What to Do with your Domains...

A user just asked me to write a little bit about what to DO w/ domains you've bought - since you don't want to have them up on some shelf gathering dust, here's a few quick ideas

1- park them at Sedo and list them for sale (appears to be a bit lame, but at least it produces statistics that can help you decide which to develop and which are probably stinkers).

2- point them to your existing sites in order to gain type in traffic

3- find cheap hosting someplace like Webintellects.com and develop a site - even if it's just a skeleton, it can begin developing some pagerank in Google

4- get cheap hosting and put a BLOG up in the space

5- create your own "parked page" at your host - GoDaddy allows you a free page you can semi customize - you can put anything from a business card to an ad for something

I'll have to expand more on this later - just wanted to give a quick response. I'm still dealing w/ quite the backlog of work left over from the holidays - but I've got lots of ideas for articles, and hopefully I'll have more time in the next few weeks.

Merry Xmas and Feliz Navidad!

Wow there are actually people reading this blog - I'm delighted about that! While I've gotten a little sidetracked developing a few of my domains (eLanguages.info is going to be an awesome site!) - I have not abandoned this blog and remain as addicted to buying domains as ever! I have a list of about 20 things I'd like to write about, but as I've done NO Christimas shopping, I'll have to return to blogging once I have the holiday thing a bit more under control.

Happy Holidays to all fellow bloggers & readers!

Treasure Hunting: Deleted Domains

Treasure...just the word conjures up ideas of opening a chest buried under the sea for 200 years and having gold medallions and sparkling precious stones fall out. But while the analogy may be accurate in that hidden "treasure" domains may be just as hard to find as real life treasures, in reality these kinds of finds are more akin to the kind of treasures that archaeologists find.

Maybe first you find an interesting clay pot that could be valuable in the future, and later you discover an ancient piece of jewelry that could bring a small profit if you can find a buyer. But you keep searching for gold, even hoping to find King Tut. And you'll probably keep finding clay pots.

The dig itself is also very time consuming and requires tools, patience, and research. There are many websites with searches & lists of deleted domains - here are just a few:

Deleteddomains.com
Stuckdomains.com
Domainbots.com

Most of these websites require you to pay a subscription fee in order to access the full array of deleted domains and tools that they offer. Items such as an updated list of recently deleted "dictionary" words, searches of deleted domains by length as well as keyword, downloadable lists of 3 letter domains, etc.

But even access to all of this information won't tell you the potential value of different domain names, especially ones that aren't obvious at first glance. It is up to you to have an idea either of what kind of words you are going to search for (computer, adult, travel, etc) - or wait and see what catches your eye, and then do some research to see if the word or acronym might be worth acquiring. Especially important can be a knowledge of foreign languages - what sounds like jibberish in English could be a great phrase in another language. Recently I saw that Geld.com sold for around $20,000 - and I thought "what the heck - must be the name of some big company." In fact the word means MONEY in German. Ha - no wonder it sold for 20Gs.

You can find acronyms for businesses & global entities, ones that could command nice money, particularly in a .com ending. But unless you are already familiar with these terms, you'll have to look up potential buys 1 by 1. I usually Google terms that look catchy. For example, I saw B40.org on the deleted list - and thought "huh B40 sounds like something." Sure enough, it's everything from a motor to a typewriter ribbon to a communications receiver. And better yet, there are quite a few people paying for Google Adwords using this term. So I snapped it up. And I've noticed that this domain gets type-in traffic (people tying "B40.org" directly into their browser's internet address bar) every day. I don't know if I'll get a lot of money for this domain, but it definitely has some value. I passed on i-wagers.com, because I'm not all that fond of dashes. Might have been a mistake, as somebody else has already registered it.

You can also do a daily search for words in your given field. Some of mine are Spanish, language, & travel - so I'm always on the lookout for any expirations of good URLS that contain these themes. I try to be semi picky, because just like an archaelogist sifting through a ton of earth, I don't want to get stuck with just a bunch of rocks. But despite the long and arduous work required to sift through deleted domains, I'm sure that among my rocks will be at least a few sparklers.

When You Should Fork to Buy Your Company's Domain

Since the .com version of most names have long been gone, new companies face a dilemma when trying to go online. Do we add a "the" to our name? Do we go w/ the .net., org. etc? Do we add an "inc" to the end? Or should we make an effort to acquire our exact name, whatever the cost?

