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Diapers.com Founder Quidsi Launches Soap.com; Similar to PetsUnited Approach

Elliot Silver
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I was reading TechCrunch this morning, when I saw the article about the launch of Soap.com, a new website owned and operated by Quidsi, the company that owns and operates Diapers.com. According to the article, the company plans for Soap.com to “offer more than 40,000 products by the end of 2010 and more than 100,000 by the end of 2011.” These plans are clearly ambitious, but the company CEO has said Diapers.com revenue is over $300 million annually (video of that below), so it is very plausible this will happen.

While reading the article, I couldn’t help but think of another company that is taking a similar path with great generic domain names. PetsUnited, LLC owns and operates websites on domain names such as Dog.com, Horse.com, Fish.com, Garden.com, Bird.com, Ferret.com, and other great generic domain names (including a couple recent purchases from my company). The company was founded by Oncologist (yes, Doctor) Alex Tabibi, and in 2006, it reported $62.4 million in revenue according to an Inc. Magazine profile.

Marketers often talk about the importance of building a single brand, and in the case of Quidsi and PetsUnited, LLC, the companies are focusing on building multiple brands while using generic domain names. I will be posting an interview with Alex sometime in the near future, and hopefully he will discuss the challenges and benefits of this. Both Alex and his brother Carlo operate the company, and I am sure working with poses some unique challenges and benefits for the company as well.

5 with… Tony Kanakaris, SocialDomainers.com

Elliot Silver
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Tony Kanakaris of SocialDomainers.comI am frequently asked if attending a domain conference is worth the expense and time off from work. I have always said yes, and I want to share a good example of why I think so. Tony Kanakaris is a fellow New Yorker, and despite both of us being members of DNForum and sending a couple business messages in the past, we never had the opportunity to get to know each other. Earlier this year at DomainFest, we were able to get to know each other better, and now we talk business all the time.

Tony was born in Queens and attended St. John’s University, where he played Division IIA college hockey. He was previously a Financial Advisor with Morgan Stanley, and he got into domain investing in 2007. He is an expert web developer, although he primarily works on his own projects, including SocialDomainers.com, a social networking website for domain investors to meet and learn about upcoming conferences, tradeshows, and regional get togethers.

Some of Tony’s future projects include FlipThis.com, CanYouBuyMeThat.com, and GlenCove.com, a domain name I know took him a while to acquire. I interviewed Tony to learn more about SocialDomainers.com, and I hope you’ll check it out when you have a chance.

ES: What are your plans for SocialDomainers.com, and what are your objectives with regards to the site?

TK: The thinking behind the creation of SocialDomainers.com was to create a centralized online location for where domainers can get together and create local events, groups etc. as a means to network locally offline with domainers in their area.   A few years back (Oct. 2007) I had created a thread on DnForum.com where I was looking to meetup with local domainers near me to discuss ideas, domains, etc…I was relatively new to the domaining scene and just wanted to be able to meet local domainers face to face and just chat.

As soon as I created that thread (the 1st of its kind)…i soon started to see many other threads start popping up in DNForum regarding local domainer get-togethers…. in California, Philly, Chicago, Florida, Romania, China…etc….basically all over the world….so I thought to myself…why not create a site that would cater to just this….a place where domainers can post events, create groups..etc…as a means to locally get together with other domainers near them.

So..that was basically the initial plan…to create this Facebook type social platform for domainers…..additionally i am also using SocialDomainers.com as a place to advertise all the domain conferences that take place across the world…we have also added an area where you can list domains for sale…latest domainer news, a chat functionality, and an IM functionality located at bottom toolbar of site.

ES: Ron Jackson had an article discussing the history of domain   conferences. What are your thoughts on current domain conferences?

TK: My thoughts on the current domain conferences is that there are just too many…all that seems to change is the location… each conference seems to offer the same content….the same people…etc…and the cost starts to become a factor….not everyone can afford to attend every show… hence the low number of attendees…hence the creation of my site to make it easier
and affordable   for domainers to get together.


ES: Do you prefer large conferences or smaller, more localized gatherings, and why?

TK: I like both…large conferences to get to meet with a larger group of people with whom you don’t get the chance to meet too often…and smaller local gatherings to be able to meet more often and discuss ideas openly.

ES: What do you see as the future for domain investor social gatherings?

TK: I see a smaller amount of conferences taking place in the future with more content/substance to them…..

ES: Will SocialDomainers.com be planning any events or conferences in the     future, and if you could create a conference anywhere in the world,     where would it be and what would be its theme?

TK: At the moment we would be more interested in sponsoring events/conferences as a means to further build out our brand….there are currently enough domain conferences out there……..if we could create a conference anywhere in the world…it would have to be Athens, Greece….where the birthplace of civilization took place…:)

Beware of “Free Account” Offers

Elliot Silver
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Yesterday afternoon, I received an email from the founder of a small domain company I’ve never heard of with a seemingly great offer – a free account at the newly established company. This domain company has what seems to be a number of interesting offerings, some of which sound like they could be useful. I am going to turn it down.

It’s hard enough to maintain any privacy when blogging, but I don’t want to give away private information about my Whois searches, drop search habits…etc. The company was started by someone I don’t know nor have heard of, and it’s a service I’ve never heard of before.

I wrote about this a while back, but think it’s important enough to reiterate. Although a free account at a website with an interesting service may sound appealing, remember that the company may either be observing your individual habits or may be looking to sell data for all users.

I still remember when someone who will remain nameless (from a large company) emailed me a couple of years ago to ask me if I intentionally let a domain name drop. The name was below average, so I knew he was watching my portfolio rather than the specific name. It made me realize that there are plenty of companies who are happy to provide tools for domain investors, and I am sure that some of them are using the data, both on a personal level and aggregated, for their own enrichment.

