Domain Owl

Oversee.net recently streamlined 13% of its workforce. Along with pending new hires, will allow the “new” Oversee.net to leverage core assets to innovate more effectively, improve competitive positioning and achieve growth.” Um, sure. I guess now they have less to “oversee”. Domainers wear so many hats, almost every domainer I know is their own Internet company. I’d like to see the actual product flow from an internet company just once with a profit model that reflects a monetary relationship what people are paid.

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Remember all those people who said the domain name game was falling into disuse and only a few big players would or could afford to be around this time this year? Well, all that conventional wisdom can be thrown out the window with a review of the news from the domaining landscaper of today. Some if it sounds new, some it sounds familiar. If it sounds like you’ve heard some of the news before, it means you are a card carrying domainer.

Make no mistake, the big names still govern the world of domains, and when Frank Schilling vends his millionth name or Google tries to partner with Skype, the headlines are about search engine movings and shakings. Yesterday Google was trying to establish specific infrastructure to take over the online world with categorical strategy, yet in the face of antitrust probes Google is suddenly a baby-faced child with no evil intentions whatsoever.

Online privacy has become an increasingly thorny issue, with major hackings taking place one servers in a disturbing frequency of instigation. When the ICE gets involved in domain names and hosting issues, commerce has arrived in the domain sector. The issues continue to make domainers wonder how much say they should have in their own industry. New precedents are being set every day for how domain name portfolio owners should make decisions about their names in the context of laws and ICANN regulations..

ICE claims that because servers are located in the United States, the material and code on those servers operates under American governmental jurisdiction. United States law enforcement has been in the news recently seizing potentially hackworthy servers, which should be more than enough to make rogue coders and sniffer system operators go dark. But does this mean clients of less than savory websites will simply seek out web hosting that is globally redundant? This makes the “redirect” of any webmaster to placing the hosting and domain name on separate servers of critical importance.

Some domaining debates will never grow old. Where does the value potential of country code top level domains really lie? Can peer domain name appraisals and monetization assessments be trusted? Do language barriers between character based alphabet lexicons interfere or enhance search engine results? Does a premium domain sale commission equal highway robbery? How far from cybersquatting is copyright infringement, and how much is a domainer liable for finding out? The argument over the efficacy of parking programs evolves endlessly and further again.

The perspective that domaining is an investment commodity market becomes more concrete when news about domain name sale commissions cloud the actual profit from any resale or auction purchase. Every domainer has to burn through a learning phase where backlink checkers, affiliate programs, web hosting complexities and comparative auction returns get examined. The fact that a modern domain name owner might have to wade through news feeds, purchased clicks, and paid posting is now a norm.

Domainers are now specialists in SEO, short names, numericals, and typo names. The establishment of a keyword domain name or a brandable domain can still make news when it resells in an auction frenzy. Flippa, SEDO, Godaddy and WhyPark are the talk of the domaining town. Traffic and parking programs have gone from performing a sidewalk shuffle to requiring approval to introducing innovative options again. Are domainers the customers of parking companies, or vice versa?

The exotic fringe of today’s practicing domaining professionals dance through a maze of traffic control, statistics manipulation, and illegal practices experimentation.Will the day come when actual Internet “Coast Guards” patrol the Web, actively chasing down smugglers of illegal clicks? International law works well in theory but when does a website operate in international waters?

Domainers may need to become astute in setting the deal terms in place when multiple continents are involved. The good news is that ideas become fresher and minds become more open to new website and domain based concepts as business online every day. Given the success of many nonsense words that became global brands that control online commerce today, the ability of anyone to select and leverage a domain name is now just a registrar shopping cart away.

Who knew that one day the Internet, not the sky, would be the limit?

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Amidst all the cynical backbiting taking place over the three amigos kicked from Oversee.net, I have yet to hear the logic behind Monte Cahn leaving. Is this company as much of a mess as it sounds like? I can’t quite track the convoluted history of these Internet based companies. Some of the comment show some bad blood between not only domainers in general and Oversee.net, but to those individuals in particular. Were these cost cutting measures or disciplinary measures against specific individuals?

