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Learning Annex Shortcut To Internet Riches Includes Domain Name Seminar

Elliot Silver
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Learning AnnexOn March 10, 2010 at New York City’s Marriott Marquis, the Learning Annex will be hosting its Internet Expo, billed as the “Shortcut To Internet Riches!” As part of the full day session, you will have a chance to learn from one of the most well known domain investors, Marc Ostrofsky,.

As you may know, Ostrofsky was one of the founders of Internet Reit, a large domain investment company in Texas. On the Expo’s page Ostrofsky session is described as follows:

The easiest way to earn a dollar online is simply buying and selling domains. And that’s exactly what Marc Ostrofsky does as the president of Internet REIT, which currently holds approximately 400,000 domains. Find out how he does it… how he sold business.com for a world record $7.5 million…and how can you do the same.

There are a total of 25 Internet experts who will be participating/leading the seminar during the day.   Topics include building a business online, growing a business online, Internet marketing, SEO strategy, the domain session, and many other topics.

The cost of a full day pass is $99.95, and it begins at 9am. I am not attending the conference, but found it interesting that the topic of domain names is being covered as an investment tool rather than as a SEO/business development strategy, which may be more appropriate.

Burbank.com Partnership Announced

Elliot Silver
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In July, I blogged about the City in a Box platform offered by Fred Mercaldo and his team at Scottsdale.com. A few people asked me if I would be willing to use the platform on one of my websites. I can finally answer that question today.

One of the reasons I flew out to California for Domain Fest was to finalize a couple of deals that have been pending. I am happy to announce that one of the deals has been finalized, and I will be engaging in a marketing/content partnership with Scottsdale.com (see press release below).

Scottsdale.com is one of my favorite developed geodomain names, and I have always admired Fred Mercaldo’s team. They have a great sales staff, and they are clearly experts when it comes to geodomain development and monetization. I am very lucky to be able to work with them on one of my more valuable domain assets.

I’ve known Fred since the Geodomain Expo in Chicago, and I am excited to be working with him on this project.

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Silver Internet Ventures, LLC Announces Partnership with Scottsdale.com, LLC

Companies agree to marketing, advertising, and content distribution partnership for Burbank.com using City in a Box platform

SANTA MONICA, CA (January 26, 2010) – Silver Internet Ventures, LLC and Scottsdale.com, LLC announce a marketing, advertising, and content distribution partnership on Burbank.com, a domain name owned and operated by Silver Internet Ventures. The new website will be built on Scottsdale.com’s proprietary City in a Box platform, and the sales and marketing team at Scottsdale.com will manage sales and content on the website.

“In the year and a half the company has owned Burbank.com, traffic has grown from a few hundred visitors a month to several thousand,” said Elliot J. Silver of Silver Internet Ventures. “As a result of living across the country, it’s been difficult to manage content and ad sales. The Scottsdale.com team has a great sales staff, and they will serve the Burbank market in ways I can’t. This partnership is something I am excited about, and I look forward to working with the Scottsdale.com team.”

“We are very excited to take on the Burbank.com project.   Personally, I have spent a significant amount of time there over the years, and have a pretty good feel about the city and what it has to offer. Billed as the “Media Capital of the World”, it truly is a hub of the entertainment industry, but it is neighborhoods too, and home to over 100,000 PLUS people,” said Fred Mercaldo, of Scottsdale.com.   “We are pleased to be Elliot’s choice to both develop and monetize his Burbank.com asset, and we will exceed his expectations!”

Mercaldo continued, “we will do our best to make Burbank.com a resource that the locals will come to rely on, along with providing visitors a robust site for planning their studio and entertainment industry visits.   Our ‘City In A Box’ software solution is a perfect fit for this site, and we will be announcing a major initiative within the week that will detail our aggressive growth plans for over 30 GeoDomain markets in the US.   Examples of our software can be reviewed at sites such as Palermo.com, Chandler.com, Sunnyvale.com, and more.”

The new Burbank.com website will be launched by April 15, 2010. Companies who are interested in advertising on the new website should email the sales team at sales@burbank.com. A representative will contact you shortly.

Picks for Moniker’s DomainFest Auction

Elliot Silver
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Moniker announced the inventory with reserve prices for the Domain Fest live domain auction that will take place in Santa Monica on Thursday, January 28, 2010 from 2:00 – 6:00 pm PST. Bidding can also be done online at Snapnames. Below are my top 10 domain names (along with the reserve prices) that are included in the auction. You can see the full list on the Moniker website.

  • CardCollection.com       $2501 – $5000
  • ElectricFences.com       $2501 – $5000
  • FigureSkaters.com       $2501 – $5000
  • FiveStarHotel.com       $1001-$2500
  • Paper.com       $500,001 – $750,000
  • Performances.com       $10,001 – $25,000
  • Spoilers.com       $50,001 – $100,000
  • TaxPreparers.com       $25,001 – $50,000
  • Watchmaker.com       $10,001 – $25,000
  • WoodCabinets.com       $25,001 – $50,000

I didn’t check the Whois info on the names, so I don’t know if I know the owners or not.

