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Why I Enjoy Domain Conferences

Elliot Silver
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I am sorry if it seems annoying or contrived when I post articles about how great domain conferences are, but I really enjoy attending our industry and related industry tradeshows.   I wanted to talk about why I really enjoy them and why I try to attend as many as possible, despite the significant fees for attendance and other associated costs.

When I worked for AIG and Wunderman, I was surrounded by people who had different positions within the company and contributed differently to the teams in which I participated. As an Account and Program Manager, I worked with creative staff, legal and compliance staff, accounting staff, database team members, interactive managers, clients, and others on a daily basis. There were meetings each day and camaraderie in both workplaces. Whether I enjoyed what I was doing or not, it was frequently enjoyable to go to work, although that eventually wore off when I started spending more time domaining.

As a domain investor, I spend hours in front of my computer doing research, developing a few websites, chatting on the phone/AIM with friends and colleagues, and reading forums and blogs. Although I am passionate about what I do, there are times where it gets a bit lonely being by myself for most of the day. I enjoy discussing domains, but my friends and family probably get pretty tired of hearing about it, so I try to keep it to a minimum.

Domain conferences give me the opportunity to get together with other like-minded people who are all doing a variety of things within a similar scope. Most people with whom I meet and see are in a similar position as me and can relate. There are people from across the country and throughout the world who meet at these events, and it’s a great time to talk, share stories, and get to know people in a more personal setting.

I am writing this from the air as I am flying to the TRAFFIC ccTLD conference in Amsterdam (although it will be posted on Tuesday). I am excited because I don’t know many ccTLD domain investors, but I know when I get to the conference, I am going to meet some great people, learn a lot about this vertical in the domain industry, and perhaps I will do some good business.

I enjoy having the chance to meet with likeminded people. This is why I have planned a few casual dinners and cocktail hours in New York City, and I hope to continue to meet great people. Maybe I will see you at a domain tradeshow in the near future?

NYC Domainer Get Together

Elliot Silver
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I think it’s about time we have another domain investor get together in New York City. One of my favorite places to go with a large party in the summer time is The Boat Basin, a restaurant/bar in the city that has outdoor and indoor accommodations for parties of all sizes. I think this will be a great place to hold an informal get together.

Details:

Date: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 TBD due to DomainRoundtable

Time: 7:00pm

Location: Boat Basin – West 79th Street & the Hudson River

Please RSVP in this email so I can reserve a space that’s large enough. I will be in Amsterdam beginning Tuesday, but I should have wifi to approve comments. If not, I will approve them later on so others can see whose coming.

***UPDATE***

As Larry pointed out, Domain Roundtable is happening on the 16th, so this is going to be rescheduled to either the last few days in June or early July. I will re=publish this when a date has been firmed up.

Info About .CM Domains for Sale

Elliot Silver
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I had a few questions about the .CM ccTLD domain names that are going to be auctioned at TRAFFIC Amsterdam this coming Thursday, and I asked David Clements, President of Rick Latona Auctions. The names that were initially released include Golf.cm, Vegas.cm (my personal favorite), Cinema.cm, California.cm, Lottery.cm, Lyrics.cm, Bible.cm, Cams.cm, Diamond.cm, and Miami.cm.

1) Is this the first public auction of .cm domain names and how did you secure them?

To the best of our knowledge, these names have never been offered before.   What can we say?   We are aggressive and creative in creating deals and bringing new things to the table.

2) What are the annual renewal fees, are there any legal requirements to owning one of these, and are their any development requirements?

Renewal fees vary by registrar. There are no legal requirements to owning these names and there are no development requirements to owning these names.

3) Can .cm domain names be transferred to any domain registrar, and if not, where are they registered?

There are a couple of registrars that are accredited.   They are listed on the site, register.cm.   the names can transferred between registrars.

4) Which .cm domain name at auction do you like best and why?

We want all of our names at auction to do well and it would be irresponsible for us to select one of them as a favorite.

Wanted: Website Calendar Software

Elliot Silver
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I’ve been scouring Google for this, but have yet to come up with exactly what I need for Lowell.com, Burbank.com and Newburyport.com. I figure I will put out this request and hopefully hear from someone who knows of a calendar or who can build something for me inexpensively. I would prefer something “out of the box” though.

