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Great New Template from My Designer

Elliot Silver
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My primary web designer, Mike McAlister of Six One Five Design, has released a new website template that would be perfect for personal or business use. Mike didn’t ask me to post this – and I am not getting compensated in any way for posting this, but I found the link and thought the design looked pretty sleek.

Two weeks ago in my newsletter, I recommended a source for free web templates – FreeCSSTemplates.org. I subscribed to the theory that when building a mini site, keyword driven content is king so don’t sweat the layout – and don’t pay more for something that doesn’t matter much? I am changing my mind on this thought process because Mike’s template (and others featured on the site) look nicer than the freebie I chose, and perhaps a more professional looking site will yield more authority and click throughs.

IMO, you can’t really go wrong by paying $15 for a great looking template template, and Mike’s is now featured on ThemeForest.net. Others seem to like the template as well, with it receiving 54 ratings, averaging 5 stars (of 5). As of this morning, it’s been purchased just 222 times – which is a great number, but I am sure is much less than the freebies.

Burbank.com Assist

Elliot Silver
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After speaking to David Castello and Jess Bookstaff this morning, I made a few changes to the homepage of Burbank.com. First off – thanks again for the calls David and Jess. I think the layout change will drive more advertising revenue for the site with the better placement of advertising.

For those who haven’t visited, I just added 6 advertising blocks above the fold in lieu of the rotating banners on the site. This follows what many other geodomains have successfully done with their websites. I think this is a needed step to help advertisers drive traffic.

Since I only use two nternet browsers, I am asking visitors to my blog to have a quick look at Burbank.com to let me know how it looks in your browser. Please drop me a note or a comment and let me know if it looks okay and what browser you are using.

I am sure there’s an easier way to test this, but I am working overtime right now to continue building my Newburyport website!   I would also love to hear feedback on that site, although I know there are many pages missing. Hopefully many of those will be added tomorrow though.

Putting a Face Back on Ask.com

Elliot Silver
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Ask.com has decided to bring their butler “Jeeves” back into the fold in the UK. This aligns with the search company reverting back to its previous name, “Ask Jeeves.” The company also intends to leverage social media outlets to give Jeeves a personality. According to the Reuters article,

“Jeeves will have an account on social network Facebook on which he will post pictures of his fictional travels around the world searching for answers to users’ queries, as well as a presence on micro-blogging service Twitter.”

I recently read an article in Neuroscience Marketing that discussed how patient care was impacted as a result of having the patient’s photograph on medical files. Using this study, the author speculated that this information could be used by companies and businesses who wish to add personal photos to business cards and websites to give them a personal touch and a better likelihood of closing a deal.

Perhaps Ask.com is also subscribing to the belief that adding a face and personality – albeit a cartoon character face and made-up personality – will create a personal connection for visitors, and as a result, will increase usage?

Think About Your Domain Name End Game

Elliot Silver
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When you are buying a domain name, whether it’s a newly registered domain name or a domain name in the aftermarket, it’s important to think about your end game for this particular domain name. Some of the most likely things that   domain investors   think about when buying include:

  • I am going to build this website into a…
  • XXXXXX company would want to use this for…
  • This would make a great website for…
  • Some day, some company will want to buy this…

Based on how you answer this, your actions with the domain name should reflect this strategy. Think about this for all of your domain names at the time of registration, and take action to see it through.

Either map out a website and build it, contact potential buyers with reasons that they should buy it from you, contact potential partners on development, or put up an appropriate landing page to announce your intentions.

With a little bit of effort, your success rate – whatever that may be – will improve.

Quick Hits for the Weekend

Elliot Silver
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I think I found a sales representative in Lowell, and he is expected to sell advertising to local businesses. My guy has 15+ years of sales experience, with the last 3 being online sales. The best part is that he lives in Lowell, and he knows the city of Lowell.   This will hopefully help to take the site to the next level.

Yesterday, Rick Latona introduced DigiLoan.com, a longer term loan company which will help people finance large domain purchases, primarily domain names that are sold via his auctions and newsletter. This is going to bring more liquidity to the domain industry, which could and should help to drive more sales in the near term.

I have always had a personal aversion to debt, but I had a long conversation about the benefits of debt with a friend who does hotel asset management. While I don’t wish to use debt as a means to buy domain names yet, I do see the value it can bring to a company – especially when a domain name comes on the market for a limited time, never to be for sale again.

Jamie had some success selling domain names to end users. I’ve discussed this before in blog posts and in a couple of interviews, and I think this is a great way to sell a domain name. It might be a bit more labor intensive and require some educating, but those sales can still be had if you have great domain names.

The auction list for the GeoDomain Expo was released last week.   There are some pretty good names on this list, although I think I have enough work on my plate…. Newburyport.com is almost finished and then I will have to start adding more time-sensitive content.

It’s 76 degrees and sunny here in NYC right now… time for a walk in Central Park.

Why I Like GeoDomains

Elliot Silver
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As I mentioned before, I am in the process of writing a series about geographic domain names (geodomains), and I plan to discuss everything from acquiring geodomain names, developing geodomains, and monetizing geodomains. I don’t know how many posts the series will be, nor do I know how far apart they will be posted, but I hope this series is helpful to people who are interested in learning more about the industry. I welcome and look forward to visitor comments, as I think those will probably be even more beneficial than what I contribute.

I think the best place to start the series is to discuss why I like geographic domain names, and there are several reasons.

1.) People always want information
When people are looking to find a business in a city, take a vacation, go on a business trip, or move to a particular city, they generally do quite a bit of research beforehand, much of which is done online. Often times, these people will use a search engine to specifically key in what they want + the city/region (New York Restaurants) for example. Having the city/region domain name gives you a strong advantage in search engine optimization, especially for longer tail keywords.

2.) No inventory
Geographic domain names do not have any type of product or inventory. People who visit are typically looking for information related to the geographic area, or in the case of keyword geodomains (NewYorkDoctors.com), they are looking for specific information. I live in an apartment and have no space for any type of product. I also don’t have much of a technological background, so I am not comfortable about hosting an e-commerce site using a drop shipper. Because of this, I can provide visitors what they want without having to worry about inventory or fulfillment.

3.) Type-in traffic
I’ve always found that my pure city .com domain names get type-in traffic, and much of the time the traffic is fairly significant, especially when compared to my generic category defining domain names. People are accustomed to typing in the keyword, and they assume the city .com is a developed site. When I buy a geodomain name, my goal is to provide whatever they want that is related to the city.

4.) City Loyalty
People tend to be very loyal to cities of importance to them. This is very similar to specific brands at the supermarket or drugstore. These people care about how “their” city is projected online, and many will offer their opinions about the website. Loyalty is good to drive return visitors to your site. Also, I have found that businesses want to be associated with a geodomain name.

5. Content Galore!
There is a TON of information for just about every state, city, town, and region available online and in local libraries. This information can be used as a research tool to build unique content on your website. There are also a lot of local websites and businesses who are happy to share their unique content to build your site while enhancing their visibility.

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