As anybody doing business online can tell you, your URL does matter. A lot in fact. And whether or not you can go w/ a similar name in a .com or an alternative TLD (ending) depends on what the purpose and scope of the website is. Specifically:

1- Does this website represent a brand name that is a big part of your marketing?
2- Do you want the website to attract traffic to your business, or serve as a place for existing customers and "real world" referrals?
3- Is this website going to be a big part of your business, or more of an advertising brochure?
4- Do you plan to do sales online?

Let's look at an example from a company that I do business with. They are an educational publisher, with a quite nifty product called "Think Spanish," an audio magazine teaching Spanish. Each monthly issue has a nice array of articles about culture, grammar, travel, and vocabulary, presented in a user friendly format with an audio CD with a spoken word version of the magazine in Spanish.

Yet they faced the problem when going online that the domain Thinkspanish.com was already taken, by a nice fellow who had no interest in selling out cheaply. So they took the name Readspanish.com instead, and have done reasonably well with SEO and cross linking, so that their site has acheived a respectable 590,516 ranking in Alexa, and a PR 5 in Google. Not great but not bad for a niche publication.

Meanwhile the guy over at Thinkspanish.com has put up no more than an affiliate site full of links to Amazon DVDs. While his website is easy to navigate and surely helpful for a Spanish student, it is small, has terrible traffic (no data in Alexa - that means you get so little traffic they don't bother to rank you), and only ranks a PR 4 in Google. The bottom line is that the Think Spanish magazine people could do way better with this domain that he does.

And having the URL "Read Spanish" when your product is called "Think Spanish" - is a BIG problem. Imagine the type-in traffic they are losing to the DVD guy! Caramba. While in such a niche industry it may not be the end of the world, their case demonstrates a scenario that crops up all the time. While they might not be able to acquire the actual Thinkspanish.com, I suggested to them that at the very least they acquire the available versions .org, .us, .info, & .biz - and redirect them to the existing Readspanish.com website.

The problem with not acquiring the domain Thinkspanish.com - whatever the cost - is that their company has very little viability as an internet business without this name. While they can use the traffic directed to the current site to acquire new customers, they are not truly building an online presence w/ branding behind it. This is not a good long term strategy. "Real world" businesses would be well advised to keep in mind that their online business can develop both a life and value of its own, and if you don't strategize to build the worth of your website as well as your offline business, you are thinking too small.

Being the e-entrepeneur that I am, who believes in the exponential possibilities of e-business...if I were them I would either fork to buy Thinkspanish.com, or change the name of the magazine to Read Spanish. Since the guy who owns the current URL is clearly making little to no money off of it, a buyout could seem attractive. I would at least try negotiating with him. He is suffering from the exact same problem they are, in that his URL has nothing to do with DVDs - so perhaps they could acquire an alternative URL and use it as a bargaining chip.

Bottom line is that despite the successes you can have with alternative ending websites, owning the .com version of your product name can be an important part of building value in an online business, and one that shouldn't be dismissed out of hand just because you'd rather pay $9.20 for your domain at Godaddy.

Why .info Domains Are a Good Investment

When I first saw the .info domain names being offered, I thought "no way, too many characters. Too UNinternet sounding. Not cool enough. Who needs another TLD anyway?" Boy was I wrong.

In the last year Newyork.info went for $22,000 on Sedo.com Casino.info, over $20,000. At one point it was silly how easy these names were to acquire too! Not much competition, seen as 2nd class citizens in the online world. But the phenomenom of the .info TLD is distinct: they are most valuable in subjects where the .info ending is an EXTENSION of the name. To the user, the difference between Newyork.com and Newyork.info, is that the 1st looks like it would be a portal trying to sell you stuff & give you streaming video; the 2nd looks like legitimate INFO.

.info is also multilingual. Information, información, informazione, etc. Even better.

I've snapped up a few, Elanguages.info probably being the best. They don't offer these in IDNs yet, or I'd have more! I've found that the pickings are already a bit slim in the areas I'm interested in. But I plan to keep scouting, and so should you. Just keep in mind that the .info part needs to read like an extension of the name, or the name isn't nearly as valuable.

