Thursday’s Daily Dropping Domains and Auctions

Somebody is selling their Geo domains through Namejet today and there are quite a few nice ones.  It may be the most geo domains I’ve had on my daily lists.  Take a look

Shelbyville.com Great Geo and almost every state has a Shelbyville

Reseda.com A California suburb of LA Geo with a relatively low population but seemingly lots of interest

MilwaukeeRestaurants.com Hey der, wood u like to find sumpton to eat, der

Burien.com A city in Washington with approx 35,000 people and 3500 exact searches

LovesPark.com A city in Illinois with 25,000

RoundRock.net Texas city with over 100,000 people.  6600 searches

CreditMortgage.net If you believe keywords help then you’ll like this one

Murfreesboro.net Another 100,000 person town.  In Tenn

Rick Latona Was Walking On An Irish Beach and Found a Bottle

Rick Latona was walking along a beach in Ireland when he came across a bottle.  On the bottle it said “Rub for a Wish”.  Rick slowly rubbed the bottle and low and behold, a genie popped out of the bottle and said  “Thanks for letting me out, what would you like as your wish?”

Rick replied, “I’d like to look 20 years younger and have more money and more domains than Rich Schwartz and Frank Schilling combined.”  The genie replied “I can’t really turn back time and it’s not like I can just make more domains for you to have, those are pretty much impossible, how about you come up with another wish”

Rick thought long and hard and said “I’d like the Auction at TRAFFIC Dublin to be the most successful auction this year”   The genie looked at him and said  “Yeah, in that case, let me see if I can call a plastic surgeon of mine, and in the meantime I’m going to try and round up some money and domains”

PS:  Just having a little fun, I know Rick is the hardest working man in domaining.

Wednesday’s Daily Dropping Domains and Auctions

I’ve been looking for a strong name in the $10K range for a few weeks and haven’t found anything at all.  There are plenty of people willing to sell you a $2500 name for $10K but I’m having more trouble getting someone to sell me a $25K name for $10K.   And no, just because valuate says it’s worth $25K doesn’t mean it is.  Remember,  it’s a guide.  Now on to the names

PortableGPS.net 21,000 searches and a $6000 valuate, no bidders

Kadd.com Another 5L getting lots of attention, 1997 domain

SpecialedNews.com A pr6 domain.  That’s enough

AlisonKrauss.net Not a name squatter but maybe you’re a fan.  She’s an Urbana IL girl and I know her family so I may buy and give it to her

Fake%its.net It looks like there is over 4 million searches for this one.  Just kidding, I don’t even like the word (Tia, sorry if I have offended) but there actually is a lot of searches and no bidders

NoMoneyDownHomeLoans.net Huge CPC and over 1000 searches.   Your site should be popular because finding a no money down home load may be next to impossible

There’s One Sign That You’ve “Made It”: Money Looks For You

The other day I received an email from the very successful businessman discussing advertising opportunities on his blog and why people should put their money in him, and it reminded me of something a fellow bond trader once told me.  “You know you’ve made it when you don’t have to chase the money, the money will be chasing you”

This isn’t to say that there is anything wrong with working hard to earn money, it’s only to say that the top echelon of successful people have investors waiting in line to give them money. They have proven to their community that they are so influential or good at what they do,  that investing in that person, his skill, company , or ideas is a good financial move.  In domain investment, we are constantly in search of buyers.  Investors with the best names on the other hand, turn away offers every day. They have reached a level where they can wait for the right price to come.

Perhaps the most common form of money chasing is in actors or athletes.  They are in the eye of millions of people and top athletes and actors can merely pick and choose which companies they would like to work with.  Another example would be Fred Wilson.  He is one of the most successful venture capitalists in the world.  It is an honor to have him invested in your company.  Most venture capitalist boast of the successful companies that they are invested in.  Fred Wilson is one of the rare examples of instances where companies can boost their validity and importance by saying that Fred Wilson is an investor.

We can even use the point on websites and blogs.  You know you are successful when you can set the advertising rates based on the maximum price point that there isn’t a line waiting to advertise.  Techcrunch requires you spend at least $5000 to advertise on their site.  Meanwhile, most of the world has an empty 125 X 125 block begging for advertising.  In our industry the Big 4 that have “made it” and have plenty of people wanting to advertise would be Elliot, DnJournal, The Domains, and DNWire.  All deserving due to their longevity and breaking news and information.  I might add that Morgan Linton is next in line for person that money will be chasing.

