How I am Using the Castello Brothers Tips

Elliot Silver
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31

As I’ve said numerous times, David & Michael Castello are two of my mentors (whether they know it or not!), and I have received great   advice from them as I have developed my geo websites – at conferences, over the phone, via email, at dinner, and over cigars and ice wine at The Breakers…etc.

Every time I am with David and/or Michael, I learn something new, and I try to adapt their advice into what I am doing, usually with Burbank.com and Lowell.com. I’d like to share how I have used some of the tips and strategies the Castello Brothers were kind enough to share on my blog on Tuesday with my two geodomains.   If you have questions, please ask because I am happy to share.   Much of their tips and what I have done can be adopted and used for non-geodomains.

(I recommend opening another tab or window to follow along – I didn’t want to paraphrase or re-post from Tuesday – sorry.)

1) I enjoy traveling and I enjoy history, so geo domains were what I wanted.     I grew up 30 minutes north of Lowell, and the city has a rich history.   Burbank was more of a lucky buy (right time/right offer) and I love southern California.

2) Easy, although expensive.   With all of the time and effort I put into building Burbank.com and Lowell.com, I wasn’t going to do this on anything but the authoritative domain name.   Sure, I could have done it on .net or .org, but it would have only increased the value of the .com down the road.   Also, it would have been more difficult to introduce myself as the owner of the .net or .org because consumers seem them as being less valuable and secondary.

3) When I set out, I decided I wanted to be more than just an info hub.   I wanted my sites to become the place for people to get city information.   That meant building many more pages, adding more features (such as reservation capabilities and a calendar), and building a business directory.   Essentially, I built these sites for people who need any type of info about these cities.   If I don’t have it or can’t provide the info, I have phone numbers, email addresses, and websites of organizations or people who can provide the info.   I also was picky about the design, navigation, and look/feel.   I wanted these sites to be THE brands for the area.

4) I probably write 2-3 pages per day and add several event listings.   I signed up for nearly all local organizations’ newsletters, I get Google alerts for a variety of terms and keywords, and when I get new information, I post it. I also contacted UMass Lowell, and they send me the same sports articles they send to every major newspaper, so the site stays fresh and updated.   New and important posts are added to the home page under “News” and I update the sitemap every day.   This is good for search engine placement, good for visitors, and it drives traffic.

5) I have the advantage of owning the authority domain name, so people already trust what is posted.   Based on keyword searches and other research, I have information about just about everything people want to find in each of these cities.   I also continue to update the pages with relevant news articles.   For example, the Lowell Spinners announced a Fantasy Kids’ Camp, and you can see how I integrated it on the Lowell Spinners page.   Another neat thing I just began to do is interview well known people in the city of Lowell. I will continue to do this, and I plan to add this feature to Burbank.com very soon.   This will help drive traffic to the site and hopefully lead to link backs on the organizations’ press websites.

6) I had Adsense up when I first started out with Lowell.com.   I thought, “shoot, I might as well make a few $$ a day.”   DUMB DUMB DUMB!!   Not only is it asking people to leave my site, but they won’t even remember they visited it!   I would rather be a source of information, and as I grow, I will be able to increase the technology to provide better services for visitors.   I use WC Travel for the hotels in Burbank, so visitors can easily make a reservation, and it looks like my site.   Everything from the site design to the confirmation email to the credit card bill says “Burbank.com.”   Ideally, I will have the capability to make reservations without an affiliate, coupons for local businesses, and other things to build brand strength and make it more sticky.

I also don’t think Adsense really looks good, although I use it on other less developed sites.   Adsense is a very short term and short sighted option.   For websites with longterm potential, I think it’s best to forgo Adsense.

7) I have an events calendar, and I LOVE when I receive event submissions from local organizations and people.   It’s a bit of a pain to keep it updated, but I know it’s used A LOT.   This is a reason people visit the sites, and even if it’s the only reason they come back, I am okay with that.   I don’t have a forum because if people don’t post, it could look stale, and I don’t want to moderate a forum and deal with disputes.   I also built my own feeds and added them to my RSS reader (iGoogle) so Google adds my articles more rapidly.

8.) This is my most difficult obstacle.   I get a considerable amount of submissions from people who want complimentary listings, but it’s tough for me to sell via email or over the phone.   I will say that having THE BRAND makes it much easier, and it is easier to get in touch with decision makers when I call and say it’s Burbank.com or Lowell.com.   David Castello is one of the most charasmatic people in our industry.   David is the master.

9) BIG problem for me.   I live in Manhattan.   Burbank is a 6 hour flight and Lowell is a 3.5 hour drive.   I just had a media kit put together, and as soon as I can, I will be spending several days in Lowell going door to door.   Burbank is next in April. I wish I could hire David for this… or his team 🙂

10) I spend 5+ hours a day writing content, researching articles, and finding news stories for Burbank.com and Lowell.com.   You have to be passionate about your project.   I probably like Burbank and Lowell as much or more than most people who live there.   I feel like I am the number one fan, and I am the biggest promoter.   I am like the Chamber of Commerce.   I speak with the local organizations, I happily promote their events, I am the “happy news.”

The local news has to report the violence, crime, and crappy stuff that happens.   I don’t.   I can talk about the good stuff.

Consider Alternate Spellings

Elliot Silver
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2

One thing I think about when evaluating domain names to purchase is the possibility that there are alternative spellings to the domain names – both accepted spellings and common typos. If the alternate spellings are common, I typically won’t buy these types of names, because there will often be confusion, and the last thing I want to do is develop a website and find that people accidentally navigate to the alternatively spelled domain name.

