Following up on a post from a few days ago, it was revealed that Rick Schwartz sold the name iReport.com to CNN for $750,000. Also included in this price is the hyphenated version, i-Report.com. These great domain names will be used by CNN to supplement their i-Report program.
Founded in August of 2006, i-Report encourages viewers from around the country to send their own videos and photos of breaking news stories in their cities and neighborhoods. This user generated media feature has become popular, and it frequently allows CNN to break news stories before other networks are on the ground.
CNN Buys iReport.com for $750,000
Perfect Domain Auction Email Marketing Tactic
The best direct marketing tactic for a live domain auction I’ve seen didn’t come from an auction house. Nope – it wasn’t from one of the major companies actually hosting the auction. Today I received an email from someone who has a domain name listed for sale in the upcoming DomainFest Snapnames Live Auction.
“To Whom It May Concern:
Wu.net will attend the Domainfest auction (in person and also online) from Jan. 22, with reserved price of only US$ 10,000.
If you are interested, please visit their website as soon as possible, and make all the necessary preparations:
https://www.snapnames.com/liveAuctions.do
Thank you and good luck!
Meken”
I’ve seen many complaints from people who have names in various live auctions, and many of them are related to the auction house not doing a good enough job of bringing potential buyers to the auction. This seller isn’t going to simply rely on the auction house to bring a buyer for his name. He is going through his past emails, finding people who have inquired about this name in the past, and encouraging them to sign up and bid. I had sent him an email in October of 2006 when I was in the market for a 2 letter .net domain name.
I applaud Meken for not relying on Snapnames to bring potential bidders to the auction for WU.net (although with their fantastic auction inventory, I don’t think it will be a problem). I also happen to think he has a reasonable reserve price of just $10,000 for this nice domain name. I would bet that WU.net will have a new owner in a couple of weeks.
Mike Berkens' Daily Domain Blog
The domain investment business is fairly small, so there are many individuals that “everyone knows.” However, there aren’t as many individuals that everyone knows and likes. Mike Berkens is one of those few people. Mike’s company, Most Wanted Domains owns tens ft thousands of great domain names, and as far as I know, Mike is as bullish on domain names as anyone else in the industry. (You can read my “5 With Mike Berkens” interview for more detailed information.)
Mike started a great blog recently, and although I’ve linked to it a few times, I want to separately encourage everyone to add TheDomains.com to your RSS readers. Mike is one of those types of people that can move and shake the industry, and I have great respect for him. He has maintained a low profile until recently, and I am glad to see him blogging.
Mike is an influential guy in this industry, and his blog is a daily “must read.”
Affiliate Sites Help Build an Internet Based Business
Large travel companies like WC Travel are making it easier for people to start their own travel business. I believe that if a person creates enough unique content on a website, visitors will find the site either by search engine or word of mouth. If the site owner offers visitors relevant advertising, the visitor is much more likely to click through. More (qualified) traffic and trust in the website lead to higher click through rates, and higher click through rates generally mean higher close/sales rates, generating more revenue for the site owner.
For a person that loves to travel and write about traveling, using an affiliate site like WC Travel to create a white label reservation engine is a great solution. Instead of having to seek out potential advertisers or rely on Google’s Adsense to display relevant advertising, affiliate travel sites can actually brand a travel search engine using the website’s logo and header. This can lead to much greater revenue opportunities than other alternatives.
For my Lowell.com project, I will be using a few affiliate sites in areas that would be difficult for me to maintain. If I give visitors the most efficient way to book travel, find tickets or a job, they will benefit, and they will surely return to my site in the future. Associated Cities is a great organization for city .com owners as they have relationships with many affiliate sites. In a few days, I will provide more details about where I plan to use affiliate relationships on Lowell.com and give reasons why I believe that’s the best option.
There are many different affiliate sites out there who are willing to build a white label product to help you generate revenue for your website. Although you may generate less revenue through an affiliate than if you were to sell your own products, it can be much easier to start an Internet based business using affiliate relationships. You don’t have to worry about customer service, fulfillment, credit card authorization, billing…etc. However, since your site will be associated with the affiliate companies, it is important to do your due diligence on the company to make sure their standards are as stringent as yours.
Great Castello Brothers Interview
I have a great deal of respect for David and Michael Castello and what they’ve done for the domain industry. Not only do they own an incredible group of developed geodomains including LagunaBeach.com, WestPalmBeach.com, and Nashville.com (among others), but they also have some other great generic non-geo related domain names names as well.
Aside from their tremendous portfolio of domain names, the Castello Brothers are genuinely nice guys who are always willing to give advice. I am especially thankful for the advice they have both given me for my Lowell.com development project. Recently, they were interviewed on SimplyGeo.com in a two part interview. Part One of the interview was posted yesterday, and Part Two was just posted today. This interview is a must read!