Saturday Updates!

We are taking our daughter to her first Red Sox game of the season today. I didn’t really like it when the Red Sox introduced Wally the Green Monster as a team mascot, but it makes me smile every time Hailey yells out “Wally!” when she sees him on tv. If you are celebrating Easter, I hope you have a great holiday and are spending it with friends and family. The Spring is coming!

Here are some weekend updates:

  • Speaking of Easter, holiday weekends can be good times for domain investors to win domain auctions. People may be focused on other things, and it could be a good time to swoop in and win an auction or place a backorder on a great name that others miss. I know I will be scouring NameJet for good deals this weekend.
  • I think one of my favorite new TLDs is .Ninja. I don’t love it as an investor, but I think there is a huge target audience, judging by how many websites there are that are -Ninja.com. One of the reasons for DogWalker.com’s continued success is because many dog walkers are small business owners who are the decision maker. Judging by some of the brands using .Ninja, it seems like it’s a similar type of audience. I think it’s similar in nature to .Guru, although .Ninja has the “cool” factor. Again, I am not going to be investing in any .Ninja domain names, but I could see it getting some traction.
  • One thing I didn’t mention in the Miami Herald article about .CO, but something that didn’t go unnoticed was this: “Lori Anne Wardi will remain in the role of vice president, and will continue overseeing the evolution of the .CO brand, as well as help Neustar with  .NYC, New York City’s soon-to-be-launched official domain extension.” I’ve known Lori Anne for a while, and not only is she an expert in the domain space, but she is also a New Yorker. .NYC is another one of my favorite gTLD extensions, and I think this is quietly a big win for Neustar.
  • Congratulations to Shane and Aaron on the merger of their two blogs, which will operate on DomainShane.com. Running a blog can be quite a bit of work, especially if the owner has other business interests, and these two guys will be able to create a stronger blog by working together. I wish them lots of luck on the merger.
  • Speaking about domain blogs for a moment, I hope you’ve had a chance to check out Michael Gilmour’s WhizzbangsBlog.com recently. He’s shared some pretty good insight, and it’s well worth a read when you get some time.
  • The Media Options auctions are beginning to take place on NameJet. It looks like there are some pretty good names up for sale over the next few days.
  • When you have a chance, check out Gary Vaynerchuk’s article on Medium about being grateful. Some very good things to think about.
  • Free tip. If you try to sell me a domain name and I haven’t responded to two of your emails, chances are good I have no interest. I do my best to reply to all emails, but sometimes I don’t get a chance because I am busy with other things. There’s a chance I missed the first email (especially if it was in my inbox first thing in the morning when I have 60+ emails to go through, but if I don’t reply after two emails, it’s very likely a third email will go unanswered.
Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

8 COMMENTS

  1. Thanks for the mention Elliot. Aaron and I have been looking to work together for a long time. We just recently figured out that the best way was right in front of us.

  2. If my brand was AccidentalDomainer.com and I merged with DomainShane.com I would not want to base all my hard work on someone else’s URL brand. If things don’t work out Shane reaps the benefits of the new branding because it’s on his URL and Aaron is left with nothing. I am not saying it won’t work out but at least try to cover your bases.

    • From a SEO and traffic standpoint, Shane has far more posts than AccidentalDomainer.com. Additionally, Shane has more advertisers as well. Starting from scratch would be detrimental to both websites, IMO.

    • I agree but you are a perfect example of a name change and it didn’t affect your business so a name change is possible because it benefits both parties involved.

      if Shane decides to walk all he has to do is come up with duplicate content of what accidental domainer does and he gets to keep the other 50% of the business and profits. Obviously if it’s a 50/50 ownership. No matter how hard Aaron works he is still building someone else’s personal brand because it’s on the personal brand URL of the other party involved.

      If someone decided to merge with your blog when it was still named Elliots Blog then it doesn’t benefit the new partner for the future because it is building on your personal brand and they would reap no benefit of that if you ever had a change of heart. It’s a totally different story if that same person was to merge with the new name Domain Investing but only if it was treated as a real business with more than just a handshake.

      If I merged my business with someone I would do whatever it takes to cover my ass in all directions possible. Creating a brand new domain brand that is joint owned is the only way I would have done it. Just my opinion.

    • I was thinking about this some more, and tomorrow, I am going to cover the reasons why I think it is smart.

      I could be wrong of course, and I think it will be interesting to see what others think.

  3. Todd,

    We’re a little smarter than you’re making us out to be. Aaron and I had many discussions about this already. Here are our two choices. One, new name, merge everything over. VERY time consuming, google problems, starting over marketing wise. Second, move over to one of our blogs. The logical choice was to move over to Domain Shane because of the back links, history, and the established advertisers. Aaron and I trust each other. Our deal was done in a casual conversation, via handshake, and two MEN agreeing to terms. We are working together because we are two Midwestern guys that come from a part of the country where your word is still good. Aaron wrote because he enjoyed it. When you take on no advertising like he did at AD then what is there to lose? You can’t give up money if you hadn’t made any. I have told him a thousand times that I want this to be a partnership and not Domain Shane and Friend. My personality can be overshadowing and we talk every day to make sure that we’re cool on how things play out.

    Todd, I would never be partners with you because you are always worried about “covering your ass” and how one person may get the better of you. I don’t think that is in either of our minds, now or at any point in the lead up to the merger. Communication and honesty covers most of it and if the zeros get big, or the tax implications grow, then for the sake of our families we may draw more paperwork up. But until then we are going to try and build something together that benefits us both in ways we couldn’t do on our own. And rather than worry about what could go wrong, we are excited about all the possibilities of things that could go right.

    • “Todd, I would never be partners with you because you are always worried about “covering your ass” and how one person may get the better of you. ”

      I would never be partners with you either so at least we are on the same page. I am sure most of that comment has more to do with us both telling each other to fuck off on your blog than anything else. I do still read your blog though. Not for the lists but for the writing.

      The truth is most people cover their ass like I said but don’t voice it as not to be judged. Everything else is just my opinion.

      I wish you both the best of luck and really do hope it is a success Shane.

  4. Gosh guys, leave them alone and let them get married.

    If they want to do what they want to do, let them be- they are smart enough to get a room.

    For now, we should wish the newlyweds good luck and go have more babies.

    Pass the lubricant please….

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