2008 December archive at Conceptualist.com, By Sahar Sarid

Loading Newer »

Less

Archive for December, 2008

Good Bye 2008, Hello 2009

Published on December 31, 2008 in General and Shakuhachi. 7 Comments

Judging a year by the events and results within it will do no justice, as many correspondent events will only manifest in the future, at times, many years afterward. The tech bubble of 2001 brought many prosperous years to many, possibly even to you. There’s no doubt 2008 was a an extremely historical year. From an African American president to the collapse of financial giants, the bombing in Bombay to what now goes on in Israel. As for the domain channel, I believe the house of cards had to collapse for something bigger and better to emerge. It is those events who push the boundaries for all, and in the long run, I do believe for the better.To me, 2008 signifies diversification, peace of mind, progression, and new beginnings. Our company Recall Media Group is doing better than ever and is growing exponentially. I believe I found the woman I want to be with (Michelle), I invested further in my own health and spirit, spent time expanding my horizons (learning new subjects), and lately, I discovered the Shakuhachi, which I quickly have fallen in love with.

I’ll end here with a note I received from my dear friend Dr. Chris Hartnett:

We are not responding to this instant if we are judging any aspect of it.

The ego looks for what to criticize. This always involves comparing with the past.

But love looks upon the world peacefully and accepts.

The ego searches for shortcomings and weaknesses.

Love watches for any sign of strength.

It sees how far each one has come and not how far he/she has to go.

How simple it is to love, and exhausting it is to always find fault, for every time we see a fault we think something needs to be done about it.

Love knows that nothing is ever needed but more love. It is what we do with our hearts that affects others most deeply.

It is not the movements of our body or the words within our minds that transmits love.

We love from heart to heart.

Peace to you all,

Sahar

Bido Is Back (Well, Almost!)

Published on December 29, 2008 in Bido/DNZoom. 11 Comments

By Jarred Cohen, VP of Operations, Bido, LLC

It’s been a few months since we placed Bido domain auctions on hiatus. The response has been loud and clear to bring Bido back as soon as possible! We’ve missed running the auctions as much as you missed participating in them!

DNZoom and PortfolioHelp have been running uninterrupted in the interim while Bido was shut down. Since August when we took down the auctions, our technical team has placed thousands of hours into the Bido auction platform. We’ve successfully redesigned the architecture and overall platform, and the end result is increased capacity and scalability. Over the coming weeks, we’ll comment more on the scalability side of things to the tune that we aware that the current format of one domain auction per day is not providing value to the entire domain name community of buyers and sellers. We are happy to say that we will be breaking free of the one auction per day mold. But that will be a short amount of time after we get our gears spinning again. When Bido relaunches, we’re returning to the familiar format of one domain auction per day, starting at 1:00PM EST, for one hour of open bidding. Bidders may place a proxy bid at any time - days or weeks before your auction even starts. But keep in mind that we know that you guys and gals need more auctions and more capability to sell your domains. We will also be taking new twists with “dynamic offers” and “buy it now” options. More information on those additions will be provided in due time, for now just enjoy the teaser.

Another difference that will be in effect is there will be no more weekend auctions. When we started Bido, we ran auctions on weekends as well as weekdays. The weekend auctions were really just filler auctions for the main events that ran M-F. It quickly became apparent to us to only run weekday auctions. If you were a member early on, you may remember this and remember how the averages were brought down. So that will be a welcome change as well. I know you are anxious and want to finally know when we will return, so without further ado, on Monday, February 2nd, 2009, we’re happy to announce that Bido will return. Mark your calendars for that day!

We’re preparing for this long awaited relaunch by accepting additional submissions from domain sellers at this time. If you’ve been thinking about liquidating one or a few of your domain assets, we hope you’ll turn to us for the opportunity to run your auction. Our rates are the most favorable in the business and, in addition, no other venue provides the overall exposure we’ll provide your sale.

