Frank Schilling

I was looking at Frank Schilling’s NameAdministration.com website and just spent the last couple minutes drooling on my computer. Now that the keyboard is dry and the screen is clean, I am able to pose this question: If you could have one of the names listed on the Name Administration website, which would it be?

I would probably choose eShopping.com and build it out as a virtual shopping center. I would find as many shopping affiliates as possible and sell as much stuff as I could, doing my best to optimize each page for Google search.

What would you choose?

As usual, Frank Schilling gives a great example of why domain names are such a great unique business opportunity. As a domain investor, I often look at domain names with “rose colored glasses.” I try to buy names that are popular and have the highest paying keywords to help offset the cost of my acquisition. When I make a few dollars on a click, I am happy. However, it is very probable that I am leaving a considerable amount of money on the table by selling a “hot lead” for such a small price.

Frank, who frequently uses his RumCakes.com domain name as an example, uses CuckooClocks.com to illustrate why a great generic domain name is so valuable to an end user in that particular business, rather than to someone in the domain investment business:

“My wife bought this cuckoo clock from cuckooclocks.com .. This clock cost $2,219.00 (we paid the old price :- / ) .. How many uniques a day do you need to close a clock sale?.. 2, 5, 7 ? How much could you make selling cuckoo clocks?.. — Source: SevenMile.com

Ordinarily, a domain name like cuckooclocks.com might be worth a few thousand dollars to a domain investor based on traffic and expected annual ppc revenue. The owner would hope some of the web browsers click on the paid advertising links on his site to make a few dollars. However, for a person who actually sells cuckoo clocks rather than advertising space, this domain name is worth much, much more. Instead of trying to convince a web user to click on his link to earn a couple of dollars (or less), he is trying to get that person to buy a clock for a few thousand dollars.

Instead of a domain investor hoping that 1,000 visitors click on a link at $1.00 per click, the owner of cuckooclocks.com only needs 1 person to buy a $2,000 clock with a 50% profit margin. This is why generic domain names are so valuable to companies, and it’s also why many domain investors want to create small businesses around their generic domain names.