Domain Buying Analysis: 1dex.com

1dex.com is a domain I found on a deleted domain list. Scanning these lists is a veeeery tedius and eyeball straining activity, but one that can oncover some potentially valuable domains.

While I'm not all that familiar with the websites & businesses that use the term "dex" - at first glance I thought the URL was just kind of catchy. Upon Googling the word, I soon discovered that the term "dex" is extremely widespread, and indeed could be a valuable find, so I registered it immediately.

The numeral "1" is a strike against it, but that doesn't mean a company wouldn't be willing to part with some cashola in order to acquire this domain. Why is that? Because the term "dex" has nearly 2.7 million entries in Google, it is used as a synonym for "index" - and the name of all sorts of things from Qwest & Verizon directories, to yellow pages, to data exchange companies, and much more.

Whenever you have this many big companies using the term, you know the URL has some value. Just how much value? Well that remains to be seen. This is probably one I'll have to sit on a while. As internet use & world population grows, there will be less and less places for big companies to go if they want a .com name. And 1dex.com has the following things going for it:

1- "dex" is an extremely popular word used by some BIG companies
2- 1dex is short and easy to remember
3- the number "1" indicates the top of the line, best in the pecking order, numero uno, best resource, etc.
4- the domain is a .com

But it's also one of those words where you could only get top value from a company actually planning to USE it. And I don't mean using it for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) type activity, but rather to actually base their company division, name, web operation, directory, etc - on the term "1dex". When and if that day comes, this URL could command some nice bucks. ¡Ojalá! (I hope in Spanish)

Lessons from the Million Dollar Sale of Men.com

Late last year, one exceptionally lucky guy in Florida managed to sell his domain name for $1.3 million (he bought men.com in 1997 for $15,000). Now folks are thinking the dot-com gold rush is back on, and they're ready to pounce on stupid domains like mydomainisdumb.com or ibetI'llsellthisformillions.com. I say hold off on the domain squatting. You are not going to get rich.

from Domain hipe because of 1.3 Million dollar sale

The author goes on to say that the reason a Florida Man got lucky in late 2003 with this awesome sale, is that the domain has very broad appeal, and is short & easy to remember. During my research of the past week I've discovered that shorter can often be better, because there are a lot less 3 and 4 letter domains available. Whenever supply is short, prices tend to rise!

But when he states that people shouldn't waste their time thinking up longer domain names, or including dashes, or even trying to get rich with domain names, I think he's wrong.

While I'm not a fan of dashes, Satellite-phone.com just sold for $2188 on Afternic. I bet the guy or gal who owned it paid $9.20 for that URL on Godaddy...And what about that guy who had Ilovetheiraqinformationminister.com? While I have no clue whether he made money on his website, he was featured on all sorts of TV shows for a time there - which couldn't exactly have hurt whatever business the guy is in.

I don't think you can get rich overnight. But there is definitely money to be made in this market, as demonstrated on Sedo.com each day. Maybe you can't sell 1 URL for a million buckaroos, but if you do your research and stay on it like a dog on a bone...you just might be able to develop a long term portfolio of a hundred good domain names that will end up bringing you between $500 and $2000 per name. And those numbers would average out to $125,000. Those are really rough figures and don't include your registration fees, but I think you can get the idea.

Certainly you're going to buy some stinkers which you end up sitting on forever, or even ditch. But you may even find a gem that commands some nice money - maybe not $1.3 million, but maybe $20 or 30K. And with opportunities opening up in the ccTLD market (I'm personally a bit excited about the possibilities in China w/ their .cn extension), as well as the never ending process of new lingo, current events, etc. - there are always going to be openings in the domain name market for a careful watcher who's not afraid to take an educated gamble.

And the lesson I got from the sale of Men.com is that while the market is way more cautious than it used to be, the waiting game can payout. Imagine - this Florida guy waited 6 years to sell that name! I bet he got tempted to sell it a heck of a lot cheaper at least once, and lucky for him he knew that his name would command a higher value once the market matured. Along these lines I'm hoping my IDN Iré.com ("I will go" in Spanish) has a bright & lucrative future!

Why You Should Register YourName.com

I recently had a discussion with a guy who's a bit of a mover and shaker, freelances for places like ABC News, among others - and believe it or not, he hadn't thought about registering his own name as a URL. I offered the idea that perhaps somebody ELSE would get the bright idea to register it, and put up a "this guy sucks" website, or worse.

