Domaining Pet Peeves

Elliot Silver
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12

I have two domaining pet peeves. Actually, I probably have a bunch more, but there are two that I see more often than others.

I get annoyed when I see people trying to sell domain names for exorbitant prices simply because they are similar to a domain name that sold for big bucks. Just because Rick sold Candy.com for $3 million doesn’t mean that the domain name SugaryCandies.net is worth anything. It’s especially silly to see on a domain forum because it either means the seller doesn’t know much about domain names or thinks at least one other person is dumb enough to buy it at that price. 🙂

There are great names that are “similar” to Candy.com, such as Sweets.com, Chocolates.com, or even HardCandies.com, but those are great because they are well searched keywords. Just because a name may be similar in appearance doesn’t mean its worth anything close to the original domain that sold – or worth anything at all for that matter. The key to domain value is that it means something and can/should be used commercially.

My other pet peeve is when I see someone referencing Google results without quotes – or part of a Google search when the quoted term makes no sense. In the first case, Google returns every page that has those words on them, but not necessarily in that order. For example, wicked cool bank returns 106,000 results, but the quoted term yields just 2 results.

In the second case, it references part of a term but not the entire term. For example, quoting “York Stock Exchange” and its 6,190,000 results is stupid because people would generally search for “New York Stock Exchange” or “Stock Exchange” rather than “York Stock Exchange.” In my opinion, a name like YorkStockExchange.com, despite its 6m+ results in Google for the keyword, is worth nothing.

What are your pet peeves – (other than domain blogs where the writer complains about pet peeves!)?

BTW – I am away right now, so comments will be moderated when I get an opportunity.

WordPress 2.8 Bug? Missed Scheduled Posts

Elliot Silver
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17

The scheduled post feature on my blog no longer seems to work, and all scheduled posts pass their post time with a “Missed Schedule” error message. I spoke with a couple of friends who have blog websites, and I mentioned this issue and that I recently upgraded to WordPress 2.8. Both of them said I should have waited for a couple weeks to upgrade to make sure there aren’t any bug. Well… too late for me.

I am wondering if anyone else who upgraded to WordPress 2.8 is experiencing the same issue as my blog. If you are, is there a way to fix this, or do I need to wait for another version with the bugs fixed?

Secondly, if you don’t have this issue – or if you haven’t upgraded to WordPress 2.8 yet, apparently it’s a good idea to wait until a couple of weeks after a release to upgrade.

Liquid Web Hosting for Websites

Elliot Silver
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0

Liquid WebAs a domain investor, I don’t know much about web hosting or hosting companies. When I was looking to set up a Virtual Private Server (VPS) to host some of the websites I was building on my domain names, a friend of mine recommended that I try Liquid Web. He had been a happy customer of theirs, and he knew they would be helpful to me as well – and I am sure glad I use them on my geowebsites.

Liquid Web maintains a call center that is up and running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Their technical support and customer service staff is knowledgeable, and they are always helpful when I call them with a question or a request. More often than not, my request is minor in nature, but the tech team is always willing to help me out and provide assistance. Whether I need an installation of a particular software library or a specific redirect that I can’t figure out, they’re able to help me quickly – and with very little hold time and no language issues.

For my somewhat limited web hosting needs, I use a Virtual Private Server, which costs around $50/month. What is a VPS? A VPS is a way of partitioning a server computer into multiple servers, each appearing to be its own individual machine rather than a shared server. The VPS manager can operate the system as if it was his own, while others share the same system. From what I understand, a VPS can help keep websites running faster, and they can also help with SEO because you manage what other sites run on your server.

Liquid Web also offers other options for domainers and others who want to have control of their hosting needs:

VPS Hosting (Linux & Windows)
Dedicated Hosting (Dedicated Servers)
Shared Web Hosting

There are a ton of standard and add-on features as well, including firewall, load balancing, e-commerce solutions and technology, Guardian Continuous Backup, Private Switch, Terabyte Backup, Remote KVM, and a whole lot of other features.

In over a year of working with Liquid Web, I can’t remember any down time on any of my sites. It’s good to work with a company that has great support and products.

There are other companies out there if you are looking for month to month web hosting providers for your web development needs.

