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???

©2010 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Fact is SOOO many domains sell between $1000-$5000 in drop auctions every week yet many names of much higher value, brandability and development value sit just waiting – on the SAME venues – for someone to search for them.

For those of you who don’t already know (and those who forget) Fabulous and BuyDomains all have API feeds into the SnapNames inventory and although Snap’s promotion of their BIN inventory still needs a lot more promotion from their sales team you will be surprised how many great names are in the inventory.

Take the keyword Debt Consolidation for example.

One of the best industries around for online development, lead generation and growth in today’s economic environment. You will not see these names on drop lists and sure – some cost 2-3k but these are prices you would see in live auctions for many of these if not more and if you are a developer then the prices will surely attract you.

We do not own any of these names but its about time somebody puts these to use instead of wasting money on .me’s and silly domains that drop in hope of making a couple bucks on PPC traffic (so 1999 people).

Examples from SnapNames inventory using the keyword “debt”

baddebtcollection.com
consumerdebt.net
debtcollectionrights.com
debtcollector.net
debtelimination.org
debtmanagementloans.com
debtsettlementlawyer.net
debtsettlementprogram.net

Of course, not everyone agrees with me about what makes a good name but I came from the development world so the quality of names we value are names that have value to (a) development, (b) end-users (c) lead generation (d) high growth or large market consumer industries and many other factors.  Parking stats .. well, move on and learn how to develop – only then will you understand how $2,000, $5000 or $10,000 for a domain is dirt cheap.

Enjoy the list and remember – punch in any keyword at snap – you may be just surprised what you find in the buy it now section. Alternatively, you can continue doing what you’re doing as others pass you by.

©2010 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Well, sadly many people prefer tweeting to sex (or any physical contact with the real world) but those guys never really could get laid anyway. So today we bring both groups a little fun – from the wild and crazy hedonism.com to tweeters.com for the geeks.

Snapnames has quite a few great domains dropping over the next little while. Some of our top picks include:

penispump.com
hedonism.com
porntv.com

tweeters.com

and not so sexy but still good names.

basementcontractors.com
driverlicense.net
localgrants.com
remortgagehome.com
xmasholiday.com

Enjoy and Happy July 4th to the Americans.

©2010 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Today – after years of many of us preaching – you can now DOWNLOAD your search results.

This single addition will improve prices for domains, heat up competition and provide sellers greater opportunity to sell more names.  If you want to talk about a million dollar link then this is it.

What else?

How about 500 results per page

A default search that “contains” the keyword you want (instead of suggesting some names only to miss out on many you really want)

Filters are improved with maximum pricing now an “input” field instead of a choice of pre-defined ranges by the snap crew.

Seriously, these upgrades rock.

For sellers there is even more.

You will have your own storefront!

Ok, I’m sure there is more to come in another release later but the base has been built!!!!

Request the unique ID of your seller account and promote the hell out of your link. No website needed, it’s a simple URL to access your entire inventory – you can even add your affiliate ID if you participate in the affiliate program.

Examples are:

1. With your name source only (e.g. all of your inventory)
https://www.snapnames.com/store/seller.action?ns=10

2. With namesource & affiliate code
https://www.snapnames.com/store/seller.action?ns=10&aff=4307

3. With namesource, affiliate, and domain name:
https://www.snapnames.com/store/seller.action?ns=10&aff=4307&dom=momma.net

These go to Monikers names but if you insert your unique ID in the url you can see how the initial storefront will look

SnapNames is becoming more than just the best auction house around – its quickly becoming the SINGLE best source to help domain owners buy and sell domains.

Check out the new features when you get a chance.

©2010 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

If you want a single feed for good information pertaining to names available at SnapNames then subscribe to TopDrops today.  Articles published 3-4 times a week with targeted lists, popular domains in auction and more.