This could make sense in the long run. I find it hard to believe any above-the-line talent in a high profile domaining company needs to be let go in such a public manner unless there is an underlying reason for having made them redundant that will be made clear in the fullness of time. Gee it’s hard to believe parking didn’t work out to be a money printing machine, right?

I still take issue with internet companies so bloated with infrastructure they can’t do more that publish parking programs and weave together parking networks. That’s just not a full days’ work for any domainer, in this domain owner’s humble opinion.

The news of these job cuts has alerted domainers to the money machine that parking is built on. Affiliate programs are always only as good as their bank balance.

At the same time naysayers are shuttering offices at Oversee.net, five figure domains sales are still taking place on public worldwide auction platform. That three of the big recent sales were .co name is serious food for domaining thought. Apple buying icloud.com for $4.5 million is the kind of sale may keyword domain buyers dream of. (What took them so long?)

Some marquee six figure sales broke profitably as well. That’s a dichotomy that should speak loudly to any domainer. The parking companies are going broke but the buyers market for big dollar domains is a blown out as ever.

eNom Expired Domain Name Software. Snap Expired Domain Names the Second They become Available for Registration.

That Amazon.com is buying single consonant domain names shows that a program of investment in domain names is still happening among large to global sized corporations. This complements the small to medium sized business purchase of a brand name or entity name to support online marketing and brand promotion.

Tap your feet three times if you “get it”. As reporters and broad stream media become more conversant in the domain name game, the open market for first time domain buyers and resales will sharpen. The recent appearance of the “Get Rich Click” author on the View reflects how this is done. It’s hard to believe the domain model for online marketing and resale profit, as well as affiliate sales derivation is still a mystery to anyone, but evidently this is so.

For domainers thinking strategically, this puts them at the middle of the demand market, behind the huge portfolio holders but ahead of the newbs with B2B needs for domains as yet to be determined. Any domainer can leverage existing domains into a worth position by multiplying their investment using coupon codes, the most recent of which was the Godaddy.com Indy car event code.

The B2B and side business potential of a domain name career continues to grow. I am surprised nobody has built a domain name shop franchise for the all the hue and cry that startups have in the world today. Today the Internet market for affiliate earnings is more suited to specialized end users, specialist webmasters,  and niche authors than ever.

For the right name the right customer is out there. Do the math: if you buy three domains a year at $1.29, and spend about $50 hosting them all, that’s a potential of $100 profit if even one of those websites sells intact with the name. On that formula, selling the right customer the right name should be simple. All they have to do is add content, link liberally to their social networking groups, and blend on low speed.

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A lot of people who come into contact with domainers misunderstand what domaining is all about. They assume there is a high-end technological ceiling that prevents the “common man” from getting involved. The domainers industry is filled with those who have an advanced knowledge of HTML, website design, and affiliate advertising, but the career of domaining can be accessed even without the experience qualified with coding and programming.
The ramp-up of introductory knowledge begins, as always, with a little history.  Researching the customers and clients that will evolve for any business, domaining include those entities and special rules and cultural traditions that must be navigated before admittance to the community of domainers occurs. There is no official roll of members of the industry, and there is no required educational requirements or certification need to participate, bid on, or buy domains.
The current customer base for domain name sellers includes both veteran domainers who navigated Darpanet before dial-up telephony was achievable, and teenagers following the domain sale market like a ladie’s stock picking club. Domain buying is done online or even in person at trade shows, private personal transactions, and special event sales. The set price of a new, untenanted domain can be precluded in cost by the  suffix, or TLD (Top Level Domain) that follows it. The TLD of any domain is a big tip to its price, value, and potential.
The portal though which domain names are vended is the registrar, the sale and buyer’s information is recorded into the registry record, and the recording of a new owner for the domain name is mirrored all  over the world in seconds. The computer servers these name records are located on are called nameservers. International banking and currency portals can also charge a surcharge for conversion of currency between buyer and seller, an auction listing premium, and/or local sales taxes and fees.
The listing of domain names for sale is published online, in event programs, and distributed via e-mail or auction house bulletins.

