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Things I’ve Learned on My Vacation

Elliot Silver
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I’ve been on vacation since the beginning of July, and I just returned home. One of the best things about being a domain investor is that I can work just about anywhere with an Internet connection, so this has been a working vacation. I guess one of the bad things about being a domain investor is that there are always things to do, so it’s nearly impossible for me to take a “real” vacation. All in all, I really don’t mind, but I won’t tell you what my wife thinks 🙂

If you’ve emailed or called me during the last 3+ weeks, it will take me a few days to get back to everyone, so my apologies in advance for anything.  Here are some things I learned while on my vacation:

– South Florida seems to be a relaxing place for me to work. I love living in New York City, but I haven’t felt more relaxed in a long time. I suppose being on the ocean, sitting by the pool, and playing tennis helped to keep me relaxed.

– John Ferber and Chad Folkening have quite the setup in Domain Holdings. The company seems to have some smart people working for them (including Brian “Teen Domainer” Diener for the summer). I had lunch and dinner with John, and I am planning to work with them when I get some things in order.

– If you live in South Florida and have a dog, you should check out the Delray Dogtacular event John’s girlfriend Jenna  has been organizing in Delray Beach on July 31.

– The South Florida domain investors group puts on some fun events with quite a large number of regular attendees. I wasn’t able to attend the cruise because friends of ours came to town for a few days, but I heard it was a fun event. If you are visiting Florida (or live there) you should see if there’s an event planned.

– Mike and Judi Berkens have a beautiful home in North Carolina, and their mountain views are pretty much unmatchable in the area. I spent a few days in the North Carolina mountains and got to spend some time with Mike and Judi while there.

– Take my Craigslist tip with a grain of salt. It’s possible that what I recommended may lead to a website TOS violation if you post too frequently.

– In thinking about .CO drops and sales, I do think there will be a whole lot of drops, but I also think there will be plenty of people buying these drops hoping to strike gold. IMO, many people (even I) think their domain names are worth more than they probably are, and when we see a name that we think is worth something, it’s likely we’ll try to grab it and buy it even though someone else dropped it. I guess it’s a part of the domain lifecycle.

– Apparently a baby’s heart starts beating 18 days after conception. At least that’s what the dozens of anti-abortion billboards in Florida would have you think. There are also a ton of places to buy fireworks, see strippers, and visit a spa. On this trip, I didn’t do any of the above. It’s such a different lifestyle in the south.

– If you pass a Waffle House on your travels, I highly recommend stopping for some breakfast. I think that and Tudor’s Biscuit World (in West Virginia) are two of my favorite

Debt Ceiling Gamble: Buy DebtCeiling.com

Elliot Silver
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Debt Ceiling

If you were playing the “debt ceiling drinking game” where you have a drink every time US President Barack Obama and Speaker John Boehner  mentioned the debt ceiling buzzword, you’d probably be pretty buzzed right about now.

With all the talk of the United States debt ceiling issues, I’m surprised that nobody has taken a $2,000+ gamble on DebtCeiling.com. The domain name is currently owned by Dark Blue Sea’s Protopixel Pty Ltd.

I’ve never done well with parking, so I’d probably make very little on a domain name that is likely getting some decent traffic right now. However, someone with a high parking revenue share or someone who can build and monetize a website in a short period of time may be able to do well at this price level.

The domain name can be bought for $2,249 by visiting DebtCeiling.com. I have neither the PPC experience nor the desire to develop it, so I’m not taking the gamble.

Disclosure: I also was not asked to post this and am not looking for compensation.

Guest Post: Google Adsense for Parked Domain Names Enhances Landing Pages

Elliot Silver
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I am still traveling today (almost back from vacation), so this is a guest post by Bobby Fitzgerald about how it appears that Google Adsense for Domains has changed/enhanced its landing pages by adding graphics. As you may recall,  Bobby previously discussed how  RestaurantsAgainstCancer.com was developed to raise money for the children of  Camp Sunrise.

