These are my favorites of the names I purchased last week:
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I started a discussion on Namepros.com, called “What to choose when .com is taken?” that you might be interested in reading. People are weighing in on the respective values of the various TLDs. Please join in.
EDIT to Add: I just read an article out today entitled “Use of “.US” Domain Name Extension Rises Sharply.” If you’re interested in .us names, you should read it.
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The following is the list of names I’ve purchased over the last week. Geez! I need to get away from my computer and save some money! My top pick was EasyFinancing.com. Now that is a fantastic name!
I particularly like Build-A-Robot.com as the Robot industry, while in its infancy, is really starting to take off now, and robot kits are everywhere. I also was shocked when I picked up an incredible robot name from TDNAM.com for $10 with no other bidders. When it’s transferred to me in two weeks I can tell you what it is (I’m always nervous about mentioning these names until I’m the legal owner).
Crankups.com (and CrankItUp.com and HandCrankPower.com) is an interesting name that would be a great blog or sales site about all the new hand crank products that coming out. But, have you seen the new “$100 hand crank laptop” that the major tech companies are putting together to provide computers to the needy schoolchild? They’ll be only $100 and can be handcranked to generate power. They are planning on selling tens of millions of them! So, I purchased a few names in this area: HandCrankComputer.com, CrankUpLaptop.com. I’m particularly fond of the two names I coined for these future devices: CrankBook.com and CrankTop.com–I hope they become household terms!
And I love this fun name: EcoManiac.com. I already own EcoManiacs.com. This would be a great domain name for an environmental site!
AndroidPorn.com
Apostrophe.info
Build-A-Robot.com
CheapWebsite.info
CrankItUp.com
CrankBook.com
CrankTop.com
CrankUpLaptop.com
Crankups.com
EasyFinancing.com
EcoGroups.com
EcoManiac.com
ExoticEscorts.info
ExoticGirls.info
FabLab.us
FindLatina.com
FreeSiteBuilder.info
FreeVirtualSex.info
FreeVirtualSex.net
FutureGenomics.com
GenomicVitamins.com
GetVirtualSex.com
HandCrankComputer.com
HandCrankPower.com
IBOP.US
LatinaVirtual.com
MicroRobo.com
NanoScale.biz
NanoScale.us
NextRobot.com
NudeAndroid.com
Porn-Robot.com
RoboAppliance.com
RoboAppliances.com
RoboArms.com
Robocracy.com
RoboExpert.com
RoboGaming.com
RoboHoes.com
RoboHomes.com
RoboInstructor.com
RoboPet.biz
RoboPet.us
RoboPets.biz
RoboPets.us
RobotOfTheDay.com
Robot-Porn.com
SexLink.us
SolarBuilding.info
SolarCareer.com
SolarCareers.com
SolarCooling.info
SolarEnergyBoat.com
SolarEnergyBoats.com
SolarGenerator.info
SolarPowerBoat.com
SolarPowerBoats.com
Spongebobs.com
VirtualPorno.info
Virtual-Sex.org
VirtualSexDownload.com
VirtualSexReview.com
VirtualSexSoftware.com
vTwin.us
WholeThings.com
WorkingLatina.com
I have to get something off my chest. The way most domain name owners respond to a sales inquiry drives me nuts. Surely, you’ve seen it; most likely you do it too. Here’s how it goes: I contact the owner of a domain I’m interested in purchasing and ask for the price. Nine out of ten times, rather than getting a price, I get one of the following responses:
“Make me an offer.”
“What are you willing to spend?”
“What’s your budget?”
“What will you be using the name for?”
“Gee, I really don’t know what the domain is worth…”
What’s up with all that? I’m surprised no one has asked to see my bank statement before giving me a price! I mean, is it variable based upon my net worth? Asking what I’m going to use it for really irritates me–why should they care? It’s none of their business.
Similarly, it just cracks me up when I look at the domain name listings on the various sites like Afternic that have a minimum bid price way, way below the sales price (which seems to be the norm for names for sale with prices listed). For example, you might see a domain name with a price of $5,000 with a minimum bid of $500. What the hell does that mean? If the price is $5,000, why accept bids of $500? Is the range $500 - $5,000? Is it $5,000 but if I get on their knees and beg you’ll sell it for $500? Is it really $5,000 firm but you get some sick pleasure in telling me $500 is too low? Just which of those signals are you sending? If you are not going to sell it for close to $5,000, get rid of the minimum bid, or at least make the minimum bid closer to the sales price. Or, just place a minimum bid amount with no sales price.
