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She’s a Bonehead!

I apologize in advance because I can’t use the specific brand or domain name in this story, but I wanted to share a funny story with you about how some brand managers just don’t take domain names as seriously as they should.

After the party at the GeoDomain Expo, I went out to drinks with some friends at a Jazz restaurant in the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego (which is a very cool area if you’ve never been). As we were wrapping up our drinks on the patio, a lady came over to the table and started talking to us, and my friend asked if she was attending the conference. She said she wasn’t, and that she worked for “XYZ Company,” which we all know is the the leading brand in the “ABC industry.”

Ironically, my friend happens to own the ABC industry’s category defining domain name, and he mentioned it to her. She was excited about that, and she said that she was a Marketing Manager for the company and they should definitely discuss how they can work together. As luck would have it, she just changed her purse and didn’t have business cards, but she wanted to give my friend her contact information.

My friend said that sounded great and we waited outside on the patio for a few minutes when she went in to the restaurant. After a couple of minutes, I went in and saw the woman dancing by the piano, clearly not even thinking about that category defining domain name that was just mentioned to her. This was a bonehead move and one that could cost them dearly, because it’s without a doubt the best category domain name in her industry.

Protect Your Brand

A local city website from my hometown began following one of my websites on Twitter the other day. I had never heard of this city site, and they have a unique/brandable URL – which I won’t give away for their privacy, but it was something to the effect of CyaInNewton.com. Since I hadn’t heard of their site nor visited before, I decided I would have a look, and I saw that it was a fully developed city portal.

I wanted to check to see if there was more than one site in their network, and while I wasn’t surprised that there weren’t others, I was surprised that they didn’t buy other domain names to go along with their branding, ie CyaInNewYork.com or even neighboring cities like CyaInNatick.com…etc. These domain names are available for their competitors and/or anyone else who wants to grab them at registration fee. I think this is a big mistake.

This company isn’t a domain investment or speculative company, where they are hoping someone else will like their idea and decide to buy it at a premium. They are growing an actual brand on one domain name, and the logical way to grow once terminal velocity is reached is to extend to different markets. While the domain names are available to register now, they might not be in a few months. Although they might have common law trademark rights, getting the domain names they want could be expensive.

I am going to send them a DM and recommend that they grab their brand domain names in other markets. While they may not plan to grow to those markets, it can’t hurt to protect the brand they are working hard to promote.

GeoDomain Expo Auction

A number of people have asked me about the GeoDomain Expo auction, and I wanted to give my favorites for the auction. The auction is being run by Aftermarket.com and DomainConsultant.com, and it is now open for bids. I didn’t post the reserve prices, but I bolded the names I like based on the reserves – which can be seen on the auction page.

Albuquerque.us
AmericanGuide.com
ArubaVacation.com
AsiaMaps.com
Augsburg.com
BeachHaven.com
BocaRatonFlorida.com
BritishSpy.com
BrooklynJobs.com
CannesBeach.com
CaribbeanSea.com
CarlsbadCA.com
ChicagoTravel.com
Drammen.com
eChart.com
EgyptianPyramids.com
Elizabeth.net
FranceHoliday.com
FrenchKissing.net
Geography.info
GoToMexico.com
HiltonHeadResort.com
HollywoodAttorneys.com
iLL.net
Indy.biz
iSouthKorea.com
KansasCity.us
LasVegasFlights.com
Longhorn.com
LosAngelesCondo.com
Lubbock.us
ManhattanDoctors.com
MichiganCarInsurance.com
Minneapolis.net
Miss.com
Mundo.com
NewYorkLoft.com
Normandy.net
Oakton.com
Pics.travel
Piedras.com
Ponce.com
SacramentoHouses.com
SantaClarita.com
SierraMadre.com
SkiingLessons.net
SouthwestAsia.com
StateOfMaine.com
StAugustine.org
StPaulRealEstate.com
Tacoma.info
Talladega.org
TampaBay.info
TempeArizona.com
TexasPersonals.com
Ticket.com
Tiel.com
TopekaKansas.com
TowerOfLondon.com
Washington.biz

Launching an Email Service on Your Domain Name

10

Over the past couple of years, a number of people have asked me for my opinion on starting an email service on one of their domain names. Most of the time, these domain names are either very short or brandable in the sense that people would want to have the vanity email address. While an email service can be good to increase page views, brand recognition, and stickiness, I generally don’t recommend doing this for a few reasons.

As a service provider – especially a service as vital as email has become, you will be held responsible for any service outages or interrupts. Of course you can blame Google or whatever application you decide to use if something goes down, but as the face and contact for your company, people will look to you for answers. I get frustrated when my email service goes down – as infrequently as that is. Imagine if you have 1,000 frustrated people emailing you from other email services!

Maintaining the privacy of millions of emails, logins, passwords…etc can be a very big responsibility. While in theory it shouldn’t be too difficult, constant hacker attacks, worms, and other malicious attempts to crack your servers can cause problems for you. It can also be expensive to hire a company to watch this for you. Not only can you expect bad PR if someone hacks into your email system, but there could be legal liability as well.

