2007 August archive at Conceptualist.com, By Sahar Sarid

Loading Newer »

Less

Archive for August, 2007

Pricing Is NEVER An Issue!

Published on August 31, 2007 in Business and Domain Names. 6 Comments

This is an overlooked area where serious buyers, at times, may lack vision. They often concentrate on the price instead of the deal itself. Don’t feel bad, we’ve all been there and I’m no exception. What do I mean by that though? If the domain for example is estimated to make you 100$/day on PPC, how much the DEAL is worth to you? You may see cases where the domain isn’t for sale but the company is, and the price of the whole company is less then the value you are willing to pay for the domain.
The other aspect of this is when you concentrate on deal vs price you concentrate on TERMS, which means, you can structure ANY price for any domain (or any purchase for that matter) to be worthwhile if your terms are designed creative enough for you to make a return in the process or to at least to manage risk well enough to make the experience worthwhile. 10 million dollar domain for an estimated 10$/day ppc domain? can it be done? sure, just make sure you manage risk well enough (for example pay less then earnings with option to drop the deal if conditions change) and you can pay over the next few generations for the purchase, and still make money on the deal. One such deal we had years ago was a six figure domain purchase. I inquired for the purchase and the domain owner said his price. My response, as I felt price was high and as I wanted to avoid paying cash, was to tell the domain owner that even though I felt the domain was overpriced I won’t be like others and argue on price, if I can get my terms. The owner was curious what I meant by that so I described an offering where I had everything to gain and very little to lose (managed risk). The owner went for the deal I proposed which meant, we were “getting paid” to buy the domain (making more then our monthly payment) and at the end of the payment structure we ended up owning a multi-million dollar property.
So next time when a seller tells you a domain isn’t for sale or price is too high, just ask yourself, how can I structure a deal, address seller’s need (this topic is for another post), and make the experience worthwhile? You’ll be surprised what creative ideas you may come up with!

(Top Image Source)

A Week In California

Published on August 31, 2007 in General. 0 Comments

I Will be away next eight days. 1-2 in Los Angeles, 3-4 Huntington Beach, 5-8 San Francisco. If I’m not posting much during next week, you know why.

Hello HULU!

Published on August 29, 2007 in Business and Domain Names. 4 Comments

News Corp’s new Youtube’s competitor, dubbed in the media previously as “Clown Co.“, just got a new name.

Why Hulu? Objectively, Hulu is short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and rhymes with itself. Subjectively, Hulu strikes us as an inherently fun name, one that captures the spirit of the service we’re building. Our hope is that Hulu will embody our (admittedly ambitious) never-ending mission, which is to help you find and enjoy the world’s premier content when, where and how you want it.

I do like the name. As they said, it is short, fun, rhymes, and has no negative association in my mind to it. One issue it does have is the “radio test”, as some may hear it and remeber/type “Hooloo.com“, a domain name that has been registered since 1998.

Can Pre-Searching Become The Default “Start Page” For Web Users?

Published on August 29, 2007 in Search Technology. 0 Comments

Web professionals, especially those in the keyword marketplaces such as SEO and Domain folks, have been “pre searching (pdf)” keyword analysis tools such as Overture and Wordtracker for years to help find relevant information. A number of years ago we’ve seen other major companies such as vivisimo and ask.com provide clustering technologies and clickstream data to help users navigate to their desired or related information faster and more efficient.

An article at StartupSquad describes India based Webaroo’s beta product called “SearchRadar“. From StartupSquad:

On the whole, you can view SearchRadar as a tool that performs sophisticated query suggestion for query refinement. Instead of you digging for similar queries or try to come up with similar phrases, it throws them in front of you. Besides that, on-mouseover excerpts linking the original query to the suggested keywords are also helpful.

Because today’s leading search engines leave much to be desired, I believe some users will adopt this new method, and similar methods which tap into other people’s knowledge and experiences, searching for related search terms and phrases before conducting their search. Can this or a similar method have the power to become the new coveted “start page” for web users? While a long shot, I believe it is something to keep an eye on.

Rock Money

Published on August 29, 2007 in Business and General. 3 Comments

A truly inspiring story at PetsDo.com, a pet related site:

In 1975, Gary Dahl working as an advertising executive at the time, launched the sale of the pet rock which quickly transformed him into a multi-millionaire. This enormous profit is much more impressive considering it only took him six months to achieve his multi-millionaire status and the extremely low cost of the product.

