Home Blog Page 1235

Funny Christmas Story

Elliot Silver
-
5

I am spending some time away with family, and it always seems that when a piece of domain name news makes it to mainstream media outlets, I am always asked, “did you hear about…”

This morning at breakfast was no different. I was asked if I heard about Bank of America defensively registering domain names with the CEO’s name. For instance, BOA registered BrianMoynihanSucks.com, BrianMoynihanBlows.com and many others. Of course the humor is that my friend Andrew’s article on Domain Name Wire was the impetus for the mainstream news, and it was funny to hear the store referenced by non-industry people.

It reminded me of the time one of my best friends emailed me an article written on CNET about the Sex.com foreclosure auction. Ironically and unbeknownst to him when he forward it to me, the article’s source was an article I wrote!

Merry Christmas to You and Yours

Elliot Silver
-
7

I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas (or a great weekend if you aren’t celebrating). I hope you enjoy some time off and you’re spending the holiday with your family and friends.

If you are traveling anywhere, I hope you have safe travels and good weather.

Here’s to happiness, good health, and lots of cheer as 2010 winds down!

Case Study: The Value of Content

Elliot Silver
-
25

I’ve written about TextBroker.com before, and now I want to give you an example of why it’s very important to have unique content on your websites.

I pay around $4.70 for most unique articles I have custom written for some of my websites. The articles are around 200 words in length, and I proofread each of the articles, add some personal insights or ideas, and write additional commentary based on my experience. I also generally add a related photo from Flickr, a stock photo website, or from one of my photo albums. These articles drive great (targeted) traffic that would be expensive for me to purchase.

Here’s an example.

A few weeks ago, I realized that many people would be searching Google and Bing to see if they need to give a tip or a Christmas gift for their dog walker. I had two articles written by TextBroker, and I also used my own experience to add more information.

One article was written about tips for Christmas gifts for a dog walker and the other article was about Christmas tips for dog walkers, and I posted them on DogWalker.com. I also did some minor SEO work with the help of the All in One SEO plugin.

These articles have received over 500 visits from search engines, and the cost was under $10 and about 30 minutes of my time. Had I paid for this traffic with Adwords (which I also use), the cost would have been much more. Additionally, once a particular campaign ends, the traffic stops. With custom content, traffic will continue to come as people search in the future.

Whether you write your own content, hire a third party, or do a combination, it’s important to have unique articles on your websites, which will help drive traffic to your sites.

End of Year Recommendations

Elliot Silver
-
4

It’s getting close to the end of the year, and although things appear to be quiet, I think there are a lot of people focused on internal things right now, like closing out their books.

With the year coming to an end, here are a few things you might want to do with regards to your domain business. As always, consult with an accountant and/or attorney for tax and legal matters, since I have no experience in either category.

  • Go through financial records now rather than April to make sure you’ve accounted for everything
  • Take a look at your domain holdings and ensure auto-renew is enabled on the names you want to keep, and disable it on the names you want to drop
  • Be sure all of your parked domain names are resolving and showing relevant ads.
  • Compare revenue, CTR, and RPC across parked domain names and websites with Adsense.
  • Optimize your domain names and websites that need it
  • Ensure that all of your websites are resolving and don’t have error messages on them
  • Upgrade your WordPress websites if needed
  • Back up your websites
  • Back you up your data and financial records
  • Determine if you need new business supplies, computers, or office equipment, and order them before the year ends to expense them in 2010.
  • Book 2011 travel and hotels in advance to expense what you can.
  • Seek out the people who made offers to you this past year to see if you can close any last minute deals. Some people need to deplete budgets and buying domain names could be beneficial.
  • Reach out to domain owners who may not have been willing to sell domain names in the past. Maybe something has changed.
  • Renew domain names you plan to keep for as many years as is feasible.
  • Make sure your credit cards on file are still valid and didn’t expire yet.
  • Pay your trusted designer/programmer in advance for upcoming projects.
  • Reach out to advertisers and get commitments for the next year.
  • Thank the people who have advertised this year whether they plan to continue or not.

Was Income.com Sold by Sedo Today?

Elliot Silver
-
7

SedoA few weeks ago, I learned that Income.com, a domain name owned by Internet entrepreneur and marketing guru John Reese, had been put up for sale and was being marketed by Sedo domain broker, Dave Evanson. According to a post on the Wicked Fire forum, Reese sent an email stating that Sedo “listed it at  $1MM but think they can sell it for more.”

I have been monitoring the Whois for this domain name, and I just noticed a change in the registration this evening. Sedo is now shown as the domain registrant, which generally happens only after a sale has been consummated.

I can’t confirm that the domain name has in fact been sold, but it does appear that way to me. I have reached out to Evanson for more information, and I will post an update as soon as I hear back.

If Evanson did help sell the domain name, this would be his second huge sale in Q4, as he was the broker on the $750,000 Ringtones.com sale earlier this month.

Income.com Whois 12/20:

Income.com Whois 12/21:

Favorite Domain Story of 2010: Turning $10 into $1,200 into $151,000

Elliot Silver
-
8

It’s just about every domain investor’s dream to turn a relatively inexpensive purchase into a hugely massive profit, but the chances of that happening are very slim. This story played out earlier in the year, and it’s my pick for the story of the year in the domain business.

Earlier this year, ChatRoulette.com was one of the most popular new websites online. People could visit the site and video chat with others throughout the world. Millions of people visited the site, and the only thing that really slowed the growth was that many users apparently thought it was appropriate to turn their video feed into a softcore porno.

In December of 2009, a domain investor hand registered the domain name CamRoulette.com. Shortly thereafter, he sold the domain name in private to Adam Strong for a reported $1,200, reaping a huge profit margin on this hand registration.

The madness didn’t start there.

In March of 2010, Adam Strong listed the domain name at DomainConsultant.com’s Domain Madness auction, where it sold for an even more massive $151,000.

To make this an even more amazing story of riches, traffic to ChatRoulette has waned since hitting its peak earlier this year, and it’s likely that if the domain name had not been sold at the time it was sold, it would not have the same value today. It’s the stuff domain investors’ dreams are made of.

Every domain investor dreams of turning a hand registered domain name investment into a huge payoff. In 2010, this happened right in front of our eyes.

This is my favorite domain name story of 2010.

1...1,2341,2351,236...1,558Page 1,235 of 1,558