I finally received hopefully my final medical treatment for a crushed elbow, and it’s news that has removed a lot of stress on me. There’s no broken joints, but I have compressed cartilage, bruised pivot joints, and torn ligaments in my left elbow that I’ve been struggling with for almost six weeks. I was supposed to have exploratory surgery a month ago, which would have torn my arm apart and not allowed me to be able to type for another two months.

Because of this auction, and my dedication to helping everyone try to find the “sweet spot” for the value of their FT domains (or what has matured, and what hasn’t), I chose not to have the surgery, and my wife helped me do some physical therapy at home, against three doctor’s recommendations who wanted surgery. (think they want some money from my med insurance?)

My arm still isn’t 100%, but I can type, and after seeing an orthopedic surgeon specialist, he informed me that there probably isn’t permanent damage that would require surgery.  This was a huge relief, and I’ve been trying to catch up with all of you since then. Thanks to many of you for your support and writing me personally.

The Future Trend Domain Auction™ is still on, and Moniker hasn’t given me any indication that it isn’t. The auction hasn’t been officially announced because of the unbelievable amount of submissions I received (over 2,500 from about 275 people). Compounding the unexpected popularity of this auction was the fact that there are A LOT OF SMART DOMAINERS OUT THERE.

You guys have found Future Trend domains that even I haven’t heard before, and I probably am the foremost expert in this area in the world. (Just had to say that to irritate my buddies).  Seriously, we have had to research hundreds of domains we’ve never heard of before. Some we just wanted to skip over because they sounded so ridiculous, except they turned out to be FOR REAL.   I don’t think anyone in this sector of domain investing even KNOWS the amazing technology trends that are being developed right now. It’s incredible. However, searching them up and confirming their value has been overwhelming.

Since Successclick.com isn’t making a commission or any money from promoting this auction, we’ve put hundreds of hours pouring over your domains to pick out the ones we feel will not only blow people’s minds, but possibly open up new domain investment doors. We’re happy to have support for new technology domain investing from some of the top domainers in the world, including Rick Schwartz, Michael Berkens, Elliot Silver, Adam Strong, Page Howe, Andrew Allemann, Ron Jackson and many others. Sorry if I didn’t drop your names here in this list that is only half true.

We can tell you that at least 80% of the domains have been accepted, and the process of contacting those domainers for officially entering them into the auction using SnapMon’s requirements is all that’s left, except for the homework I’ll be giving you once you’ve confirmed you’ve allowed your domains into the auction.

The Future Trend Domain Auction™ is a different auction, unlike any held before. How? Because I’m pushing SnapMon to use their non-domainer marketing tactics to reach end users instead of simply sending out boilerplate email to their domainer list. Successclick is contacting marketing websites and will be sending out PRwire news releases about this auction to hopefully attract end users.

However, here’s the big “I love FT Domains” move that all of you can do to help this auction bring in outside end users:

POST COMMENTS ON EVERY MARKETING AND ADVERTISING WEBSITE talking about the power of owning your FT brand domains and leading them to the Future Trend Domain Auction™. Obviously, you can’t do this until we finalize the list of accepted domains, and the date for the auction. Be aware that this information will be forthcoming in the next week or so

So, wrapping it up:

1) My arm is healing up well and I’ve learned to not sneak through my back acre to take photos with my wife’s expensive camera of baby wood ducks (probably the most beautiful duck in the world) without watching where I’m walking.

2) We’ve reviewed the majority of FT domain submissions, and almost everyone who submitted  has at least one or more domains accepted.

3) No worries (as I’ve heard from several veteran domainers) that SnapMon will be “slash/dashing” your domains, pushing your reserves down to way below their acceptable value. HOWEVER, we’ve received about 200 domains from domainers that are asking for reserves in the low six-seven figures. That’s right.  This is NOT the right time to present those domains before we’ve identified this category’s domain values. If you have domains that you feel are in the six-seven figure range, I’d hold on to them and not present them at this auction. The lower the reserve, the more we’re interested in your domain.

4) The Future Trend Domain Auction™ is the first auction of its type. This event is a long-planned experiment in marketing a new domain category and finding whether the category’s different sub-categories have matured. DO NOT EXPECT HUGE PAYOUTS. Don’t expect anything except watching how many end users will show up. When the time is right, you all can help with this, so this event it truly a “group project” among friends and associates.

