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At What Price Will Flowers.mobi Sell?

Elliot Silver
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35

A few weeks ago, it was announced that Rick Schwartz would be selling Flowers.mobi at the Traffic Miami live auction held by Rick Latona, and there would be no reserve price. Flowers.mobi was originally purchased for $200,000 when the extension was originally released. From what I understand, the lawyer from 1-800-Flowers was there, but Schwartz outbid him to win the domain name.

Since buying Flowers.mobi, a lot has changed with regards to the perception of .mobi domain names. I don’t believe I own (or my company owns) more than maybe a couple of hand registered .mobis. I don’t even track how .mobi domain names are selling, but I can’t remember the last one to crack DN Journal’s weekly sales report.

There are a number of questions that will soon be answered, but I am sure there are those who are already thinking about them. Will .mobi investors bid heavily on this domain name to help improve the value perception of the extension? Will someone buy it and build a profitable website?

One of the biggest questions is will 1-800-Flowers turn up and bid again?   1-800-Flowers is highly regarded when it comes to direct marketing and Internet marketing. Should they opt to not show up, having been willing to spend a lot of money just three years ago, it would really say something about what mainstream marketers really think about this extension.

So… at what price do you think Flowers.mobi will sell?

Kudos to the Domain Companies That Hire Domain Investors

Elliot Silver
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5

It might seem like the most obvious thing in the world, but I believe that companies who operate in the domain space should make a concerted effort to hire domain investors or people familiar with the domain space. In reality, I don’t see this happening as much as it should.

Andrew Allemann was recently hired by one of the leading domain companies, Directi, and I want to congratulate both he and Div on the hire. Andrew knows just about everyone that works in the space, and he knows all of the principals at the leading companies as well.  Very shrewd move. Similarly, Sedo recently announced that Dave Evanson was hired by the company, and I thought that was a smart move as well (as I previously noted).

Some people might argue against this for a variety of reasons including the fact that it can be tough sharing information with a potential competitor, it’s difficult to lure independent domain investors to a corporate environment, domain investors may leave the company and compete or take knowledge from the company, domain investors may not trust other domain investors with their information…etc.

While I can see where those arguments are valid, I still think it’s important to work with people who have a direct understanding of the business were in and the way domain investor entrepreneurs think. I look forward to learning more about Directi from Andrew, and Dave and I have already been in touch with regards to his new company.

PS: No, this most  definitely  isn’t a request for a job opportunity 🙂

Advice on Mini Site Development

Elliot Silver
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18

Yesterday, I wrote a couple of articles giving updates on my mini sites that were built by Wanna Develop and Big Ticket Domains a year ago. Over the last year, I’ve worked with a few mini site development providers and built my own mini sites, and I want to share some tips and advice based on my experience.

– Mini sites may not make a lot of money, but they can be good traffic producers

–  A mini site can help get a domain name get ranked in the search engines, which is beneficial to a potential buyer (or the current owner) looking to avoid the typical sandboxing that comes with newly developed websites once the mini site is turned into a comprehensive website.

– With the traffic some can bring in, lead generation might be a higher paying option than Adsense.

– If you can learn enough coding to enable yourself to work with a WordPress or static html template and use it for various sites, you will save money on many templates (if you have the time). You can use services like TextBroker.com or eLance to find good writers, and sites like Flickr can be a source of free-to-use images.

– If you don’t have the time (or desire) it may be worth your effort to build some of these mini sites on names you haven’t successfully monetized with PPC and/or you don’t have the time/desire/funding to build a big site/

– There are several companies out there that can build you similar mini sites. If you don’t want to do it on your own, test the various services and choose a provider that meets your needs (price, time, personality…etc).

This year, I haven’t done much more with mini sites (aside from a  Epik  site on BumperProtectors.com). I think this is more a result of buying higher value domain names that are quickly selling than buying the less expensive names I invested in during last year’s tougher times. I am sitting on less new inventory this year than I was before, and I have been focusing on growing my revenue-generating websites.

Update on Another Mini Site: CabCompanies.com

Elliot Silver
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11

While providing mini site updates, I figured I would provide an update on CabCompanies.com, another mini site I launched last year.  I bought CabCompanies.com on Snapnames in August of last year, and I used the services of Kevin Leto from Big Ticket Domains to build a database driven “mini site” with cab companies listed from around the US.

