Home Blog Page 1531

The Problem With Domain Auctions

Elliot Silver
-
12

Ask almost anyone what the biggest impact on the domain aftermarket in 2007 has been, and chances are they will tell you its the emergence of live domain auctions everywhere. Moniker, Snapnames, Godaddy, GreatDomains.com, DomainTools…etc all have announced or held live auctions recently. While this is good news for the most part, I’ve personally noticed it has caused some problems in the aftermarket.

The first problem is that many domain investors aren’t willing to sell their top quality generic domain names other than at auction. They know that top dollar is often found at auction, and they aren’t usually willing to compromise, unless an offer blows them out of the water. While this isn’t unreasonable, it has hampered buying opportunities outside of auctions.

Another problem with domain auctions is that many buyers aren’t buying domain names other than at auctions. Many buyers know that many great names will be up for auction, and they would prefer to make a big splash at auction rather than through a private sale, unless it is a great deal. Buyers may be reluctant to buy a name privately in the event that they need the cash for an auction.

The sheer amount of domain auctions that are going on within the industry is also causing an issue. It is difficult to get all buyers to focus on all auctions. As a result, there may be less competition among bidders, and names may sell for less than they would have if more buyers were present. The auction houses want the market to determine the prices, so they encourage sellers to set reserves as low as possible, but this becomes a difficult task, when the market for certain domain names may not be bidding at a particular auction.

Some owners are struggling to determine the best venue in which to sell their names, as the different auction companies hold auctions at various industry conferences and on their own. Also, listing domain names in an auction often requires exclusivity (before and after the auction), removing names from the market whether or not they sell at auction. Finally, if a name doesn’t sell at auction, an artificial price ceiling is created for that name, even though it might not have sold simply because the right bidders weren’t in attendance.

I know this may sound crazy, but while domain auctions are having a positive impact on the industry as a whole, they are also impacting the industry in other ways. I think the most important things auction houses need to do to grow the industry is to encourage end users to attend the auctions to acquire the best names for their business.

Are You Selling Your Names?

Elliot Silver
-
6

From the Afternic DLS Blog, and brought to my attention by Dan:   If you are looking to sell your domain names, NameMedia might be interested in purchasing them.   I am frequently asked by my readers for advice on selling domain names or locating potential buyers.   I frequently suggest that they auction their names, as that tends to yield competitive bids. However, many people are interested in getting cash now rather than waiting for an auction, then waiting to see if their names sold in auction, and then waiting some more to be paid if the names sold.

If this is the case, and you are looking to close quickly, it may be better to deal with a company who is willing to pay for your names without any hassles. I don’t know what types of names they are looking to acquire, but my dealings with NameMedia properties have all been positive, so now might be a good time to connect with them. It is always easier to approach a buyer with his wallet opened!

PS: If you email Pete (per the blog’s request) tell him I send my best!

Jet Blue: Web Deal – Where?

Elliot Silver
-
1

I am going to go on a bit of a late night rant – my apologies. When I see a good marketing campaign, I do my best to point it out, so others can emulate it. When I see a poor marketing effort, I try to point out the flaws, so improvements can be made.

Before I start my rant, I have to say that Jet Blue is my new favorite airline. For the past few months, I’ve tried my hardest to only fly Jet Blue, which is difficult since they don’t fly everywhere I fly (yet). I love the fact that they have televisions on their aircraft, and their employees are always super friendly. One thing that has always bothered me though is their online reservation drop down menus. They ask for departing and arriving cities, the date of travel, and the number of passengers, which is all pretty standard. My question is why does the # of passenger drop down menu default to zero passengers? Wouldn’t they assume that at least one passenger is flying? I’ve been booted back to the main page for forgetting to change this one too many times. While minor, this is a frustration that can easily be eliminated by thinking like a passenger rather than a marketer.

You are probably asking where is the flaw in their marketing effort rather than their reservation system. Today I received an email from Jet Blue, touting their new wireless access on one of their airplanes. I clicked through to their homepage and saw this: “Featured web fares: $69 each way New York, JFK to West Palm Beach.” Unfortunately, there wasn’t a clear mention of when this is applicable, and I just spent the last 10 minutes searching various travel dates with no luck. I am sure I could call, but I would probably get a “sorry, that’s a web deal only” answer. It’s just frustrating when a company presents an offer but makes it very difficult to find the offer. It’s one thing if they stated the travel dates and you can’t use the tickets on those dates, but it’s annoying to have to scour the website to find it (with no luck).

