Domain Owl

The domain world is like both the sports world and the business world, where the big names make big news and the legal ramifications and business parameters change at any moment. But recently the doings of the domain bigwigs, as well as the business restrictions and legal shifts associated with domain name trading and purchase and auction sales, have caused long term market watchers to re-estimate the current market for name trade potential.

Monte Cahn suing Moniker/Oversee is an eye-opener, unless one considers the ramifications of pouring one’s hearts-blood into an enterprise during critical business cycles of the domain game and then having the rewards twisted out of all regard. The encomiums that followed Cahn’s exit of Moniker could hardly have been garnered by a self-serving coterie intent on cementing future lawsuit goodwill.

The big impact of the February Domainer Flu Outbreak (dubbed the Playboy mansion DotCom malaise by some) seemed to be the proof that domain industry news was in fact media worthy, but the mainstream media still does not absorb and reflect domain name industry news accurately or assess its importance and relevance efficiently. What is this opaque banner between the media and general public and the domain industry? Is it only visible when one is outside the domain world?

A full week after initial reports were coming down the domain blog pike, network news, even in local areas was slow and sloppy. The attempts to cover the story , even with competition of global tabloid saturation on every Hollywood street corner, was clumsy and often inaccurate. For those looking to expand their B2B media offerings, thinks about delivering a new pipeline to broadcast media sources unable to decipher the terms, importance, or relevance of domain news to their own lives and commercial enterprises.

Domain name professionals are still weighing the value of the dot-co market. Godaddy certainly has made the introduction of a dot-co domain name into the portfolio cost friendly. Godaddy continues to sponsor entry level domainers into the name game by providing discount coupon codes. These dotcom name purchase codes, the recent feature .co registration discount, and the .info cost reduction are mighty incentive when crafting a domain development plan or business agenda for monetizing a name. These savings can really add up to domain name holders with sizeable portfolios.

It’s unsettling to realize that the domain world has been around long enough to mystify and alienate would-be industry buyers and potential players in the domain space. The battles for real estate on the domain name corporate playground show testimony to the fact that this is valuable territory to acquire and own.  Changes continue apace in the online and domaining world.
Online security is no longer a buzzword but a vulture circling over the shoulder of every webmaster.

Denial of service attacks for the Barcelona DomainFest event and the subsequent cancellation resonate with the mobile phone hacking scandal in the UK and the “Hacktivism” website hack of the PBS website in the United States. Until forthright security measures for data, hosting, and website architecture layers are followed, hacking will continue as a fact of life,  as online malice spares none. There seems to be a measure of dissonance that cognitively persuades technology officers these threats are not real, and it is a salutory effect of the many hack reports that gives webmasters worldwide a chance to correct their online security and programming integrity omissions. Will they take the chance?

Some changes are long overdue. Rick Latona’s website actually looks like a website brokerage now and not a watch shopping cart. The doings of ICANN continue to amaze Internet passersby and dubious domainer onlookers. To see Frank Schilling offer parking services is not a surprise, but my expectation is that the parking market is long diminished (except for the Whypark engine). The reluctance of some domainers to develop websites that function as new media and communication portals, with provision for any level of visitor interaction, is a long standing weakness of many domainers.

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The Wikileaks effect has spawned copycats offshoots wannabe and genuine peers. The world of corporate secrets confidentiality, and whistleblowing may never be the same again. Even people who never interested in the Wikileaks site cannot deny the timeliness of this market.

While Washington D.C, spooks want to call this action terrorism, it may be just people getting around all the red tape to let the public know about wrongful action by businesses, governments, and individuals. Secret spilling may be a domain gold rush.
What gave rise to this user base? Decades of people watching whistleblowers in federal, state, and civil suits get targeted and having their lives take a nosedive due to the strain of following the court system.