What are your favorites in the auction?

Sunday Afternoon Update

Elliot Silver
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Here are a few small updates.

  • I think Rick made the right move by halting the live auction yesterday and re-scheduling the remaining domain names for yesterday. This makes me even more appreciative of Oversee.net and their Snapnames platform which works in conjunction with Moniker on live auctions. The only down side is that they still don’t have a version for Macs.
  • Domain owners frequently receive emails from auction companies asking them to lower reserve prices. In light of technical and timing issues that sometimes impact live domain auctions, one should consider whether lowering a reserve price is a good idea. Yes, there are plenty of names that have reserve prices way above where the should be. However, if you aren’t comfortable lowering a reserve price, then don’t do it. It’s your own fault if you heed the advice of an auctioneer whose goals may be different than yours.
  • I’ve been excited with the results of Dog Walker.com.   So far in the 2.5 months it’s been live, there has been just shy of $3,000 worth of listings on the site. Although I am sure the pace of sign ups won’t be as strong as it has been the last month, I predict break even by March of year 2 (domain acquisition + development + marketing costs).
  • After a couple of weeks worth of work, I launched CatSitter.com this week, a directory of cat sitters and cat boarding companies in the US. Just about everything on this new site is the same, and I expect to have many sign-ups from existing advertisers. I paid much less for the domain name and development since the platform was already built and customized.
  • I want to thank Michael Sumner of DN Media and MiniSites.com for his help with coding/programming on both of these sites. I needed a WordPress expert on short notice during the holidays, and every time something different came up, Michael was there to help. It was especially appreciated because it wasn’t his project, but he was willing to lend a hand and make important (complicated) adjustments to the functionality of the sites.
  • January has been my best domain sales month in over a year. This really isn’t related to quantity (less than 15 domains sold), but rather the quality of names I’ve been selling. I’ve made some solid acquisitions along with quick, private turn around flips in the last few weeks. There is still money to be made in this business after all.
  • I made a last minute decision, and I will be flying out to Los Angeles for DomainFest tomorrow. I have a couple of pending deals that will be finalized in California this week, and it doesn’t look like I will be going to Atlanta as previously anticipated. I wish I could have attended the TRAFFIC show, but I will be at TRAFFIC Vancouver. Safe travels to everyone.

Reason #1 a Domain Name is Better than Facebook URL: You Control It

Elliot Silver
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A few weeks ago, a reader emailed me with a question, “I’m asking myself if businesses are abandoning their websites for a facebook page. Maybe not for an ecommerce site but for a small and medium “brochure” type website, why not just go with facebook? ” As I was about to write an article to discuss this, Mike Berkens had a post that touched on this topic.

It seems that many companies have been using and actively promoting Facebook and Twitter accounts with vanity urls that contain their brand names. I personally never liked the idea of ceding control of your url, which has been done by companies like Best Buy with their Twitter Twelpforce and TGI Friday’s with their Facebook FanWoody campaign.

Today, I read an article on TechCrunch about Facebook revoking the vanity url, http://www.facebook.com/harmon, used by one of its users, Harmon Bajwa. The company allegedly sold it to another company named Harman International, who wanted it for a campaign, supposedly in conjunction with the Grammy Awards.

Imagine that your small company shares its name with a Fortune 500 company – or even shares a name with a F500 company’s brand. It doesn’t appear that there would be anything to stop Facebook or maybe even Twitter from taking your url and selling or giving it to another company.

With a domain name, another company could still try to get it by filing a UDRP dispute (or lawsuit), but there are mechanisms in place to prevent a person or company from simply having the domain name taken from them.

This looks really bad for Facebook, and it’s a good reason why smaller companies and individuals should really think about whether they want to give up control of their address online.

Rick Latona TRAFFIC Auction to Resume Saturday After Technical Difficulties

Elliot Silver
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Due to technical difficulties, Rick Latona made a difficult decision this evening and has opted to move the TRAFFIC auction to Saturday morning. Throughout the early part of the auction, the Internet functionality was spotty, and online bidding was impacted. At one point, the Latonas.com team sent out an email blast with phone numbers to call in order to bid remotely.

As Rick mentioned when he halted the auction abruptly, he has an obligation to his sellers to get the best possible prices, and with Internet bidding out of order, the best chance of success for the auction would be on a different platform tomorrow morning. I am sure there will be more details to follow, and I will update this post once I have more information.

According to the auctioneers, the closed sales will be honored at their prices and the auction will resume where it left off. You can stay apprised of the situation here, and I will have more details as soon as they are received.

UPDATE:

The auction will be held at 10:00 am Pacific on Saturday morning. That’s 1:00 pm on the East Coast or 19:00 central European time. The auction will be held on Proxibid.

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