The pet rock sold for $3.95 and estimates state Dahl sold over 5 million of his pet rocks in a six month period. Even more, each pet rock was purchased for a few pennies and Dahl estimated that the packaging and accompanying manual cost him under 30 cents per rock in bulk to produce. Therefore, assuming incidentals and delivery cost Dahl another 65 cents per rock, then Dahl was profiting 3 dollars per rock. With these totals Dahl earned over 15 million dollars during a six month period in 1975 which would be estimated at $56,166,419.02 today.

Read the rest of the article here.

eNom Follows Court order, Takes Bodog.com down

Published on August 28, 2007 in Domain Names. 6 Comments

Jeremy Schoemaker at the ShoeMoney blog writes:

Apparently, some guy in the US who was awarded a patent for something to do with taking bets online filed a lawsuit against Bodog awhile back. Bodog didn’t respond because they are not a US company. So a judge awarded a default judgment of 50 million.

Yesterday, the guy with the judgment used it to seize control of Bodog’s domain names from Enom. Almost all of their sites are now offline, and now they are going to loose all of their SERPS.

Over at the BodogBeat blog, Bodog founder Calvin Ayre acknowledges the issue and says:

“We are fighting this dispute and are confident that we will win,” says Ayre. “I sincerely apologize to any customers affected by our interruption.”

On NewBodog.com, a temporary site set to continue serve customers, founder Calvin Ayre explains further:

Welcome to the new (temporary) Bodog. As you may know by now, Bodog.com is experiencing a technical issue impacting our players’ ability to access our website.

This is the result of a legal dispute over the ownership of the Bodog.com domain name. We are fighting this dispute. We are confident that we will win, but until all is settled, I do not want our battle to interrupt your play.

So, I present you with newbodog.com. You won’t notice very many changes: same website, same brand, same product, and same service. Just a new domain name.

We are working to resolve any remaining issues on the temporary site as soon as possible, and fully expect to have our original site back up shortly.

I sincerely apologize if you were affected by our interruption and assure you that I will update you soon.

Regards,

Calvin Ayre

Further coverage at Canada.com and other news sources.

A lesson to all those other gambling and misc. sensitive operations, either own your own registrar or have your domains with a registrar outside of the U.S.

This is simply mind boggling to watch a billion dollar international operation goes completely offline simply because a U.S Registrar, acting on a U.S legal judgment, had to deactivate (or transfer?) their domain.

If All Search Terms (And Domains) Are Not Created Equal” Then Why Is Our Approach?

Published on August 28, 2007 in Domain Names. 1 Comment

Consider a variety of specific terms; we know different terms imply different categories. For example, if a user searches for the term “dog,”? by running an analysis on that specific term (check Overture or Wordtracker for related searches), we discover that in all likelihood the user is interested in the category “Pets”?. When a user searches for the term “camera shopping,”? using the same analysis tools, that the user is looking into the category “Shopping,”? and when a user searches for “boat dealers”? we know he is looking for a “directory”? site listing boat dealers.

Since the above mentioned search terms fall into different categories (note: there are many other categories and subcategories) then why are PPC templates generic and practically identical in their approach? I mean, we do see some companies try different color schemes on some of these terms; sometimes different images; but is it enough? Why not try different structural templates altogether? For instance, with directory driven keyword aggregators, a template with a directory structure could be displayed. For a lead-gen type of site, a specific lead-gen page structure could be displayed. A good example of this concept in action is Brian Wick’s shopping related term, “Cheap Electronics”? (CheapElectronics.com), done by I believe Fabulous.com. It’s my belief that in the future, as aggregators push the envelope and experiment more, we will see these kinds of concepts taking shape, and providing better CTR, ROI.

What are some other concepts that aggregators could potentially use to push the envelope on domain monetization? I have another unique idea but I’ll save it for another post.

Hijack A Domain For 200$

Published on August 25, 2007 in Domain Names. 10 Comments

Lately a name I was monitoring was transfered from Network solutions to another registrar. I’m quite sure the owner did not initiate the action as the email address was on Yahoo and was not active, nor accessible. This isn’t the first time of course we were watching hijackings but the interesting part, it may be the thieves are not doing the work themselves, but for a mere 200$ hire professionals to “recover their lost passwords” and take it from there.

