Thies Lindenthal Presenting Domain Research at Prestigious ASSA Meeting

Elliot Silver
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Sedo’s Thies Lindenthal, creator of the IDNX, will be presenting his research on domain names at the prestigious ASSA annual meeting in San Diego. Presentation topics cover pretty much everything related to economics.

ASSA stands for Allied Social Science Association, and it is run by the largest economics societies in the country. It is more of an academic conference as opposed to a business conference. The conference is being held this week at the  Marriott Marquis & Marina in San Diego, California.

The selection process for the presentation slots is competitive, and it’s a great honor for Lindenthal. His primary focus  will be to raise interest in domain names  and to discuss with the real estate crowd how far the “domain names to land” analogy really holds true.

Lindenthal will be presenting his research on Friday morning at 10:15am.

Perhaps I will be able to distribute a copy of the presentation notes after it is completed.

 

The Surprise Contest Winner Is…

Elliot Silver
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I want to announce the winner of a contest that I held on my blog. You didn’t hear or know about this contest because I didn’t advertise it, but the winner will receive a $100 gift certificate to a domain registrar of his choice.

As I’ve mentioned many times before, it’s the reader comments and discussion that makes my blog enjoyable on a daily basis (from my perspective and hopefully yours, too).

There have been many comments made during the past 5+ years. In fact, today my blog saw its 40,000 comment since inception. That’s where the surprise contest comes in. The winner of the contest is the person who made the 40,000th comment this afternoon: Ohad Adi Weitzman.

Thank you all for your comments, and congratulations to Ohad on winning $100 to buy more domain names. I’ll send you an email shortly!

$0

Elliot Silver
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The beginning of January is the most difficult time of the year for my business. Each January 1, my P&L turns to $0, and I get an anxious feeling, no matter how exceptional the prior year was. I am usually on vacation until early January, making it a bit more challenging to get off to a fast start.

Coupled with the anxiety is a feeling of excitement. When I start the year, I have no idea how much income I am going to earn. The sky is the limit. For this reason, I have no interest in setting theoretical goals I could smash by the middle of the year with a few deals or struggle to meet if business sucks. Having no income ceiling is one of the greatest things about this business and is what motivates me to keep on making deals in an effort to smash personal income records.

Luckily, with advertising revenue, lease payments, and three deals that were just struck, the $0 on my P&L will quickly turn into a crooked number, but it’s always exciting when I set up the P&L for the new year.

Here’s hoping you have a lucrative 2013. I am motivated to make things happen this year starting right now.

5 Reasons Why Domain Name Leasing is Beneficial

Elliot Silver
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I’ve become a big fan of leasing domain names. As a domain owner, when you’re able to work out a mutually beneficial lease deal, there are many benefits and few drawbacks. I am pretty sure we’ll see more lease deals in the next few years than before.

I want to offer my thoughts on why leasing is a great idea from a domain investor’s perspective and also want to share why I think it’s advantageous for an end user to lease a domain name.

I believe there are many advantages and benefits to leasing a domain name, and I want to share my reasons below. You are more than welcome to share your thoughts as well.

Here are 5 reasons why I think leasing domain names is a great idea for domain owners:

  • Consistent revenue stream that is greater than the existant PPC earnings or advertising revenue without the work (if you developed on your own).
  • With domain valuations down from 2006-2008 highs, you can keep your domain names without selling at arguably lower valuations.
  • Someone else builds value on your domain name, both in terms of traffic and goodwill, which you will realize should the lease term end without renewal.
  • Can realize a much higher sale price if you do a lease to own or purchase strike price in your agreement.
  • Possible tax advantages to collecting revenue over time and/or treating leased domain names differently than inventory (obviously speak with an accountant – I have a CPA handle mine).

Here are 5 reasons why I think leasing domain names is a great idea for end users:

  • Spend less money up front on a domain name, allowing funding to be spent on building the product or service and marketing it.
  • Can work with the domain name owner to agree on a fair purchase price or lease to own deal for the domain name in the future, allowing an idea to be built out before committing the capital.
  • If the business doesn’t work out, the domain name can be given back to the domain name owner without having to find another buyer for it.
  • Business can be built and grown without having to spend a great sum of money at one time.
  • There may be tax advantages depending on how you classify domain names (obviously speak with an accountant – I have a CPA handle mine).

10 Frustrating Things That Happen in the Business of Domain Investing

Elliot Silver
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There are many great things about investing in domain names, and there are great people involved in the business. There are also plenty of things that are completely frustrating and seem to happen all too often, most frequently at the worst times.

Here are my top ten frustrating things that happen in the domain business.

  • Someone backs out of a deal – buyer or seller
  • Recently acquired domain name starts earning less PPC or Adsense revenue shortly after acquisition
  • Potential buyer or seller stops communicating in the middle of a negotiation
  • Last second backorders by several people at NameJet on a domain name that had no bids
  • Forum know it alls who only post when they can put down someone else
  • $60 offers on Sedo
  • Private negotiations that are sent to auction on Sedo
  • Domain brokers who appear to imply they have a buyer lined up for your domain name but are only looking for domain names to secure exclusivity
  • Transfers and transactions that take forever to complete
  • Dozens of spam emails from Alex / Alexander about crappy domain names

What other occurrences in the domain industry do you find frustrating?

Will UShip Use Funding to Buy YouShip.com?

Elliot Silver
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When you hear the name UShip, I would imagine you probably think the company is called “You Ship” or maybe “YouShip” without the space. It’s actually called UShip, and it can be found at UShip.com.

The company appears to be doing very well. So well, in fact, that TechCrunch just reported that UShip “raised $18 million in Series C funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.”

One problem for UShip is its confusing name and the fact that it does not own the correctly spelled YouShip.com. That domain name is owned by Maersk, one of the largest shipping companies in the world. The YouShip.com domain name forwards to one of Maersk’s websites, and as a result, tracking typo traffic would be difficult unless that information was provided by the domain owner.

Luckily for UShip, it seems that although these two companies both are in the shipping business, they have different business models and operate in different areas of the shipping industry.

I would assume UShip has already tried to acquire the YouShip.com domain name, but if it hasn’t, it probably should make an attempt as it seems to be on an upward trajectory. The downside is that Maersk now knows about its huge funding round, and if anything, the price would go up.

It’s always great when a company sees significant growth, but it can be a problem if the brand its building may confuse customers into thinking it’s operated by a different company.

 

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