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Saturday Afternoon Updates

Elliot Silver
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9

This week was extraordinarily busy for the mid-summer. I feel like a lot of things were accomplished and there were quite a few big news stories. Here are a few updates and some advice for domain development and sales.

  • I received several emails from people letting me know they bought a .CO domain name (or many), and now they want advice on what to do with them. I hate writing multiple email replies with the same content, so I will just post it here: “It’s really a wait and see game to see how the aftermarket develops.” It’s like that commercial with an art auction where the winning bidder says, “I’d now like to sell this piece of art I just won.”   There will be an aftermarket, but I don’t have much of an idea about what pricing will be like nor do I know for sure whether they will become valuable or when they will be desired by end users.
  • Similarly, I saw that Francois has expanded his domain investment reach and launched Flipping.co, a website dedicated to .CO domain sales. If you feel the need to cash out now and/or test the waters, that could be a good place to list your names for sale. Knowing Francois’ MO, he will market the hell out of that site in the very near future.
  • Speaking of MO (modus operandi), Mike Sullivan and Brian Null from MO.com interviewed me last week. People frequently ask me about my background, and I hope this interview will answer any questions you may have. Additionally, there are some great entrepreneur interviews on MO.com as well. Brian Null is the owner of MO.com and former owner of GolfCourses.com, and Mike Sullivan is the blogger behind SullysBlog.com.
  • I was watching a baseball game the other night when I saw an advertisement for a pet food company appear behind the batter on the green screen, and it made me think of something I don’t always consider. When using affiliate banner advertisements on websites, it’ smart to coordinate them with national advertising campaigns. I have been using 1800Flowers campaigns coordinated with their ads on tv – especially during the holidays. They may not pay as much as other affiliates for example, but consumers will presumably be more apt to buy with a brand they know and trust.

Bloggers Beware: Lift Content and You May be Sued by Copyright Owner

Elliot Silver
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27

Every day, I see pingbacks to articles I write from websites I’ve never heard of that seem to be made for Adsense news aggregators. Most seem to focus on a specific topic, and because that topic was discussed in my article, the site poached all or part of my article for their benefit.

Although I have yet to file a lawsuit, I have sent plenty of takedown notices to frequent violators and their hosting companies (I bet this article will get picked up because “hosting companies” is a popular term for content thieves). Similar to my situation are newspapers and websites that post daily articles written by professional journalists. This content is often “borrowed” or used by bloggers and other websites without permission. According to an article today in Wired.com, there’s a new company that aims to make money from these copyright violations.

A Las Vegas company called Righthaven apparently has been filing lawsuits for its clients whose rights they believe were violated under US Copyright Laws by content thieves and poachers. The penalties for Copyright Act violations are pretty severe, and many bloggers and websites may prefer to settle them without going to court to save time, stress, and money. With millions of potential targets, this could conceivably be a high-yielding endeavor for the company.

Content providers and publishers need to do as much as they can to protect their content, and lawsuits are a way to show that the copyright owner is serious and isn’t going to mess around. For bloggers and journalists who quote articles and attribute the source of those quotes, it may be a bit dicey if you get caught up in one of these lawsuits.

It’s important that bloggers and writers know the copyright law and be sure to follow it. I know there are plenty of people who think they’re safe posting all or part of an article as long as they link back to the source, but this certainly seems to be a false sense of security.

Announcing Geographic .CO Acquisition

Elliot Silver
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29

I’ve been excited about this for the past few days, and I needed to make sure a few things were in place before announcing it. After reviewing my Founder’s Program application for a web development project, the .CO Registry has awarded my company the geographic domain name Bahamas.CO. I love the Bahamas and I plan to visit sometime this winter, and I will be back there again in March for Domain Roundtable.

Under the agreement with the Registry, I will need to launch a website on this domain name within the next few weeks, and I’ve already set the wheels in motion. I started a logo design contest on 99Designs today, and I will be working with my developer to build a beta website, hoping to launch the second week in August after he returns from a trip to NYC.

Press Release is below:

Silver Internet Ventures, LLC Commits To Building A Web Presence On The New .CO Domain

Joins Growing Ranks of People and Businesses Getting a Fresh Start on the Internet with a truly global, recognizable and credible domain name

JULY 22, 2010 – Silver Internet Ventures, LLC a web development company with experience developing geographic domain names, today announced that it has secured the domain Bahamas.CO and will be expanding its geographic web presence online. Silver Internet Ventures’ new Bahamas.CO website will be launched in mid-August.

