Domainer's Gazette-Home

1. I’m 6′8 tall and first slam dunked a basketball in the 9th grade (not sure if I can do it anymore).

2. I once (accidentally) trespassed on Harrison Ford’s property in Jackson Hole Wyoming, and he kindly came out and alerted me to that fact (I was looking for some family friends during a ski vacation.

3. My first career choice was movie production, and for a stint I worked as a page on the Paramount Pictures studio lot in Hollywood.

4. I’m an experienced forklift operator

5. I don’t eat red meat (I’m not a vegan though)

6. I friggin love Rhapsody music service

7. As a kid, I attempted to change my name to ‘Rufus’

8. I’m a newlywed, got married 7 months ago..

not quite sure why the owners didn’t just throw this domain into the pool being auctioned at domainroundtable.com..

but regardless, it’s up for sale at ebay..

find it here

just noticed a new logo SnapNames is showcasing over on the domainroundtable.com website..

…and rather than the “Secure Your Domain” trademark, they seem to now be using “Names Power Business”

odd though.. at this point in time, the logo’s not showing up on their live site yet..

maybe they’re gonna make an announcement at the conference..

dog days my friends..

to quote the AJC:

“So hot,” an ajc.com Venter wrote, “I saw two fire hydrants fightin’ over a dog.”

a local lunch hotspot, Souper Jenny, has the right idea. They close for the entire month of August - probably head to the NC mountains (which is where I need to be)

Domainers are the people, and Domaining is the business (obviously).

We’ve gone over the 4 types of domainers, but we’ve yet to dig into the world of domaining to apply some general classifications. As I sit here waiting for the 3:15pm Snapnames rush, I thought it’d be fun to group together, as I see it, the 3 different styles of the domaining.

Here’s how I see it.

Pretty much, all domainers utilize one (or all) of these styles, whether they know it or not. In my opinion, all domainers are either speculating, aggregating, or traffic taking. Let me break it down, along with what I feel are positives and negatives on each.

1. Speculating - typically involves targeting brand new, unregistered domain names which might have future value (by sale or by traffic). In other words, when a domainer is speculating, they might attempt to register new hip phrases, domain name typos, multiple word combinations, etc., etc. For example, I recently registered the name domainercon.com - which is a mashup of the word domainer and conference. I basically grabbed that one with the hope of setting up some low-fee or no-fee domainer conference down the road (dropping $1K on those other conferences ain’t in my budget - as much as I’d like to go). Speculating is a great, cheap style of domaining, but since the barrier to entry is so low, it can be a crowded arena and upside revenue potential tends to be difficult.
2. Traffic Taking - traffic taking is where I tend to spend a majority of my time. It’s an odd odd niche of domaining, where domainers target names simply for the existing, or future potential, traffic levels. The domains are typically acquired at online auction houses (like SnapNames or TDNAM), or directly from current domain holders who may have neglected or abandoned a domain and website. The domain name, in and of itself, is typically worthless based on name alone (which is different from Aggregating). Traffic monetization is the name of the game here. The identification of these sites is the most difficult aspect, and can be extremely risky. Anyone with an SEM background and Web Design experience would be well suited for this niche.
3. Aggregating - a vacuum cleaner comes to mind when I think of aggregating. This style requires a fairly deep bank roll, cause the main objective is heavy acquisition, ie. buying as many generic term (non-trademarked) tld’s as possible and building a stocked domain portfolio. Acquisitions are generally made at online auction houses, direct between two domainers/domaining companies, or at the ever-growing (and popular) domain conference auctions. Aggregating is typically done by Almighty Domainers who aren’t as focused on domain traffic monetization as they are on future re-sale. Sample names recently sold or traded (thanks to DNJournal) have been Cardiology.com for $550K, Dollars.com for $650K, and Seniors.com for $1.8M. Competition in the domain aggregating business is pretty darn fierce, but the only limiting factor is investment capital. If you’ve got cash and time to spare (ie, buy a killer domain, let it sit for 2 years or so and re-sell), there ain’t nothing stopping you from entering this game.

ok… gotta run, the 3:15 rush at snapnames is about on..

not sure if I’ve had a form of banner blindness here caused I missed it, but check out how Google Analytics draws the state of Michigan within the ‘Map Overlay’ section.. :

appears they’re tracking up to the Canadian border (including water) as the state boundary..odd

and they’ve also made Wisconsin pointed..

Wisconsin actually looks like Tintin’s haircut..