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Create New Revenue Opportunities

Elliot Silver
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9

When I was evaluating my geo-websites, I realized that I could have great traffic and content, but based on my advertising placements and opportunities, unless my prices were sky-high, I would never be able to turn them into self-sustaining businesses. I have 6 banners on the top bar of home page, and they rotate throughout the site. Additionally, I charge for job listings and I use a hotel affiliate for reservations. Although I have signed-on a few local advertisers in the last few weeks, the revenue is still fairly small compared to my other ventures.

Over the past couple of days, I’ve looked at each section of my website with an eye on increasing the revenue. After comparing some of my sections (such as the restaurant section), I realized I need to look at each area as a completely separate revenue generating opportunity. By doing this, I created the first iteration of the Lowell Restaurants Guide, and I am rapidly working on iteration #2 (well, my designer is).

Comparing my website to a garden, I had been tending to it as a whole – just watering the entire garden to make sure everything received enough hydration. Instead of doing this, I am now tending to each individual plant, making sure each gets specific nutrients to stay healthy and grow as large as possible.

I am not looking to maximize the revenue on my geo websites yet. I am looking to create opportunities for the future. I am building the brands locally and I am opening up advertising opportunities. Watching Shaun in Kelowna has really inspired me to look at ways to build these into bigger businesses. Each day, I am working towards achieving this goal, and I will soon share more of my business vision for my geodomain holdings.

A Domain Name Doesn’t Matter

Elliot Silver
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24

If you have a unique business plan or web development idea that can’t easily or quickly be replicated, the domain name you choose for your website hardly matters. You can be   CrazyCrazyCrazy.us or some other funky domain name, and you will still have success if there’s a strong market for your product or service. The domain name matters much less than the idea and execution.

If your idea isn’t completely unique or you are entering a market where there is considerable competition, the domain name can be critical to your company’s success or failure.

In just about every market, a new industry leader can emerge (or   a new company can instantly be competitive) if he has the category killer domain name for the industry, as long as his product is at least competitive with the industry leaders. The company doesn’t necessarily need to be innovative to gain market share – just competitive.

New companies need to be innovative to take market share away from the leaders, or they need to spend considerable sums of money on marketing to get consumers to think its products are better or to give them a reason to buy them over its competitors products. A domain name doesn’t necessarily do all of this, but the category killer domain name does convey trust and is instantly recognizable.

Torah.com may not be the best looking website yet, as it’s a work in progress. However, I receive many Jewish-related questions every week from people who think Torah.com is the expert. I may not be from Lowell or have the most comprehensive site about Lowell (it’s debatable), but hundreds of people still visit Lowell.com each day, and many people book their hotel reservations right on the site.

A new company can spend a lot of money on marketing to convey trust. A category defining domain name can be expensive, but it can give instant credibility to a new or rebranded company.

Note to Politicians: Pay for Your Domains

Elliot Silver
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4

Because I get many Google Alerts each day, I am on top of just about every news article mentioning domain names. An article theme that is especially common has a title that goes something like this: “Cybersquatter buys domain name of XXXXXX candidate.” Instead of focusing on the fact that the politician forgot to renew his/her domain name, these articles almost always focus on the domain buyer.

On generic domain names, I have very little sympathy. I don’t think I own any common last name domain names, but I believe those are pretty much fair game since nobody has the rights to claim them as their own with many others sharing the same name. Other types of names can be more of a gray area depending on how common the phrase is, but regardless of my opinion and feelings about cybersquatting is the need to protect domain names from others who might want them for a variety of reasons. The onus should be on the politician for choosing not to renew his domain name.

Here are a few suggestions for political candidates when it comes to domain names:

1) Make sure the domain name is registered in the politican’s name, with privacy if he doesn’t want to give out an email address of an assistant. Campaign managers and workers come and go, and if they are getting the notices, the domain name may not be renewed.

2) Register domain names for several years and check on the registration every now and again. Set Blackberry/iPhone calendar alerts for a few years from now, and assuming the calendar is imported when a new mobile device is purchased, the alert will still be active.

3) Keep an active credit card on file

4) Don’t dump campaign domain names – even if they are time sensitive (Silver2008.org for example). They may not be useful in 2012, but they will have inlinks and perhaps some traffic. Maybe the domain names aren’t valuable to the campaign, but they could be valuable to a competitor or a cybersquatter who will monetize it. For $8, it should be a no brainer.