Memorial Day Weekend

Elliot Silver
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3

I’m heading out of town for the long weekend in a few minutes (Memorial Day holiday in the US on Monday). I am going to spend a relaxing weekend on the beach, and I hope that you are able to find some time to relax with friends and family. It’s a 3 hour ride, and if I leave late this afternoon, it will turn into a 5 hour ride with all the city traffic vying to leave Manhattan!

I started to write an article about my experience with mini sites, as I have owned a number of them during the last 6 months. Several of them have been sold, and I still own a few others, so I wanted to give an update and some advice about developing or buying mini-sites based on my experience. During the ride to the beach, I will finish up the article and hopefully post it tomorrow. I will be able to approve comments and respond to feedback intermittently.

Hope you have a safe weekend.

Living a Lifestyle of “Weisure”

Elliot Silver
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5

Yesterday’s article on CNN about living a lifestyle of “weisure”   hit home for me, because I feel like this is the lifestyle I’ve been living for the past year and a half, and 90% of the time I love it. Basically, “weisure time” is defined as the blurring of the line that divides work and leisure.

For me, domain investing and development was an enjoyable hobby I did in my leisure time when not working, and it’s since become my full time work. The article discusses how many Americans have the same issue in different ways, and it’s causing us to change our lifestyles.

It was interesting to read the article, because much of it applies to me, albeit in different ways. I am updating my blog daily, and opening my world to many people who I probably haven’t met. I update my Twitter feed, which has over 400 followers, and because I don’t have a “personal” Twitter account, I totally mix my blog updates with personal updates, and I like it that way.

It is important to separate work from leisure though, as friends and family don’t necessarily want to hear about my work as much as I tend to enjoy talking about it. The big problem I face is that because of this “weisure” time, I never have to separate work and leisure, unless I am out with friends.

Anyhow, I thought it was an interesting read and wanted to share it in case you missed it.

Why I’m Not a Domain Broker

Elliot Silver
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20

In the last week, I’ve received three requests to broker domain names, but each time I respond that I’m not a broker, and I refer the person to a couple of people who are successful domain brokers. Although I do allow domain names to be listed for sale on my blog, I am not a domain broker, and there are a few reasons for this.

When a person agrees to broker a domain name for someone, especially if that person is the “exclusive broker,” there is the expectation that the broker will contact likely end user buyers. These people are generally the group that can afford to pay the most for a particular domain name. There are two problems with this.

First, an end user is far more likely to pay top dollar for a domain name when he needs the name, rather than when he is approached out of the blue. Many end users still don’t understand the value of a domain name, and even if they do, many still won’t pay these great prices because they might shake their head like they understand, but when it boils down to it, they don’t always want to write a check for $50,000 for a domain name when they have employees to pay and other obligations.

The second problem is that it can be difficult getting in touch with the right person within a company, and it can be just as difficult to get a deal approved. If you haven’t made a sales call before, they can be very difficult – especially when it’s a cold call. Once you finally get through to a decision maker, you then need to convince him about the value of domain names, which can be an equally difficult task, even if you’ve convinced the marketing team that it’s the right move.

Another issue I have with acting as a domain broker is that it can take a lot of my time, but there is still a good chance nothing will come of it. I do enough work on my websites where compensation isn’t guaranteed for my efforts, that it’s difficult to justify working for someone else without any guarantee of pay.   🙂

Even with an exclusive agreement, it can be difficult to get a seller to pay a commission if he is marketing the domain name elsewhere at the same time and a lead goes directly to the domain owner with the hope of cutting out the middle man. I live by the fact that this is a small industry, and if you burn someone once, it can be the end of your reputation, so I wouldn’t do that. However, there are people that don’t seem to have issues with this. Sure, even under an exclusive deal you might have the legal rights to the 10%, but what busy domain broker is going to file a lawsuit over a few hundred dollars of lost commission?

I would rather spend money buying a name on my own in the aftermarket and selling it on my own, where I keep all the profit, than to sell someone else’s name to only make 10% of the sales price. I can sell the domain name on my own time, and I can target whoever I want. I take on all of the financial risk, but as a person who knows the market fairly well, this isn’t a problem.

Sure, it’s much easier to broker a 15 year old domain name for a guy who won’t sell for anything less than a premium price, but see the first two reasons I listed above as to why that isn’t always the best idea. There are several great domain brokers in the industry, but I am not one of them!

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