5) I personally apologize for misjudging the amount of time that producing the Future Trend Domain Auction™ would take, especially researching your brilliant domain names, and trust me, there are truly exceptional FT domains in this auction.

I hope this article helps all of you, and I will be posting the anticipated information you’ve been waiting for in the next weeks.

I apologize for the delay in the auction, I really can’t use my elbow injury as an excuse to deny you all your enthusiasm for the event. I hope the wait will bring something fantastic to this event.

Stay tuned, and again, thank you for your support during the last five weeks.

For everyone submitting FT domains for the Future Trend Domain Auction™, please remember this auction is not only about 3D/HOLO domains. The auction also covers energy, cellphone, lifestyle, and other new technologies you believe might become popular trends “in the future,” near or far.

Additionally, the Future Trend Domain Auction™  is not meant for any FT domain investor looking for a “killing” right away on the sale of their domains. Unless you own a one word lockdown premium .com, you’re probably not going to sell a domain and retire next door to some sanctimonious Florida chest-beater.  It’s a new frontier, and we’re testing the interest, not only within the domaining industry (as a strategic OOTB and even low-priced aftermarket purchase for future upward value), but also in the New Media marketing sector, outside the domain industry.

That latter part is extremely hard, as every domain auction company has discovered. Significant education is needed for the players in the New Media marketing sector, and all of us involved in promoting future trend domains need to give more information outside our circle other than a quick offhand comment on domain blogs. We need to push into New Media marketing forums, tech marketing news sites, and new tech company providing prodservs that advertisers turn to in order to get that “sudden burst”of marketing advantage ahead of their competitors online. For those of you really wanting to see a massive change in corporate buyers attitudes towards these domains, would you invest $200 for a PRwire announcing the sale of your domains, also promoting the genre of your domains?

Sure, you can leave it all up to SuccessClick and Moniker to try to reach all the potential buyers, and you’d think Moniker would do all that for their 15% commission. Your domains are so great, they’re lucky they have them to sell, right?

Wrong. Domains, good and bad, still need massive promotion.

We’re now at this crossroad where a common interest, ultimately augmented by thousands of comments on blog articles, can seriously galvanize a large group of domainers to work more at pushing their domains and their genre to potential buyers, instead of posting quick comments on blogs stating how lucky they are to have “nabbed” a certain domain. Think your domains are valuable and the next “big thing”? Then prove it. Get involved with the Future Trend Domain Auction™ by signing up on every marketing website and making your sales pitch. Over 150 people have submitted domains in this auction.  Imagine that amount of feedback daily flooding the comment section of top marketing websites for the next 30 days.  Imagine.

This means everyone who is informed that one or more of their domains are accepted into the Future Trend Domain Auction™ will be required to put a bit of their gray muscle to work in order to educate the market and participate in this auction. We aren’t just “throwing domains into the wind” and hoping they do a Forrest Gump feather-float while pretty music is playing in the background.  It means, everyone who has been posting on Successclick and our friend Michael “Embee” Berkens’ award-winning blog article at http://www.thedomains.com regarding their wonderful domain finds, can instead push this information outward - cool future trend news, questions, answers, commentary and more — direct all your energy now to describing YOUR domains that have been accepted into the Future Trend Domain Auction™ to every relevant marketing and news location online.

There will be more articles forthcoming here, but before I end this one – a revealing tip for selling your FT domains:

1) Don’t price your reserves at mid to high five figures, or anywhere in the six figures, YET.  So submit domains you’d like to see pay off nicely with a good profit because you sold the domain at a very low reserve. If you want to make a FT domain pay off BEFORE the FUTURE, you’ll have to settle for much less than it will be worth five years from now. If that doesn’t make you feel good, then do NOT put those domains in the auction.

2) Continuing the “reserve price” strategy, I’ve seen how both the Successclick team and the SnapMon team selecting AMAZING FT domains with NO RESERVES. The domainers submitting domains as “sacrifice” investments by selecting “no reserve” are putting up their domains to see how the market reacts. It could bite them in the butt, but on the other hand, a domain bought at $10 could be offered for “no reserve”, and bring in $10,000.  Or $250.

