WordDial co-founder poised to start dedicated numeric domain forum and association: domains registered

Dean Kilworth, a co-founder and director of New Zealand-based WordDial, recently became the registrant of several domains that imply that there may one day be a forum and industry association for numeric domainers.

The domains in mention, Numericdomainersforum.com, Numericdomainersassociation.com and Numericdomainassociation.com, were registered earlier this month via Dotster on December 12 and 13. Although the domains - seven in all including .net and .org tlds - are parked, there is one thing we learned about the WordDial folks: they've bought more domains than perhaps any entity on this earth and they don't register domains for no or little reason. These domains were apparently registered for their intended purpose.

Is there a sufficiently large interest group out there to take advantage of a dedicated numeric domain forum or association? The discussing and posting of sales listings of numeric domains already takes place daily on various domain forum websites including DNForum.com, however serious analysis of the industry only occurs here at Jamptap and at Numericdomains.com run by Scott Smith, a numeric domain name investor and blogger. From our perspective, there are two categories of numeric domain investors: those who hold dotcom wordnumbers and those who own numeric domains that don't spell common brands and generic words (often these are NN.tld, NNN.tld, and NNNN.tld domains). Potentially these two types of investors may be in large enough numbers that a centralized forum - where discussion is centered on news, issues and most importantly buying, selling, trading and also appraising numeric domains - would be worthwhile.

The idea of an association for numeric domainers, however, is even more interesting. Think power in numbers. If the constituent 'forces' came together within the numeric domain industry, which comprises investors and internet companies like WordDial and others whose existence depends on the successful uptake of the wordnumber idea, perhaps they could break down the walls of resistance. Mobile users, wireless carriers and internet companies might be convinced to shed their addiction to lengthy web addresses (e.g., URLs requiring tapping 10 or more times for the combined 2nd and 3rd level domains) and instead take advantage of numeric domains if all numeric domainers were on the same page. For instance, press releases and other communications could be coordinated within a cohesive strategy of marketing the idea of wordnumbers (including dotcom wordnumbers) and the ease of its application to the mobile web. Membership dues could be put towards advertisements on mobile content news sites and blogs. The association could serve as a trusted third-party for overseeing contracts, negotiations and disputes for lease and partial ownership deals between companies whose numeric domain portfolios are far from complete and numeric domain investor members.


Data from website ranking company Compete shows that WordDial, which has waited a very long time for the market to ripen, is experiencing declining unique visitor counts since this past summer. In light of this disappointing statistic, perhaps WordDial's decision to seek new alliances is a step in the right direction. Collaborate and together numeric domainers will find success.