My Afternic and Sedo listing have minimum bid amounts, but don’t have sales prices. The biggest reason for this is that with over 800 names, I can’t keep track of changing valuations for all the names over time. Someone can use the make a bid option there to initiate contact. At that point, I can accept the bid or tell them my price. Not start playing games with them.
If someone directly contacts me for a price on a domain without making a bid first, 99% of the time I will think over what I’d be willing to sell the name for right then and tell them. If they are willing to pay less, but it is in the ballpark, we can negotiate.
Asking for an offer in hopes that they will offer a very high price (above what I’d really sell it for) is pretty ridiculous–what buyer in their right mind is really going to make their first offer a very high offer anyway? Who will say, “I’ll pay you $5,000 for that name” when it’s really worth $500? Unless it is a very valuable premium name, buyers will always start in the tens or hundreds of dollars anyway.
Okay, now I feel better.
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Much anticipated Google Base went live today. Essentially, it is a free, publicly searchable database to which you can add nearly any item you wish. The official Google Blog will give you an introduction to it.
I got on this morning and gave it a shot. It’s incredibly easy to use. I entered “items” for most categories of domain name I have. And, I also added into the Articles category our most popular article, Domain Name Mispronouncings.
You can see one of my listings by searching Google Base (not Google web) for “Music Related Domain Names.” If you click on the title link, you’ll be taken to my music-related domain names web page. I was allowed to enter a description, in which I entered all the domain names in the category, but only the first 150 or so words actually show up in the listing and there is no way to click to read it all. So, make sure that the web page you linked to the item has everything you need on it.
By they way, I have some “Base” domain names on my Technology page. And no, Base is not trademarked by Google.
As people learn more about using Google Base for domain names, please post your comments here.
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I came across a press release today entitled Domain Name Sale Offers Chance in Guinness Book of World Records and had to share it with you. What a crack up!
I don’t know if Andres Kello is delusional, is just having fun, or if he’s just not too bright and thinks he’s going to actually pull off his plan. He’s selling his domain name, TheRecordBreakingDomain.com, for $7,500,000.01, one penny more than the current record. What is the value of this 23-letter domain name with no keyword value? Nearly priceless, apparently! Why? Because if you agree to pay him that much you will then own the most expensive domain name ever sold. You then be famous! You’ll be in the Guinness Book of World Records and the world will beat a path to the TheRecordBreakingDomain.com web site! Right.
But hey, if you have an extra seven and a half million laying around, or can convince your banker that this is a great investment, give Andres a call at 310-928-3100.
If you’d like to be more certain to make the record books, pay me a penny more at $7,500,000.02 and I’ll sell you TheWorldsBiggestDomainInvestingIdiot.com.
But, he’s really not so selfish. He’s going to give $400,000 to charity and $2,000,000 to his “supporters.” What a guy.
Domain Name Sale Offers Chance in Guinness Book of World Records
TheRecordBreakingDomain.com is selling its domain name for a new Guinness Book of World Records record to create potential publicity for the future owner.
Boston, MA (PRWEB) November 15, 2005 — A domain name buyer has the opportunity to make headlines across the globe and secure a potential spot in the world’s all-time best selling book, the Guinness Book of World Records.
TheRecordBreakingDomain.com is selling its domain name for $7,500,001, a new world record. The current record-holder, business.com, has received a staggering amount of free publicity and continues to get exposure simply because it holds the world-record. The media hype created from the sale could well be worth the millions paid for it.
A Purdue University study found that adopting domain names increases the stock price of firms. “This dot-com effect produces cumulative abnormal returns … of 125 percent,” the study reported.
One of the reasons for the value of domain names is that even without advertising or marketing, they attract visitors. Furthermore, they are extremely easy for potential customers to remember, increasing the probability that they become repeat customers or regular visitors.
One of the most basic ways to appear more professional online and to establish trust is to purchase a domain name. This produces a website’s own online brand and can create credibility and the right image for the company.
By attaining the record in the Guinness Book of World Records, TheRecordBreakingDomain.com will become one of the most recognized and easily-remembered names on the Internet.
