of variations for instance different skin tones or gender options.

Twitter.com/hustleTM_com  ( See working Emoji links in Bio )

Instgram.com/visitors_i_com  ( See working Emoji links in Bio )


Metaveverse

Web3 and NFT are a new type of digital realestate that requires alot of research on your part. The metaverse is a virtual world that comprises all the online communities and websites in a three-dimensional simulated reality that people can enter and interact with using avatars.

Digital real estate can be bought directly on a metaverse platform or a third-party platform using a digital wallet, which is a "virtual bank account" that uses real-world dollars to buy and sell online. To purchase digital real estate, one needs to negotiate the price and navigate different platforms for the best options. People can generate a full-time income from digital real estate investments, depending on the size and quality of their portfolio, level of experience and significant amount of time and energy.

E-sport is an emerging trend that you can invest in by sponsoring individual esports teams by providing funding for their operations and events. This can be done directly or through venture capital firms that specialize in esports. Investing in Esports Leagues is another way to invest in esports.

The largest esports leagues include Overwatch League, League of Legends Championship Series, and the Call of Duty League. Also Esports Events may be seen as investing in digital realestate by sponsoring them or organizing your own events. This can be a great way to generate revenue and attract attention to your brand.

Investing in platforms that support esport such as Twitch, YouTube Gaming, and Facebook Gaming. These platforms offer live streaming of esports events, as well as other gaming content. Also Esports Betting is a growing market and offers investment opportunities for those who are interested in gambling. However, it is important to note that this type of investment is risky and should be approached with caution and if you know anything about esport you would know about the problems that esport and cheating has, and how difficult it is to control.


**The TM emoji pictured above is Facebook's (Meta) version for Messenger.

Not financial advice, my opinion only, always do your own research. 

Google "emoji domains Wikipedia" to learn more about how emoji domain names work. Emoji may appear differently across platforms and devices and also depending on the devices OS version, in other words from platform to platform and laptop to laptop and device to device and phone to phone emoji appearance can differ vastly. 

Bottom left are the early TM emoji versions of Samsung, Google, Microsoft and bottom right are emoji versions by Google, Facebook, Samsung and Whatsapp.