Either way, lower reserves in this auction…

1) defines the direction of value for the domain name subject matter
2) reveals the overlying new strategy of buying FT domains on an educated gamble that the domain will be a major winner.
3) exposeswho your demographic is by the bids and purchases of the domains’ relevance to prodservs. You can find this out even with purchases by other domainers (who obviously did their homework).

So look at this first Future Trend Domain Auction™ as a “loss/leader” kind of auction, where you price out some great domains very low, and then watch the buyers and their money.

In other words, if you don’t think you can come up with another fantastic FT domain, then do NOT put your domains in this auction. Wait it out. However, if you feel this is your genre, and it excites you to do research on discovering new prodservs that “may” emerge as “FUTURE TRENDS”… then throw some of your domains, like chum, into the “Auction Sea” and watch which “fish” come in to swallow them up. Bingo… you’ve identified the buying pattern, at least for now!

The Future Trend Domain Auction™ is not for the faint of heart, it’s for winners.

(With Honors To Michael (EmBee) Berkens, and support from hundreds of novice and professional domainers. Everything here is a conglomeration of many domainers assisting me, and preparing me for this event. Thank you to ALL!)

The following information regards the participation of buying/selling domains in the Future Trend Domain Auction™, and the importance of these domains in the near future.

Innovation. Technology. Future Trends. These are the building blocks of New Media marketing through keyword descriptive domains of products and services, many that are already maturing.  This is the first-ever category auction in this niche, and this is what you’ve read and heard about for the last four months: the Future Trend Domain Auction™.

The Auction Date Has Been Officially Set, and the Production information is below:

DATE: June 21 – June 28, 2011

AUCTION HOST: Moniker Showcase

ADMINISTRATIVE OPERATIONS: Powered by Snapnames.com

PROMOTION: Successclick.com

After the record-breaking comments replying to the blog article written by Michael Berkens about 3D domains being “the next big thing” less than a year ago, it was time for me to break out the big guns and start introducing the area of domain investing that I initiated back in 2003 – buying “Future Trend Domains”.

The topic of Berken’s blog article was so fascinating and full of promise that over 2,650 comments have been posted to date on his blog. This feat has never been done before in the history of domain investment discussions and it stands alone as the pinnacle of domain topic interests, equal to that of geo-specific domains, and beyond any new TLD being introduced.

Because of the impact Michael Berken’s “3D” article has had on the domain community (truckloads of opinions, a literal “Fort Knox” of domains presented for “acceptance”, and thousands of questions answered, with amazing new technologies revealed), Successclick.com decided that the time for producing the Future Trend Domain Auction™ had clearly come.

After talking with every reputable domain auction site we determined it always came down to who we trusted the most: The Moniker Showcase and Snapnames. With almost a decade of experience, and tens of $millions in domains sold, we believe that Moniker (a company of Oversee.net) is a continuing force behind domain promotions and sales in our industry.

There are going to be new ways in marketing these Future Trend (FT) domains. Important responsibilities will be expected from every domain owner whose domains have officially been accepted. Every person wanting to get involved in this auction (we’re looking to go directly to end users, but domainers are also welcome) will receive a detailed catalog description of every domain, so as a potential buyer, you will be able to read and follow the media connected to the domain, showing the power of each domain’s potential to be an easily recognized “consumer/business” trend. As a seller, your responsibility in this auction will be to let them know exactly what you have, and why it’s worth big bucks.

To get your domains reviewed by the Moniker team next week in the first submission of FT domains (we have already over 500 domains to appraise), please submit them before Monday this week at midnight PST.  Don’t fret if you don’t make it, because the deadline for submissions officially is May 22.  But if you get them in today, you’ll get a jump on competitors because on Tuesday, the first “FT FILE LIST #1” will be submitted for review by Moniker and Successclick.

NOTE: If you’ve already submitted your 10 domains for initial review, you may switch them out if you feel an absolute need, but the administrative cost will be $25 for this changing of your domains and resubmitting them in the main list. We suggest not doing this, since there most likely will be another Future Trend Domain Auction™ later this year.