A number of domain name auction companies have emerged to govern the market, such as Sedo.com. Other registrars functioning online as domain name sales portals have daily, weekly, quarterly domain sales events or multi-tiered auction events live often. Bidders can bid through an established account, on the phone, or via pre-set bids and limits per domain name.
The buyers of any given domain name in a premium auction might be a investment group, a private individual, a partnership proxy, or just a hobbyist finding a bargain or a investor looking for a likely branch of investment opportunities. Many startup businesses begin with the purchase of a domain name which is also the name of their website, product, service, or company. A website that is not ready or launching will have a “parkgin” page until other content or organized visual material is composed.

A domain name does not need a business model or company name to match to warrant sale or be listed for sale to any buyer.
The rules governing certain TLD names abroad can change these parameters. Certain Country Code names are formed from the suffixes of Country Code TLDs, which have been expanded for resale and licensed for commercial resale worldwide by that country through a registrar or auction house. International use of such names does occur, but some countries have taken the step to limit exploitation of domain name usage by placing geographical restrictions on the sale. The valuation of any name is what the buyer will pay.
Conditions exist within the domain ownership purview such that a given domain name with a more popular or commonly used TLD, such as dot-com, dot-net or dot-org, is unavailable, in use, priced beyond the buyer’s budget, or owned by a corporate entity which refuses to sell it. This type of domain ownership happens often, and can be a spur to a copyright conflict between domain name owners. Administrators are well advised to research the copyright entities worldwide before launching a site, promoting it, or investing development resources.
Exceptions to this are explained at the sale point on any registrar or by any legitimate seller. Not all registrars are licensed to sell the domain names of all TLDs, and in the competitive selling market online for vending domain names, these sale or licensing rights can carry a premium. But the policy of any legitimate domain name vendor are such that a sale to an inappropriate party will not occur.

Ombudsman organizations such as WIPO arbitrate disputes between domain name owners when such conflict arises.
Domain evaluation and value assessment is a gray area within the field of domaining. The methods of evaluation for a buy price or sale price might be applied from various instruments and methods. Website visits or domain name lookups alter the value of a domain name for potential resale or product promotion. The records of these statistics may be featured for a domain sale or researched independently.
Grooming domain name values includes incorporating website content, search engine approximations, and commercial advertising options called affiliates. Affiliates generate payments from site visitation per domain name and traffic volumes predictive of probable advertising participation. User traffic and links to and from the domain name’s website can bolster a domain name’s value significantly.

The value of a domain name  usually relates to traffic of web users to the site every day, links, and information therein. Various strategies and programs are used by site managers (called webmasters) to grow these statistics.
Thus, in the context of a domain name sale, the content which has historically been associated with the website or the domain name has value. Content is written material, text, caption, meta tags, video or audio files, or uploaded documents for visitors to view.

The organization of these elements of content can create a entity at a search engine known as a site profile which concords to the domain name. Thus, a search engine results page full of returned associated listing pertaining to the site name or from it, and/or the history for any domain name rich in content and development can inflate the name’s value.

The email addresses generated from the domain name address can also be of value in online communication and marketing. SEO value, or search engine result value for any domain name, is a hot topic amongst domainers.  New trends in domain name value leverage include social networking, Twitter, RSS feeds, and link exchange programs built to foster reflexive trade in web user visitation.

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The market for living breathing travel websites remains healthy, due to a bouquet of factors. One of these is that the classic mistakes of trying to everything in one website can’t possibly occur in any travel website. The search parameters have to be so wide, specific, or time consuming to enter it makes a headache out of searching for fun places to stay. Common keywords for a travel website might be “deal”, “air”, and “fly”.

