Memorial Day Weekend

Elliot Silver
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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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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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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!

Great Viral Marketing … errr Mistake

Elliot Silver
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Apparently Domino’s pizza made a big marketing mistake that was uncovered by someone looking to find a coupon code. The customer entered the word “bailout” when he was ordering his pizza online, and the website responded by saying his medium pizza was free.

The person then told other people about this error, and when all is said and done, there were about 11,000 pizzas given out for free by Domino’s. Although this was apparently an error, the viral marketing can’t be beat. In a move that cost them under $50,000 (assuming their cost per pizza is just under $5.00), they are now getting thousands of dollars worth of free press – not to mention all the sodas and other things people ordered when they found out their pizza was free.

Although this was a mistake, it shows how powerful viral marketing can be, especially in the age of Twitter and other instant news distribution outlets.

Cool Feature on the New York Times

Elliot Silver
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Perhaps it isn’t a new feature and I just haven’t noticed it before today, but when you highlight a word or phrase in a New York Times article (in Safari or Firefox), a small question mark graphic pop-ups. If you click on the graphic, it opens a new window with an Answers.com powered reference search.

The search results page includes dictionary definitions and other tidbits of information.   Instead of a visitor having to leave the site to find out what a particular word means, the NYT provides the answer – and monetizes it. At the top of the search box is PPC advertising powered by Google.

This is a neat feature that should generate additional revenue revenue, increase page views, and keep people on their site for a longer period of time. Smart thinking from the New York Times!

Spam Tactic Bloggers Should Know About

Elliot Silver
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For those of you who run a blog, this might be of interest.   Someone posted a comment on my blog with a fairly unique nickname, which he uses in domain forums and other places. Having seen his “handle” before, I approved the comment after briefly reviewing it.

Shortly after posting the comment, virtually the same comment came in with the same handle, but it had an extra sentence at the bottom of it. Since I just woke up, I immediately approved the comment without much review, as I do for most people I know and trust. I received an email follow-up from the initial commenter who mentioned that he didn’t add the erronious sentence at the end.

I looked into it in my referrers/IP log, and sure enough, it wasn’t from the same IP. In fact, the second comment contained a back-link to a porn site – clearly unrelatated to the original commenter. Essentially, the spammer assumed (correctly in this case) that I would simply approve his comment.

Usually I check the back link (even though all back links are “no follow”) just to make sure I am not approving spam. You can tell what’s generally spammy when there are hyphens and other interesting URLs. Needless to say, I will now be more cautious when approving comments to make sure someone isn’t trying to get me to post their spam link.

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