Frank Schilling

Hope my American friends are having a nice Fourth of July holiday weekend and that if you live elsewhere you are also enjoying your weekend. Stay safe and enjoy the weekend!   Here are a few updates from the domain business as well as my company.

• There was an interesting guest article by Alf Temme in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the man accused of typosquatting/cybersquatting by Microsoft. Temme’s article is called, “Why I typosquatted and why it should be legal,” and it’s an interesting read when you have a chance.

• Does anyone else find it amusing when someone inquires about a domain name you own and then proceeds to tell you how “bad” the analytics are when you start discussing price? Just had it happen again, so I told the lady she should find a better name. Does anyone have a good reply to inquiries like this?

• I am very excited that Burbank.com has been relaunched with the help of the Scottsdale.com team, using the City in the Box platform. The team (led by company Executive Director, Becky Kelley) took the articles and content I had previously created, added many more articles and events, and also added many more features to their platform. Not only does it look great (in my opinion) but there have been over 50 registrations on site so far in the last few days. In fact, about 5 minutes ago another company added a listing and asked for a paid upgrade.

• The sales staff has already begun closing local deals, one of which is directly with the city to help promote their summer concert series. Not only is this something I couldn’t do before, but the signed deals are for greater revenue than what I was able to previously do with the site.   This is just the tip of the iceberg, as they are soon going to start contacting the 100+/- companies who asked for advertising information in the past year. To say Burbank.com is off to a strong start is an understatement.

• One more Burbank-related bit, but also something that can be helpful to you, is that in the last year, over 5,600 have become fans of Burbank on Facebook. This has been a great tool in getting people to help with the site, including photos for the headers, articles, events…etc. It was nice to get a lot “Likes” after asking people what they think of the site, and we also received some suggestions. Having an engaged and interactive audience is important to me, and I think it’s one reason why this blog is so enjoyable to me.

• I am excited to announce the relaunch of Newburyport.com this past week, a domain name I bought a couple of years ago, which now resembles Lowell.com. If I can get this new site to earn as much as Lowell.com, the ROI will be less than 2 years. My team will be managing the sales, and I will be spending next weekend in Newburyport, a great summer vacation spot on the Massachusetts North Shore.

• One quick update that you’ve probably seen but is important to say nonetheless. Frank Schilling is blogging again.

• Finally, Alan Dunn has an article you should read on his blog when you have an opportunity. You don’t hear a whole lot from Alan, but he’s the real deal and offers some sound advice.