Travel websites were originally created for people to get to the pricing data and bypass the advertising, promotional, and marketing beeswax. Then the travel websites dded that back into their own websites. Travelers using websites often feel distanced from timely data and locked away from real solutions and good answers. Domains for travel websites should include keywords like “fun”, “quick” and “info”, and deliver on those keywords as well. The design and template, scripting and language should complete this concept.

Another travel website mistake is trying to deliver a functional website that shrinks the cycle of end user search time without users being caught in the web of unnecessary add-ons and product bundling. The search function for so many travel, airfare, ticketing and cruise websites is so overcomplicated it seems like an obvious no-brainer just to list fares. Compiling the best of certain fares or routes or travel packages can deliver traffic or bookmarking for later reference.

Instead of scaring away end users with complex algebra, better designed travel websites can serve the target demographic better. This will guarantee return clicks like no other website factor and promote word-of-mouth site promotion. Making the research easier for customers always allows them greater facility in making choices. As geographic place names become domain names, development becomes very cut and dried.  A straightforward approach to content, without false keyword stuffing and dummy listings, can satisfy users and create resonant traffic patterns.

A final mistakes is losing touch with the user base that is most likely trying to get some answers and trying to distract them with useless flag-waving. The advertisements nobody reads are a huge turn-off, yet some webmasters insist on paving their site content with animated banner ads and inks. Worse, banal font choices, unclear images, and unrelated subject matter can confuse a end user confronted with a top search result website without the information they need anywhere visible.

The more existing travel websites fail, lack security, age, or simply become to irritating to use, the more room there is for new and up-and-coming webmasters to craft the travel websites of tomorrow. The framework and domain blog software has never been more available or more expertly edited for instant adoption. The next great travel website could be around the bend…made by entrepreneurs carving a profit out of a niche market.

And the key domains they will need will be in the hands of seasoned expert domainers.

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There is a unique opportunity taking place now, and savvy entrepreneurs can act to secure real profits and increase over value. The herd in the domain world can tend to run in the same direction, but some key value elements might make a big difference when scanning droplists or making offers on auctioned names. The actual name and keyword combination is still important, but attaining a key name in the “other” realm of TLD’s is obviously newly profitable.

If the auction sales from DomainFest show one thing, it’s that no assumption about a TLD being valueless in the future is accurate. Dot Me names (from the CCTLD for Montenegro) and the newly minted .CO landslide (from the CCTLD of Columbia) may be hidden investment gems. The UDRP landscape is filling up with trademarks, and the domain holder who brands their own CCTLD along with a possible primary dot com dot net or dot org, can win the domainers stakes.

The census years ago was that (whether domainers will admit it or not) .US was really just an also-ran in the domain space. Many domainers who had invested were tearing their hair out over so much “wasted” investment. They must have read the Domainfest report with sackcloth and ashes.
Here are some name sales. Trafficjam.com sold for $11,500. Kiss.me sold for $10,000. Love.me sold for $32,000. Won.com was the big winner with a $115,000 payday, a great sale for a three letter dot com. The very timely name BridgeLoan.com sold for $27,500. Damages.com went for $25,000. LoanQuotes.com sold for $75,000. Those are some healthy name sales.

Dot US names had a premier place in domainer’s hearts, simply because a huge tranche of domainers actually live and work in the United States, thus using the country code TLD in a manner according to the reasons it was formed. The CCTLD names in the past were bought in a flurry of gold rush activity. But if the five figure domain sales reported from last week tell domainers anything, it’s that this week’s unwanted TLD name is going to be valued much higher in few years, perhaps even months. Time to get cracking picking up those “dollar” domains.

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Many experienced domainers have watched the web continue through migrations of change including how search engines process websites. But old habits die hard, or just get forgotten as easier tools become desktop references. Take care to prune the following sloppy errors from your site. The SEO value of any site must be tuned weekly, if not daily to reflect the changing requirements of web use and search engine conventions.

