Ask anyone using the Google Adwords program and you will quickly find many people building businesses around the success of their PPC campaigns however unlike how Rome wasn’t built in a day Google can crush you overnight.

The latest change to the Google search results for mortgage related terms such as “mortgage rates”, “mortgage calculator”, “mortgage loan” and more show Google comparison ads in the #1 spot. From the dozen or terms I searched for Google is # 1 across the board.

Not only does this Google self serving ad bump out 1 of the 3 available positions usually available above the organic search results (btw where can I can get a radio button and 4 lines of text for a Google ad!) but it really kills lead generation in the mortgage industry unless you are a company willing to provide rates, a good faith estimate, APR information and more (see results below)

Most lead companies generate leads through forms and usually come with a small disclosure reagrding APR and fees should it be required however posting this information online with what seems to be a required phone number also (if these ads are in fact available through the adwords platform at all) then its much more transparency than most people want to share. In fact, when requesting multiple quotes this is not information you can provide becuase a lead generator is matching clients to providers – not usually offering or publishing offered rates. Of course, the battle for the # 2 ad spot (really # 3) still exists however having Google take over enough space for both the first and second ad this should really bring down many CTR’s for mortgage related terms.

The New York Times wrote about this back in September involving a lawsuit file by LendingTree with regards to the technology Google is using behind the mortgage comparison service.

For domainers this doesn’t mean much since many have not purchased a single PPC ad however for developers who built out PPC campaigns based on historical click thru and conversation rates it may be time to start modifying your business plan … again.

Forget about sex.com – some of the most valuable domains in this world surround lead generation. Ask any developer and you will get the most common 5-10 categories as the most valuable.

Insurance, Mortgage, Weight Loss, Finance, Debt and others.

One of the biggest domains sought after by hordes of people over the years has seemed to quietly move to a new owner for a sum that was substantial I’m sure.

If you think I’m kidding lets put it in a parking perspective for domainers. Over $40,000 a month in parking revenue from my sources.

Well, in December the domain autoinsurance.com changed hands from long time owner P Gordon of London, England to what seems to be the owners of OnlineAutoInsurance.com -- InsuranceBroker.com LLC located in Miami Beach, Florida (according to DomainTools and obvious from the DNS change)

This is by far the best domain acquired over the past year in my opinion for a number of reasons – many developers would have sold their soul, their spouse and possibly their pets for this domain.

Congrats and check out the videos.  Looks like they are copying the freecreditreport.com theme for advertising but regardless this is a monster domain and one that will never be available again I’m sure.

My guess – well over $5 million – possibly $10 million if this was a sale and not a partnership.

A drop in the bucket for Allstate, Geico or anyone else but hey – why not spend your money on ads instead of buying your traffic (sarcasm)

Best move of the year to buy this domain imo.

Another domain which was developed but would probably see no more than a couple hundred in auction is ReliableRemodeler.com

According to Quinstreet’s SEC filing

“In February 2008, we acquired ReliableRemodeler.com, Inc., or ReliableRemodeler, an Oregon-based company specializing in online home renovation and contractor referrals for $17.5 million in cash
and $8.0 million in non-interest-bearing, unsecured promissory notes, in an effort to increase our presence within our home services vertical.

Have to love it.

I love hearding stories about development especially with domains most domainers would never bid on. As the mammoth Quinstreet filed to go public more of thier purchases are now public.

CardRatings.com – a site with just under 100,000 visitors a month (not an enormous amount of traffic by any measure) was sold for $10.2 million in an all cash deal.

Read more here

Congrats!

PS. Don’t think your word+ratings.com is worth any more. This is development pure and simple.

What I love about this business is most domain investors never grew up wanting to be in the domaining industry. Most of us fell in to domains by one way or another but never from a childhood dream of owning a domain name.

Fact is anyone around for 10 years + probably never had a computer growing up with the exception of a VIC 28, commodore 64 or those radio shack wanna be TANDY computers so the end game was always another plan (and still is to many).

The side stories of our industry are probably more exicting than our day to day work and almost everyone has a side story outside of domaining – whether it’s a former real estate life, a day job comparable to the movie office space or in Michael Castello’s case a rock star.

I have no idea when this was taken or if the band is still around and must give Elliot Silver credit for posting the link on Rick Latona’s blog but the real credit goes to any guy who can wear make up and still keep the site up without selling a million records every year and having tours to sell out.

Then again – maybe he does.

Michael – THANK YOU!!

Check out one of the nicest guys in the business – in full leather and makeup.

The song is stuck in my head now … 2010 off to a rocking start!

http://www.michaelseven.com/

Update – apparently I need to read more.  Ron Jackson did a great story on the Castello Brothers a couple years ago – click here for the full story

Every year people come up with great ideas to make money online which do not involve parking and these stories should inspire all.

