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YouTube.mobi…

Elliot Silver
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3

…doesn’t have videos because Google doesn’t own it. If you want to visit YouTube on your mobile browser, you need to visit m.YouTube.com. I don’t understand why a major registry like .mobi (or any other new registry) would sell a clear trademark domain name to a private domain investor. In my opinion, a registry needs the leading companies (like Google/YouTube) to market their websites using these new extension in order for people to adopt, which would lead to the growth of the registry.
YouTube.mobi would have been the perfect way to show that Google had confidence in .mobi. Now, if a savvy web browser tries to visit YouTube on his browser using .mobi, he will be left with a website with no videos. Why haven’t they filed a UDRP or an injunction to stop the owner from using their trademark to get this important domain name? One reason can be seen in this article found in the Yahoo Tech Ticker. For comparison purposes, Google owns the rights to YouTube.tv, YouTube.asia, YouTube.me, YouTube.eu and many other newer TLD.
The point of this is to basically say that while I do believe that relevant domain names in alternative extensions are good if they make sense, I also think you need to consider exactly which extension to purchase. You need to see whether consumers are really adopting the extension, which would add value to your brand and domain investment. Also,
Likewise, the registries need to do all they can to make sure consumers adopt their brands. Consumer adoption will lead to investor adoption, and more domain names will be sold if people use them. When speculators own and don’t develop the prime domain names of a particular extension, consumers can’t adopt. If consumers can’t or won’t adopt, the domain names aren’t really worth much. The only sales will be to other investors, and eventually the bubble bursts when new money isn’t invested.

Domain Recognition – Buying Domains Smartly

Elliot Silver
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After spending two weeks in Europe and the UK, and now thinking about the industry with a new “set of glasses,” I really think that relevance is more important than the extension – when it comes to developed domain names. With the current domain parking and monetization options, domain names that receive traffic will typically have some value, but as PPC revenue continues to decline, the safest and smartest domain acquisitions are those that are usable and recognizable by Internet users.
With few exceptions, no matter what the extension is, I think domain usability and visitor recognition are two of the most important things to consider when making a purchase. If you or someone else would be willing to spend thousands of dollars building a website on a particular domain name, it might be one in which you would want to invest at the right price. Intuitive names like Enoteca.it (wine bar in Italian), Mapas.es (maps in Spanish), Homes.tv, Burbank.com…etc are all great domain names on which to develop a website as people will presumably type them in searching for something familiar. People know the words, and if they are familiar with an extension, they will have no problem visiting a website on that domain name.
Sure, a domain name that receives traffic may be good, but a usable domain name with little traffic may be much more valuable. While some may argue that a name with inherent traffic is the most valuable, I would argue that a usable domain could be more valuable. If PPC continues to drop as it has, direct to business advertising and/or domain sales to end users will be the best way to make money on a domain name in the future. While names that receive traffic for unknown reasons may have value now, down the road, when they are more difficult to monetize, they may be worth less.
I always think it is smart to buy non-trademark, product-related, service-related, geographical, descriptive and other similar generic domain names. People will always want to build on these domain names (if you don’t), and they will always be salable. In tough economic times, it is important to make wise investment decisions. The deals you make now will allow you to be successful in the future.
I am still recovering from the trip, so please excuse typos or if this doesn’t make complete sense 🙂

Back to Reality

Elliot Silver
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12

Karen and I had an amazing honeymoon, and I want to thank many of you for your emails and notes while I was away. Although I did spend a bit of time keeping up with the domain news while Karen was at the gym, I didn’t respond to emails. I now have a few hundred emails to go through, and I hope to be back at full speed by the end of the week.
For our honeymoon, we spent two weeks in Croatia and Italy and an evening in London. I am still recovering from the trip, especially that last night in London (barely made the flight home yesterday!) In the meantime while I recover and catch up on some business and emails, here are a few domain observations from my honeymoon:
Country code domains are MUCH more popular outside of the US   – I would estimate about 40% of the Crotian websites I saw advertised used .hr (Hrvatska) and about 85% of the websites I saw advertised in Italy used .it. I also saw several .gr, .eu, .info websites on billboards, television, trucks, boats…etc.   You don’t see much of that in the US with the .us extension.
Companies reaching out to a more global audience (tourism, international companies, real estate companies) used .com much more than other extensions.
Almost everyone we met spoke at least a bit of English, and most were able to understand what we were saying.
While buying country code domain names might seem to make sense, I think it’s essential to determine the proper spelling/meaning or foreign words before investing – (Yeah, I know… “Thanks, Mr. Obvious.”)
I saw quite a few Internet cafes in passing, but even the very nice places I stayed had limited wireless capabilities. Le Meridian in Split, Croatia had wireless in the lobby, but they didn’t have wireless in the rooms. Villa San Paolo in San Gimignano – Tuscany – (by far the nicest spa hotel I’ve visited) didn’t have any wireless that I found. Even the Copthorne Tara in London didn’t have wireless in the guest rooms.
After seeing many advertisements for villas and villa rentals in Croatia and Italy, I believe the recent sale of Villas.com could be considered a steal. Not only did I see websites advertising villas (DalmatianVillas.com and DalmatianVilla.com), many of them were targeting international travelers and used the .com extension.
I had great Blackberry mobile email service throughout the trip – even in Cinque Terre, Italy and Tuscany.   No, I didn’t do business while away, but I did get Red Sox scores and other news remotely.
The biggest domain surprise of the trip was seeing a billboard advertising a .tv website at the Dubrovnik (Croatia) airport. Not surprisingly, it was the only .tv website I saw advertised for the entire trip 🙂   Sorry, had to mention it.
Well, that’s it for now.   Time to get back home and get caught up with everything.

