Frank,
Forget Yahoo! and Google. Domainers need to explore opportunities beyond getting higher PPC rates from search engines.
I recently read that Amazon’s auto-recommendation technology is responsible for 30% of its revenue. Similarly, Aggregate Knowledge’s personalization software helped Overstock.com generate $100M of incremental holiday sales.
So, imagine I’m shopping for X, an expensive product that retailers tend to sell at a high markup. While researching my purchase, I land on many of the related domains you own.
My type-in and click-through history could have given you a lot of clues about my preferences. By collecting this data, you’d have the ability to present me *AND* other visitors with similar behavior with spot-on recommendations. You could even build statistical models to calculate correlations: maybe new owners of X have a 80% likelihood of purchasing Y.
You’d be able to produce out-of-this-world conversion rates and retailers would pay enormous fortunes for your referrals.
But instead, you’re stuck waiting for your domains to “optimize”. Then you split Adsense revenues with Google, without benefiting from “in-network” traffic. I don’t get it, Frank. This is not worth settling for. Better technology already exists; it’s time for parking providers to catch up.
So how come we missed the biggest opportunity in time? “Forget Yahoo! and Google.” she says. Why do you need them when you can WORK HARD AND MAKE MORE? Why do nothing and make less? Did I mention just because you work harder does not guarantee you make more? oops, forgot.
And what about unique and time sensitive opportunities in time? Can you go into the domain industry today and do the same as in 98? But can you develop today as in 98? Development has no boundaries as it is related to creativity, but domaining is depandant on timing. FYI, With anything that is timing related, your OWN USE OF YOUR OWN TIME is a critical issue.
A question of focus. Where is best to put our time? And Doesn’t Google/yahoo deserve their fair share for their work? Why not split with them? They do provide VALUE so they should be compensated. Can we build our own networks? Sure.. I better off though sign away my life RIGHT THIS MINUTE if I’m about to do that. No thank you.
So instead of coming from the outside and screaming we know nothing, I would suggest you get yourself in our shoes, in our minds, by ASKING. Why are we doing what we do? Why are we NOT doing what you are suggesting? Were you the first to suggest development, personalization? Believe me, you are not.
From Frank Schilling’s SevenMile comment area, written by Isabel Wong.
Well said Sal, and addresses nicely a dilemma I face every day. I’m a developer that fell into domains (late), not a domainer looking to develop.
Frankly, I’d rather be developing, but I’d rather be developing on quality land. I can develop next year, or the year after that. It will probably be easier the longer I wait, more widgets, more mashups, more web services, more gadgets taking out the lion’s share of the work with the ability to write my own wrappers around them adding a little value that perhaps the pure “configurators” will struggle with. Granted, the longer I wait, SEO will be harder as there will be more encumbents, but I have faith in Google to reward quality development appropriately over time - they have billions of dollars riding on it.
Will it be easier to acquire meaningful domains that speak to their audience next year or the year after? I don’t think too many people would argue “YES” to that…
Hahahahahaha. Well said Sahar. Opportunity cost is what most people working for little money forget to add into the equation. There are thousands of “make money online” blogs talking about making 50 dollars more or less per post, recommending third parties products, or inserting a banner here and there. And when i started to investigate all this, I thought, really are these people talking about making 20 dollars more in something (like blogs) that you have to dedicate regular time and creativity to? Is becoming a slave of your blog for 500 dollars more adsense/pay per post/you name it a month, worth it? What’s the point?
Really, if “making money online” is all about this, I think I should be getting my opportunities offline.
Of course we can all do marvels with our domains. We could develop them way better. We could set up our own affiliate programs, parking companies, domain auction websites. But many of us choose not to. Not because we can’t do it technically, but because the reward of certain things would be too small to tie yourself to it.
Regards
Javier
Trendirama.com
Hey Sahar,
I’m NOT suggesting that you, Frank or any other domainer should depart from your core competency. I certainly understand your enormous opportunity costs. I was simply reiterating what you yourself asked in your “10 questions for PPC aggregators”
http://www.conceptualist.com/?p=169
You think domain parking providers should tap into lead gen forms. I’m wondering why they haven’t explored personalization. There must be 1000s of other ways Domain Sponsor, Sedo, et al could - and should! - innovate to earn domainers’ business. This will allow you to continue focusing on finding/acquiring valuable domains - while increasing revenue from your existing assets without incurring additional risks.
