Home Blog Page 1188

Example of Smart Usage of a Generic Brand and Domain Name

Walking through a farmers’ market a couple of days ago, I saw a shop with BBQ sauces, spices, supplies, and seasonings. One unique product I saw was seasoned skewers, which are grilling skewers that contain seasonings on the outside, allowing your chicken or beef to be seasoned from the inside while being grilled. Seems like an interesting concept.

I think the company did a great job choosing a name for its product. Had the company been called XYZ seasoned skewers or something brandable like Taste Skewers, I probably would have forgotten what they are called. Smartly, the company owns and brands its product as “SeasonedSkewers.com

I think it’s smart because it’s branded as its product description. The company could have chosen a cutesy brand, but people probably would have referred to the product as seasoned skewers. Additionally, if they hadn’t called themselves the product name, it would have given a competitor an opportunity to enter the space, since the product is unique but not one of a kind.

If your company develops a new product, sometimes the smartest thing to call it is exactly what it should be called.

Bahamas.CO is Launched

As I had hoped, version 1.0 of Bahamas.CO has launched, with a few days to spare. The website was built on WordPress, and I opted to use a heavily modified template due to time constraints (I needed to have the site launched by August 20th) as part of the .CO Registry’s Founders Program.

The template modification was completed by my web designer Mike McAlister of Six One Five Design, who has done the majority of my design work for the last three years. Usually he builds my sites from scratch, but he knew I was under the proverbial gun on this project, and he jumped in to make the necessary template modifications. For those that are curious, I used the Los Angeles template available on ThemeForest.net (affiliate link) for $32 out of the box.

I also previously mentioned that the logo was designed as part of a contest on 99Designs.com, and ironically the winner of the contest was Theo Develegas of Acroplex. Not only was it my favorite logo, it was also voted as the favorite by you guys, which is always a good thing to see.

I had around 40 articles created by a writer I found on eLance. I added all of the articles, found photos on iStockphoto.com and Flickr, and I coordinated the photos and articles. I still need to do a bit of internal page linking in the next few days, to better enable people to find the pages.

For the next couple of months, I will monitor the website, work on SEO, add articles and photographs, and see how it performs in the search engines. With some extra work, the traffic will grow, and I will begin to work on phase two, integrating a hotel and activities booking engine. In a few months, I will update you on traffic stats and the all important search engine stats, which will be interesting to me (and probably you) because of the .CO domain name.

Until then… thanks for reading.

Fred Mercaldo & Scottsdale.com Announces New Developments and Enhancements for Popular “City In The Box” Software Solution

I just received some news and updates from Fred Mercaldo about his company’s “City in the Box” software platform, and I want to share it with you. If you’ve been thinking about working with the company, now is the time to seriously consider it. (This is not a paid advertisement nor am I being compensated in any way for writing this or if you sign up.)

My website, Burbank.com, has been on the platform for a couple of months now, and traffic continues to be solid and advertisers keep asking for information and creating business listings. The sales process is set to begin in about two weeks, and I am very excited about the prospects.

The company has three big announcements today:

  • They have added Laramie.com and SanMateo.com to their upcoming development projects, bringing the number of City.com properties using their software platform to 55.
  • Scottsdale.com has entered into an exclusive partnership with ZogMedia to provide SEO supervision for all of their partner sites.   They have also added FaceBook and Twitter applications/features to City In The Box.
  • There will be a price increase, effective November 1st or once an additional 25 City.com properties contract with them for development, whichever comes first, from $12,500 to $16,500.

According to Fred Mercaldo,

“With all of the features City In The Box delivers, and with a decided trend towards developing rather than parking, it has never been a better time to take advantage of our services. We are arguably not only the best priced software solution available today, but also the most reliable and widely used, and it is a system built for monetization.

You get a complete business directory for your City, and by selling Premium Upgraded Listings, along with Category Partnerships, combined with our easy to use Content Management System, you are ready to go to market on Day One. Tons of unique content, Calendar of Events section, custom logo and color schemes, professional SEO, and much more are included. And in cases where after launch you need Advertising and Marketing services, we will do this for you thru our CitiesPlanet program!”

