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Finding a Domain Owner Using Archive.org

Elliot Silver
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When trying to buy a domain name from a person or company in private, I frequently come across private registrations. I usually use the Whois history tool to see if there was an email address previously on file. I concurrently visit the website to see if there is contact information on the page.

Oftentimes people or companies acquired a generic domain name many years ago, and sometimes their projects failed or the domain name isn’t being used any longer. When the Whois history tool doesn’t help and there isn’t any current contact information on the website (or the site doesn’t resolve), there is one great option to find contact information: Archive.org.

Simply visit Archive.org and search for previous iterations of the website. You may find a phone number, email address, or the name of people previously involved with the website and domain name. This information can be used to inquire about a domain name.

Think about it this way. Most of the low hanging fruit has already been plucked. The great generic domain names that may still be acquired are out there, but many require sleuthing and research. Archive.org is another great tool to use to contact domain owners.

Prayer Cross Direct Marketers Smartly Using Generic Domain Name

Elliot Silver
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PrayerCross.comOne of the reasons I first got into domain names was because of the connection between my master’s degree in Direct & Interactive Marketing and generic domain names. Owning a generic domain name makes the job of a direct marketer much easier, especially when the marketing campaign is done via television or radio. With an easy to remember domain name, consumers have less difficulty processing the message, and it’s easier to send them in the right direction.

Even though I am not in the market for a cross or any type of religious jewelry, one direct response commercial from the holiday season I remember is pitching a prayer cross, a cross necklace that contains the Lord’s Prayer in its “secret center stone.” The prayer cross is being sold by IdeaVillage, a direct response marketing company, and its a part of “Montebello Collections.”

Smartly, the company uses the easy to remember generic domain name, PrayerCross.com for its efforts. They could have just as easily decided that they would brand it using MontebelloCollections.com to offer other products from the same collection. However, these marketers are smart and they know consumers are more likely to remember and correctly spell PrayerCross.com than MontebelloCollections.com.

As the holiday season winds down, I see they are still buying remnant airtime and I think about the domain name every time I see the commercial. I do think they should have purchased PrayerCrosses.com as protection, but it’s now owned by Oversee  Research  and  Development,  LLC. Incidentally, MontebelloCollections.com is owned by OS  Domain  Holdings  VIII,  LLC, with both companies sharing the same address on Flower Street in Los Angeles.

Why You Should Attend a Domain Conference

Elliot Silver
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Although networking with other domain investors is high up on the list of reasons to attend a domain conference, in my opinion, there is one primary reason. Attending a domain conference gives you the opportunity to meet your sales representatives and managers for the companies with whom you do your domain business.

Whether your business primarily relies on domain investing, parking, or other monetization, you can meet the people who can help you when you are in need.

For my domain registrations, I primarily register my names with Moniker. No matter who is running the conference or where it is, I almost always see my account manager Bari Meyerson at the shows. Monte Cahn is frequently there as are other Moniker representatives, but it’s always good to connect with Bari. I also register some names with Godaddy, and my representative, Brad Larson is frequently in attendance.

The same thing goes for domain parking, although you already know by now that I don’t rely on parking for much revenue (under $1,000 per year). However, just about all of the companies are there and have company representatives available to answer questions and address complaints.

I know that if I ever have a problem, I am comfortable calling or emailing Bari and Brad day or night, and I know my issue will be addressed almost immediately. When you establish a personal relationship with the services companies with whom you do business, you are more easily able to reach your sales managers in times of need.

In addition, if your business relies on advertising from companies who exhibit and attend domain tradeshows, this is an opportunity to tell them about your website. If you own DomainInvesting.com and plan to develop a website on it, your best bet is to connect with the right people at the domain show to let them know about your plans and advertising opportunities.

Likewise, attending an industry tradeshow can also be smart when you are developing other domain names in different verticals. Most tradeshows offer free exhibit hall passes, allowing you to meet with vendors who may want to advertise on your website. This is a topic for another post.

Upcoming domain conferences where most domain companies will be in attendance include:

Saturday Morning Thoughts

Elliot Silver
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Is it really Saturday already?   It feels a bit like the movie Groundhog Day with the past few days off.   Anyhow, here are some of my random, rambling, somewhat coherent (hopefully) thoughts this Saturday morning following the New Year’s festivities.

