I saw a well-writen article about domain names on The Business Insider today, and I want to share it with you. The article is titled, “Why $10,000 For A Domain Name Is Still Cheap,” and it was written by marketer and domain investor/advisor, Alan Dunn.
Dunn provided strong arguments for paying a significant sum of money for the right domain name. He dispels two common arguments about why domain names shouldn’t be worth a lot of money – some people hesitate paying a great deal of money when the domain owners were able to acquire them cheaply, and that some people believe a domain name isn’t actually a valuable item. Dunn’s real world comparisons are pretty strong.
To drive the point home (that domain names are cheap) Dunn compared the cost of traditional media like billboards, radio advertising, and mobile advertising to the cost of domain acquisitions. Expensive marketing campaigns can be fleeting, but a domain name can be used indefinitely.
If you haven’t read the article yet, I recommend checking it out. The next time someone balks at purchasing one of your domain names for your asking price, you might want to send them a link to the article.
In early November of last year, it was announced that Logo.com had been acquired for a half a million dollars by two Internet entrepreneurs. After months of business planning and website development, Logo.com launched softly a couple of weeks ago.
As you would probably expect, Logo.com is a site that sells professionally created logos. In addition to the logo work, the company also has web designers, branding experts, copywriters, illustrators, and other experts who can help companies enhance their presence online.
For those of you that might have web development or logo related domain names, a blog or a site dedicated to small business, their affiliate program might be of interest to you. I don’t have the full details of the program, but I understand the company is currently offering a $50 CPA for every new customer (for a limited time). You can leave your contact information, and the company will be in touch.
Under the leadership of eCommerce industry veteran, Alan Townshend, and Internet entrepreneur, Adam Strong, I expect Logo.com will soon be one of the leading websites for logo design.
I had quite a few comments in response to my article about Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons’ vacation to Zimbabwe where he shot and killed a “problem” elephant. I wrote much of the post below last week, but I opted to post it at a later date since feelings were still very raw, and I wanted to make a point while keeping the elephant situation on the sideline.
On mainstream websites as well as on domain-related websites and blogs, many people have posted comments in reply to Bob Parsons’ video of him shooting a “problem” elephant in Zimbabwe. The vast majority of comments were highly critical of his actions, which I of course don’t condone and don’t wish to comment on in this blog post.
A number of people, both domain industry professionals as well as regular domain name owners, have said they plan to transfer their domain names from Go Daddy as a result of the actions of the company CEO. In fact, a poll on my blog indicated more than 50 people said they moved or will move domain names from Go Daddy because of the video. In my opinion, this may be a bad business decision.
GoDaddy is the largest domain registrar in the world, and the company has 24/7 US-based customer support. The company employs thousands of people in a few states, and you don’t usually hear bad things about its technical support. Many individuals and small businesses rely on the company’s call centers for small and large domain name and website issues, and another registrar may not be able to provide the support (both in terms of expertise and round the clock care) that Go Daddy offers.
Moving to a new registrar may cause problems for a business, including business continuity issues. Companies may have to re-load websites for hosting, change url forwarding, re-set up and configure email accounts, create/move databases, pay for new privacy services, and work with a new account representative who might not be familiar with the person or business. This could lead to problems that aren’t really worth making a point about your dislike of Parsons’ actions.
There are some great domain registrars that are as good or better than Go Daddy. For instance Name.com and Dynadot are two companies I’ve only really heard good things about. However, a domain registrar change can be problematic for a business.
I understand the emotional issue with the hunt. I have a dog and don’t like to see or hear about animals being killed pointlessly or for someone else’s pleasure. In fact, it really pisses me off when people do bad things to innocent animals. However, it might not make sense from a business perspective just because you’re angry with the CEO of a company. Think about the ramifications before making an important business decision like this.
It’s been said that high value domain sales help improve the domain aftermarket, and I don’t disagree. This has led to the question about why I don’t report my domain sales if it can help other domain investors. I want to share a few reasons about why I don’t generally report the dollar amounts for my sales and/or acquisitions.
Let’s start with the easier question of why I don’t report my domain acquisitions. When I purchase domain names, I usually have a plan to re-sell them, and quickly. If I emailed Ron Jackson or had the seller email Ron to let him know my purchase price, it makes it much more difficult to make a nice profit margin on the sale side of things. Who wants to pay $25,000 for a domain name they know I bought last week for $15,000?
The more difficult question to answer is why I don’t report my domain sales. It could be a “feather in my cap” as they say to report high dollar sales, and it could also help the industry. For instance, if I were to sell a travel domain name for $xxx,xxx, I am sure that would give a comp for someone else to use for their domain sale prices and it might also seem neat to see my name in the DNJournal sales report.
There are a few reasons why I keep my sales quiet. First and foremost, my buyers generally want to keep their acquisitions private or they wouldn’t even know about the DN Journal sales report. They either don’t want people to know what they paid and what they’re buying, or they don’t really care about reporting a domain purchase.
Secondly, since I make my living selling domain names, I don’t want to report sales and have others start buying names in the same areas I am buying/selling. Similarly, if people see me selling high value names in a certain vertical, it will increase my acquisition costs for other similar names that are on the market. To that point, I still don’t understand why those high value long tail insurance domain sales were reported last year because it likely made them all the more expensive for the buyer.
Thirdly, I don’t want a seller to know I just flipped a domain name I bought from him or her for a significant profit. It’s no fun knowing you could have sold a name for more, and I don’t want to cause someone to feel that way. I also don’t want my future acquisition cost to go up if we do business together in the future.
Finally, I don’t want people to know how much money I earn. That’s for my wife and accountant to know. No offense, but my income isn’t your business, much like you wouldn’t expect to speak with your co-workers or boss about their salary. The only thing I have said and will say is that I make my living off of domain sales, and there was no “family money” involved with my business.
I apologize if this doesn’t help the domain industry as a whole, but I can’t compromise my own business. I do list some of the domain names I have owned and sold, but that’s pretty much it. I trust you understand.
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