Seeking Advice on BumperProtectors.com

Elliot Silver
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I would like to get your advice on how I should proceed with the development of BumperProtectors.com. I received a couple of decent offers for the domain name when I emailed companies that sell bumper protectors as well as domain investors, but nothing was significant enough to warrant selling the domain name.

One person/company inquired about the domain name last week, and after I informed him about the previous high offer, we discussed the options to build it, as the offer was higher than he would pay. We discussed creating a line of bumper protectors in China or Hong Kong and then selling them on the website. There is no real market leader that I could see, so this would be a good opportunity. Producing a $50 product for a few dollars each would yield a strong ROI after a couple of years.

The big downside with producing lines of bumper protectors is the liability issue. For whatever reason, Americans tend to be more litigious than elsewhere, and I wouldn’t want to have the liability in the event one of my $50 bumper protectors fails to protect someone’s bumper. Further, I could foresee someone forgetting to put their bumper protector away after leaving a parking spot, and in the event it flies off of the car and damages another vehicle, I could see further liability as the producer. While the liability might seem far fetched, it’s not worth the risk for such a small revenue stream in my business.

That being said, I am thinking about building a website with an Amazon store being the revenue generator. I know Amazon notoriously pays little, but if I can get the site to rank #1 as a result of unique content I have written combined with the store, it could be a nice little passive money maker.

I’ve heard about Epik and WannaDevelop but haven’t heard much in the way of results (how much people are earning from their websites). With an exact match product .com domain name, what can be expected in the way of earnings?   I am not interested in spending a few hundred to build a website that makes no money!

Please let me know your thoughts on developing BumperProtectors.com.

**** 7/13 Update ***

After a very good face to face conference with Rob Monster, I’ve decided to award the project to Epik and will post updates once the site launches. This is the first time I am working with Epik and I am excited about it.

BlogSport.com: Is Yahoo Typosquatting Google’s Blogger Platform?

Elliot Silver
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Google BlogspotYou’ll Never Guess Whose Making Money on This Frequently Visited Typo URL

There are plenty of times when I “fat finger” a url and end up on a website I had no intention to visit. We all do it. Oftentimes, these typo domain names are owned by typosquatters who place pay per click links on the landing page, with the hopes of making money from this traffic.

This morning, I went to visit a popular blog hosted on Google’s Blogger platform. These websites generally are formatted with a url similar to this: blogname.BlogSpot.com. When I visited the blog this morning, the page didn’t load, so I double checked that I had the correct domain name. I didn’t. Instead I had blogname.BlogSport.com.

I did a quick Whois search to see who owns the domain name, and I was very surprised to see that Yahoo owns BlogSport.com while Google owns its flagship BlogSpot.com.

You might ask yourself how this happened. It’s somewhat interesting, so I will briefly explain. Sometime between September and October 2005, BlogSport.com was acquired by the owner of Rivals.com. In June of 2007, Rivals.com was acquired by Yahoo, and they presumably acquired all of the assets of Rivals.com, which included the BlogSport.com domain name.

Today, BlogSport.com sits idle, as Yahoo isn’t monetizing or forwarding the domain name, presumably because they know that Google might take action if they did.   According to Alexa, over 10 million people visit Google’s BlogSpot a month. There must be thousands of people who accidentally visit Blogsport.com a month, intending to visit a blog or website on the Blogger service.

So whose making money on this valuable typo domain name? Presumably the Internet service providers like Verizon and Comcast who monetize error landing pages “helping” web browsers who accidentally type-in an invalid domain name. It’s very kind of them to do this for us.

Sunday Update: World Cup Final Edition

Elliot Silver
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I bet that there are plenty of people who read my blog that are very excited for today’s World Cup Final featuring the Netherlands and Spain. Since I am a betting person, I will put it out there that I think Holland is going to win the game. Without a doubt, this is going to be a fun game to watch.

On to a few updates:

  • The New York City DomainFest auction list was released this past week, and there are some fantastic names up for sale. Of course the prices are very high for the best names, but I am sure Oversee and Moniker reps are working on connecting with potential bidders. Some of the better names are Artists.com, Rate.com, Quotes.com, Stocks.com, StockQuotes.com, Cable.com, Reggae.com, and Patents.com. Full list can be seen here.
  • I decided that I am going to the DomainFest conference. If anyone would like to meet up, let me know. We may be organizing a pre-conference event, and I will keep you posted.
  • I received an email from Register.com announcing a Verisign contest with the winner getting $10,000. According to the email, “simply submit a 2-minute video or short essay (300 words or less) telling us how .com has affected your life. If your entry is one of the winning stories, you’ll win one of 10 iPads, $2,500, $5,000, or $10,000. The deadline is August 31, 2010—don’t wait to tell your story!” To enter and for more details, visit HowDoYou.com.
  • There’s a new pet store in my neighborhood called Unleashed, which is a PetCo company. I spoke with the GM yesterday, and she offered me a table out front next Saturday to hand out DogWalker.com magnets (at no cost). For those of you developing websites, these are opportunities that you should look for – low/no cost promotional activities. All you need to do is ask.
  • Some sad news to report… According to an article a couple of days ago in UK’s Daily Mail, a 30 year old nanny died from sexual arousal while watching pornography. Wonder if she got her “toy” on Vibrator.com or SexToys.com.
  • Big thanks to Arbel Arif for his Lebron James contest. I won a 2003 Topps Lebron James graded 10 rookie card for correctly guessing he’d sign with Miami.
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