The submission process is quite simple. You’ll create an account, or log in if you already have an account, and paste your list of domain names that are for sale. Short generics are preferred and remember that Bido provides instant liquidity by running “no reserve” auctions. If any of your domains are approved, we will contact you with more information and the steps needed to complete scheduling your auction. Of course, additional information is detailed on the submission page, and if you have any questions you may email me at jarred@bido.com. In the future, the submission and approval process will be slightly different. The way it is now, we approve each domain by hand, internally here in our office. We plan to give the control over what is auctioned to the domainer community itself. Our members will actually be the ones to select what goes to auction. We have a fun way that we will accomplish this and it will be completely in line with our “Social Auction Platform” motto.

We strive as an organization to produce the best possible services for our customers to make more money. The world is a different place now than it was just a few short months ago. At the very core, we’re domainers, and we build products tailored for domainers. DNZoom is designed to help you manage your domains across multiple registrars and multiple parking companies. The wave of reduced payouts lately is more and more reason to utilize the DNZoom service to help you get your domains under control and producing more revenue. The economic storm that we are in is also more reason for you to consider our PortfolioHelp product. We’ve worked with a few domainers already to help them earn more from their portfolios, with the same amount of traffic, so it’s something you should consider looking into as well.

We also have a new toll free number to make it easy for you to contact us and get more information about Bido. Accordingly, that number is 1-800-611-Bido (2436). We hope you will reach out to us should you desire more information. Thanks for reading along and from all of us here at Bido, we look forward to working together with you!

We would love to hear your comments, so please feel free to comment here on the blog or send us a message.

Happy Holidays, and a bright and better New Year for all!

Jarred Cohen
Bido.com

Shakuhachi Performance By Kifu Mitsuhashi, Prague Shakuhachi Summer School 08

Published on December 29, 2008 in Shakuhachi. 0 Comments

An amazing Shakuhachi performance in Prague.

Enjoy,Sahar

Why Domaining Rocks

Published on December 20, 2008 in Domain Names. 13 Comments

(image source)

Following on part I, Why Domaining Sucks, here’s a general list of why I also believe Domaining rocks:

1. Extremely cheap barrier to entry

With registration fees at approximately 7$ per domain name not many can say they cannot afford to get in the domain game. Back in 2000 we stumbled on an expired domain, one that no one really wanted. It sounded OK to us and as we bought many, we decided to spend 12$ back then and purchase it as well. Since then this one domain has made over 1 millions US$ in PPC revenues, and is still going strong.

2. Residual income

Unlike traditional jobs where one gets paid by the hour, our work lasts longer. If you found a domain that gets type-in traffic you are most likely to reap the rewards for as long as it receives traffic.

3. We can do our work from anywhere

All that is required is a computer and an internet connection. Hack, you don’t really need your own computer, many cybercafes/public libraries will do.

4. Knowledge is everywhere, and mostly, for free

While I cannot include all (apologies in advance!), here is a quick rundown of free popular forums, groups, blogs, and publications in the domain space: NamePros, DomainState, DN Forum, groups such as Geo Domainer, Synergy Domain Club, Facebook Domain Name Network, blogs such as The Domains, Domain Name Wire (my new favorite domain publication), Domain Name News, Michael Gilmour’s blog, DNXpert, Dot Weekly, publications such as Modern Domainer, DN Journal, and of course this list could not be even remotely complete without an honorable mention of Francois’ Domaining.com.

5. We’re open for business 24/7

Self explanatory. In addition, we have very little overhead as most of the work, once a domain has been acquired and set correctly is automatic and falls on parking providers or affiliate partners, rather than us.

6. Businesses want what we have

The basis of commerce is when one wants what you have and is willing and able to trade something for it. Sorting through the tens (and sometimes hundreds) of offers we receive unsolicitedly daily I am certain that if you own the right domain name, prospects, while mostly not offering the value which you want, do recognize some value in them.

