Driving Traffic with Facebook Places

Elliot Silver
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10

I want to share a little “trick” if you own a directory website that lists public destinations or places, and it may be able to help drive targeted traffic to your website.

In a fashion similar to Google, Facebook has something called “Places,” which includes the address, a map, phone number, website, and fields for other information that can help people learn about the place.  These public and sometimes private places are locations that Facebook users can visit and/or tag/check-in. In most cases, there aren’t owners of these places pages, so there’s no real moderation.

I’ve found that many dog parks are listed as places. When I search Google, DogPark.com listings are often in the top ten results, as are competing websites, and a Facebook Places listing. In most cases, the Facebook places listing has a field for “Add Website.” I’ve been adding the dog park url on DogPark.com to these dog park places listings, and it should help drive traffic to the website.

I think this could potentially be a good traffic opportunity for people who have directory websites that list public places and locations. It benefits the place and also benefits my website as well.

Comparing Domain Investing to Two of My Favorite Television Shows

Elliot Silver
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3

I would bet there are a lot of fans of Discovery’s popular television shows  Gold Rush and Bering Sea Gold  who also invest in domain names. I thoroughly enjoy both shows, watching the episodes as soon as I have time, without commercial  interruption.

The idea that people can go up into Alaska and dig deep down into the earth or sea to find something of the highest value is captivating television. Teams of gold seekers use various tools and techniques to pull out as much gold as possible, capitalizing on today’s high gold prices. These gold miners risk life and limb, literally, to find this buried treasure. It’s exciting to watch.

The  parallels  between these gold miners and domain investors is also something I’ve noticed. When you go up to Alaska’s Klondike, you can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment and you are guaranteed nothing. Similarly, you can visit a domain registrar like Name.com or an aftermarket like Afternic and spend thousands of dollars on domain names, with no guarantee of a profit.

The biggest asset a domain investor has is his knowledge of the market. If he knows what domain names have value and where they can be sold to maximize this value, a lot of money can be made. Likewise, a gold miner who sets his equipment up on the right claim can turn dirt and water into gold very quickly, making significant profits in a short period of time. While it may look easy to make profits, it’s really not as simple as it looks.

When I watch these gold miners struggling to find enough gold to tred water, it makes me realize how lucky I am to do what I do. There is similar financial risk with domain investing, but there isn’t the physical labor required to turn a profit. I certainly consider myself lucky to be involved in this business.

Much like a seasoned gold miner might caution a greenhorn, I would also caution “newbies” looking to make quick money investing in domain names. There may not be the physical risks that exist with mining for gold, but there are plenty of potential pitfalls.

Before spending money on domain investments, I recommend new investors take a lot of time to research the market and learn what domain names are valuable and more importantly, what makes them valuable. Anyone can buy domain names. Not everyone can make money with their domain names.

…with a nod to Frank for the idea.

Stay Focused!

Elliot Silver
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10

One of my biggest struggles is staying focused on a particular project. I’ve probably handicapped myself by building several websites in different verticals, but I think keeping focused is a key to making money.

If you haven’t read Frank Schilling’s latest blog post, I think you should take some time to read it. While there, you might want to re-read some of the archived posts, but today, I want to discuss the importance of staying focused.

Frank wrote something that gave me pause: “blogging is an opportunity to vent and reflect, but when you’re venting and reflecting you’re not growing.” For Frank, blogging may be more of a distraction from his business than a way to grow his business. For me, blogging has become a business. For all of us, there are many things that distract us from our various businesses. Sometimes it’s career-related and other times it’s family-related. These distractions usually can’t be avoided, but there are times when other distractions cause us to lose focus.

Many of us spread ourselves too thin, especially when it comes to our domain businesses. We build many websites and hope to get some Google love, to result in traffic and revenue. We tend to neglect some of these websites over time and hope for the best. I don’t think that’s the wise approach.

My feeling is that if you are going to choose a domain name to develop, make it something you are passionate about and stay focused on it. Continue to build it out and turn it into a hobby. A great hobby is one that is profitable, so worry about earning money after it’s established. Focus on making a great website that others want to visit, and the money should come.

If you are like me and have a tendency to jump from project to project, think about Frank’s post and try to stay focused. Create a plan for your website before launching it and stick to your plan. Quality begets quantity. One great website with fresh content and insight will almost certainly be better than a bunch of scattered website projects.

Stick to something you enjoy and focus on it. This will help you grow and improve your business.

Guest Post: Why Priced Domains Sell Better, Faster

Elliot Silver
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10

This is a guest post from Jason Miner, who oversees Afternic’s Sales, Business Development & Customer Service departments while also guiding the Product and Development teams. With over 6 years at Afternic and more than 15 years of senior management experience, Jason brings adept leadership skills to the helm of Afternic.

