Unplain

Now here’s a question.

I KNOW this has crossed our minds.

If a cybersquatter or what we would call a very unethical domainer, could register trademarked or typo trademarked names, whats to stop them from making a $1500 dollar bet on a six figure name?

If you think about it, whats ten grand to file some UDRPs on names and all you really need is a bad panel on at least one name?

Put this in your pipe and smoke it.

If you think it’ll never happen. Ask yourself this. Would you believe a serial killer if that person said they’ll stop killing after killing 20 people? Now would you believe the cybersquatter that regs thousands of name unethically that they’ll never cross that line and file a UDRP?

Sounds like a very bad chess game…

Any thoughts?

In reference to my last posting about Google looking beyond .com, this time a domain hack is at #1 for a very common name… (read to the end, I’ll post there)

Now I’m not showing these things to devalue .com, but I do want these examples to serve as a wakeup call for those that park their names OR put very little thought into their development.

There’s domainers out there that are taking what others think are less valuable dot tld extensions (net, info, org, biz, ws, tv and odd foreign ones) with super premium keywords, developing them and generating far more in revenue then the super premium name with the .com attached to it.

If you wait too long to develop, it’ll be that much harder to be in the top ten serps. Anyone with any dot tld extension can simply, with good content, zoom to the top.

Let me say this: .com is still king especially for worldwide popularity, advertising campaigns, easier recall and so forth.

When it comes to serps, .com is still more credibile in the eyes of most people when deciding which to click.

Here’s the domain: Go to Google and type in MATT. You’ll see ma.tt at #1.

TIP: If you go to the domain forums and you see some poor old domainer who is trying to offload a list of premium keyword domains with dot tld extensions other than .com on the cheap, think twice before skipping to the next post.

K, I’m gonna take a break here and go fix me a tomato sandwich…

I’ve been seeing other TLD extensions rise in google over .com. Keep an open mind to all .extensions.

In response to a posting at the Domainer’s Gazette, Here, I had responded to #1 on the list.

“lol , I had the same feelings for extensions other than .com BUT, from my SEO work and studying the serps, I’ve started seeing google is now becoming less biased towards even foreign extensions.

Slowly I started investing in strong one or two word keywords in various extensions.

Heres something I noticed today: I typed “tilapia” in google, getting info for cooking, lo and behold I spotted tilapia.ws at #3, I found that very interesting considering tilapia.com is a developed site but it got trumped and was no where in the top 10 results. I don’t go hog wild with other extensions but have been choosing high click payout/high conversion value keywords…

Something for us to think about… “

In my ongoing quest to raise funds for my son (see this) 

I’m posting up this name for sale on Afternic with a low minimum, low reserve of 750.00

This means if I get a single bid before midnight tonight, I will have to let the auction run its course and honor for whatever it sells for!

Heh, heh - I’m playing chicken for 12 hours. Okay 11 hours and 45 min…

No bids by midnight (Apr16th 12am) then the minimum goes up up up…

 Have fun!

Click here for auction listing - Apr15th.com

I read an interesting article today about how researchers have managed to classify three types of searches found from search engines. What I get from it is, that the biggest chunk of searches is informational, which is about 80%.

If you develop your domain names first from an informative point of view, as oppose to just being navigational only (parking) which is only 10%, you’ll be able to convert a larger number of clicks when the search turns from being informational to navigational/transactional.

Only if your information is good. If its crap, the searchers will usually back-up and find a better informative site before going on to navigate or transact, thus a lost click and revenue for you.

I hope this make sense to you. If not then go watch some TV and forget what I said

Heres the article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080410115336.htm

On Godaddy’s TDNAM domain aftermarket, be careful when you’re about to checkout with the “buy it now/bid” button. Lol, after finding out about this new “buy it now/bid” option for expired names, I went and found a great generic/traffic name with a starting bid of about $xx.  But of course, not wanting to get into a bidding war and paying the price of a million dollar camel, I clicked and selected the “buy it now”…

Thinking I would get the name for $xx cost, I simply selected the “agree” box at bottom like I always do when buying names at TDNAM.

