Generic Domain Names

World Cup Buzzing Like a Swarm of Bees Courtesy of the Vuvuzelas

2010 FIFA World CupIf you tune into the World Cup over the next month, you are likely to notice the loud buzz emitting from the crowd. Instead of hearing the cheers and boos that accompany most soccer/football/futbol matches, you will hear the din of the African horns known as vuvuzelas.

Are you interested in recreating your own World Cup atmosphere away from South America? You can now buy your very own vuvuzelas online at   Vuvuzelas.com or on a different website – Vuvuzela.com. Both sites rank pretty well in the search engines, which is a direct result of their keyword domain names. For the most part, they only seem to be outranked by Google News, images, Tweets, and very popular websites (like the NY Times) on searches for their keywords.

The World Cup announcers will continually mention the vuvuzela, and it can only help these two websites. During this year’s World Cup, I think the two companies that own these domain names will be very happy, although those of us watching World Cup matches from the comfort of our homes or neighborhood bars, we might not be so happy to hear them buzz.

Advertise on One of the Largest Networks of Generic Domain Names

Every Internet marketer and advertiser knows about advertising on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. You can buy text and display advertisements to run on those search engines and on the websites of their content network partners. I bet there’s another advertising network that operates on one of the best portfolios of generic domain names that many savvy marketers have no idea about.

The World News Network was founded in 1995, and it operates on some of the most valuable generic domain names. In fact, I have seen the Whois information on countless lookups – especially those involving geodomain names. If you’ve ever seen this information in a Whois look up, you’ve come across a domain name in the WN network: “Domain Finance Inc. Minakumari Periasamy.”

The company offers advertising opportunities, including text links, on some of its websites. Conveniently enough, information about advertising with the company can be found on the domain name, Displays.com.

Here is a very short list of domain names in the World News Network:

  • WorldNews.com & WN.com
  • Feed.com
  • WorldPhotos.com
  • Telecommunication.com
  • Students.com
  • Phones.com
  • Gas.com
  • Oil.com
  • Cartoons.com
  • Broadcasting.com
  • SolarPower.com
  • HealthFoods.com
  • Astronomer.com
  • Pollution.com

In my opinion, one of the most impressive aspects of the company’s generic domain portfolio is its geographic domain names. Some of the geodomain names in the WN portfolio include:

  • AbuDhabi.com
  • Baghdad.com
  • Tehran.com
  • Islamabad.com
  • Dubai.com
  • Majorca.com
  • Quito.com
  • RioDeJaneiro.com
  • Prague.com
  • Nairobi.com
  • Malaga.com

If your company is looking to advertise online to an international audience, you might consider looking into the World News Network. If you are a domain investor and want to see one of the best portfolios of generic domain names ever assembled, you might want to check this company out. Chances are good that you’ve come across them many times before.

Bobbleheads.com Products Featured on Today Show & Other Media Promotion

I was catching up with Warren Royal last night, and he mentioned some of the good things happening with his company’s Bobbleheads.com website and business. Shortly after NBC’s set re-designs, Warren noticed that some of his company’s bobbleheads were showing up on the “Meet the Press” set, and a segment on the “Today Show” with David Gregory showed the John F. Kennedy bobblehead (2:48-50 in the video above).

In addition to this neat but somewhat passive promotion, lightning rod talk show host Glenn Beck is   auctioning off 3 of his company’s Founding Father bobbleheads, autographed by him, in a charity auction. The current bid is $1,100 and the auction doesn’t end until May 24th.

Finally, Fox 5 New York has also provided Bobbleheads.com with some free publicity. The New York Fox affiliate is actively promoting a bobblehead of its primary weather anchor, Mike Woods, in a television commercial. While the Bobbleheads.com company isn’t listed, the “bobbleheads” brand is being passively promoted.

In response to how NBC came across his company to purchase the bobbleheads for its television sets, Warren commented, “this is a good example of how having the key category domain is great – the NBC buyer just went to Bobbleheads.com to find what they were looking for, and found our products.”

Warren is right on the money with this. While some people argue that a strong brand is better than a generic domain name, in my opinion a generic domain name generally has a similar level of brand recognition by default without the ongoing marketing cost. Congrats to Warren again on the good news.

Interesting New Domain Blog with Generic Domain Owner Interviews

I check Domaining.com daily to see what some of my friends and colleagues are writing about, and it seems like every couple of weeks a new domain blog pops up. Although the space seems to be getting crowded since we’re in such a small industry, I do think it’s good to see different perspectives on various topics.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a new blog appear on Domaining.com (SullysBlog.com), and I’ve visited it several times recently because of the unique content. Mike Sullivan has been interviewing owners/operators of generic domain names including SexToys.com, HeadSet.com and Lobster.com, and I think it’s fun to read their stories.

One thing I learned early on is that there needs to be something unique about your blog that you can offer readers that they may not be able to get elsewhere.   I think its great to read these interviews with people who rely on generic domain names for their business rather than branded domain names.

I wasn’t asked or compensated to write this, and I’ve never met or done business with the blog’s author before. I hope he keeps up his interview series.

Partners at MSNBC, Microsoft Acquires Today.com

According to the current Whois record for Today.com, it looks like Microsoft recently acquired the domain name Today.com, and it now forwards to MSNBC’s Today Show website. Prior to Microsoft’s ownership, it appeared to be registered by a company called Marksmen, Inc. which has been known to acquire domain names on behalf of large companies like Microsoft. Prior to that, it was privately registered, and just before that, Domain Capital was shown as the registrant.

MSNBC was formed as a partnership between NBC and Microsoft, and according to Wikipedia, Microsoft owns 18% of the joint venture (as of 2005). When I learned of the Today.com acquisition, my immediate thought was about the Today Show. According to Compete’s analytics, Today.com receives close to half a million unique visitors per month.

The new domain name is certainly better than the laborious one being used currently, today.msnbc.msn.com. As with most private sales of this nature, the sales price probably will not be disclosed, but it is possible that it could appear on a financial report from Microsoft since the company is publicly traded.

Thanks to George Kirikos for the tip.

NCAA College Basketball March Madness: $1,000 in Prizes on Brackets.com

Domain investor launches March Madness bracket selection challenge with $1,000 on the line.

Brackets.com is giving away $1,000 in cash prizes during the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament, which begins on Thursday, March 18th. You can print out an official bracket and enter to win $250 – with no entry fee.   The person who has the most points will win $250, the second place finisher will win $150, and the third place finisher will win $100.

Entrants who aren’t good at making college basketball picks can still win. Brackets.com is offering $500 to the person who refers the most valid users.   In addition, to help build awareness, Brackets.com is offering prizes for inbound links from different websites. Higher pagerank websites are worth more points, and the leading referrer will win $250, the second place finisher will win $150, and the third place finisher will win $100.

Full contest details are available on Brackets.com. The tournament begins tomorrow, so sign up today.

Brackets.com is a recently launched venture from 260.com, a domain investment company founded by Tony Peppler.

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