Another reason is that I believe it can encumber a domain name if the owner ever wants to sell it. Whether the owner is charging for email service or not, if he has opened it up to allow others to use the domain name for email, the owner could potentially be required to host the email for an extended period, and many buyers won’t want to have to deal with these ramifications – unless they are driving serious revenue. I am no legal expert, so consult with an attorney on this.

I know of one person who launched an email service and regretted it, and I want to give advice to those who are considering it. I personally wouldn’t advise doing it.

Types of GeoDomains

I just arrived in San Diego, and am excited for the GeoDomain Expo that begins tonight. I may have covered this in the past, but I would like to take some time to define the different types of geodomain names, which will be helpful as I post articles in my geodomain series. I have purchased region .com gedomains, long tail geodomains, and non-com geodomains, although I have never purchased a ccTLD geodomain or an abbreviated geodomain.

A region .com geodomain name is fairly self-explanatory – it is the exact name and spelling of a location in the world in the .com extension. People who visit the location or who live there exclusively refer to the location by this name, and it is spelled correctly. These are the diamonds as far as geodomains go. Some examples of region .com gedomain are Burbank.com, Mexico.com, Caribbean.com, and NewEngland.com.

Within region .com geodomain names, there are towns, cities, counties, states, countries, lakes, mountains… etc. A region .com domain name is generally the most prized geodomain name because people are familiar with that particular area and in many cases, visitors simply type the region + .com into their Internet browser and visit whatever site is there looking for information.

Long tail geodomain names have a regional area in them as well as specific keywords either related to that area or to something specific in that area. The better long tail geodomain names make complete sense and have people searching for that keyword in the region. Many of these names are great because they are so targeted that the traffic converts well. Examples of these domain names are NewYorkHotels.com, MediterraneanCruise.com, IrelandPubs.com. Oftentimes, people in a particular geographical area want to be known as THE particular service provider of that keyword, and they will pay to have the domain name.

Non .com geodomain names are basically the same as above, but obviously not in the .com extension. I don’t include ccTLDs in this, because I think they are an entity in and of itself. Non .com geodomains would be Chicago.net, LehighValleyDoctors.info, and Seoul.org.

ccTLD geodomains are very popular in many countries outside of the United States, where adoption of the .US ccTLD hasn’t been as widespread. In many countries, such as Croatia and Italy, the country’s ccTLD is as popular or more than .com domain names. Two examples would be Vancouver.ca and TurismoVenezia.it.

Abbreviated geodomain names are geodomain names where an abbreviation is either standard (StLouis.com) or necessary because all other extensions are registered NewYorkNY.org. Abbreviated geodomain names can be any type of geographic area and any extension.

For the sake of my series, I am going to mainly focus on what I know – region .com geodomains and long tail keyword geodomain names. I have experience buying these types of domain names, and I would rather write about something I know and have experience with than to write based on theory.

Did I miss any types of GeoDomain Names?

Special Thank You for Post # 1,000

It seems pretty silly, but a few weeks ago I noticed that I had around 950 posts on my blog dating to its inception.   Since then, in the back of my mind, I’ve been thinking about what to write for my 1,000th post. I know it’s silly, but I wanted to come up with something fun for the occasion of post #1,000. A few days ago while running on the treadmill, I determined what I wanted to post here for this special post.

Several years ago, I was a “struggling domain investor,” buying and selling inexpensive domain names (which I still do on occasion). While I sold primarily on Ebay and on DN Forum, I also sold quite a bit in private to clients of mine. Most of the domain names I owned were “brandable” domain names, and their sales prices ranged from $20 – $200/each with $200 being the anomaly.

One of my better clients when I began was a lady named Tasha Kidd. Aside from buying domain names from me, Tasha and I also chatted via email and instant messenger about marketing strategy and domain names. Tasha was the first person who introduced me to keyword generic domain names, and she emphasized their value over brandable domain names. In terms of domain acquisitions, that has been my focus since then. Tasha also designed the first iteration of my company logo and website a few years ago.

Later on in early 2006, I acquired a past tense domain name, for a booming industry. Tasha mentioned that she was a member of Rick Schwartz’s exclusive domain forum, and she suggested that I meet with one of the best domain brokers in the business who was a member in order to sell this domain name. Tasha introduced me to Kevin Leto and she also recommended me for admission onto Rick’s Board, which was approved. Before posting on Rick’s Board, Tasha taught me the protocol that she learned, some of which is only learned by making mistakes – helping me to avoid many landmines that may have gone off had I done or said something wrong.

I can’t even tell you how many friends I made and colleagues I met after joining Rick’s Board. Kevin also   been instrumental in private deals I’ve made as well as answering countless technical questions about my blog, website security, and other technical questions I can’t answer. I ended up selling that domain name for 5 figures, which was my largest sale at the time. For all of this that came as a result of Tasha’s help and advice, I want to say thank you x 1,000 to Tasha.

I also would like to thank readers of my blog who have offered their opinions, support, commentary, criticism, friendship, and everything in between. Without your continued visits, this blog wouldn’t exist and without your commentary, it wouldn’t have any life or be nearly as interesting. Being a blogger has its ups and downs, but fortunately there are many more ups than downs. Thank you for all of your support!

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