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Strong Argument for Ad Sales

Elliot Silver
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4

A comm0n response to an advertising inquiry I’ve made numerous times for my websites is, “we already do our Internet advertising on Google.” Sure, Google can be a very effective source of leads, but it can also be expensive and might not send the most targeted traffic, depending on the Adwords campaign.

One of the best ways to close an advertising deal on a website or blog is to discuss the direct navigation traffic. It’s important to point out to a potential advertiser that direct navigation traffic can’t be purchased like traditional media buys. Visitors to a particular website that directly navigate, generally do so because they know what they want, and they either know they can get it at a particular website or they assume this. Companies who want to reach out to these visitors need to advertise directly on that website. In my brief experience, I have found this to be a compelling argument, and the same can be made by any domain owner whose domain name receives type-in traffic.

I was thrilled when traffic to TropicalBirds.com grew to over 90% search engine-based. It meant that I was doing something right in terms of SEO, and I was happy that people were visiting because of it. However, an advertiser could easily buy some of   this traffic simply by advertising on Google. However, direct navigation can’t be bought because it completely bypasses Google and Yahoo. IMO, this is a great deal closer.

Protect Your Brand

Elliot Silver
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1

A local city website from my hometown began following one of my websites on Twitter the other day. I had never heard of this city site, and they have a unique/brandable URL – which I won’t give away for their privacy, but it was something to the effect of CyaInNewton.com. Since I hadn’t heard of their site nor visited before, I decided I would have a look, and I saw that it was a fully developed city portal.

I wanted to check to see if there was more than one site in their network, and while I wasn’t surprised that there weren’t others, I was surprised that they didn’t buy other domain names to go along with their branding, ie CyaInNewYork.com or even neighboring cities like CyaInNatick.com…etc. These domain names are available for their competitors and/or anyone else who wants to grab them at registration fee. I think this is a big mistake.

This company isn’t a domain investment or speculative company, where they are hoping someone else will like their idea and decide to buy it at a premium. They are growing an actual brand on one domain name, and the logical way to grow once terminal velocity is reached is to extend to different markets. While the domain names are available to register now, they might not be in a few months. Although they might have common law trademark rights, getting the domain names they want could be expensive.

I am going to send them a DM and recommend that they grab their brand domain names in other markets. While they may not plan to grow to those markets, it can’t hurt to protect the brand they are working hard to promote.

Launching an Email Service on Your Domain Name

Elliot Silver
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10

Over the past couple of years, a number of people have asked me for my opinion on starting an email service on one of their domain names. Most of the time, these domain names are either very short or brandable in the sense that people would want to have the vanity email address. While an email service can be good to increase page views, brand recognition, and stickiness, I generally don’t recommend doing this for a few reasons.

As a service provider – especially a service as vital as email has become, you will be held responsible for any service outages or interrupts. Of course you can blame Google or whatever application you decide to use if something goes down, but as the face and contact for your company, people will look to you for answers. I get frustrated when my email service goes down – as infrequently as that is. Imagine if you have 1,000 frustrated people emailing you from other email services!

Maintaining the privacy of millions of emails, logins, passwords…etc can be a very big responsibility. While in theory it shouldn’t be too difficult, constant hacker attacks, worms, and other malicious attempts to crack your servers can cause problems for you. It can also be expensive to hire a company to watch this for you. Not only can you expect bad PR if someone hacks into your email system, but there could be legal liability as well.

Another reason is that I believe it can encumber a domain name if the owner ever wants to sell it. Whether the owner is charging for email service or not, if he has opened it up to allow others to use the domain name for email, the owner could potentially be required to host the email for an extended period, and many buyers won’t want to have to deal with these ramifications – unless they are driving serious revenue. I am no legal expert, so consult with an attorney on this.

I know of one person who launched an email service and regretted it, and I want to give advice to those who are considering it. I personally wouldn’t advise doing it.

Think About Your Domain Name End Game

Elliot Silver
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5

When you are buying a domain name, whether it’s a newly registered domain name or a domain name in the aftermarket, it’s important to think about your end game for this particular domain name. Some of the most likely things that   domain investors   think about when buying include:

  • I am going to build this website into a…
  • XXXXXX company would want to use this for…
  • This would make a great website for…
  • Some day, some company will want to buy this…

Based on how you answer this, your actions with the domain name should reflect this strategy. Think about this for all of your domain names at the time of registration, and take action to see it through.

Either map out a website and build it, contact potential buyers with reasons that they should buy it from you, contact potential partners on development, or put up an appropriate landing page to announce your intentions.

With a little bit of effort, your success rate – whatever that may be – will improve.

Why I Like GeoDomains

Elliot Silver
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9

As I mentioned before, I am in the process of writing a series about geographic domain names (geodomains), and I plan to discuss everything from acquiring geodomain names, developing geodomains, and monetizing geodomains. I don’t know how many posts the series will be, nor do I know how far apart they will be posted, but I hope this series is helpful to people who are interested in learning more about the industry. I welcome and look forward to visitor comments, as I think those will probably be even more beneficial than what I contribute.

I think the best place to start the series is to discuss why I like geographic domain names, and there are several reasons.

1.) People always want information
When people are looking to find a business in a city, take a vacation, go on a business trip, or move to a particular city, they generally do quite a bit of research beforehand, much of which is done online. Often times, these people will use a search engine to specifically key in what they want + the city/region (New York Restaurants) for example. Having the city/region domain name gives you a strong advantage in search engine optimization, especially for longer tail keywords.

2.) No inventory
Geographic domain names do not have any type of product or inventory. People who visit are typically looking for information related to the geographic area, or in the case of keyword geodomains (NewYorkDoctors.com), they are looking for specific information. I live in an apartment and have no space for any type of product. I also don’t have much of a technological background, so I am not comfortable about hosting an e-commerce site using a drop shipper. Because of this, I can provide visitors what they want without having to worry about inventory or fulfillment.

3.) Type-in traffic
I’ve always found that my pure city .com domain names get type-in traffic, and much of the time the traffic is fairly significant, especially when compared to my generic category defining domain names. People are accustomed to typing in the keyword, and they assume the city .com is a developed site. When I buy a geodomain name, my goal is to provide whatever they want that is related to the city.

4.) City Loyalty
People tend to be very loyal to cities of importance to them. This is very similar to specific brands at the supermarket or drugstore. These people care about how “their” city is projected online, and many will offer their opinions about the website. Loyalty is good to drive return visitors to your site. Also, I have found that businesses want to be associated with a geodomain name.

5. Content Galore!
There is a TON of information for just about every state, city, town, and region available online and in local libraries. This information can be used as a research tool to build unique content on your website. There are also a lot of local websites and businesses who are happy to share their unique content to build your site while enhancing their visibility.

Double Dumb Domain Mov(i)e

Elliot Silver
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16

I just saw a commercial for a new Paramount movie called “State of Play,” staring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, and Rachel McAdams. The URL chosen by Paramount was StateofPlayMovie.net. First off, Paramount is forgiven for not buying or leasing StateofPlay.com because it’s owned by a company of that name.

However, I don’t know why they chose the .net of a second class domain name.   They did buy the .com (StateofPlayMovie.com), but that domain name doesn’t resolve.   Jeeze… if you are going to brand the .net and you own the .com, at least forward it to your active website.

It’s 2009, and some companies don’t get the basics… DUMB x 2!

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