It seems that everyone in the domain business is becoming a domain broker. I suppose being a domain broker sounds good – you get to sell other people’s domain names without having to take on any of the risk of buying the domain names. You make a commission if the name sells, but don’t lose a dime if it doesn’t. Brokers also aren’t generally exposed to the legal risk of domain ownership. I know several top domain brokers in the business who I wouldn’t hesitate to use, and I think you should ask some important questions before you commit to a broker:

• How long have you been a domain broker?
• What other premium names are you brokering?
• Where do you plan to sell the domain name and by what means – (phone, email, letter)?
• Do you have Fortune 500 contacts?
• What are some of your past large domain sales?
• Will you be contacting end users and/or do you know potential end users?
• Do you require exclusivity, and if so, for how long?
• What commission rate do you charge?

I’ve seen a number of people mass emailing domain names they are “brokering.” The funny thing is that on one occasion, the domain owner didn’t even know his name was being brokered. The person inquired about a domain name, received the price, and then attempted to “broker” that name for the price + profit. If he found a buyer, he would have purchased the domain name. If not, well, he has little risk. The owner found out about it, but was more or less blase because it was someone that was trying to sell his name. Personally, I would never allow someone to claim to represent me without my prior knowledge and approval.
An issue you need to be cognizant of is that brokers don’t usually have any legal risk with the actual domain name. If they contact potential end users who decide that the name infringes on their brand, the broker could be the cause of a lawsuit or UDRP. They have no risk if they try to pitch McDonald.com to McDonalds (for example), so why not try to get the most money from the wealthiest potential buyer.
You should also discuss where the broker will be selling your domain name. Anyone can put a domain name for sale on a forum or a blog. However, if your broker has an active domain website or a well-subscribed to newsletter, that would be more beneficial. Whatever the case, you and your domain broker should devise a strategy specifically for selling your domain name.
There are a lot of people who claim to be domain brokers, but only a few who I would personally use. Before you commit to a domain broker, make sure you check his credentials to make sure he is legit. You will want to use a professional domain broker and not just a person who can’t afford good domain names on his own and just wants a cut of your domain sale. There are some great domain brokers out there, and it pays to use their services.

For a variety of reasons, I think it’s important that domain buyers and sellers use contracts when moving forward with a domain sale. It’s probably more important for the buyer to have an agreement, but both buyers and seller should use one – even if the escrow service you choose to use has an agreement, as I don’t believe it covers anything related to the actual domain name.
Like many other domain investors I know, I sometimes am lazy about getting a domain agreement, especially on a lower value deal. When dealing with non-domain investors, submitting a contract for review can be a hurdle, as many people are leery of a contract, and some will want to have a legal review done by their attorney, which can take some additional time and add additional costs to one or both parties.
When dealing with domain names that might not be considered completely generic, I strong recommend using a domain contract to add an extra layer of protection. Any domain or contract attorney can probably provide one to you at little cost, which can be used as a template for all of your purchases and sales going forward.
Some things you may want included in the contract include:
Terms of Sale
No Legal Problems with Domain
Any Encumbrances on Domain
Non Disclosure Agreement

I am very happy (and relieved) to announce that the Burbank, California city guide has been re-launched. As I mentioned before, I wasn’t happy with the previous site, which was built to meet some time constraints. The information was good, but I didn’t think the site looked great or was as useful as it could be. Needless to say, based on what I have learned over the past few months (and what my developer/designer learned), a new site was created, and I would like to walk you through it.
The look and feel of the homepage was completely revamped. Instead of a welcome page with general information about Burbank, I wrote clips from various sections of the site and added them to the home page to aid navigation.   I listed the most popular categories, added small pictures, and wrote a couple of sentences for each category, allowing people to click through to their desired page.
I added a functional calendar to the site. I want to give visitors a reason to return – other than when they need a phone number, and a calendar gives added value. Visitors and local businesses can submit events, and I will also add events – both for the public and private sectors. I hope this will be useful to people who live in Burbank or are visiting.
I added a news section to almost every informational page, and the most recent news stories are on the home page. This is to keep the website updated frequently and fresh with news. It will also be a good resource for people looking for information and should drive traffic to the site.
I added links to the best hotel deals in Burbank that might strike the interest of visitors. With the hotel affiliate I am using, they guarantee the lowest online rates, so I am taking advantage of this positioning. It already seems to be working as I closed a hotel reservation last night at Hotel Amarano – the luxury hotel in Burbank. Hopefully I will continue to generate hotel reservations.
A Yellow Pages business directory section was added. This is essentially the meat of the website and where I believe I will generate the most revenue.   I hand “coded” each of the directory pages, and the hope is that advertisers will want to upgrade their listings for a premium. If a visitor is looking for a lawyer in Burbank, I think it would behoove a law firm to upgrade and be seen first. I will also allow companies to retain their position in the directory but add a link to their website at a lower rate.
All Adsense links have been completely removed from the site. With a fully-developed website, there is no reason to have visitors click on the links to be taken elsewhere. Visitors are valuable, and I don’t want to lose visitors to make a few cents. I would rather them patronize advertisers who work directly with me rather than getting paid to send them somewhere else.
I added a number of informational pages about various activities, parks and theatres in the area that weren’t included in the first site. I want Burbank.com to be the most comprehensive website in Burbank, and I need to add as much important information as possible. As mentioned before, each of these pages has a news heading at the bottom, allowing me to add new information. I better update my Google Alerts account – and sign up for various email newsletters.
An activities widget was added to the Burbank activities and studio tour pages. Because of date issues, I couldn’t connect individual activities to activity pages like I could with the hotels. In light of this, I added a helpful widget. This will allow people to choose other activities in the surrounding area. I can test conversions over time, and if it appears that traffic is great but conversions are low, I can consider going directly to the advertisers and sell tickets or sell advertising space.
Nearly every page has a picture. Ironically, the person who helped write many of the articles and pages actually lives in Burbank. She was happily willing to go out and take pictures for the site. I think they make the site look great and really add to it. I also added captions to each photo for search engine purposes. Where pictures weren’t available or weren’t possible, I used stock photos.
I really think the site turned out well, and my developer/designer did an amazing job. At the moment, there are many minor things that need to be fixed. I am facing some calendar issues, the captchas aren’t showing up, missing a few pages, and a few other technical problems. If you notice any issues or have any comments, please let me know. I am in Florida right now but am on something like a working vacation. Next up is Lowell.com!

