First and foremost (for the 4 letter freaks out there) the value of this site has nothing to do with the domain. Nothing, nada, zilch. The value of the website and the traffic attached to the domain is a direct result of the owners work developing the content.

In simple words the domain xkcd.com was worthless (not even worth the registration fee) when the owners first bought it but now its worth more than many premium domains.

This is a pure example of what you can do if you can’t afford a kickstart to development by purchasing a premium domain. Parking has many limitations (from dependence on revenue shares and ad partners to slow growth rates) but unique content can trump a good domain every day.

565,000 visitors a month according to compete.

A compete rank of # 1,528 …. Yes, almost in the top 1,500 sites in the world!

www.xkcd.com

Warning – for the sensitive folks, some humor may be distasteful however I’m sure you will still click through and complain.

———————————————-

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

This article is going back to one of the reasons we started this blog. Newfound Names was chosen as a company name for two reasons. A love for the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador and a play on words for what every new acquisition means to us – a new found name. It has been a goal (every now and then) to provide domainers information helpful for finding new domains worthy of development or investment.

I’m a true believer in the fact that not all good names are gone (or owned by individuals who want extremely unreasonable asking prices). Many names are available simply by registering, while others can be found on the auction platforms for very attractive prices.

With the race towards development getting faster more and more domainers are analyzing the keyword quality of their names. No longer is traffic just king but keywords which represent generic terms (put together right) are finally starting to surpass other traditional “domainer” valuation keys such as age and extension. Note that this is not a bash against .com as it will always be king but content is the ultimate king – parking has, and always will, have a cap on the earnings potential for any single domain.

What does God.com have to do with developing your domain portfolio?

Simple.

Besides conquering the internet before many of you knew how to spell the word – Dr. Kevin Ham was also creating a project within his domain parking project called “The Gospel Media Network”

According to the network’s website the internet is defined as

”the greatest media platform to share the Good News with every person in the world, in every form – readable, audible and visual – and on every type of device; from the computer, to the cell phone and even to the human body, once connected to this network of computers”

No one can argue this.

The internet has become the most powerful media tool ever created however it is not the quote about the internet’s power or the amazing display of domains owned by this project (which could feed a small country if sold today) but it’s the tree.

Yes, the power of visiting this site is in viewing the tree.

The tree does not symbolize only the domains owned but in one shape or form it defines a matrix used to categorize the domains.

In the middle you have Religion.com (center topic for all domains)

On top you have God.com

On bottom you have the Devil.com and Satan.com

In between Religion.com and God.com you have all the individual religion names such as Christians.com and Buddhists.com which lead to a God.

On the far sides you have secondary terms like GospelMusic.com, MyBible.com and Armageddon.com – Topics that have religious themes but not necessarily tied to a specific religion.

It is important and critical when finding new domains to start, complement or expand a project or portfolio to think away from the box and create a tree like this. Some helpful tips are

1)  Find the exact opposite of what you are doing / even a negative site on the negative topic explaining why people should be against it can be very productive to your main site

2)  Find terms in between that support a defined sub-topic of your main domain: Attorneys.com for example: find duiattorneys.com, trademarkattorneys.com, patentattorneys.com etc…

3)  Look for domains that relate to both your main topic and sub topics but not necessarily specific to any particular one. Something you can use for all the domains – such as myattorney.com in the example above or mybible.com in Gospel Media network’s case.

When we see the quality of domains for sale across the boards and the new ones registered every day its easy to see many domain owners have never built a tree.

Buying a domain using your own valuation methods or a gut feeling is fine however building a network…  well, that starts with building a tree.

Google. The six letters which continually shape the internet as we know it. Whether its reshuffling of organic search placements, random and unpredictable quality scores for Adwords advertisers, searchable email, billion dollar buyouts of companies that seem to vanish or an office complex we all envy (seriously, who would not want their company to have a gourmet chef feed the masses).

