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Some Sales May Not Seem to Make Sense to Me, But They Make Sense to The Buyer

Elliot Silver
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12

I frequently see domain sales reports that don’t make a whole lot of sense to me at face value. The sales prices may seem off the charts compared to names I believe are similar. Does this mean that a sales venue or seller has fraudulently reported it or that there was something else nefarious that caused a sale to happen? In most cases, that is unlikely (especially because Ron does his best to verify sales). It’s more likely that the people analyzing the sales – like myself – just don’t have enough information about the sale in order to form an educated opinion on it.

As I have mentioned in the past, you sometimes need to overpay to get the domain name(s) you want or need for a project. Sellers frequently need to be convinced to sell their domain names, and it can take a significant offer to make it happen. With a proven business model or a strong business plan, these domain acquisitions may make sense to the buyer, although they leave others shaking their heads.

Likewise, a domain name may have certain attributes (like type-in traffic) that results in significant revenue opportunities. When this is the case, a buyer may have a plan to monetize the traffic much better than the seller, and he can therefore pay more for the domain name than others would value it at. A sales price may seem high, but in reality, the price is favorable to the buyer.

Aside from questioning the validity of specific sales, another thing that some people do is transpose their perceived rationale for a domain sale onto the value of their own domain names.   “XYZ.com sold for $100,000, so my domain name, e-XYZ.net must be worth $10,000,” some people exclaim. This is usually not the case since domain names are unique.

While abnormal domain sales take place all the time, uninformed domain investors shouldn’t question the validity of the sales without any type of evidence (other than their own perception), especially in a public forum. Further, domain investors shouldn’t presume their domain names are worth the same amount since all domain names are unique assets.

Finding Affiliate Partners for Websites

Elliot Silver
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21

One of the primary reasons I chose to re-design Lowell.com was to change my approach to advertising sales. At the moment, the sales process is manual, and advertisers cannot sign up without contacting me. Big mistake. I am not a great sales person when it comes to advertising, and I don’t like making cold calls or sending emails. As a result, I only have a few advertisers on the site.

With the new site (which I hope to launch within 2 weeks), advertisers will be able to create and pay for directory listings manually in the Yellow Pages, although the more expensive banners will still be generated by me. I’ve had considerable interest in Yellow Pages listings, and I expect the revenue from listings to pay for the re-design within just a few months.

Although I have a few local advertisers (including the Courtyard by Marriott), I want to add some affiliate banners as well (including a new prominent 728×90 spot and 250×250 spot). Finding appropriate affiliate programs is a bit of a challenge because of the broad nature of Lowell.com, but I want to share a few things that I am doing, hopefully starting a bit of a discussion.

Here are a few things I am considering when selecting affiliates from Linkshare:

  • Does the affiliate compete with current local advertisers (like hotels or photography)?
  • What companies are running advertisements on competing websites?
  • What is the commission rate and length of time for cookies?
  • Is there local brand recognition?
  • Will the banners look good on the site?

I think the biggest thing for me will be testing. Since Lowell.com gets between 15,000 – 20,000 unique visitors a month now (despite not being updated in 2 months), there is enough traffic to test different banners. I plan to rotate affiliate banners, testing CTR/Revenue with different banner offers, as well as Adsense.

I know Adsense generates revenue as I have it in select spots on the current site, but I also know it leaves money on the table. I want to see if I can find compelling offers that will blow Adsense out of the water. I don’t know if it will be possible, but I am going to test it.

One thing I do know is that direct ad sales will be the most profitable banner advertising. I hope to be able to fully replace affiliate banners and Adsense banners within a few months. However, I am not counting on that since I don’t have a sales representative yet. In the meantime, I will be doing a lot of testing.

Have you run affiliate banners on a general interest website (like Lowell.com), and if so, what has your experience been?

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Please help me raise funds for the Ronald McDonald House

Help Us Support Ronald McDonald House!

Elliot Silver
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3

On May 2, 2010, my wife and I will be members of Team Ronald in the TD Bank Five Boro Bike Tour, helping to raise funds for the Ronald McDonald House of New York. If you aren’t familiar with this great non-profit organization, the Ronald McDonald House provides support and care for families who have children battling cancer. The people at Ronald McDonald House help make the lives of child cancer patients and their families better (and easier) when they need it most – as they fight cancer.

According to the RMDH website, the organization’s mission is to “support each family and coordinate emotional and physical services, psychological care, ministry support, wellness programs, tutors, music, art, transportation, activities for siblings, holiday and birthday parties and camaraderie for parents struggling with their child’s cancer diagnosis.”

My wife and I will be riding in the 42 mile 5 Boro Bike Tour in about a month, and we need to raise $2,500 from our family, friends, and colleagues who want to help support the Ronald McDonald House, too. Writing a check is easy, but asking our social network is more difficult, and we hope to raise a lot of money and bring more awareness to this great organization.

