Home Blog Page 1400

Government Bailout of Newspapers is BS

Elliot Silver
-
75

I really enjoyed the Fool.com’s article that is critical of the potential government bailout of newspapers. Because of my geodomain holdings, I’ve been keeping tabs on the state of the newspaper industry by reading as much as I can, and the article really sums up my feelings on any type of government assistance to newspaper companies.

In my opinion (and many others), the newspaper printing and delivery model for news consumption DEAD, and the companies need to reorganize and change their strategies, without help from the government. Media and news delivery isn’t dead – just the way newspaper media companies deliver the news via print. By the time the “news” is printed, it’s old news that nobody wants to read unless they are stuck on a train or in a waiting room somewhere and their Ipod, Blackberry, or other device doesn’t have reception. (**Edit** or don’t have modern devices.)

Entrepreneurial journalists such as Ron Jackson and Andrew Allemann (in the domain industry) are proving that the interactive model of news delivery is where it’s at, and if you look around their site (and mine, too), you will see that advertisers are still paying for placement, showing that there is a way to make money online, as papers like the NY Times hasn’t figured out. I suppose when you have HUGE overhead expenses, it can be difficult to make it viable, but that’s their problem, not our government’s problem (and my problem since I pay lots of taxes).

People aren’t sacrificing knowledge simply because they don’t receive a print edition of a newspaper – they are getting the news from many sources online, instantly – as the news actually unfolds, and they don’t need the NY Times or another newspaper to tell them about breaking news.

Just because a particular business model is outdated does not justify the government’s involvement in a handout. There are plenty of ways to make money in the journalism space, and the newspaper companies are either not smart enough to figure it out, or they have too much overhead to make it work, or maybe there is a reason I missed. With any of these options, I don’t see how a bailout is going to help in the long run, other than giving people working in obsolete jobs a few months of pay before the government handout is gone.

I am very sorry for all the people who are responsible for printing the papers, delivering the papers, monitoring the staff of printers…etc. Unfortunately for them, their business model is no longer viable. I would be significantly annoyed that the government might try and help my competitors who are using a business model that doesn’t work any longer.

Re-Designed “Mini Site”

Elliot Silver
-
24

This morning I mentioned that I was re-designing a mini-site, and I wanted some feedback. I am still working out some errors that I couldn’t see before the site went live, but I would love to hear your thoughts on the new look of UniqueInk.com, a tattoo website.

I am a bit concerned about click throughs because of the layout, but I am more interested in growing the site’s traffic before worrying about making money from Adsense.

If anyone wants to post their tattoos or has any suggestions/ideas for the site, please let me know.   I used Mike’s design for this site with a bunch of customizations that I made.

Make As Much Money As You Want

Elliot Silver
-
6

When I first started investing in domain names, I had very modest goals. I was in graduate school, and I primarily used the money I earned to buy dinners and drinks. I didn’t really set many financial goals, because there wasn’t any point to it. I registered new domain names for around $8/each and I quickly sold them for anywhere from $15 – $100/each.

On occasion, I found buyers who wanted to buy a large number of domain names, so instead of selling each name for $35, I would sell 10 at a time for $25/each. The profit on that type of deal would be somewhere in the ballpark of $170. I started doing those bulk deals more frequently, and I figured if I could do one of those deals a week, I could make $10,000.

For many people, I would imagine making $10,000 a year with domain investments is a lofty goal – it was for me when I started, and I am sure it’s the same these days. However, if you break it down into smaller, more surmountable chunks – say $200/week, it makes achieving your goals more realistic.

As I started to get more serious about domain investing, I set goals for myself and tried to figure out the best ways to achieve those goals. As the goals become more lofty, I began to buy higher value domain names, which I could sell for lower profit margins, but much more money. Instead of selling an $8 new registration at a 300% mark-up, I could sell a $1,000 domain name for $1,500. The profit margin shrunk from 300% to 50%, but the profit grew pretty rapidly.

Set goals for yourself and try to beat them. Continue to raise the bar and look at new ways to generate revenue. Don’t cut corners and do shady things. You might make some more money in the short run, but it could be very damaging to your reputation and business in the long run.

If you look at the big year-end number, you could become overwhelmed. As they say in baseball, you don’t need to hit a home run to make big things happen. Do what you can to slowly chip away at that big goal, and eventually you will hit your number.

Building Out A Mini Site

Elliot Silver
-
4

I haven’t started re-designing UniqueInk.com yet, a site about unique tattoos and body art, but I am really excited about how it’s going to look when finished because I received the design template last night. I know the age old (and proven theory) is that design doesn’t matter when it comes to generating revenue, but I am going to put the theory to a test.

One of the nice things about working for myself is that if a fun project comes up, I can put other things on the back burner for a day. I have quite a bit of other development work to do, but it’s always fun to work on a fresh project. My interest in re-designing and re-launching the site will help me stay focused and hopefully complete the new site by the end of the day.

When you have a chance, please check out UniqueInk.com to see the “before site,” and when the re-design is finished, I would love your feedback on the look, layout, and design. I will also be happy to report how the site is doing in a few weeks.

TRAFFIC ccTLD Agenda & Pricing Update

Elliot Silver
-
5

Rick Latona’s team has updated the TRAFFIC Amsterdam conference schedule to reflect the feedback of conference attendees. Instead of the planned 3 auctions, the conference will hold just one major auction. The feedback was that attendees wanted more time for meetings, panels, and networking, and that’s what they’re (we’re) getting. Auctions can be fun, but the heart of every domain show is the networking, and it’s good to see that there will be plenty of it!

I also received word that the conference hasn’t sold out yet, and the early bird pricing of $1,495 has been extended. There is a $395 conference pass, which is good for everything but the evening events. While this is a good deal, I always find the best part of the show is the networking that happens in the evening. People frequently make private meetings during the day, which is especially true for a conference like this where people only have one opportunity a year to meet with partners and clients, so the night time is the best time to network.

I am psyched about attending the show, and I am looking forward to meeting other attendees.

Using Vurr to Find Keyword Domain Names

Elliot Silver
-
7

I found a tool that I’ve been using to harvest unregistered domain names and I wanted to share this with you. Vurr is a tool that is similar to what Overture was, but it relies on a static set of data. From the Vurr website:

“This is a free alternative to Overture and equivalent tools. Search data is from 48.6 million searches by 657,426 distinct users and comprises 97 million keywords. Data was collected by AOL on a random sample of US users from March 1, 2006 through May 31, 2006. In the interest of privacy, search information is only available in aggregate and numeric queries dropped.”

Because the data isn’t exactly “new” it isn’t the best tool to search for trends or more currently used keywords. For example, the keyword search for “twitter” returned no results. However, I do think it’s good for long tail domain searches, especially with people dropping more names than usual due to the economy.

To find domain names, I enter specific search terms, such as “mortgage,” “refinancing,” “soccer,” “mobile” etc. I then take the results, along with the actual # of searches, and I use an Excel sheet to remove the numbers, leaving me with rows of keyword phrases. I then use the Godaddy bulk domain search tool to find the .com names that are available to register.

Once I get the results, I break up the domain name back into it’s search terms, and I search Google for the “quoted phrase” to see how many results there are, how many advertisers there are, and I get a feeling for the competitiveness of the keyword and value of the product or service.

If I think a particular domain name would have commercial value to an end user and is a term that people are looking to find, I will generally buy it. The key thing is that the phrase, as listed, is a searched term and has meaning. Even if the phrase is in a niche industry or field, if it could have commercial value, I am willing to take a chance.

1...1,3991,4001,401...1,568Page 1,400 of 1,568