Long Island Business News Article About Domain Industry

Elliot Silver
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There was an article in Long Island Business News yesterday focusing primarily on Andrew Hazen, a Long Island Internet marketer and domain investor. The article discussed how Andrew got started with his domain investments and on how domain investors are finding success. Although the article requires a subscription, you can read a free version, here.

In addition to information about Andrew, the article also quoted Mike “Zappy” Zapolin about his company’s Beer.com purchase for $80,000 and subsequent sale for $7,000,000.

I was also quoted in the article:

“Elliot Silver, chief executive of Manhattan’s Top Notch Domains, is not as gung ho as Zapolin. “There’s no such thing as easy money in the domain investment industry, but if you know what you’re doing and take calculated risks, it can be lucrative,” Silver said.”

When the reporter reached out to me, it seemed that it was going to be an article about how lucrative the industry is. Based on first hand experience and observation, I know it’s not as simple as it seems to make money. I hate to be the “Debbie downer” but I don’t like to see people blindly enter our industry thinking they are easily going to get rich by buying and selling domain names. I’m no rocket scientist, but it did take a few years before I was able to do this full time.

One recommendation I have for anyone who is just getting involved in the industry or anyone who wants to grow their domain investment business, is to read advice from successful domain owners.

Thoughts at the End of the Week

Elliot Silver
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4

As the week is coming to a close, I wanted to write a little bit about a few things that I thought about this past week. I bet some of you are thinking the same thing, and I welcome your thoughts in the comment section as always.

I booked my flight to New Orleans for Domainer Mardi Gras in February. For those of you from New York, Jet Blue is offering round trip tickets for around $229 after taxes – not a bad deal at all.

I wish DN Journal accepted comments. There are so many great articles and news stories posted by Ron, and it would be great if we had the ability to discuss some of them on site. I bet this would surely be a big traffic driver and would be interesting to many.

It really annoys me when bloggers and other news outlets have a comment section and don’t approve them – or they only approve the favorable comments. I wonder if these people are naive enough to think that nobody notices this – or if they simply don’t want to feel put down by people that disagree with what they are saying.

I don’t think people should develop domain names simply because others are doing it. The reason I develop mini sites is that I am a full time domain investor, and this is a way to build/add value to my domain assets in a down market. The reason I fully develop geodomains – and will be developing Torah.com (very soon) is to build businesses on them so. Anyone can sell a good domain name, but not everyone can build and manage a business. I want to challenge myself while building a revenue stream for the future, and this is an ongoing process.

If you are going to make it as a domain investor, you need to look outside of the typical domain “hang outs.” Check out webmaster forums, browse SEO websites, read up on new technology, and think about things differently than others.

I believe there are many good potential domain deals in the high end of the industry, but most of the low hanging fruit under six figures has been picked, and there aren’t nearly as many deals to be had in that area. You need to have steel stones to invest in 6 figure + domain names these days without a development/business plan, and you need a back up plan if your primary plan is to flip them.

    NY Domainer Get Together – 9/24

    Elliot Silver
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    If you live in the New York area, mark your calendars because we are getting together on September 24th at 6:30pm at the Boat Basin on West 79th Street and the Hudson River. There are no special requirements to attend, and there is no admission cost (although it’s a cash bar).

    If you are interested in sponsoring the event via buying pitchers of drinks or appetizers, shoot me an email or simply show up. Past events have drawn around 40-50 people, and they are always relaxed. There’s no need to know anyone beforehand. If you live in the New York area, and you are a domain investor or work in the domain space, this is a great chance to meet like-minded people.

    Please drop a comment if you can make it – and I will add your email address to the Evite I am going to send out shortly. See you there.

    5 Newsletters for Domain Investors

    Elliot Silver
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    There are a number of great newsletters to which I think every domain investor should subscribe, and I listed 10 of the most important ones below. Not all of the newsletters contain sales listings, but all of them contain important domain-related information. Whether you are new to the domain investment industry or a seasoned veteran, the newsletters below are the best of the best.

