Sunday Afternoon Update

Here are a few small updates.

• I think Rick made the right move by halting the live auction yesterday and re-scheduling the remaining domain names for yesterday. This makes me even more appreciative of Oversee.net and their Snapnames platform which works in conjunction with Moniker on live auctions. The only down side is that they still don’t have a version for Macs.

• Domain owners frequently receive emails from auction companies asking them to lower reserve prices. In light of technical and timing issues that sometimes impact live domain auctions, one should consider whether lowering a reserve price is a good idea. Yes, there are plenty of names that have reserve prices way above where the should be. However, if you aren’t comfortable lowering a reserve price, then don’t do it. It’s your own fault if you heed the advice of an auctioneer whose goals may be different than yours.

• I’ve been excited with the results of Dog Walker.com.   So far in the 2.5 months it’s been live, there has been just shy of $3,000 worth of listings on the site. Although I am sure the pace of sign ups won’t be as strong as it has been the last month, I predict break even by March of year 2 (domain acquisition + development + marketing costs).

• After a couple of weeks worth of work, I launched CatSitter.com this week, a directory of cat sitters and cat boarding companies in the US. Just about everything on this new site is the same, and I expect to have many sign-ups from existing advertisers. I paid much less for the domain name and development since the platform was already built and customized.

• I want to thank Michael Sumner of DN Media and MiniSites.com for his help with coding/programming on both of these sites. I needed a WordPress expert on short notice during the holidays, and every time something different came up, Michael was there to help. It was especially appreciated because it wasn’t his project, but he was willing to lend a hand and make important (complicated) adjustments to the functionality of the sites.

• January has been my best domain sales month in over a year. This really isn’t related to quantity (less than 15 domains sold), but rather the quality of names I’ve been selling. I’ve made some solid acquisitions along with quick, private turn around flips in the last few weeks. There is still money to be made in this business after all.

• I made a last minute decision, and I will be flying out to Los Angeles for DomainFest tomorrow. I have a couple of pending deals that will be finalized in California this week, and it doesn’t look like I will be going to Atlanta as previously anticipated. I wish I could have attended the TRAFFIC show, but I will be at TRAFFIC Vancouver. Safe travels to everyone.