    Wedding Entertainment (.) com

    Elliot Silver
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    11

    While planning my wedding, I decided to develop WeddingEntertainment.com. Initially, I tried to sell the name, but I couldn’t find a buyer quickly. With my experience planning a wedding, I decided that I would build a site to increase the value of the domain name rather than settling and reducing my asking price for a quick sale.
    I got in touch with Rick Latona who told me about his new rapid website development service. Using some content I had written as well as a logo I had created, Rick’s team built a website for me in less than a couple weeks – probably closer to a week. While the site might not win any design awards, it has improved the CTR and is accomplishing its goal.
    With the support of Rick’s team performing various marketing activities to help support the new site, I am seeing some positive results – all of which couldn’t be achieved by parking the domain name. In fact, currently, the site is listed on the first results page for MSN. More work needs to be done by me to make the site read better, but it’s gotten off to a strong start.
    All in all, I think the new service is a reasonably priced way to launch a website on a domain name that has value, but just needs some TLC. While parked, the RPC for WeddingEntertainment.com was somewhere around $1.50, and I am seeing similar adsense results. There has been an increase in traffic, and I am beginning to see some SE traffic from Google. This has led to an increase in revenue, which obviously increases the value when I decide to sell the domain name/website.
    For more information, check out AEIOU.com or drop Rick an email. Now that the entertainment for my wedding has been well-executed, it’s time for the honeymoon!

    Elliot Silver
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    I know it’s a holiday weekend, but I think everyone needs to take a few minutes to read Ron Jackson’s interview of Rick Schwartz. In the domain space, Rick has been something like a soothsayer, and when he speaks, I listen. While we don’t all own the same quality domain names as Rick, the things he is saying does affect all domain investors.

    If or when Google decides to pull the plug and PPC as we know it drastically changes, there is going to be a lot of tumult in the industry. While quickly and efficiently monetizing domain names will be difficult and domain values will be impacted, domain owners need to keep the following things in mind:

    • Businesses who want to be online need a domain name
    • Advertisers will still want to advertise on relevant domain names
    • People will continue typing-in domain names looking for products or services
    • Easy to remember and relevant domain names are the most desired
    • Consumers typically have certain web browsing patterns, and many type in their keyword and .com as a starting point

    The point is that while making easy money from domain names won’t be possible, there are still going to be plenty of opportunities in the domain space. Some people will have to sell more than they have in the past in order to maintain the same revenue levels, so some deals may be had.  I recommend buying domain names that would make sense to be developed. Just because a domain name did well parked, doesn’t mean that it would be good to develop.

    I still believe the greatest ongoing revenue generating opportunity is selling advertising space directly to advertisers on developed websites. I believe websites are the newspapers of decades ago. Websites get the eyeballs that newspapers once received, and advertisers want to reach them. Motivated consumers are untapped leads that businesses would like to acquire.

    I also believe that as companies continue to migrate their business online, more will get it, and more will want (or even need) the domain name that describes their business or industry. Generic and category defining domain names are rare, and they hold considerable value. Selling domain names to end users that get it will be the driving force behind the future growth of domain values.

    Changing times call for changing strategies.  Those who adapt and adopt will survive, and those who sit back will not. Who knows when all of this will happen, but I think it’s important to be prepared for the worst. Read Rick’s interview and judge for yourself.

    5 With… Karen Abraham

    Elliot Silver
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    50

    Although Karen won’t be known as Karen Abraham much longer, I thought it would be very appropriate to do a 5 with my beautiful wife to be, Karen. In November of 2004, Karen and I were taking the Amtrak train back to New York from Boston after Thanksgiving. Karen randomly sat next to me and I struck up a conversation with her. Long story short, it’s been a great 3.5+ years and we are getting married on Saturday.
    Karen has always supported me 100% in my endeavors, and she has been especially supportive of my decision to start my own company. I listen to her opinion when it comes to buying and selling domain names, and I always — well usually — appreciate her advice and feedback. If Karen wasn’t in graduate school for clinical psychology, she could probably jump right in and become a domain investor.
    1) EJS: What have you learned about the domain industry since we started dating?
    KJA: I’ve learned about the high value of domain names. I couldn’t believe that someone would pay so much money for a domain name when I first met you, but now I understand the market better so I know why certain domain names have so much value. Domains are like one of a kind pieces of real estate or even art.
    2) EJS: If you could own a personal domain name, which would it be?
    KJA: I would own ClinicalPsychologists.com or DrKarenSilver.com. I think i own the latter (karensilver.com is a fully developed site already). These two names would be good for search engine purposes as someone would either search for me directly or would be looking for a psychologist and would find me. Unfortunately, you owned the first one and sold it!
    3) EJS: Out of the following cities, Burbank, Secaucus, and Lowell, where would you rather go on vacation for a long weekend and why?
    KJA: Burbank – I’d rather go to Burbank because the warm weather and proximity to LA would be great year round. I grew up not far from Lowell and live close to Secaucus, so it wouldn’t be exciting to take a long weekend to those cities.
    4) EJS: What’s the best thing about marrying a domain investor?
    KJA: Cha-ching! Just kidding. I love that you are entrepreneurial and are able to make your own hours. You are dedicated to what you do and I love being a part of this growing business. I also love that you can work anywhere… but…
    5) What’s the worst thing about marrying a domain investor?
    KJA: The blackberry addiction and non-stop working mentality!!

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