I know they've passed some cyber squatting regulations, but I don't imagine it's quick & easy to get somebody evicted from YourName.com even if they don't have your name.

And even for us lesser known folks, it's still a great idea to register your own name, before the other legitimate people w/ the same name as you do. Who knows what you might like to put there - perhaps just a business card. Perhaps a family photo album. Perhaps nothing - but this way, noone else will either. The .com 10 year registration fee (around $90) is certainly worth the price when it comes to securing your own name every 10 years.

IDN Domains - Are Multilingual Domain Names Worth it?

A few years back the answer was clearly NO. Some webmasters today still agree that they are a waste of time. But times may be changing.

Multilingual domains, or "Internationalized Domain Names" - are ones that use accent marks & other multilingual characters like ñ, í, é, etc. These domains are unreadable by the majority of browsers being used today, although you can enable these characters by downloading a plug in from Verisign, called the iNav Plug.

Verisign appears to be getting aggressive about pushing the IDNs into the mainstream, most likely because it will represent a large source of revenue once it catches on, and these domains "in your language" become widely used.

Germany is way ahead of the pack on this one - I'm not sure if German users already have a multilingual URL reading browser, or if they are downloading plugins, but domains with funky characters in them are selling right and left in this market. And while most registrars only support Spanish or French characters in the .com, .net, and way underused .bz endings...Several big registars are now offering German language IDN names in a wider variety of endings, such as the .info one.

This is a good sign! But if you buy a Spanish language URL, like Quépasa.com, which I just bought - your URL doesn't have a heck of a lot of value this very minute. My hope is that this waiting game could prove to be very profitable, as Spanish language internet users are growing around 25% faster than English ones.

My guess is that the company that could push IDNs into the mainstream faster than anyone is Microsoft. If a future version of IE (Internet Explorer, the web browser) had an iNav like plugin already in place - and hence the ability to read multilingual characters in the URL with no additional effort on the part of the user - the values of well positioned multilingual domain names would skyrocket. Perhaps a deal between Verisign & Microsoft is on the horizon...

Domain Buying Analysis: Books.io

Let's look at 1 of the domains on my list: Books.io

Depending on how the market responds to ccTLDs in the future, Books.io could be one of the most valuable domains in my portfolio. Or not... it depends a lot on whether some other .io domains get picked up by mainstream people who

1) can't get the keyword anywhere more mainstream
2) take a liking to how "io" looks & sounds

In 2000, the domain Beauty.cc supposedly went for $1,000,000 - heralding a new age in ccTLDs and their value. Well, not all was as it seemed, and afterwards many things came out about how this may have been a deal between 2 friendlies with a stake in making .cc a mainstream domain. I didn't research it too heavily, but I know that after doing business online for 4 years, I've never come into contact with a .cc site that I surfed regularly or did business with. So much for the day of a $$$ million dollar ccTLD (country "top level domain").

Plus 2000 was before the whole dot.bomb implosion, back when Business.com went for $7,000,000 and the market & prices were super inflated.

But back to Books.io. Here are the reasons why I think this is a valuable domain, even in a bizarro ".io" extension:

1- books are one of the hottest selling things online
2- in some cases they sell BETTER online, as user reviews are unavailable to "real world" shoppers
3- the word "books" is not available in any other ccTLD that isn't super obscure & require an in country presence
4- books.com is owned by Barnes & Noble.

As for the .io ending...if some company wanted to get creative and call themselves something like Books Immediately Online - Books.io - that would give them a lot of incentive to acquire this URL. Ah and one little tidbit: the ".tv" people aka Verisign, are offering Books.tv for a mere $25,000 a year! What a deal!

Bottom line: I wouldn't sell this domain for less than $1000 right now, and if the market moves in a positive direction, I might see a day where I can command up to maybe $10,000 for it. I'm a bit wary of setting my expectations that high though, as MORE ccTLDs, and even regular TLDs can come out at any time, making the ".io" extension nearly worthless. I think it would be great fun to be on the marketing team of one of these extensions...seems like thinking up slogans like "immediately online" for .io could really make a difference. The .bz people have pushed for years to establish their ending as the standard for global business, but then the .biz TLD came out - cutting their legs off, essentially. As the proud owner of Spanish.bz this was not good news...