The million dollar home page was the original money maker and one that has tried to be repeated many times over (with no such luck) however with the advances in social media since the early days more and more people are selling their souls for the right price

I have to give this guy lots of credit though – iwearyourshirt.com

From his site the system works like this

“In this up and down economy I’m outsourcing my wardrobe (namely shirts) to corporate america and you! I’m going to wear a different shirt for 365 days straight in 2009, take multiple pictures throughout my day and blog about it. Days are sold at “face value” so January 1 is $1 and December 31 is $365″

Doing the math that is $66,795 a year just for his shirt.

Lose your job and start a business wearing a T-shirt to work – sounds like a dream job to me!

FANTASTIC use of the web, viral media and a good hearted way to embrace your humor since I’m pretty sure some of these shirts have to be funny.

Bruce Marler had a great post about discussing ways to grow the domain aftermarket to end users so I highly suggest you read the article and 50+ comments here since if this guy can sell 365 shirts a year to corporate America then maybe we should all really think our approach to end users instead of complaining about it.

PS.  Next year there are 2 guys with 2 shirts !! No information yet if he will sell ads on his boxers for the ladies but I highly expect a premium package to be added should this idea continue to work lol

With online courses, full day seminars and formal certification to show potential employers these SEO guys certainly seem to know their stuff.

Most of us would love to have a domain like seotraining.com as it is just a great name to show the world your seo expertise and build a platform for tens of thousands of people yearning for information on search engine optimization every day but much like many acronyms in this world SEO is not just dedicated to the web.

So if the economy is getting you down but still want a job with a catchy web 2.0 title visit seotraining.com – you might just get another chance to be an SEO expert after all.

I have way too many bookmarks so my way to find the Google Adwords tool is archaic (type it in the tool bar over and over every day) but today was worth the humor.

# 2 sponsored link was …

I will not even link to this site since it does not deserve a link and will never understand how anyone would drop even a $1 for SEO services from someone that has (a) Google in their domain name and (b) a website that many 10 year olds could design better before they brush their teeth in the morning.

Granted – they may be SEO wizards but highly, highly doubtful in my book so be careful, if you’re looking for SEO services. Please do not fall in the trap of hiring somebody who from the very start has shown disrespect for the TM laws of domain names. Odds are there are some black hat SEO tricks in their wizardry which will only come back to bite you in the ass.

Find a reputable firm like SEO.com, listen to Bruce Clay, read SEOmoz.org and many others, your lessons will be a lot less expensive in the long run.

If you’re like I am and just have way too much to do then its easy to never follow up on good domains which were recently purchased and developed. Of course, a lot of sales are parked, more will never be developed and some will just sit with empty DNS for years to come but there has to be quite a few examples of great sites around that are new buys (not necessarily new reg – just new change of ownership).

Unfortunately, I don’t have time at the moment to do a list of my favs but would love to read about your finds – whether its traffic, creative use of a brandable name or just incredible design.

Post below !

Halverez has finally been outed – Oversee has stepped up to the plate and not only publicly acknowledged the fraud but taken steps to compensate auction participants and implement policies to prevent this in the future.

First, let me say this breach was a breach at the highest level – both personally and professionally for many. However it happens – in domains, real estate auctions, online auctions and more.

Remember, the heated argument about Adam Dicker from GoDaddy bidding on names or the questions behind NameJet’s continual stream on non-paying bidders.

We do not live in a perfect world my friends – Our politicians are corrupt, our Banks are bottom feeders, our President (for the Americans) struggles with big business day after day to get anything done.

We all could have had a paid a little less in auction or 2 (or 2000) but Oversee has committed to making this right. Granted, there are many emotional factors in bidding outside of just bids alone which could be factored in to the actual measure of this financial fraud however they sound like they are doing what they can to correct it.

No doubt, fraud like this is inexcusable however lets be real – in an online world no matter if the Holy Pope is running the site we are always exposed to the potential of fraud one way or another. All we can hope for is enough people behind the scenes to take any signs of fraud very serious and react swiftly and promptly. There remains questions of how swift SnapNames reacted to this and completely understandable but as VP of engineering – someone who was there from the beginning – there could be 100 ways to hide something should you have the technical know how to do it  — In fact, its very possible the powers to be even gave Nelson the responsibility of looking deep into his own fraud – ever consider that?

Fact is Oversee and SnapNames worked with class today exposing this and sure – some things could have been done different but there is (a) never any good way to expose fraud (b) always difficult to provide full transparency publically and (c) no way to make every victim happy.

Look – it happened. Its over. Life will move on.

GoDaddy auctions still survived after the Adam Dicker debacle

NameJet continues to thrive

Key customers of Snap will remain to be key customers.

This is news for sure and congrats to Mike for breaking such a worthy piece but in 30 days from now this will be gossip once again and people buying as usual.

There is more fraud every day on Craigslist or eBay or PayPal than in domain auctions. Most of us bid against people we all know day in and day out and as SnapNames noted in their email to customers:

“most of which occurred between 2005 and 2007″

I’m willing to bet 50% of people who are commenting where not even in the domain world at this point in time.

No doubt today is a sad day for many who know Nelson and those affected by his actions but can somebody please report the results of Moniker’s extended auction now???