Home Blog Page 1154

Smart Domain Move by Trump

Elliot Silver
-
8

In a tweet made on his Twitter page this afternoon, Donald Trump, Jr. (known by many as Don) and his wife Vanessa announced the birth of their son, Tristan Trump, who was born today.

Although the newest member of the Trump family was just born, he already has his domain name  reserved  for him by the Trump Organization. Whois records show that TristanTrump.com was registered by The Trump Organization just a few days ago, on September 27, 2011.

When real estate mogul Donald Trump had his son, Barron, in 2006, the company did not immediately register BarronTrump.com, and another entity registered it. Current Whois records show that The Trump Organization now owns BarronTrump.com as well. The domain name forwards to the website of the child’s mother, MelaniaTrump.com.

Congratulations to the Trump family, which clearly understands the value of domain names. Perhaps Don should now get in touch with DomainMarket.com and work out a deal for DonTrump.com.

Did Warner Bros. Buy Anderson.TV for Anderson Cooper TV Show?

Elliot Silver
-
1

I read an article this morning that discussed a new television show featuring Anderson Cooper, which will be aptly called Anderson.  I did a bit of research to see if there would be a unique website for the show, and I think I may have found one that could be used: Anderson.TV.

Cooper’s management company already appears to own  AndersonCooper.com, which is a fully developed website.  According to a Whois lookup, Anderson.TV is registered to Warner Bros. The company appears to have acquired/taken possession of  the domain name in February of 2011 from a company in Tawain.

According to a September 2010 article appearing on the website, Deadline.com, “Anderson Cooper has signed a deal to host a new one-hour NYC-based daily daytime strip for Warner Bros Domestic Television Distribution, set for national syndication launch in Fall 2011.”

Cooper is known to interact with his television audience online, and it would make sense to me that Warner Bros. may have  acquired  the domain name for the television show.  At the present time, Anderson.TV does not resolve.

If the domain name is used and marketed, it bodes well for .TV investors who look at market usage of domain names to help bolster the aftermarket values of other .TV domain names.

For .CO, Better to Be Talked About Than The Alternative

Elliot Silver
-
4

“The only thing more ridiculous than the name of the Raiders’ edifice was how they were more than happy to help the Patriots load this win into their luggage for the trip home.” – Christopher L. Gasper, Boston Globe sports columnist discussing the name of the stadium where the Oakland Raiders play.

As you are well aware, Overstock bought the naming rights to the Oakland Coliseum before the football season, and the company is in the process of a re-branding to O.CO. Consequently, the new name of the stadium is O.CO Coliseum.

I suppose this means Overstock likely has a ways to go before the branding is understood and adopted, but like the saying goes, it’s better to have people talk about you than not say anything.

Sunday Updates

Elliot Silver
-
13

The year is three quarters of the way finished, and I am excited about the fourth quarter starting. I think it’s going to be a good few months for many of us in the domain space. Here are some Sunday updates.

– With the fourth quarter now here, I bet we’re going to see some nice domain sales reported during the next several weeks. Companies want to use up their entire marketing budgets over the next several weeks to ensure they receive the same or more funds in their 2012 budgets, and a domain purchase is a smart way to spend marketing dollars.

– A few people asked me why I am not attending the GeoPublishers Expo in Chicago this weekend, and there are a few reasons. First, I would have had to fly out on the second day of Rosh Hashana to make the opening party, and I didn’t want to do that. Second, and most importantly, I am taking a “working vacation” in Portland this week and didn’t want to miss that. Finally, Fred Mercaldo’s team actively works on Burbank.com for me, and Lowell.com is basically on cruise control.

– I am still a proponent of city .com domain names, and I don’t regret turning down a $113,000 offer for Burbank.com (from a domain investor who bought another domain name of mine). The business model for a city .com website is more hands on than I anticipated when I started out, and I do think there is still quite a bit of money to be made in this sector. I would bet the Geo Expo attendees will come away from the conference excited, with some great ideas on monetization. I hope some of that knowledge trickles down to me.

– I think the happiest guy in the domain space right now is DomainTools CEO, Tim Chen. Not only does his company continue to grow, but his Buffalo Bills are off to a surprising 3-0 record. I am a Patriots fan, and yes, this is a feeble attempt to jinx the Bills.

– Business Insider posted an article about The 50 Most Jaw-Dropping Luxury Purchases In The Past Year. The Sex.com sale for $13 million was listed at #35. (Thanks to Kevin for the link).

– According to an email from Rick Schwartz, there aren’t many conference passes for TRAFFIC remaining for sale. If you want to buy one, you should probably get on that ASAP.

– In another strong “brandable” domain sale, Mike Mann sold ComeSee.com for $20,000.

– I bought my first fully operational website in September and re-launched it: DogPark.com. There are over 600 dog parks listed, and with some major changes to the ad placement from the original site, revenue is already 3x what it was before I bought it. I am also sending traffic to DogWalker.com, which is an added bonus.

Negotiation Tip: Another Reason Not to Lowball

Elliot Silver
-
20

The most obvious reason you shouldn’t send a lowball offer for a domain name is because it’s unlikely you’ll even receive the courtesy of a response. I guess courtesy may be the wrong word, since some domain owners might not think it’s courteous to offer $500 for a domain name that’s worth $25,000.

There’s another important reason you don’t really want to submit a lowball offer. If you do receive a response, but you don’t receive a counter offer, you will likely be inclined to improve your offer. Now that you know someone is at least monitoring the email address, you might think to come back at $4,000. That’s still a bargain if the name is worth $25,000.

The domain owner will certainly take note of your 8x price increase, and anyone with a brain and a business sense will automatically turn that down figuring there’s gotta be additional money in the bank to raise the offer.

When I reject an opening offer but don’t give my price, my eyes light up when the potential buyer significantly increases his offer. Even if the second offer is a number I’d accept, I’d never immediately accept it knowing that the next offer will be even higher. My feeling in doing so is that I can always go back and take the offer if the potential buyer says that’s his highest offer.

That being said, when you’re on the other side of the table, you need to realize a huge % increase in your offer will almost certainly work against you, so lowballing on a domain name you want to buy is a bad strategy.

Google Now Using G.CO on Maps

Elliot Silver
-
20

G.COIn July, it was announced that Google acquired G.CO to use as a url shortener for internal Google links. I just noticed that Google has begun using the G.CO url shortener for internal links on its Google Maps pages.

When you enter an address on the map and click on the link button, you’re presented the standard link, which can be VERY long depending on the address. There’s a “Short URL” check box above the standard url, and when it’s clicked, you’re given a url using G.CO.

I haven’t come across other uses of G.CO yet, but I am sure it will take some time for integration within all of Google’s products and brands. With a reported 7 figure price tag, I would hope Google plans to use G.CO more widely across its products and services.

I just came across Google’s LatLong Blog post discussing the url shortener back in August, but I just noticed it. According to the post, “We only use g.co to send you to Google web pages, and only Google Maps can generate a g.co/maps URL. This means that you can visit a a g.co/maps shortcut with confidence, and always know you will end up on a Google Maps page.”

Have you seen G.CO used elsewhere?

1...1,1531,1541,155...1,573Page 1,154 of 1,573