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Researching and Buying Dropping Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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6

I am still away for DomainFest, and two of my friends have written guest posts related to topics in which they are experts. On Monday, Jeff Behrendt of INForum.in, wrote about investing in Indian domains. Yesterday, Richard Douglas discussed social media for domainers. Today, Richard discusses investing in dropping domain names. Richard has a diverse background is systems administration, web development and security. You can read more about domain development on his blog or follow him on twitter.

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If you scan the drop lists, you’ve probably noticed a lot of good quality drops lately. And I think this trend will continue throughout 2009.

When I look at drops, I’m looking for domains that could be developed into full sites.

In addition to checking keywords, search frequency and advertiser interest, here’s a few tips of how to spot good drops for development.

Domain drop tips

1. Domain age – look for domains that are 8+ years old. The SE’s like old domains, it’s a trust issue. I’ve had great results taking an eight or 10 year old domain that ranks for very little, building out a site of unique content and ranking in the top 10 for one or two word phrases and #1 for long tail phrases. I use a script using the whois command from my linux CLI to check domain age. There are lots of tools out there to do this, of course.

2. Check for back links – in a perfect world, a domain with back links, especially .edu or .gov back links, would jump to the top of my list as a good drop for development. The SE’s give a lot of trust to domains that have .edu and .gov back links because these type of back links are less spammy and harder to acquire. I use yahoo search using the following command formats to check for .edu and .gov back links: “linkdomain:domain.com .edu” and “linkdomain:domain.com .gov”. I use this command to check all back links to the domain, except internal links from the domain itself: “linkdomain:domain.com -site:domain.com”.

3. Verify the back links – if you find that the drop has back links, you need to verify them too. You never know if people played games to get back links, and the SE’s have devalued or ignored the back links. Once you use yahoo search to find those back links, copy the back link URL and search for it in google to see if google lists it. If the page is listed, that means google is giving some weight to the back link. Normally, I just check the .edu and .gov back links in google because they are the most valuable.

Put it to the test

Elliot has added a top drops page to his blog. I recommend that you check it out regularly.

As an example, I have selected a domain from Elliot’s top drops page to illustrate the tips. The domain is: discoverhawaii.com

1. This domain was registered in 2000. Great, keep it on our list.

2. The domain has 83 external back links according to yahoo search. Woohoo!

3. The domain even has four .edu back links, and three of the four are listed in google!

In this example, discoveryhawaii.com is a domain worth chasing on a drop for development.

What do you look for in a good drop?

DomainFest Global Recap – Day 1

Elliot Silver
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3

As with most industry conferences, the first day of DomainFest Global was mostly spent catching up with old friends who I don’t get to see on a regular basis.   It was good to see most people in positive spirits, and it looks like the tough economy is helping people step out of their comfort zones to explore new ways to generate revenue with their domain names.

Here are a few notes from the first day:

Several months ago, I wrote about domain security and how I thought there could be improvements made to add an extra layer of protection over our domain names.   Moniker introduced MaxLock a while ago, and I learned last night that Name.com has a great new security feature available. As reported in CNN Money today, Name.com is offering customers a security key fob with an ever-changing authentication pass code.   Customers must enter their standard password, and they are then prompted to enter the security code from their key fob.   This is certainly a great way to protect a domain portfolio.

Rick Latona wrote a compelling post about why domain investors should consider attending the TRAFFIC show in Amsterdam.   He and I spoke about it in greater depth last night, and I all but bought my ticket to the show.   I have to work out a couple of things, but I am fairly certain I am going to attend. I know enough about country code domain names to know that I need to learn more about them.   I saw them used quite frequently throughout Europe during my honeymoon, and it seems like a good way to diversify a domain portfolio.   Tickets to attend TRAFFIC Amsterdam are now on sale.

The Moniker no/low reserve auction netted about $128,000.   Not too bad in my opinion and a fairly good start to the show.   Eat.net was a pretty strong sale in my opinion, and there were also a few bargains.   Nothing really sold for a lot less than I expected, which is a strong sign.

Mike’s beautiful wife Judi celebrated her birthday in style last night and I am glad I had the chance to wish her a happy birthday in person.   One of the more difficult aspects of traveling to a conference is that I leave my wife for a week because she can’t miss her graduate school classes. Mike is very lucky to be able to travel to these conferences with Judi, and the best thing is that they both realize just how fortunate they are, and they always look like they are enjoying each other’s company.   Here’s to many more good years (and to Bandit’s leg healing quickly!)

