Why Domainers Don’t Generally Partner Up

Elliot Silver
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21

I’ve received a few “partnership” offers, and I know that domain owners who have premium domain names receive development partnership requests often. I am sure Rick has received dozens of email requests from people who want to help him open a candy store on Candy.com. When it comes to partnership requests, it’s unlikely that the requester will be taken seriously.

It seems that most people want the domain owner to trust that they know what they are doing, and many times, they might, but they can’t prove it. Why would a domain owner be willing to risk his reputation (and domain name) on someone that randomly pops in with an idea? There are plenty of great ideas out there, but execution is what’s important. If you want to partner with me or another domainer, come to us with case studies of your successful businesses. Show us how much revenue you’ve generated by applying your idea elsewhere, and perhaps we can talk.

The problem is that most people have good ideas but no clue about the execution side of things. It’s very easy to tell someone else how they should run their business, but when it comes down to it, the execution is the most difficult part. Toys.com may look like a great $5,000,000 domain name, but a new company would probably have to spend double or triple that on the inventory, overhead, and fulfillment in order to set up a system that will drive a strong return on the investment.

If you do have the ability and a track record of successful web launches, you need to be willing to put in the time, effort, and finances with the hopes of sharing profits on a finished site. If you achieve agreed upon goals, you should get a percentage of the business, but not until that happens. If you are willing to do all of this, then perhaps we will entrust you with our premium domain names. If not, it’s probably best to find someone else for your experiment.

The other option is to do something on your own, start generating revenue, and then pitch the domain owner on integrating the successful business model with the industry defining domain name he owns. The key to all of this is that you must be able to build and manage a successful business, otherwise you will just waste your time and the domain owner’s time.

Domain Assets Strong Despite Economy

Elliot Silver
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2

I don’t need to share any recent sales data to show that the economy is impacting domain values.   I think the bottom line is that good domain names still sell for high prices, and average to below-average domain names are difficult to sell these days.

One thing is certain though.   No matter how difficult the economy is, nor what happens to currency valuations and/or fluctuations, domain name assets are stronger than many other assets, and they are very similar to land and precious metals, all of which are limited and have intrinsic value.

Regardless of what happens with the economy, precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum will still have value. They can be used as bartering tools (if necessary) and they can be used just about anywhere in the world.   Likewise, the best real estate is the world will still remain valuable.   You won’t be able to make a ridiculously low offer for a piece of land on the water in Palm Beach any time soon or ever because there will always be someone there with a better offer – be it cash or cash equivalents.

Domain names can’t be lost (unless you forget to renew them), they are difficult to steal if you are careful, and good ones are valuable just about anywhere in the world you go.   The Internet is one thing that binds just about the entire world, and it isn’t going anywhere.

Sure, people may be struggling to survive financially and things may appear to be getting worse, but as far as I can see, the impact is somewhat isolated.   I think some people need to spend less time watching the news and more time focusing on how to improve their own economic conditions.  

Fear is as dangerous as what is feared.

Apple Unveils Upgraded “Recession Macs”

Elliot Silver
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4

Choosing to buy a Mac instead of another PC was a difficult decision.   However, it was a decision I am thankful to have made because I love my Macbook.   In fact, I am working on MacBook #3 at the moment.   I am also thinking about buying a new MacBook because the one I have has been running a bit slow due to the additional software I’ve added on over the last year and a half.

Today, Apple updated and upgraded their consumer lineup of computers, including laptops and desktops. The price of a new MacBook Pro (using the Intel’s “Nehalem” Xeon processors) was dropped from $2,799 to $2,400 – a little over 10% off.   In addition, Apple also updated its iMac and Mac mini desktops.

If you are looking to update or upgrade, now might be a good time to buy a “Recession Mac.”

Virtual Data Back Up from Mozy

Elliot Silver
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11

A couple weeks ago, I blogged about how important it is to back up your data, and I recommended using a flash drive for your data back ups, which is what I did.   A few people commented and others emailed me about this topic, and a few of those notes suggested that an online data backup should be used because a flash drive or other device would be harmed in a fire, stolen, or lost.   I did some research, and I found a company called Mozy, which is an online data back up system to help protect your data.

The way it works is that you sign up for an account and download their software. Upon opening up the software, you check off the boxes next to the files you want to back up, and it backs up your data using 128-bit SSL encryption and protects it with 448-bit Blowfish encryption. I am not a technical person, but the company says that the encryption is the same that banks use to encrypt data, so I assume it’s safe.

One of the nice features of Mozy is that you can set it to back up your data at specific times, and it will automatically back up your data for you. Mozy can be used by both Mac or PC users, which is nice for me because I have a Macbook.   Additionally, if you want to transfer files to another computer, it’s easy to do with Mozy.

