I Can’t Remember What I Was Going To Type Today!
Today is the day, where many domainers will forget to renew there domain names. Today is also the day where a plethora of marijuana based domain names will be visited. For those of you who own large marijuana domain portfolios, today would be a great day to try and flip some of those names. People who celebrate 4/20 might just buy those names for laughs and giggles.
On top of the giggles, marijuana is big business and the state I live in finally realized that this year. Whatever your stance is when it comes to this just know someone you know probably called in today sick to work to celebrate this unofficial holiday.
A Cross Between A Panda And A Bee? Panabee.com
Forgive me for I have repeated news! Today I couldn’t help to notice a new website called Panabee. This website is a fusion between a flying panda bear and a tool which recommends domain names to register. While testing the site I entered in the keywords “bad accident” and it immediately told me that badaccident.com was already registered.
I kinda figured that! Unfortunately while testing the site, I wasn’t able to receive any variations or related terms. I guess my Internet connection might be too slow. I’ll have to try this site some time in the morning at work and see how it is really supposed to operate.
One thing that did work was the alternate endings section. It provided a nice column of alternate endings ranging from badaccident.ly all the way down to badaccident.info. Although there isn’t much of a difference between this tool and any registrar registration form currently on the market I feel that it is a good step in the right direction.
Sites like this have the ability to appeal to a wider audience increasing the exposure to our industry. I look forward to testing panabee.com out in the near future.
Southern California Domaining Group April 2011 Meetup
On April 30th at 6:00 pm, the Southern California Domaining Group will hold its second meetup of the year. Morgan and I are still working on the meetup location but it will most likely take place in the valley this time around. Braden has taken the time to research a potential venue and I will be calling them this coming week to see about reserving the banquet room. So there is no confusion, the venue will be announced once solid reservations have been made.
As always, if you are in California we would love for you to join us. Feel free to visit our meetup site to make RSVP. www.meetup.com/domaining
*On another note we had an amazing meetup in January with a large turn out. I took several pictures during this meetup and will post them soon in a new blog entry. We had some very special guest speakers for January, including DomainShane who was in town for DomainFest.
Enjoy your weekend!
Today I Did Something Unthinkable!
As much as it hurts to say this I did something unthinkable today. I ended up throwing $29.59 into the domainer (.us) domain name fund. So what did I get back in exchange for this donation? I ended up renewing two domain names which have been sitting in my account since last year. Bad, bad, bad! That’s about $30 for two (.us) domain names which have not been doing anything for the past year.
If you are curious about the names they are unemploymentcheck.us and unemploymentextension.us! Solid names without any solid earnings. To take it even further both names are still displaying the infamous GoDaddy default park page. To keep this tragic event from ever occurring again I must redeem myself and zap new life into not one but both of the names this weekend.
I don’t care how much time it is going to take, but I am spearheading an effort to develop both domain names into there very own minisites. That’s right I used the M word and although some of you have given up on this monetization model I for one have not. Although I didn’t write about it earlier, one of my new minisites ended up earning around three dollars on one click. From what I can remember, this is the highest amount I have earned on one click. This click was worth more than $3 to me, it just reconfirmed that I am making the right choice in developing these minisites.
I can’t wait till I can start earning passive income on all of my domain names. This weekend my focus is solely on the two names which I just renewed. For those of you who have (.us) domain names with GoDaddy and are having an issue finding a discount code, here is the one that I used: gdz417bw (26% off)
You can thank namepros for that discount code, the (.us) thread there is full of great information. Onwards!
Introducing Your Drunk Uncle AKA Domainer Dumb Ass
Oh no, your drunk uncle is at it again. For the sake of this blog entry lets just refer to him as everyone’s favorite Dumb Ass Domainer. Even in his drunken state he some how found a way to register domain names and is currently trying to profit off of the death of none other than Michael Jackson. The best part of this video is when his friend who is holding the camera starts whispering things for him to say. LOL!
Have a good laugh, but also realize why some people can’t stand us. You can thank Domainer Dumb Ass for that.
Have You Ever Been Flipped Off?
Recently I read how Cisco is laying off around 500 employees who were part of the flip cam business unit. When I read this number for the first time I was completely shocked. I didn’t realize how large this business unit truly was and I also didn’t realize that Cisco had put such a large workforce together for one product. I understand that the flip business unit was doing very well at one time, but did it really need such a large operating base?