This is something I am especially cognizant about when the alternate spelling is commonly accepted as the proper spelling – or their is a commonly used abbreviation.   A quick example of this is a name like FortWorth.com and FtWorth.com.   I would have a difficult time paying 6 figures for either of these names, because there will always be confusion – especially when pitching businesses over the telephone.   I would find it annoying to have to explain, it’s “F-O-R-T Worth dot com” or visa versa.

If you do have the opportunity to buy a good domain name that has common misspellings (both accepted and unaccepted spellings), and you are gung ho about development, I would try my hardest to buy the misspellings as well and do a 301 redirect to the properly spelled domain name.   Once you begin to develop your website, you are going to increase the value of the typo, making it more expensive for you to acquire down the road.

This is one of the little things to consider before your development project.

Be Prepared for Tax Time

Elliot Silver
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It’s only February 12, but I am already thinking about tax time in just a couple of months.   I am not a finance or numbers guy, so I use an accountant to file my taxes, although I keep very good records of sales, expenses and other transactions.

One thing that made my life easier a couple of years ago was Sandy Brooks’ Domain Tax Guide. When I first explained to my accountant what I did as a hobby, he understood it, but I don’t think he knew anything about it.   At the time, I had made about $1,000 in profit, so it really didn’t matter at all.

As my income continued to rise, the tax impact did as well.   A couple of years ago, when domain revenue became a significant income stream for me, I sent him a copy of the Domain Tax Guide and asked him to read it and use it as a reference when doing my taxes.   If you are making a few thousand dollars or more, you should know the advantages and disadvantages of doing things certain ways.

A few things I think are important that are discussed in the Domain Tax Guide include:

  • Benefits of forming a LLC or other legal entity
  • When to consider domain sales inventory revenue
  • Whether domain names are assets
  • Depreciating domain name assets
  • How capital gains taxes work with domain names

There is a lot of value in the Domain Tax Guide, and although these are affiliate links, I strongly recommend using the tax guide as a reference – whether you file your own taxes or you have an accountant filing them for you. I’ve definitely saved a lot more money than this e-book cost.

Good Strategy, but Poor Execution

Elliot Silver
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2

Buying domain names that are confusingly similar to your brand or product is a smart move that many companies don’t consider. However, owning domain names that are confusingly similar to your brands, but not forwarding that traffic to your main website is just plain stupid!

Extra TV, an NBC television show and a Warner Brothers Entertainment production has a feature called Luxaholics, and WB owns the corresponding domain name Luxaholics.com. Thumbs up to them for inventing a term, buying the matching domain name, and then branding the term. They also showed intelligence by purchasing the domain name Luxaholic.com as well.   Unfortunately, this domain name goes to a dead page.

Come on WB!!   Smarten up and forward the alternative domain name to the main page!   It might not mean much additional traffic, but it certainly doesn’t cost anything extra to do it.

Passive Aggressive Approach to Selling Domains

Elliot Silver
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When you attempt to sell a domain name, you are generally in a weaker position than when someone sends you an unsolicited email to buy a domain name. In the first situation, you are trying sell a domain name on your terms, and you need to find a buyer who can meet them. In the second situation, you hold the domain name that someone else wants, and you can choose the terms. This can make a big difference when negotiating.

When you want to sell a domain name, but you would rather not start out in a weak position, I recommend attempting a passive aggressive sales approach. One idea to do this is to reach out to a domain owner who has a similar but different domain name, and ask him if he would sell his domain name. In your email, you should mention that you own XYZ.com and you would like to buy ZYX.com from him.

If you receive a reply to your request, there are generally 4 possible versions:

1) Yes, the price is $
2) Yes, make me an offer
3) I won’t sell XYZ.com, but will you sell ZYX.com?
4) No. I am not interested in selling

You can then make a sales pitch responding to each of these replies.

For the first option, if the price he names is higher than the price at which you would sell your name, you can reply, “That’s a good price, but it’s out of my price range for this name. Would you be interested in buying ZYX.com, a very comparable domain name, for the same price?”

With option two, if you reply with an offer, you should be prepared to buy his domain name if he matches your price. Assuming he says no, like 99.9% of domain owners who would say no to the first offer no matter what, then you can turn around and let him know you would sell yours, a similar name, for that price if he is interested.

For the third option, you have moved into the drivers’ seat, as you are now in a stronger position with him asking you to buy your domain name.

Although the final response isn’t always appreciated, it does show you that the domain owner is alive and answering emails. You could tell him that you had hoped to acquire XYZ.com to enhance the value of your name, ZYX.com, but since he won’t sell, maybe he would be interested in acquiring yours.

I have not sold a domain name in this manner before, but I have had the third option happen to me in the past. I was not inclined to sell the domain name, so I turned down a significant offer for it. Unsolicited domain sales via a variety of methods can be more difficult than fielding inquiries, but that’s how I sell a majority of my domain names. This is one more tool to add to your cache.

Obviously the one caveat is that your name is of equal value or better than the person who you email.

Check the News Before You Reply

Elliot Silver
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Have you ever received more than one email offer or inquiry on a domain name in a short period of time and not know why?   I am sure most people search for the domain’s key term(s) in Google to see what people might be looking to find, but that might not get you the most relevant information.

Before you reply to the inquiry, check Google News and Google Blog Search for the term(s) both quoted and unquoted. While News and Blog results are generally listed in the standard Google results first, they may not appear at the top of the results, rendering the fresh information useless.   If someone is trying to buy a domain name from you because a television network just announced a show with the same name as your domain name, you should know this before you respond.

If you receive more than one inquiry on a single domain name, especially if it’s irregular that you receive inquiries on this particular domain name, you should assume it’s not coincidental.   Having the most updated information is critical when determining how to reply to an inquiry, and Google’s information, like their News and Blog Search, can help you filter through the crap.

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