No one should be surprised at Google’s latest (re)entry to the world of domain parking but remember that its fools gold to build your business solely around a company who is known for shaking things up for the future benefit of the internet versus the immediate needs of small business. By no means is this bad – we need a leader like Google who will stand up and provide tools and test services regardless of the cost. It is this live beta testing which allows the internet to grow and flourish although it can be a very rough ride with unpredictable and immediate negative effects to even the most well funded companies.

I continually preach about development and how domain owners must branch out and tone their development skills, sit down (away from the computer) and map out a game plan not just based on the hope of future PPC traffic and learn about revenue options outside of search. Too few ever take the advice rather simply enjoy a fleeting thought of how they are committed to incorporating development and education in the months ahead.

Parking providers like DomainSponsor, HitFarm, SmartName, Parked.com – all the respectable ones (and obviously this list is not all of them) have spent millions, tens of millions, developing tools, building software, analyzing data and testing almost every erotic dream any mathematician or analyst could wish for. This data along with the personal relationships built, the human touch, the loyalty to domain owners and the pure love parking companies have for parking itself are far superior to anything Google could ever offer.

But again, the point of this article is not about Domains for Adsense or the future of parking companies – it’s about you and your ability to sit down and think about, start sourcing for and introducing revenue streams outside of the Google channel.

One time income.

I hope most domainers understand that all income from parked pages is a one time check.

How does a one time payment build your business?

No residuals, no customer loyalty, no repeat sales, no upgrades, no special holiday buys, no referrals.

This is what you lose by parking domains.

Domains do not need high traffic to perform, in fact most domains (my guess is 95%) have no traffic but the value is not only in development – its also about getting your face out there. One of the sites we manage gets around 40,000 organic visitors a month.  Last month the site received over 100,000 visitors – a great increase but why?  The site had content another site owner deemed beneficial to his readers (one who happens to own a very respectable blog in the Alexa 100,000) and one day he happened to place a link to our site on his home page. He could have easily added the content himself but since it was already available online he choose to link rather than add. Parking pages will never do this and as each day goes by you lose another chance to build something great.

However, with respect to Google – as much as I never want to see a world without Google I certainly do want a lot of our projects independent of revenue solely based on the master G’s goodwill. It’s my hope that many of you can say the same but if you don’t sit down with a plan how will you ever know?

Holidays are approaching.

Another Year gone by.

SnapNames has officially rolled out the “buy it now” feature in addition to thier regular auctions. To view all the buy it now names currently for sale simply use the advanced search and

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…

———————————————-

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

For the owners of a good holiday domain and those doubters who do not see value in owning a domain that performs only once a year then view the chart below. A little bit of development can go a long away…. Congrats to Kevin and the .info owner – Yes, I said .info

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

Sahar posted a recent article on why domaining sucks. I will be the first to say domaining does not suck although we are going through a slow period (like every other industry at the moment). His article was certainly only a highlight of some points that do suck in this industry and not a gloom and doom piece about the industry in general but as a couple people commented these are relatively the same challenges most industries face from time to time. Whether it’s the lack of official representation for an industry as a whole, challenges to price increases from the service providers or a lack of data between competitors to help grow an industry. I can’t see Bill Gates and Michael Dell sitting down sharing secrets so why should any of the bigger players in the domain industry help anyone out. This is business and as much as we all semi-know each other and wish for a family like atmosphere at the end of the day it’s about feeding your own family first.

So is this industry any different than any other industry? Hardly not and I think a lot of the negativity I’ve seen across the blogs lately stems from a combination of things.

First, some domainers have a feeling of self entitlement which is just plain ridiculous. No one is obligated to share information; no one is entitled to pay your asking price for your domain and by no means are the big companies entitled to do you favors. Compare the domain industry to banking. Let’s say you have spent $100,000 on your visa card over the last year making the bank a nice chunk in addition to the annual card fees and the value of having such a good cardholder. Times get tough and you run into a snag asking for a waiver of the late fee. Bank denies the request and you have to pay $35 for a late fee. Many cardholders will become irate about the fee stemming from the same sense of entitlement but wait – the privilege is given by the bank to give you a credit card, they have no obligation to you. Parking companies are the same way, it’s a privlege to be able to earn money from your traffic (as much as many of you will argue that its your traffic.. much like the cardholders complain how its thier money being spent) – these companies are providing a service and I’m sure they are taking care of their top clients but don’t rely on their generosity and complain when they change things up. You’re still parking your names with them right? Still never got around to developing a plan right? Its up to you to advance your business, not the goodwill of others.

