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New York Domainer Get Together

Elliot Silver
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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogI am putting together another domain investor get together in New York, which will be held on Tuesday, December 9, 2008. The location is still TBD, but it is going to be either a cash bar or a small cover charge to reserve a room at a bar/restaurant.   It will probably be somewhere on the Upper West Side (figure somewhere between 60 – 86th St between Central Park West and Amsterdam) because I can more easily meet with managers to get the best deal depending on the turnout.
There were around 30 people at the last New York get together I helped organize, so it should be a well-attended event.   If you think/know you can make it, please drop me a note or leave a comment so I can plan accordingly.   It’s much easier holding this event at a bar in a private room because it’s tough to communicate at a large dinner.
I will post more details once this is confirmed.

Cambridge Soundworks Understands the Internet

Elliot Silver
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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogCambridge Soundworks is a smart Internet-based company. Several years ago, Cambridge Soundworks had several bricks and mortar stores and a smaller online presence. Each shop always had two or three knowledgeable sales representatives on the floor at all times, with more available during their peak season. They carried high end television and speaker products, and they weren’t necessarily located in the most expensive malls or retail locations.
A few years ago, Cambridge Soundworks ditched the bricks and mortar business model and went completely online. They cut overhead, cut real estate and shop rent fees, and cut their shipping costs among other cuts. They realized that consumers typically try out products before they buy (see televisions in stores and listen to stereos in sound rooms), but most consumers will check products out in the store and return home to find better prices online. They figured that they can let consumers check out products at Circuit City or local specialty stores and then buy online at Cambridge Soundworks. It’s a strategy that’s done them well for a few years.
Cambridge Soundworks also understands domain names. Of course they built their own brand name a while back (at least in New England), so they own their own dot com domain. They also own some other strong domain names related to their business.   Among others that I didn’t notice, they own HiFi.com and SurroundSound.com (strangely undeveloped).
Now, if they would only go after Stereos.com, which currently redirects to Google, they would be in the Hall of Fame!

Opt Out of ISP Landing Pages

Elliot Silver
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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogHave you ever typed in a domain name, and when the name doesn’t resolve, you land on a landing page provided “courteously” by your ISP? In my case, Road Runner graciously provides a landing page with Sponsored Results and Web Results for the sites I type in that don’t resolve. If I click on a Sponsored Result, they (and Yahoo) get paid by the advertiser.
That said, if I accidentally type in MircosoftWidnows.com in my browser, Time Warner Cable, the parent company of Road Runner, would get paid if I click on the Sponsored advertisement that says “Low Prices on Microsoft Windows XP Save Now on All Windows XP Software. $1.99 Same Day Shipping, Buy Now. www.TigerDirect.com.”
Anyhow, I was looking at the error page today, and I saw a link for “Why Am I Here” referring to the landing page. When I clicked on that, I received this message:

“Why am I here?
You entered an unknown web address that was used to present site suggestions that you may find useful. Clicking any of these suggestions provides you with search results, which may include relevant sponsored links.
If this service is not right for you, please visit your Preferences page to opt out. At any point in time, you can opt back in to the service by visiting your Preferences page.
If you have other questions about this service, please visit our FAQ.
For further assistance, please go to http://help.rr.com. “

This service is definitely not right for me, and I opted out of it. Also, I found out they offer a Typo Correction Service.” According to the note on the Preference Page, “This preference allows you to opt in or out of the Typo Correction Service. This service will automatically fix many common typos in web addresses (for example: ww to www and .cmo to .com). If you enter a non-existent web address, and this service is able to typo-correct your domain to a valid web address, you will be taken there automatically.”
Thanks, but no thanks!

Change Google Search Results

Elliot Silver
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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogI just read on Big Ticket Domains that Google is now letting people edit their own search results if they have a Google account. This new feature is called “Search Wiki” and it allows users “to customize search by re-ranking, deleting, adding, and commenting on search results.” Interestingly enough, users will be able to see comments made by other system users.
Although changes that are made will only effect the search results for that person, it will be interesting to see if they decide to give any weight to this in their algorithm. The power of public opinion is great, and it would be a good way to determine if a website has valuable infomation or not. The problem would be that competitors would have the opportunity to alter results.
The official release can be found on the Google blog.

Ziff Davis Dumps Print Edition of PC Magazine

Elliot Silver
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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogIn a decision that’s probably overdue considering the topic, Ziff Davis has decided to eliminate the print edition of PC Magazine and has opted for an online version only. According to the article appearing in today’s online edition of the Boston Globe, circulation for the magazine is off 50% from it’s peak in the 1990s. PC Magazine has been in existence for 27 years, and is one of the flagship brands of the Ziff Davis publishing empire.
According to Jason Young, chief executive of Ziff Davis, “The viability for us to continue to publish in print just isn’t there anymore.”
Yeah, I know this isn’t really news, but it continues to show that the publishing leaders are moving the print publications online as they can. Sure, there will always be people who want to read the print edition of US Weekly and People (waiting rooms, rest rooms, and airports), but it costs too much to print, pay print employees, deliver the publications…etc. Even with lowering gas costs (decreasing the delivery overhead), it just makes sense to exclusively be online.
Go where your audience goes!

Update on Mini Site & Launch of New Site

Elliot Silver
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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogAlthough I’ve heard Google doesn’t allow publishers to provide Adsense stats, I wanted to give an update on FuelAssistance.com, the site that was built for me by my friend Bradley at Site Graduate. I launched the site a few weeks ago, and I blogged about it in a “5 With… Bradley Epstein.”
So far, the site has done very well.   With the exception of the 2 days around when I posted a link to it from my blog (which received much more traffic than normal), search engine traffic has grown from 0 to around 22%, mostly from MSN, but also from Yahoo and Google.   People are using the following keywords to successfully find the site (among others), “fuel assistance,” “home energy assistance program,” “free weatherize home,” “weatherize,” “federal fuel assistance,” “ma. low income financial assistance,” and “fuelassistance.com.”
Revenue is also up quite dramatically, although the site was making less than $.15 per day as a parked page. Once the site achieves a higher ranking in Google, which can be attributed to SEO activities of Site Graduate and link building, I think traffic will grow even more.   Also, the revenue per click seems to be much higher than it was when it was parked, which is a nice surprise, as sometimes the opposite happens.
Because of the success of FuelAssistance.com, I   decided to work with SG on another geodomain that I own, BerkeleyHeights.com (Berkeley Heights, NJ). At the moment, the site gets very little traffic – just under 1 unique per day, and it makes just a few dollars per month.   I did some keyword research, and I found that quite a few people were searching for various things in Berkeley Heights.
Since Berkeley Heights is a community of about 15,000 people and is 30 minutes from Manhattan, I felt this name would be perfect for a mini site. IMO, it’s not big enough for a full site like I’ve done with Burbank and Lowell, but it’s perfect to capture low-hanging fruit traffic. The site isn’t fully developed yet, so if you are interested, you can watch it as it grows.
In addition to the mini-site and SEO work that Site Graduate will do, I also plan to add my own content based on some keyword research that I do.   This will keep the site growing, which is something the search engines like to see. Ultimately, I plan to sell this geodomain, but I think the traffic and revenue will be a major contributor to its value.
If you have a site developed by Site Graduate and want to share some of the results, feel free to leave a comment for others to see. I am trying to determine which of my domain names will be next for them to develop – perhaps SaveTheDates.com.

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