Clicks and Bits

From my inbox, Jason asks:

Do you mind if I ask what some of your favorite domain tools are? I always struggle to find a decent domain for my side projects. Here are a few that I use:

http://www.bustaname.com/
http://pickydomains.com/
http://instantdomainsearch.com/

Appreciate any tips you care to share.

I mainly focus on expiring domains these days, while keeping tabs on current events for other opportunities.

For the expired, I have a couple of my own scripts at work that:

1. Download the daily drop list from pool.com.
2. Parse the drop list to remove all names > 20 characters and remove all domains that have numbers or dashes in them.
3. I remove all but .com/.net/.org.
4. I then filter the resulting list by a list of xxx keywords.
5. With the keyword results, I then manually go through the list looking for domains of interest and adding those to my ‘watchlist.’

Then a few times throughout the day, I just run my watchlist through Moniker.com’s bulk search. When they are available, I then make my decision to register them on the spot, move them to a list for further research, a list of maybes (determined by my budget) or dump them from my watchlist. My research list and maybe list were the source of my recent post 60 Domains You Can Register Today. Stay tuned, it may become a monthly feature.

I think it sounds more complicated than it really is, but I only spend about 10 minutes/day on it. Eventually I’d like to further automate my system, but until I make the leap to full-time domainer, I can deal with the minimal time commitment.

For the expired names, I usually don’t chase them with the backorder tools unless I see a very strong reason for it, maybe 1-2 a month, tops. Using my watchlist and waiting out the automated tasters, roughly 80% of the names I add to my watchlist will eventually be available.

I also keep tabs on the domain name forums for domains for sale (digitalpoint forums, dnforum, namepro, etc.) but the noise level is usually too high to be an effective source of names.

For names for new projects, I usually ping a few people to brainstorm about 10 names each (whether registered or not) and go from there. I also know the guy the wrote the recommendation engine for [a popular registrar] and he gave me access to beefier version that he runs privately.

I’ve used Pickydomains a couple of times, both with success for the price I paid.

I’ve blown my domain name budget for July and August. Here are 60 domains you can register today:

xmbaseball.com
vegasclubwear.com
scubagearservice.com
menshealthfood.com
whiteriveradventures.com
medicalgear.org
miamishowroom.com
winningcasinotips.net
nicehealthinsurance.com
tdfantasyfootball.com
napacoffeeclub.com
ringtonenames.com
golfpowertips.com
rebelmortgage.com
vegasultralounges.com
weightprogram.org
fantasybaseballspace.com
denverhdtv.com
ringtonecentral.org
attitudefitness.com
ultimateadventures.org
homecarenebraska.com
collegesportswriters.com
visionnames.com
watertightgear.com
hdtvdenver.com
lasvegasgolfcamp.com
omahablogspot.com
truthomaha.com
omahadaycare.org
newyorktouristmaps.com
newyorkhomeguides.com
weightlossforum.org
tailgategearonline.com
objectivefitness.com
healthfoodpodcast.com
telecommutingtips.com
newsstandcoffee.com
knuckleballsports.com
denvermetrowifi.com
fantasysportnews.net
fastomaha.com
dollarlabs.com
nychomeguide.net
sportsfanguides.com
cooptraffic.com
nflfootballwinners.com
lasvegaspickem.com
activedenver.com
vegasbridal.net
nychealthplan.com
burnthebodyfat.com
trustedformula.com
fantasysportspod.com
footballvegas.com
futuretraveler.com
solutionbranding.com
newyorkbagel.org
vegasareagolf.com
fitnessinstyle.com

If you find any of these useful and go on to build a site around one of these, drop me note or give me a link.

For the domainers out there, a new service for buy/sell/trading domain names, SwapName.com. The buy/sell space has been occupied for a while, but I do like the trade part of this. Perfect those batches of names in your portfolio that aren’t generating parking revenue and lack the qualities to make them prime targets for resale.

I listed a few to test the service out; ranging from old names for swap to a couple solid parking revenue domains.