(Ironically enough, I accidentally hit post late Friday night when I wrote this instead of for first thing Saturday morning)

  • Have you ever seen an active company looking to sell its brand domain name? I hadn’t until I did a Whois search for InternetReit.com. There was a small graphic at the top of the page that said, “InternetReit.com is for sale. The owner of the domain you are researching has it listed for sale for $29484.” I know Internet Reit, Inc uses IReit.com for its website, but I wonder why they’d be willing to let this generic brand name go for under $30,000.

  • I was just checking my stats this morning to see how much traffic my blog received last year. Well over a quarter of a million visits according to Google Analytics. That’s a big increase from the year prior and a very cool number to see. Thank you for visiting!
  • I haven’t had the chance to do this update yet, but I figured I would remind you while I am thinking about it. Don’t forget to change your copyright notices on your websites to 2010 from 2009.
  • I’d like to welcome some of my new advertisers and thank them for their support. IDNTools.com and Above.com are new advertisers to my blog, and DomainTools has increased its presence. Of course, I would like to thank my current roster of advertisers for continuing to advertise on my blog.

Google PageRank Update for the New Year

Elliot Silver
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0

A friend of mine emailed me early this afternoon to let me know that Google updated the Page Rank of my website to PR5.   Apparently, Google updated the PR for many websites some time in the last 24 hours or so. The meaning and impact of a website’s PageRank is debated, but a PR5 is better than a PR4 🙂

Here are how 20 of the Domain Superstar Top 100 Domain Blogs rank in PR:

  1. DomainTools Blog – PR6
  2. ICANN Blog – PR7
  3. Namedrive Blog – PR4
  4. Afternic DLS Blog – PR6
  5. DNJournal – PR5
  6. Domain Name Wire – PR5
  7. TheDomains.com – PR5
  8. WhyPark Blog – PR3
  9. ElliotsBlog.com – PR5
  10. Dot Sauce – PR5
  11. MobiForge.com – PR5
  12. Domain Name News – PR6
  13. ChefPatrick.com – PR4
  14. Fusible – PR1
  15. DomainGang.com – PR3
  16. InForum Blog – PR4
  17. BruceMarler.com – PR4
  18. RickLatona.com – PR4
  19. DotWeekly.com – PR4
  20. DomainNews.com – PR5

2010 New Year’s Resolutions

Elliot Silver
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It’s the time of year that people make their new years resolutions. I don’t generally make any personal resolutions, but I do think about things I would like to accomplish for my business, so I thought I would share a few of those with you.

  • Learn about affiliate marketing – Many of my sites have pretty decent traffic, but I haven’t monetized it well enough. I will learn what I can about affiliate marketing to generate leads and sales on sites where the monetization is currently weak. Instead of using simply Adsense or having a few direct advertising deals (aside from this blog), I will find affiliate partners to match the needs of site visitors.
  • Learn about Adwords – In some cases, this might go hand in hand with affiliate marketing, but I would primarily like to learn how to drive additional (inexpensive) traffic to my websites. This will primarily be useful on my fully developed website.
  • Get less attached to my domain names – On almost all domain names I acquire, I can see what type of website would make sense to build on it. I have enough websites to manage right now, and any more large projects wouldn’t be feasible. Once I launch CatSitter.com this month, that will be it for a while. The only reason I am launching that is because many DogWalker.com advertisers offer cat sitting services as well, and the platform I use is easy to convert.
  • Improve my geodomain names’ websites – Finalize a partnership opportunity on Burbank.com and figure out a way to make my other sites more automated. I will seek out local news “partnerships” where I can use RSS feeds instead of manually updating everything. I’ve been reluctant to seek out these working relationships, but I am fairly well established in the markets to set up a meeting. I will probably also convert these sites to WordPress.

The bottom line is that I want to grow my business rather than expand it. I have the assets I need to be successful and make money, and I need to work on them to make that happen.   I will continue to buy domain names more aggressively this year than for re-sale, but I will do my best to not buy for development purposes.

This will be the year of focus. I will stay focused on what I have and focus on how I can make these assets earn even more revenue.   I predict private domain sales will continue to be the main revenue driver of my business, but advertising revenue will continue to become a bigger piece of the pie.

If you’d like to share your new year’s resolutions, please do so. Here’s to a great new year.

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