“The fact of the matter is big ideas with self-fulfilling publicity generate a lot of traffic on the internet,” said Andres Kello, owner of TheRecordBreakingDomain.com. “There is no ad catchier than a record-breaking one.”
About TheRecordBreakingDomain.com (www.TheRecordBreakingDomain.com)
TheRecordBreakingDomain.com is a site aimed at breaking a world record. Andres Kello, a 25-year-old entrepreneur, is also offering a massive $2 million giveaway to get people from all walks of life and across the globe to support the record attempt and give the TheRecordBreakingDomain.com the traffic and publicity it needs to attract an interested buyer who can eventually break the Guinness Book of World Records record for most expensive domain name.Contact:
Andres Kello
www.TheRecordBreakingDomain.com
310-928-3100
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Following is a list of new buys I made in the last week. I’m still finding names in two of my favorite growth industries, Robotics and Solar Energy. In addition, I’ve invested in a few Virtual Sex names–talk about a growth industry!
Spongebobs.com is an interesting name. Searching for “Spongebobs” (only the plural, the singular shows 7,000,000 pages) lists 36,200 pages on Google. The pages in the list will show the vast number of Spongebob items available for sale; hhis would be a GREAT site for someone selling these things.
Think LawnBowler.com is dumb? Think again. A search for “Lawn Bowling” shows 309,000 pages.
If you are wondering what a Fab Lab is, wonder no more.
1SolarEnergy.com
AboutDiesel.com
AdultGoods.net
Apostrophe.info
BudgetSolarEnergy.com
CreativeFinancing.info
eFab.biz
FabLab.biz
Fabricate-it.com
FreeVirtualSex.info
FreeVirtualSex.net
FutureSolarEnergy.com
GetVirtualSex.com
GoldProfits.com
HomeRobots.biz
LawnBowler.com
RoboBuddies.com
RoboNetworks.com
RoboNudes.com
RoboWarrior.com
SolarEnergyAge.com
SolarEnergyPlanet.com
SolarFlexRoof.com
Spongebobs.com
uFab.biz
uFab.org
uFabricate.com
VirtualPorno.info
Virtual-Sex.org
VirtualSexDownload.com
VirtualSexReview.com
VirtualSexSoftware.com
I’m trying TDNAM’s new 7-day Public Auctions right now with one of my favorite domain names for sale — PickDomain.com. If my calculation is correct, the auction will end on Wednesday, November 16th at 1:00 pm Pacific Standard Time. You can view the auction item at this link. I’m interested to see how it works out.
PickDomain.com is a great name for a registrar, a service that lists expired names, a domain name brainstorming site, or really anything that results in someone finding, picking or registering a domain name. You might want to bid on it yourself.
I’m very happy with the results my initial testing with the PPC parking service GoldKey.com, and over the last several weeks I’ve been in the process of moving my parked names from Afternic.com to GoldKey.com. I’m over half way done.
What’s so great about GoldKey? In a word, flexibility. Too often with other PPC services, my parked domain sites simply displayed a list of generic links for travel, fitness and so forth, generally producing no income. But GoldKey lets you supply not only keywords to help associate proper ad links, but create Google sitemaps, choose from hundreds of header banners, colors, search box positions, inclusion of “favorites” (extra, general links), link exchanges and more.
Take a look at one of my domain names, AboutFaith.com. With GoldKey I was able to create a beautiful page with a “religion-based” banner image and appropriate links. Notice that it also provides a “For Sale” link where I can insert my own custom sales text if I were to so choose. Check out GoldProfits.com for another example; this one has an image of money in green.
Now you need to see something really cool! Click on the Related Topics link below the main categories. Clicking on any of the letters will display the related topics that I’ve set up in my sitemap (which GoldKey creates for you with your supplied keywords). For example, click on B and then Buddhism, and you’ll get an entirely new page that reflects the keyword Buddhism and only the keyword Buddhism! Now that is impressive. You are allowed up to 512 sitemap keywords, so in essence your parked page can become a 512 page web site! If you didn’t know, Sitemap pages are a SEO technique where a layout of keyword-optimized HTML pages is provided for search engines. When these pages are indexed by search engines’ robots, the result is a higher probability that this domain will show up on search results pages and will therefore get more visitors. By design, visitors from search engines will be visiting the keyword optimized page (not the root of the domain) and will therefore see listings related to the keyword they were searching.