My goal in business is to get that point where other people want to invest in me.  I’m not there yet but I realized early on that if you concentrate on a niche you stand a better chance than being good at many things and blending in with the crowd.  Once I’ve achieved that level of success in a certain area I believe it is possible to take those finances, trust, and notoriety and expand it to other bordering niches.  A perfect example was today’s article over at Elliots about Tabcom.  They became pioneers in the online pet industry and expanded that into the gardening realm.  A business that has been closely linked for many years.  From the gardening world they expanded into the “green” industry.  Again, another closely related business.  They now have money chasing them and can use it to further expand and create.

All this isn’t to say that that the successful person ever stops chasing money.  Their drive is most likely what got them to where they are and it becomes almost impossible to stop the desire for more money. People like Mark Cuban, Keith Richman,  and Elon Musk, can never stop because they love developing and creating.  There is only one thing that changes when the money starts coming after you? You can make even more, quicker and easier.

Tuesday’s Daily Dropping Domains and Auctions

As a guy from the Midwest I was required by law to bid on corn.net yesterday at NameJet but unfortunately came up just a bit short.  I get the consolation prize of being able to see corn from every window of every building in my town.  Here’s today’s list…..Enjoy

OakTech.com I only like it because it was born in 1993.  Seventeen years old is fantastic in domaining, not so good if that’s the age of the girl you’re dating

GetRidofZits.com Ironically that’s a problem with girls and boys of the age above.  1200 Searches, $2.28 CPC

IDNdomain.com Domain name about domain names equals lots of bidders and high price

PardonMyEnglish.com I couldn’t find out why this was already so high and then I saw it is a PR6

IMBD.co This is at $6600 plus which will make it officially the worst money ever spent on a domain that didn’t end in .tel.   I guarantee people think this is IMDB.co which would be worth a little more but not even close to $6K.

SettlingCreditCardDebt.net I accidentally placed a bid on this one.  Please, someone bid higher.

WarPaint.com Great name over at Sedo.  Many uses but best as a site for a college such Florida State or Illinois.

NerfHerder.com If you are a Star Wars fan then you’ll understand this name.  Many a geek would want this name

Monday’s Daily Dropping Domains and Auctions

Hope everyone had a nice weekend.  I spent all of Sunday working on my sites and reading more about monetization.  One thing is for sure, domains are getting more expensive,especially good keywords domains.  It seems that domainers are pretty comfortable where they are financially and are in no hurry to get rid of their names.  Good for owners, tough for seekers.  Now onto the names

BatteryCars.com Great keywords and I think car batteries are a HUGE market and growing

Stri.com I don’t like the domain but many people do including valuate.com at $16,000 and 45 bidders

BlueberryWine.com Even drunk you’d realize that this has value because it’s DMOZ listed, PR4, and has 2000 Yahoo links

Enchiladas.net Este domain is muy bien

WomensFootball.net Works better in England than in the US

Don’t like my names?  Try finding your own

For Now, Keyword Laden Domain Names Are An Important Part of the SEO Puzzle

There’s been a lot of talk about Google’s algorithm and it’s constant change.  One thing is apparent, Google likes keywords in the domain.  In medium to small competition keywords, a domain with those keywords often outranks sites with much better content and links.  Many a large site owner has checked their Google rankings only to see a 6 page, keywords loaded, keyword domain name ranked higher.  Is that about to change?  Why does Google do this?  Webmasterworld had a nice discussion break out regarding these points.

Here’s the post that started the discussion

It’s 2010, and Google still gives a considerable amount of weight to keyword domains. I have competitors with a fraction of the links I have, yet they still outrank me on certain terms. To top it off, content on these domains are usually spammy. You know, the type of content that is built around keywords rather than the reader.

From my estimates, to outrank them on a term associated with their domain name I need double the link power, on average. Has anyone else with a brandable (no generic keywords) domain experienced this?

It seems to me, SEO-wise, generic keyword laden domains are still the way to go. That may change in the future, but it hasn’t yet.

Here are a few of the posts that I thought provided some great opinions and info

If you’ve ever tried to rank a keyword-match domain in a competitive market, you know it takes more than just the domain.