To put my comments in perspective, I’m going to be on a conference panel with Jothan from DomainSponsor and Tim from Sedo in July. In preparation for the session, I’ve spent a good amount of time following domainer blogs and forums, researching how to buy/sell domains names, and comparison shopping domain parking services. I understand that current technologies already allow many domainers to amass tremendous wealth, but I still feel like the money you’re taking home is less than what you’re leaving on the table.
I’m sure you’ve read the Richard Rosenblatt interview from earlier this year. Like you, he doesn’t want to spend his own time building websites - but unlike you, he thinks there are options beyond diluting one’s focus and leaving one’s domains undeveloped.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/12/01/8394990/index.htm
“If you can make that much doing nothing, what if we added some Web 2.0 sprinkle so that people would come back - user publishing tools, social networking? What if we built a platform where we could snap that into as many domains as we wanted? That’s when the lightning bolt hit me: You’d have a company that generates its own traffic, generates its own content, and monetizes itself.”
What I’m going to ask Jothan and Tim in July is, when will Domain Sponsor and Sedo start offering us options beyond domain parking as we know it??
—-ANSWER—-
“What I’m going to ask Jothan and Tim in July is, when will Domain Sponsor and Sedo start offering us options beyond domain parking as we know it??” - GOOD LUCK!
Since 2001 or so I asked this exact question, including my good friends at DS. You want to know the answer? “We’re working on it”.
“but unlike you, he thinks there are options beyond diluting one’s focus and leaving one’s domains undeveloped. ”
Each concentrate on their core business. Domainers business is domains, Richard Rosenblatt is building a business to serve domain owners. I don’t see him stopping what he does to go buy domains on drops. If he did that, that would be dilluting one’s (his) focus.
To add a little light on the plan to have user generated content, while the idea MAY sound good theoretically it is a tricky one. More user generated content, less value per click. More traffic, but less qualified traffic. Let’s not forget it’s just an idea for now and not some proven model we should all jump on with open arms. I’m not impressed by ideas, I’m impressed by implementation.
“I understand that current technologies already allow many domainers to amass tremendous wealth, but I still feel like the money you’re taking home is less than what you’re leaving on the table.”
I’m 100% with you we are leaving allot of money on the table. Should we, domainers, stop what we’re doing to do it ourselves? The answer, imho anyways, is no.
By the way, I love the topic of personalization, wrote about it a little on the blog. Search the site and see. Your comments are most welcome!
Cheers
Sahar
P.S.
Cure cats
Sahar… Domainers are like rock stars or pro athletes. They LOVE what they do and they’re GREAT at it. That’s why they need to get out there and perform instead of sitting home and trying to become money managers. Right? But if we carry this analogy one step farther, the difference between you and Tiger Woods is, he doesn’t pay his banker a hefty percentage to let his money sit in a savings account.
Thinking about it… You’ve been pushing DS for innovation since 2001, but they’re still working on it. And $500M, according to Sedo, will change hands on domain aftermarkets this year - yet they’re allowing things like the BoobTube.com fiasco to happen. Why aren’t leading domainers putting more pressure on your service providers to build better infrastructure for your industry??
DS’ FAQ says if I want to join their parking program, I’ll have to fork over 50% of my domains’ earnings. But if I’m working hard to comb through drop lists and aftermarkets for good domains they can profit from, shouldn’t they - and every other domains related service provider - be making just as much effort on my behalf?
I don’t know that Richard’s approach will produce more revenue for your domains, but at least he’s looking beyond domain parking. Think of him as a money manager who looks into stocks and bonds and such instead of sticking with CDs. In some cases, your ROI might be less than if you just parked your assets somewhere. But if you’re willing to accept a little more risk, your upside might end up being much higher.
Speaking of personalization, domainers love to point out that type-in traffic = visitor intention. But that’s just the very, very tip of the ice berg. The CTO of Quantcast (who used to build statistical models for banks) says he can predict your demographic background based on your navigation behavior - and make “consumers like you choose X” recommendations with such efficiency that ecommerce becomes destiny. And MIT media lab researchers have succeeded in forecasting what you’ll do tomorrow afternoon based on how you spent this morning.
Think about all the visitors your domain portfolio has attracted this year. Imagine the amount of ecommerce purchases they might have made. If you look at your domain parking earnings, what % of those transactions have you gotten? I said forget Google and Yahoo not because they aren’t providing value. I just don’t think they’re the primary targets domainers should go after for enhancing revenue from your portfolio. It’s DS, Sedo and their competitors that need to step up to the plate.