It’s never fun to hear about people losing there jobs, regardless if it hits close to home or not. Sometimes when I hear these stories I just start to brainstorm to myself on what could of been done differently. Cisco is a very successful US based company and has been around for quite some time. Well, today I noticed a small issue while I was searching the term “video camera” on the Google search engine.
Apparently theflip.com is the #1 search engine result on Google for the term “video camera.” That is definitely something to be proud of as it is a very competitive key phrase. There are several other companies within this competitive space which would love to be in the number 1 position. After seeing this my eyes drifted to the right of my screen and what did I see? I saw the following:
-
The Flip™ – Official Site
Design your own Flip Video Camera
Starting at $129.99. Free Shippingstore.theflip.com
I saw a Google Adsense ad! TheFlip.com already ranks number 1 in Google for the term “video camera” why in the world would the company need to spend more money on PPC ads for the same term? Although the money spent on PPC was probably peanuts to Cisco, could the money of been put to better use? In my opinion the answer is yes. There is no reason to rank #1 for a term and still pay for PPC on the same term. An audit should of been conducted to keep things like this for happening.
To take this even further I feel the money spend on these PPC ads should of been invested into a domain based marketing strategy. Why not acquire key term domain names! You could then push more visitors to the main site via these domains or even develop these domains into sites which would also help sell the core product. Big companies, tend to make big mistakes and its obvious even after the announcement of layoffs that there is still a problem here. 
Amazon sent you an Amazon.com Gift Card! Woo Hoo!
I’m in the money, I’m in the money! Wait a minute here, I am in the Amazon Affiliate Program referring visitors to Amazon’s site to be paid in what is equivalent to Amazon dollars! This sounds like one heck of a win win operation for Amazon. I’ve been a faithful customer to Amazon for several years and am fairly new to their affiliate program.
After being paid by Amazon, I can now confidently say that the program works. Currently the affiliate program is working well on one of my sites curlers.org. Although there are barely any products featured on the site visitors are finding there way to the Amazon product widget. In Quarter 1 of 2011 the widget itself received about 40 clicks. I haven’t done anything to promote this site, it has simply been indexed by both Google and Bing for several keyterms pertaining to curlers.
Enough about Amazon! My entire point in writing this blog entry has to deal with the fact that you never know what is going to happen until you try something new. Instead of depending on the traditional methods of monetizing my domain name I decided to try something that I’ve never really tried before. Affiliate programs work and can be an additional revenue stream for those of you who are currently running sites with just Google ads.
I own a fairly decent amount of product based domain names. I have taken a liking to domains within the beauty product and haircare segment. Most of these domains are (.orgs) which is just fine by me. The domains are being indexed and I am benefiting from them.
Here are a few other .org names I am proud of owning:
hairgels.org
blushes.org
sweatsuit.org
I own plenty of other names, but these tend to encapsulate the types of names I feel work best with affiliate programs like Amazon. As I have written in the last few weeks I will be slowly converting each one of these domain names into e-commerce sites using the Associate-O-Matic script. We’ll see what happens! I say slowly because I don’t want to effect my current key term ranking especially for curlers.org! As always I’ll keep you guys up to date on the progress!
2011 From Acquisition To Sales Mode
I’ve been on a buying spree this year. It’s hard not to be when there are so many domain names dropping. I have seen a plethora of valuable names drop and in some cases even being deleted. After spending just under two thousand on domain names since January of this year it is now time for me to enter sales mode. This is definitely easier said then done.
I love sales, but I also hold a full time job which requires me to be on call during the weekends once a month. With that said I have to integrate my sales team (me) into my normal schedule. Time is of the essence and a consistent schedule means everything to me and potential sales right now.
Here is what I need to do to enter sales mode:
1. Wake Up Earlier
My normal work hours are from 10 – 7. I work in Burbank so it takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to get to work each day. I normally have to leave the house by about 9:00 to get to work on time. I am normally used to waking up anywhere between 8:00 and 8:45 depending on how tired or lazy I want to be. I want to dedicate at least 2 hours to sales a day so that means I have to wake up 2 and a half hours earlier. Yes 5:30 has a nice ring to it and its something that I have done before, but not necessarily on a consistent basis.