Subscribe to TopDrops today

(sponsored article)

©2010 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Please note ALL domains below already have multiple bidders – check them out …

cif.com
ssic.com
TieClips.com
jxk.com
FerrisWheel.com
Tuition.com
LetterOpener.com
PremiumGifts.com
CorporateEvents.com
DiscoverHawaii.com
MakeMillions.com
RentalPackages.com
CampusClassifieds.com
njnews.com
GovernmentJobs.org
GeekExpress.com
LuckyDomains.com

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Enjoy and remember to sign up for the PrivateNames.com newsletter

©2010 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

1) Leave the search term box empty

2) Choose “Buy It Now” from the drop down menu.

3) Press the Search Button

Lots to choose from and some decent buys for sure.

Shameless plug to sell BerlinVacations.org is included…

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Enjoy and remember to sign up for the PrivateNames.com newsletter

©2010 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Check out the news here

©2010 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

One comment was “You can be honest and tell people you are promoting your own domains or just keep doing what you are doing” – this comment struck me as it really gets to me when people who are INVESTORS would rather take time and complain about something that has no relevancy. For the record I disclosed we did own some (but not all) of the names but hey, if want to think we own all of them go for it – doesn’t matter at all to me. The purpose of the article was to simply provide examples of high quality keyword names for sale at Snap vs. so many we see at NameJet that have no keyword value, no Google results and absolutely no logic as to why people would bid on them.

For new domainers, its easy to get caught up in auction fever.  A name with 60 bidders – Yahoo!! – must be worth something.  Guess what – it’s not always the case.  There is no doubt NameJet has some great names but they also sell many names that would never be registered if they were available today and mark my words, will NEVER sell on the aftermarket should the buyer want to sell – That’s right, absolutely NO resale value!  In fact, I have seen several times a buyer winning a domain on NameJet, park the page a few days later, then post the name on the forums for sale wanting to sell the name and giving a good deal (lower than the auction price) – its called cutting your losses since they know the name was a bad buy.

Lets use facts (so the naysayers who focus solely on this article being self serving can be put aside).  Most, if not all, domainers agree:

1) Domain Appraisals mean nothing / there is no valid system that can truly and accurately represent the value of domain.  Too many intangible factors exist and the number of external factors (such as the increase in end user sales) will simply stop any such system from ever developing since end users do not value in multiple of PPC earnings.  In fact, – end users determine value on domains independently based on what the name means to them so very rarely will you ever have more than just a few companies feel the name is worth the same amount (except for the obvious ones like mortgage.com, sex.com and 2-3 letter names etc).  This makes any standard for valuation practically impossible.

2) Domains with NO keyword value but DO have PPC income are now being bought and offered by many domainers using smaller multiples then seen in the past few years.  PPC is becoming less relevant as companies try to attract the end users who don’t care about the parked revenue but want a brandable name.

3) DOUBT as in to the future of domain parking for low traffic names.  Sure, it will always exist but doubt creates lower values and until an alternative outside of just two (2) main providers (Yahoo and Google) is built than some domain owners are opting to sell good names at great prices meaning names with NO keyword value are even less valuable since other good deals are available.

4) Names with KEYWORD value are consistently some of the most sought after names at live auctions and reported at DNJournal every week. It’s very common to see a wealth of data each week from sales of domains that have keyword value sold from sources which provide NO traffic data.  Hence, buyers are buying the keywords to develop, resell, brand or hold.  Traffic has become less important because development or end user sales are the future.

5) MUST REALIZE that NO private seller and many registries in todays world are not going to auction or sell a domain that earns $500 a month in revenue at a $1, $59 or $99 reserve in an auction so the name must have value to an end user (keywords / action phrases), be very warm for development or engage a buyer’s interest as a worthy investment to part of thier bigger plan.  The newbies that still have faith in big business really need to use logic here.

6) Domains with keywords have DEVELOPMENT VALUE. Take Elliot’s article on what happened after developing TropicalFish.com.  From 1 to 100 visitors a day with a little work.  Develop a keyword heavy name right and search engines will reward you.

