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Halloween Sunday Updates – IDN Event + Epik + More

Elliot Silver
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16

Happy Halloween to everyone! We had a smallish Halloween party on Friday night, although I can’t share the costume I wore – apparently it’s not blog-appropriate.  Here are some weekend updates from the domain business.

  • I had a great time at the IDN Event in the city last night. I plan to post a full recap about the event tomorrow, but Gary Males and Aaron Krawitz deserve a big ovation for putting the event together with so many people in attendance.
  • For those of you who are concerned about your Epik websites, I want to remind you about a post Rob Monster wrote on the Epik blog back in March.  According to Rob, “The price for the Epik product portals is a one-time setup fee of $249 which includes custom graphics, custom copy, backlinks, and product sourcing.   Epik shares 50/50 in the net revenues and covers all operating costs. There is no lock-in and if after 1 year on the platform, if you have not sold your domain or the site has not yielded at least $249 in gross revenue, we’ll refund you your setup fee, no questions asked.”
  • I am still trying to figure out the next move for BumperProtectors.com. I think I will probably keep the site as is and hope that Rob is able to work things out with Google. I have faith that they will make some changes to make things better.
  • If you’re going to AdTech in New York this week, let me know. I don’t have firm plans yet, but I will be stopping by the Javitz Center to check out the exhibit hall at some point on Monday or Tuesday.

Advertise to Domain Investors

Elliot Silver
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12

I get a lot of inquiries about advertising on my blog, and I’ve been very lucky when it comes to advertiser renewals. As a result, I don’t often have openings on my blog for advertisers. I wish I could add more space for advertising, but I don’t think that would be fair to readers or other advertisers.

With that being said, I want to make a recommendation to domain companies who are looking to advertise to domain investors and others who are interested in Internet business, entrepreneurship, ecommerce, and other related types of articles.

Advertising space looks to be available on two blogs I read whenever they are updated – DotWeekly.com and DomainShane.com.  Both Jamie and Shane have been writing very insightful articles, which take a considerable amount of time. They are able to offer a different perspective on things, and the information they share is invaluable.

As anyone who has built a website or who writes frequently knows, it isn’t easy to write for a living. Not only is it time consuming, but it can be frustrating and/or draining when people post rude commentary that is critical for the sake of making themselves feel better or simply to put someone else down.

To those of you who have emailed me in the past to advertise your services or products but I wasn’t able to accommodate you, I ask you to consider advertising on sites like Jamie’s and/or Shane’s. They put a considerable amount of effort into their articles, and I bet you’ll see a good return on your advertising investment.

Have a great weekend.

Test and Learn

Elliot Silver
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23

When it comes to various types of website development, my philosophy has always been to test as much as possibly, learn from these tests, and move forward with successful tests or kill failing tests. I’ve been pretty open about my testing here on my blog, and I hope the lessons I’ve been learning and sharing have been helpful.

One test I’ve been running is with Epik on one domain name – BumperProtectors.com. I announced this test a couple of months ago, and I’ve been watching as traffic has slowly grown from almost nothing to over 300 visits/month. In total, 53% of its traffic in the last 30 days was from search, 34% from direct navigation, and the rest was from referrals such as my blog and other various sites. I think the site generated a couple (maybe a few) dollars a week, although I haven’t really checked much nor do I know if that is pre or post revenue share.

Yesterday, I learned that there were some de-indexing issues with sites on the Epik network, and sure enough, BumperProtectors.com looks to me like it was de-indexed from Google. Even if you type BumperProtectors.com into Google, I get no results.  Consequently, search traffic from the last couple of days has been 0.

I understand that Rob Monster from Epik will be addressing the issue today, and Andrew said the announcement will be that my site will be upgraded to an ecommerce store for free.

I am not entirely sure I am going to accept this offer. Should I do so and then submit a reconsideration request to Google, I am taking a big chance that they like the new site enough to re-index it. If they don’t approve and/or they approve a second time but later disapprove for whatever reason, I could have a nice domain name de-indexed twice, which certainly wouldn’t bode well for this exact match product domain name’s future. It’s one thing if I am working with Bumper-Protectors.mobi or some crap like that, but in NYC, selling bumper protectors is a big business.

I look forward to hearing what Rob has to say, but I haven’t decided whether to keep the domain name at Epik.

What to Do if Your Domain Name is Owned by a Domain Investor… Not

Elliot Silver
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9

It’s a fear that many small business owners have when they want to go online. “Their” domain name is already owned by someone, and even worse, it’s owned by a domain investor. They can either try to buy that domain name, which will probably be expensive, or they can register something else creative.

SEO Bill Hartzer commented on an image of a domain name posted to Flickr by Michael Dorausch. I thought the domain name was unique, and you have to give props to this  ingenious  Philadelphia chiropractor whose customers must have great memories.

Yes, it really is ChiropractorPhiladelphiaPAChiropractorPhiladelphiaPA.com. I wonder what it’s like for him and his staff to direct people to the website.

This is an example of what I don’t think you should do if your ideal domain name is already owned by someone else.

Block Someone From Stealing Content

Elliot Silver
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22

Nothing agitates me more than when I see another website stealing my content. Well, maybe seeing unicorns killed for tasty unicorn burgers, but that’s about it.

It especially infuriates me when I do a Google search using keywords from my article and the other website is listed either above or below mine. You’d think that Google would be smart enough to know that the other website is a rip off of mine, but sometimes that doesn’t happen.

This is probably a no-brainer for those of you who are smart with web development and/or hosting, but for an amateur like myself, I just figured out how to block another website from stealing my content.

I use a DNS Look up tool and enter the website that’s stealing my content. I get that website’s IP addresses and take them to my  hosting cpanel. Under the security section, I visit the IP Deny Manager or IP Block Manager (or something similar), and I add the DNS of the offending website. Voila… my copied articles and content disappears.

Now they could change the DNS, but that wouldn’t be a fun game of cat and mouse for them. They probably spend their time sucking the life out of plenty of other websites and wouldn’t even notice you blocked them.

Anyway, it’s my way of getting a bit even.  If all that fails, you can send them and/or Google a DMCA takedown notice, but this is easier.

Adios, content pirate.

Great Reputation of Escrow.com

Elliot Silver
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7

Every now and again, I purchase a domain name from a company or person that has not heard of or worked with Escrow.com. Despite having the great name brand recognition the category defining generic domain name brings, as well as a stellar reputation online, some people ask for more information about the company before agreeing to use its services.

This happened to me this morning, and as I usually do, I sent the company a few articles about Escrow.com to help them feel safe in using the company’s services. I assume that this may be the same case for you, so I am writing this post to share some supporting information to make your buyer or seller comfortable using Escrow.com.

Here is some supporting facts to make your buyer or seller more comfortable about using Escrow.com.

Yes, Escrow.com is an advertiser, but the company did not ask for any type of endorsement. I’ve always had great service with Escrow.com and I trust the company without any hesitation.

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