If your domain names are generating revenue from PPC, it’s important to check your keywords and landing pages somewhat frequently to make sure they are optimized, showing relavant advertisements and the images are related to the subject. This might be cumbersome for some portfolio domain owners, but you can’t expect people to click on the links if they are completely unrelated.
While Google doesn’t usually index parked domain names, some do have better luck getting indexed (a few of my small niche names I have parked with Fabulous are indexed well). If the domain is indexed in Google but the keywords aren’t optimized, the page title and meta keywords will be impacted. This could cause a lower SE ranking, less traffic, and less revenue as a consequence.
It’s also important to make sure domain names aren’t showing links that could be infrining on a company’s mark. For example, I have a great nnn.com domain name.   I know there are several casinos who use numbers as their brand name, so I make sure the domain isn’t showing casino or gambling related advertising. While it is usually easy for a company to manipulate parked names to show what looks like infringing ads using the search function, domain owners should be able to prove this manipulation.
Although PPC revenue has been generally declining across all sectors, it is wise to check in with your parking company to make sure your domains are optimized as best as they can be optimized. Frequently aut-optimize programs work well, but there are times they miss the mark. Doing this yourself will ensure that you are going to make the most revenue with the least chance of infringing on someone’s trademark.
It might also behoove you to sign up for the new Reinvent Index, a fixed list of 200 domains, divided into 20 verticals, owned and operated by Reinvent. This will allow you to track how Reinvent’s mini portfolios are doing so you can compare them to your own portfolio.   If their revenue is jumping in a particular industry but yours is tanking, perhaps your keywords need to be better optimized.   The Reinvent Index will allow you to see seasonal trends, industry performance or general market swings, and you can compare this to your portfolio.

I read an interesting blog post written by Tim Berry on Entrepreneur Blog Network. Tim discusses a brief email conversation he had with the owner of SWOT.com who had cold-called him regarding the sale of the domain name. It’s interesting to see Tim’s (and his reader’s) perspectives of domain values vs. my own perspectives.   I was going to comment in his post, but it was fairly long and I decided to respond below.
Just wanted to clear up a couple of misconceptions about domain names.   Just because there isn’t a website, doesn’t mean there isn’t traffic as your reply to the domain owner would indicate – “However, you have no traffic. [Ed. note: He doesn’t. The domain is owned, but there’s no site.]” Direct navigation traffic, where people type their keyword and .com, is one of the most powerful forms of traffic.   Before CNN paid $750,000 (yes, $750,000!) for iReport.com, there was no website, but some people probably typed-in the domain name.   The name sold for such a high amount because CNN needed it and the previous owner didn’t need the money enough to sell it for less.
Domain names are virtual real estate.   I live in Manhattan, and behind my old building on 34th and 6th (Herald Square), there was a parking garage.   If a developer wanted to buy that space to put up a building for condos, he couldn’t tell the garage owner he would pay him based on a parking revenue multiple if the owner didn’t have a desire to sell.   The developer would have to do a ROI calculation to determine how much he could afford to buy the space for depending on his business plan.   The price he could afford and the price the garage owner would sell it for could be vastly different, but if the developer really wanted or needed that space, he would have to spend the money.
A real world real estate example is that of Donald Trump trying to buy Vera Coking’s home in Atlantic City.   Was her home worth what she was asking?   Probably not, but her reluctance to sell caused Donald Trump to alter his development plans.
Even in the tough economy, domain names continue to sell for record amounts of money. While virtually all other types of investments have seen pretty large decreases, domain values have continued to increase.   An unknown lawyer in Iowa owning a name like TrademarkLawyer.com would get him much more business than simply using HisName.com.
I am not in the travel or real estate business, but owning Lowell.com and Burbank.com gives me a considerable leg up.   Even before I developed them, they had significant traffic, and it has grown since developing.   Yes, some names like TropicalBirds.com wouldn’t get much direct navigation traffic on their own.   However, after owning and developing it, I’ve seen a considerable increase in traffic and return visits.   It’s much easier to remember than a cutesy web 2.0 domain name like CoolTropicalBirds.com or something like that – and I think Google prefers keyword rich domain names.
In any event, domain names are worth what someone will pay.   Knowing the market (and having a MS in Direct & Interactive Marketing), I would pay $5,000 for SWOT.com right now, so that’s the price floor.   I don’t really have a plan for the name right now, but I think it would make a great site for companies to learn how to perform a SWOT analysis. In this day and age, many brick and mortar companies face a huge weakness in that a competitor’s domain name is the industry defining domain name and it’s difficult to overcome.

I was watching the Fox Sports channel with my brother, and I saw an ad for Xoom.com, a global money transfer service. While their demographic targeting was smart (we were watching a soccer match), the domain name doesn’t pass the tv or radio test. Apparently, “xoom” is pronounced, “zoom,” so the announcer sounds like he is saying “goto zoom.com” when in fact, he wants people to visit xoom.com.
This is a major reason why those brandable web 2.0 domain names del.icio.us, flickr.com, and now xoom.com don’t really make sense and could cause major confusion.