Updates

I just returned from a vacation, and it’s nice to be back home. There’s something to be said about getting out of the country, but it’s always nice to return to the US. We had a great time, and it was one of the first trips I’ve taken where I barely checked my email. If you sent me something, it may take me a bit of time to reply.

Here are some updates – some related to domain names and some not so related.

– Thank you again to DudeRanch.com, Godaddy, and Richard Lau for their guest posts in my absence. Their posts raised $1,500 for the Ronald McDonald House organization that helps children with cancer and their families. My goal is to raise $10k this year.

– I tried the Westvleteren 12 beer at a great bar in Brussels called Au Bon Vieux Temps. I’ve heard this is the best beer in the world, and I would not argue against that rating. I could not imagine a better beer drinking experience.

– If you email me trying to get me to buy one of your domain names, please don’t send attachments I have to open in order to see them. I won’t open them and I am sure others won’t either. If you have too many names to put in a list in the body of the email, I can almost guarantee I won’t have any interest in them. If you have a huge list of names, just send me the best 5 to review. If you don’t know what your best 5 names are, I am probably not going to be interested.

– I keep hearing about the market slowdown, but  things have been going pretty well so far. I am confident this year will be the best year for my company financially.

– Here’s the best top level advice I can give if you want to make a lot of money in the domain business: Keep your overhead low, only buy great domain names at good prices, sell when you receive a great offer (don’t be greedy), don’t get caught up in forum/blog drama, don’t develop domain names “just because,” keep your sales and sales prices close to your vest unless it benefits you to release the data, and network with others in the industry, but don’t be a pest.

Have a great week!

It’s been a great weekend and I hope you enjoyed yours, too. Here are some updates.

• Last week, I suggested you work with a buyer’s broker to try and acquire a domain name.  I want to give a public thank you to  Aaron Visaggio and  Neil Kavanaugh of  Afternic  for helping me complete a private acquisition this past week. With their help, I was able to purchase BikeRentals.com. You can check out SkiRentals.com to see how I envision a new site.

• I read Andrew’s article about Go Daddy coming up with a system to eliminate the 60 day transfer lock (not including NEW registrations). It doesn’t make any sense that the company would revert the Whois to what it was prior to the lock being added. If I just bought the name and want to transfer it or flip it, I can’t have it locked. Under this new regulation, it would revert the registration back to the former owner.

• I made a few aftermarket purchases last week. Some of the names I bought include: BikeRentals.com, CorporateReputation.com, and LivingWills.com. What names did you purchase in the last few days?

• Looks like Repair.com recently launched, and it is helmed by someone with significant experience online. I think that’s going to be a good business to follow and see how it grows and ranks in Google. Thanks to Ted from Internet Venture Holdings for sending me the article  about the company.

• I don’t own a single .TV name right now (to my knowledge) but it does seem like that market is heating up a bit. I’ve noticed quite a few large public sales reported, and I’ve heard some rumors of a few large private sales. What have you been seeing?

I want to share some updates and tips with you. Don’t forget, daylight savings time starts tomorrow in most places in the United States. Hope you have a good weekend.

• If you buy domain names from larger companies in the aftermarket, I find it better to save groups of names of interest as you find them. Inquire about several names at once, maybe once a month or every couple of months. Generally speaking, you’ll get better deals when you buy in bulk. You might also consider adding names you don’t want to the list to disguise the names you do want.

• Don’t forget this handy tip to find a buyer for your domain name. Search Google for your domain name, and contact the companies who use your keyword domain name in their domain name. For instance, a company that uses FinancialPlanners.com or EventPlanners.com could possibly want to shorten their url to Planners.com. There are many companies that use “Brand”Category.com, and if you own Category.com, they might want to upgrade.

• It was nice to see Domain Name Sales’ infographic on Mashable last week. I think the infographic is a great visual to show why a company would want to buy a descriptive domain name. I also think Edwin’s comment was on the money.

• Paul Keating wrote an insightful comment in my response to my article about reverse domain name hijacking penalties in the UDRP. Paul’s article about the ceat.com UDRP decision is also worth a read when yu have an opportunity.