This is true. However, one reason I’d give the edge to keyword rich domains is that the URL itself effectively serves as anchor text when linked. I figure it has to be a valuable asset when users are sharing your link across forums and such.

IMO there is much more that goes into rankings these days than simply the link count… I think looking and thinking ‘I have the most links, so I should rank better’ are either over on definitely on their way out…

I’ve considered many other factors but as far as I can see it comes down to the domain name on this one. I’ve noticed other competitors in a similar situation have trouble ranking against these keyword domains as well. I suppose it’s possible that Google weighs certain keywords or niches differently, perhaps based on popularity of a given term.

2. Domain with hyphens between words doesn’t have the same effect.

I’ve noticed this too.

The more competitive the term the more likely you are to be up against people with money who pay savvy SEOs to get great links.

In the last 12 months I’ve taken first place for a non-competitive local small business term with an exact match non-hyphenated keyword domain with one link from its sister site (itself not a strong domain by any means). The site was top ten when launched (even with duplicate content). When re-optimised it went to first immediately.

In a more competitive sphere (information search) we launched a new site which immediately outranked Wikipedia, government advice sites, the BBC and other big names with 100s / 1000s of links, with an exact match keyword domain which had just one strong link from its household name parent site. It hovers around 40 for synonyms and related phrases which are supported by the title tag.

So I see a real and disproportionate boost. If you have the natural keyword domain I think your competitors would have to work much harder to keep up.

And a few more

A decent generic domain name is a “signal of quality”. For popular commercial search phrases (especially 1-3 word ones) obtaining the exact-match generic can be an expensive proposition if you don’t already own it from way-back-when… and that could be interpreted as one thing that separates the spammers from the players.

As such, these kinds of domains should be seen as prime commercial real estate in the heart of downtown. You could in theory put anything you like on the land, but in practice it will generally end up getting sold or leased to deeper pocketed businesses with a business model that “works” such that they can afford it.

And the simple fact that they are based in such a “prime location” is enough to lend real, palpable legitimacy to businesses situated there, even if they’re being viewed for the first time by someone unfamiliar with the area. (Contrast your own instant gut reaction to main street vs back street stores in a town you’re unfamiliar with)

It’s therefore both logical and to be expected that Google would give a decent boost to high value commercial exact-match domains.

It’s a huge factor in my experience especially if it’s an exact match. I’d go as far as saying that an exact match KW domain will at least halve the necessary other SEO work to hit the number 1 spot.

It must be exact match though – even a plural difference doesn’t give this huge boost.

The other thing is a secondary effect – a ranking boost due to CTR. Searchers are more likely to click on a domain redshoes.com.au when they are searching for ‘red shoes’ especially as Google emboldens the KW.

And finally another good opinion

Regarding the SEW study, here’s some commentary and critique on WebmasterWorld, from back in July….

Has the Anchor Text Signal Been Dampened?
http://www.webmasterworld.com/link_development/4175042.htm [webmasterworld.com]

IMO, while the study is interesting, its approach is flawed because it considers inbound linking in isolation. I’ve always felt that inbound anchor text, link quality, page titles, onsite navigation, and onpage content all work together.

With regard to the domain name advantage… in areas I observe regularly, there are many exact match domains that are apparently unbeatable, and there are some that aren’t ranking well at all. It’s not always the .com TLD that’s the winner. Obviously, what you do with the site has something to do with how much mileage the domain name will get you.

Often, the top exact match domains in very competitive areas are also extremely good sites, and they benefit from years of success and development dollars. Keyword domains that don’t do well are generally cookie-cutter sites hoping to leverage the domain name by itself, with not enough emphasis on development of site content.

I do feel that keywords in the domain… or really in the company name… give a site a great anchor text advantage at the start. This is such an advantage that in some areas I’d say it’s extremely hard, if not practically impossible, to beat established keyword domains. I think that it is the anchor text, not just the domain name, that carries the weight. More precisely, it’s the inbound anchor text in combination with keywords in the domain or company name that appear also on the site.

Google’s addition of algo branding factors was perhaps intended to help level this playing field to a degree, but the increased weight given to brands has also served further to push newly emerging sites down.

So the definitive answer is……..we still don’t know,  but it certainly helps to start with a strong keyword domain name.   Make a junk site and you deserve to have junk results.  Solid domain with great content and you should rise to the top.