The price is also a good selling point –   just $4.95 a month for unlimited data, and there is also a free account for limited data transfer. I think this is a valuable service for anyone, but especially for people who have business ventures online and need to make sure their data is safe and secure.

I believe Mozy has a valuable service, which is why I am happy to blog about it.

Choose a Topic of Interest When Developing

Elliot Silver
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8

Because full scale development can take a considerable amount of your time, I would advise that you choose a domain name that is in a field of interest for you.   This is especially true if you have a full time job and become a developer on the side.   If I didn’t enjoy the domain industry, I would have a difficult time writing this blog every day (frquently more than once a day).

When building a full website, it’s important that you have unique content that is updated as regularly as possible.   Think about it for a second.   When you visit your favorite websites, do they look like they’re updated regularly?   I know I get annoyed when I visit some websites and the content is old – even if it’s just a day old (sometimes even a few hours old).   Visitors to your developed sites probably feel the same way, and they expect to see updates.

If you want your site to be able to compete with other sites, you are going to need to spend time working on it.   Before you start, I urge you to choose a topic of interest so you are less likely to get bored down the road.   Although it might be more expensive to buy a great domain name, once you’ve put in many hours and days developing it, you will be happy you bought the better domain name.

Had I really known what I was getting in to at the time, I probably would have flipped TropicalBirds.com instead of developing it.   Truthfully, birds aren’t that interesting to me.   I enjoy learning about a variety of things, but I am not a true birder.   It’s a struggle to get myself to build pages and add content to the site, but I am doing it because I know that will increase the value (as a result of traffic and revenue).

So take it from me, focus on developing on a domain name that is in a field of interest.   You will be thanful for it down the road.

Twitter for Your Web Business

Elliot Silver
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7

I am a relatively new Twitter user, and although I might not be the best person to discuss the benefits of Twitter because of my limited experience, I want to share how I am using Twitter to help build my brands.   Twitter is a powerful tool that companies and people can use to promote and monitor their brands, as well as communicate with their customers.   In fact, many companies, schools, and politicians use Twitter and have a person or group whose job description involves Twitter communications.

For those people who aren’t aware of Twitter, it’s basically a rapid update service where users can enter short posts about what they are doing or what they are seeing. A perfect example illustrating Twitter’s usefulness is the day the US Air flight landed in the Hudson River.   Literally as the airplane was landing, people were adding Tweets about what they were seeing.   They also uploaded photos and videos to related sites, and several minutes before the news was reporting the accident, Twitter users knew about it – many of whom even knew it was a US Airways airplane.

How I use Twitter:

As a domain investor and domain blogger, I use the Twitter ID elliotsblog.   Most of my Twitter followers either found me by searching for my blog, seeing my initial blog post announcing my usage of Twitter, or found it through a specific keyword search.   As a result, I tend to post updates (“Tweets”) about what I am writing on my blog, what I see in the industry, breaking news related to the domain industry, and sometimes personal commentary. I feel like my blog is an extension of me, and I want my Twitter account to be an extension of my blog.   I see an increase in traffic when I post a link, and I find it’s a good way to communicate and have a conversation.

As a local online media professional with Burbank.com and Lowell.com, I’ve taken a slightly different approach in my initial days on Twitter.   The design of my Twitter accounts is an extension of their respective websites for branding purposes.   I haven’t really publicized my Twitter usage much with the sites (waiting until I am more knowledgeable and satisfied with the account look and feel), but once I am satisfied, I will add buttons on my sites to encourage people to follow my accounts.

The difference between my blog account and my local media accounts is that I have established relationships with domain investors, and I haven’t established many local relationships yet.   So in order to build my follower base on the media sites, I have been searching for specific keywords related to the cities and regions, and as I find them, I follow that particular Twitter user (assuming he isn’t simply announcing that he jut landed in Burbank).   The more Twitter users I follow, the more likely they will follow me and I will be exposed to their followers.

Just like they are able to follow my updates, I can also follow their updates.   If a major story is breaking in one of my cities, or someone writes an update about an event, I can be on top of it at the same time (or earlier) than the local media.   In fact, I learned about the Burbank Film Festival via Twitter a few days ago, and I will be adding information about it in the coming days.   This will then expose my account to the users who search for “Burbank Film Festival” on Twitter.   Perhaps they will add my account to their group of followers, and an update down the road will be of interest to them.

The exciting thing about Twitter is that I believe there are so many ways to use Twitter to meet potential clients or site visitors, find out about events, and stay on top of breaking news stories.   Twitter gives everyone a chance to be heard, and I can use it to extend the reach of my brands.

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