Good post Isabel.
“I just don’t think they’re the primary targets domainers should go after for enhancing revenue from your portfolio. It’s DS, Sedo and their competitors that need to step up to the plate.”
I think the real solution will come in pieces. What I imagine one day is a platform that has allot of differnent “widgets” where each is a business module, all auto optimized to get best result with added control for the user to overwrite whatever he wishes for individualy.
I also imagine different domain cateogies treated differently. Directory driven domains should not be trated as information driven domains, nor as product driven domains.
As for personalization,, I wrote about it here.. http://www.conceptualist.com/?p=13
I think true value will come from breaking the generic to specific. I understand you can tap into some personalization concepts today but in all reality, the timing for personalziation is not here yet. We’re ahead of the curbe by at least ten years, imho.
All in all I’m in agreement that more pressure on sponsors is needed. The little issue that is most frustrated to me is not increasing the consumer midnshare where we can do it at no cost whatsoever, not telling the type-in user he is doing a good job.
http://www.conceptualist.com/?p=8
Have a great morning!
Sahar
Widget platforms already exist for bloggers, website builders and ecommerce store owners - just not for domainers
About personalized search, http://www.collarity.com is working on something like that. It provides customized site search results based on your navigation history as well as data collected from “people like you”. For instance, it’d know whether you’re searching for “Java” from a software developer’s or coffee drinker’s perspective.
I disagree that the time for personalization is 10 years from now. Last Christmas, Aggregate Knowledge already drove $100M in additional sales for Overstock.com by anticipating shoppers’ intentions.
I do love your idea of enforcing direct navigation, but we first need domain parking providers to develop more sophisticated optimization technology. Last week I bought ukcolo.com from GoDaddy’s aftermarket. I think any type in traffic would be from people looking to lease data center space, but the domain was showing parked ads from Colorado bed and breakfasts.
There’s no “good boy” effect when visitors land on a parked page littered with irrelevant ads - nor will advertisers get conversions. When I mentioned this to Frank, he said it takes time for parked ads to get optimized. Unfortunately, you’re alienating visitors and advertisers in the meanwhile.
The direct navigation approach *LOSES* mindshare each and every time someone lands on a poorly optimized park page. So I would urge you, Frank and others to (again) put more pressure on parking providers to get it right.
—-ANSWER—-
Just as it loses (which it does), it also wins. Most parked domains are optimized well by now, based on search history. Check few and you will see.
“I do love your idea of enforcing direct navigation, but we first need domain parking providers to develop more sophisticated optimization technology. ”
Most parked pages are parked for years now. They are already highly optimized. Now I know it’s not “personalization” quality but neither is Google/Yahoo, it is pretty good web standards optimization. Enforcing direct navigation should not wait one more day, as all it takes is put a small graphic on the site, unclickable. It takes nothing from current site and it adds value, and to do it takes about five minutes, ten if you include a top designer to draw something nice quick. Why do they wait? I don’t get it.
As for your ukcolo.com domain, I wonder if optimziation was a “first guess” type of results or based on historical data? See, if there was no traffic on the domain, which I would think is the case, then it doesn’t matter if the guess is “colorado bad and breakfast” or “spaceship one”, as no one is there to click
Starting businesses I learned you do your very best to get your product out but by no means once out this is the end, rather the beginning. “first pages” are nothing but a temporary placeholder to collect data to see what users want, then re-optimized. Matter of fact, if I think more about it, “first pages” should be as irrelevant as they can, to get users to type search terms rather then settle for something close where the optimization engine cannot learn much.
New concept.. never thought of it before
“I disagree that the time for personalization is 10 years from now. Last Christmas, Aggregate Knowledge already drove $100M in additional sales for Overstock.com by anticipating shoppers’ intentions.”
I think we have very different ideas of personalization. I’m talking about complete personalization with complete privacy while what you are indicating is settling for the very little tht is out there. 100m is not even a drop in the bucket of the potential, and where personalization I believe will be in the future. Imo we’re talking an industry worth trillions, but it will take at least 10 years to get the foundation right, not because the ideas are not out there, but because technology, in particular, world connectivity and CPU power for consumers, are not there yet.
I’m going way off here into the future, let’s leave it for some other day..
Cheers
Sahar