Common Abbreviations & Mister Steamy

Elliot Silver
-
0

Mister SteamyThe holiday season commonly features many infomercials and other television commercials featuring products to purchase online or over the telephone. There is a lot of remnant television time to purchase at great rates, and we generally see more commercials such as the one for the Prayer Cross discussed on my blog on Sunday.

One commercial I recently saw was for a laundry product called “Mister Steamy,” and of course they use the MisterSteamy.com domain name, which the company registered in March of 2008. Unfortunately for the makers of Mister Steamy, the company didn’t take into account the common abbreviation people in the US use for the word Mister, which is Mr.

It seems that someone in Shanghai, China was able to register the domain name MrSteamy.com in November of 2009, taking advantage of the typo traffic from the infomercials and television commercials. Making matters worse for the laundry product makers is the fact that the PPC advertising for MrSteamy.com is X-Rated, as Mr. Steamy could certainly be a porn name.

One reason I don’t like geodomain names (or other names) that have common abbreviations like Saint and Fort is because many people may abbreviate those using St. or Ft. If you don’t own both versions of the domain name, you risk losing traffic to the alternative. It’s a shame the makers of Mister Steamy didn’t think about this and spend the additional $8/year to register the other domain name, which was available.

WordPress 2.9.1 Update Ready

Elliot Silver
-
0

As you may recall, I blogged about the problem I encountered when I updated my blog to WordPress 2.9. In a nutshell, my posts were missing their schedule, which happened once before after a blog overhaul. I have since found a fix to the issue (well, my designer/programmer found it), but I am still cautious as a result.

I just noticed that WordPress is urging people to update to WP 2.9.1 now with a notice at the top of the Admin dashboard. If you are thinking about making the upgrade, it’s advisable to see what features were changed and to evaluate whether it’s worth the bit of risk that could accompany any upgrade.

If you do decide to upgrade to 2.9.1, make sure you back your site up first before you push the button. Trust me, one small issue can cause hours of work for you or for your programmer. You were warned!

Finding a Domain Owner Using Archive.org

Elliot Silver
-
0

When trying to buy a domain name from a person or company in private, I frequently come across private registrations. I usually use the Whois history tool to see if there was an email address previously on file. I concurrently visit the website to see if there is contact information on the page.

Oftentimes people or companies acquired a generic domain name many years ago, and sometimes their projects failed or the domain name isn’t being used any longer. When the Whois history tool doesn’t help and there isn’t any current contact information on the website (or the site doesn’t resolve), there is one great option to find contact information: Archive.org.

Simply visit Archive.org and search for previous iterations of the website. You may find a phone number, email address, or the name of people previously involved with the website and domain name. This information can be used to inquire about a domain name.

Think about it this way. Most of the low hanging fruit has already been plucked. The great generic domain names that may still be acquired are out there, but many require sleuthing and research. Archive.org is another great tool to use to contact domain owners.

Why You Should Attend a Domain Conference

Elliot Silver
-
0

Although networking with other domain investors is high up on the list of reasons to attend a domain conference, in my opinion, there is one primary reason. Attending a domain conference gives you the opportunity to meet your sales representatives and managers for the companies with whom you do your domain business.

Whether your business primarily relies on domain investing, parking, or other monetization, you can meet the people who can help you when you are in need.

For my domain registrations, I primarily register my names with Moniker. No matter who is running the conference or where it is, I almost always see my account manager Bari Meyerson at the shows. Monte Cahn is frequently there as are other Moniker representatives, but it’s always good to connect with Bari. I also register some names with Godaddy, and my representative, Brad Larson is frequently in attendance.

The same thing goes for domain parking, although you already know by now that I don’t rely on parking for much revenue (under $1,000 per year). However, just about all of the companies are there and have company representatives available to answer questions and address complaints.

I know that if I ever have a problem, I am comfortable calling or emailing Bari and Brad day or night, and I know my issue will be addressed almost immediately. When you establish a personal relationship with the services companies with whom you do business, you are more easily able to reach your sales managers in times of need.

In addition, if your business relies on advertising from companies who exhibit and attend domain tradeshows, this is an opportunity to tell them about your website. If you own DomainInvesting.com and plan to develop a website on it, your best bet is to connect with the right people at the domain show to let them know about your plans and advertising opportunities.

Likewise, attending an industry tradeshow can also be smart when you are developing other domain names in different verticals. Most tradeshows offer free exhibit hall passes, allowing you to meet with vendors who may want to advertise on your website. This is a topic for another post.

Upcoming domain conferences where most domain companies will be in attendance include:

Buying Domains at Bankruptcy Auctions

Elliot Silver
-
14

I spent some time with someone who mentioned that his company filed for a strategic bankruptcy in the past year. Although I have recently come to know this person and his family pretty well in just the past two years, I had known of his company since I was a kid because of his company’s regional television commercials. In fact, I was joking around with him by imitating some of the lines that were frequently used in his commercials.

When we were talking about the bankruptcy, I asked him about his company’s fairly generic domain name (contained part of his brand but would have been defensibly generic since many other companies use the term). He mentioned that it sold for $3,000 in a bankruptcy auction, along with other business assets (both intellectual property and tangible equipment and goods).

After doing some research, it seems the site still gets about 2,000 visits per month and has a ton of back links. I feel the name would have been worth at least $10,000 to a domain investor based on traffic alone.   I was a bit bummed because I would have bid on the name had I known about the auction, and I could have used the site for lead generation, which probably would have yielded several hundred dollars in commissions or referrals each month. This was a very targeted business, and customers would spend thousands of dollars on services. Operating this type of business was difficult with this economy, but the leads that continue to come to the site have value – especially since the bankruptcy was fairly quiet.

Long story short is that domain investors should monitor bankruptcy auctions. Toys.com was won in a bankruptcy auction – one that most people didn’t know about at first. A few months ago, I learned of a bankruptcy auction via Google Alert for Friedmans.com and CrescentJewelers.com, two bankrupt jewelry stores whose websites at one time had significant web traffic. I didn’t place a bid on the auction, but it’s good to know about them anyway, especially if you run a jewelry business.

As more and more companies file for bankruptcy, there are bound to be good deals on domain names that people may never learn about. It’s equally important to research the company’s history and customer service situation to prevent buying a hot potato, but in some cases, the quality domain name will outweigh the risk.   Bankruptcy auctions would seem to be another source for domain acquisitions.

Get a Gravatar!

Elliot Silver
-
6

Yesterday, Josh wrote a comment on my blog directed at another commenter who used the initials “JP” in his comment, “Curious who you are, I see a lot of comments on boards by ” jp ” and since I am known by JP myself I have people getting us confused so I switched to just my name. Who are you ?”

It’s a good point from Josh, but I can’t blame JP from using his initials, as he has done for quite some time when commenting on my blog. It gets confusing when people respond with just a name, moniker or initials. People may assume one person is responding when it’s someone else.

This is the primary reason for why you should sign up and get a Gravatar. Connected to your email address, a Gravatar is a small logo graphic that appears next to your name in a comment on many WordPress blogs. Gravatars are free to use and quick to make.

Take 5 minutes sometime soon and get yourself a Gravatar.

1...159160161...214Page 160 of 214