7) MUST UNDERSTAND or have an idea about how to use the domain for development (this is also part of selling a domain to an end user – regardless if you can develop it or not you must understand how it could be developed or you wouldn’t have bought it).  Only names with keywords, product names, people names and action phrases can make sense.  HotDogs1245.com does not work and will not hold any value down the road.  If a name like this has links and some existing traffic one day it will get scrubbed from the search engine and you have nothing.

8) END USERS ARE THE GOLDEN KEY – Domainers love to sell to end users because prices are not only larger but more relative to the value domainers can see in owning a good name – plus it’s almost easier to sell the larger investment.  A company who spends $10,000 a week on radio ads can surely drop 2, 5 or 10k for a one time investment in a solid domain name.  It’s just finding those end users and making them understand the asset you are selling.  BuyDomains is doing a great job at that – the company to take this kind of model to next level will win the game.

9) End Users DO NOT care about PPC Income – All end users have their own business model for earning income so the amount of income produced by PPC ads will mean nothing to them.  They may care about traffic but most companies who pay small amounts – like 5 or 10,000 – are buying a branding tool and traffic is not so relative at such small price points.  Trying to sell a domain for $100k – sure, they probably want some traffic but small money is not really concentrated on that.  And yes, small money is still a lot to domainers.

Obviously, the rare names – such as 2 and 3 letter domains are exceptions to all this.

So what if PPC stopped tomorrow….think about it?  It’s not going away but who knows – there may be a slower period ahead until somebody puts together a viable alternative ad provider outside of the goo-hoo system.  If that’s the case then all domainers who are betting the ranch and have no idea about development or understand the proper keyword elements behind domain names are gambling.  Keywords will sell themselves as the value is obvious to the right end user.

So, circling back to the initial paragraph about why we do not promote the names we sell.  No specific reason other than we just have no interest in blogging about our names – we would simply rather write about other things and try to help put some logic into a not so logical industry then turn this blog into one big sales pitch.

If we use some of our names for comparison so be it – sometimes we use yours.  Again, ownership of undeveloped domains is 100% not relative because at the end of the day we are simply comparing domain names.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this stuff out.

©2010 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

The fact is most people buying on NameJet are domainers and a lot of the new people in this industry “follow the herd” when it comes to buying names.  I can tell you from years of experience this is not always a good decision.  Many of you will disagree with me (at least on the outside) but those of you who are investing for the future and tomorrow’s end user DO NOT care about what other domainers will pay.  Take for example, the recent auction of FixedLoans.com.  In our opinion, this is not a good domain.  Yes, it has history and was referred to as a famous domain from a not so famous book (no disrespect – but unless you sell tens thousands of copies then using the word famous is a little overrated).  Plus the amount of space this name got in the book would almost make any word famous … argh … anyway, it was just a silly comparison and a typical example of why we need to remove the “car salesman” pitches in this industry to bring more credibility.  (Another post will come on this soon)  We made our money in the mortgage industry online and I can tell you the term Fixed Loans is almost never used.  A “Fixed Rate Loan” or “Fixed Rate Mortgage” yes – but the shortened version is simply a made up expression that even with the best branding (which again, most domainers will never develop properly) the domain is too generic or confusing that people still will question – did they mean FixedRateLoans.com or FixedRateMortgage.com or FixedLoan.com – hmmm.  Bid as you will when the name goes to auction but I can’t see the ceiling on this name going any higher than it sold for back in 2006 – wait and see.

Back to NameJet.  Over the last 30 days we have seen such names which probably have no traffic and certainly have no generic value sell for prices that are driven by the number of buyers. Remember – you are an INVESTOR, not just a domainer.  The $2,000 spent on a dropped name that has no keyword value but a “possibility” of traffic might as well be a gamble.  Secure your investments on domains that have keyword value – leave the gambling for vegas.  Just because a name has 50 bidders on it does not mean its worth more if your goal is to develop or sell to an end user because guess what – almost all 50 of those people are NOT your target market and will almost never buy back what you paid for in an auction.

Just some thoughts….

Newbies …. buy names which you can develop or picture end users with.  Again, leave the gambling for Vegas.

Seeya … back to hiatus….

©2010 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.