Domainer's Gazette-Home

I’ve yet to hit a domainer conference, not because I don’t want to go, mainly cause of the cost..

to this point, I’ve been plowing too much cash into buying new domains, and when each new conference rolls around, my reserves are too low, and I can’t attend…

then I started thinking, “there must be a lot of other domainers out there like me”.

and then I started saying, “there should be a free conference domainers can hit. And not a conference to sit and listen to long-winded speakers, but a conference to meet, greet, and network fellow domainers”. (Sahar made a great point a while back, one of the best aspects of conferences is networking)

“And it shouldn’t have to last a whole week. Make it one night, like a Saturday, so if folks have a 9-5, they could still swing it” .

“And make it welcome to domainers of all experience levels, and have it hosted at an interesting venue/cool restaurant….kinda similar to Domainer Dinner, but no dinner, and based in Atlanta”..

…and so it starts..

introducing DomainerCon,
a free domainer conference
meet
greet
and network

more to come..

An interesting domain name went up for auction this past week at NameJet.. a name I decided to pass on ultimately, but one I thought would be neat to highlight here..

StarFileOnline.com

now, old-school domainers would say this name is worthless. On name value itself, yeah, it probably is.

But after a small amount of digging, an interesting feature about this domain rises to the surface.

Run a quick link analysis on it… anything interesting pop up?

if you look close, you’ll see this domain has an inbound link from the semi-god guitar player Eric Clapton.. and not some link from a buried ‘fans’ page or ‘partner’ page.. this things on his *homepage*, above the fold too.. (think he has some splash page up now, but it eventually leads you to his home page..)

site here

According to Wayback, the domain used to house a star celebrity photo site. Mr. Clapton apparently borrowed some images, and was being a kind internet steward by giving them credit..

Soo.. how much would you pay to own a domain linked from Eric Clapton’s homepage?

You can safely assume it receives traffic, and we all know traffic can be monetized.

Sure, the link can be removed, but that’s the risk you run..

what’d it end up selling for at auction?

A measly $265

just got home grabbing some dinner at Annie’s Thai Castle (they might possibly have the best basil rolls in Atlanta, but I digress..)

once I lapped down my chicken larb and basil roll appetizer, I jumped online real quick.

AJC.com decided to shove a Centex Homes expandable ad down my throat on their homepage during my visit..(seen here)

all the while ole Centex was (or is) promoting their “Centextravaganza” event..

outside of the fact that the name simply makes me dizzy and/or my stomach churn, my domaining brain turned on..

I decided to bet myself $5.. on what? the domain name…

P1: Peter, I’ll bet you $5 they haven’t bought the domain Centextravaganza.com..

P2: oh, please, I’ll take that bet. You realize this is a company with annual revenues of over $12 billion dollars, right?..they’d clearly have a clue and register a domain name for $10 in an ad campaign they’re clearly spending tens of thousands of dollars on (if not hundreds of thousands)..

P1: pay up moron.. it’s available (as of 8:57pm 1/16/08):

P2: Sun of a $%^%%#$*#@@$

P1: Never underestimate the slow moving capacity of a large publicly traded company…

now… how long till that name’s registered, you think? (no, I didn’t register it - trademark names ain’t my game)

Oh where oh where can I find the number,

to contact Google AdSense, a domainer (publisher) has to wonder..

They can’t expect folks are fine with just email,

it’s quite ballsy in fact, to withhold this fine detail..

We’ve got questions out here, in cyberspace land

that require a call, and a rep right at hand.

Email would be fine, for a publisher of small sizing,

but what about us, whose revenues are rising?

It’s hard to think you haven’t considered this before,

for a business unit that generated $1.64 Billion in Quarter 4 (2007).

Take note, a change should be slated,

but it’s possible, oh great Google, feels phones are outdated..

NameJet came around, and was kind enough to hear our cries..

I began noticing other bidders using alias’ about a week ago, but no option was available to me under preferences.. Then my login cookie expired…so once I jumped back in, this kind greeting awaited me..

ahhh.. a welcome welcome change.. thank you NameJet..

the days of cursing high bidders has returned.. that includes bonkerstwo, vaxis, benfranklin, bigmooli, 3ccapital, brainwick, dagroup, dubya, and naples..

I like buying domains direct - ie. finding domain owners, cold-calling ‘em, and asking if they wanna sell.

But to find ‘em.. oye.

Expired email addresses, long abandoned phone numbers, addresses on roads that don’t even exist anymore. Whois ain’t the end-all, be-all in these type cases.

enter Peter Askew, P.I.

..bordering on stalker..

There are few stones I’ll leave unturned to find these folks. Few angles I’ll ignore to track ‘em down.

Reverse IP DNS checks

Forums they visit

Non-profits where they volunteer

Public record directories

Online white pages

Where they work

Census records

and clearly, Google (the living ba-jeezus out of them)

what I haven’t done yet, though, is actually hire a real P.I.

for the right name, though, I probably would.