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If You Develop a .org, Buy the .com

Elliot Silver
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To me, this is common sense, but to many outside of the domain industry, it might not necessarily be standard operating procedure. While developing my geodomains, I worked with a number of local non-profit organizations in order to add free listings to my websites. Oftentimes, the organizations have a website which uses a .org domain name. Generally, I recommend that .com is used when available, but .org is the right choice for most organizations because of the trust factor and consumer awareness of the .org “brand.”

One thing which I’ve also noticed is that a lot of these organizations that use the .org don’t think about registering the .com of their website, and it’s available for anyone to purchase. This is bad in my opinion, and at the least, they should own the .com and forward it to their website. Not only are most people trained to type-in .com, but some web browsers automatically enter the .com at the end of a keyword string. Having the .com unregistered can lead to a bad web browsing experience if the .com is assumed to be the correct address.

Organizations who use .org domain names and leave the .com available to register are taking two risks. The first risk is that a visitor will assume .com, and when they type it in, they will be taken to a page that doesn’t resolve. Additionally, if they leave the .com available, someone with ill-intentions can register it and do a number of malicious things.

When I see this happen, I do my best to let the organization know that registering the .com is important, although I am somewhat surprised at the resistance. Recently, I noticed a few Jewish synagogues owned TempleBethXXXXX.org and the .com was available to register. I ended up buying these domain names and forwarding them on to the .org website as a friendly gesture without telling them. IMO, they probably won’t ever know, but if one person types it in, I am happy to help.

For those who are more technically inclined, I’ve also encouraged organizations to monitor the .com registration (if it’s taken and not developed) using DomainTools and to place a back order for it at Snapnames. Owning the .com is not essential for an organization operating online at a .org, but it’s important.

DomainInvesting.com Contributors

Elliot Silver
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The publisher and editor of DomainInvesting.com is Elliot Silver.   There are several people who contribute and/or have articles and posts on this blog, making it one of the most popular domain industry resources.

Note: The views and opinions expressed in articles that are not written by Elliot Silver may not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher. Contributing writers are not endorsed by Elliot Silver or Top Notch Domains, LLC.

Below is a list of DomainInvesting.com contributors:

Publisher and Editor:

  • Elliot Silver

Contributing Writers:

  • Matt Bentley
  • Eric Borgos
  • Richard Douglas
  • Dave Evanson
  • Rob Grant
  • Paul Keating
  • Brad Larson
  • Richard Lau
  • Brett Lewis
  • Stevan Lieberman
  • Braden Pollock
  • Andrew Rosener
  • Craig Rowe
  • Kamila Sekiewicz

NNNN.com Domains for Sale

Elliot Silver
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6

I am now selling the following numeric domain names:

2373.com – $625
3252.com – $625
4055.com – $625
4797.com – $625
3806.com – $625

All 5 domain names can be purchased as a set at a discounted price of $2,850.   The domain names are registered at Moniker for an easy push. This is a multi-venue post, so first to post sold gets them.

Make Money Doing What You Enjoy

Elliot Silver
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While it certainly wasn’t intentional, I believe I have walked into a good business model with my blog. Everybody wants to have a job where they love their work. This can lead to less stress and a nice work/life balance. When you are doing what you love, it doesn’t feel like work and you can perform at a higher level than if you wanted to be doing something else.

When I started my blog a couple years ago, the goal was to help people learn about the domain investment industry. At the time, there were just a few strictly domaining blogs, and I thought I could offer a different perspective than the other bloggers. I hated posting in the public domain forums, and I figured I would start up a blog where I could post commentary and insight as I continued to grow my business, and it would be cool if I could learn from others as I shared what I was learning.

Along the way, I have experimented with many strategies, met with some of the most successful leaders in our industry, and have learned quite a bit about the industry and related industries. I have done my best to share what I’ve learned, some of which has been successful and some of which hasn’t been so successful. I’ve received considerable support, people continue to read my blog, and traffic numbers seem to increase just about every month. As a result, I have been able to sell advertising space on my blog to companies in our industry and related industries.