Secondly, as many people (such as my favorite Julia Mackenzie’s blog) have posted about in the past domainers are lazy. I’m not saying this to criticize since if money is rolling in and the future is looking bright it is very easy to become complacent and not fix something that isn’t broken. However, is that not why most businesses fail?? – they never expand, they never look for alternative revenue streams and sometimes even outright deny even considering partnerships with service providers to grow their business.

Wait …. Isn’t that what most domainers have done over the last 5 years?

Complacent sounds familiar.

Outside of parking, most have never really looked for other revenue streams (besides a cash sale) and many times ask extremely unreasonable amounts for any partner to open up doors and develop together.

We all compare domains to real estate and it’s a known fact that most developers want nothing to do with landowners except buy your land. Most developers will go to extreme measures – form different corporations, ask trusted associates to buy land in their name, almost any trick – to acquire the land for the cost only.

You want to join the team and partner up? then bring more to the table than a simple asset. Learn how to develop, get a traffic stream going, build content … yes, its the same thing everybody has been telling you for years.

In fact its the same thing people we all admire like the Castello brothers and others have been doing all along – so why haven’t you started?

Are you an Entrepreneur?

Do not kid yourself – most domainers are not.

Ask yourself is your Grandmother an “entrepreneur” since she bought a house in 1990 for $100,000 and now it’s worth $400,000.

Your grandmother decides to hold out for $450,000 and partner with a developer – is she an “entrepreneur” now.

In either case the answer is NO.

There is a HUGE difference between an “entrepreneur” and someone who bought something yesterday that’s worth more today.

Investing in a few assets and reselling down the road is the trait of a simple investor – nothing more.

The person who bought something and then created value for the asset on top of the simple asset value … Now, that person is an entrepreneur.

Without creating value – I’m sorry but you do not deserve the title “entrepreneur”. Even having a fancy blog with some thoughts about an industry is not bringing value to your assets – possibly adding more value to your opinion in the community but by no means adding value to your assets.

As for Mini-Sites. First, they don’t suck.

Companies like AEIOU.com, WhyPark.com and other service providers to domain owners are generally doing a good job but these are not the end all solutions for the next wave of changes in his industry.

Many Domainers (not all) seem to ride the wave of what works right now but never really have a solid plan for the future so if you are creating a mini-site then sit down and create something which can be part of a larger plan, something that can tie in with other projects for cross marketing or something you have interest in building out. The cost of a mini-site is extremely low – in fact, it’s half the cost of a simple logo design through many of the online providers – and most times you can keep the files. If anything, people like Latona are giving first time developers the tools to start online at giveaway prices.

Now, if you just buy a mini-site and do the same old thing that you did with your domain name a few years ago (change the nameservers and log out) … you have no right to complain about losing money when the industry changes or call yourself an “entrepreneur”.

So again, mini-sites do not suck but how many people use them does.

It’s almost like renting a store, putting up a flashy sign then walking away. Your store is developed outside, more people are noticing it every day walking by but hey, there is still nobody inside. We would not do this in real life, so why do it online?

The fact is no other industry provides an opportunity for people to work at home, invest a few bucks for a true brandable platform for your next business and practically create something from nothing marketable to a global community with a little hard work.

Of course, if you are only in this industry to flip domains then most of this article will not apply but for those of you who are sitting on domains for which you have development plans (and claim to have spent thousands on development when asking for a price) then I think a more appropriate question of the day would be to ask yourself…

Do you suck as a Domain Owner?

