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5 Tips to Get Direct Advertising Deals

Elliot Silver
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6

In my opinion, people who develop websites that aren’t selling products or offering a special service should strive to bring on advertisers directly in lieu of pay per click advertising or Adsense. Forget about ad networks, cut out the middle man, and you will greatly increase your revenues.

The first step is arguably the most difficult – building a website with unique content that ranks well in search engines and has consistent, growing traffic. I believe that once this has been accomplished, getting advertisers to directly place banners or links on your website is where you will make the most revenue. If your site is bringing targeted traffic, there are advertisers who would like the attention of this traffic.

Here are 5 tips to getting direct advertising deals:

1) Do a Google search for 10-15 keyword phrases related to your website and identify the companies that are paying for advertising on the top and side of Google. Don’t just use the most obvious searches. Search for complimentary services as well, since those advertisers might be interested in advertising on your site as well. For my blog, I would search for keywords such as hosting, web development…etc. Visit those advertisers’ websites, and on the About Us or Management page, find the person responsible for Marketing/Advertising and call him to let him know about your website and rates.

2) Scout out your competitors’ websites to see who is advertising directly on those sites, and see how your site stacks up on public analytics websites such as Alexa and Compete. Compare your PageRank and search engine positioning with theirs. Find out what they charge, and based on the ranking comparison, price your advertisements accordingly. Create a pitch sheet with these stats, your website’s traffic, and email the Marketing/Advertising Manager for those companies and tell them about your website and competitive rates.

3) Learn about the leaders for the industry in which your website is located. See if they operate affiliate programs, and if so, sign up for those programs and add their banners prominently on your website. Depending on the performance of those banners, set your direct advertising rates accordingly to make sure you aren’t losing money by going direct. Reach out to some of the smaller companies who compete with the affiliate companies on your site, to let them know you’d prefer to go direct with them and will take down their competitors’ banners.

4) If your website is in an industry in which you do business, speak with your Account Representative or someone at the company that works with you, and let them know you are looking to bring on advertisers on your related website. Either offer them special deals in exchange for customer incentives or do some sort of product trade if they aren’t able/willing to pay for advertising. Eventually competitors will follow suit if your website has targeted traffic.

5) Probably the easiest way is to add an easy to see “Advertise” link, allowing site visitors to easily contact you about advertising opportunities. Make sure you have a form to get enough information about who is inquiring, and make sure you contact them ASAP – preferably by phone. Tell the potential advertiser your goals for the site as well as the analytics, and share your passion for whatever the website is about.

Good Value Drop Auctions

Elliot Silver
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31

Cab CompaniesI just updated the list of top drop auctions on Snapnames. IMO, there are some pretty good domain names to be had, some of which have been selling far below end user values.If you are able to purchase commercially viable domain names at good prices, and you create a directory site or mini site on each, you can increase the value of them during the down market, while hopefully generating revenue.

I recently bought CabCompanies.com in a private seller auction on Snapnames, and I launched it a few days later. The website is a national directory of cab companies and limo companies. Although there isn’t much content (yet), it’s a decent starting point. I also paid less for the name and website than I think the domain name alone is worth.

I think my next project will be different and won’t use a database, I will find an industry with 5-10 industry leading companies that use affiliate programs. I will then build a site that discusses each company and provide an affiliate link for people to buy each company’s product or to visit the company’s website. When someone Googles “XXXXX companies,” my site will hopefully rank in the top 5 because it will be the exact match, and I will make money when people visit. It will almost be a ratings type site, but without the ratings 🙂

Anyhow, I am curious about what you think CabCompanies.com is worth as a standalone domain? Do you see any good domain auctions where you could build a site?

Guest Post: End User Follow Up

Elliot Silver
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17

This is a guest post from domain investor Calvin Washington, and I wanted to share it in the hopes that it helps others who are dealing with end user sales. If you are doing something unique that could help other domain investors, and you’d like to write a guest post, please email me. As long as you aren’t trying to sell something or get a back link, and it’s helpful to others, I would be happy to post it.

