Domain Registrars

I read the TechCrunch article that had significant Twitter insider information, meeting notes, and other information detailing Twitter’s internal strategy. Whether or not it was the right decision to post the information isn’t something I care to discuss, but there are some interesting things to see if you haven’t read the article yet. As an entrepreneur, I was taken aback at how easily internal strategy could be shared with the world, and thought about how it must have been a stomach turning experience to learn of the violation.

I had dinner in an area of Atlanta called Glenwood Park on Friday night. All of the brick buildings look very new, and many of the retails areas don’t have businesses yet. There are lots of townhouses and apartment buildings. With a view of the downtown Atlanta skyline to boot. The first thing I did when we pulled up was see if GlenwoodPark.com was registered. Sure enough, the developers grabbed it in 2001 – nice work on their part!

Originally I was going to post my Snapnames test results in my newsletter, but I decided I would publish it on my blog since I had initially posted the article on my blog. In case you missed it this week, the follow-up article was posted on July 16. There are at least a couple of people who understand what I did, as I noticed a few names I would have bought were just purchased by others and listed on Snapnames.

It’s difficult to own more than a couple of websites that require daily updates. I frequently find myself neglecting at least one of my geodomain names for days at a time, and I always feel guilty about it after. I could put RSS feeds on the site as a way to have fresh information, but I don’t want visitors to be able to leave so quickly. I also don’t want to promote other local websites without any reciprocity.

The Dark Blue Sea situation outlined on TheDomains.com and DNW.com isn’t pretty and presumably leaves the company in a bad spot. Domain investors need to think about what will happen in the event of a buyout or other action. I really like Fabulous because of its customer service and management team (which has been depleated this past year). What happens if DBS is acquired by another domain company with different values? It’s always smart to know your options in the event a substantial change happens at your registrar or domain parking company.

I registered BullRidingHelmet.com several months ago and built a mini site – one of the first I ever built on my own (and it shows). The site doesn’t make a lot of money, but it is making a few dollars a month, whereas before I developed it, the domain made nothing with almost no traffic. The question now becomes, at what point do I take a domain name like this to the next level? I could work with AEIOU v2 to build an e-commerce site and make a larger commission. I wouldn’t do it with this particular domain name, but if you build a site that is generating Adsense revenue, there might be a point to consider upgrading to increase revenue.