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This entry was posted by Frank Schilling on Wednesday, February 21st, 2007 at 8:08 AM and is filed under
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Hi Frank et all,
Perhaps this one is for the humor category…
With the global economy starting to look quite iffy lately, when are we going to see a domains based pension fund in the works for people to contribute to?
Hi Frank and thank you for continuos enormous value.
I found this video from Global Conference 2007 to be a good listen: http://internetrealestate.com/2007/04/24/mike-zappy-zapolin-and-andrew-miller-to-speak-at-the-milken-institutes-global-conference-on-successful-internet-businesses/
Regards,
Michael.
Sedo Unwraps its Christmas co.uk Internet Domain Name Auction
http://www.itnews.it/2007/1123155801996/sedo-unwraps-its-christmas-co-uk-internet-domain-name-auction.html
Dan
Happy Tgiving there Frank..
thought I’d share a surprising analysis I did on bodog, spotlighting whether their domain struggles affected overall traffic to their site..
http://www.domainersgazette.com/how-bodogcom-lost-and-eventually-won/
-peter
Check Out Googles Home Page (11:13PM PST)
http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en
Hi Frank,
Another good link since IDNs are getting a good bit of news coverage these days. Verisign put out this report a few months ago, some really good graphs that point up what most of us suspected… that major uptake of IDNs have been strongest in China and Korea as many had noted that virtually all top idn.com, idn.cn etc. terms taken for those 2 languages.
Still some good IDN opportunities in other major languages but that window will probably close pretty fast once IE7 IDN browser support is finally released via auto update in Asia.
http://www.aptld.org/dubaiJune2007/09%20VeriSign%20-%20IDN%20Market%20Trends%20for%20Dubai%20APTLD%20Meeting.pdf
ok Frank..
Askew here.. take a peek, I got bored and designed some alt logo fonts for your site (I was inspired by Sahar)..let me know if you like any..
http://www.domainersgazette.com/an-alternative-logo-font-for-frank-schillings-blog/
Network Solutions® Launches Enhanced Business Listings (WHOIS)
Network Solutions® offers their customers the opportunity to use their existing WHOIS listing to advertise their contact information, services and other company specific information.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/11/prweb571262.htm
Frank,
Have read a lot about you and enjoy your blog. I would appreciate your input on the following:
#1 I currently have my Domains in my name..would it benefit me to hold them in a corporation?
***FS*** If you’re making money with your names, you should incorporate.. if you’re domaining from home part-time after work it would probably still make sense to incorporate.
#2 I read that Marchex and others have invested quite heavily in Localized Domains (city-state service-product specific ie. portlandappliacedealers.com)….what is your view on this and where do you see the value of this type of Domain heading?
***FS*** I think some of those might work out well. Google searches for these types of yellowpage category domains seattlelocksmiths.com etc etc.. are increasingly getting cluttered with SEO spam, so if they can deliver a better product there using openlist and other local tools in their bag, they may start to get some serious traction.. If anything, those types of names have real breakup-value well above registration price.. so even if their idea doesn’t work .. they can sell the domains al at a profit.
Thaking you in advance,
Jim
8 trends to capitalize on in 2008
http://trendwatching.com/briefing/
How Do You Tell a Web Name From A Typo?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/27/AR2007112702321.html
Frank,
Thanks for your replies to my questions…
I sent you a private email regarding my portfolio via some email addresses I found for you…did you receive the email ?
Jim K
Frank,
What are your thoughts about becoming your own registrar? Would you advise people who have the money to do this? Seems like you could monetize a large portfolio without the high registrar fees. Any thoughts?
***FS*** I think if you have valuable names and make money with them, you should be your own registrar.
Frank,
Enjoy your blog…its great that you take the time to respond…its appreciated….two questions
We have over 3,000 localized US city-state product/service specific Domains ie. atlantapetshops.com, memphispetstores.com,newjerseyopticians.com,..californiaappliancedealers.com that we would like to lease out and/or sell in bulk while we concentrate on developing our other domains:
#1 what are your thoughts on bulk leasing and/or sale versus doing them individually?
#2 if we pursue bulk, can you suggest anyone that might be interested in such a lease and/or sale ?
thanks again
***FS*** Depends how good those names are.. I would prefer to own than lease .. don’t have a lot of color to add on this question but maybe another reader will
Just some FYI:
invest.com is currently on auction at SEDO:
Time Left: 4 Days 20 Hours
Current bid:350,000 $US
Reserve Price: NOT met yet
Bids: 10 bidders so far
http://www.sedo.com/auction/auction_detail.php?language=us&auction_id=21998&tracked=&partnerid=
Peace!