New sites are springing up to pick up locally where the scope of Wikileaks doesn’t reach. That’s geo-specific traffic. Brusselsleaks, (not about fibrous green vegetables), BalkanLeaks, (accepting documents of Bulgarian nefarious deeds), Indoleaks, (politically volatile), and Governmentleaks in China, (not even approved of by Assange) all are heritage offshoots of the original Wikileaks website.
It’s hard to know what is entailed when one starts an enterprise like a wikileaks type website, but to be sure there are plenty of industries that could use one. Key players in commercial trucking, pharmaceutical medicine, animal safety and environmental hazards agencies could probably all have very good ideas about what comprises a wikileaks type site specific to their industry. Getting end user traffic might be both a journalistic enterprise and a social science experiment rolled into one.
The keyword for a niche industry or commonly known abbreviation might work for the morphology of a successful new -leaks site. The robo-signing of mortgage loans, for example, might spring a site called roboleaks.com, robowiki.com, robo.wiki, or robonomics.com. Finding your own industry niche leaks site, or drawing information and making it palatable to other readers and viewers is the first step. (At this writing roboleaks.com was unregistered).
Then by drawing together media, video, and Youtube type assets to an easily accessible channel for ongoing viewers provides end users with more reasons to check back in on and possibly contribute to your site. The fools-gold of domainers building trend name sites is the avalanche of banners and links nobody touches. But the real value of serious end user contributions and forum communities can make a new buyer very interested indeed.
The leaks site doesn’t need to have legs for five years, but who knows when the next end user will target your platform for their big deposit of information or data. Suddenly you have a high traffic domain you can point to any one of your sites for a bump in hits. Now, did you really think this was time for parking a name like that?

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Reading a book about Google was inevitable. This book was an eye opening primer in basic domain wisdom. But the knowledge inside the tome “What Would Google Do”‘ goes much further than any one online market segment. Written all the way back in 2009, much of the simplistic approaches to online business can be tooled especially to a domainer profit model.

Making smart mistakes, joining networks, and concentrating on delivering best product and nothing less is a welcome refresher. The concept that “life is  a beta” may be a soft sell to hard nosed domainers. References to the Google economy and the concept that middlemen are doomed may be up for debate or at least a half-hearted shrug.

The idea that “free is a business model” and that “nothing can compete with free” is being proven right now in realtime clicks and mortar stores with Panera bakeries. Neighboring eateries can’t compete with pay as you go prices. And Panera polishes its franchise with every chopped price. Google didn’t write the book (NPI) on business success but they do enjoy co-opting the brand.

Being collaborative is nothing new, neither is the concept of making mistakes well. Most industry advice books, especially in the tech related fields, emphasize trial and error. But this can be expensive for the everyday domainer. Thinking inside the gift economy, grabbing the freeware of the open source portal, and embracing the gift machine that is the Internet are all included.

Jeff Jarvis in “What Would Google Do” encapsulates and expands on his blog material from buzzmachine.com. If you are stranger to the blog this is all new news. Google and the Internet are indeed social media.And Jarvis explores several cases were the internet media is exploited incorrectly for public relations and profit motives. Jarvis preaches against being “evil”.

But somewhere the case is lacking that Google is guardian, the last bastion of a business seal of approval. The perception that a business operating outside the Google envelope needs to be “reformed’ may meet askance by several industry watchers. But Jarvis’ approach has brought new life to old company models. Is any business Google proof? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Domainers can best use this book as a tool to learn to think three dimensionally about to puncture and exploit captive domain traffic markets. Jarvis suggests giving control, respect and organization to customers, (which I seem to be alone in wishing more mobile customers of websites were on the receiving end of).  Information is power, but the idea that FaceBook is a “fake’ currency is intriguing.

Domainers can read this book and enjoy how Jarvis road maps certain domain markets and reveals potential domain name investment values to invest in. For a domain speculator to buy geo names or real estate names is nothing new, but it’s nice to hear a SEO expert say so too. Jarvis reports that the real estate market online is ripe for explosive development, and he’s right.

The application of Googlethink may not always heal. The case studies are contemporary, however, and deal with extremely relevant and updated business profit models such as airlines and “vanishing” newspapers are food for thought. Turning the customer experience around can make a domain (and its corresponding website) pay.

But a book spent evangelizing Googlification and Googlethink is not necessarily captivating reading. The success story wears thin because readers can’t start their own Google in the basement. Some readers may wonder how much of Jarvis’ advice can relate to markets where Google does not dominate, such as insurance and law. But maybe that’s for the next book.

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Domains are like horses, they take investment, nourishment, training, supervision, contact with people and an opportunity to shine on the track. The domain “racing” attitude can be seen in everything from the domain name buyer’s assessment of the domain name’s “points’ to the resale value and aging potential of the value of any domain name.

