Unplain

The other day I saw two domain names that screamed easily at me off a list of names expiring I was scanning. Because I’m familiar with both industries (as a touring drummer, and worked janitorial), I was startled to see the names…just sitting there. Then I realized, fortunately for me that whoever else was looking at the names list that day was probably most likely not in those industries. I got both cheap, very cheap. Lol, I know what you’re thinking. What were those names?

PracticeKit.com - Drummers are very familiar with that. A nice name to sell practice kits for those that need quiet practice in apts and/or when dealing with cranky cop-calling neighbors. You can take the towels off the drums now…

PostConstructionCleaning.com - Anybody who’s worth their salt in the cleaning business knows that converted leads for those keywords can pay off pretty handsomely. Not to mention, give you first dibz (familiar?) on getting a permament cleaning contract. 

I would strongly suggest to begin all your searches daily for the keyword names of the niches you are intimately familiar with before you go hog-wild for anything else…

It’s hard to let go of your favorite domain name, like having your spouse getting rid of your favorite old holey t-shirt. 

I heard words lately that made my heart sink. My wife and I had some educational evaluators over to assess our son’s developmental level. Our son’s name is John (like me) but we call him Johnny.

He is now two, but we knew something was amiss. We found out he is learning and speech delayed. 

Unfortunately there is no affordable daycare facility locally that could give him the special attention and care that he needs to get back on track. We tried him in one facility nearby, but only minimal one-to-one attention can be provided. His educational future now hangs in the balance.

Fortunately, my wife Millette is a special ed teacher at an elementary school. She has been teaching learning-disabled kids for more than 10 years. Whats frustrating for her is she can be there for other people’s children daily (no regrets) but she cannot be there for her own son while he falls further and further behind. At night she’ll work with him, but by then, he’s already falling asleep and the attention span is non-existent.

I, on the other hand, still do contract work which keeps me very busy. I’ve taken the time to stay home now to do what I can, but financially it would be shaky to continue that arrangement.

Now, Johnny is normal in every other way he laughs, smiles, plays like a madman, terrorizes the dogs and gives the biggest hugs in the world, except he lacks many skills a two year old should have by now…

I knew right away, what I needed to do.

To make it possible for my wife to take the time out from her teaching career and give me more uninterrupted time to help our son, I’m going to sell a domain name and maybe more if our financial target is not reached.

People who know me, know I buy domain names mostly but sell very few, if at all.

Some people make domain investments to acquire a bigger portfolio. Some sell domains to retire early or roll it into other investments. Some, maybe invest in another more valuable domain. Nothing wrong with that!

I’m investing in my son.

Sure, I can hold onto my valuable domain names and watch them skyrocket in worth over time. I can surely always buy back or buy more domains in the future, but I cannot recover or buy Johnny’s early developmental years back. What Millette and I do now will have a profound effect on his future.

Anyway, I’ve listed a hot and upcoming generic keyword category name where Apple is definitely leading the pack. This name is will go up in value as other companies struggle to catch up.  Just like “mp3 player” or “digital camera”, this one is: “Slim Notebook”. The domain  name is “SlimNotebook.com”

After Steve Jobs intro last week. I’ve watched that keyword term jump by 59,000 results in one day on Google and climbing. Type “slim notebook” in Google, you’ll see what I mean…

You can find the name I posted at Afternic. Remember, while there may be a bidding frenzy going on at various auctions and drops, you just might be able to quietly take this name on the cheap with less bidders while at the same time making it possible to help us. 

Any repost of this blog, any referrals that can be given would really helpful

Prayers appreciated!,

John

 That was interesting…

 The other day I was approached by yet another person promoting the .ws (WebSite) domain extension. The first time was two years ago when a mlm rep. from a company called Global Domains International, Inc (GDI) approached me about a business opportunity of selling domain names. That person didn’t say much but gave me a link to a online presentation about .ws domains. The presentation, in a nutshell, talked about a new opportunity for those that had missed the “.com” party and that .ws was poised to duplicate those good times.

Now this time, the presentation was different but the message was pretty much the same.