Although my blog doesn’t generate the majority of my revenue, the revenue has been increasing, and it’s beginning to pay for the time I contribute to keep the blog updated daily. For me, this is growing into an ideal Internet business model because I love blogging and talking about our industry, and now I am getting paid to do it. Not only this, but because I am discussing domains and domain development on my blog, my wife and friends don’t have to listen to me discuss it when I go out with them at night… it’s a win/win for all – good work/life balance!

The point of this is that no matter what you are passionate about, there are others who are just as passionate as you. Start a blog and make it your outlet to talk about your passion. Make smart business and marketing decisions along the way, but don’t let those drive your overall blogging decisions. People will be able to tell that you are passionate and knowledgeable about the subject, and if you are lucky like me, you will have a great readership that contributes to your blog. Even when my thinking is flawed, I am lucky to have enough readers who offer their opinions, making all of us smarter as a result.

It’s a win/win when you love what you do, continue to learn about the industry, grow your business, and generate revenue as you do it all.

Generic Domain Names Can Help Brands

Elliot Silver
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aubuchon hardwareA well known hardware store in the northeastern US shows how important a generic domain name can be to a company’s web presence. On the way back from a trip to Newburyport yesterday, I was listening to the Red Sox game on the radio (Sox won), and I heard a commercial for Aubuchon Hardware. Aubuchon is clearly not an easy name to spell for many, especially those who are driving and need to remember it when they get back to their computers.

However, as the commercial was playing, I realized that I had seen their domain name before. I was looking into a domain name Rick Latona sold a few months ago, HardwareStores.com, and I came across the singular, which is owned by Aubuchon Hardware, and instead of forwarding to AubuchonHardware.com, HardwareStore.com is its own standalone website, with the brand website forwarding to it.

As I anticipated, the radio announcer directed listeners to HardwareStore.com, which is a smart decision. These days, if people can’t spell a company’s name or remember their website, they could be dead in the water. A generic domain name makes it easy for consumers to remember the website.

Sunday Quick Hits + Billy Mays Dies

Elliot Silver
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Billy MaysMy short Bahamas vacation was great, although I would have preferred to go in-season. Alas, with my wife in graduate school, our vacation weeks are fairly limited, so I will take any vacation time I can get! It’s good to be back to work though.

As a direct marketer, it was sad and surprising to hear that pitchman Billy Mays died today at age 50. He and Ron Popeil were two people whom I looked up to when I was at NYU (Direct & Interactive Marketing). They always had cool inventions for sale and were using the direct marketing techniques I was learning. I was always especially fascinated by Popeil and his infomercials. I wonder if yesterday’s airplane runway scare could have caused a problem. I won’t forget Billy’s trademark entry, “Hi, Bill Mays here…”

In the appraisal section of the popular domain forums, I frequently see feedback from members saying a domain name is worth “reg. fee,” short for registration fee. While saying a domain name is worth “reg. fee” is somewhat of an insult, it can also be misleading. I think a worthless domain name isn’t worth reg fee, but is actually worth negative reg fee!

With the year just about half way through, now is a good time to re-contact owners of domain names you’ve tried to acquire this past year. Some people may be falling short on specific revenue goals, and now might be a good chance to get those deals done. As an example, I offered $18k for an ecommerce name a month ago, and the owner asked $50k. I received an email from him a couple of days ago offering it for $30k.

If you are a domain investor, choose the domain names you develop wisely. For most people who are buying websites and paying for development, the upfront costs of development can be expensive, and development isn’t necessarily the magic potion.

Quick update on TobagoVacations.com, a mini site I developed a couple of weeks ago:
6/1 – 6/12 on Fabulous – 122 visits and $2.76 revenue
6/15 – 6/27 developed (Adsense) – 323 visits (18% search engine traffic) and $18.29 revenue
SE Keywords: tobago tour and hotel, tobago vacations… currently on page 1 of Bing for “tobago vacations”

It’s a big day for US Soccer today. This afternoon is the first FIFA Tournament final for the US team, and they are playing Brazil. Should be a fun match.

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