We All Know Social Media Can Send Massive Traffic to Our Sites: You Might Be Surprised By the Leaders

Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Social Media Market Share

In the old days, three years ago, Digg ruled social media.  Five years ago it was Slashdot.  If you could get your story on the front page then it was good for tens of thousands of visitors a day.  It looks like times have changed and the new social media power houses aren’t exactly obvious.  You’re going to assume that it’s Facebook and Twitter, but you may be surprised by what percentage of traffic is derived from each site.

According to StatCounter, the free counter site that many of us have on our sites, Facebook was the obvious winner with almost half of all traffic from social media(48%) derived from links on their site.  The data comes from 13 billion pageviews across all the sites in the StatCounter network so it gives a pretty solid representation of what’s happening on the net.  The second biggest driver of traffic…….Twitter?  Nope.  StumbleUpon.  Surprisingly,  StumbleUpon sent 25% of all social media traffic.  Twitter was a very distant 8.3%.

This data certainly doesn’t weigh the quality of the traffic but merely the numbers.  If you were to ask any site owner which type of traffic they would like to have and I think they would certainly rank it Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, Youtube, Digg, and then Stumbleupon.   The data also is a bit misleading in the fact that Facebook traffic is spread out between many many more sites due to the amazing amount of users.  Sites like digg and reddit spread the daily traffic among 100 or less sites, giving those sites a concentrated hit of traffic.

Here are the top 7

1. Facebook (48.9%)

2. StumbleUpon (24.91%)

3. Twitter (8.53%)

4. Youtube (6.14%)

5. Reddit (4.14%)

6.MySpace (1.73%)

7. Digg (1.65)

Various Other Sites weighed in with small percentages to make up the balance. LinkedIn came in 12th with .34%

I Would Like to Send a Big Thank You To FortunateDomains.com

There are a lot of bloggers that make a living writing about domaining.  They have inside information and rightfully are the first people that are called when someone wants to relay information to the domain world.  Me, I write for fun and absolutely no profit. When you calculate my advertising revenue versus time put into writing I make exactly .19 cents an hour.  OK, I just made that number up but it’s certainly not big money.

Thanks to special companies like Dot .co and Aaron at IDN Tools, I am able to at least make a little something for my efforts.  I’m not going to give you the latest news or any insider information, all I can do is share things through my eyes as I see it and share my experiences as a domainer and a business owner.  I really like this business,  most of the people and can see myself making a lot of money in the long run.  That being said, I would like to intro my newest sponsor …..Fortunate Domains.

Here’s how Lisa of Fortunate Domains describes her company  “Fortunate Domains.com is a culmination of over 10 years of domain investing. Based in the Seattle area, our domain investments range from product domains, to tourism, architecture, art, home, garden, geo domains, and more. Having concentrated primarily on keyword rich domains, we have terrific brand-able domains, as well. We are a nice group of people, who have a background in development. We will be sharing this knowledge with our users via helpful insight, tips, and suggestions in the areas of domain development” To kick of their new website on September 1 they’ll be offering 10 (.com) domain deals, every day for 5 days in a row. Each one will be less than $100.  Look for more details at FortunateDomains.com, this coming Monday, August 23.  Lisa has been a pleasure to work with and I’m sure you will have the same experience.  Please give them a visit

Epik’s Developer Conference Picks up GoDaddy as Primary Sponsor

Congratulations to Rob Monster and Epik on picking up Godaddy as a Gold Sponsor.  From September 15 to the 17th, Epik is having an exciting conference in Seattle to discuss domain name monetization.  It looks to be a great learning tool for domain developers and I think the auctions is being way under publicized.  There are some fantastic domains/websites being auctioned here is a portion of the recent press release

Among other assistance, Go Daddy will be helping to promote the event through social media and direct customer contact. “Go Daddy is a natural partner for the Epik Domain Developers Conference,” says Paul Nicks, Director of Product Development – Aftermarket at GoDaddy.com. “Go Daddy has always believed domain names are 21st century real estate — but that’s only part of the equation. A solid development plan can help any great domain name reach its maximum potential.”

In addition to the educational tracks, the conference will include a live auction of 300 revenue generating websites based on the Epik platform, including – AbdominalTrainer.com, Collision.com, Haircare.com, HardDrives.com, Heroine.com, Maid.com, HDProjector.com, Patents.com, Spoons.com, WirelessHeadphone.com and WiFi.com.