Needless to say the presentations did a fantastic job of conveying the usefulness and importance of having a good domain name. Now being a domainer, I knew that the “.com” party wasn’t over and I’m still reaping the benefits of domaining with the .com extension.

Thousands of others non-domainers are not quite aware of that.

I’ve done a little investigating, and found that GDI had ranked #37 on the Inc 500 list in 2002. That was 6 years ago. GDI operates as a MLM or what you would call multi-level marketing company.

In the the 90’s I made good money in MLM and knew the power of geometric growth. I also knew that older companies, like Shaklee, Herbalife and others that had started out small, eventually accelerated years later as the power of geometric growth reached critical mass.

Since GDI is actually still in its infancy,  they’ve already passed the 5 year mark that usually determines if a mlm company will survive… or not. 

GDI has thousands of reps on a daily basis promoting the .ws domain names and they’re still growing.

Most of the .ws domain names being bought, are by small businesses that couldn’t procure the .com version. Those businesses eventually joined as reps themselves and since small businesses communicate pretty well with each other, the cycle of buying, referring and selling continues. 

Right now I know of no other company with a massive sales force bigger than all other domain extensions combined. But .ws still doesn’t match the market branding of .com, .net, .org and .tv. Not yet that is.

So far of what I’ve notice about .ws names is, that most businesses buying .ws still don’t know the power of generic domain names. Generic .ws names are still widely available unregged or on the cheap in the aftermarkets.

Now, I’m not saying .ws is going to rule the world or take over .com, but I would say, you may want to keep an eye on ‘em. I wouldn’t quite dismiss .ws as being an orphan. Far from it.

Remember, I was exposed twice to .ws by non-domainers. MLM companies pride themselves on the massive exposure of their products by personal recommendations instead of traditional advertising.

Hmmm, we’ll see what happens with .ws…..

There lurks among us a kind of creature so numerous, these creatures have the ability to really create massive domain awareness. I swear, if there were ever a nuclear holocaust, it wouldn’t be cockroaches that’ll survive and rule the earth. It would be these creatures:

 Real estate agents!

Your vast majority of agents have no idea that there is a huge market place of domain names! Although we’ve had unbelievable domain name sales with big sales numbers taking place, they’re barely reported in the news. It would be unfair to rely on just the domain auction houses to make everyone aware of domain names. It’s not like they have this endless supply of money to reach every possible interested person in the world! So, with that said, lets look at some key points and an idea that WE as domainers, that do not sit on domain organization boards, can do.

First off, real estate agents have a large contact list. They  already understand the concept of buying, selling, flipping, developing, packaging, escrow and all that good stuff.

This moment in time, yes this time, is unprecedented. Why? Because the housing market is so bad, and with no better prospects in sight, real estate agents are surely an attentive audience.

The other day, I was sitting in my local Starbucks and this guy, who I always saw sitting there reading the paper, day after day, started to make chit chat. I found out he’s an agent and also does real estate investments on the side. He asked me what I did. I told him that I too, am in real estate. I buy, develop and sell domain names. Then I showed him on his own laptop the weekly domain name sales report from DNjournal.com .

He almost dropped his latte.

He personally knew investors with millions of dollars that were looking for other investment vehicles. He also generally knew quite a bit of people that were not domainers but had a domain name here and there. The gerbil in his head was running on the wheel fast and furious.

See where this is going?

I didn’t have to say much, I just showed him the numbers. That’s all.

I briefly mentioned creditcards.com and business.com and how their names alone sold for millions and when they were developed, sold for even more, much much more.

Ok. 

Now, we as domainers are a sizable group, however, we’re a closed group. I have yet to run into anyone personally that understood the value of domain names. Online yes, offline no. Online I had to know what to search for. Offline, how much harder?

Why real estate agents? The mindset is there, not to mention, they’re desperately seeking another way to earn. They only need a small push from offline properties to online properties. The same can be done with investors, flippers and so forth. All of them have their own marketing ideas. Give them the info and let them run with it.

Here’s what we can do:

First, get off our asses from behind the computer.

