I subscribed to Exody.com to get raw name files. The lists are huge and it is not the easiest thing to comb through the names. I don’t know about everyone else, but I cannot look at every name so I search for keywords I am interested in. I found a free tool that is helpful in this task, and that led me to two other free tools.

While I was at the Softnik.com site to download a trial of Watch My Domains Professional, I saw that they offer a free program called Domain Name Filter. With this program I can import any size text file of domain names and filter them based on various criteria. It doesn’t do everything I need, but considering it’s free, it’s very helpful.

While there, I noticed that there are two other free programs: Domain Name Status Reporter lets you monitor the status of a set of domain names. Domain Name Analyzer is a powerful brainstorming tool for finding domain names.

The entire series of their domain-related programs can be found on their Domain0Punch.com site.

P.S. Speaking of Exody.com files, those that use it know that there is no help. Trying to figure out which files are what is a nightmare. If someone is willing to help me out with some explanation, could you contact me so I can ask you a couple questions?

Technorati Tags: internet, domain, domain name, software, free software

DomainsBot.com, a very nice domain name brainstorming site I previously wrote about, has some intriguing new applications they’ve put together and placed in their new DomansBotLabs section. They will provide you with considerable statistics and tools to help you better design your name selection criteria. The site is wonderfully designed for your immediate understanding of how to proceed, the data is laid out clearly and the tools are simple to use.

Word Trends
Type in a keyword and you will get a graph showing the domains registered (within the major TLDs ) over time that contain that keyword. You can select additional keywords to include in the graph to view their relative popularity. For example, entering Coke and Pepsi shows two trend lines with similar growth rates, but the number of Coke names registered is nearly twice that of Pepsi.

Domain Stats
This page shows a series of statistical data, graphs, trendlines and conclusions regarding the value of domain names given various aspects of the name. Reports include number of domains sold and values of domains sold by length, number of keywords; and parts of speech. There are 38 figures in all! Really, there is a lot of valuable data here.

Search Cloud
This cool tool provides a dynamic “visual cloud” that suggests new available domain names based on relationships between keywords in existing domain names. It’s difficult to really describe how the results are displayed, so just try it out.

Split-it
As readers of this blog know from reading our wildly popular Hilarious Domain Name Mispronouncings article, there can sometimes be an unintentional double meaning for a domain name if keywords are split in different ways. For a famous example, ExpertsExchange.com also reads ExpertSexChange.com. Use Split-it to avoid these embarrassing and costly mishaps. As you type the word, the Visual Splitter will show you the various possibilities and tell you which is likeliest.

There is also another application called Shadow. It’s not a tool, but a small piece of software that you download on to your computer that will work in a distributed computing fashion to help DomainsBot crunch the massive data in order to better provide more free statistical reporting to you. It works similarly to the Berkeley University’s Seti program, if you are familiar with that. Shadow is not something in which you have to participate to get their reports.

It’s apparent a lot of work went into the DomainsBotLabs project and the quality of their work and the sheer volume of data reflect that. My hat is off to these guys and look forward to see what further tools and information they will bring to us in the future.

internet, domain, domain name

Google Base is almost upon us and the “Base” domains are being picked up rapidly. Some who were quicker than I just beat me to some good ones! If you don’t yet know what Google Base is, you better get up to speed on all the rumors right away, because it’s going to be big, really big. To find blog articles tagged with “Base” use this Technorati link:

http://technorati.com/tag/base

Here’s what I’ve purchased so far:

BaseAdvice.com
BaseApps.com
BaseBasics.com
BaseExpert.com
BaseExperts.com
BaseGuru.com
BaseInsider.com
BaseListings.com
BaseManual.com
BaseRiches.com
BaseSelling.com
BaseSense.com
BaseSales.com
BaseTags.com
BestofBase.com
MygBase.com

Technorati Tags: base, google, google base, internet, domain, domain name

The last two days have seen much speculation, and now actual screenshots, of the upcoming Google Base classified ads system. Here’s one story you can read to get up to speed if you have not been following the news today.

