Tell me about your background. When and how did you get into domaining?

I started my first Internet business in 1998, designing web sites, coding, etc. Running a few web sites and trying to make it big before the dotcom crash. I was a co-founder of 2 medium sized web sites in Australia, still going strong. It was an interesting time with varying degrees of success.

Tell me about the moment when you said, I’m going to start Domain Shed?

As soon as we found out (about mid 2007) that AUDA was considering altering the rules in regards to selling and buying .au domains, the idea about starting DomainShed was there.

When did it go live?

DomainShed went live on 1st June 2008, (the earliest legally allowable date set by AUDA). To be sure we were the first, the site was activated just after midnight 31 May.

There are currently 35 domains listed on your web site. Why has the take up been so slow?

That was three days ago, now we have 112 domains for sale, more than a 300% increase.  We expect an exponential growth in the next 2 months as we are negotiating partnerships with established online companies relevant to the domain industry.

In a recent press release, Domain Shed describes itself as the “First Australian .au Auction Site”. Are you aware of other Australian sites who have been in beta for awhile now?

We have done our research and could not find any other web sites specifically set up to auction .au domain names.

How does your site differ from other commercial sites such as Sedo? Take us through the process.

The obvious one is that we specialise in .au domains and are Australian based. The aim was to have a simple process without many extra options. In this way sellers and buyers will find our system easy to use. In short, a seller or a buyer registers on our site, the email verifier is sent to the registrant and the account becomes active by clicking on the link in the email.. All details from registrants are checked out for accuracy verifying their identity within 1 hour from registration.

Why is the purchase process left up to the buyer and seller? What do you do to protect buyers from fraud?

DomainShed is not an auctioneer, we just provide an online venue to sellers and buyers of domain names. All our sellers and buyers are pre-screened to enable a secure and smooth transition of domain names. We will introduce escrow service at a later date, as an additional service for our clients requiring extra security.

Registration is free and you take 10% of the sales price. Are there any other fees aside from the optional extras?

There are no additional fees.

How many domains have sold since Domain Shed opened? What’s the average sale price?

A few domains have been sold, that is pretty good considering that 112 are listed. The price was several hundred dollars each, you have to start somewhere.

Whets your view on the Australian marketplace? People are listing names like “non-conforming-home-loans.com.au” for AU$10,000. Nobody is really going to buy that, even if it was a .com! Do you believe that Aussie domainers have unrealistic expectations?

Well, the domain auction in Australia is just starting, so it will find its level within a few months. A few .au domains have been sold before the rules changed as part of the “business” and they have reached $750,000 and more. All we can do is wait and see.

Do you think that auDA has done enough to relax its policies enough to make selling domain names attractive enough?

It is certainly much better than before the change of the policy, eventually it will became even more attractive to deal in .au domain names.

In your experience, what is the .com.au worth compared with a .com? 1/100th?

Interesting assumption. A web site in New Zealand (Country population 4.2 million) sold for $700 Million. It is a web site, not just a domain name but even in the USA (population 300 million) it is not easy to sell a web site for that amount. So to answer your question.. 1/10th or better is more realistic.

Looking into your crystal ball, what does the future of Australian domaining hold for you?

In the absence of a crystal ball I am looking into my glass of cold beer and it looks beautiful to me.