===

I have been using this trick successfully lately when selling to end users who for whatever reason showed no interest in my particular domain. It has been working for me after getting a “No!” or “Not interested” reply. It’s really simple and I’m sure many others are doing something similar but you never know!

Thanks XXXX,

Though you expressed no interest in XXXXX.com, I appreciate your getting back with me. The highest offer we received was $XXX. I guess it’s best to let the market decide it’s value. If for any reason in the future it may be of value to you, we will be willing
to accept $XXX.

In either case, take care!

Best,
Calvin

In closing, it’s strongly recommended that your price that you’re willing to accept be higher than your highest offer received. If not, you may come across as being dishonest. Hope this helps someone. Another big point I’d like to stress is the salutation. “Best” is my way of basically saying to the end user “This is my last contact to you, take it or leave it”. I sure there are some grammatical errors or misuse of punctuation, so make the necessary corrections when needed.

Why a Generic Domain is Important

Elliot Silver
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4

Earlier, I discussed in detail why I think generic domain names are so important, and I would now like to provide a real world example of the importance.

My wife and I are looking to re-do our kitchen and bathroom floors. Black slate looks cool, but it’s difficult to clean and we want to give our kitchen a fresh look. While at dinner with friends on Friday, we saw that they had black granite flooring that my wife and I both liked. We decided that we were going to look into new flooring options, and our first to stops were HomeDepot.com and Lowes.com, both of which did not have the type of flooring that we want.

Since we haven’t done much renovation other than wood floors from Home Depot, we don’t really know many home improvement or renovation stores in New York, and I haven’t owned or needed a phone book in about 8 years. That said, my first step in searching for granite floor tile were Google searches for “granite floor tiles,” “granite floor tile,” and “granite flooring.”

Had any of these domain names been owned by a flooring company, it’s likely they would have ranked fairly high in Google, since the term isn’t ultra competitive. Fortunately for the existing companies (well, the 5 highest ranking companies anyway), the keyword domain names, GraniteFloorTiles.com, GraniteFloorTile.com, and GraniteFlooring.com aren’t developed.

People often look at generic domain names for their type-in visitor value. Although this is important, it isn’t the primary reason why I like generic domain names. Based on my development experiences, I have found   that keyword domain names generally rank very well in the search engines (Bing moreso than Google), while their competitors with more brandable domain names don’t rank nearly as well.

I may or may not have bought my granite tiles from GraniteFlooring.com, but when all things considered are equal and I don’t have any brand loyalty to a local store, it makes things easier for the company to rank well organically and not have to consistently pay for visitors through SEM, which can be useful but requires continued investment. Generic domain names aren’t the answer, but they make finding the answer much easier.

6 Ways to Identify a Potential Domain Buyer

Elliot Silver
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11

Yesterday afternoon, I posted an article stating why it is important to know who is inquiring about your domain names. Today, I would like to share five methods I use to find out what person or company is inquiring about a particular domain name, both to maximize any potential sale and to prevent any legal issues from arising. As with everything, if you are particularly concerned that a response could put your domain name in jeopardy, you should consult with an attorney who is familiar with IP law and domain names.

6 Ways to Identify a Potential Domain Name Buyer:

1) Google search of the person’s name (in quotes), email address (in quotes) and/or a Whois look up of the domain name he used to communicate with you if it isn’t a free or pay email service. Using Google, you may be able to track his contact information through social networking sites (liked LinkedIn), industry publications, Forbes C-Suite listings, SEC filings, or other public listing. If the person’s name is Edward, Jonathan, or some other commonly abbreviated name, make sure you check all variations in your search.

2) If you’ve been able to get the phone number, either because it’s listed in the email or was provided in a subsequent follow up, do a Reverse Phone Number Lookup to see what company owns the phone number. Follow that up with a quoted search of the phone number in Google if the first way didn’t yield a result.