I checked The United States Patent and Trademark web site to see “Base” is something Google trademarked or not. They did not. So, here’s your opportunity to grab some names quickly. I purchased BaseInsider.com today. There are many other names available but I’m not in a buying mood today. I did notice that BaseAdvisor.com, BaseTips.com, BaseBuying.com and BaseSelling.com are available. Go for it. Look for what works with eBay in domain names and try applying them to “Base.”

I guess I was in more of a political mood today, having purchased AllenRice.org, AllenGiuliani.org, AllenMcCain.org and McCainAllen.org. I don’t know a whole lot about Allen yet, but I do know that he’s going to be running.

Technorati Tags: domain, domain name, internet, google, base, ebay, investing

A few weeks ago I picked up the deleted domain ShutUpHillary.com through SnapNames.com for the $60 fee. With her possible Senate reelection run, and her most definite plans to run for president in 2008, this was a good purchase. Rather than sitting around waiting for someone to purchase it from me, I thought about how I might make some money from it right now.

I’m experienced in creating and selling CafePress.com products, and political items are their biggest sellers. So, it was a natural fit and I created the Shut Up Hillary store there. I’ve got just a few items up to get started. But, here’s the great thing I’m doing with this. Usually when you create a product on CafePress.com, others tend to imitate it and siphon off some of the sales. But, if one owns the trademark for the image or wording on the products, CafePress.com will shut copycats down as soon as they are notified by the trademark owner. There’s really no fighting it. So, I went out and filed for the trademark “Shut Up Hillary” in the proper class for selling these goods. No one else will be able to create Shut Up Hillary products.

The trademark filing fee was $270, but that’s nothing compared to what I can make on CafePress.com. I’ve done it before. And now, they’ve got a new affiliate program just coming out of beta, which will help to increase sales.

The domain name right now is simply pointing to my store (whose design I know I have to improve). I’m stuck with Register.com for 60 days since that’s who I had to continue using via this SnapNames sale. Register.com unbelievably will not let me redirect the domain to the store without them framing it and putting an add of their’s at the bottom of the page. Try clicking on ShutUpHillary.com and see for yourself. They charge $50 a year to redirect without the ad! I’m not paying them for that. I’ll wait until my 60 days are up and then move it to GoDaddy.com.

Just pointing the domain name to the CafePress.com page is good, but not the optimum. It’s not necessarily sending traffic to the domain name. I’m going to think about creating a site for the domain, with some Hillary content and with links to the store. I could write a blog in it, but the last time I did something political like that it burned me out (made me hate things about BOTH sides).

Anyway, I thought I’d share what I’m doing with CafePress.com since it is something you might be interested in doing with some of your domain names.

Technorati Tags: domain, domain name, internet, hillary, hillary clinton, clinton, cafepress

Last week I picked up a book of Sudoku puzzles. What’s Sudoku? That’s what I asked when I saw the book on a table of at least a dozen different books on the subject, prominently displayed at the entrance of my local Barnes and Noble bookstore. A week later, I’m hopelessly addicted to this crossword-like puzzle, only with numbers instead of letters. Rooted in an 18th century Swiss brainteaser called Latin Squares, it was reinvented by a Japanese puzzle magazine in the 1970s. Magazines internationally are now devoted to Sudoku and puzzles appear in numerous newspapers. The beauty of it is it can be played by people of any language, as long as they can count to 9 (which these days may limit some American public school-trained kids).