From HireHacker.net:

Hirehacker will find any EMAIL ACCOUNT password for you. The list includes Yahoo, Hotmail, MSN, AOL, Gmail, Rediffmail, Lycos, AIM, Tiscali , Libero, Mac, Netscape and over 600 more domains. They also retrieve password for ALL company mail accounts and university mailboxes.

Just go to www.hirehacker.net and submit your request. Follow a simple procedure and you are done.

Some of the important features of Hirehacker are:-

1- Fastest and most reliable cracking service.
2- Totally stealth and secure.
3- Provides the same current password being used by the victim. They DO NOT change the password.
4- Payment is done ONLY AFTER they provide you with a screenshot of the inbox , or any other suitable proof of your choice.
5- Multiple payment options…over 10 methods to pay from…all online.

Password is sent instantly. They have a great support system as well, catering to everyone’s query.

THE FEES IS $ 200 USD .

I would highly recommend to have your domain either on your own registrar or with one of the top registrars for professional domainers such as Moniker.com or Fabulous.com, and ask them for personal attention for any sort of transfer away of your domains from their registrars.
If domains are your business, if your domains are valuable to you, don’t overlook the very basics - their safety.

Firefox Extension Blocks Ads, Website Blocks Firefox

Published on August 23, 2007 in Business and Domain Names. 2 Comments

In an interesting development, In response to a popular Firefox extension which blocks advertising, a website owner has decided to block all users of Firefox, comparing the situation to be “no less than stealing“.

“Accessing the content while blocking the ads therefore would be no less than stealing,” wrote Danny Carlton, a Web site designer and author, who runs both sites. JackLewis.net is his personal blog site. “Millions of hard working people are being robbed of their time and effort by this type of software,” he added in a posting on the Why Firefox is Blocked Web site.

The conflict underscores the dilemma facing Web sites that make money through advertising and offer free content to users. Adblock is just one of a variety of free tools, such as the Hosts file, that block the delivery of ads from servers run by ad networks.

The Hosts file can be employed to block ads for browsers such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Browsers can also be tweaked to block ads through modification of a CSS file, which contains rules on how content is displayed in a browser.

Carlton writes that he can’t block only the Firefox users that have the extension installed, so he’s blocking all Firefox users since it’s “the only alternative.” Carlton also posted PHP and JavaScript code that blocks Firefox users from viewing a Web page.

Read the full article here.

“The Hidden Wealth in Domain Name” - eCommerceTimes Article

Published on August 23, 2007 in Domain Names. 2 Comments

Anthony Mitchell of eCommerceTimes was interviewing a number of domainers at the recent Domain Roundtable 2007 conference held in Seattle, WA. While I’m not a completely objective observer since I was a participant, I found this article to be very well-written and Mitchell touches on some excellent points.

Investing in Domain Names

Conference participants expressed agreement on the legal impediments that are seen as discouraging investment in domain names. Frank Schilling, a domain investor and panelist at the Seattle conference, advocates changes in intellectual property laws in the United States to provide increased security of title for registrants of domain names.

Schilling is alarmed at the prospect of trademark owners automatically assuming that they have the rights to every domain name that comes close to a variation or permutation of a registered trademark, regardless of whether a trademark and domain name are being used for related purposes.

“What is needed is reform of U.S. trademark laws that is fair to both sides,” said domainer Gene Heu, speaking outside the auction session on the last day of the event. “Advertising agencies and their clients will be afraid to invest in domain names if they fear that another party will come after them.”

Fairness for both sides was a theme echoed by Michael Zaugg of RevenueDirect, which provides parking services for domainers seeking to monetize their traffic with advertisements targeted specifically to individual domain names.

“In defense of trademark holders, they should not have to register thousands of typos and variations of their brands in order to have some protection, but yet the globalization of commerce has made it hard to find new domains that are not similar to those in use elsewhere,” Zaugg said.

“The Internet has done what madmen and conquerors have tried to do throughout time: unify the world,” said Heu. The unification of global commerce on the Web has forced all businesses and brand owners to compete on the same global platform for brand identity through domain names, Heu explained. Competition is fiercest for dot-com domains, which carry the most authority and prestige for branding purposes.

Read the full article here.