RULES TO SUBMIT YOUR DOMAINS FOR REVIEW:

1) Send NO MORE THAN TEN (10) DOMAINS that cover these areas of future trends:

• Solar Energy
• Cellphone Technology
• Alternative Energy (wind, wave, thermal, water, other)
• Robotics
• Green (any domain with the adjective “green”)
• 3D – (all areas of 3D technology)
• Holo- (Holographs, Holograms, Holographics)
• Virtual – (manufactured reality, visual, audio)
• Medical

DO NOT SUBMIT MORE THAN TEN OR WE WILL NOT REVIEW THEM – (If we have to respond to you to give you directions, it will cost $25 for administrative costs)

Please submit the ten domains of your choice in an Excel sheet with two columns:

Column #1 = “Domain Name” and  Column #2 = “Reserve Price”

You can submit the domains in a CSV file if you prefer (Comma Separated Version)

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT:  Please give a RESERVE PRICE for EACH domain. If you want to open up the bidding on your domain at any price, (No Reserve), please write either “ZERO” or “No Reserve” behind the domains you want listed this way. Warning: If you don’t give a reserve price, or a low price, your domain could be bought for much less than you expected

PLEASE include your NAME and EMAIL address INSIDE your domain file.

NOTE: Title your file of domains with your LAST NAME and the current month and year, which looks something like this:  “LASTNAME_4_2011.xls”.  This way we can locate your file quickly.

By the first week of June or earlier, you will be notified if your domains have been accepted into the Future Trend Domain Auction™.   That notification will include further processing on your part, where you will have to enter into an agreement with Moniker/Snapnames and meet their requirements to have your domains listed. You can decide at that point if you want to continue with the auction.

NOTE: There WILL be an exclusivity clause, so we recommend you DO NOT list your domains elsewhere BEFORE you participate in this auction. If you have done that already, you must “delist” your domains at other sites in order to participate in the Future Trend Domain Auction™ to avoid confusion for our buyers.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our team at:  EMAIL BELOW!

SUCCESSCLICK – (at) — gmail.com

Because of the high level of submissions and interest, expect up to 72 hours or more for a response.

We’re very excited about this event, as it has been over eight years in the making!

REQUEST TO MY POWERUL DOMAINER FRIENDS: Please help support this auction if you feel there is a “future” to it. Many of the domains are slamdunks, and we feel will sell for very reasonable prices. You will get great domain names, but also help in promoting a new sector of domains to the New Media market.  I’ve already received quite a few supportive emails from some of the biggest domainers, and that is very appreciated, so thanks! Your connections and power can make this auction a love fest, and that’s something that could be groundbreaking on its own! Isn’t it time domainers stop bickering and start promoting their industry?

Let’s have fun with this!  (and if you read this whole blog, you obviously have a good attention span and a high IQ!)

Good Luck to All!

Stephen Douglas (Successclick.com)

It’s been a long haul to get here, but we had to consider every option and consider all factors in giving this new domain category the important promotional attention it needs to establish it as a viable niche. It is important for all FT domain investors to determine which sub-niches have matured to allow the generic domains for all the niches to find their value point at this time (what your “Future Trend” (FT) domains are worth right now). It doesn’t mean that your FT domain values won’t increase/decrease in the near future, just that discovering what they could be worth at the beginning of this “new category phase”. Please consider the previous sentence as your mantra, because I’ve waited over five years for many of my FT domains to reach even this type of attention, so you also can expect a possible waiting period beyond this auction to find the high end of value for your FT domains.

First and foremost, some background information and credit.  This auction was kicked off by SuccessClick after seeing the incredible insight of Michael “EmBee” Berkens of TheDomains.com writing an article about 3D.  When I saw that his blogpost (July 2010) regarding 3D domains caught on fire (the little flame started after about 250 quick response comments, with no sign of slowing down), I was confident that 3D domains were maturing. So kudos to EmBee – the unchallenged King of FT Domain Promotion. As of this date, Berken’s blog article is reaching an astounding 2,500 comments.

I’ve been in this business for over a decade, and I’ve worked with almost every domain industry company there is. That fact was paramount in my final decision on which auction company was actually the most trustworthy, technologically and financially capable of providing domain investors with the best services for our auction. The company we chose is heads above all others to be able to produce, promote and administrate the Future Trend Domain Auction™ to the level of success that our company (and particpants) expect.