2. Shift My Work Out Schedule To Evening
I’ve set a goal to work out at least three times during the week / weekend. If I miss working out M-F I can normally catch up with the number I have set for myself during the weekend. Unfortunately this week has been busier then most and I have only had the chance to work out one time. Lets just say i am going to the gym today and nothing is going to stop me! Fortunately for me I pass my gym everyday on the way home from work. I leave work at 7 and can normally get to the gym just before 8:00, since I will be waking up at 5:30 each morning it is important that I set a tight time limit on how late I can stay at the gym. I can normally get a good work out within 1 hour. If I give myself about 30 minutes to stretch after my work out and utilize the amenities then I can leave the gym at about 9:30 allowing me to get home give or take around 10 or 10:30. The good thing about this is I would only do this two times a week.
3. Develop Sales Routine
A sales routine is important. Within the two hours I dedicate to selling domain names within my portfolio I’ve got to research who to email / call. I can see the research taking at least an hour each day. The second hour will be dedicated to simply calling and emailing potential leads. I will concentrate on only one domain at a time. If I do not receive any interest in a domain name within the course of the week I will simply have to find another means to try and sell it, whether it be utilizing an online auction site or simply posting it on a domain forum for bids. The ultimate goal is to sell to an end-user but I understand that this simply might not happen. If I feel the domain name is worth the time and effort I will simply sit on it for a while until I decide to dedicate another week to trying to sell it.
4. Choose At Least Four Names A Month To Focus On
I need to choose at least four domain names a month to focus on. These names have to be decent! The majority of the names will most likely be (.com, .net and .org) names. I will not waste my time trying to push any other extensions. People understand (.com, .net and .org) and it doesn’t take much explaining to them on why they should potentially acquire a great name.
5. Most Important Of All Keep It Simple Stupid
In the past I have overly analyzed the typical sales process and felt that you need to be armed with the best sales products on the market to be successful. I realized that this is not true and keeping it simple is indeed the only way to go. I am my own sales team and there is no reason to try and act as if I am bigger then I truly am. So what are the tools I will be utilizing to make these sales happen?
(a) My Vocal Chords And Deductive Reasoning
I’ve been told by many that I have a phone voice. Since that is the case I will use this to my advantage. My goal is to either call individuals / businesses and explain to them how a quality domain name could help there business. I’ve cold called before and have done quite well at it, now I will be cold calling for myself and I realize that I will run into many dial tones and voice mails. In my opinion voice mails can just be the beginning of a transaction in the making.
Deductive reasoning fits in into this because I need to decide to call and not call. Lets face it I am located here on the west coast calling people at about 6am in the morning (PST). Since that is the case I would be better off calling people on the east coast. This works out perfectly. In my research of determining who to call I will separate the list based on time zone. For those here on the west coast I will most likely email them and if there is interest I will plan a follow up call.
(b) Cell Phone + Google Voice
I own a blackberry and have always been a bit cautious when it comes to cold calling people from my personal number. That’s why I love Google Voice. I can utilize a private number dedicated to simply making calls and when someone returns a call I can greet them with a custom voicemail specifically designated for potential sales leads. You know what else is awesome about Google Voice? I can type in notes! Regardless if someone calls me or I call them I can write down notes based on the phone logs presented within the Google Voice interface.
(c) Google Contacts
On top of that regardless if I contacted someone by email or phone I can use Google Contacts to organize the overall sales leads. Once a lead becomes hot I can place these individuals into a special group, if a lead becomes cold I can do the same. There is also a note section where I can summarize what happened on a particular day. Notes are important and its always fun to know where you left off with a specific sales lead regardless of the outcome.
(d) A Computer
I can utilize my netbook or my desktop to research leads. It honestly doesn’t matter! The good thing about my netbook is I have ATT wireless connectivity with it and can work remotely if I feel I need to do so. For the most part I will be working from home unless I get the urge to go to the beach or a coffee shop.
As always I will most likely write about what happens. I hope this entry helps some of you realize that there is nothing complex about selling domains. You just need to conduct the proper due diligence and be consistent. I already know I will be able to sell several domain names in my portfolio. The goal is to make a healthy profit in doing so.