Second, put a domain name sales report together gathered from various sources. Be sure to put your web or blog address on the report for more info about buying and selling domain names. Your listed address will serve you very well in the future.

Third, find a credit card that actually has some money left on it and put some gas in your car.

Fourth, drop them off on a weekly basis at your local real estate offices and even mortgage brokers. You do not need to say anything. The report will create conversations and curiosity. Since they’ll see you’re not selling anything, they’ll wonder.

If we all do this as a group on a regular basis. We’ll build trust, domain name buyers/sellers and grow a possible end-user buyer referral list….

Something else, what if these agents were to sell YOUR names for commission. You can give a much bigger cut since you’re only carrying a registration fee not a mortgage :).

Let your imagination go wild.

Hey, do me a favor and post in the comments of what you’re doing to do your part to create domain awareness.

Well, I’m off to deliver my reports!

Would it be wise to not invest in domain names while the economy is in trouble? NO, actually this is the best time to buy domain names! While the doom and gloom will no doubt cause many domainers to offload their names on the cheap, this is when you and I go in and, in the words of Frank Schilling, “Back up the truck!”. It’s just like the stock market. You must make calculated decisions to try to buy  as many quality domains at lower prices during the bad times and sell high at the right moment during the good times :). Now that doesn’t mean offering ridiculously low prices to every seller of premium names out there, but it might just mean that some sellers will be a little more motivated to sell…

Yikes! This domain name tactic has finally made the news at msnbc.com in the tech section…

Here’s the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22608368/

I’ve discovered from personal research that it is easier to get others to remember letters+keywords.com as opposed to keywords.net, .org, etc. The big problem with registering names with other extension besides .com is the horrible leakage. For those that are not familiar with leakage (not the kind that requires wearing Depends diapers), leakage occurs when people type in .com after the keyword instead of the correct extension given. Here’s an example: Lets say I advertise “whatever.net” or “whatever.mobi”. A good portion of my ad dollars will go to “whatever.com” because most people will intuitively type in .com . Another thing, breached of email confidentiality. What if a competitor to your line of business grab the .com version of your name and a prospect or customer sent you important email to .com? you’re screwed. Anyway, let’s get back to the real reason for this post: creating your own domain extension. The best ones to start out with are e,i,4,a,my,2,1. example: eChiropractor.com, iChiropractor.com, and 4Chiropractor.com, etc. If those are gone, try the back of the keywords with different variations i.e. ChiropractorZone.com, ChiropractorPlus.com and so forth. Use your imagination. I give you these ideas, not from a domain investors standpoint but as an enduser of these domain names. So, why be pidgeon-holed and forced to register other domain extensions with the possibility of lost traffic? Now, if you have 4, 5, or 6 figures to spend on a great generic .com domain name like “chiropractor.com” then go for it! But if not, at least all is not lost.

Oh boy, my birthday is today. Know what that means? To me it means three more years and I’ll be forty. Gosh , I remembered how traumatized I was when I hit thirty. Forty? I mean its nice that my auto insurance rate keeps dropping but I would rather look like I was 13 with refusals to be let into niteclubs to boot.  

 Now, here’s a great qualifying domain name on a billboard seen in my neighborhood. I say qualifying because the name says it all without any explanation whatsoever and tells those looking for low cost cars in austin that this is the place to go. These types of names are valuable to advertisers as they lend themselves well to direct response types of ad campaigns. Domain names that double as attention getting headlines are valuable as well. Now don’t get me wrong, when it comes to local advertising, the name “cars.com” is fantastic but when advertising side by side with say a name like “austincheapcars.com” which name do you think local austinites will go to first? Remember, I’m not talking about type-ins, I’m merely stating that if relying on advertising alone, qualifying names are most likely to get more clicks. There are other variables that come into play but that’ll be another post on another day. Opinions are welcomed…

Heh heh, It happened. I was watching The Morning Show this morning. The discussion was about faceblindness, the hostess quoted  ”faceblind.com” instead of “faceblind.org” which they had shown on screen briefly before the discussion. This is another example that show why .com is so valuable and its marketing strength completely overwhelms other dot extensions. Not the last time it’ll happen….