• Would anyone be up for an NCAA tournament bracket contest? Maybe something along the lines of a $10 entry fee to participate? If there’s interest from more than a few people, I will set something up.

• A few of my public recent auction purchases: RaceNights.com, BiomedicalSupply.com, MaritalHelp.com, CapitolRealEstate.com, and CounselingCenters.com

I don’t want to “jinx” things, but 2012 is off to a rocking start.  I don’t think the world economy is getting much better, but I do think consumer confidence is higher than before, and I also think domain investor confidence is growing.  I looked through my records from the last several years (since 2006), and I have never had a better February than this one.

– Economist and internet entrepreneur Thies Lindenthal is  definitely  on to something when it comes to the IDNX he developed in conjunction with Sedo. As the stock market continues to climb, it seems that people are spending more money on domain names. See next bullet for more details.

– I closed three end user sales this past week, one of which was for 3x my asking price (see next bullet for a tip). One sale was made as a result of an email I sent to the prospective buyer, another was an inquiry from the website, and the third  was an inbound price request from the Voodoo landing page. There is obviously something to be said about having a bright “for sale” notice on the top of parked pages. Lots of lowball offers that way, but it’s a great way to open a dialog and make some deals happen.

– I agree that priced domain names sell faster, as Afternic’s Jason Minor wrote, but when you have your domain names listed for sale and you receive an offer via a different means (email from the landing page), be sure to either quote your price in line with the BIN price or take down the BIN price before quoting. I got lucky recently and was able to sell a name for 3x it’s BIN price.

– The sale I made as a result of an inquiry from the website contact form will be detailed in a press release in a couple of weeks. It’s a site I haven’t updated in a while, and the timing was right because I realized I’d probably never be able to give it the attention it needs. When you see who bought it, you’ll see why I am excited for the buyer and think it’s a win/win.

– I got very lucky last Sunday. My wife looked down at her engagement ring, and the center stone was missing. She panicked as we looked around and couldn’t find it. I went back to the restaurant where we had lunch a half hour before, and I saw the diamond on the ground where we ate. I brought it back to the jeweler, and he fixed the ring for free. Apparently, my wife had broken off the top of one of the prongs. If you need a great jeweler, you should check out Jacob & Co.  and if you do, see Craig. The store is beautiful (especially the watches), and they treat you well, even if you are like me and aren’t a celebrity.

Hope you have a nice weekend.

I think my favorite day of the year is Super Bowl Sunday, especially when my New England Patriots are playing. I don’t ever miss a Pats game, even when I’m on vacation. Anyways, here’s a brief Super Bowl Sunday update.

– I don’t know about you, but it’s been strange seeing some Super Bowl commercials released prior to the game. When my team isn’t playing, I enjoy watching the game but particularly enjoy seeing the special commercials companies make for the big game. It’s a bit disappointing to see them ahead of time.

– Keeping with the Super Bowl theme for a moment,  I learned that Doritos held another contest to allow people to submit videos for one of the company’s Super Bowl commercials. One of the five finalists is called “Doritos crash the dog park,” and they are using  DoritosDogPark.com  for the commercial url. If this one is the winner, it will be interesting to see if DogPark.com gets any traffic.  I wrote an article about the Doritos Dog Park commercial on the DogPark.com blog.

– The .ME auction is underway at Sedo, and it ends on February 9. I probably won’t be bidding, but I will be following along just in case I see any good values there.

– Nice to see that premium domain listings will be on Go Daddy during the Super Bowl. As I recall last year, they took down premium listings, which was a bummer for domain investors, since that’s likely the highest traffic day of the year. Feel free to report any GD premium sales tomorrow. Would be neat to see if there’s a lift.

– I like Guy’s comment on Shane’s post  yesterday – “talk about the nursery more too.” Running a business is in Shane’s blood, and I think we can all learn a lot from his experience managing employees, inventory, and a brick and mortar business. Shane “gets” the domain business, and I wish him all the best as he focuses on his domain business.

– One final note. I am not sure if I mentioned it yet, but I am a big Patriots fan, despite having lived in New York City for the last 10 years. Let’s go PATS!