3) USPTO search to see if anyone recently filed a trademark with the US Patent & Trademark Office. If you see a pending application or recently approved trademark, it is possible that the company is attempting to acquire the domain name. If this is the case, be extra cautious, even if you owned the domain name for many years. If this happens and your name has significant value (more than a UDRP defense would cost as a baseline), I would contact an attorney and have him negotiate on your behalf. There’s no point in risking your domain name simply because it would be a business decision to file a UDRP rather than buy the domain name.

4) If your domain name is developed, you should be able to track the IP addresses of recent visits to your site. Use the Arin Whois Database to do a reverse IP search to see where the visitor originated. It makes things even easier if the person contacted you using a contact form on your developed website, so you can know for certain where the person’s IP address originated.

5) Copy and paste some of the generic offer email in to Google to see if others have posted a similar email, which could mean that its domain inquire spam or possibly a domain name appraisal scam. Often time appraisal scammers will recycle the same or a similar email, and if you find a specific phrase that has been used by a scammer, it can send up a red flag.   Perhaps it’s obvious, but you should only use the generic sentences rather than anything specific about your particular domain name.

6) If the email address is really unique – like LuvThemStones@yahoo.com, do a search for “LuvThemStones” in Google. If someone uses a unique handle in an email address, perhaps they use the same handle in online forums. If this is the case, you can possible learn more about this person.

With all of this info, you need to keep in mind that there may be many people who have the same name – and on some occasions, you will find that two people with the same name work in the same industry as well, making it a bit complicated. However, the more information you can find out about a potential buyer, the better.

3 Reasons to Identify a Potential Buyer

Elliot Silver
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3

When someone emails you an offer for a domain name, its important to do whatever it takes to find out who the potential buyer is. Not only is it important to allow you to maximize a potential sale, but its also important to head off any potential legal issues that could come as a result of even good faith negotiations. The OpenDental.com UDRP decision shoes how negotiations can lead to a UDRP loss even when the domain name was initially registered prior to the Complainant’s use of the term.

Reasons why it’s important to identify a potential buyer:

1) Achieve a better price: Most people register domain names because they see the potential business that could be built on the domain name, although many people are buying domain names because they believe they make great investments, rather than because they hope to build a business based on their vision. Like just about every type of asset and other goods, most people will sell if the right offer comes around. This is why people engage in negotiations whether they intend to sell a particular domain name or not.

A buyer wants the best possible price and generally will not share the maximum price it can and will pay for the domain name in order to get a good price. Some corporate buyers have big budgets, but they won’t disclose who they are, since the seller would probably be less inclined to give a good deal. If the domain owner can determine who the potential buyer is and what his budget might be, he could achieve a higher sales price. Likewise, the domain owner could also realize he is wasting time with a fruitless negotiation, if the buyer is in fact a poor college student.

2) Legal leverage: Some people make offers on domain names in order to bait the domain owner into negotiations in an effort to gather evidence of a bad faith negotiation. Although a domain name would appear to be generic in nature, many companies will argue that they use the term for a brand or slogan, and therefore it’s not generic. With UDRP cases sometimes a toss-up, it makes business sense to pay $1,500 to file a UDRP rather than pay $50,000 for a domain name. If you know that this potential buyer may have a claim to your name (or has a litigious/UDRP-happy past), you can avoid negotiations.

3) Time/money wasting: With domain appraisal scams still in existence, a domain owner needs to know whether he is dealing with a serious offer or someone who is running a scam. Time and money can be saved by not replying to a domain appraisal scam email, and they are fairly simple to identify.

Ever since I added privacy to my best domain names, I haven’t received many unsolicited offers to buy them. Since a few of them are stand alone businesses, I figure if someone intends to make a strong enough offer for one, he will know they are fully developed and have advertising contact forms in plain sight. That said, I have a number of clients and friends with sizable domain portfolios, and I have been helping some do due diligence on potential buyers for a few years. This has paid off in many cases, and I think it’s important for you to investigate all potential buyers before you reply to a domain inquiry email.

Tomorrow afternoon, I will post 5 methods I use to determine who a potential buyer is.

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