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Buy Domains Enhances Website

Elliot Silver
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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogI just noticed that it appears that BuyDomains.com has enhanced it’s website, greatly improving the search functionality. I am now able to do searches much, much faster than before. It looks like there are also better searching tools as well which is helpful.
One bug I noticed is when I did an advanced search using a specific keyword. On the results page, I tried to change it from 25 records per page to 55 records per page, and when the new page refreshed, my search was gone and it started with the name “AaaAaaAaaAaaAaaAaaA.com.” I think this must be a bug, but it’s one of those things that happens with an upgrade.
I really like the featured results section at the top as well, although the results weren’t in line with my search terms – or even related.
At first glance, it looks like this was a great upgrade, and I look forward to digging deeper and hopefully finding some nice names.

Crispin Porter & Bogusky "Gets It" for Volkswagen

Elliot Silver
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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogUsually when I see a newly-created, branded domain name in a commercial using a non-.com extension, I find that the .com was purchased after the commercial went live, frequently by domain speculators hoping to cash in on user errors. Although the lost traffic is arguably light, it’s still enough to warrent purchasing the .com of the domain name for around $7 and forwarding any traffic to the intended website.
I saw a commercial tonight for Volkswagen, and it encouraged viewers to visit the website, RoutanBoom.org. I was curious to see if they purchased the .com as well, since this was obviously a uniquely created domain name specifically for this campaign.   The good news for Volkswagen is that their advertising agency, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, seem to “get it” when it comes to domain names, and they purchased the .com and .net on behalf of VW.
Thumbs up to CP+B on this smart domain purchase, and also for the new VW campaign, which is receiving positive reviews.

Social Networking to Sell Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogOn the treadmill last night, I was thinking about how to get around administrative assistants and other obstacles in the way of directly communicating with a decision maker. Most of the time at mid to large companies, the decision maker has an admin who reviews all emails and phone calls before passing them through. If something appears to be spammy, there’s a good chance the message will be deleted before the decision maker sees it.
In the day of Linkedin and Facebook, more and more people (including decision makers) are signing up for accounts on these networks. Since it isn’t always business that is discussed on these networks, I would assume that many connect their personal email addresses to the account. With the help of a mutual friend – or maybe even a cold call, you can get in touch directly with the decision maker. Although it will still be difficult to get in touch with a decision maker at a large company, it’s possible to do this to those at small to medium size companies.
The difficult thing is determining who the decision maker is. Social networking sites actually play a role in determining who to contact, as most allow the decision maker to list his credentials right on the site. If you get in touch with the wrong person, there’s also a good chance that this person will tell you who the right person is.
Instead of sending a blind email, social networking communications could help you get in touch with the decision makers you need to reach. The caveat is that I just thought of this and haven’t tried it yet.

Grow Your Mini Sites

Elliot Silver
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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogI’ve been busy today working on the just launched Secaucus.com, which I had created by Rick and his guys at aeiou.com.   Secaucus is a city in New Jersey, located about 4 miles from Manhattan.   It was voted the 11th best city to live in New Jersey in 2008 by New Jersey Monthly magazine.
While the mini-site Rick and his team created looks great, I wanted to add more content to the site.   IMO, content is what drives traffic to a site, and the more content you create, the more traffic the site will receive. As a result, I expect to earn more Adsense revenue and hopefully get advertisers to want to buy links and advertising space.
Since Secaucus.com is the smallest of my geo websites, I wanted to build a mini site with good information but required little upkeep and maintenance.   I just started adding commonly searched for information, such as lawyers in Secaucus, Secaucus gas prices, and Secaucus banks.   I will continue to add pages with the hope of building traffic and generating revenue.
My aeiou.com mini site template got me off to a great start, and I am going to take off running with it.

Moniker Live Auction List is Fantastic

Elliot Silver
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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogMike Berkens just posted the tentative Moniker Live Auction list for the TRAFFIC show in New York on his blog, and the list has some incredible domain names. I don’t remember seeing a better live auction list before, and if the reserve prices are reasonable, this could set a new record. Hopefully Moniker is busy emailing potential end users about the domain names in auction, and let’s hope some of these prospects bid!

Uneducated Comments from Amateurs

Elliot Silver
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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogThese past couple weeks, I’ve been irritated by people making uneducated comments about end-user sales being too high. On various public domain forums, some people seem to think that end users are paying too much for domain names that define their nice or define a major category in their niche. I think these comments are uneducated and somewhat baffling.
If your family owned a diamond or jewelry business on the 4th floor of a building in New York’s famous diamond district, how much would it be worth to be able to buy out the lease of the shop right on the corner of 47th and 5th, which is passed by tens of thousands of people a day?   This location is far more lucrative to a diamond dealer than it would be to someone else – say a ski shop.   I wouldn’t expect the owner of a ski shop to criticize a diamond dealer for paying millions of dollars to secure the best slot in the diamond district, so why are some domain investors critical of domain sales to end users – the people that know their business?
Some of the threads where comments were being made seem to be more of a personal nature directed at Rick Schwartz and his recent sale of RoomDividers.com.   There are people who are actually alluding to a conspiracy theory or some other dumb bullshit (like Rick is going to stake his rep on a $75k deal).   For fuck’s sake – leave Rick alone.   It’s easy taking potshots at one of the domain industry leaders, but it makes you look like a clown.   By no means do you have to agree with everyone, but there is a way to disagree without being disagreeable.
Think what you want about whoever you want, but when you air your views out in the public, people may be less inclined to do business with you, and it’s your reputation that will take a hit.

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