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Marchex Layoffs Announced

Elliot Silver
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Although they don’t consider themselves domainers, Marchex owns thousands of domain names, and the company is one of the few publicly traded domain-related companies. This morning, Marchex announced that the company is laying off 15 employees, about 4% of its workforce.

They also announced a couple of senior management changes, naming Peter Christothoulou Chief Operating Officer and Matthew Berk Executive Vice President of Product Engineering.   In November, Mike Berkens blogged about Marchex and how it’s market cap was just slightly more than the total amount they paid for Yun Yee’s portfolio. While the stock price has increased since Mike’s post, the economy is still taking a toll on the company.

DomainFest was Best

Elliot Silver
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I returned to New York last night after spending a week in California visiting Burbank and attending DomainFest Global.   It always seems that each domain conference is better than the previous conference I attended.   This can certainly be said about DFG. Aside from the panels (which were good), the networking opportunities were phenomenal – both during conference time set up for networking and during the parties in the evening. Believe it or not, I even had several great discussions at the Playboy Mansion (all involving domains and development… get your mind out of the gutter, friends!)

I don’t typically attend all of the panels, but the few I attended had good information and dialogue. Typically at domain conferences, I maximize my time meeting colleagues, introducing friends, and learning about what others are doing to increase the value of their domain names and generate revenue from them. The atmosphere and layout at DFG was great for individual meetings and discussions involving several people. There were a few times in the exhibition area where people from different backgrounds had great conversations just by happenstance because we were sitting on adjacent couches.

Some people who didn’t attend are going to look at the results of the domain auction and possibly consider it a low point for domain owners.   I disagree with this view for a couple of reasons.   Even in tough times, close to a million dollars in domain names were purchased.   Sellers don’t have the need to drop their prices and give away their names.   This shows some strength, as weakness would be indicated by great domain names being listed at very low reserves, as domain owners need to sell ASAP. This just isn’t the case, and owners of good domain names aren’t looking to sell them in a down market.

This was the best domain conference I have attended so far, and it is a tribute to the hard work of everyone at Oversee.net who oversaw a great show.   Even in difficult times, amid lowering revenues and layoffs, the team at Oversee pulled through and gave us a great conference.

Fly.com Sold for $1,760,000

Elliot Silver
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According to a news release this morning, Travelzoo purchased Fly.com in an all cash, $1,760,000 deal brokered by Sedo. Travelzoo plans to launch a site on Fly.com in February.

Researching and Buying Dropping Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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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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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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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.

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