April 2nd, 2008 by Andy Sweet
A lot of people tell you that parked domains can’t get any natural rankings in search engines. Google says they won’t rank parked domains in an effort to keep the index clean. Companies like Parked.com have set up templates that allow you to post content with the idea that maybe it will look like a developed site instead of just PPC ads.
And then there’s this:
I just searched for food critics on Google and what I see is that thefoodcritics.com holds the #4 position (5 if you count the double listing) out of 424,000 possibilities.
By looking at it, you immediately know it’s parked and most domainers will immediately recognize it as belong to a certain Mr. F. Schilling.
April 1st, 2008 by Andy Sweet
Everybody is calling for more transparency. Domainers say the parking companies and the PPC ad networks need to be more transparent. The advertisers pull their hair out because it seems that every ad network and publisher goes out of their way to obfuscate data for the sole purpose of driving bid prices up. Yahoo’s Panama was supposed to be the savior for them, right? That program was going to increase revenue for Yahoo and it wasn’t by opening up the ad network to more exposure. And the PPC networks want to put conversion tracking on advertiser sites so they can get an idea of the cost per conversion.
EVERYBODY wants the OTHER guy to be transparent! Yet, nobody wants to let anybody else know their business. After all, it’s in those secrets where you maximize profitability. Gordon Gecko hates transparency.
March 31st, 2008 by Andy Sweet
So, Yahoo created a new portal/channel/whatever focused on women age 25-54. It’s called Shine. You can reach it at shine.yahoo.com.
But not Shine.com
Let me get this straight…. You pick some abstract word as a title. Hey, I give you props for not going after something like Fasnozzle. Good job there. But why Shine? Anyway, so that’s it. But you pick a term that you don’t even own the domain for? Really???
I shake my head in complete disbelief.
Here’s the news link – http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/006722.html
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.