Dan
Hi F
I am going to sell part of my portfolio of European domains and would like your opinion on the method of disposal.
It seems to me to be a good time to offer these domains for sale as the European markets offer good first come opportunities and the Euro returns are set to offer good exchange rates for some time.
My strategy in 1999 was to register a number of generic domains in clusters specifically targeting the Italian insurance industry, leave them dormant and wait for broadband services to be accessible
The registrations include (Italian) insurance, car insurance, motorcycle insurance, house & life … with other generic auto registrations to offer SEO support
The registrations have real intrinsic value with good cpc returns according to Google ?
If I put this portfolio into an auction the potential strength of the group (if not the value) will be lost. This type of portfolio’s group asset should be used by professionals who can sweat the asset, and I am not aware of any UK or Italian based domain professionals other than marketing companies wearing the emperors new clothes.
Would you place the domains at auction, use a broker and if the latter who would you approach ?
***FS*** I’d approach a broker about auctioning.. But perhaps somebody from this site will contact you. Depends how good they are.
Frank I noticed you mentioned I city names and that you like them in the Wednesday linkfest. That surprised me thought you did not like brandable and only the generic.
I wanted your opinion I picked up iCaymans.com and already got a $500 offer Let me know what you think.
Please do not print question unless you can answer I am not looking for anyone elses opinion
Thank you
***FS*** While they call them the cayman Islands.. The word Caymans isn’t as common or correctly applicable to these parts in terms of a stand alone business or directory.. Caymans.com without the ‘i’ wouldn’t make that great a name, so with the ‘i’ not really hard hitting. Singular with ‘i’ would be great though.. Outstanding even. Hope this helps.
Frank,
Not related to domaining but I’m asking bloggers to blog about Linda Bauman. She is a friend of Sahar’s. She is in a coma from a water skiing accident and her husband is selling raffle tickets for a fully loaded 2003 Hummer to help pay for transportation to a proper treatment facility. I thought we could all pull together and help him out in this way as well.
http://www.conceptualist.com/2007/12/05/help-linda-bauman/
http://www.tiawood.com/misc/misc/win-a-fully-loaded-2003-h2-hummer.html
Thanks Frank,
Tia Wood
Hi Frank,
After building a substatial portfolio of domains and educating myself about this business I find now that perhaps I may need some assistance in determining which ones to park, to sell, to lease, to develop, or to partner with, etc…
Can you suggest any conmpanies or individuals that provide such services?
Thanks
***FS*** I wish I could.. I would ask around on domainstate or namepros
Frank,
To see why nobody needs dot Mobi, view the demo of Opera Mini here:
http://www.download.com/8301-2007_4-9817009-12.html?tag=dl-blog
British brands fall behind European rivals in online brand protection stakes (PR)
http://www.netnames.com/platinum/Press+releases/Press+releases/2007/British_brands_lag_behind_European_rivals_in_online_brand_protection_stakes
Best,
Dan
Hi Frank – ’stole’ this from a friend on DNF (3dGeek) – humor with a message!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi4fzvQ6I-o
Merry Christmas – James
PS. Haven’t had delivery of my Rum Cake yet
What came first – the domain, or the site? (Geo Domain Traffic Surge In Omaha .com)
http://www.domainnamenews.com/up-to-the-minute/what-came-first-the-domain-or-the-site/1331
uh frank check this out this new post about the games .mobi winner
http://alvaroalbarracin.blogspot.com/
says he found out one of his sites now has 10,000 users due to a recent report…
looks like he is a newbie
Frank,
This thread now take a ridiculously long time to load.
Any chance you could archive it into another accessible thread so the recent stuff would be more accessible?
Hi Frank, have a nice vacation! Hope you run into Tina Dam during your travels. Regards, Bill
ARTICLE QUOTE: IDNs are the Internet’s real star at the moment. But why do they matter? And why is ICANN putting so much effort into them?
http://www.domainesinfo.fr/english/145/making-the-internet-truly-local.php
Like many of your readers I’ve spent many late nights searching through 40,000 back orders a day to try and find those gems that no one else saw dropping. It almost became addicting because I always felt like I could be missing out on big riches the way prices are rising so quickly these days.
Sadly, NONE of the names that drop now-a-days have any value. This is especially true now that NameJet has come on board. I backordered “liquidspeed.com” the other day after sorting through NameJet’s horrific search platform thinking that this was a small gem that had good resell value, but sure enough, NameJet let people backorder it and then decided to keep it for themselves.
Here’s the kicker: Since backordering has slown to a crawl, the only way people will find good names is in the aftermarket. In other words, the aftermarket is about to EXPLODE! because our only oxygen pipeline has been cutoff.
