Domainer Tips « Slick Domains

Is WWW Dead?

By Kyle Eslick | Filed Under Domainer Tips

While going through all of my sites yesterday and performing maintenance/upgrading WordPress, I noticed a trend that I adopted without even knowing it. All of my existing websites (20+) have been setup without the www prefix in front of them.

Like I said above, I wasn’t even really conscious of my decision to change, but at some point in the last few years I quit using www. So why did I change? Well, why not? The internet is always evolving and I do my best to evolve with it. Whether it is trends in domaining, website development, or whatever else I’m working on, I always try to make adjustments.

In looking around at some of my favorite websites/blogs, it looks like many people have evolved with me by dropping the www from their domain names. Are you still using the www? If so, is it personal preference or another reason?

Strategy When Investing in LLLLL.com Domains

By Kyle Eslick | Filed Under Domainer Tips

With the LLLL.com domains long gone, it is domainer nature to move on to the “next big thing”. Each domainer may have a different opinion of what exactly that is, but it seems many are moving on to LLLLL.com domains, with CVCVC.com domains getting most of the focus. Without checking, I’m pretty sure that many of these domains are already gone!

One term that has become popular on the domain forums is the word pronouncable when advertising these domains. It is the same tactic that was used with LLLL.com domains. Pronouncing many of these domains is quite a stretch, and the ones that are pronouncable in type, may not be when verbally spoken.

One thing people need to ask themselves before investing in one of these types of domains for a potential end-user sale is whether or not it can be spelled multiple ways when pronounced verbally. The goal of having a brandable domain is to associate the name with the product or service, and this includes verbal association.

When spoken, if saying the domain name results in several possible spellings, then it isn’t a brandable domain name in my opinion. One example would be Colo.com. When pronounced, it could sound like it would be spelled Solo.com or Kolo.com. What about Pedi.com. Is that spelled Pede.com? Or Pedy.com? Or even PD.com? This is something to keep in mind when investing in this market.

With that said, there are many great brandable domains in this market, includes established sites like Sedo.com, Bido.com, etc. I love domains ending in ”o” and think they are brilliant. But there are other CVCV.com domains that would work great as well.

What do you look for when investing in LLLL.com or LLLLL.com domains?

Domain Name Age and the Google Sandbox

By Kyle Eslick | Filed Under Domainer Tips

In the past we’ve talked a little bit about domain name ages and helping your website to avoid the Google sandbox. The basic idea is that Google has a natural penalty called the Google sandbox for all domain names that have been registered for a short period of time. The exact time frame is unknown, but is believed to be between 6 months and 18 months, with the majority of people thinking it is closer to 6 months. This was added as a way to fight off spammers who register a domain, use it for 3 months, then move to a new domain for another 3 months, etc.

Unfortunately, this causes a penalty for websites/blogs that are launching a legitimate site, causing many serious developers that know about the sandbox effect will pursue aged domains when setting up a new site, especially ones that come with Google PageRank. This is good for us because it creates a potential end-user sale for a domainer.

I’ve noticed many domainers seem to forget to factor in things such as PageRank and domain age when determining the value of the domain name they are selling. These are very important and can add a lot of value to your domain. If you want to read more about domain ages, there is a great write up over at URL Academy called The Age of a Domain Name. The post includes some great tips for avoiding the Google sandbox!

Tips For Contacting Domain Name End-Users

By Kyle Eslick | Filed Under Domainer Tips

The way the world of domain names has been going, if you aren’t one of the top dogs who started grabbing names a decade ago, you probably either need to start developing your domain names or starting pursuing end-users for your domain names.

There are a variety of ways to go about this, but I’ve always felt it was best to examine Google’s search results for your keyword domains and attempt to contact various sites that are competing under those keywords. You may also want to pay attention to what sites are paying to advertise under those keywords, as they might be the most likely to have interest in the domains.

Before contacting end-users, you’ll probably want to spend some time working on drafting up a generic e-mail where you can just fill in the blanks with the companies information. Here is an example of an e-mail I’ve used in the past:

Hello, My name is <<Your Name>> and I am the owner of the domain name <<Domain Name to Sell>>. I am currently in the process of selling this great domain name and thought you might be interested. You have a very impressive site and I’m sure that you can see the value in having a premium domain name when competing for the best search results, especially in the competitive <<keyword>> industry.

If your company is interested in bidding on this domain name, please feel free to contact me with any questions or for any additional details.

Thank you for your time and consideration,
<<Name>>
<<E-mail Address>>
<<Phone Number>>

How do you go about approaching end-users?