7. The internet is growing, and relatively, our core business is as well

Since all generic domain names are essentially search keywords with the additional extension, as consumers continue to search more frequently, relatively speaking, type-ins and the value of traffic, as more businesses compete for it, will increase.

8. We’re in a business comparable to Natural Resources

People may like or hate the domain industry but as long as domain names produce potent traffic which is responsible for sales and branding, it is here to stay.

9. We’re constantly learning

In many instances while going over domain lists or browsing auction sites such as Sedo, Afternic, or SnapNames, while at times some terms received significant bids I still did not know what they meant, why they are important to many. It is the need to understand their values which is responsible for constant learning experience. A place I have never heard of before, a fruit which grows in the Amazon, and even a foreign language. All thanks to domain names.

10. As in the previous post, would love to hear your thoughts on this as well as additional points.

Have a great weekend!

Sahar

You’re Not Worth What You Once Were, But Nobody Is

Published on December 18, 2008 in Business, Domain Names and Liquid Value. 8 Comments

In my last post, in comments area, Stephen Douglas of Success Click wrote:

It’s time for domainers to reassess their domains by evaluating their monetization paths, and then move accordingly

The domain industry has significantly changed in the last 12 months like never before. Payouts decline, layoffs, Marchex and other domain related public companies are on sale, and if that is not enough, Google is now going direct.

Back in 04 when Marchex set the benchmark for revenue multiples (8X rev. for generic domain names, Yun Ye’s portfolio purchase), many felt it was wrong, it was too little. While I too thought it was not a fair represention of domain values, I was happy to see some benchmark established. Today, end of 08, I believe values have significantly dropped. Here’s why:

1. Your domains are making less.
This is by far the most important reason why your portfolio is worth considerably less today. PPC revenues took a major hit, up to 50% in some verticals.

2. Buyers have scaled back
The second most important reason, less buyers, more sellers. In short, buyers have more choices than sellers. Rotchield once said “You buy when there’s blood in the streets” and today, the domain streets are flooded with blood.

3. Many across all industries, including the domain space, have overextended themselves. Today they are trying to survive, pay bills, not to grow, reinvest.

All these are major factors in your portfolio value.

On the other hand, tough times force us all to innovate. To increase your portfolio value you may consider increasing liquidity rate (sell more often), lessening dependence on parking companies, or explore better optimization methodologies between parking companies (shameless plug: consider PortfolioHelp.com for higher payouts).

Reassessing allows you to stay on top of your holdings, identify gaps, find what does not make sense and do something about it. In other words, you can not find a treatment without first finding what is wrong.

Lastly, remember that even if your property values have dropped significantly, others have as well. Markets are cyclical, there’s ups and downs, and I truly believe “this too shall pass”.

Have a great day,

Sahar

Prudent, Not Panic

Published on December 14, 2008 in Business and Domain Names. 14 Comments

(image source)

Tough economic times, especially for those who have not gone through such turbulence times, can be extremely confusing. Questions such as “Should I continue to hold?”, “Is my income going to shrink again next month?”, “Should I bet all on this venture?”, or “Should I cash out my chips before it is too late?” are not uncommon. Matter of fact, these questions (and more like them) are common not only with those struggle, but with those who still do well in this economic climate.

A couple of weeks ago we went to a comedy show at the Hard Rock Hotel And Casino here in South Florida. As we arrived, one of the valet employees welcomed us with a big smile, “Would you like to park in the front?”. Not thinking much about it, I said .. “Sure, how much is that?” and he replied “50$”. Needless to say my response was “I’ll park ELSEWHERE!”.

And during the stockmarket rollercoaster days, who can forget Black Friday? The reports came out relatively strong, some places posted increase as well.