Last night was a blast.   I had the chance to spend time with my friends at Thought Convergence – parent company of Domaintools and Trafficz, who continue to innovate and expand in the industry.   I also finally was able to meet Craig and Stephen of WhyPark.   I recently launched one of my niche domain names with WhyPark (Oenophiles.com), and I hope to share some results and feedback in a few weeks.

Well, that’s it for now.   I am running on little sleep right now, but I am pumped to get the day started.   This is what happens when you travel across the country and are on New York time in California!

Social Media for Domainers

Elliot Silver
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3

While I am away for DomainFest, a couple of my friends have written guest posts related to topics in which they are experts.   Yesterday, Jeff Behrendt of INForum.in, wrote about investing in Indian domains. Today, Richard Douglas discusses social media for domain investors. Richard has a diverse background is systems administration, web development and security. You can read more about domain development on his blog or follow him on twitter.

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Everyone knows how popular social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are. What you might not know is that these sites have matured well past the days of posting notes about being at the doctor, being stuck in traffic, or what you’re eating for breakfast.

What you might know know is that savvy businesses are using social media to market themselves, get feedback from customers, launch new products, do research, and more.

Research

Micro blogging sites like Twitter are full of up the minute info, news, events that can be easily searched for whatever your interests are. You can use Twitter for all kinds of research such as a search for domain names or manage your brand with a search for Elliot Silver.

Brand Management

Many domaining service providers are active on twitter and using it for feedback with their customers. For example, Network Solutions updated their clients on their recent DNS problems here and here.

Networking and Promotion

End users are on social media all day or from their cell phones while they’re on the road or at night while sitting at home watching TV. So capitalize on this by posting your latest blog post or tweet about a few domains for sale. You’ll meet new people with common interest and make a few sales too. I’ve found that regular users of social media, search the social media site before the SE’s. There are several Twitter apps you can install on your Mac, PC, iPhone or Blackberry to make using social media faster and easier to use.

Build Your Brand

Do you have a service or domain that you want to promote? Be a blabbermouth and people will notice. Talk about it on social media, link to your content or blog post, make some videos and promote them on social media. Search for people with similar interests as your brand and connect with them so that when you have something to say about your brand, they will spread the word too. Gary V. is a perfect example of building your brand with social media.

Syndicate Your Content

If you’re a blogger, why use just RSS when you can syndicate your blog posts to Twitter and Facebook and get three times the visitors? There are tools on both Twitter and Facebook to autopost your blog posts to make syndication easy.

Ask Questions, Get Feedback

Need a script for that next project or do you want to know who launched that new site? Ask questions and get feedback from people you’re networked with and even new contacts who are watching or searching for what you’re posting about.

Jump On Board

Many domainers are already using social media to network, market their services/domains and promote their brand.

So what’s holding you back?

PS. If you need help on what tools to use or how to syndicate your blog posts or content from your web site, just post in the comments and I’ll be happy to help.

You Don’t Have to Live in India to Invest in Indian Domains

Elliot Silver
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While I am away for DomainFest Global, I asked a couple of industry friends to write guest posts for my blog.   My preference was to write about something with which I am not familiar, to help me learn as well.   Today’s guest post is from Jeff Behrendt of INForum.in, the leading Indian domain forum.   As I mentioned previously, I don’t own any cctld domains, but after my honeymoon in Europe, I learned how widely used they are, and I think .in domain names are at the very top.

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I think that for many domainers who got into the industry late, country code domains are an attractive investment. The development and use of many of these ccTLDs is at a similar stage to where .com was several years ago. Unlike hyped extensions such as .mobi or .asia, country code domains really have endusers who buy them and use them. Plus, many country code “brands” are widely marketed in their respective countries and appeal to people’s patriotic feelings.

I invest in several country code domains, but the one I am most excited about is India. After years of heavy restrictions, in 2005 the Indian domain space was liberalized and it became cheap, easy and open to people internationally to register Indian domains. Since then there has been rapid growth: in February 2005 there were about 75,000 Indian domains registered, in November 2006, there were about 200,000 registered, in June 2007 there were about 250,000 registered, and in February 2008 there were about 400,000 registered.

