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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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0

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!!

Google Funding: Google Should Buy Funding.com

Elliot Silver
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0

The Wall Street Journal reported that Google will be adding a technology venture capital division to its continuously diversifying portfolio of businesses. In the past, Google has been known to buy rapidly growing companies whose products would fit in well with the Google ecosystem. Now it seems that Google is poised to offer seed funding to tech companies with great promise. Personally, I think this is a great move. Not only will they be able to capitalize on companies at the beginning, but in addition to funding, they can also provide invaluable advice and support, as they were once a new company with a great base idea.
What better way to do this than to buy Funding.com, which happens to be owned by a good friend of mine. Since Google is likely to direct traffic to funding.google.com, they might as well try to buy Funding.com before their launch. This domain name will become a necessary asset to their company, and once the currently incubating Funding.com company is launched, the name will be untouchable

Blog Issues

Elliot Silver
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4

I’ve had blog issues all night long with the upgrade to WP 2.6 (thanks to the three people who recommended it).   I believe the issues may be resolved… just in time!
Big thanks to Kevin for fixing these problems for me tonight before I leave – and to Richard for all his help and advice.

I Will Be Away

Elliot Silver
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0

Beginning tomorrow afternoon, I will be away for two and a half weeks. I will have access to email, but I will not be responding to email. Likewise, I won’t be approving comments, so don’t be discouraged if you happen to leave one and it isn’t posted.
Once I return, I will get back to you as soon as I can. In the meantime, I recommend visiting the sites on my blogroll to stay informed about domain industry happenings.

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