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Trend Domaning Can Be Costly

Elliot Silver
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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogI will caveat this post by saying that I do occasionally buy domain names based on emerging trends once in a while, although I never buy domains related to brands, people, or other potential trademarks. However, I generally think buying based on trends is a way to lose your investment quickly, especially when you are frequently speculating on trends and/or buying dozens of trend-related domain names.
Based on my experience, it seems that most people who buy domain names based on new trends are looking to make money quickly. You can tell this is the case by viewing lists of newly registered domain names for sale on forums and on Ebay that are related to what’s going on in the US or world (Obama domains, anyone?).   When you do a Whois search for various terms related to trends, many have for sale notices or show that the DNS is set to Sedo or other domain sales venue. Most people who buy based on trends do it to make money fast.
While buying a domain name to sell quickly isn’t a bad thing, it’s very hit or miss. There literally could be hundreds of variations of domain names (not even including the various extensions) based on certain trends, and maybe a few of them will have value. While buying 5-10 domain names isn’t a big deal, I know quite a few people who buy dozens or hundreds of related domain names so they don’t miss out on the big one, and that can be expensive – especially if this is done for a few trends.
I think this is a very flawed strategy. If you buy one or two domain names based on every trend of interest (with the sole intent being to sell it), chances are good you won’t get the domain name that has considerable value. If you buy dozens or more, you are better served doing keyword research and spending $300 – $2,000 on a single good domain name. Shoot – NNNN.com names seem to be selling for anywhere from $250 – mid $xx,xxx, so why not try to buy a couple of these (I do not currently own a single numeric domain name).
I’ve had many people email me lists of names – literally hundreds of hand registered names – asking me what I think they are worth.   I hate to say it, but most aren’t worth anything short term unless someone in the business wants it – or unless they are receiving traffic and good conversions.   It really bothers me when I see someone who is new to the industry investing $5,000 on domain names hoping to get rich quickly, when a smarter investment would have been to buy 1 or 2 strong domain names in the aftermarket to sell or build.
Just like I wouldn’t go out and spend $2,000 on lottery tickets (although I would spend that in a blackjack session), I wouldn’t go out and try to catch a trend by registering dozens of trend domain names. If you do that a few times, you will probably lose your shirt and be out of the domain industry quickly.

Two Recent Domain Acquisitions

Elliot Silver
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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogI am very happy to announce two new domain acquisitions on behalf of my company. The first and more important acquisition is Torah.com. This is going to be developed into a leading Judaism and Torah-studies website in the coming weeks and months. Torah.com is a very important (and expensive) domain name, and I am going to ensure that the site becomes one of the most respected Jewish-related websites.
SaveTheDates.com was also just purchased, and I plan to build a mini-site on it. Those of you who weren’t recently married may be scratching their heads, but anyone who has planned a wedding or is planning a wedding knows about save the dates. Whether you send save the date post cards, save the date magnets or save the date…. whatevers, you probably searched on Google for “save the dates.” I know I searched for “save the dates” when my wife and I were deciding how to let people know the date of our wedding, and I know others who do the same.

Burbank Job Board Coupon Code

Elliot Silver
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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogI want to give a special offer to my blog readers who are located in Burbank, California or the Southern California area. If you have   job openings in Burbank, I would like to offer you 50% off all 30 day job listings until the end of November. The discount code is “Launch50” which you will enter at the checkout page.

Secaucus.com Now for Sale

Elliot Silver
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0

Subscribe to Elliot's BlogName has been sold.

Print is Dead!

Elliot Silver
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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogWith an invitation that read, “Print is Dead,” Radar Magazine celebrated Halloween and their final issue this weekend. Elsewhere on the print-front, Men’s Vogue magazine is being folded into Women’s Vogue magazine, according to a report in Bloomberg.   Additionally Portfolio magazine will be producing 10 issues instead of 12, which was also reported in Bloomberg. Portfolio, which operates online at Portfolio.com is an upscale lifestyle publication. It certainly was a smart move to acquire that fantastic domain name.
It’s a tough time to be a print publication these days. Printing costs are up, delivery costs are up over the last year, rent and real estate taxes at production facilities are up, and readership and advertising is mostly down. Many advertisers are being required to show a “real” ROI for their advertising dollars, and advertising online allows them to do this.
While a good domain name isn’t essential to being online, not having your keyword domain name can mean the loss of thousands of readers. Just from personal experience, ElliottsBlog.com, which I also own and redirect to my blog, receives a fair amount of traffic, too. This traffic would be lost if I didn’t own this alternative domain name. In the case of Portfolio, it would presumable lose traffic if the site was located on PortfolioMagazine.com, as people assume they would find it at Portfolio.com.
At this moment, there are many companies who don’t own their ideal domain name, and I bet some of them don’t even realize the amount of leaked traffic. While it might just be a few thousand unique visitors, it’s still a considerable amount since advertisers are paying based on readership. Circulation numbers (circs) have been critical to newspapers and magazines forever, so you’d think they would do a cost/benefit analysis of acquiring the generic domain name that consumers might expect to find their favorite mags.

Richmond Times-Dispatch Parent Buys Richmond.com

Elliot Silver
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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogAs reported on DNN.com late last week, Richmond.com has been purchased by Media General, parent company of Richmond Times-Dispatch and other newspapers in different medium to large markets. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Richmond.com receives 2.7 million monthly page views, 120,000 monthly unique visitors and an 8.8% share of the Richmond online viewing market.
Richmond.com has been one of the best examples of a non-newspaper-owned geodomain that saw huge traffic (and presumably revenue) figures because of the great content they produced. They had no newspapers to print and could focus all of their efforts into producing great, relevant articles that were important to viewers in the Richmond area. The 2.7 million page views to 120,000 unique visitors shows that people return to the site frequently, proving how important good content is.
I don’t know any details about the deal aside from what I read, but I presume the Richmond Times-Dispatch online newspaper will eventually be integrated with the domain name Richmond.com, which is certainly better than the current domain name they use, InRich.com. Media General will receive the best domain name for the Richmond area as well as a devoted audience.
I won’t preach, but this deal is exciting for someone like myself. My plan continues to revolve around making Burbank.com and Lowell.com websites that are useful and important to people who want to learn more about these cities. As revenue increases, I intend to hire reporters to expand the news offering on the sites, which will increase traffic and revenues.   I hope 2009 will be a year of great growth for Burbank.com and Lowell.com, and if the last two weeks of search engine traffic for Burbank.com is indicative, it’s going to be a very good year.

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