That said, SuccessClick is pleased to announce that our domain auction company of choice is Moniker.com.

Moniker is owned by Oversee.net. Their Showcase auctions, either produced live or online, have proven to be the most reliable and profitable service for domainers worldwide. We are happy to announce our agreement with them to produce SuccessClick’s Future Trend Domain Auction™.

WHAT HAS OCCURED SO FAR: There have been over 50 domainers offering up their domains for sale on the upcoming Future Trend Domain Auction™.  Almost every domain submitter has provided at least one domain that can be included in this auction from our initial review. This isn’t confirmed, but I’m impressed with the quality of domains submitted. I hope the auction site experts we’re using feel the same. Over 500 domains have been submitted to date.

The news on 3D and Hologram technology is exploding everywhere.  Be sure to SAVE THOSE IMPORTANT LINKS if you’re submitting domains in this auction! This is an important part of participating in the Future Trend Domain Auction™. More instructions about this will be forthcoming if any of your domains are accepted into the Moniker Showcase auction.

NOTE: You can still submit your domains to the Future Trend Domain Auction™ if you haven’t already. (We’re sorry, but if you want to change your initial listings with new domain submissions, we have to charge a $15 administrative fee to do so. (This fee is not required for submitting your first ten domains, only if you want to change your initial list). If you want to change your list,  you can make your payment to our Verified Paypal Account at: dotplanners@yahoo.com and then inform us of your request and payment at Successclick ((at)) g mail . com.

Please submit your domains to Successclick.com FIRST. Moniker will contact you to inform you if your domains have been accepted.

Here are some other particulars:

1) You can submit 10 domains of your choice, but the domains must be based on emerging or new technology. This includes: Solar, Robotics, 3D/Holo, Cellphone apps, alternative energy, communication (telepresence) and transportation technology. If you have found another FT category you feel is going to explode, please email with your request to consider that category immediately.

2) Submitting your domains does not lock you down to this auction. If your domains are reviewed and accepted, Moniker will send you all the necessary information they need from you, including the requirements to participate. At that point, you can choose to participate or not. The first step you want to take is just submitting your ten best domains.

3) Domain submission requirements:  Please create a two column separate file for your ten best domains. You can do this simply by typing the domain, comma, then the reserve price (or the word “zero” if there is no reserve). Or create a spreadsheet with two columns, the first column featuring the domain name, the second column showing your reserve or no reserve price.

4) Wait for the email/phone call notifying you that one or more of your domains have been accepted into the Future Trend Domain Auction™.   You may or many not be asked to reduce your reserve price. That is entirely up to you. It may or may not affect your domain being accepted into the auction. The goal is to get the best Future Trend domains listed with reasonable reserves to get the bidding started. As I’ve said many times, don’t think a domain name is going to make you a millionaire. Talk about it later if it did!

5) Moniker Showcase and Successclick.com will be working hard to connect to New Media marketing editors to inform them of the auction, the domains featured, and the importance of their readers to consider owning generic descriptive domains for their new technology prodservs.

This effort isn’t a slam dunk. It’s not going to be easy (we’ve discovered this already).  However, the amazing part of our effort to produce this auction is the many domainers wanting to help in every way. The biggest accomplishment that all Future Trend domain investors can hope for is the recognition at any level of our FT domains, their relationship to current media, prodservs, and entertainment focus.

We will have weekly updates on the progress and further information of the Future Trend Domain Auction™, such as the date and other tips to succeed in getting your domains listed.

As always, we welcome feedback, and we thank everyone for their patience and faith that this auction would come to an exciting reality! Our heartfelt thanks go out to Michael Berkens, the fantastic team at Moniker and Oversee.net (Craig Snyder, Michele Van Tilborg, Larry Martinez, Esq., and others), and the multitude of loyal FT domainers who have supported and believed that we’d get to this point! You know who you are!

More info to come. Stay tuned to the Future Trend Domain Auction™ blog series on Successclick.com!

(Stay informed by signing up for the Successclick/Titledomains.com newsletter)

If we domainers, which I estimate to be around 10,000, submit our domains for auction and flood the market, we probably can sell most of our domains for the lowest price possible to a well-funded domain conglomerate or well-respected domain individual.