Calendar Needs:

1) Small calendar box, just as currently on the home page of the site.

2) When you click on the month or date, you are taken to a page on the site with search friendly (and unique)   URLs, such as http://www.burbank.com/calendar/2009/june or http://www.burbank.com/calendar/2009/may/30

3) All events for the day or month (whichever is clicked) will be listed on the page. So if you click on a specific day, you will arrive at a page with the individual daily events listed, with hyperlinks to take you to individual event listings.

4) Event listings will be indexed with search friendly urls, such as http://www.burbank.com/calendar/2009/summer-water-festival.php .   Meta description and keyword will be search friendly and stay indexed so people can find the event listing even if it already happened.

5) Web based calendar management system – not necessary for people to create their own log-ins unless that’s automatic, easy, or cheap to do.

Please post comments, suggestions, or price quote and I will be in touch.

Google Local for Small Business & Domainers

Elliot Silver
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When new acquaintances learn that I am a domain investor, one of the first questions I am frequently asked by those who own businesses is, “can you look at my website?”   People might not understand exactly what I do, but many they assume it’s website related, and I have found that many small business owners aren’t completely content with their web businesses and think I may be able to help.

Since I am not an SEO expert nor am I one to judge the creativity of someone else, I frequently feel a bit helpless when I check out their site. I’ve given small tips that are SEO basics, but it’s difficult to tell a small business owner that I think he should spend $xx,xxx on his category defining domain name, because it’s unaffordable for many, and for others, they have no interest in expanding their business outside of the local market.

That said, I always felt guilty not being able to offer some good advice until recently when I realized I did know something important that many business owners don’t already know. Google Local is a fantastic way to reach potential customers looking for a type of business in a particular area. Google Local results are the listings you see next to the map at the top of the results page when searching for some geo keyword listings.

I’ve found that many people don’t know how to get listed there, and they really appreciate this tidbit of knowledge. It’s easy to sign up for a listing on the Google Local page, and a business can get listed in several categories. This free listing is especially beneficial for small companies because they can compete with the largest businesses in the area.

For domainers that are developing, I also discovered something of interest. I’ve learned that Google tends to consider subdomains as separate websites.This means that a website can have multiple listings on Google Local, which would be beneficial in smaller markets where there is less competition. Imagine a market with 3 hotels, and 10 listings, with the other 7 being for hotel booking sites.

I discovered that there is at least one company who   signed up with Google Local under a variety of subdomains for a city and it has several listings, with all subdomains forwarding to one primary website. For example, they have set up subdomains like BostonSpaHotels.xyzdomainname.com, BostonResortHotels.xyzdomainname.com…etc. I think this is a brilliant idea for the hotel pages since these leads can be converted using a hotel booking widget from affiliates such as WCT or IAN, but it could also be used for other directory sites – and the only real cost is the set up time.

I think Google Local is a great tool and should be used by all small businesses and websites to increase their reach.

SusanBoyle.com Now For Sale

Elliot Silver
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Ordinarily I wouldn’t write about the sale of a “famous” person’s domain name, but this is a different story. Andrew wrote about Susan Boyle, the Texas artist who initially registered SusanBoyle.com several years ago as a place to exhibit her artwork. Recently, another Susan Boyle became famous after her inspiring appearance on Britain’s Got Talent, and it looks like both Boyles are going to make money from it.

According to an article in UK’s Guardian,   the American artist Susan Boyle “consulted a company called Sedo that sells domain names and, following their advice, has now put her web address up for sale for a cool $25,000. She hasn’t sold it. Yet.”

It will be interesting to see if someone buys the name, and assuming that happens, if the buyer will be able to create a non-infringing website on the domain name, as the name “Susan Boyle” has become famous. In my opinion, the production company would be wise to buy this valuable domain name, although they don’t own BritainsGotTalent.com although they do own BritainsGotTalent.co.uk. If you’re wondering, SusanBoyle.co.uk is a fan site monetized with Adsense, and currently ranked 513,478 in Alexa.

This will be interesting to watch.

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