Online Pricing Models:   Auction/Un-priced vs. Buy it Now

For over a decade, online companies including eBay and Amazon have experimented with “buy it now” (BIN) pricing vs. auction/un-priced listings. The auction/un-priced model may be falling by the wayside though, as online shoppers have come to expect that websites will offer the ability to make online purchases instantly. This only makes sense since the majority of ecommerce sites are set up like this.

One major indicator that online shoppers prefer “buy it now” (BIN) pricing is that eBay – the world’s most famous online auction platform – dedicated a large portion of its marketing budget in 2011 toward a “Buy it new. Buy it now.” marketing campaign; and, in 2011, 62% of eBay listings were BIN prices vs. 43% in 2008!

Why Choose Fixed Prices for Domains?

Web design best practices include limiting the number of actions a visitor must take to accomplish a purchase. Requiring a potential buyer to bid or request a price before they can make a purchase just adds an extra step to the purchase process – one that some customers may not be willing to take.

This is one of the main reasons why priced domains sell faster and for higher average sales prices. Pricing your domains up front makes transactions faster and easier for both parties because priced domains meet domain buyers’ expectations for a smooth, fast purchase process.

Fixed Prices Mean Higher Sales Prices

Buyers are always looking for a deal. If there is no price, you are likely to get an offer far below the figure or threshold you have in mind. This is why setting price expectations by setting a fixed price usually eliminates the need to entertain lowball offers.

When the price is set by the seller, the buyer understands the expectations and will usually make a more reasonable offer, resulting in better negotiations and eventually a higher sales price.

Fixed Prices Give You a Larger Audience

Afternic’s Domain Listing Service (DLS) offers domain sellers the largest audience for their names. Only priced domains are eligible to participate in Afternic’s Premium Promotion program, however. Premium Promotion puts your names in front of over 35 Million potential buyers per month across a network of partner sites.

This unmatched exposure to buyers who are actively seeking for domain names, greatly improves the chances that your domain will sell faster.

Send an email to Afternic to learn more about how to price your domains.

DogGroomers.com: Feedback Request

Elliot Silver
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46

I’d love to hear some feedback regarding one of my projects, DogGroomers.com, a website that helps dog owners find a local dog groomer. The site has been live for a year, and it isn’t gaining the traction I would have expected (fewer than 20 paid listings).

For starters, DogGroomers.com was built using the same platform/theme I used on DogWalker.com, a site that’s had over 800 paid listings in the last 2+ years. The content is entirely different of course, but I made nearly the same efforts for both sites in terms of SEO, social networking, marketing, and outreach. Search volume is greater for dog walking keywords, but it’s not all that significantly different.

One conclusion I’ve made is that dog walkers can generate more business per lead than dog groomers, so they may be more willing to spend $49/year than dog groomers would. However, there are plenty of dog groomers who advertise on Google and on other local publications, so I don’t know if this is valid.

Traffic for DogWalker.com is about 5x that of DogGroomers.com, and I attribute much of that to significantly more content and better search rankings. IMO, the rankings on DogGroomers.com should be higher to drive more traffic and interest.

I would be grateful to you if you would be willing to share your thoughts on how I can make DogGroomers.com more successful.

Another Way to Use End User Lead Generation Website

Elliot Silver
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4

I previously discussed how I used the Estibot lead generation tool* and how I used LeadRefs.com to find buyers for domain names I was looking to sell. I also discussed how you might go about using the tool to find a buyer. I want to share an “alternative” way to successfully use tools like these to sell domain names.

When you are considering the purchase of a domain name in the aftermarket (like via auction or a private sale), you might want to plug the domain name into the tool to see if there will be adequate leads for a sale. I don’t know what number would be considered adequate, but I would think 20+ leads means you’d have a solid chance of finding a buyer.

You might also want to see if those similar domain names are developed and who owns them.  If a company understands that a descriptive, keyword domain name will have value to them, they might also want to buy this one if you are able to buy it at a good price and re-sell it.

Once you find some of these leads, you might take a next step and review a domain name sales history website like NameBio  to see if any of those other domain names are listed as past sales. This can give an indication of when and how much the owner paid. You can and should do a Whois History search to see when the other domain names were acquired.

While it’s great that another company values keyword domain names, I believe there is a difference whether they hand registered the name(s) several years ago or bought it in the aftermarket. I think the later is more  indicative  of a company’s willingness to spend money on domain names now.

Keep in mind that you don’t want to email potential buyers before you buy the domain name. I don’t think that’s a smart move, especially because they might try to buy the name on their own. Additionally, I don’t believe you can use either tool for unregistered names, so you can’t use it to find buyers for names you want to hand register.

*Note: I took the first article down after comments were expressed that I made it sound too easy while my success was predicated on the quality of my domain names.

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