For further information, visit CityInTheBox.com and CitiesPlanet.com. A brief PDF overview can be downloaded on the City in the Box website. You can also send Fred an email at fred@scottsdale.com.

Reach Out Over the Phone

1

The domain investment industry can be isolating, and although there are domain forums to discuss business, there isn’t always the same level of camaraderie found in a traditional workplace. Attending a domain conference is a very good way to meet other domain investors, but for some people, the travel and/or expense isn’t feasible.

I recommend reaching out via phone to people who you would consider colleagues to have a conversation. I don’t necessarily recommend calling someone specifically to pick their brain or ask a bunch of questions (which can be annoying), but if it’s a peer you’ve interacted with before, a phone conversation can be helpful in starting friendships and establishing business relationships.

Just like calling a domain owner to inquire about a domain name can yield more positive results than emails can, a phone conversation can do the same thing. Chances are good that the person you call will be interested in speaking as well, and you might learn a thing or two in the process.

Photo: Flickr.com

Summer Doldrums

Lately, domain sellers always seem to be asking each other if others are experiencing a slow down. I haven’t had a bad year, especially considering last year was my worst year by far, but this summer has been pretty slow in terms of domain sale.

From my perspective, it seems that many domain investors aren’t investing as much as they have previously invested in the aftermarket. A number of my clients are in more of a hold mode right now, presumably waiting out this economic storm. This has caused a slow down in my business, and as a result, I am buying less after market domain names. It’s a trickle down effect.

End user companies are still buying domain names as their needs necessitate. Because these needs are demand-based, it is more difficult to close domain sales. It also seems that deals that do close are taking much more time to complete, likely a result of tighter spending.

Because many companies need to spend their entire marketing budget before year-end in order to justify the same (or an increased budget) for the following year, we may see an increase in activity in a month or two. That may be wishful thinking 🙂

In the meantime, I am continuing to build out the websites that I have and continue to market those sites that are operational. Bahamas.co is nearly ready to launch, and I am excited about these prospects.

What have you been seeing in the domain sales market lately?

.CO Domains Subject to UDRP

I read an “Open Letter to .CO Registrants” posted on the .CO Registry website by Eduardo Santoyo, Vice President & ccTLD Manager for the Registry. I think any domain owner who bought .CO domain names should have a look at the letter to know where the Registry stands when it comes to trademark infringement.

Some of the key points discussed in this letter include:

  • .CO domain names are subject to UDRP
  • When you buy a .CO domain name, you must represent and warrant that you aren’t doing so to infringe on the rights of another company (whether you are bidding on a domain name or hand registering it)
  • .CO Registry will not give any refunds if a name is taken via UDRP or other legal action
  • Domain owners are responsible for doing their own due diligence

Most domain investors know the ramifications pertaining to registering trademark infringing domain names, but some people don’t. I received an email last week from someone who told me she registered several .CO domain names of Fortune 500 companies that didn’t think to register them on their own. She asked how she could sell them. I told her I had no idea but referred her to my Domain Lawyer article for references.

It’s good to see the Registry post an article like this, and it will certainly be interesting to see how many UDRP cases are filed and how soon until that begins. My bet is that there will be quite a lot, especially when a strong aftermarket develops.

Recent Posts

Negotiating Too Hard on a Domain Name Sale

1
We've all been there before. Your asking price out of the gate is much higher than a buyer is willing to spend. Maybe you're...

Bid to Be Lead Sponsor of our PMC Jersey

0
John Berryhill and I are riding in this year's Pan-Mass Challenge to raise funds and awareness for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Each year we ride,...

Domain Finance Calculator Offered by Catchy.com

0
Francois Carrillo is best known for his Domaining.com industry news aggregator. He also owns Catchy.com, a platform for selling domain names. Francois emailed me to...

GoDaddy Verification an Unnecessary Speed Bump

1
I won a domain name at GoDaddy Auctions on April 18, and it was delivered to my GoDaddy account this morning at around 4am....

Ask Platforms to Reconnect on Failed Deals

1
I've had many agreed upon deals die at the finish line. The buyer agreed to purchase a domain name - sometimes after a lengthy...