1. Dynamic Web Page

A dynamic web page draws  it source content from a database. The end user viewer sees a full page displayed, but the actual code is a bunch of scripts. The static HTML page displays proper tags and meta code, with keywords and relevant information relating to expanded content elsewhere on the page. Many content management systems offers scripted directories which display full sites. But look at the source for any 3 pages made with the same application. It’s all script code with a few tags.

2. Site Navigation

Many webmasters today are used to using templates or default application setup sites. Believe it or not, many competent site architects today work without any reference to the site path navigation. the site map must be optimized, both for search engine optimization and core functionality. Webmasters must review the site from a first time users perspective.

Look at each point on the map. Is there a clear indication on the preceding leader pages how to get there? Is there an exit route? Have squeeze pages been set up to capture traffic? There is no point making pages the search engine will never see, because traffic will not be SEO magnetic. And search engines cannot refer end users and researchers to pages they can’t find.

3. Url Management

Hundreds of Internal URLs exist within a site. but the functional code that templates programs and applications assign to these goes unchanged. The search engines perceive these as ghosts of the main url and disregard them without other qualifiers. Thus the need for deep linking. To rewrite a url, use rewrite functions or edit in the directory utility window.

Smart applications will customize blog posts to custom urls with featured keywords as the poster designates. Tags and featured words should be part of a content strategy. End users and web researchers are looking for “lemon ginger cookies” at a search engine should find results at “mycooking site.com/lemon-ginger-cookies.htm, for example. Not in the SERP page is “mycookingsite.com/171″.

4. Cookies and Flash

Web browser crumb trails and flash or java add ons have something in common: they make navigation easier for users and the content users are looking at more invisible to search engines. A big splash of java that precludes any other coding is a big weakness in a site, because it prioritizes an old standard over current SEO utility.

Many end users also complain about having to add on anything or set cookies safety lower to access a site. Change user experience parameters to perform code functions per qualified visitor. A bot shouldn’t need a cookie, but maybe you want your visitors to commit so you can track stolen content. make sure user frustration isn;t shutting down your site experience for privacy valuing end users.

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The Domain Owl has been watching how Viacom is treating the YouTube matter. Sure, YouTube started out with the best of intentions. People scrupulously followed the rules. But then things changed. The mass of uploaders was impossible to police and bottlenecked the very fluidity of rapid dynamics YouTube launched the site to encourage. Onward rolled the subpoenas.

Everybody and their brother knows that once YouTube members started uploading pieces of movies, and scored fan videos, the gloves were off and billions of illegally copyrighted sequences were online. But instead of learning what the public wanted, copyright holders went screaming to the authorities. They demanded that YouTube comply with copyright laws or be shut down. YouTube stayed up.

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In a world where digital video, desktop publishing and independent movie making run rampant, the studios and the corporations decided that file codecs and lashings of wealth were more important than imagination and website participation. In a world without the internet, they would have been right. But that world is gone, and the laws that governed it are out of date.

But the Internet is here. Digital manipulation of files for commercial purposes and uploading for illegal download are not the same thing as making a fan based video for fun and uploading it for friends and browsers to enjoy and comment on. But companies like those suing Viacom would prefer to control the content people use and enjoy even in their own homes and on their own computers. The law does protect them, to some extent.

But using copyright law to prevent the creation of fan videos and new media products rendered by wit, imagination and artistic creativity is wrong. It’s like living in a Nazi state where the origin source and form must equal an equally palatable end product. Companies like Viacom want to encourage growth and differentiation instead of control of that end product. And thing is, on the World Wide Web, they can’t control other people.  That genie is out of the bottle.

If companies like Viacom had keyboards for hire in the tens of thousands churning out fanvideos and uploading them onto a content controlled channel, that would be one thing. They could then claim that the abyss between individual art and corporate warez has been closed. But no such effort has taken place. If entertainment channels provided all the entertainment people wanted there would be no viewers per hours versus the extant millions.