I believe I paid around $65 for the domain name, and I paid an additional $250 for the website, which includes the graphics, data, and the Adsense placement. Kevin has also been good about adding listings when companies have contacted me during the past year asking for a listing.

From October 12, 2009 to today:
Total Traffic: 2,853 visitors
Average Monthly Traffic: 238 visitors

Approximate revenue: Between $100 – $150 in revenue. It has also earned a bit more revenue from paid listings I added.

I think this is a great success for a couple primary reasons.

First, it’s earned somewhere in the ballpark of a 50% return on the development costs in a year. I believe I got a good deal on the domain name, but it wouldn’t have made much (if anything) as a parked domain name this year. The revenue isn’t much in the scheme of things, but if it can make $100 with no effort, it can certainly earn much more with added content and promotion.

Second, it’s set me up to where I could legitimately sell listings like I do on DogWalker.com, since traffic has been good without any publicity, link building, or other traffic driving tactics. If I was inclined to do more work, I could begin to offer upgraded listings with coupons, website links, email addresses…etc. Right now, I am not inclined to take on additional work.

I could also probably change tactics and sell leads instead of doing a database listing site – or I could add a lead gen form to each page and sell leads in an automated fashion.

One of my friends and colleagues runs a successful airport car service referral website, and he’s going to be the first person I email about this. Perhaps he’d be interested in buying the site to better monetize it since he’s already got the infrastructure in place.

Update on WannaDevelop Websites

Elliot Silver
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9

In September of 2009, I wrote about the development of four websites, using Mike Cohen’s WannaDevelop.com for the project. Almost everything I do with my business is either a test or is in response to a test I’ve done, and I want to share the results of this test. Cohen’s company developed DubrovnikVacations.com, JerusalemVacations.com, EasternCaribbean.com, and ParabolicSkis.com.

Since the first article, I sold EasternCaribbean.com and ParabolicSkis.com, so those traffic results are not included below. The two sites I still own did not receive much (if any) traffic before development. I also only used one Adsense code for the two sites, so the revenue number is combined for both. The results from the last 12 months (October, 2009 – October, 2010) are below, although per Adsense TOS, I am not posting the number of clicks or the exact revenue number.

DubrovnikVacations.com
Total Traffic: 1,467 visitors
Average Monthly Traffic: 122 visitors

JerusalemVacations.com
Total Traffic: 1,423 visitors
Average Monthly Traffic: 119 visitors

Approximate Total Revenue (can’t disclose exact # due to Adsense TOS): $70 – $90

As you saw from the initial article, the cost was $99 per 5-page mini site, and I did not add additional content . I also didn’t do any testing of Adsense placement, which would have been smart had this been a bigger or more important test for better domain names.  The total revenue also includes a couple months with EasternCaribbean.com, which ParabolicSkis.com was never monetized.

All in all, I think the traffic numbers are pretty decent considering that traffic was non-existent at the start. Could I have done more with these two domain names? Of course, but they would have been at the bottom of my development list and probably would have earned nothing. I could also convert these into more comprehensive sites, but I will probably wait for a buyer to come around.

Did I yield a good return on this $200 investment (not considering the price of the names)? I think I had a decent first year return since I didn’t spend money promoting the sites, although the revenue has not yet paid for the development. The % return is strong compared to the stock market, but of course stock investments are liquid where you can get your initial investment back and I don’t know if i could get my investment back.

Later on I will post some advice about mini site development that I’ve learned over the past year. I’ve tested several different providers and done some on my own, so I think I may be able to offer some insight.

Who Else Received This Email Today?

Elliot Silver
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22

Just wondering who else received this same email today and for what domain names. I received one for my company’s “corporate” website, which I personally think has little resale value. It would be interesting to see if there’s a pattern with these inquiries.

“Hello,

If you are interested to quickly sell topnotchdomains.com, I recommend you to submit it at:

BargainDomains.com

A marketplace dedicated to sell domains to domainers: 8% sales commission only, and no listing exclusivity!

Regards,

Francois Carrillo

Domaining.com

PS: No idea how much is your domain worth? Visit Valuate.com for a free appraisal.”

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