This may come across as a bit self serving, and it probably is, but I want to give some feedback about why I like my site, DomainQuestions.com. I also think it’s good to remind people where they can get answers to some of their own domain questions.

It seems like every day that I receive a question related to domain names. Some questions are about domain monetization, some are about general domain investing, and others are related to domain acquisitions or sales. It’s humbling that people feel that they can ask me a question about domain names and get a good answer, and I appreciate that level of confidence in me.

However, I stopped doing private domain consulting over a year ago. I don’t have the time to give to others on a regular basis, and time away from my own business development is detrimental to my bottom line, even while earning a decent amount of money from consulting. Despite this, I still receive many questions about domain investing, and I want to give a good answer since people took the time to write to me.

Enter DomainQuestions.com, a site I launched several months ago. Instead of saying, “sorry, I don’t do domain consulting,” I can let the person know I will do my best to answer the question if they take the time to post it on DomainQuestions.com. Not only does this become a resource for people who have similar questions, but it also saves me time answering questions I’ve answered in the past when I simply need to email them a DQ thread with the same question and an answer.

If the person doesn’t want to spend the time or effort creating an account and posting a question, why would I ever want to spend my time answering the question?  If the question is private in nature, there are plenty of great domain consultants who will happily answer their questions for them.

In addition to the site being a resource for domain related questions, it has become a (slow growing) revenue stream. As traffic continues to grow, I’ve been fortunate to have a few advertisers on the site. It seems like a win/win.

If you haven’t checked out DomainQuestions.com, I urge you to do so the next time you have a question. I’d also recommend creating an account, adding your profile information, and helping to answer the questions that other people have. I appreciate it and they will appreciate it, too.

A couple of months ago, I was negotiating to buy the domain name BeerWeek.com at Sedo, but I couldn’t agree on the price with the seller. I just noticed a new website on BeerWeek.com, and it appears that another company acquired the domain name.

The strategy of the new website on BeerWeek.com is similar to what I envisioned, and I want to discuss why I like it and think it’s a good idea. Perhaps it will give you some ideas for your own domain names, and as I am writing this and thinking about the site, I am also thinking about a couple names I own, BikeTours.com and BikeTour.com.

There are dozens of “Beer Week” events that take place in various US cities and in countries around the world. Most of the events are unrelated to each other, but they obviously focus on beer. The owner of BeerWeek.com has turned the site into a resource for people who want to learn about the different “Beer Weeks.”

It almost seems that BeerWeek.com is the primary brand for these individual “Beer Weeks,” despite the fact that they are likely unrelated. For instance, there is an informational page about American Craft Beer Week, and that event is managed by a different Colorado company.

Having the “more generic” term that encompasses these various events should help the site rank well in Google and Bing when people do long tail searches for the events covered in the site. For instance, I wouldn’t be surprised for BeerWeek.com to rank just after CraftBeer.com when people search for American Craft Beer Week because of its seemingly close relation with the event and the keyword match.

For monetization, the company can use Adsense (which it’s using), and as it grows, it can sell advertising space directly to the event organizers. It can also charge other Beer Week organizers for links on the site if it so chooses, and it could even sell tickets to different beer week events, or possibly use hotel affiliate links for people looking to travel to different Beer Weeks.

One next step could be offering advice/consulting on how to start and manage a beer week for people interested in doing their own event. Another next step could be to get in touch with brewers and see which companies are interested in participating in Beer Weeks and organize its own Beer Week. Finally, the company could opt to organize its own Beer Week(s), and use the revenue from that to expand and/or acquire other events.

In any case, it’s neat to see a domain name I almost purchased launched with a website model I thought would work. I am going to continue following the site’s progress, and perhaps some day, I will find the time to do something similar with BikeTours.com and/or BikeTour.com.

Sometimes I come across a domain name for sale and I know I have to buy it to build it out. That happened the other day, and I want to share the newest website/business development project I have undertaken.

If you have any friends or family members who are pregnant or recently gave birth, you’ve likely had to purchase a gift. In the last few years, baby registries have become a popular way for expectant parents to choose gifts and supplies that are needed upon the birth of their baby.  Similar to a wedding registry, a baby registry can be filled out in-store or online, and friends and family can purchase gifts from various gift registries.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw that BabyRegistries.com was for sale, and before even buying the domain name, I had a vision for the site. It would be an affiliate based website where expectant parents could post links to up to 5 baby registries. They could send their friends a link to their page on BabyRegistries.com, and gifts could be purchased from one of the registries. Instead of having to look at several websites for a particular baby registry, the parents could have all of their registries listed in one spot.

There is competition for this particular website. For instance, BabyRegistryLocator.com is owned and operated by The Wedding Channel. TheBump.com is also competition, as are a few other niche websites.

Expectant parents can provide information about their registries and link to all of their registries on one page within BabyRegistries.com. Instead of having to search through a large list of similar names and/or finding the right registries, friends and family can easily find all of the registries for a couple on one page.

Monetization will be done via affiliate links and possibly direct advertising once the site has grown. I am planning to worry about generating revenue once traffic increases.

If you want to check out a sample page, you can check out Mike and Krissy St. John’s baby registry page. Mike’s a domain investor, and he and his wife is expecting in August. If you’re expecting, I hope you’ll add your own baby registries.

The website design was done (almost from scratch) by Theo Develegas of  Acroplex and the coding was completely done by Tia Wood, and I am utilizing the WordPress platform. There was a lot of work involved, and I am sure I am not the perfect client, but Theo and Tia were both very responsive to my needs and requests. There is still some work to be done, but please have a look at the site and feel free to leave some feedback and any errors you see.

The site took about a week to create, and I am pretty happy with how it looks. If I can manage a project like this, I bet you can, too. Comments, criticism, suggestions, errors, questions, and anything else would be appreciated.

BTW… if you are expecting a baby or know someone who is, please let them know they should sign up and post links to their baby registries!

Sol Orwell (formerly known as Ahmed Farooq), founder of iBegin and a veteran domain investor and developer, recently launched a new pet project – Examine.com. Surprisingly, Examine.com was purchased in mid-March for just $41,000, which I think is a pretty good price for this domain name.

According to Sol, the domain name is just a part of the project. “The value of the domain is less than half of anything else I am going to invest into it. So domain is key, but you need a lot more than just a domain.” Instead of “Googling it” Sol hopes that people will come to Examine.com to “Examine it.”

Sol has created a “Wikipedia inspired” website for information about health supplements. The goal is to build the best online compendium on supplements, since there is a lack of information. For instance, if you wish to learn about fish oil, you can visit the site and learn about it. Who knew taking fish oil and green tea together was a bad idea? Both are supposed to be good for you, but green tea inhibits fat uptake, and fish oil … well, is a fat. It is information like this that Sol wants to get out.

I’ve seen quite a few sites that are Wikipedia inspired, but this one has the advantage of a great domain name that likely receives a decent amount of traffic from the outset. Although Sol intends to focus on health supplements, I don’t see why it couldn’t expand to other areas where people could “examine it.” I’m told that there are absolutely no plans to expand beyond the health, nutrition and fitness segments.

That’s one major advantage of launching on such a broad domain name instead of something more narrow like HealthSupplements.com. This is going to be a good project to watch.