Rick Latona is running a live auction starting now. You can watch a live video feed of the auction at Domaining.com, and you can also easily bid online at http://proxybid.com/ricklatona. The auction is taking place at The Phoenix Forum, and it features primarily adult domain names and services.
Seems like even more companies than usual are filing UDRPs for generic domain names. Wonder how many companies have been successful in “acquiring” similar names using scare tactics like C&D letters or letters threatening litigation without even having to file a UDRP.
I’ve done some reading in the past few days about .Tel. As much as I “fooled” on April Fools Day, I do think there is a good reason for some people to buy a .Tel. From what I understand, it’s very easy to set up a site and takes no development knowledge. I sometimes take the development skills I’ve learned in the last year and a half for granted because I still consider myself to be a rookie, but I couldn’t have set elliotsilver.info up without this knowledge. Not needing coding/programming skills is a big plus.
Domain investors really need to learn a little bit of programming language like HTML or have someone on staff (or a reliable family member) that can assist. I’m no genius when it comes to web development, but learning the basics isn’t too painful. It makes us much more self reliant, and it would be similar to a homeowner learning basic things like changing a fuse or using a plunger if the toilet overflows instead of paying a repair guy for a simple fix.
It’s pretty neat to see President Obama on his European trip being embraced and welcomed by foreign leaders. I despise politics and political discussions, but thought it was cool to see during the past few days.
I really hope other people don’t begin using Twitter as a call for help. It’s so easy to miss a message/reply.
If you are trying to complete a domain deal and the price seems too good to be true, use Google to search for the person’s email address, full name (in quotes), and the domain name itself. See if anything sets off any alarm bells before you move forward with any kind of deal. Just because the economy is bad, doesn’t mean people are willing to give away great domain names at well below market value.
This is cross between a Twitter update and a blog post. A little bit longer than 140 characters, and a little bit shorter than a typical blog post.
Today I am working on building Newburyport.com from the ground up using the same platform my developer built for Lowell.com and Burbank.com. Launch is imminent – hopefully by the end of the weekend.
To me, there is nothing better than learning all about a city and building a website that will represent it to thousands of people a month. It’s exciting!
I will post an update when I turn over the DNS, although the site may be incomplete.
I want to follow up on a recent post I made. Based on all of the comments and responses, I am going to publish my Geodomain information as a series on my blog. I think Jon and Dimester’s comments about reading others’ feedback on my posts is very important, as there are a lot of people with more experience in this area. Most of the successful people have owned their names for many years, so I think I can offer a different perspective as a new geodomainer.
I have started writing the series already, and it’s neat to be able to share what I’ve learned. I also hope to read comments that will help all of us learn from others’ experiences.
The series will begin just before the GeoDomain Expo. I am going to be spending next week in Lowell, so I should be able to report more on the sales process.
Thank you all for your feedback. BTW, I wasn’t planning on charging for the book – I was wondering if you thought it was a better way to present my information.
Apparently Domino’s pizza made a big marketing mistake that was uncovered by someone looking to find a coupon code. The customer entered the word “bailout” when he was ordering his pizza online, and the website responded by saying his medium pizza was free.
The person then told other people about this error, and when all is said and done, there were about 11,000 pizzas given out for free by Domino’s. Although this was apparently an error, the viral marketing can’t be beat. In a move that cost them under $50,000 (assuming their cost per pizza is just under $5.00), they are now getting thousands of dollars worth of free press – not to mention all the sodas and other things people ordered when they found out their pizza was free.
Although this was a mistake, it shows how powerful viral marketing can be, especially in the age of Twitter and other instant news distribution outlets.
I get random legit email inquiries for some of my domain names, but many of my friends get a whole lot more of them than I do. They get annoying after a while, and instead of politely responding to a $500 offer for a domain name that is worth six figures, people are tempted to respond rudely, In my opinion, this does nothing effective. If a guy is offering $500 for a six figure domain name, he either thinks you are an idiot or he doesn’t have a clue about domain values.
I do have a response that I like to give to random legitimate inquiries, and I would like to share it. I think it may be a bit passive aggressive , but it helps educate, as people are far more knowledgeable about real estate than domain names. This response took a bit of time to construct, but it’s now easy to cut and paste (with the exception of the link that might be difficult to include in some email systems.
My response is built for an email that went something like this:
“I see you are the owner of XXXXX.com, and it isn’t developed yet. My company is in the process of developing a website which would be perfect for the domain name. I would like to offer you $x,xxx, which I believe is a fair price for XXXXX.com.”
My response:
Dear XXXXXX,
Thank you for your interest in XXXXXX.com. This is a domain name I bought for a specific purpose, but I haven’t yet had the opportunity to develop it as I am working on a number of projects. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t sell it anywhere near that price either because it’s worth much more.
When I visit Palm Beach, I always travel on South Ocean Drive. In between Mar a Lago and Sloan’s Curve, there is a beautiful undeveloped plot of land right on the Intercoastal Waterway, and it sits next to twenty and thirty million dollar houses (check it on Google Street View. Unfortunately, the owner hasn’t developed it. I, too, have plans to build a beautiful house (further inland) and it would be perfect for that plot of land because I can dock my boat right in the backyard.
If I approached the owner of that plot of land, and I said, “I looked at the MLS and your plot of land is worth about $4,000,000 – I would like to offer you what I believe is market value” – do you think he would sell it after years of not selling it (and by the looks of the trimmed lawn, it is well maintained)? I am sure he has been approached by many and has turned them all down as he presumably doesn’t need the cash and the land is a better investment than money in the bank earning less than the rate of inflation.
If I really want that plot of land, I will need to offer much more than its worth, in order to convince the owner to sell. Likewise, my domain name will be as difficult to acquire, especially because your initial valuation is so low. If you still wish to purchase my domain name, you are going to have to knock me down with an offer. Until that time, I wish you well in all of your endeavors online.
