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5 With… Elliot Silver

Elliot Silver
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For the inaugural edition of “5 With…” I thought it would be appropriate to conduct an interview with myself.    Look for new interviews in the “5 With…” category, as I already received commitments from some of the best-known people in the business.    Here goes…

1.) EJS: How did you get started in the domain investment business?

EJS: When I was in graduate school, I saw people buying and selling domain names on Ebay.    I thought that if people could do this, I could do it, too.    I focused on buying domain names I thought could be developed into businesses, forums, or other profitable ventures.    I stuck with generic domain names that had obvious meanings.    At the time, I didn’t realize that there were online communities dedicated to the domain investment business.    Once I joined a couple of the forums, I was able to learn alot from others, and I made contacts with other people active in the business.    I owe alot to the people I met on Ebay as well as some of the active members in the various forums.    

2.) EJS: When did domain investing become more than simply a way to earn some extra cash in graduate school?

EJS: After I joined DNForum in early 2006, I saw a listing for the .net, .org, .info and .biz of a one word domain name for sale for a few hundred dollars.    I bought those and contacted the owner of the .com.    To my surprise, the owner sold the .com for only a few hundred dollars.    I was able to resell the entire set for low $xx,xxx.    Several months later, I bought a well-priced name, and I sold it at a TRAFFIC auction for $xx,xxx.    I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to reinvest the profits into better domain names, helping me build a stronger portfolio.

3.) EJS: What was more exciting for you: Red Sox winning 2004 World Series or buying Customs.com?

That’s a tough call.    I think buying Customs.com was more exciting because it was a personal achievement.    The Red Sox winning the World Series was a great feeling – especially since I was in New York City when they won.    Hopefully 2007 will be a repeat!

4.) EJS: What’s the best piece of advice you would give people just starting out in the business?

EJS: Study the market as much as you can before you dive in and buy a bunch of names that are best left unregistered.    Since there are many different areas of domain investment, focus on one aspect – maybe a particular extension or genre of domain name and learn as much as you can.    Just as you would want to buy low and sell high with stocks, the idea is the same in the domain investment business.     Do your research and continue to buy better names each time you buy.    

Also, may I give a second piece of advice?

EJS: Sure, it’s your show, go ahead.

Thanks!    I would also recommend that people read my blog post here which gives 10 Domain Investment Tips.

5.) EJS: Do you regret ever selling a domain name?

EJS: The only domain name I really regret selling was Arrangements.com.    I still think that name is perfect for a florist.    I think I sold it for a great price, but I was able to reinvest and buyer more great names.    Maybe some day I will try to buy it back and develop it!

Go Ahead, BeFunky.com

Elliot Silver
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elliot-at-gregs-wedding.jpg

Jay blogged about a new website called BeFunky.com, which turns photographs into cartoons. I just spent a half hour exploring their site, and I am impressed!! This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while – AND there is no cost right now. I would recommend requesting an invitation from them and have some fun.

This would be a cool way to create “Save the Dates” for my wedding in August.

Introducing “5 With…”

Elliot Silver
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Beginning this Wednesday and continuing after, I will be introducing a new category to my blog called “5 With…”    Each post in this category will be a 5 question interview with a respected person in the Internet and Domain Investment business.    These short interviews, which should take about 5 minutes each to read, will hopefully give some insight into the people we frequently see making headlines.    I hope they are informative, revealing, and fun!

Bank Launches .mobi Website

Elliot Silver
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In one of the first examples of a large company utilizing (and actually marketing) the .mobi extension, Bank of America launched bofa.mobi. The Bank is heavily promoting this with a retail merchandising campaign, including bofa.mobi window decals in their large branches in Manhattan.

I think this is a positive development for the .mobi extension, as the Bank could have simply used their standard domain name and detected the type of browser the visitor was using. They could have also gone to market with the domain name and only used it for protective purposes, so consumers or other companies couldn’t use the name. A heavy endorsement of this website is a positive sign for the staying power of .mobi.

I have one security concern with this, and I hope the Bank is mindful of it. What if someone set up a malicious website on a similar domain name that only had two lines asking for an account number and password? Since we are talking about mobile devices with small screens, unknowing consumers could accidentally submit their banking information, unaware that this wasn’t the Bank’s website. It’s one thing if someone did this with typos of the full Bank of America name and/or used the Bank’s logos, as that would be a federal offense. My concern is if they weren’t this sophisticated.

Bank of America needs to do a very good job of training their customers about what to look for on the bofa.mobi site so they know if they accidentally navigate to another website in error. They should also buy as many .mobi typos similar to their bofa.mobi domain name, so nobody has the opportunity to set up a malicious website.

I don’t have much of a stake in the .mobi extension with only two .mobi names in my portfolio, but I believe this is a good endorsement from a major corporation.

NameJet Launches, Partners with Net Sol

Elliot Silver
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NameJet, which launched yesterday, is a new company entering the competitive deleting domain acquisition area of the domain business. In a partnership with Network Solutions, NameJet will be responsible for acquiring and auctioning Network Solutions’ deleting domain names. According to TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington,

“NSI, exercising a change in control termination clause, notified Snapnames/Oversee today that they were terminating their agreement and simultaneously launched Namejet with a rival registrar eNom (eNom is owned by Demand Media).” – Source: TechCrunch

This development was reported on Jay Westerdahl’s blog on October 1st. His report included information about a trademark application made by Network Solutions for NameJet.

It looks like starting the Snapnames Seller Program was a smart move for Snapnames, but I hope they don’t lose their active bidder audience, which is the reason I personally listed many names with Snap. So far, I have had success with the program, and I must say their customer service is fantastic.

Hunting for Gems at SnapNames

Elliot Silver
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Even though it can be a lot of work to search through names to order at Snapnames, it is definitely worth the effort. I recently won an auction for VideoCameraWorld.com for about $110. I was only bidding against one other person, so apparently this name either slipped by everyone else and I found a gem, or other people don’t think this name is as valuable as I do. Some recent –Wold.com sales as report by DNSalePrice.com include:

PerfectWorld.com – $30,000
NudeWorld.com – $23,530
DesignerWorld.com – $21,000
WineWorld.com – $20,000

I know VideoCameraWorld.com isn’t worth as much as those gems, but I believe it is worth much more than $110. Keep on looking through Snapnames – its worth the effort! This is one of the most fun aspects of the domain investment industry.

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