Updates

Today is the Kentucky Derby, the annual horse race watched by millions. I am going to be attending my first Kentucky Derby party in a few hours, with none other than David Castello and apparently a few other geodomainers. I’m not a horse racing fan, so I may have to stop off at the OTB (off track betting) place down the street and put some money on a horse.

Anyhow, here are a few updates:

• Uncle Mo, the favorite to win the Kentucky Derby, is not running today due to an injury. Want to learn more about Uncle Mo or buy some Uncle Mo gear? He has a website – UncleMo.com.

• I’ve been asked a few times about the conferences I am attending this year. I am probably going to the Geo Publishers Expo in Chicago in October. I am  definitely  going to the TRAFFIC conference in Ft. Lauderdale in mid-October. Aside from that, I don’t think I am attending other domain related conferences in 2011.

• Someone asked “What registrar do you trust for your high value domain names?” What are your thoughts on that right now?

• Here’s one tip to help with your SEO. Try to get one back link to your website a day, and try to add one new article every day or two. If writing is tough for you, use a site like Textbroker. Backlinks may not be easy to get, but it’s easier if you have compelling content on your site, and fresh articles can help with that.

• Great post by Shane Cultra today about turning $69 into $80,000. Check it out when you have a few minutes.

• I don’t know about you, but every time I think about the Monte / Oversee situation, it really upsets me. I use to think that any time I had any issue at Moniker, I could send Monte an instant message, email, or make a call, and the issue would be resolved. Bari is great, but things aren’t the same.

• You know what I find strange? When someone offers $1,500 for a 3 letter .com domain name via Sedo. Does someone really think a person would list their name at Sedo and not have a clue about domain valuations. Sure, the rare cheap 3 letter .com sale happens, but it’s usually made when a buyer approaches an uninformed seller and gets a great deal, but it doesn’t happen on a domain aftermarket platform. Those types of offers are just irritating and get canceled immediately. No point in negotiating with a lowballer.

On the road again today, so if your comment doesn’t get posted immediately, it will likely be posted later on this afternoon. Here are a few updates today.

• As much as National A1 Advertising’s $1 million sale of Poker.org last year seemed smart at the time, it looks even smarter now. With the indictment of several major poker sites yesterday, it will probably be much more difficult to monetize that, at least in the near term.

• Speaking about that indictment, what do you think the UB.com domain name is worth? Wonder how quickly it will be before someone tries to buy it!

• I was biking in Central Park, and I saw a biker get pulled over by a police officer for going through a red light (there’s been a crackdown to avoid injuries). The police officer asked the biker his profession, to which the biker responded that he was a cardiologist. The police officer let him off with a warning telling him the City can’t afford to lose a cardiologist to a bike accident. I couldn’t help but imagine that if it was me, he would have given me the $270 ticket and told me to keep running red lights!

• I noticed that Snowboards.CO was purchased by the owner of Skis.com for $7,500 last week on Sedo. I am interested in seeing how it’s developed and how it ranks in Google and Bing after a few months. This sale may seem anomalous now, but if the owner can build a business on the domain name, sales like this may become more commonplace down the road . I still have a long term positive outlook for the extension, although I still haven’t invested much.

• I saw that Shane is running the Boston Marathon on Monday. I know how much goes into completing a marathon and I wish him all the best.

Well, it’s Saturday and I’m up in Boston again for another wedding. It seems like I’m in a never ending cycle of weddings. I think buying a tuxedo a few years back was the best clothing “investment” I ever made!

Here are a few updates:

• If you couldn’t tell already,  yesterday’s post was an April Fools’ Day gag. I used every domain name listed in Rick Schwartz’ inquiry article on his blog to weave a story together. I seem to have offended my parents with the post – sorry! That story was probably way cooler than how I got started.

• Yesterday afternoon, I had a video interview with Mike Cyger of  DomainSherpa.com. We talked for close to an hour and a half, and I hope that it will provide some insight for you. There were a few topics I discussed that I want to write articles about, but I will let you wait to see the video first.  I like what Mike’s doing, and it’s an honor that he asked me to do an interview.

• I just acquired another large city Hotels.com domain name. It’s a city in Europe with over 500,000 residents and more than 5 million people living in the metropolitan area. I still like this type of domain name if you have them.

• You know what’s really annoying? Discussing a great domain name with two end user buyers, learning of their significant interest, waiting a few days for the necessary approvals to make an offer, and then receiving two really low offers. It’s part of the nature of this business of course, but it’s frustrating.

• If Go Daddy ever goes public, it will be interesting to learn whether the elephant hunting video had an impact on the company’s bottom line. From what they are saying, it appears that all the negativity hasn’t impacted business, but I don’t think they have an obligation to anyone to give a real assessment of the situation. If they were to go public, we might be able to see the potential impact.

• IMO, the people who likely have the biggest moral dilemma with this are the company employees. I know that it shouldn’t be anybody’s business what the president or any other person at a company does in his spare time, but by posting the video, Parsons seems to have opened a can of worms for all of his employees. I would imagine the call center reps are taking a beating on the phones and at home, and it’s gotta be a difficult situation. The silver lining is that I am sure Parsons will reward them this Christmas, as he does every year.

Hope you are having a nice Saturday and that it is the start of a good weekend for you. Here are a few updates:

• It’s been an interesting few weeks in the domain business. Lots of controversy on a few different issues. As domain investors, we always need to keep our ears perked and believe that everyone is looking out for their own best interests. It’s sucky, but that’s the nature of this fairly transient business where anyone with a few dollars can invest in domain names.

• BigJumbo and Domain Sherpa are each giving $5.00 to Ronald McDonald House for every person that becomes a fan of BigJumbo on Facebook (up to $500/each).  There are now 192 fans of BigJumbo on Facebook, and before the special offer there were 139.  So if 239 (47 more) fans “like” BigJumbo by the end of the day tomorrrow, Ronald McDonald House will get $1,000! It’s an easy way to help this great non-profit.

• Despite having the best month in a couple years this past January and doing steady business in February, March has been pretty dead for me on the domain sales front. I sold a couple of names but that’s about it. I haven’t really bought much either, but if you are feeling the pinch, it’s not really isolated to you.

• I’ve taken quite a bit of flack in private (and in the comments) for  my article yesterday, and I am sure a portion of it is deserved. I was defending the reputation of a company that has a bunch of names that contain well known trademarks and had them listed for sale. I know I was told the names were registered by accident, but it still does look bad for domain investors and makes it easier to label our activities as squatting. I stand by what I wrote, but I can see why some people are upset.

• DogWalker.com hit a pretty big milestone this past week – it’s 500 paid advertisement.  I’ve worked on the site more than I imagined when I started, but things have been going well. It’s very cool for me because it’s the first real site of mine that has taken off like this (excluding this blog) – both in terms of traffic and revenue. DogGroomers.com has not been as successful yet (still only in month 4), so I need to reconcile why dog walkers keep signing up and dog groomers are reluctant so far.