Horses need nutrition, exercise, rest, training, and the right jockey. Starved horses don’t succeed, they just drop dead. Horses need the right feed and the right care to grow into blue ribbon winners. These horse racing industry dynamics can translate to the world of domains as content, test launching, SEO optimization and site plan grooming, and bandwidth and hosting provisioning.

Horses that can run are like domains that can attract traffic, keep viewers interested, and make consumers interact with commercial or monetary offers or ads that bring the domain name owner revenue. Domains that can “run” are catchy names, clear indicators of the content awaiting them, original material and derived from strong stock. A sponsor name across the saddle doesn’t mar the ability of the horse to race.

The right combination of people to bring a winner to the starting gate is the envy of any domainer. Site jockeys can ride the rails of affiliate ads, link building, and site optimization with skill.  Competitors are always chomping at the bit. Domains need discipline, not to sit in pasture idling away their years in parked pages. Pages fat with unneeded ads and filler won’t race competitively at all. Sites need the right webmaster and domainers are savvy to pursue this wisdom.

Domain racing is a challenging sport but a costly one. Thoroughbred names, like premium auction winners, can cost a lot of money to groom into money earning entities. Experienced domainers always have an eye out for the ‘dark horse’ domain that could net them a fortune. Like many horse racing agents, they scout out young domain talent to see what can be done to bring a new domain name into the senior cup winning form.

Many horse racing fans eye the “pink sheet”, the track betting notes, before a big set of stakes races. Domainers do the same thing for domain names at auction, checking stats, earnings, and provenance of names as well as their past history “on the track”. The knowledge particular to domaining, like horse racing, can pay off with the right set of contacts, advisors, and consulting experts.

Domainers need to be wary of domainer “horse dealers”, domain sellers who go flogging names of little value with falsified stats or claims of affiliate earnings without proof. The SEO or keyword factors are very much like bloodlines, and the provenance of other legacy names performing in the Internet domain world support continued investment in domain grooming.

Sometimes a domainer just feels lucky. Sometimes they want to know what it feels like to be a winner so bad they spend too much money on the wrong horse. Typos names, names purchased and developed for accidental traffic form well known proper domains names, might be said to be stakes horses. These names are practically a secondary marketing domaining, like low cost breeder racing and track traditions.

For a winning formula in domaining, newby domainers could do worse than look to the horse racing world for inspiring ideas about how to succeed in an industry crowded with competitors, fraught with luck, and dependent on the animal nature of the Internet “beast” to perform well at the right time. Timing the right domain name entry into the internet stakes can be a neck-and-neck fight to the finish.

As always, in domaining, “the horses are on the track”.

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Ever feel like cornering the market? Domains are like commodities on a stock exchange, except the World Wide Web is the Stock Exchange for urls and domains and the registered users don’t need a license or formal training, just the ability to purchase the domain name from a registrar. Domain marketing professionals only need an enthusiasm for doing business and promoting their chosen domain name creations or purchases.

Marketing a domain name and its putative content is the next step. Many other tools and instruments can be employed to publicize a site name online.   Just distributing a press release about data management, link distribution, content review, or  the domain name and the associated website is an aggressive step forward for many domainers.

Making a website can stall a new domain buyer for months or years. Smart domainers employ domain professionals to take care of focused domain strategic marketing points. Ongoing website maintenance can require script doctoring, hand coding, and ellipsis of new marketing layers into the first visit website experience. Manipulating web page files and using web standards is job best left to professionals for optimum results.

Many types of online domain services can be contracted for direct enhancement of the domain name profile. Just getting the word out in a chosen niche or topical list of subject related website directories can take months. orchestrating a campaign to get the real message behind a domain name idea or associated website into the public mind and target web user  demographic needs all the assistance it can get.

While the goal of every domainer is to break the bank and buy low and sell high, a few sidelines have emerged in the domaining world. These are the brokering of domains, the domain name traffic improvement niche, the link exchange market, and the articles and content devising. Making websites, adding affiliate links and ad banners, and creating logo graphics and locating custom images ot suit the site are webmaster tasks that can be outsourced.

Marketing domains to likely niche buyers and developing the name and its associated data sets for auction listing is yet another tranche of domaining employment. Some domainers may view auction listings, read about domain name auction sales, and even list their own domain names for sale without realizing the full capability of online Internet tools that can boost a domain name before auction for the maximum sale price.