    10 Favorite Domain Investment Newsletters (in no particular order)

    DNJournal Newsletter – Domain industry updates, including notifications about the weekly domain sales report and special reports on DN Journal.

    Domain Name Wire Newsletter – Domain industry news updates and special reports on Domain Name Wire.

     

    WIPO Domain Name Decisions – Recent UDRP decisions made by the World Intellectual Property Organizations, with links to each decision.

    National Arbitration Forum Monthly Newsletter – Monthly email with NAF updates and recent decision summaries. You must email them to subscribe.

    Domaining.com Daily Email – Links to the ten most popular articles written by domain bloggers and news providers.

    Do you receive another domain newsletter that you think provides great information? Please feel free to drop a link   and let us know domain investors should subscribe.

    My Next Venture – Is it Crap?

    Elliot Silver
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    14

    There’s nothing like starting out on a new venture that is going to be huge. This is really going to leave a mark on the world. Since leaving my corporate job, I’ve been looking for a project that will leave me satisfied. I thought I had that with my developed geodomain names, but alas, these are nothing compared to my newest project, which has really moved me.

    I know this may make me the butt of your jokes, and some of you may pooh-pooh this idea, but I do – do not care that you may think it stinks. This has been brewing for months, but I feel like its finally ready to be released.

    Together with the help of a few friends, I am set to push out FecalPhotos.com, a website dedicated to crappy photos and all sorts of shit like that. A friend of mine owns RateMyShit.com, and I think these two ventures go hand in hand. I will soon travel to the bowels of this country to meet with him in New Jersey, and hopefully we can work together on a successful venture.

    Yes… I am shitting you. This foul idea was brewed up over a few beers and I decided to post it (in poor taste). Enjoy your weekend and be safe.

    Sunday’s Quick Thoughts

    Elliot Silver
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    11

    Red Bellied PiranhaHere are some quick thoughts on this nice Sunday. I hope you enjoy the last day of your weekend! Rest up for a successful week.

    When you’re buying domain names, you should check to see if there’s a website developed on the domain name. I get annoyed when people email me asking if I would sell “the domain name Lowell.com” or another one of my developed websites. Clearly it’s not just a domain name and if I get annoyed as a domain investor, it’s probably going to annoy people who have businesses on their domain names.

    I want to welcome LuxuryNames.com as a new header banner advertiser. Take a minute to sign up for their newsletter. The company owns great domain names such as PrivateAirplanes.com, HomeInsuranceRates.com, MicroLenders.com, and many other great names and you want to be subscribed when they offer names for sale.

    I think it’s great that guys like Mike Berkens and Rick Schwartz write blog posts many times per week. These guys have sold incredible domain names for large sums of money, have deep portfolios with top domain names, and they could be sitting on the beach or playing golf all day. I don’t always agree with everything they say, but their posts make me think about this industry and my business, and I really appreciate their willingness to share with us.

    When you develop a website, it can take a long time to start seeing results. As mentioned before, I’ve been blogging for over two years, and I am just starting to generate a decent amount of revenue. Likewise, Burbank.com has been launched for about a year, and traffic, revenue, and advertising inquiries are up quite a bit in the past few months. Developing a business on a domain name isn’t easy, but it’s a great way to increase the value and generate revenue over the long haul.

    I just bought RedBelliedPiranha.com and RedBelliedPiranhas.com, and I am psyched to create a mini site for one with a forward of the other. As you can probably tell, I like building mini sites that have vivid pictures. I haven’t done much CTR testing with Adsense, so I don’t know if the theory about having an ugly site leading to more clicks is accurate with mini sites, but I enjoy searching for cool photos.

    Speaking of mini site testing…. has anyone tested design layouts for increased revenue/click throughs? I’ve wondered if someone has tested layouts, images, content length…etc to find the “perfect” mini site. This is something that would be very interesting to me. The website would have to have enough traffic to make the results statistically significant – and it would probably have to be done using several mini sites over several months with a straight up A|B split. I would be happy to post results here for others to see if the test is legit and not just a sales pitch.

    Red Bellied Piranha Photo Source:

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