What is DN Journal?
DN Journal, or “Domain Name Journal” is an online and print magazine that was founded in 2003. The magazine reports on the latest sales, events and developments in the internet domain registration market. This week, DN Journal released the 17th annual State of The Industry Cover Story. Each year, DN Journal calls upon leading experts from all areas of the domain industry to discuss their take on the past year in the industry. However, this year, of course, is quite different from all the years past.
DN Journal on 2020
The pandemic has impacted the lives of every person around the globe. It has changed our day-to-day lives in countless ways, but also the way we now handle business. DN Journal calls it a “permanent change” in how people view the business through the virtual world. Our domain brokers at Saw.com agree. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way the world conducts business, as the virus forced all businesses to shift to the digital world.
This permanent change will have an impact on the industry throughout the new year, and long after. Although the pandemic is not yet over for any of us, DN Journal calls domains “one of the business world’s safest havens”.
State of The Industry Cover Story
Each year the DN Journal panel of experts consists of fresh voices of domain investors, developers, brokers, registrar and registry operators, etc. Essentially, the goal is to have a group of leading experts that can articulate what the past year was like for them in the domain industry. This year, Saw.com had two of our experts featured on the DN Journal panel; Amanda Waltz and Jeffrey Gabriel.
Saw.com on DN Journal
Jeff Gabriel is a world-renowned expert in domain brokerage and building sales teams. Jeff and Amanda Waltz co-founded Saw.com, a top-tier boutique brokerage that specializes in acquiring, selling, and appraising domains. Previously, Jeff was the Vice President of Sales at Uniregistry where he and his team quadrupled sales dollar volume. Prior to that Jeff was the President and Co-Founder of Igloo.com and was also a Domain Broker at Sedo. All told, Jeff has contributed to over $350 million dollars in completed transactions in this industry.
Jeff Gabriel
Co-Founder, SAW.com
Jeff Gabriel
Co-Founder, SAW.com
We officially launched Saw.com in December of 2019. Our goals are the same now as they were then:
- To sell domain names to every possible type of business in the world at whatever stage they are their journey; and
- Have fun doing it.
In Q1 of 2020, we exceeded our projections in every category. We were, what I like to say, “Rocking and Rolling.” Then mid-March came and we hit a wall. Buyers who made offers were relieved to get countered so they were not committed to paying.
At the same time, others in our future pipeline changed from showing buying signals to, “Call us in a couple of months.” What was a vibrant little startup was becoming a victim of the virus. There were six of us; we made it a point to have regular conversations, not just about work, but about what we were all experiencing. We discussed how we were feeling and helping each other understand they were not in this alone.
Once we were finished asking ourselves where all the toilet paper went, we decided as a Domain
Brokerage we weren’t going to feel sorry for ourselves and that even though people were not buying, our customers’ domains would be at the front of the line when they did. It was like someone flipping a switch in mid-June. Buyers were back and we finished the month with just under 1M in sales. In July, we sold $2,000,000 in domains. In the remainder of the year, we fully exceeded all expectations, and December finished with almost $4,000,000 in domain sales. The virus had a short-term detrimental effect on our business, but it also has created a demand that I haven’t seen since the Chinese domain market took off in 2015.
When the virus broke out in March, I recall speaking to a client that works at a large company with a huge customer service team. That team had been providing service from different offices throughout the world. But within a matter of days, they migrated thousands of employees from those locations to their homes. Use your imagination. This was no easy feat! Companies that were lagging technology-wise or getting away with a weak online presence before COVID learned that they needed to become more competitive online or take drastic action to stay alive. That has caused us to see increased demand in the Domain Brokerage side of the business. On the Domain Blocking front, clients with established brands and those that are not household names as of yet are concerned about cybercrime and want to ensure they are doing everything they can to protect their business and their customers.
Amanda Waltz
Co-Founder, SAW.com
Amanda Waltz, who co-founded domain brokerage and consulting firm SAW.com with Jeff Gabriel, is a dedicated and self-motivated business development professional with over 20 years of internet sales experience. Amanda is known for her outstanding skills in business development and communication, as well as her organizational, conceptualization, and time management skills.
The initial challenges we expected in the early days of the Covid19 global pandemic being recognized here in the US were turned into opportunities with the highest annual U.S. ecommerce growth in at least two decades by the end of 2020. Opportunities for internet and ecommerce businesses grew exponentially over the past ten months with ecommerce sales reaching a staggering $839.02B resulting in a rate of growth by over 40% from 2019.
Our clients who recognized this opportunity and pivoted from physical to online real-estate were able to not only maintain but scale growth when times were difficult. As a result, our team has had the pleasure to work with some incredibly thoughtful founders who have achieved great success and in turn are giving back to their communities and customers impacted by Covid19.
For our team; one of the biggest challenges is finding inventory for our clients. I believe this trend will continue as the supply dissipates for
quality one word .com domains. The prices for short, easy spelled, meaningfully positive, English language words continues to increase. One positive trend we see daily is that savvy marketers finally understand the impact these valuable domain assets have on their business in the digital transformation 2020 has brought to our global community.
Contact Us
If you would like to learn more about Saw.com or speak with our DN Journal experts Amanda Waltz and Jeffrey Gabriel, please contact us here.
Saw.com will also be attending Namescon Online 2021 from January 27-29 and we would love to speak with you. To find us at Namescon, please contact us here or email us at sales@saw.com.