But YouTube users are using their digital cameras to film an episode of Glee crosswise off their screens. How can that threaten a billion dollar corporation? The Internet opens up vistas of creativity (not the Windows kind) that a company like that would never dream of.  And once those pictures images and sounds and ideas are in the minds of millions of viewers, they can’t control the use of it, only the resale of it.

YouTube shows ads while content from other media and other creators shows. YouTube derives compensation and consideration from sponsors, created by the volume of users. A dalliance with the idea of a paid YouTube fee enraged copyright holders and studio entertainment behemoths even more. How dare once cent of revenue anywhere on this existential plane be exacted without their cut?

I read in the newspaper a few days ago that Viacom was challenging the judge’s interpretation of the law as it read in some clause in one of hundreds of contracts to govern these matters. Frankly, the language and terminology have obscured the issue by now. YouTube is a fact. Find out how to make money out of it or get back to work.

What I’ve never seen any of these studio companies do is launch a challenger for YouTube, even though they own the copyright to the material YouTube can’t use! That would be the way to go. But right now Hulu, Guba, DailyMotion and others own that space. And domainers trying to figure out what is legal and downright plagiarizing would have a better purview.

Until the movie companies can decide on a universal thin client with working download parameters (like Itunes) the online users will shape and visit download sites like the Pirate Bay. And justice doesn’t move swiftly enough to capture the lightning changes of forwarded masked domain urls and scripted squeeze pages. Frankly in my opinion affiliates should be tasked with reviewing what site content they pay revenues off of. Honest domainers would come out clean in that wash.

The Google-owned era of YouTube does show videos taken down due to copyright. To find the same level of creativity must one launch a pirate Tube on a dedicated server? With Google purchasing Widevine, bailing on Groupon, and getting scrutinized the EU, they’ve got enough to worry about. Viacom could find a better use for that money. Try paying some artists better fees or funding some films.

What is really happening is that one company wants to be paid because they missed out cashing on the Internet. At this time one would think they would move on and stop trying to turn back the clock. That way the internet and domain name developers could proceed along their chosen paths without Plan B and workarounds for whatever lawsuit YouTube is involved in this week.

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One of the most common and accessible ways to publicize a blog or website is to publish an article at Ezines.com and earn a backlink to your chosen url for your trouble. Making the Internet aware of the domain is the web developer’s job where SEO is concerned. But how many domainers avail themselves of the opportunity? The smart ones do. The passive-aggressive domainers don’t.

I actually know domain name owners who have never submitted a backlink who honestly believe their domains should be enjoying robust offers. My most sincere efforts at educating them fall on deaf ears. They are the aristocrats of the domain market, who never need to stop to the tricks of the trade that every domain name owner and reseller knows about.

One of the first things a potential domain name owner does when searching out name value for a possible bid is to Google or otherwise search the web for traces of PR effort. These are experts in assessing domain name values. they will be looking for sites that have a backlink to the domain named website for sale, hopefully at sites that have a topical link to the subject material indicated.

Usually a domainer has a talent in one kind of  niche where they excel at bringing a certain facet of SEO value or page rank performance to a domain name or website. they have honed doing this to a fine art, and have several licenses and memberships to the appropriate websites and forums to get others to help. What they want to know is, how can they supplement current effort to arrive at a resalable margin of profit?

Is the press aware of the website? Is content present on the site? Is there a Dmoz entry? Do backlinks with topical relationships to the keyword exist? Is there any link exchange relationship that show a commitment to elevating traffic and developing the domain name and website for accepted principles of domain value elevation? How much has the site owner or domainer who owns the name currently done beyond buying the name?

Keeping a blog or website updated with fresh and dynamic content keeps the search engines and site value estimators happy. But SEO it doesn’t do anything for PR unless the traffic flowing to the site can grab onto keyword specific content. Potential buyers need something to grab hold of and take a bite out of for further development, traffic enhancement, ad page rank growth and other name marketing options.

