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.NV.com Addresses – Subdomaining Success

Elliot Silver
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‘nv.com’ addresses draw strong response
I believe we are going to see subdomain sales more and more in the future. Owners of prime domain names similarly broad like nv.com may look to increase their potential revenue streams in the coming months and years. If a great generic domain name isn’t yielding the ppc revenue desired, why not sell subdomains? I am not a technical expert, so I don’t know how much work is involved in creating and managing subdomains, but I am sure it is “doable.”Not only is the domain registry generating $50/year in registration revenue (with a 2 year minimum commitment), there are plenty of upsell opportunities – hosting services, web development/design services, email accounts…etc. They can essentially print their own money since there are countless subdomain opportunities with each extension.

I have a couple of suggestions to help the .nv registry grow even bigger:

1) Incentivize owners to develop their subdomains. The more successful, developed websites there are in the .nv.com extension, the more other companies will want their own. Offering discounted web design services, long-term registration discounts or registration rebates may do the trick.

2) Open an office in Nevada and make it even easier for people to buy their subdomain names. Believe it or not, a majority of the people out there don’t know how to register a domain name – let alone manage it. If they make buying a subdomain a simple process with an easy to reach account manager, more people might sign up. Also, it would make more sense for the “Nevada Registry” to be located in Nevada.

3) Hire a staff of sales people to sell the subdomains door-to-door. Equip each of them with a laptop and wireless access to allow registrations on the fly. Set-up a sales booth at malls, fairs, or anywhere else that people may congregate in order to get the word out. The primary target audience is businesses in Nevada, but the sub-target should be citizens of Nevada.

The one downside to subdomains that I see is that doing this is a long-term commitment to this type of business plan. Once people begin buying their subdomains, it may be very difficult for the owner to change direction without litigious implications. However, if the ownership nv.com wanted to do this, it could conceivably develop NV.com into something else while maintaining the subdomains for their customers.

Buying from BuyDomains.com

Elliot Silver
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BuyDomains.com is one of the best partners I have in the domain business. They are one of the larger NameMedia properties, and they own somewhere around 800k domain names. When I first got into the business, I thought they were over-priced, and I never bought domain names from them. They were selling domain names at prices that I would sell domain names, consequently outpricing me and not allowing me to buy from them. Over the past few months, my opinion has changed, and I believe they can provide a good value to domain investors.

About a year ago, I found a few keyword domain names of interest. After inquiring about them, I was introduced to an Account Manager who was able to give me more competitive prices than what was listed. Since this original transaction, I believe I’ve purchased some great names from them at great prices, and I imagine they are happy with the business I have given them.

Just as any other business, cultivating relationships is essential. My Account Manager knows what types of names I like to purchase, and when she finds a name at a good price, she sends me an email with the name and the best discounted price. This saves me the time and effort of searching through their massive portfolio. Frequently, I will inquire about names I’ve found that they own, and I will almost instantly get a response with a price.

I believe domain investors frequently overlook BuyDomains.com when searching for domain names. Although their target audience is small business end users, they are happy to work with – and give deals to – domain investors. One tip for potential buyers is to inquire about domain names towards the end of the month. Just as in any market where the proprietor is willing to make a deal before closing, BuyDomains.com is sometimes willing to give the best deals at the end of the month.

American Airlines seeks damages against Google

Elliot Silver
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American Airlines seeks damages against Google
American Airlines filed a lawsuit against Google for selling Adwords related to its trademarks (including “American Airlines”. Personally, I think the claim is ludicrous. In my opinion, the term “American Airlines” is about as generic as they come. Why can’t US Airways, another “American airline,” purchase the keyword “American airlines?” Why shouldn’t anyone who sells anything associated with American airlines buy this particular keyword? Perhaps searchers are looking for the airline, but maybe they are just looking for information about an American airline.

I hope Google fights this and wins, because this claim seems over the top to me.

More Steps to Buying A Non-Sucky Domain Name

Elliot Silver
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Stephen Spencer gives us “11 steps to buying a domain name that doesn’t suck” on the Cnet News blog yesterday. I agree that these are all important factors to consider when purchasing a domain name, and I would like to add a few additional factors that people should consider:

– Potential to Confuse Users – If you buy a domain name that has a number, some people might type in the actual number while others spell it out. Tickets4Less.com is an example. I bet some people type in TicketsForLess.com as a habit, so if you buy one you should buy the other.

Your Company Name – Although this is similar to one of the factors in Spencer’s article, the most relevant domain name to your business is the .com of your company’s name. If your business is Nashua Web Designers, you should first try to buy NashuaWebDesigners.com. Oftentimes generic domain names like this are already taken, but there is a good chance the name of your business is available, and that’s what your customers will want.

Shorter Version of your Company’s Name – With a company like Barnes & Noble, customers often refer to it as BN. The company was smart and owns both BN.com and BarnesAndNoble.com.

Generic .com Domain Names are like Diamonds…

Elliot Silver
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Generic .com domain names are like diamonds. Sure you can buy a small or low quality diamond and your significant other with still love you, although she will know that you couldn’t afford better. You could also buy a synthetic or manufactured diamond that may pass for the real thing, and maybe she won’t notice (until she gets it appraised of course). However, if you want the most beautiful investment quality diamond, you need to spend the money and buy a beautiful, high-quality, real diamond.

With domain names, sure you can buy a low quality .com domain name with extra numerals, hyphens or other flaw, and people who know about your site will try to remember how to navigate there. You can also buy a non .com domain name such as .net or .info that may look good, but will certainly lose traffic to the better .com name. However, if you want to buy the most valuable, highest investment quality domain name, stick with generic .com names.

Working With CADNA

Elliot Silver
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I think there are reasons why people might want to consider supporting CADNA in their public goal of defeating cybersquatters and domain tasting/kiting. I believe most of the big organizations that support CADNA are simply trying to protect their brands/trademarks rather than go after generic domain names. Although Dell probably would kill for Computers.com or CustomComputers.com, they are more interested in making sure a typo name like DelComputer.com isn’t owned by someone other than them.

Dell (and similar companies) believe when a web surfer types that in to their browser, they are actually trying to get to Dell, so why should they have to pay to correct the error, and why should a cybersquatter be able to direct traffic to other computer companies when the person is looking for Dell and not someone else?

On their press release, CADNA stated, Cybersquatting is defined “as the bad-faith registration of a domain name that includes or is confusingly similar to someone else’s trademark.” This leads me to believe they want to protect trademark holders from obvious infringing domain names. As it stands at the present time, the domain tasting loophole basically allows people to register domain names for 5 days or less, and then they can drop these names. They are able to test the traffic, and they can make business decisions on which names to keep based on traffic, revenue, and of course the risk in owning it.

As of yet, trademark holders have been unable to act fast enough to respond to domain tasters, and that is where the problem is. I think there are significant hurdles that need to be overcome, as there is much grey area. For example, would Dell believe that a name like Del.com infringed on their trademark simply because the spelling was similar? I know that Dell owns Del.com, but what if they didn’t and the name were parked? There are many examples like this, and those would have to be overcome.

However, in the short run, I think it would be in our best interest to work alongside with CADNA, to ensure domain owner rights are kept in mind, while trying to stop people who blatantly trample on the rights of trademark holders using the domain tasting loophole.

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