Another great example of people who found a niche and developed an online business around it – TreeTopia.com is a one stop place for Christmas (Holiday) trees. In fact, artificial green trees were not how they entered the business but rather red, pink, white and unusual but fun trees. The site averages around 10,000 visitors a month (according to compete) which surely doubles or triples this time of year.

Lesson: Even the most mainstream products (Christmas trees) offer opportunity online if you can find a niche.

Just a sample of what can still be done – the internet is new and with global economies in the toilet it is still very possible to create something from nothing on the web. This domain was registered on May 14, 2008 and I bet they never looked back.

FailBlog.org

Highly doubtful this name would have ever sold on a drop.

Build Baby Build !

Enjoy….

Some time ago you heard about blogging, thought how wonderful it would be, created a unique name for yourself, learned some wordpress and started blogging when the spouse was asleep. Ideas were grand, intentions were good and you kept typing away.

Have you ever thought about those great ideas promising to provide unique content to the world? or how your blog would stand out because you would create information from a unique perspective that has yet to be done?

Some of the blogs I read tend to lose their steam or “uniqueness” fairly quickly. Maybe its because good content is hard to create and blogging is much easier said than done but have you ever intentionally matched your next article with your blog’s theme?

I’m not referring to anyone in particular – this is for any blog writer, anywhere, any industry. Ask yourself…

Has your blog become simply a forum for you to speak your mind?

When was the last time you compared the content of your blog to the theme or brand you present to people?

Are you delivering content your users expect?

I will be the first to admit that every article we post seems to be that much harder to stay within theme but our theme is a bit different than most. In fact, this blog doesn’t really have an exact theme – just a blog on a company domain. Essentially, the name “Newfound Names” was chosen to define a little of what we do (and pay homage to Newfoundland) more so than a theme behind our blog’s content.

My question is not for you haters who do not get the point but it’s for those who truly did start off by building a blog around a specific theme.

Have you stayed on course or drifted out to sea?

Just a question people – hopefully some will think about it.

———————————————

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

Singular or Plural? .com, net or .org? These are questions asked by newbies every day when looking for the perfect domain. Take a name like CowboyHat.com which just sold for $16,000 on NameJet. I’m sure most domainers who are relatively new in this industry are scratching their heads and appraising some of their own names – If CowboyHat.com went for this much mine has to be worth this much?

I’m going to say this again for people who haven’t read some of my earlier posts.

Do not get wrapped up in the prices of domains at NameJet.

Yes, there are some good deals that happen every day but there are also many names that go much higher than they ever would if placed on another forum. The name above may very well be worth 16k or more but for most newbies its a lot of change and you’re battling against the proper tense to build a brand around.

Remember, its auction mentality and you have people with deep pockets where 16k is chump change. NameJet is addictive. Domain buying is addictive. It’s a game for some and you can get wrapped up really easy.

There is no easy way to valuate domain names and anyone worth a penny in this business will tell you all the appraisals available are more valuable for the paper they are written on than the information they provide.

Maybe the buyer saw value in parking, maybe he owns CowboyHats.com (defensive registration with traffic quality) – who knows for sure but again, if it’s worth 16k to him that’s cool and congrats on winning the name.

However, back to singular or plural for newbies and brand builders.

If you are buying a domain to develop as your MAIN site than get the right tense.

Sure, you can buy 1,000’s of secondary domains in wrong tenses, alternate extensions and hyphens to feed them in to your MAIN site by forwarding, mini sites etc but please for your main site, your benchmark, the brand you are trying to build – get the right tense.

If the .com is not available in the correct tense for your brand you may even be tempted to think the wrong tense is still ok but seriously, don’t do it.

If you have to settle for a .net or .org in the right tense my opinion is buy and develop around the .net or .org.

Again, if you’re buying to develop a MAIN site.

You want to show a professional image behind your brand and the wrong tense can tarnish that professional appeal – in some cases, it can even make you look stupid.

.com is king but .net and .org are the queens and I would rather have a great queen than a secondary king any day.

Its all about content – build it and they will come.

When they do, try not to look like an ass.

———————————————

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