If you would be willing to support Ronald McDonald House on our behalf, Karen and I would greatly appreciate it.   I have never done anything like this before, and I hope we can count on you for any help you can give. You can easily donate online via the Ronald McDonald House website to help us reach our goal. You can also follow our fundraising progress, too.

THANKS!

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Please help me raise funds for the Ronald McDonald House

DomainSponsor Introduces DomainFest One-Day Power Networking Events

Elliot Silver
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0

I received a press release (below) today announcing that Oversee.net and Domain Sponsor will hold two localized one-day networking events in Ft. Lauderdale and New York City later this year. The respective events will be held at local hotels in May and August. Although an agenda outline wasn’t announced, it seems like the events are geared to be casual gatherings followed by live auctions.

Personally, I don’t think I will be in attendance for the NYC event. Although $175 is cheap by conference standards, I don’t think I will spend the money to network with people I frequently see at (free/cash bar) domain networking events that have been held in NYC every few months. I know they need to pay a hotel to have the event (since there is an auction), but the cost seems pretty high for what it is billed as.

I’d rather spend my $175 on a great meal with drinks in a more intimate setting with friends and colleagues from the area. I know that means I will miss out on seeing friends from Oversee, but they are more than welcome to attend the local events for free 🙂

BTW, you can check out local domain events on SocialDomainers.com, which is running an iPad giveaway contest right now.

——- Press Release ——–

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – DomainSponsor ®, the domain monetization business unit of Oversee.net ® and organizer of the DOMAINfest ® series of conferences, said today that it will further expand the highly regarded franchise with one-day events in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and New York City.

Both events will precede DOMAINfest Europe to be held in Prague, October 6-7, 2010.

Event Information
The one-day events will be held on May 13, 2010 at the W Hotel in Fort Lauderdale and on August 18, 2010 at the Grand Hyatt in midtown Manhattan, immediately following the Affiliate Summit East conference.

Each meeting will continue DOMAINfest’s tradition of providing a rich setting for discussions around how to increase the value of Internet real estate with subject-matter experts invited to facilitate free-flowing power networking sessions that will kick off each event from 1:30 pm to 3:30pm EDT. Moniker will conduct a live auction of premium names from 4:00 to 7:00 PM EDT, followed by a private dinner party hosted by DomainSponsor.

Registration for both Power Networking events will be available online at www.domainfest.com on Monday, April 12, 2010.   The registration fee will be $175 per event.

Moniker ® Auctions
Each one-day DOMAINfest event will feature a Moniker live premium domain name auction followed by a weeklong Extended Online Auction.   The live auctions are slated to start at 4:00 PM EDT and run through 7:00 PM.   The SnapNames Liveâ„¢ technology used to run these live auctions offers real-time online viewing and bidding from anywhere in the world via a free software download.   Details on how to submit domains and bid either in-person or remotely in any Moniker live auction can be found at http://domainauctions.moniker.com

“The DOMAINfest franchise provides an excellent opportunity for publishers, online marketers and internet professionals to exchange ideas and solidify relationships,” said Peter Celeste, Senior Vice President of Oversee.net and General Manger, Monetization Services. “These one-day power networking events are specifically designed to encourage more participation from local and regional professionals who may not be able to afford the time and expense to travel to a distant city for a two- or three-day event.   As with all DOMAINfest events, registration rates are inexpensive to encourage broad participation.”

In January, 2010, DomainSponsor hosted a highly successful DOMAINfest Global ® conference in Santa Monica, California that attracted more than 600 professionals from 26 countries representing a variety of internet-related industries.

Help Choose a New Logo for Lowell.com

Elliot Silver
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0

As you may or may not be aware, my designer and I are in the middle of re-designing Lowell.com. The new website will be on a much better content management system, and that will allow visitors to submit news and calendar events, create advertisements manually, and post comments on articles. The new site will be much more user friendly.

Well… what’s a new website without a new logo?   Please have a look at the 5 logo typefaces below and let me know which you like best. The site is nearly ready to be re-launched, and this is one of the final elements I saved for last. The color will change (of course), but this is just the base font choices.


Have a Great Business Idea and Need to Raise Funding?

Elliot Silver
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30

One of the things I’ve noticed about domain investors is that they aren’t short on ideas for businesses on their domain names. People seem to buy domain names with a specific idea in mind for them, although many either lack the funding to build out the idea, the drive to build it, or they lack the experience to move forward with their project.

CNNMoney.com has a neat article about 6 startups (which I had never heard of), and the article discusses where the founders came up with the funding to bring their idea to fruition. There are some neat ideas on where to turn if your business concept needs some start-up capital. The CNNMoney.com article covers:

  • AirBnB
  • Makerbeam
  • Boutique Larrieux
  • Everlater
  • Measy.com
  • The Extraordinaries

If you happen to be someone with a great idea that just needs some capital to make it happen, hit me up. I am interested to learn about your idea and may be able to help with funding – or may be able to put you in touch with someone else who can help.

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