And then, a couple of days ago my girlfriend and I drove to a neighborhood coffee shop in Wellington, FL, about 50 miles away from where I live. I was reading about the place a little online and thought to go there, experience. When we left, after a cappuccino and a tea, the check came out to US$ 7.70. Can you believe this? 7.70$ for something which cost pennies to make.

If all that is not enough, our industry is taking a hit as well. Even though some places continue to report ad spending increase if you look at your income level, you know something is wrong here. With all the increase reported for the online world, why is it then our income continue to drop?

What this all tells us is times are changing. We have to rethink everything we know, about business and life. Is that coffee that important? the 50$$ for valet parking, does it make any sense? What this tells me that money is extremely cheaper today than in the past although it is much harder to come by. Kind of a Cliché to say that in business the only thing you can count on is change, but it is true. And if we accept it as the truth, then the conclusion is we have to constantly adapt to changes, in an essence, reinvent our business model, our approach to financials, our approach to business.

But, it is not all doom and gloom. What got many of us here, especially those in the domain name business, is great timing as well as solid business fundamentals. Due to natural resources, what worked for the oil barons of the 19th century worked for us in the 21st century. Type in traffic, a human behavior phenomena, coupled with scalability, just made sense. Things have changed but fundamentals have not. People still eat, drink, shop, learn, invest, get married, divorce, and make babies. As entrepreneurs, our nature is to go and do more. The words “massive action” are all too familiar to us. “Sitting back” is not an option, but maybe it should be? Even when dancing, a step back may take us two forward. Couldn’t that be part of what we need to do? A step back to move forward. Doing less in order to do more. Maybe we need to get back to reading, learning, reflecting, in order to move forward? Pause, analyze, reflect, plan, act. I don’t know what the answers are but I don’t think panic is the answer. I believe we need to slow down, think what is important, invest further in educating ourselves and our families/loved one, learn history, and move forward.

At the end these times are just another test. Many years from now we will be able to tell the story to our children and grandchildren. For me, I rather tell the story of fundamentals, not luck, nor panic. I rather tell the story that what worked hundreds of years ago worked for me, and will work for you. I rather tell the story that when times get tough, I don’t get tougher, but smarter.

Have a great day,

Sahar

Bido Update & More

Published on December 11, 2008 in Bido/DNZoom, Domain Names and Recall Media Group. 6 Comments

Since we took Bido offline due to tech issues we’ve been very quiet about progress, giving you a date when we will bring Bido back. The original plan was to bring Bido back a couple of weeks ago, in November. Due to unexpected turn of events this was not possible. December did not make much sense to us to bring Bido back as it is a shorter month, and when people are more then ready for their yearly break. Most likely Bido will be back sometime during January. It will come back at the same format as it was last time with the addition of a chat option as well as other unique modules which were built, but will be introduced slowly one by one. The bigger news, we will also open the platform. What does that mean? We’re still working the details on this so I cannot tell you much more at the moment. The big picture, the one we never took our eyes off from the very beginning, Bido was built with scalability in mind from day one, and as we progress we plan to provide a lot more than what you have seen so far.

When Bido was running Bido had a life of its own. Reading the daily comments, interacting with experts and users was a lot of education and fun to all of us here. I’m just an anxious as many of you to see Bido back.

And a little heads up, there is another major venture we are working on which will be introduced next year to the domain industry. As with Bido, it is built with scalability in mind and will broaden its horizons as we see activity, experiment, and learn.

And lastly, if you need help with your portfolio you may visit Bido’s PortfolioHelp.com or for domain management, DNZoom.com

Have a great day,

Sahar

Rocket Boom On New TLD’s: Time Will Dot Tell

Published on December 10, 2008 in Domain Names. 3 Comments

I was browsing some videos on Youtube, came across this entertaining one from Rocket Boom.