Just like the family who can’t afford to pay the bank for it’s home loan, a domain name will become available for someone else much like a home becomes the property of the bank if there’s a default. Most registrars give plenty of notice and time to renew, so there shouldn’t be a reason not to do it.

No matter what, a previously used campaign domain name has value to someone, and the politician should do whatever it takes to make sure he/she hangs on to associated domain names.

Find Domain Names for Sale in Google

Elliot Silver
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2

Google LogoMost of my domain purchases have come from either direct inquiries to domain owners after Whois searches or by finding domain names for sale listed by companies such as BuyDomains and Sedo. I have also purchased domain names via drop auction, new registration and a variety of other places commonly known by domain investors.

I have also bought domain names that I found were for sale through Google searches. Domain owners sometimes believe that the best way to find a buyer for a domain name is to create a landing page that shows the domain name is for sale. When someone lands on the site, possibly to see if anything is there, they will find that the domain name is available to purchase.

I haven’t heard of many people using this method to find domain names for sale, so I wanted to share a few search queries that might help you find good domain names that are currently for sale by their owners, many of which are not listed on domain sales websites.

Some searches I have used to find domain names for sale include:

  • “This domain name is for sale”
  • “This url is for sale”
  • “Buy this domain name”
  • “Make an offer for this domain name”
  • “To purchase this domain, click here”

In addition to the above search terms, there are dozens of similar terms that can be searched depending on the domain owner’s verbiage preference. Oftentimes, these domain names are not listed for sale on the big brokerage websites. Further, many times the Whois information may be private, although the owner’s email address is actually listed on the website, making it easier to contact the owner.

There are a lot of crappy domain names for sale that you will have to wade through to find good names, but the search could be worth the effort. It may be especially beneficial if you find a different phrase that hasn’t been searched by people like myself, as you may come across even more hidden gems for sale.

Buy Potential Typos of Your Domains

Elliot Silver
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6

Stanley SteemerWhen a company advertises in media that requires the viewer to visit the company’s website subsequent to seeing the advertisement (like television, radio, newspaper, billboards…etc), it’s important that the company own potential typo domain names. People have a short memory, especially when they are doing other things, and there is strong potential for them to type-in the wrong domain name.

In the middle of writing an article, I happened to hear a commercial for Stanley Steemer, a carpet cleaning company. Because I have been thinking about getting a 8×10 rug cleaned, I visited the website a few minutes after the commercial. When I typed in StanleySteamer.com (assuming it was “steamer” for steam cleaning), I was redirected to StanleySteemer.com, the correct domain name.

It goes without saying, but it’s smart to forward the typo to the proper address.   I have seen a few companies not do this (or own the generic name and not forward that to their brand), and I have also seen companies who don’t forward the non-www to their correct address. It’s even a smarter move by Stanley Steemer to own this obvious typo, because Google’s Keyword Tool shows a significant amount of searches. Many companies don’t think about buying the typo until it’s too late, and the company was smart to do it (although I would have recommended to spend a few dollars extra on StanlySteamer.com and StanlySteemer.com despite just a few searches for those terms).

When a visitor intends to visit a particular company and types in the domain name, this is high value traffic because the visitor knows what he wants and where to get it. Should the company not own the typo and a cybersquatter has it (in the case of a trademark typo), the company will have to pay to get this traffic forwarded via PPC link. The company will usually end up paying much more in PPC advertising than they would for the domain name.

Give Them What They Want

Elliot Silver
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9

Do you own some good domain names but you aren’t sure how to develop them? Maybe they’re either “too generic” or too broad, and you can’t determine what would be best for the website. If this is the case, why not put up a simple one page website for a month or two with a blank form asking visitors what they expect to see and/or what they’d like to see on your site.

If development isn’t your forte, one of the developers listed on my sidebar can help you create a very simple site with a form, allowing visitors to tell you exactly what they think your website should be. Instead of guessing what people want when they visit, why not ask them and give them what they want. You can also add a poll with pre-selected options to make it easier for them in case they don’t want to spend time writing.

Based on what your visitors tell you in your questionnaire/poll, you can build a great website with the desired content, and then you can figure out how to monetize it after. If you give visitors what they want, they will probably return – and they may even have more of a vested interest in your site when you launch.

Additionally, if you already have a website, you might want to add a user feedback form to make sure you are giving them what they want. Ask if they are satisfied with your current site, and make changes as necessary. If a visitor is passionate enough to share his opinion, it’s probably an important change to make.

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