As I continue on my journey to learn this business I noticed something recently. Google has greatly improved the graphics of their Google for domains. Recently I have been moving a number of domains I plan on holding, or developing, to Google. I had been using a couple of the parking companies and was not seeing any income what so ever on over 100 unique visits a day. I believe someone who lands on a parked page will only make one click the vast majority of the time. They also need to see a trusted, related, choice like a hotel chain on a geo or travel site or a restaurant on a geo restaurant site. Just MHO.

Having read more than one of the industry leaders comment that parking income covers all or near-all renewal fees I decided to mix it up so the march to Google parking began.

Rather than just stating that, “Below are sponsored listings for goods and services related to…” as you see below:

Google now has a tighter window with color backgrounds and photos as well as a banner ad that is visible in the initial window.

There are 24 images to choose from within Google Adsense for domains.

The reality is my revenue has gone up and I will cover the cost of renewals if the trend continues. While I enjoy the traffic stats offered by the parking companies, money talks and, well, stats can walk. One thing I have done is use a parking company to test if there is any traffic at all and if so then move to Google where income appears to be happening. Hopefully Google will continue the improvements and offer traffic stats for each domain or the parking companies will up their game. I am still new enough to not understand how splitting Google ad income with a parking company can be more profitable than parking with Google directly, but that is why I am doing this-to learn.

Before:

After:

Can You Block a Competitor’s Links From Appearing on Facebook?

Elliot Silver
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A while back, I set up a Facebook page for my blog. At the moment, there are 177 “followers” of Elliot’s Blog on Facebook, all of whom opted in to be a “follower.” Although I do have a bit of dialog on the Facebook wall, I prefer to discuss articles on my blog since the readership is far greater and it would be more information for others to read.

I often post links to articles from my blog on this Facebook page’s wall to let people know that a new post has gone up. I don’t post links to my articles on my personal Facebook page because I can assure you that none of my friends care about what I am posting on my business blog. Therefore, the only people who should see these links are those who have opted in to my Facebook page or perhaps others if someone else posted a link on their own wall.

Yesterday afternoon, I tried to post a link to a new article and received an error message when I tried: “This message contains blocked content that has previously been flagged as abusive or spammy.  Let us know if you think this is an error.”

I assume this means someone reported a link to my blog as spam. I don’t believe a “competitor” actually reported the link, but having this happen leads me to believe a competitor could easily do this to another company (or ask someone unrelated to do it) and have the other company’s links blocked. This can be problematic for a company that is spending a considerable amount of money sending users to its Facebook page.

It shouldn’t be too difficult for a company to prove to Facebook that its links aren’t “abusive or spammy,” but if a company is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a well-timed marketing campaign, losing the ability to post links for a few hours or possibly days can be damaging.

I reported this issue to Facebook, and hopefully someone will look into it to see that my posting links to articles on my blog directly on my blog’s opt-in Facebook wall is not spammy nor is it abusive.

Next Navigation Selling More Names

Elliot Silver
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I saw that Next Navigation has put some of its descriptive domain names up for sale on Sedo via Great Domains, and a few of the names stand out as having low reserve prices. As you may recall, the company sold DataCenter.com for over $350,000 via Sedo at the end of May.

Four of the names I like and believe have fair reserve prices include (not affiliate links):

In total, it looks like the company is selling 20 names at the Great Domains auction this time around. You can see the full list on the Next Navigation website.

4Square.com on Auction at NameJet

Elliot Silver
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The domain name 4Square.com is coming up for sale on NameJet, and with some active bidding, the price is already over $1,200. It appears that this is a private auction rather than a drop, as the expiration date is September of 2012.

In order to bid on this domain name, a backorder needs to be placed by 11pm Eastern tonight. With well over 100 bidders right now, it will likely sell for significantly more than its current bid.

According to the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, the term “4square” has over 18,000 global exact match searches, while the more popular “foursquare” has over 500,000 global exact match searches.

While at first glance, it might seem like a big legal risk for someone in light of the popular Foursquare brand, the popular Four Square game was in existence far before the location-based social networking company was created.

At what price do you think this name will sell? My guess would be between $15,000-20,000.

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