The buying of a new domain upon creation from a registrar is a simple process. The name is vended to the new registrant and the associated particulars like physical street address, phone number, and email address are recorded. If there is a hosting company account available, the domain registrar record (WHOIS record) will reflect this data. Public use of registry data will result in many advertising offers and services.

Information is a primary reason to build a site. How the information is returned to the visitor is up to the site designer or webmaster. Ads can be squeezed into popup windows, incorporated into readily visible banners, or linked into the website text in various places.  Many domains have developed into websites that simply refer a visitor to domain name ownership lookup data.

Buyers are everywhere online looking for niche names. Brokering domains has become big business. Expert domain name sellers and consulting domainers can advise a domain owner if the current domain market is a good time to sell the name and what kind of money they might expect to fetch at auction. Analysis of search dynamics, site discoverability, and domain name keyword density will be bundled into that service.

The SEO specialty in domain marketing is wide open. Any proven talent for establishing or consistently improving domain name recognition, traffic volume, page rank, and search engine results altitude can engineer many eager new business relationships. The techniques can be custom for each domain marketing project or standard and applied to every name in the hopper. SEO services are a hot way to break into the domain business.

The Internet is open for business every single day. Domainers can set their own hours, train themselves and build their own flagship projects online to craft their custom domain  service client base.  Ready and willing domainer clients are standing by to hire work for their domains. Could you be the next professional working online in the domain industry?

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Domainers need to know how to execute a few basic operations. How do you get started in domaining? Here are the facts. A domain name career can be as broad or as narrowly defined in terms of skills and operations as the individual chooses. One of the first skills a domainer often learns is the domain registration lookup. Domain lookup information is critical to domainer decision making.

This can be done at an online registrar or hosting company which maintains a free search tool online at their site. Registrar companies are entitled to claim expired domains and have regulated policies about how to gather information from buyers and display it online. Domain name registration data can inform a potential buyer or investor regarding who has owned the name before them, or who owns similar domain names.

Privacy options are available when buying a domain name to keep the companies from disclosing name address and contact information like email addresses and telephone numbers to strangers online. No laws exist for usage of domain name data and personal privacy. Drawbacks to providing personal contact data in the domain registration for public WHOIS lookup abound. Email campaigns of spam and snailmail increases of junk mail are often associated with domain name purchases.

Performing domain lookup searches and name registration data queries is one of the primary skills of the domain game. It may be a long time before a new domainer even wants to buy a domain name. A web domain may be purchased but undeveloped.  the domain name may be parked for revenue upon traffic visitor participation. The privacy option may terminate the searcher’s ability to find out who owns it and where they live.

Domain lookup searches allow a new domain namer to see what kinds of data is revealed when they register a name. New domainers may not fully make the connection the first few times they buy a domain name what happens to the registration data and how public it is. These lookup searches are called domain checks. they show if a domain is registered, for how long, and who to. Contact can be made to offer a purchase price for the domain name directly.

Many new domainers fall into the enticing trap of cheap domain names. But no law of averages determines the resale value of any domain name. However cheap the domain name, the risk is assumed by the buyer or creator of the domain name. This can be seen when cognate domain lookups yield the same registrar owner. Bulk registrations happen when registering domainers get discounts on numerous domain purchases.

Bulk registrations can expire at the same time, filling drop list auctions with unwanted cognate names. Domain checkers can relate the date the domain was purchased. this can be very relevant when disputes arise between domain name owners. WHOIS registration records of domain ownership become the basis of dispute settlement criteria. Options at domain registration include assigning WHOIS data to a privacy record or company name.

Domain hosting is a valuable feature because it simplifies domain name ownership responsibilities to one website and one secure login. Domain hosting may add fee services like parked pages or other features that come with the domain purchase. Forwarding, masking, or cash parking for a fee occur. The domain host or registrar may discount or offer a limit to parked or hosted domains within an account determined tolerance.

An online banking account or credit card may be required to complete the sale. A domain reseller may be able to execute a transaction in a currency a new domainer does not use or make a bid when the membership requirements for proxy bidding  demand a history of reliable domain transactions. Some registrars require a registration and membership for domain auction bidding.

Domain name lookups and domain registration checks are advised before initiating personal domain transfers or private auction domain transactions. Domain lookup searches can verify a domain name belongs to the offering entity. Domain name length of ownership, country of ownership, and proxy contact information is available for every single domain name registered.

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