Yep. That’s right. Most of the buyers of our domains will be other domainers looking for a good deal. “Buy low, sell high” is the correct mantra, and even selling low for many of us is okay because we’ve already bought lower if we bought our domains “out of the basket” (registered).

In these times where some of the most powerful domain names are still not sold to the appropriate corporate buyers, what hope do we domainers have that companies will want our keyword generic domains that market and sell their products and services? We don’t have much hope for that, BUT, if the BIG domain industry buyers have unabashed cash coffers, they can lure us in and suck up our good domains for pennies on the dollar. Their investment probably will triple or quadruple in less than two years, but what do we care if we can make 1000% on a domain we sell? (The math goes like this: If you buy a domain for $7.50, a 1000% return would be selling that domain for $750. If I sold all my domains in my portfolio today for $750, I would pocket around $2,265,000. If anyone is interested in seeing my 3500 domains and can afford this pricing, contact me now! However, my appraisal of my portfolio is three times this amount, but who would turn down this kind of money?)

With the quickly rising stock of Domainfest 2008 (probably the new Big Dawg Domain Conference now) which be held in Los Angeles, California from January 21-23, 2008, there are many questions for domainers to ask. The answers just might tickle our fancy more than we expected. Before the Moniker acquisition by Oversee (by now old news), my guess was that most auctions were already geared towards bidders from the domain industry, and not marketing directors from Fortune 1000 companies. I’d like to see one comment from a domain auction house holding auctions in the next few months that list all or even 10 of the “Fortune 1000 Companies” who will be participating in their auctions. This business market is the domainer’s most important source of buyers — and there is no argument that can deny it.

Just how much money have domain auction services invested in contacting and educating marketing directors from companies who would best benefit and pay the highest prices for our domains? Which domain auction services have taken this extra step? Are they just hoping we’ll lower our reserve prices so that the domain conglomerates and big domainers will be able to pick off our valuable domains for cheap because we might need the cash? Maybe. The domain auction services get their percentage, and it’s better for them to seduce us to lower our reserves, and then sweet talk the big domain buyers into placing their bids to nab the “diamonds in the dirt”. Your diamonds.

Just how many domains in the last year have sold for a price that made the seller REALLY think they got the most from their domain’s value? It’s a hard fact to compile, but I have a feeling that there are a lot of domain sellers out there who wish they didn’t put their domains into any auctions in 2007. Take the domain, Dine.mobi. At the Domain Roundtable Conference 2007 auction, it went for only $5,000. FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS? Just one bidder. For a high popularity, four letter, perfect mobile location reference domain? That, my secret readers, was highway robbery. The problem was that there weren’t enough quality bidders outside the domain industry involved in the auction. That problem is a huge nasty tornado to tame.

That’s only one story. I’m sure there are hundreds more. Kudos to those who bought cheap from these auctions. Condolences for those who sold cheap at these auctions, expecting more but really getting less because the facts are this: The domain auction houses are NOT reaching the markets YOU need to reach to increase the bidding prices on your domains. As far as I know, only Monte Cahn and Victor Pitts from Moniker have taken the time to contact outside business conferences to hold live domain auctions at their events in an attempt to educate (and sell) valuable domains relevant to other internet services, like adult and dating sites. Now, Oversee will control the Moniker Marketing Monolith and the Snapnames Superior Systems of auctioning off domains. They seem to be our only hope now for selling our domains for reasonable prices. Will they step up to the plate and hit a home run for all the domainers out there who are selling? Or are they hoping to satisfy the few big power players ready to snap up domains on the cheap?

I don’t mean to be the guy who bums out the party guests, but who will deny me my opinion? Good luck for those with domains in any auctions this year. I will see what my domains selected for the Domainfest LDA will sell for, and then depending on the outcome, I’ll write an article with love in my heart or bitterness in my gizzard. Domains of mine that were selected to be auctioned at Domainfest are LeakPrevention.com, AirlineFares.net, RacingDogs.com, and HeavyDutyBattery.com. Please, those of you with big cash, go bid on those domains and help the “Stephen Douglas Legal Fund”.

Peaceout for 2008!