Several other things make me excited about Indian domains. The first is the low Internet penetration in India. Right now there are over 60 million Internet users in India, which sounds like a large number. However, Internet penetration is only 4% – compared to 72% in the US. This leaves room for incredible growth and indeed Internet penetration is growing rapidly.

Another exciting thing about Indian domains is the large population of India. With a population of over 1.1 billion people, over the next few years, there will be more Internet users in India than in the United States.

One other big advantage of investing in Indian domains is the fact that English is the main language of business and government in India. This makes it a lot easier for most Americans (and Canadian, Brits, Australians, etc) to invest in than most other country’s domains. It is important to be careful though – the English spoken in India is somewhat different than standard American English.

As well, it is still early days. It is still possible to spend some time doing research and hand registering a decent Indian domain. This makes it easier for new domainers to get started.

Finally, the economy in India is booming. While economic growth has slowed over the last year, as it has across the globe, there is no recession in India and the economy there continues to grow at rates faster than American boom times.

Even Godaddy has noticed all of this, and recently they started offering Indian domain registration.

If you do choose to invest in Indian domains, there are two main extensions that you can invest in: .in and .co.in. .co.in is the one that had been traditionally used until 2005. Since then .in has gained traction and appears to be the more popular of the two. I have found that both .in and .co.in domains receive type in traffic. However, reseller and end user sales tend to be dominated by .in.

It is harder to monetize Indian domains than .com domains. There is actually a fair bit of type in traffic received on quality Indian domains, and I have found that over time the type ins are increasing. However, the CPC from parking Indian domains is abysmally low. Many Indian domainers build out minisites on their domains. Ranking minisites in Google India is significantly easier (by an order of magnitude) than ranking in Google and can create a good source of traffic and revenue. As the Internet economy develops in Indian, the value of the traffic will increase.

You are not going to get rich overnight investing in Indian domains. Several of the domains that were registered in 2005 are now selling for low $x,xxx. Sales of Indian domains are gradually increasing over time. However, the market, both at the reseller and end user level, is not nearly as liquid as it is for .com domains. While I am seeing more and more interest by people looking to purchase Indian domains, I think that it is best to approach these investments as longer term investments.

All in all, if current trends continue, the future prospects for Indian domains are very bright. For anyone doing business in India – be it a small or medium sized business or the Indian branch of an international business – using a .in or .co.in domain is a logical choice. Over time, people in India are increasingly turning to this ccTLD, and there is still plenty of opportunity there for domainers.

P.S. If you are interested in learning more about Indian domains, feel free to join us at INForum.in, the Home of the Indian Domain Name Industry. We enjoy talking not only about Indian domains, but also about anything to do with Indian business, culture or the Internet in India. We have an active buy and sell marketplace as well.

In Burbank & LA for the Week…

Elliot Silver
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3

I landed in Burbank, California last night, ahead of the DomanFest Global show. It was neat having Michael Eisner (former CEO of Disney) on my flight from JFK to Burbank, although the unexpected stop in Salt Lake City to refuel (and then deice in a snowstorm) wasn’t exactly appreciated. When I arrived at the hotel, the front desk apparently gave me the wrong key, and Steve Schirripa (Bobby from the Sopranos) answered the door… Sorry, Steve!

Anyway, while I am away, I am going to be posting a few guest posts and possibly a couple of DFG updates. I hope you enjoy.

Make Sure Your Domains Make Sense

Elliot Silver
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Today, I saw a domain name on a drop list that had two strong keywords, and I almost bought it.   I did a bit of research, and I immediately realized why it hadn’t been renewed by the owner – it didn’t make sense as a domain name.   Calcutta is one of the largest cities in India, and there are millions of people in the world who practice law.   However, in India, I don’t believe these people are called lawyers.   Therefore, CalcuttaLawyer.com, which has under 60 results in Google for “calcutta lawyer” would not make sense as a domain name.

On occasion, I will see a well priced domain name that has a couple of strong keywords, and I have to do a bit of research to see why it’s priced so cheaply. Usually it’s because it doesn’t make much sense as a domain name. Would you want to own HawaiiSkiing.com?   I think not!

When you come across a domain name that looks interesting, check out the number of results there are in Google for the quoted term.   You should also check the number of searches that are performed for that keyword.   While there are plenty of gem domain names that can still be found every day, there are plenty of worthless ones as well.   Knowing what’s worth something and what’s not will end up saving you a lot of money!

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