Anyway, I got so caught up in the puzzle itself that the opportunist in me (see last article) was asleep at the wheel! Only last night did I think to brainstorm for domain names regarding Sudoku! I found a handful and registered four of them, plus two more while I was writing this article. It goes without saying that all the obvious ones were registered. In light of that, I feel lucky to have registered some pretty good names. These are:

PlaySudokuNow.com
SudokuNow.com
SudokuLessons.com
SudokuInstructions.com
SudokuSchool.com
SudokuSamarai.com

Why lessons, instructions and school? Well, its different than a crossword puzzle where the methodology is quite simple. Becoming proficient in Sudoku requires the use of many advanced tips and techniques unique to the game. Learning is quite relevant.

PlaySudokuNow.com and SudokuNow.com are great names for sites that offer online Sudoku puzzles.

I particularly like the last one, as it has essentially become a Japanese-origin puzzle, one strives to become a master at it, and Sudoku terms like “slice and dice” bring to mind images of a Samurai sword cutting through the puzzle.

I’m still looking for other names; see what names you can beat me to (there are a lot of good .info names, but I’ve got too many names already). And, give Sudoku a try, if you have the time to get spend on a new obsession. Search the web and you’ll find some puzzles online for free.

Technorati Tags: domain, domain name, sudoku, internet, puzzle, sudoku puzzle, latin squares

I’ve been an entrepreneur all my life. One of the things that I feel has played an important part in my success has been being an “opportunist.” That means that my mind is always tuned to recognizing opportunities when they are right in front of me. I don’t know if this is something one is born with, or if it is something that one can learn, but I suspect it’s a bit of both.

It seems that opportunists have a definite advantage over others in the domain world as well. My mind is constantly working in the background, evaluating ideas, words, new technologies and other data, to determine if something might be an opportunity for a domain name investment. I’ve always got a pad and pen, or a voice recorder with me to jot down any concepts or specific names. When I get to the computer, I use the various tools at my disposal to see if I can find any names that interest me. Sometimes there is an immediate discovery, where I say to myself “Whoa, that’s available?!” Other times I’ll spend hours with name generators, an online thesaurus, deleted domain tools and the like—sometimes I’ll find something and sometimes I won’t. But, the search itself invariably sparks ideas that lead me down other paths.

I read a lot of technology articles from a variety of fields, including computing. Internet, energy, nanotechnology, robotics, biotechnology, space science and more. I’m a tech junkie and this works to my advantage. I’m constantly exposed to new concepts.

As an example, one opportunity presented itself this morning. I was reading the article, Build Your Own Social Apps? at TechDirt.com. I was already conditioned to pay attention to social networking types of articles, as this is getting to be a popular concept. I’ve been noticing the term “social” more and more connected to software and mobile gadgets.

Well, since “Social Apps” was in the headline I thought I’d go check Whois.sc, not really expecting the dot-com to be available. But it was. Within minutes I was the owner of SocialApps.com, SocialApps.net and SocialApps.org. I then spent the next hour trying other types of two-word combinations and decided to purchase SocialApplications.net and SocialApplications.org; the dot-com was taken.

Speaking of the “social” internet, last month I read an article (like this one) about Flock’s upcoming browser which they are calling a “social browser.” Before I even finished that article, I had purchased SocialSurfer.com and SocialBrowsing.com. The only one that I know of that flock had bought was SocialBrowser.com.

I’m also increasing seeing mobile devices referred to as social devices, in light of the text messaging, gaming and upcoming GPS apps (like “find your friends”, tag etc.) . I’ve seen this a lot on Gizmodo.com. Last month I read an article there about mobile phones becoming social gadgets so I bought SocialGadgets.com right away. I love gadgets.

Case in point about Opportunism: Even writing this article presented me with opportunities. It gave me a chance to revisit these concepts and see what I had missed earlier. During the course of writing this piece, I added SocialDevices.com, SocialGizmos.com and SocialGear.com (I must have been sleeping that day I bought SocialGadgets.com). If the trend continues as I suspect, I think I’ve got some winners on my hands. If not, oh well.

I also bought PleasureMaids.com while writing this, but that’s another story.

Technorati Tags: domain, domain name, internet, social, gadget