Get ready folks, the iceberg is about to show itself.
Hi Frank
http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2007/december.htm
For me (at this point in my domain business) – that has got to be THE MOST inspirational thing I think I have EVER read.
Just brilliant.
Thanks to you for doing this piece and Ron for publishing.
Hi Frank,
New to the domain-name game here… Have a quick question regarding acquiring domain names that end with the word hub.
For example, a few of the domains I have recently registered that end with the word hub are:
http://CardiovascularHub.com
http://DementiaHub.com
http://MedicalNewsHub.com
http://SeniorCareHub.com
http://SeniorCitizensHub.com
http://UniversalHealthCareHub.com
And there are many more like that…
Obviously, because these were all recently available, then it’s doubtful that they have any material traffic or they would have been scooped up by now.
My question is, do you have an opinion on owning a domain name with the word hub at the end, such as those above, for the purpose of possibly selling one of these in the future?
Is the only value in a domain name judged by the type-in traffic it may get?
Thanks!
Frank,
Great to have you back, hope you enjoyed your vacation…I almost went into withdrawal without your blog…..questions?? Do you find that some principles of Domaining conflict with each other? Such as, we are told to buy generic Domains short in length, but I have found several times when using Keyword/phrase tools that a longer more specific version containing the shorter version phrase shows substantially more searches. Which is more valuable??..the shorter version or the one showing a higher search count?
And if search count does rule here , is a longer phrased Domain with a search count of say 3x the shorter version worth 3x more???
Thanking you in advance,
***FS*** I hate to give an answer like this but “it depends” .. you could have a longer name that gets one visit per month, everyone clicks and for highly bidded stuff and makes lots of money.. you could have a shorter name that gets way more visits and garners no clicks, making no money. There are mixes in between. Typically shorter names make good anchor sites.. site names. Longer names make better lead-in pages and pointers. But even those old fashioned stereotypes are going away.
Hi Frank,
Welcome back!
I’ve really been looking forward to the further positive developments in the domain industry in 2008. But who would have thought that this year would start with such bad publicity?
http://www.domainnamenews.com/featured/domain-registrar-network-solutions-front-running-on-whois-searches/1359
Frank, I own controlling interest in CustomerService.com.
I recently read an article in one of the domain ezines that leasing out a high-traffic name for a specific amount for a specific period of time can be a lucrative route…I don’t remember where I read that. (I think one of the “geo domain brothers” suggested it.)
Of course, I’ve had many offers to buy it but not for what I think a generic like this is worth. And many have offered to develop it for/with me but what they promise and what they can deliver may be very different (talk being very cheap).
As far as selling the name is concerned, I see that vista.com recently sold for $1.25 million; Seniors.com for $1.8 million, etc. But when I’ve posted on domain sites trying to get other domainers’ opinions of it’s current market value, those posting value it in the low 6 figures. Frank, if you owned this name, what would you do with it? And if you were going to sell it, how much would you ask? Thanks.
,
***FS*** I’m not trying to be rude or to lower your expectations but I would pay maybe 50k at auction for a name like that.. it’s huge but it’s long and a bit unweildy as a standalone site.. What to do with it.. you could run an outsourced customer service co.. but employees will get tired of passing their email as frank.schilling@customerservice.com (14 letter domain plus @ and employee is long) .. and service.com would be better as a standalone brand. Still it would make a great pointer or lead-in name and 100k doesn’t get you what it used to. I could see it cracking that 6 fig to the right person, or if an obvious killer app use/implementation reared its head that made making money with the name a more obvious proposition.
http://www.fusu.com/welcome_page
Domain Exchange – Think this will gain traction?
***FS*** I think it will.. won’t be the last one either.. this model will be huge.
What do you think of Google’s new policy with PPC ads stating that the url line must match the destination. I’d say it’s good news for generic domain (and generic typo) owners. So much for Frito Lay being able to use http://www.ChipsAndSalsa.com in their PPC marketing anymore.
(Not that they did, I actually want the domain. I even emailed you about it years ago. Lol)
***FS*** Soft mapping is good for the industry when close enough.. i think Google is becoming to rigid and creating opportunities for creative newcomers to create another ad-market.. The pendulum is overswinging at the moment imo.. Google being too opresive and risks alienating one segment of their market.. Not sure they care tho.
But hasn’t it seemed to you that they were allowing anyone to basically use any display url even when they didn’t own it? We’re not supposed to use another persons url as the display url. This rule change isn’t geared towards that, but it will inforce it if they are really going to take this seriously.
I think I know what you’re refering to with the “creative newcomers” and that other ad market.