Until now, Silver Internet Ventures has focused solely on US city .com domain names, owning and operating Lowell.com and Burbank.com. Bahamas.CO will be the company’s first major international geographic website, and the company will build a travel portal for people looking to learn about the islands of the Bahamas and the fun things to do in the Bahamas.

“I am very happy we were able to work with the .CO Registry to acquire Bahamas.CO,” said Elliot Silver of Silver Internet Ventures. “This is a huge opportunity to build a great website as others build their brands on .CO. I love the Bahamas, visited last year, and I can’t wait to get started on the Bahamas.CO website. These are exciting times, and with the recognition of .CO around the world, I am confident this is going to be a wise investment.”

Silver Internet Ventures, LLC joins the growing ranks of organizations and individuals who have already committed to the new .CO domain, including major global brands and Fortune 500 companies such as BMW, Cartier, Facebook, Google, Hilton, Overstock, Panasonic, and innovative media companies and startups like Twitter, Politico, Angel List, Challenge.co, and more.

With the .com domain running out of viable names, corporations, brands, web developers, agencies, entrepreneurs and others are turning to the new .CO domain as a way to enhance their existing Web presence or to get a fresh start with a global, recognizable and credible domain that better meets their business or branding needs.

“Whether you run a start-up, a small business, or a multi-billion-dollar corporation, you need a meaningful, memorable digital brand that tells people who you are and what you’re all about,” said Juan Diego Calle, chief executive officer of .CO Internet.   “Thanks to forward-thinking companies like Silver Internet Ventures, the .CO movement is gaining tremendous momentum, and we’re very excited to help create new online branding opportunities that the world has not seen since the Internet was first born.”

About Silver Internet Ventures, LLC

Silver Internet Ventures, LLC is a privately held online media company founded in 2008 by Elliot Silver. Websites owned by Silver Internet Ventures are located on category defining domain names that offer a platform for local companies to promote their brands online to a highly targeted audience. The company owns and operates Lowell.com, Burbank.com, TropicalBirds.com, and Dreidel.com.

About .CO Internet S.A.S.

.CO Internet S.A.S. is the Registry Operator for the .CO top-level domain.   .CO Internet was formed by a strategic venture between Arcelandia S.A, and Neustar, Inc. (NYSE: NSR). The .CO domain offers individuals and businesses a truly global, recognizable and credible option in branding their online presence. Thanks to leading-edge technology, enhanced security and unprecedented rights protections for brand owners, the .CO domain is poised to become the world’s next premier web address. For additional information, please visit www.COinternet.co.

Media Contacts:
Eric Sokolsky, Sparkpr for .CO Internet S.A.S., +1.908.288.7201, eric@sparkpr.com
Donna Burke, Sparkpr for .CO Internet S.A.A, 1.415.321.1862, donna@sparkpr.com
Lori Anne Wardi, Director of Marketing for .CO Internet S.A.S, +1.917.838.6743, lori@COinternet.co
Elliot Silver, Silver Internet Ventures, LLC, pr@silverinternetventures.com

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Photo credits:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11149039@N04/2376885496/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theactionitems/3956453149
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sm3287/218475309/

Use Your Analytics Data to Buy Domains

Elliot Silver
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6

One of the neat things about owning domain names with websites that get a good amount of traffic is the ability to analyze traffic data, especially the traffic that comes from search engines. Google Analytics is a great tool to see what information people are searching for in Google and Yahoo, and where they visit on your site.

This data can also be a great way to find domain names that you may want to register to take advantage of the search engine traffic. Instead of looking at the GAKT data, you can see the “real data” from your own experience, and since the traffic landed on your site, there’s a good chance you already know the field/vertical.

Yesterday afternoon, I was looking through my search data, and around 68% of the daily traffic was from Google. I dug deeper, and I noticed that a lot of traffic was coming from variations searches for the name of a concert tour that was coming through Lowell. I quickly searched to see if anyone owned the domain name, and it was a huge domain company that picked it up a few months ago, likely after noticing the same trends.