One company that actually makes it easy to find the special web deals is Greyhound Bus Lines. They offer a link to the special web deals page where you enter the date of travel, and you get the advertised fare. Print your tickets and get on the bus. Piece of cake.

When a company makes a great offer and makes it easy to redeem said offer, they’ve done a great job. The point of direct marketing is to generate a calculable ROI. Jet Blue was able to elicit a response from me, but they made it very difficult for me to book a reservation, so I went down as an unconverted lead instead of a sale. Marketers should think like consumers, and they should make it as easy for the consumer to respond as possible.

Hybrid Development: Increase the Value of Domains

Elliot Silver
-
6

While some domain names have high paying keywords, frequently the traffic isn’t significant enough for this to make a major impact on the name’s value. When the name is parked, you may generate a decent amount of revenue from targeted type-in traffic. However, unless something out of your control happens, there really isn’t much of a way to increase traffic to the name with a parked page.

One way that may boost traffic, increase revenue, and consequently increase the value of your domain name is to build a stripped down website. This is a hybrid development project where you add limited (but relevant) content, which should help you with your search engine placement. As a result, more people will find your website, and they may be more likely to click on the Adsense links, generating additional revenue. The more you continue to update your site, the more likely it is that people will find you and return.

In my opinion, the key to this is developing these hybrid sites in areas that are of interest to you. This will encourage you to post more often than if it was a mundane topic or something you didn’t care about. The more passionate or knowledgeable you are about a topic, the more likely it is that people will find you. The job of Google, Yahoo and other search engines is to present their users with the most relevant website based on their search query. If you are able to provide this, you will be placed higher. Of course there are things that make this more complicated, but that is the general idea.

Penthouse Invests in Friend Finder Network

Elliot Silver
-
1

According to a report in the New York Times, Penthouse Media Group just invested $500 million into Various, Inc., operator of 25 social networking sites, including Adult Friend Finder and its related Friend Finder Network websites. Combined, Various’ companies have a reported member base of more than 260 million consumers, with about 1.2 million paying consumers.

The purchase shows how bullish a company like Penthouse is in the Internet marketing channel. As the Internet continues to mature, magazine and newspaper publishers have struggled to maintain viewership, and they’ve had to put out a strong web product to keep their customers satisfied. It will be interesting to see how Penthouse and the FFN leverage each other’s assets and industry knowledge to create a stronger company.   It will also be interesting to see if they work under one company name or if they maintain their own brand identities.

At the recent TRAFFIC auction the FFN network paid $1.8 million for Seniors.com.

Protect Your Brand!

Elliot Silver
-
9

Greetings from my father’s store in New Hampshire. I am in the region doing some research for my Lowell.com website which should launch in a couple of months, and I am spending the day with my parents (Happy Birthday, Mom!!) Of course, my mind is always thinking about domain names, and that was clear when I walked into the book shop next door to buy a birthday gift.

At the register, I noticed that they were directing people to their website, which wasn’t close to the exact name of their shop. Knowing the manager, I asked if they had tried to acquire the generic .com for the store (a generic word + Bookshop). He said they had, but it was too expensive. Ironically, after coming back and researching, I saw the generic name is owned by a friend of mine, and I know my friend develops all his names (hence the reason for the high cost he quoted).

I also asked if he bought the actual name of the book shop, as that would also have been an even better choice. He said he hadn’t, but when I searched, I saw it was registered back in August and is now a PPC landing page. Unfortunately, the owner has privacy protection on his Whois so it won’t even be possible to ask if he would sell it, leaving them with the choice of either maintaining the status quo or filing a UDRP. The name of the store is fairly unique and the only Google references for the term together are for this little shop.

The shop has been in business for over 15 years, so there were plenty of opportunities for them to buy the name, but they didn’t have the foresight to do so. They are lucky the current owner has a book related PPC landing page rather than adult-related material. The moral of the story is to spend $8 to register the name of a potential new business or idea. The cost of acquiring it after someone else buys it can be financially restrictive and time consuming.

1...1,5301,5311,532...1,572Page 1,531 of 1,572