Enjoy,

Sahar

Domaining Acts Of Kindness

Published on December 10, 2008 in Domain Names. 15 Comments

(image source)

While I’m not a very religious person, I’ve browsed through the Bible, but cannot tell you who wrote it, there are many words of wisdom in it. I define words of wisdom as “Ideas that make sense”, or “Fundamental Wisdom”. One of my favorites bible quotes is “Give And You Shall Receive”. It does not say “Receive And You Shall Give”. If you want a better salary, if you want to be loved, if you want others to be kind to you, act before you ask. Acts of kindness in my opinion are acts that are done completely unselfishly, without consideration of receiving. Call it Karma, good luck, fortune, or whatever, but for me, it always happen that good things happen when helping others.

Around 2003, when domain value was sky high and every other person was searching for the next big purchase, I too was browsing lists, sites, in the search of the great one. While eBay always was mostly low quality domains, from time to time, if you search hard enough and long enough, you may get lucky. One of those days, during a routine browsing day on eBay, I came across a major one word .com domain name, with a “buy now” price of US$ 5,000.00, completely unrealistic to say the least. This one word domain would have gone then for millions, and today as well. To give you an idea, it gets no less than 2.7 billions search results on Google today. Not many keywords in the English language do.
So if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck.. you know the rest. I had my doubts from the very first second I saw the listing. To add to my doubts, the seller seems to not have any major feedback rating.

One thing my partner Jeff and I were strongly against from the very beginning was to deal with stolen domain names. If we bought domain names in the aftermarket we would go many extra miles to verify ownership, knowing the domains are not stolen, and they were “kosher”. There are many reasons not to deal with stolen domain names, from legal standpoint to moral and ethical points. At the end of the day, I would not do to others what I don’t want done to me. In any event, since the seller specified payment via Escrow.com we felt comfortable enough to go ahead with the deal. Our thinking was that, knowing how Escrow.com operates, domain transfer happens before funds are release to the seller, and in that case, once domain is transferred to us we can demand proof of ownership before releasing payment to seller. Not waiting for the last minute I immediately started investigating the domain, looking up its history, calling a number of places around the world in order to find the rightful owner. After hours of investigation I was able to locate “David”, the last owner of the domain name I could find. While David was driving down a highway in Southern California, this is how the conversation went like:

Me: Hi, may I speak with “David” please?
David: Speaking, how may I help you?
Me: This is Sahar speaking, we haven’t met however a friend of yours gave me your number and said you are the owner of XYZ.Com.
David: Yes, it is our domain. How may I help you?
Me: Well, it happen that someone posted it on eBay for US$ 5,000 “Buy Now” and I happen to buy it. Looking at my escrow.com account right now and my emails, I happen to have it in my account.
David: Wow, are you serious?
Me: Yes, very serious, but no worries David. I had my doubts about this purchase and thought it may be stolen, and you can have it back if you want it. I can get my money back from Escrow.com.
David: Great Sahar, can’t believe you are doing this!
Me: No worries David, it’s just the right thing to do. By the way, if you are still interested in selling the domain for that price I’m very interested as it will fit our business model.
David: (laughing, hard!). I’m sure you are Sahar, we bought it few years ago for US$ 300K!
Me: Really? Well, I’m still interested if you can sell it to me for the price I mentioned, like I said, it would be good for our business.
David: I like what you have done here Sahar, let me get back to you on this tomorrow. Thanks A LOT!
Me: Great David, thanks, and looking forward to chatting tomorrow.

A day after David called me back saying he liked what I’ve done and is willing to sell it to me for 5K. Few months later I mentioned the story to a good friend and surprisingly, he mentioned they sold the domain to that person for US$ 300K few years ago.

During the events I went back to the person who listed it on eBay, asking for proof of ownership. Once confronted, that person simply disappeared.