What I didnt know, since it was a new feature, there was a “buy it now” price I didnt see <tongue in cheek>.

I got the name for $xxx.

oops, gotta pay the piper.

I didnt lose anything though since name types like these are worth mid $xxxx.

So, beware if you’re eyeing up a big expensive name, you might initially have to throw your favorite “dollar store” wallet in the wood chipper…

Today I took possession of a lovely red kidney in a igloo cooler. I’ve managed to trade “idiotU.com” for it.

I’m still trying to figure out how to monetize it.

Also another problem I’m dealing with. Should I park it in the freezer along with my ice cream and meats? OR should I trade another domain name away to pay for the storage of the kidney.

 Brilliant!

I just now realized I could generate traffic to the front of my house at my domainade stand if I put the kidney on a stick and shove it into my front lawn…

Any other ideas?

Should “city.com” type domain names be in the hands of their local governments or in the hands of domainers.

Why?

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I’m not sure why, but it seems that every friend of mine that wanted to try their hand at domaining wound up registering trademarked names that were available or unflattering trademarked name combos. Why is that?

I had a close friend who was my business account banker at my local Chase bank registered a few years ago the name “aolgoogle.com” I told him he was asking for trouble. He said that since Google had a minor investment in AOL, he figured they would come knocking and offer him a crapload of money for the name.

Wrong.

The name combo had some traffic but he was playing with fire.

Sure enough, they came-a-knocking. He sent me a copy of  the complaining email and asked what to do. Before I could respond, he fired off an expletive filled email back to the complaining lawyer basically saying to the effect to “eats his shorts” amongst other sayings.

Lol, I pretty much told my friend that it was over and to just turn over the name and be done with it.

Anyway to make a long story short, the complainant got the name quite easily. Good.

Last year I had two acquaintances who were new to domaining started registering names that were trademarked and unflattering word combos. With the hopes they could cash in with the complaining companies paying them off to get those unflattering somewhat libelous names back…

sigh.

I’ve explained what was wrong to all the unnamed domainers listed above.  Cybersquatting? Extortion? oops!

Attention new domainers!

Get good generic names. You cannot go wrong. Stay away from any trademarked or questionable names. Because if you do register TM names, you may just get screwed with alot more than the threat of names being taken away from you. 

 Hey, before I forget, signup for my emails on the form shown below. Why? Cuz I’ll tell you stuff you won’t see on the blog.

That means the thousands of people who read blogs that don’t signup simply won’t be “in the know” with a few things. But you will…

  ooookay… This has happened more than once to me, like alot.

Previously, before my current situation,  I’ve contacted owners of .com names.  The last owner I’ve contacted, had the name parked, nothing special but the site was very useless in terms of what people were looking for. It was a small city.com like less than 50,000 pop with very little traffic. Oddly he answered the phone and said “wrong number”. lol, the number on the whois changed within the hour.

What to do? I sent an offer through the email and was prepared to send the offer in a nice thick manila envelope with the offer enclosed… Come to find out, the address was false.

The next day, all the info was hidden by a “proxy” service…

Hmmm, now if I was a city official, I’d be pissed and the impression would be that, the person was up to no good and is trying to cash in on the city’s “good name”.

Don’t get me wrong, we domainers have every right to privacy and can do whatever we darn well please.

BUT, is this the image we want to portray to the world? Kind of shadowy, seedy, run-from-the-light-into-the-crack  behavior, which could very well have added to the “Snowe bill”?

Unfortunately, when I deal with some domainers, I still get that skittish, I-dont-really-want-you-to-know-more-than-my-forum-name, kind of attitude…

Very few domainers I know of, are like open books.

Good domainers, I believed sadly, are vastly outnumbered, especially by the “accidental cybersquatters” which I’ll mention in my next blog…

So? what do you guys think?

By the way - signup to get my emails. I got some really cool stuff to share. Some experimental domain projects and killer domain sales here and there. Want to learn to earn off your domain names without parking or “painful developing”?

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