GoldKey pays at least 50% of the commissions it earns from Overture. They pay every month on the 15th for the previous calendar month’s earnings. From reading various posts on domain forums, it sounds like they are always prompt. Payments are made through Paypal, wire transfer or by check.
GoldKey really shines in the statistical reports it offers. I don’t think there is another site that offers as much detail. Page views, and detailed traffic numbers are real time; and the earnings accounting seems to lag by about one to three days, which is understandable. You can view visits and clicks for each or all domain names within various time periods. You can even see which keyword links visitors are clicking! And, an SEO report shows you what keywords where entered into which search engine to get to your page.
They also offer a Link Exchange program where other sites can request to exchange links with you, thereby increasing your page rank. You can link some of your own pages together, but be careful not to overdo it and appear as a link farm.
There are many more features that I can’t fit into what I’m trying to keep a short article and you can’t see until you sign up with an account.
GoldKey offers a referral program, which pays the referrer a commission equal to 10% of the referred client’s earnings. Nothing is subtracted from the referred client’s earnings, however, so there is no penalty whatsoever for someone signing up as a referral. Which brings me to my request: if you create your free account—and every one of you should sign up to at least test the service—I ask that you use this link (or any GoldKey link in this article) so you can be a referral of mine. It will not cost you nothing, and will not limit your own referrals someday, and the potential commissions will help me to maintain this web site. I’ll also make a deal with you: if you sign up as a referral, I’ll be glad to help you out with through email with any of your GoldKey questions. There is a learning curve as the documentation does not explain everything as it should and I’m sure I could be of assistance to you.
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Unless I’m missing something, GoDaddy’s Domain Name Aftermarket (TDNAM.com) really screwed up a great thing they had going for domain buyers. Their Expired Name Auctions had always set a minimum bid of $10 for every expired name. It didn’t matter if the name was a premium name or a crap name. If it was a good name, the bidding naturally caused the price to be bid up to its free market value.
But GoDaddy has just changed the rules. They are now making a determination as to the value of the expiring domain names that they consider “High Traffic” names, and are setting a higher (often MUCH higher) minimum bid on those names. The minimum bids for High Traffic names begin at $20, and as of today, go up to $2,010. You can see the current listing here.
I checked their FAQs to learn about these High Traffic names. They say that these are names that are “parked on our name servers and have above average daily traffic” and are “Names identified as High Traffic are among the top 1% of all the expired domains that enter TDNAM on a daily basis.”
As for the pricing, they say “Our analysis on the traffic patterns of these domains suggest that the pay per click revenue potential is high. We’ve adjusted the minimum bid upward to reflect a percentage of the revenue potential. The minimum bid amount is based on the traffic patterns we expect over the next 12 months. Regardless of the minimum bid amount, we feel the pay per click potential per year exceeds the minimum bid.”
But, here’s the problem, illustrated in the FAQ that answers the question: “Can you provide specific traffic information?” The answer: “No. Our analysis is based on actual traffic today and expected traffic in the future. Our analysis model predicts future traffic based on many factors. Even though we are confident with our analysis, we understand traffic and click-through rates can vary.”
A better solution would have been to go ahead and categorize these domains as High Traffic names, but share their traffic statistics. Then, let the bidding proceed naturally from $10 as before. This would have benefited both the buyer and GoDaddy.
The buyer would benefit because with stats in hand, he’d feel better about bidding on a name like ultrabbw.info, instead of trying to guess at the stats and starting the bidding at $1,100!
GoDaddy would have benefited because most all of these names would have received bids instead of having their auction expire with no bids what-so-ever becuase the opening bid was so high.
I’ve picked up 84 names from TDNAM in the past couple months. I very much like it and appreciate the ease at which I can sometimes pick up a name for $10. But, it isn’t all $10 bargains—good names almost always get bid up to their free-market value; the last name I bought was $755. There was no need for GoDaddy to restructure the Expired Names Auctions in a way that artificially set the opening bid. I sure hope that sites like SnapNames.com and Pool.com don’t follow suit.
It just doesn’t feel like an Expired Domain auction to me any more. It feels more like I’m dealing with a name broker. And that’s a shame, because I really love my daily TDNAM hunts.
If I’m missing something, please correct me in a comment.
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