To enhance resale potential of a name, and not just to promote current SEO value and page rank, owners of domain names need to be actively engaged in leveling up (in gamer’s parlance) the profile of their website online. Even if the domain name only has a parked page, the domain name’s value is always in play as long as it is registered. That is a big window of opportunity.

Ezine allows articles of multiple topics to submit them for consideration and share their knowledge or particular point of view. Ongoing utility of the Ezines.com engine online is a shotgun in the domainer’s bag of tricks that needs to stay oiled and ready and fired regularly to really be of any use. A serious question to anyone looking to make money selling domain names is:

Do you Ezines?

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Traffic is the key to a successful website, and a domain, for that matter. The earning potential for affiliates and link sponsors as well as featured ads is a function of what traffic will participate in the lure of services and goods for sale. But so many domainers expect traffic without putting out sufficient incentive. The lure of a site must be established for traffic to evolve in significant numbers.

The time and efforts that domainers will put into domain development varies. The investment some domainers are comfortable making may skip the right name and focus all the marbles on the wrong name. The more names a domainer adds to their stable, the more the effort for each individual name will diminish. Advice can come from all sides, qualified or unqualified, and mean nothing or everything.

Partnership is key to developing domains intelligently. Unless the independent domainer forges ahead with a team of inspired specialists, the registered domain will languish inside the locked vault of the parked page or lie fallow in the doldrums of the hosting account. That’s a lot of wasted  Cnames setups and idling frames redirect records.

These types of scenarios generally increase the value of a domain name very little. Many domainers operate alone, with hundreds of name waiting in the wings undeveloped. Partners can break down the benefits of link promotion strategies and help make decisions regarding text contributions and editoral calendars for content posting. And the main thrust of the impetus forward can be put toward a tangible goal.

Domainers rolling their sleeves up and developing make money. Otherwise so many domain energies are wasted in pointless debates between ad types, website features, or value appraisals that don’t really add to the bottom line. Posting on discussion forums can help a newb domainer learn, but many busy domain portfolio managers are much more concerned with marketing their names to buyers directly.

Sales pitches without teeth tend to be ignored or dismissed outright. The pumps for a domain buy needs to be primed when the transaction is domainer-to-domainer. Just shoving the domain onto the market rarely brings a satisfactory return. Savvy domain shoppers want stats and traffic volume to cement a bid. Without these a domain offering can sound like a desperate Hail Mary pass.

Undeveloped and/or unused domains are a huge waste. The importance of a road map or marketing plan for every domain at purchase is key. At the very least any unused (undeveloped) names should be directed toward a landing page of the domainer’s existing site to bolster traffic for a target name under review for development or sale.

These are the risks of domaining. And the rewards? Huge auction bids, online traffic in cascades of hourly clicks, and ad revenues piling up almost faster than the metrics can add them up. Or perhaps one sale happens with just one very happy bid that makes a domainer’s year. For prurient domain developers, this can be very feasible if they don’t overspend on media buys.

After all the Adwords, SEO, Article Writing, Media Buys, Blogging, Classified Ads, Social Bookmarking, and buzz, a big ticket domain resale is the goal. But not every domain marketing instrument is right for every site. The appeal of a website based on a speculative domain can be a delicate thing to manage or anticipate. Media buys for one audience can work whereas for another domain audience they fall flat.

And that’s just the beginning. There is always the hook of the promotion cycle at the social networking sites, ongoing link building, and negotiating and pitching to joint venture partners. Domainers spend the balance of their time wrestling with their hosting accounts and tugging names from one registrar to another. The most desperate go for email drops and ad swaps, which pose SEO risk for negligible return.

Adwords can work when the site had traffic. SEO is the responsibility of the webmaster. Article writing is a core foundation of any site strategy. Media buy investments like blogging, Classified Ads, Social Bookmarking, Facebook or other social networking, paid link building, and other sponsored appeals for traffic can blend into a nice fountain of online viewers.

Domainers, start your engines and rev up to speed new traffic clicks to your site today!

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