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Not Overly Critical of Parking Companies

Elliot Silver
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43

I’ve seen quite a bit of animosity towards parking companies, especially in light of Frank Schilling’s new venture, where domain owners are seeing a “pretty drastic” lift in revenue. Much of this vitriol  is probably justified, especially from people who continue to earn a significant amount of money from parking.

From the perspective of someone who hasn’t ever focused on domain parking for income, I don’t think we all should be so hyper critical of parking companies.

Parking companies enabled regular domain owners to earn revenue from their unused (or under-used) domain names. They cut deals with upstream providers, tested and built thousands of landing pages, provided self-optimizing platforms allowing customers to do minimal work, and most always signed off on revenue checks once or twice a month. They may not have created the PPC model, but they brought it to the masses and still do.

In addition to this service, parking companies spent millions of dollars re-investing in the domain industry. They sponsored conferences and events where domain investors could meet others and they bought millions of dollars worth of domain names from domain investors. Revenue from parking services was reinvested into many different ventures, which still provide utility for domain owners.

Yes, there is a BIG issue of them working within a “black box,” not sharing how they calculate revenue share and other information with domain owners. Most are anything but transparent when it comes to their operations, and they likely take a very large cut of revenue from our domain assets.

However, most of us wouldn’t and couldn’t own the number of domain names we own without parking companies. On one hand, they’ve taken advantage of us and our domain names, but on the other hand, they provided a service we couldn’t provide for ourselves and have helped advance this business.

I have never done much parking, and I am sure if I did, I would be more critical of them. As a result, I appreciate what they have done for the business and what they will continue to do for those who don’t qualify for Frank’s service.

Judgment Day? Maybe for FamilyRadio.com

Elliot Silver
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27

I am sorry for those of you who have been spending your money like there’s no tomorrow, thinking that today would be judgment day and the rapture would be coming. Thankfully, that didn’t seem to happen… at least I don’t think it happened.

Unfortunately for the people who have been preaching that judgment day would be today (May 21, 2011), it appears that the organization’s website is down for the count. According to the DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com website, it appears that FamilyRadio.com is down.

I don’t know if it’s down because its servers were hit with too much traffic, or perhaps it really was judgment day for the website. Whatever the case may be, the site doesn’t seem to be loading right now.

My Newest Project Launched This Week

Elliot Silver
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40

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!

Go Daddy Phishing Email Going Around

Elliot Silver
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7

I received an email that was preportedly from Go Daddy, and I want to warn you not to click on any of the links if you happen to receive one of these emails (or similar). The thing that tipped me off was that it was addressed to “Dear User” instead of the contact name on my account.

I keep my Whois information updated, so I generally ignore these email anyway. Never click on links from your registrar in emails, and always be on the lookout for these types of phishing attempts. It’s a surefire way to compromise your registrar account.

****************************** ***********
Important ICANN Notice Regarding Your Domain Name(s)
****************************** ***********

Dear User,

it is that time of year again. ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) annually requires that all accredited registrars (like GoDaddy.com) ask their domain administrators/registrants to review domain name contact data, and make any changes necessary to ensure accuracy. According to our records you are the ADMINISTRATIVE CONTACT for one or more domains registered at GoDaddy.com, Inc. as of Jan 1st, 2011.

To review/update your Account data, simply:
+ Login to xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
+ You will be taken to a landing page and asked to enter your account information
Please take a look that your account and domain information is up to date.

If, however, your domain contact information is inaccurate, you must correct it. (Under ICANN rules and the terms of your registration agreement, providing false contact information can be grounds for domain name cancellation.) To review the ICANN policy, visit: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Should you have any questions, please email us at support@godaddy.com or call our customer support line at (480) 505-8877.

Thanks for your attention and thank you for being a GoDaddy.com, Inc. customer.

Sincerely,
GoDaddy.com, Inc. Domain Support

Novelties.com Acquired by Bobbleheads.com, LLC

Elliot Silver
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1

A couple months ago, I learned that the huge category defining domain name Novelties.com was acquired by Bobbleheads.com LLC, which was founded by Warren Royal, the owner and operator of Bobbleheads.com. Although the acquisition  was finalized two months ago, the news was not released as the company was negotiating on a few other domain names.

The purchase price is unable to be disclosed due to a non-disclosure agreement.

Warren has been featured on this blog numerous times from turning a $29,112 investment (acquisition of Bobbleheads.com) into a highly successful company that is now funded by venture capital. The company also recently re-launched CustomBobbleheads.com.

Plans for Novelties.com were not disclosed, but I imagine it will be similar to Bobbleheads.com, although it will likely offer a much larger selection of novelty items. As I’ve said in the past, once you figure out a business model that works, you can afford to spend more money on great domain name assets knowing that you can expand your business model to other areas.

Congrats to Warren on this acquisition.

Entrepreneur Sends C&D to Owner of EntrepreneurOlogy.com, Owner Files Suit

Elliot Silver
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7

There’s an interesting article in Bloomberg today about the owner of Entrepreneur magazine (Entrepreneur Media), which operates Entrepreneur.com. It seems that the company aggressively defends its marks for the term, “entrepreneur.”

In September of 2010, Austin entrepreneur, Daniel R. Castro, received a cease and desist letter from Entrepreneur Media with regards to his domain name, EntrepreneurOlogy.com. The domain name has been registered since 2004, and it appears to have been bought sometime between the end of 2009 and beginning of 2010. Interestingly, domain investor Page Howe appears to have owned the domain name in December of 2009.

Instead of simply handing the domain name over, Castro took preemptive legal action against Entrepreneur Media and filed a lawsuit. According to the Bloomberg article,

“In April a federal judge dismissed 12 of Castro’s 14 claims but said he could continue to pursue his allegation that EMI’s core trademark is invalid. As described in his court papers, Castro’s argument is that “the public has not come to associate the word ‘entrepreneur’ exclusively with EMI’s products or services.” The word, he adds, “is a generic noun that is in the public domain.”

It looks like Entrepreneur Media may have messed with the wrong domain name owner, who also happens to have a law degree. This is going to be an interesting case to follow, and it will hopefully be seen by legal council for other companies that operate on generic/descriptive terms that want to own everything associated with those words.

Interestingly, someone emailed me with a link to Entrepreneurs.com, which has more information about attempts to trademark the term, “entrepreneur.”

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