The second story involves another category killer .com domain name. Not on the same level as the first one but still, in today’s market this domain would easily fetch 200K++. After reading an article about a lady who recovered a stolen domain name and her experience I picked up the phone and called to say Hello. I was interested in what happened, offering to help her track down the hijackers free of charge, explaining that stopping those thieves protects our business, not to mention it was really just the right thing to do. After we talked for a while I asked her if she is willing to sell the domain, mentioning that I may know someone who may be interested in purchasing it. She said she have not thought of it but for US$ 8,000 she is willing to let it go. I replied that I haven’t thought of buying it but I do like the domain and impressed by her, I’m willing to give her US$ 10K. The deal was sealed on the spot and rest is history. The domain is doing well on PPC and is one of our strong properties. Since purchasing, we’ve declined two six figures offers for it.

Clearly, doing the right thing, for us, usually works out. Care to share some stories as well?

Have a great day!

Sahar

Domaining: To See Is To Believe

Published on December 9, 2008 in Domain Names. 12 Comments

(image source: Initial Designs)

To those in the domain space, before being in the space have you realized the power of domain names? Before seeing in your own eyes the statistics on domains and the enormous power of which have type-in traffic, power that can be measured by quantity and quality, would you believe if one told you about it? Before seeing domains which make hundreds, and sometime thousands of dollars per day, all generated by type-in traffic (I understand most have not yet saw such a thing), would you believe if one told you of such domains, such a phenomena?

I believe when it comes to domain sales the domain name industry is doing well. Coverage from DNJournal, NameBio, Sedo, Moniker, and Name Media are all contributing factor when one needs to sell a domain name, however, what if one needs to educate the other about the value of domain traffic?

Domainers realize for the most part Madison Avenue knows very little about the power of domain name traffic and domain name portfolio value, or otherwise they would have been highly invested in the space, as we are. When we talk to a an industry outsider, a friend or colleague, about one of our prized domains we sometime wonder how he or she does not “get it”, does not see what we see. What is wrong with “these blind people”? It is so obvious !! …or is it? If one approaches you with one of their prized domain name and tells you how great he thinks it is, would you be as excited? In the case of Madison Avenue and advertising agencies it is not just the domain, but the lack of education that is largely missing here. After being in the domain space for a while, just as any other space, the evaluation of a product/service/property, by professionals, is done on an auto-pilot mode, it is automatic, some call it “second nature”. We’ve learned it, we’ve used it, we’ve owned it, and we know it. But can Madison Avenue say the same thing about domain names? Have they ever owned a portfolio of prime domain names, traffic rich, like many of us do? Have they ever seen a portfolio like this? I’m sure you know of a Domainer or two that believe their domain portfolio is worth that much (not you of course!) to other domainers and maybe a little less (or more) to mainstream, but is this reality, or just a dream? Today, the likelihood of anyone in mainstream to understand what you have and the value of those domains without experiencing it on their own first-hand is extremely slim, it is why in most instances most of us cannot cross over, cannot “sell” what we have for what we believe it is worth to those who simply do not know, have not seen.

One of the most significant events this year was the release of Reinvent Index, an index of top 200 domain name properties to the wild. Elliot Silver on his blog, when interviewing Reinvent’s Don Ham, says:

The Reinvent Index is made up of 200 domain names in 20 industry verticals, allowing people to see and track revenue and traffic trends in particular niches. Verticals that are covered in the Reinvent Index include automotive, business, education, fashion, health, music, shopping, technology, and many others. The Index was created to bring transparency and knowledge to the domain space, and it will allow you to follow the performance of domain names, which is going to be very interesting given the current economic situation.

Reinvent Index Hitfarm
(image source: Reinvent Index)

I believe the true value of Reinvent’s index is far greater than what Reinvent or other domainers see in it. I believe the power of Reinvent’s index is the power to cross over, educate the uneducated about the power of domain names. If we want to achieve mainstream acceptance, we have to realize “seeing is believing”. Seeing one portfolio from one credible company is a start, but I would not say it is the end. We need more companies, more portfolio owners opening up, showing others, especially those outside the industry, their underlying data.

To discover is to see, to see is to believe.

Have a great day,

Sahar