Although the term may not exactly be generic, it’s likely it will earn far more than the cost of the name, and of course if this is done over a huge amount of domain names, the overall risk is mitigated and a business decision can be made.

However, you can also do this for non-trademarked search terms. For example, if I see that I am getting a lot of traffic for “Lowell fireworks,” it might be a good idea to buy the .com and either forward it to the fourth of July page or build a one page site with info about fireworks every year and back link to the main site. It would be cheap to host, easy to build, and as the exact match domain name, it would probably rank pretty high. This could be beneficial to your domain name.

Whether you opt to park, redirect, or use for backlinks, the domain names you find via analytics data could be very valuable to your company.

Speculating on .CO Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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98

I’ve covered the .CO launch pretty extensively, but I continue to field emails and some phone calls asking for advice, so I want to share a little bit of additional insight from a personal standpoint to answer any lingering questions.

As you’re aware, I was awarded a .CO domain name, which I hope to reveal this week. It didn’t cost me anything, but I have to build a website on it and market it, which will be expensive. It’s a geographic area I like to visit, so while the goal is to make money, I may also be able to write off some research. That will be up to the accountant to ultimately determine once the time comes.

In addition to this, I bought 5 domain names .CO domain names via NameJet. I wasn’t planning to back order many, but at the last moment I backordered 39 of them and they secured 5 I think.   None of them are significant nor were intended to play on trademarks. For example, I got Elliot.CO and Torah.CO.

You can look around and see that .CO has paid for advertising on my blog (small banner from the registry going back up tomorrow and a banner from Register.com below my posts), so keep in mind that I can’t be completely unbiased despite the fact that I feel like I am offering my unbiased opinion. I do make money from blogging, but I am first and foremost a domain investor/speculator and hope that this is conveyed below.

That said, I do think this is going to be a widely used extension because .CO makes sense to me and will resonate with others who could not afford a 6 figure .COM. Names that would cost 6 or 7 figures in .COM should be considerably less in .CO, unless speculators keep them off the development market, which could ultimately hamper its usage. However, with so many names bought by domain investors, I am sure there will be plenty who can’t afford to hold out too long.

In my opinion, the widespread usage by big brands is what will make it a valuable investment. Whether this happens is unknown for now though. Despite the fact that many brands did secure .CO domain names, it remains to be seen whether they will be used and promoted or simply used for defensive purposes. I don’t know. You don’t know. We don’t know.

Yes, I think the Founder’s Program was very smart because it guarantees that there will be many sites that use .CO and actively promote it. This is good for investors. The primary reason .CO domain names could become valuable is because regular people and companies want them as an alternative to .COM.   Will this happen? I don’t know. You don’t know. We don’t know. I think it might and others think it might not, but at the end of the day, it’s not us who will determine whether they will have significant aftermarket value.

This is pure speculation. Invest cautiously and invest smartly. Some people who invest heavily may be rewarded very handsomely if .CO becomes more popular than .NET and other extensions. If this doesn’t happen, some people may lose a lot of money.

As I’ve told the people who have emailed me, “I am holding off on a bigger investment until I see what companies do with their .co names and how the aftermarket shapes up.”   I am going to build my Founders Program .CO domain name soon and will do my best to earn my investment back.   It’s pure speculation at this point, but my business model was built on speculation.

XXX.com For Sale – $7,000,000 Reserve

Elliot Silver
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36

This afternoon, I noticed that Bari from Moniker posted a note that XXX.com is coming up for sale at the DomainFest New York City auction on August 18th. I have known about this for a few weeks, but she also posted some additional information you might find interesting.

The reserve price is $7,000,000 for this domain name. According to Bari, in April 2010 the domain name received 1,510,670 visits and in May 2010 the domain name saw 1,513,457.   Additionally, “traffic has more than doubled to 120K uniques per day and revenue has doubled since the announcement of the .xxx extension becoming available.” That’s a shit ton of traffic for this undeveloped domain name.

As mentioned, the .XXX extension was recently approved, and there will probably be north of 100,000 .XXX domain names purchased in the first year. This may lead to even more traffic to the site via typo traffic.

Of course a big unknown is the current revenue numbers as a parked domain name. If that number isn’t revealed, people may assume the numbers aren’t great, otherwise there wouldn’t necessarily be a reason to keep that info quiet.

Nevertheless, this is a very valuable domain name that will soon be for sale.

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