Archive for January, 2008
January 26th, 2008 by Andy Sweet
I was watching some TV while having breakfast this morning. I have always been fascinated by the direct marketing television ads that you can find during the day on local network or national cable channels. They seem so simple and low budget because they don’t have the artsiness of the pharmaceuticals and colas and detergents of the advertising world. They’re simple, they’re direct and they’re damned successful.
You know the ads I’m talking about. Jim Sokolove, Devry, Video Professor, etc….
I saw an ad this morning for one of them, JK Harris, a company that specializes solving IRS problems. In there ad, they had the usual 800 phone number. This time, they also displayed a URL to their site. BackTaxes.com. I was thinking, “Wow, that’s a darn good domain name! No way did those guys have the foresight to be the original registrant.” Well, lo and behold – I found a sales thread for it over on DNForum. Asking $75k back in late ’06.
After a quick check of the term ‘back taxes’ on Google, they’re also the #1 AdWords bidder for the term (though I’m only seeing them about 50% of the time), but they’re using their JKHarris.com domain. Might want to think about consistency there. Also, you should develop that domain! Right now, it just forwards to JKHarris.com. A little bit of SEO and link development and that thing will be #1 natural in no time!
They may not have had the foresight to be the original registrant, but
they’re certainly one of the smarter direct marketers to get out there
and pick up such a quality domain for their business.
January 23rd, 2008 by Andy Sweet
I had lunch with a friend today and we were talking about domains and the declining US economy. He had managed to pull his money out of the market (lucky guy) and was sitting on a bunch of cash. Well, considering what he can make in interest on that, sitting on it is a negative option right now. So, where do you play it?
He’s hot on domains. For the most part, domain prices have continued to grow. Part of the reason I think is because end users (developers or big companies) are hearing so much noise about domains right now that they’re finally biting. Another reason is because there are a bunch of new folks coming in wanting to become a ‘domainer’ (myself not excluded) and buying to get into the game. And third, I think early entry domainers are selling to each other and they have more and more money coming in with better monetization systems in place.
So what affect will the stumbling economy have? My first reaction is that prices will start to decline as some of the big companies begin to cut back on marketing budgets. You’re taking away one of the three buyer pools to some degree.
On the other hand, I think prices will stay the course on the ultra-premiums but the number of transactions will slow. The ultra-premium owners don’t need to sell. These domains are cash supercows. They cost pennies a day and produce thousands of dollars per year. Their value doesn’t drop. People are not going to stop surfing and if it’s something they really want, they’re not going to stop buying.
So, I wouldn’t expect to see prices dip on domains anytime soon.
January 8th, 2008 by Andy Sweet
There’s some gathering noise right now about Network Solutions automatically registering .com’s that are searched using their domain availability check on their site. Do a search for a domain and it’s immediately registered by them. If you decide not to purchase it right then, well, they own it.
I checked with IJustAteAHamSandwich.com. It was available. I immediately went to check the whois on it and it’s now registered and resolving to netsol’s name servers.
Registrant:
This Domain is available at NetworkSolutions.com
13681 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 300
HERNDON, VA 20171
US
Domain Name: IJUSTATEAHAMSANDWICH.COM
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Network Solutions, LLC 
13681 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 300
HERNDON, VA 20171
US
1-888-642-9675 fax: 571-434-4620
Record expires on 08-Jan-2009.
Record created on 08-Jan-2008.
Database last updated on 8-Jan-2008 13:52:37 EST.
Domain servers in listed order:
ns1.reserveddomainname.com 205.178.190.55
ns2.reserveddomainname.com 205.178.189.55
What does this mean? These are scenarios if the domain isn’t bought upon that initial search:
1. At the very least they’ve locked out other registrar’s from being able to provide registration services
2. What’s to prevent them from holding it back for a higher price if I came back tomorrow and tried to register it?
3. They can hold it for a couple of days and ‘taste’ it to see if it actually gets any traffic and decide to keep it for its parking value.
4. Perhaps they’re doing this to actually protect those consumers that don’t do immediate purchases and keep others from swooping in and registering.
January 4th, 2008 by Andy Sweet
Having been involved in internet marketing since 1997, I’ve traveled far and wide online and participated in many different communities and forums as I learn different facets of the trade. There’s always one general common theme: the other guy is cheating!
On search engine forums you read a lot about how Yahoo and Google (mostly Yahoo) are cheating advertisers out of their PPC dollars by allowing rampant click fraud through their distribution network.
On domainer boards, you can always find people challenging the parking companies because they’re either having their accounts terminated or the parking company is fudging the numbers and keeping an ever-growing share for themselves. Or it’s Yahoo and Google who are keeping the share.
On affiliate marketing focused discussion boards you can find lots of posts about how various affiliate programs screw affiliates paying paltry commissions or by letting them run up huge commissions and then terminating the account right before it’s time to pay the affiliate but also divulging some of the shady methods in which they go about generating traffic and making sales which means the affiliate program managers need to pay small commissions to hedge against all the junk that comes their way.
Put it all together and what do you get? A general state of distrust. It’s the OTHER guy that’s always doing the cheating! Kind of sad, really. Makes the internet look sleazy and unprofessional. But, when you have such a low barrier to entry, you attract all types.
January 3rd, 2008 by Andy Sweet
Let me be the first to welcome you to 2008! What’s that you say? It’s January 3 already? Everybody else has already posted their 2008 welcome messages? Oh well…
Here’s my slogan for the year: Shift gears. What does that mean? To me, it means it’s time I combine everything I’ve learned in web marketing and shift to my next gear. Last year I frequently felt like I was on a 10 speed bike in top gear, pedaling my tail off but only going 3 MPH.
Now that’s going to change. I’m going to use my knowledge of SEO/SEM, domains, analytics and monetization to break a lot of new ground. I’m finding new sources of great information. The best information frequently doesn’t come from the self-promoting ‘experts’ out there.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been waking up before my alarm and looking forward to what new things I’m going to do in my day.
Note – I’ve made andysweet.com a dofollow blog. I don’t get compensated for my links and I moderate comments heavily, so why shouldn’t I pass some link love to the sites I really like?