You’re Not Making Money, You Just Read About It (WTF)
If there is one thing that I love to listen to it is music. I listen to all genres, but tend to listen to rap especially when I want to motivate myself. Although rap can be cliche, one thing you will hear is how someone is making money or how they have made money. At the moment I am listening to a Wiz Khalifa track called WTF on his Cabin Fever mixtape.
In the song there is a segment where he says:
“You ain’t even getting money, you just be around it.”
For some reason when I heard this line it made me think about the amount of time people spend reading about success. This is especially true of the domaining industry. It seems people care to read and write about the same successful ventures, transactions and domain gurus instead of creating the equivalent for themselves.
Do we envy a select few in this industry?
Big ticket transactions tend to draw people into this industry and that is a fact. Unfortunately the majority of us will never experience this level of success for ourselves. I’m just stating the truth here. So if this is the case, are we settling for the next best thing by living vicariously through those that we read and write about? I’m no better than the next person regardless of how much the individual has achieved. I have experienced success but it is probably equivalent to a small blip on the map compared to the select few who have raked in millions.
These days you can get caught up in associating yourself with those who have reached the pinnacle of domaining success. The closer you get to them, the more you feel as if you are part of there social network. In my book this is normally considered to be a myth. Being associated with a successful person does not make you successful. Working hard, focusing and developing a game plan for yourself does.
Instead of combing through those industry news sites, blogs and newsletters, why not venture out of the normal routine and get back to what really matters? You! That’s right, you matter and you have a story to be told. Even if you’re not making the type of money you wish you could make domaining, you could dedicate this time to focusing on your own projects instead of vicariously living through another person’s success.
Amazon Mechnical Turkers Provide A Definition For Domaining
Recently, I had the urge to post a question about our industry to the mechanical turk community. I enticed users with $0.02 per answer! Within a few hours I received a couple of entries and after a couple of days I received a few intriguing answers.
The question: What is domaining?
To take it even further I wanted mturkers to answer the question on a thread I created here:
https://convore.com/domaining/what-is-domaining/
Convore is a quick way to instant message with groups of friends in real-time. You can join in on conversations about topics that interest you, or start your own conversations.
Now for the answers to the question, taken directly from the convore thread!
Domaining is the buying and selling of domain names. To make a profit of course. -SageAndAmanda
A domain or domain name is the name that identifies a website. Each domain must be unique on the internet. For example, “www.google.comis the domain name Masadelante’s website. A single Web server can serve multiple web pages from multiple domains, but a domain can only point to a server. -lafg13
Domaining is a kind of business of making money with internet domain names.It means selling the domain names for the clients for their webhosting. -johnieurs
Profit based transactions (buying, selling) of web domains is called domaining. Bidding with domains are more profitable. For this one has to be a little cleaver. He has to select and register some nice domain names anticipating its demand, and can sell to someone who need that domain name. -aniprakash
The business of buying, selling, and developing domain names. It is also used to describe the practice of monetizing domain name registrations. -riya20025
Domain name speculation is the practice of identifying and registering or acquiring Internet domain names with the intent of selling them later for a profit. – vemulasow
The business of buying and selling of web domain with the intent of selling it later for profit is called domaining. -smokey0513
Domain name speculation is the practice of identifying and registering or acquiring Internet domain names with the intent of selling them later for a profit. The business of buying, selling, and developing domain names. It is also used to describe the practice of monetizing domain name registrations (eg through pay per click (PPC) or parking pages). -naren
Well done to everyone who participated in this task. My favorite answer would have to be the following:
Profit based transactions (buying, selling) of web domains is called domaining. Bidding with domains are more profitable. For this one has to be a little cleaver. He has to select and register some nice domain names anticipating its demand, and can sell to someone who need that domain name. -aniprakash
Maybe it’s just me but I like to think that we are all a little clever for partaking in this industry. For those of us that flip domains, we are anticipating demand. We gauge the importance of a domain name by determining the popularity of such a name before it is registered.
All of these answers were great and I am still amazed at what you can actually get for $0.02 these days on the Internet. Who knows, I might even of sparked a few of these users to become domainers. I am definitely going to use mturk again, a few cents can go a long ways on that site. The next step is to utilize crowd sourcing to help me develop a few of the names in my portfolio.