While adding in the link to my domain portfolio page, my first suggestion came to mind: take advantage of URL rewriting to clean up the member links. There is no reason why my portfolio page shouldn’t be as simple as http://swapnames.com/convergency/, http://swapnames.com/members/convergency/, or http://convergency.swapnames.com/

I’ve had some good luck lately on grabbing dropped, expired domains and from gaming the “tasting” bounce.

Some of the gems my semi-automated tools have picked up recently:
vegaspokertip.com
healthyalert.com
beatwriter.com

I’ll keep reporting anything interesting as I register them in addition to any sales I make.

I buy and sell domains for fun and profit. I stay away from trademark issues and intentional cybersquatting by focusing on rather generic names that may find a run in popular culture or unique names that could be highly brandable. From yesterday, a typical conversation on potential buyers approaching me with the names and the domain in question changed for privacy’s sake:

From: xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.com
Subject: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.com

Hi,

I’m willing to offer you $50 for this domain. I’m a graphic designer and would like to use it to build a portfolio of my work.

Note: This domain has a landing page with an asking price of $2500 - derived from my own formula. For comparison, Network Solutions’ Certified Offer Service pegs it in the range of $7525 - $10025. My Response:

From: Me
Subject: Re: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.com

Sorry, $2000 (US) is as low as I can go on xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.com.

I’m a nice guy, a $500 discount off the bat just to start the negotiation process. The response:

From: xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.com
Subject: Re: Re: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.com

That’s absurd. Unless you can show me some traffic stats from a reputable online traffic monitoring source that this domain is getting a lot of natural traffic each day then that price tag is completely over valued. Yes it’s a great name but domain value is based strictly on natural traffic.

If you’re interested I’d be willing to offer you $350. I’m making this same offer to two other domains I’m considering for my online portfolio. If you’re interested in selling it please contact me as soon as possible.

First, don’t tell me it is absurd. I’ve has several four and five figure sales in 2006. Second, don’t contradict your statements on a domain’s value by then raising your offer. Obviously they agree that the domain in question does have some marketability (as well as the other 15-20 visitors the domain gets daily - mostly from type-in traffic) or they wouldn’t have upped their offer by $300. Their counteroffer is usually my action point; if they raise their offer by at least as much as I’ve conceded initially, 90% of the time we’ll eventually reach a deal. If not, the odds of deal are less than 5% based on my past experience.

Usually I also own the .org and/or the .net version of the .com names that I publicly I have listed for sale. These come in handy for bargaining or to throw in gratis as the conclusion of a sale. In this case I threw the .org of this particular name out there at his offer price:

From: Me
Subject: Re: Re: Re: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.com

Absurd? Perhaps; if one values a name solely on natural traffic -
which I do not.

I’d be willing to sell you xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.ORG for $350 (US), but my
price for xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.COM remains firm at $2000 (US).

Good luck with your search.

It has now been 36 hours since my last email without a response. Negotiations are more than likely over and they have moved on. I’ll probably be chastised from those that see me as walking away from about a $250 profit (based on the price I bought it and renewal fees since) but for the $8 per year renewal I still have a few years before the cost of ownership exceeds the lowest price I’d let it go for.

According to Google, they’ve now partnered with GoDaddy and eNom to provide privacy-enabled domain registrations for $10/year.

Now all of your custom Google-app goodness all in one place with Google Apps for Your Domain.

The US Commerce Department announced they are retaining control of ICANN for another 3 years, however the organization is being given more autonomy in their path to becoming an independent institution.

Interesting goings on at Google lately. It seems that picking up expired domains might be a valuable practice again. Previously, Google was dropping all PR and backlink reputation from expired domains to cut down on the SEO possibilities.

In the last month, I’ve grabbed two domains that previously held content but expired and were picked up by those playing the parking page monetization game. Both domains I acquired were showing back links in Yahoo and MSN, but nothing in Google - and accordingly weren’t showing a PR value at all.

Upon parking* them myself for some content development projects (less than 3 weeks ago) I was surprised this afternoon to find both domains now had solid PR values (4 and 6) with backlinks showing in Google.

I’ll keep these names to myself for now, but it may be worth testing the waters again for expired names which have last see life on the web as a part of domain parking monetization projects.

*in the interest of disclosure, my parking pages are nothing more than a coming soon page without any type of advertising on link stuffing.